Day one ended and day two began with no sleep between the two.
It's is now 0600 on Tuesday AM, we have been up for 23 hours, and the aircraft has just taxied to the gate.
De Gaulle airport is huge, modern, and easy to use. Customs and Passport control went much faster then it has for me coming into the US on prior trips. Around 0700, we arrived at the train station, located under the airport.
Our pre-trip research indicated that it would be best to get the weeklong pass, called, and I may be wrong, the Navigo de ????. Sorry, I forgot the name, and we tossed out all of our reaseach away each day of the trip as we used it. This pass was better for us then the Visit Paris pass that they also have. Our pass was around 35 euros each, plus an additional 5 euro for the pass itself. We also had to go to a photobooth to get a passport sized photo each to stick on the pass. That added another 5 euro for both of us. All in all we spent around 80 euro on this pass for the two of us, but I did the math, and we saved around 30% by the end of the week. NOTE this pass is good from Monday to Sunday, no matter when you buy it. So for us, in town from Tuesday to Friday, it was a good deal. For others it may not be.
Even if it didn't save us anything, it is so much easier to just scan in at the turnstyles each time and not have to worry about buying a ticket and figuring out how many zones you would cross, and having exact change, ect.....
We took the Blue "RER" from the airport to Paris (about 30 mins) then a very easy cross-platform connection to the Red "RER", followed by another 30 min trip to
Disneyland.
Could not have been any easier. There was direct bus and a direct high speed rail that would have cut the trip down to 15-30 mins, but would have cost the same as our weeklong Paris Metro pass. Time, was not an issue. The parks didn't open till 1000, so it was a easy choice. (The airport and parks are close by, but you have to take the train into Paris first then back out. Picture the airport a 1:00 on a clock and the parks at 4:00, but needing to go through the center of the clock first.)
On the RER, outbound to the Val D' Europe station.
So when we ended up going a day early, we could not get another night at the Newport Bay at DLP. So we booked a hotel in the town next door, called Val D' Europe. (Kinda like celebration, a Disney built town) The hotel was called L' Elysee. Around 120 US for the night.
So we got off the train one stop prior to Disneyland, and checked into the hotel.
Some thing I forgot to mention from day one. Rick Steves, who's guidebooks be used, advised to pack light. We did. We had 3 Hotel changes in 4 nights, and would be using the Metro as our transportation, so having big heavy bags was not an option.
We packed real light. One carry-on bag sized luggage each, that we checked, and one backpack for me and one laptop bag for her. That was it.
The one issue we had was my suit and her dress for the formal night and 2 semi formal nights. Not wanting to add another bag due to checked bag fees, we decieded to dress up for the flight. Might be why I didn't sleep. A suit is not the most confortable thing to where on a plane.
But in the end, it was worth it. So when we checked into the hotel around 0830, our room was not ready, so we changed, cleaned up the best we could, and then we left the bags with the front desk. We used money belts for security on the entire trip, but this day was the one without a hotel safe, so we had everything on our persons. But we did feel safe at DL.
We took the free bus to the park. It was slow, and we regretted not just taking the train as it was just one stop down the line. The station in Val D' Europe was just one short block from our hotel, and the stop at Disneyland is 50 yards, or should I say, meters, from the bag check at the entrance of the parks. The bus stops was around 1000 meters away.
So bag check. Might have been the most unorganized, non-effecient, un- disneylike thing I have ever experienced. A 30 minute wait, at 1015 in the AM, on a very slow day at the park. To be fair, I only saw one other thing like this on the whole trip, (more on that later) so it was the exception, not the rule. They have 3 bag checks the size of the one in the picture, but only two where open this week.
So after that, we entered the park. But not before going through a well landscaped and well themed entrance, that included the "Disneyland Hotel" over the ticked boths and turnstiles. A great entrance to a great park.
After the hotel, you walk under the Main Steet Train station.
City Hall
Main Street. Some buildings, look like WDW, others, like DL...very nice for someone who has been to both.
After a nice stroll down Main Street, we headed to the first land on the left.
That is not Adventureland, as you might think.
AL and FL are reversed. There is no "Liberty Square or New Orleans Square" in this park, so just reverse the two, and you can picture what it would look like.
We wanted to do BTM first, but the line was 45 mins and FP was not running, so, as the park had just opened about 45 mins prior, we wanted to get something "big" done before the crowds. So on to Adventureland and Indiana Jones...
Overall, not what I expected. This would be the only time we did this. No wait at all,theming was decent, but you could tell you were on a basic, off the shelf type coaster, built AROUND theming, not though. Like I said, not bad, but not great.
After that, we back tracked to FL, and rode the river boat.
And got some great pictures of BTM, as it is built on an island around the Rivers of America.
Then we were hungry, so after the first 2 places we saw on the map that looked good were closed for the day, we found a place in AL. Over all not bad, but with 2 weeks of eating 3 and 4 times a day, I decieded after a few nights to stop trying to remember every meal, let alone take pictures.
Sorry, this will not be a "Food Porn" type trip report. There was just too much else to cover.
Ok, so I am going split this "Day Two" recap into the AM and PM, as Disneyland is not something you can rush. I will get the PM up today if I can, if not, I am on a work trip Monday through Wednesday, so I may not be able to update this blog for a few days. If I can, I will, so keep checking.
Our cruise is 27th August, and we're very excited about it
