jodyb
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 15, 1999
- Messages
- 788
Trip Report
Disneyland Paris
Jan. 26 through Feb. 2 2004
Cast:
Liav (12)
Jody (Liav's mother and old enough to be that!)
Tuesday, Jan. 27
Woke up realizing we are HERE! Love the windows at SL!! The entire wall is windows. I threw open the curtains and could not believe my eyes. The world was WHITE. Totally covered in snow, and GORGEOUS. We had a view of the back of the hotel (actually I guess it's the front) facing the main entrance, not the parks, but it was lovely...all the pine trees covered in snow. We had a reservation for Fantasy Land Breakfast, but I wondered if the park would even be open with the accumulation of snow which looked like about 5 or 6 cm. The walk from the bus to the park entrance was so beautiful. The topiary Mickey face in front of the Disneyland Hotel was covered, but you could still make out the face. We wanted a picture, but didn't stop that time. We waited with about 50 other people for the CM to let us in for breakfast, which she did at about 8:45. I had been a little worried about our temporary Annual Pass, but it worked fine. We didn't want to stop at Guest Services yet since we were hungry and excited to get into the park. Then the walk down Main Street in the snow! Thank goodness we had brought decent boots! It was so much fun. Absolutely magical!!! Liav scooped up snow and made snowballs with Mickey ears. I just kept looking around in wonder. There were so few people we felt like we were alone on Main Street! I thought about the times I've been in WDW with the fake snow coming down and here I was tramping down Main Street through snow to my ankles! Between the snow and the Main Street music I love so much, I was almost in tears I was so happy!
The breakfast buffet at Au Chalet de la Marionette was nothing special. I don't like coffee from a machine and at this point thought it would only be in the park, but subsequently found out that there is no "real" coffee even in the hotel at breakfasts, but more later on that. I would have purchased a hot breakfast, but did not see any opportunity for that and anyway did not want to waste too much time in the restaurant. Liav had cereal and I had a croissant and some fruit. We emerged again into the empty, white, gorgeous, silent Fantasyland and we were SO excited and happy. We rode Peter Pan first, and the CM asked if we wanted to go around again without getting off, so we did. Peter Pan is quite a bit better here than in Florida. The sound track is clearer and the whole part with the stars is longer and more magical. After our second ride there was still nobody waiting and we could have stayed on again and again, but of course we wanted to get going to other rides. Dumbo was closed. The CM's were cleaning the snow off the seats... so we walked over to the castle. Wow, we LOVE this castle! We went in the side door to the dragon's lair and Liav took some pictures of him. It was quite cold in there, so we didn't linger there long though. Back out into the snowy world, we ran into Winnie the Pooh! He was very friendly and much more interactive than the characters we've met at WDW and we were to notice this again and again about the characters as the week went on. On to Snow White. This ride is also a bit better than its counterpart at WDW. The sound is better, but ti seems to move too quickly. No time to really look at anything. We rode this twice also, since there was nobody in line. Then we went to Small World. This ride in WDW, although I still like it, has become annoying in recent years. The soundtrack is scratchy and not enjoyable (IMHO). However, here it was WONDERFUL. The music didn't annoy me since it was done on a quality soundtrack and you could actually make out the words. Many of the dolls are similar, but enough are different that Liav and I were continually saying to one another "look at that!" and "look over there!" We stayed on and rode again and enjoyed the second time just as much. Then we decided it was time to leave fantasyland. We walked by Dumbo and the Carousel but they were still closed and being de-iced.
We waited for the rope drop at Frontierland, and then walked over to Big Thunder. Closed. CM's were riding, but not open yet to public. So we continued to the Haunted Mansion. Wow. The music is GREAT on this ride! Lots of differences between this and the same ride at WDW. The Paris version is not better, just different, but the music is much better. Really enjoyed this ride, but missed my ghost friend that joins you in the car at WDW! After this Big Thunder was open. Of course, we just walked on, as we did to everything, not just today but the entire week we loved this ride! It's longer and different than Big Thunder at WDW, a lot more darkness at the beginning and end. It seems a little slower too, but really fun, and the views from the island are wonderful.
After this ride we just walked around taking in the beauty of the park under snow. We knew it wouldn't last long and wanted to savor it. The sun was peeking in and out and I figured it would soon all melt. We ambled toward Main Street again, and by the time we got there it was noon and we were hungry again. We had a sandwich at the Main Street Deli, and some excellent lemon pie. I showed my (still temporary) Dream Passport, but they did not honor it. Although they had honored it the night before at Annette's, here they said I had to get the permanent passport first. Okay, fair enough. So after lunch we went out of the park to Guest Services, since this is where the concierge at the hotel had told me I had to take care of the passes.
As we passed the main square by the train station we saw LOTS of CHARACTERS! They were running around, interacting with guests, signing autographs, and having their pictures taken. The CM's taking care of them did not have any need to line people up since there were so few people in the park. It was like a party, with almost one character per guest! We saw Captain Hook, Gheppeto, Mr. Fox, Pluto, Chip and Dale, Donald Duck, Bear, Baloo, some others I'm sure I'm forgetting, and Mickey (he was the only one that stood in one place and did not run about hugging and playing tricks with guests).
We took some pictures and Liav got some autographs, and we had some laughs with the characters, and then left the park to go to Guest Services. Well, it turned out the Concierge was wrong - there is an Annual Passport Office at the entrance to DiscoveryLand which is where we had to go. I am a little surprised that they did not tell me about this when they sent our temporary passes by mail. They came with no explanation whatsoever. In fact, I almost missed the word "temporary" on the back. The temporary pass looked very similar to the annual passes I've had at WDW (paper, with bar code) so I might have figured that was it... So back into the park (yes, our temporary pass was working fine for entrance) and over to the office. This office is VERY nice. The CM's were extremely friendly. All of the written information about the passes is in French, which I don't understand at all, but they patiently explained everything to me in English. I've posted separately all about the passes and what they offer. Liav was thrilled with the gifts they gave her. We had to carry these with us since there is no service to deliver them to the hotels as there is for purchases in shops, but that was okay. I was pleased that the pass is plastic and not paper. This is much more sensible for something that has to last an entire year, and I think the picture is a better system than the finger thing they have at WDW. When we entered the parks the CM sometimes did check the picture, but not always...
Since we were already in Discoveryland, what to do next was a no brainer. Space Mountain! OMG! This ride is MUCH better in Paris than in Florida! First of all, the cars are much more comfortable, similar to those on Rock'n'Rollercoaster, with headrests and double seats. The soundtrack is FAR better. Wow that music is inspiring! I thought the visual effects were much more dramatic, and the whole thing was less jerky. Very smooth. Reminded me a lot of RnR which is my favorite ride ever. A great ride. We loved it.
Now we decided to take an afternoon break, and I was curious about the Disneyland Hotel, so we headed back down Main Street and out of the park again. It was getting colder and we were fading a bit...still tired from yesterday's journey I guess. We entered the Disneyland hotel and both sighed. ahhhhhh!. What a beautiful place. Reminds me a lot of the Grand Floridian, but the lobby is much smaller and more intimate and even a bit more elegant. We walked up the stairs to the second floor Main Street Lounge. Very peaceful and comfortable. We just had cokes, but it was nice to have them served elegantly and to rest there for a while. I even took off my boots which nobody seemed to mind. )Oh, that's probably because there was nobody else there!) I received 10% off here too, and now knew that the discount was good in bars and lounges as well as restaurants.
After this rest we decided not to head back into the park. Liav wanted to check out the pool at our hotel. We'd seen pictures on the internet and she was excited about the slide. The Jacuzzi sounded good to me too so we headed back to the hotel. The pool was a success, but the hot-tub was a disappointment. It was only lukewarm and the water did not move too vigorously.
After swimming we were bone-weary, and didn't want to leave the hotel again that evening, so we went down to Hunter's Grill for dinner. No reservation was needed as the hotel was still not very populated (this was Tuesday and it wasn't until Thursday that we started to see a lot of people). I had the salmon and Liav had the Mac and Cheese with Chicken. Both were just okay nothing special. I thought the restaurant was overpriced for the quality of the food. But the service was very friendly, and it was a nice atmosphere.
The end of our first full Disney Day. We were tired and very happy. Liav turned on the British Disney Channel and was enthralled with it. I must say it kept her busy during any and all time we spent in the room (which wasn't really that much). There always seemed to be something she liked on, whether it was a Disney movie (I liked those too) or a teen program like Lizzy McGuire. I was relieved by this because it meant she never said "I'm bored" when we were in the room. That first night we caught "Simple Rules", with John Ritter. I was happy to see this since I love John Ritter and was very saddened by his recent death. Anyway, it was a nice end to a great day!
Good Night!
Disneyland Paris
Jan. 26 through Feb. 2 2004
Cast:
Liav (12)
Jody (Liav's mother and old enough to be that!)
Tuesday, Jan. 27
Woke up realizing we are HERE! Love the windows at SL!! The entire wall is windows. I threw open the curtains and could not believe my eyes. The world was WHITE. Totally covered in snow, and GORGEOUS. We had a view of the back of the hotel (actually I guess it's the front) facing the main entrance, not the parks, but it was lovely...all the pine trees covered in snow. We had a reservation for Fantasy Land Breakfast, but I wondered if the park would even be open with the accumulation of snow which looked like about 5 or 6 cm. The walk from the bus to the park entrance was so beautiful. The topiary Mickey face in front of the Disneyland Hotel was covered, but you could still make out the face. We wanted a picture, but didn't stop that time. We waited with about 50 other people for the CM to let us in for breakfast, which she did at about 8:45. I had been a little worried about our temporary Annual Pass, but it worked fine. We didn't want to stop at Guest Services yet since we were hungry and excited to get into the park. Then the walk down Main Street in the snow! Thank goodness we had brought decent boots! It was so much fun. Absolutely magical!!! Liav scooped up snow and made snowballs with Mickey ears. I just kept looking around in wonder. There were so few people we felt like we were alone on Main Street! I thought about the times I've been in WDW with the fake snow coming down and here I was tramping down Main Street through snow to my ankles! Between the snow and the Main Street music I love so much, I was almost in tears I was so happy!
The breakfast buffet at Au Chalet de la Marionette was nothing special. I don't like coffee from a machine and at this point thought it would only be in the park, but subsequently found out that there is no "real" coffee even in the hotel at breakfasts, but more later on that. I would have purchased a hot breakfast, but did not see any opportunity for that and anyway did not want to waste too much time in the restaurant. Liav had cereal and I had a croissant and some fruit. We emerged again into the empty, white, gorgeous, silent Fantasyland and we were SO excited and happy. We rode Peter Pan first, and the CM asked if we wanted to go around again without getting off, so we did. Peter Pan is quite a bit better here than in Florida. The sound track is clearer and the whole part with the stars is longer and more magical. After our second ride there was still nobody waiting and we could have stayed on again and again, but of course we wanted to get going to other rides. Dumbo was closed. The CM's were cleaning the snow off the seats... so we walked over to the castle. Wow, we LOVE this castle! We went in the side door to the dragon's lair and Liav took some pictures of him. It was quite cold in there, so we didn't linger there long though. Back out into the snowy world, we ran into Winnie the Pooh! He was very friendly and much more interactive than the characters we've met at WDW and we were to notice this again and again about the characters as the week went on. On to Snow White. This ride is also a bit better than its counterpart at WDW. The sound is better, but ti seems to move too quickly. No time to really look at anything. We rode this twice also, since there was nobody in line. Then we went to Small World. This ride in WDW, although I still like it, has become annoying in recent years. The soundtrack is scratchy and not enjoyable (IMHO). However, here it was WONDERFUL. The music didn't annoy me since it was done on a quality soundtrack and you could actually make out the words. Many of the dolls are similar, but enough are different that Liav and I were continually saying to one another "look at that!" and "look over there!" We stayed on and rode again and enjoyed the second time just as much. Then we decided it was time to leave fantasyland. We walked by Dumbo and the Carousel but they were still closed and being de-iced.
We waited for the rope drop at Frontierland, and then walked over to Big Thunder. Closed. CM's were riding, but not open yet to public. So we continued to the Haunted Mansion. Wow. The music is GREAT on this ride! Lots of differences between this and the same ride at WDW. The Paris version is not better, just different, but the music is much better. Really enjoyed this ride, but missed my ghost friend that joins you in the car at WDW! After this Big Thunder was open. Of course, we just walked on, as we did to everything, not just today but the entire week we loved this ride! It's longer and different than Big Thunder at WDW, a lot more darkness at the beginning and end. It seems a little slower too, but really fun, and the views from the island are wonderful.
After this ride we just walked around taking in the beauty of the park under snow. We knew it wouldn't last long and wanted to savor it. The sun was peeking in and out and I figured it would soon all melt. We ambled toward Main Street again, and by the time we got there it was noon and we were hungry again. We had a sandwich at the Main Street Deli, and some excellent lemon pie. I showed my (still temporary) Dream Passport, but they did not honor it. Although they had honored it the night before at Annette's, here they said I had to get the permanent passport first. Okay, fair enough. So after lunch we went out of the park to Guest Services, since this is where the concierge at the hotel had told me I had to take care of the passes.
As we passed the main square by the train station we saw LOTS of CHARACTERS! They were running around, interacting with guests, signing autographs, and having their pictures taken. The CM's taking care of them did not have any need to line people up since there were so few people in the park. It was like a party, with almost one character per guest! We saw Captain Hook, Gheppeto, Mr. Fox, Pluto, Chip and Dale, Donald Duck, Bear, Baloo, some others I'm sure I'm forgetting, and Mickey (he was the only one that stood in one place and did not run about hugging and playing tricks with guests).
We took some pictures and Liav got some autographs, and we had some laughs with the characters, and then left the park to go to Guest Services. Well, it turned out the Concierge was wrong - there is an Annual Passport Office at the entrance to DiscoveryLand which is where we had to go. I am a little surprised that they did not tell me about this when they sent our temporary passes by mail. They came with no explanation whatsoever. In fact, I almost missed the word "temporary" on the back. The temporary pass looked very similar to the annual passes I've had at WDW (paper, with bar code) so I might have figured that was it... So back into the park (yes, our temporary pass was working fine for entrance) and over to the office. This office is VERY nice. The CM's were extremely friendly. All of the written information about the passes is in French, which I don't understand at all, but they patiently explained everything to me in English. I've posted separately all about the passes and what they offer. Liav was thrilled with the gifts they gave her. We had to carry these with us since there is no service to deliver them to the hotels as there is for purchases in shops, but that was okay. I was pleased that the pass is plastic and not paper. This is much more sensible for something that has to last an entire year, and I think the picture is a better system than the finger thing they have at WDW. When we entered the parks the CM sometimes did check the picture, but not always...
Since we were already in Discoveryland, what to do next was a no brainer. Space Mountain! OMG! This ride is MUCH better in Paris than in Florida! First of all, the cars are much more comfortable, similar to those on Rock'n'Rollercoaster, with headrests and double seats. The soundtrack is FAR better. Wow that music is inspiring! I thought the visual effects were much more dramatic, and the whole thing was less jerky. Very smooth. Reminded me a lot of RnR which is my favorite ride ever. A great ride. We loved it.
Now we decided to take an afternoon break, and I was curious about the Disneyland Hotel, so we headed back down Main Street and out of the park again. It was getting colder and we were fading a bit...still tired from yesterday's journey I guess. We entered the Disneyland hotel and both sighed. ahhhhhh!. What a beautiful place. Reminds me a lot of the Grand Floridian, but the lobby is much smaller and more intimate and even a bit more elegant. We walked up the stairs to the second floor Main Street Lounge. Very peaceful and comfortable. We just had cokes, but it was nice to have them served elegantly and to rest there for a while. I even took off my boots which nobody seemed to mind. )Oh, that's probably because there was nobody else there!) I received 10% off here too, and now knew that the discount was good in bars and lounges as well as restaurants.
After this rest we decided not to head back into the park. Liav wanted to check out the pool at our hotel. We'd seen pictures on the internet and she was excited about the slide. The Jacuzzi sounded good to me too so we headed back to the hotel. The pool was a success, but the hot-tub was a disappointment. It was only lukewarm and the water did not move too vigorously.
After swimming we were bone-weary, and didn't want to leave the hotel again that evening, so we went down to Hunter's Grill for dinner. No reservation was needed as the hotel was still not very populated (this was Tuesday and it wasn't until Thursday that we started to see a lot of people). I had the salmon and Liav had the Mac and Cheese with Chicken. Both were just okay nothing special. I thought the restaurant was overpriced for the quality of the food. But the service was very friendly, and it was a nice atmosphere.
The end of our first full Disney Day. We were tired and very happy. Liav turned on the British Disney Channel and was enthralled with it. I must say it kept her busy during any and all time we spent in the room (which wasn't really that much). There always seemed to be something she liked on, whether it was a Disney movie (I liked those too) or a teen program like Lizzy McGuire. I was relieved by this because it meant she never said "I'm bored" when we were in the room. That first night we caught "Simple Rules", with John Ritter. I was happy to see this since I love John Ritter and was very saddened by his recent death. Anyway, it was a nice end to a great day!
Good Night!
