Trip Report Where we have adventures and fun in Disneyland Paris and Paris! - Completed

[afan]

While I’ve been a long time reader of trip reports this is the first one that I’ve written and I'm sure I'll struggle with the formatting and stuff.

After visiting DLP and Paris I thought there was too much fun and info I could share that I had to write something more than reviews up.

Where we have adventures and fun in Disneyland Paris and Paris - May 19/20-27, 2018

I went on the trip with a friend I’ve known since junior high. She lives on the east coast so we met up at CDG. I live near Seattle and have an awesome doxie named Dude, he’s important to know, plus he’s cute J Both my friend and I have traveled to WDW together and DLR separately so we have our Disney planning down.

We had above average temperatures the entire week and the weather was great almost the entire trip.

Day 1 Part 1 Where we fly and ride
Day 1 Part 2
Day 1 Part 3
Day 1 Part 4
Day 2 Part 1 Where we stay up really late
Day 2 Part 2
Day 2 Part 3
Day 2 Part 4
Day 2 Part 5
Day 2 Part 6
Day 2 Part 7
Day 2 Part 8
Day 3 Part 1 Where we start with a rat and end with some bags
Day 3 Part 2
Day 4 Part 1
Day 4 Part 2
Day 4 Part 3
Day 5 Part 1 Where we say goodbye to Disney and hello to Paris
Day 5 Part 2
Day 5 Part 3
Day 5 Part 4
Day 5 Part 5
Day 5 Part 6
Day 5 Part 7
Day 5 Part 8
Day 6 Part 1 Where we take a shower outside
Day 6 Part 2
Day 6 Part 3
Day 6 Part 4
Day 6 Part 5
Day 6 Part 6
Day 6 Part 7
Day 7 Part 1 Where a strike finally puts a stop to our plans
Day 7 Part 2
Day 7 Part 3
Day 7 Part 4
Day 7 Part 5
Day 8 Where we say au revoir Paris and merci for the wonderful weather.

 

[afan]

Day 1: Where we fly and ride (May 19-20) Part 1

We both left our respective airports on Saturday, May 19 and arrived in Paris on Sunday. I flew Icelandair through Iceland which was interesting. The airline is great and I would fly them again and it would be easier knowing their airport. We landed on time in Iceland but to my surprise we didn’t taxi to a gate but to an area of the tarmac that they load and unload via stairs and buses to/from the terminal. I can only imagine what that’s like in the winter, it was bad enough in the 40’s with wind and rain.

I also thought it was cool on the flight that the sun never fully set since we were so far north.

Since it was early morning the airport was very crowded and a little confusing to navigate. I knew the only bathrooms I would see would be downstairs before I got to passport control so I kept an eye out. There is an elevator and stairs to go down/up the one floor. The bathrooms were nice, they were each individual rooms with a toilet and a sink, it made it much easier to get in with my stuff and if you have a rolling suitcase will be fine.

Back upstairs I headed towards passport control which had a long line but it moved quickly, 10 minutes at the most. The guy didn’t ask any questions just looked at my ticket and passport and stamped it. I looked around a bit but didn’t feel like I had enough time to get food since it was so busy, it was also busier in this part of the airport. I made my way through and found that I would have to bus to the plane again. I was on the first of 3-4 buses so I was able to get situated before things got full. I ended up ordering the ham and cheese sandwich because I hadn’t been able to get anything at the airport. It was hot and good but the flight attendant couldn’t tell me what type of cheese it was, she said ‘normal’ whatever that means. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t swiss. The flight was good and we got to CDG on time.

When my friend and I discussed the transport to DLP we decided to use the Magical Shuttle because we didn’t want to deal with the train after a long night of flying. Being dropped right at our hotel was also very appealing. We did have to wait for a bit for the next bus but it gave me time to freshen up. My friend’s flight had gotten in before mine so she had bought our museum passes for later in the week and picked up our pocket wifi that she had pre-ordered. Both were great things to have.

The bus ride was under an hour I think, I wasn’t watching my watch. It was a nice ride on the freeway and gave us a chance to see some of the area. We dropped people off first at Newport and then were dropped at Sequoia Lodge our home for the next 4 nights. I had been able to book the stay 2 nights get 2 more nights free offer last fall in a Golden Forest Club room and we were very happy with the choice.

Day 1 Continued - https://www.disboards.com/threads/w...eyland-paris-and-paris.3686192/#post-59307664

 

[afan]

Day 1 Continued -

We checked in at the Golden Forest check in and got each of us set up with cards to charge back to the room. It was great being able to use the card (that had our name, resort and dates on the back) in the parks and some places at Disney Village so it was one big charge to my credit card rather than a bunch. I was also happy to see that we could each set our card up to be charged to our own cc since when I had asked on here a few months back it seemed you were only able to put one card on file per room.

Our room was on the 5th floor not too far from the elevator and had a view of some trees. It was nice and it was mostly quiet. We sometimes heard people coming or going in the morning or at night but nothing crazy. The funny thing was when you were walking down the hall you could tell when someone was using the hair dryer because it sounds like a vacuum cleaner. It was also a bit of a learning curve getting used to how it worked.

They still have the individual bottles.

Once we had gotten settled and a bit unpacked we headed out to find the club lounge and grab some bottled water before heading to the park. They had snacks out but we were in search of dinner and didn’t see anything we wanted to take with us so we got our water and started our walk to the park. Once outside we got turned around by the construction walls and ended up going left towards Newport and the longer way around the lake to Disney Village. We realized it and when we walked back later that night walked by Hotel New York and found the shorter way to the village.

We went through security to get into the village putting our bags through xray as we had when we got to the hotel. It was nice only having to go through security when entering the village and not every time you get to a new park. Our goal was to get to the park and get something to eat in time to find a spot for the parade at 5 so we didn’t stop and look at anything in the village but saw places we’d want to stop later.

Our first site of the park was the Disneyland Hotel that sites over the entrance to the park. It makes it quite unique and pretty.

Once we’d scanned our tickets and passed through the gates we came up the normal main street train station. It still had some decoration from the 25th anniversary party that started last year in the spring and will finish this September. There wasn’t a lot left with the anniversary stuff and some of the stuff in the stores was on sale, but it was neat to still get to see some of the decorations and the show.

Of course one of my must take pictures whenever I go into a Disneyland Park or the Magic Kingdom is –

Then we grabbed our maps and headed under the train station to main street and our first few of Sleeping Beauty Castle. The castle is so pretty and pink and pretty. It’s hard to not take a picture of it every time you see it because it’s so different and so pretty J

Day 1 continued --- https://www.disboards.com/threads/w...eyland-paris-and-paris.3686192/#post-59311417

 

[chicagoshannon]

Came over from Gina's TR. Can't wait to read more!

 

[jhoannam]

woohoo... can't wait to read about your trip.

 

[east_coaster]

Following along! Paris (and DLP) is on my bucket list

 

[afan]

Came over from Gina's TR. Can't wait to read more!

I'm glad you came over from her TR. I hope I can make mine half as good as what she does

woohoo... can't wait to read about your trip.

Thanks! It was a fun trip and the park is so different but the same.

Following along! Paris (and DLP) is on my bucket list

Paris was fun but DLP was great! I tried to share things without giving it all away since surprises are good and we had some by not knowing everything about the park and the attractions.

 

[afan]

Day 1 Continued -

We’d decided that Casey’s was going to be our best plan for dinner. I was disappointed to see there weren’t any type of corn dogs or corn dog nuggets so I decided on a regular hot dog. One warning here, the only mustard I found was dijon, not yellow so I used only ketchup. Like anything, it would have been better if it’d been hotter but probably not a ton better. The ketchup was also sweeter than I like, kind of like what I get in Canada. Unfortunately this meal would set the tone for the food we had in the parks, it never really got better.

We found a spot along a railing along main street and ate our hot dogs while we waited for the parade to start. The parade was fun and it was nice seeing different characters in it, like from Toy Story.

We were surprised to see Mowgli in the parade

The princesses in the parade were with their prince and what I found interesting was that Belle was with her prince as a human not as the beast, which by the time I realized it I couldn’t get a very good picture.

The maleficent dragon wasn’t shooting fire as it hadn’t been since the fire at WDW, but it was still snorting smoke.

Anna and Elsa are on the last float led by Olaf riding Sven which was super cute. The back of the float shoots out “snow” which was a fun way to end the parade.

Because it’s the castle!

Day 1 Continued - https://www.disboards.com/threads/w...eyland-paris-and-paris.3686192/#post-59311437

 

[afan]

Day 1 Continued -

Since the park was open until 11 and it seemed a bit busy we decided to head over the Walt Disney Studios to check it out.

We had one pair of fast passes each day from our club level access which was great, though we didn’t really need them because the park wasn’t that busy. I even forgot and left them in the room on Wednesday so they didn’t get used but we didn’t miss them. We used this day’s fp to ride Ratatouille, our first ride in Paris. It’s super cute and the smells are great and the trackless system is cool. We ended up riding it 4 different times and rode in each of the 3 different ride vehicle positions. This was great because there were different things to see in each of them due to their positioning. There was stuff on the 4th ride that I hadn’t seen on the 3 previous rides. I’m looking forward to this attraction being in Epcot and am curious if it’ll be the same or if they’ll make any changes to it.

We decided to ride Rock n Roller Coaster next to see if it was the same. The preshow part was different and shorter, but there’s nothing lost there. I think the head restraints on this one are different because I kept hitting my head on the side and we both decided we didn’t enjoy it that much and didn’t need to ride it again. We would normally repeat it at WDW depending on the line etc. It was a bit disappointing.


After the ride we decided we were done at the parks and we’d do some shopping and find some snacks on the way back to the room. The quick food options in the village were very busy and this is part of what made us miss the quick service food at the resort. I ended up getting a bucket of popcorn from the gift shop at the hotel, which was good and better than the popcorn I got in the park the next day.

Up Next - Day 2! - https://www.disboards.com/threads/w...eyland-paris-and-paris.3686192/#post-59311645

 

[afan]

Day 2: Where we stay up really late (Monday, May 21)

We started our day with breakfast in the Golden Forest Lounge and quickly decided that club level had been a great idea. The breakfast buffet had some great options, from being able to have an American or full English breakfast with scrambled, soft boiled or hard boiled eggs, cereal, pastries or meat and cheese with a roll. I enjoyed the scrambled eggs and pancakes this day. The following day I discovered the potatoes added those into the mix too. It was a good filling breakfast each morning. We had the same table each morning too which was nice. There didn’t seem to be many two tops since it was mostly families or small groups we saw dining.

We utilized the extra magic hour each morning getting to the parks between 8:15 and 8:30 each morning, which seems late when compared to WDW. This day we headed to Disneyland Park so we could get castle pictures and rope drop Fantasyland. This was also where we started missing photopass photographers. There were so many places they could have been but were only at some character meets and then the ride photos are included. Because of this we have way less pictures with either one of us or both of us in them than normal since we’d have to find someone to take our picture. We did took pics of each of us in front of the castle and then found someone to take a couple of the two of us. Thankfully all of the people that took photos for us did a good job and they all turned out.

Walking through the castle and into Fantasyland is great because it blends together and it all goes together so well. I think having Pinocchio, Snow White, Peter Pan with shops and restaurants to make up the cute little village helps. Small World is here but it’s off to the side. However you can hear the clock on Small World ticking from main street, which is crazy but you also don’t realize how close to main street it really is.

Pinocchio was our first ride and the queue with the tulips was super cute.

The ride was fun but it seemed like it went fast, not that it was short but the actual speed of the vehicle was fast. We felt this way on Peter Pan and Snow White as well. I couldn’t get any photo’s unless we were stopped but it also seemed faster than at WDW.

Peter Pan opened late this morning so we decided to ride Dumbo to get a view of the area. I like how Dumbo is there in the middle but also kind of off on its own with it being a bit separated.

Day 2 Continued - https://www.disboards.com/threads/w...eyland-paris-and-paris.3686192/#post-59313088

 

[JenLanDisney]

Hello afan! I,too, followed you from Gina's TR. Your pictures are terrific, and I look forward to learning about a report I've not explored yet.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Wow, what a great start! Fabulous photos too!

The shampoo bottles with the little Mickey ears are TOO CUTE . I totally want a supply of those for my bathroom at home!

Dude is simply adorable. Bet he missed you tons while you were away.

 

[afan]

Hello afan! I,too, followed you from Gina's TR. Your pictures are terrific, and I look forward to learning about a report I've not explored yet.

Thanks for coming over and reading! I'm trying not to over photo my report after I ended up uploading over 500 pics to face book That's what I get for doing it over a few hours in between other things. Bless any of my friends that actually look at them all.

Wow, what a great start! Fabulous photos too!

The shampoo bottles with the little Mickey ears are TOO CUTE . I totally want a supply of those for my bathroom at home!

Dude is simply adorable. Bet he missed you tons while you were away.

Thanks for the kind words! It means a lot since I think your trip reports are always so great with details and photos. Those used to be the bottles at the resorts here but they've been switching to the wall mounted systems so I had to take a photo. I only swiped the body wash though because I'm not a huge fan of the scents.

Dude did miss me. My mom and I used facebook messenger to keep in touch and she let me know he kept watching out the window in the afternoon waiting for me to come home. Then when I did get home he ignored me, I guess I didn't smell right. It took him a few seconds of my talking to him to realize it was me. I always feel bad leaving him and I'll miss his birthday on my Nov trip but we'll celebrate early, he won't care as long as he gets his canned food for a dinner treat

 

[afan]

Day 2 Part 2 -

We decided to do the Sleeping Beauty walk through before it got crowded and I’m glad we did so we could enjoy all of the stained glass and tapestry’s telling the story. Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite animated movies and I liked how they told the story.

The sparkles would light up on this one.

Day 2 continued - https://www.disboards.com/threads/w...eyland-paris-and-paris.3686192/#post-59313183

 

[miztressuz]

Oh wow, you got me with the stained glass for Sleeping Beauty, that whole set looks awesome! Hubby said a few years ago that he wanted to see all the Disney parks at least once but I think it was a passing fancy as he hasn't mentioned it again when I ask for vaca ideas. I think I need to revisit it so I can check this out for myself! Everything's just so pretty

 

[afan]

Day 2 Part 3 -

Being able to walk outside of the castle on the 2nd level was also cool, to see Fantasyland from another higher viewpoint.

But better than that was being able to walk out the front of the castle and down the side to go underneath and see Maleficent as a dragon. I was bad and took a photo with the flash because I only had my point and shoot and my phone, which I’m normally able to take dark photos with but when all you can see is her red eye in the photo…

Adventureland and Pirates was our next destination. We got in the already forming line since the park had opened to everyone by now but it wasn’t yet 10am so the park hadn’t officially opened. This was one of the unexpected attractions we went on during our stay. We weren’t expecting to go up a hill at the beginning and then down two different drops. It was a great ride and we liked how they incorporated Johnny Depp into it much more than the others. He fit in and made more sense here.

Our next stop was the fast pass machine at Big Thunder Mountain that had a return time of 11:55am. One thing to note with these is you have only half an hour to use your fp not the hour like we’re used to in the US.

We pulled out the map and made the first of the two bad decisions we had in the parks. We saw we were close to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril and thought let’s go do that. Don’t make that same mistake. I don’t want to give away too much about the attractions because I don’t want to spoil for anyone, I didn’t read a ton about them before I left which was a great decision for me. My friend didn’t really read anything since I had done the planning. However, we both wished I had read anything about this attraction so we could have skipped it.

We go there and saw it was a coaster, ok cool no problem we like those so we got in line since it wasn’t long, maybe 10 min if that. The closer we got the more we saw of the somewhat compact coaster. Then we noticed that it goes upside down, we’re still ok because we like those type of coasters. What we missed seeing was the very tight corkscrew in the middle of the coaster. It also wasn’t a very smooth ride and I hit my head on the restraint a few times. However when we got off we said ‘I think we’re getting old and I’m never doing that again’. Needless to say there’s no photo of this ride

It was time to slow things down a bit before our ride on BTM so we went in search of the Jafar we’d seen walking before we got on the ride of peril. We found Jafar with people standing around and no real line, it wasn’t a planned meet. The no line thing drove me nuts because you want to wait your turn but then someone else that just walked up will just jump in so I had to be a bit more pushy than normal. Plus everyone else had kids, which seemed more common at the meets. We’re used to doing meets in WDW and there’s always adults without kids in line but not as much here. Jafar was great though he did try and hypnotize me, luckily I didn’t fall for it.

Day 2 continued - https://www.disboards.com/threads/w...-paris-and-paris.3686192/page-2#post-59316255

 

[afan]

Oh wow, you got me with the stained glass for Sleeping Beauty, that whole set looks awesome! Hubby said a few years ago that he wanted to see all the Disney parks at least once but I think it was a passing fancy as he hasn't mentioned it again when I ask for vaca ideas. I think I need to revisit it so I can check this out for myself! Everything's just so pretty

I loved the inside of the castle where it told the story. Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorites, I love the whole blue/pink dress thing along with the story so it was great seeing it told in such a unique and pretty way. Not to mention using the castle for something that everyone can enjoy and not a restaurant.

This park was more beautiful and and with a flowing theme than I thought it would be and with people saying Tokyo is the best I can only imagine what it will be like to hopefully go there.

 

[wendow]

Loving your TR and pics. How were the crowds?

And I just am in love with Dude! So cute!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Here and following along!! Love it! Looks like there's no one in the parks with you!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Enjoyed your first 2 days. It's been quite a few years since we were there so it's jogging my memory seeing all your pictures. Looks like the weather was good for you.