Globetrotting: to Disneyland Paris and back with TCD

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

 

 

2) Is it more, or do their translations on the map switch order? Sometimes english is the first one, other times it's the second one?

 

 

It seemed to me that if the name did not tell what the place was, then the first line below the name on the map was a description in French of what that place was.  Then English and the other languages.  But if it was obvious from the name, they didn't include the further description in French.

 

(I started writing this hours ago, but got distracted by kids and homeschool and laundry and dinner.  Forgive me if anyone else mentioned this already.)

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

I'm an ex-smoker who is now driven crazy by it when people aren't considerate. I would not be cool with that around Z. 

 

The parade looks OK. Nothing compares to FoF now. 

[ependydad...Doug 176]

It seemed to me that if the name did not tell what the place was, then the first line below the name on the map was a description in French of what that place was.  Then English and the other languages.  But if it was obvious from the name, they didn't include the further description in French.

 

(I started writing this hours ago, but got distracted by kids and homeschool and laundry and dinner.  Forgive me if anyone else mentioned this already.)

 

That's a great point. Good call, Marty.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

...

Tell the truth: you saw Eeyore walking behind the float, didn't you?

TCD

Busted. That was what I was going off of.

I need an eye exam. I thought that was Sully.

[diane+ not THAT monte 7]

I had German friends that said French law was very restrictive on smoking ,

but , every one smoked every where in France .

NTM

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Wow... really far behind, so too much to comment on BUT: Dublin was really pretty and I cracked up reading your comment about almost getting ran over, because you kept looking the wrong way...haha, that would have been me :) London, thought all the old construction with the new was interesting; the B&B you stayed at was lovely. The train ride...180 mph? Crazy, that would be neat to try. The train station was very clean. I would have liked the breakfast...I like my bread too :) Disney Paris, neat to see it all...but makes me homesick for the Fort :) Enjoying your TR! So much so, that I had to check in on my phone while we are camping :)

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Wow... really far behind, so too much to comment on BUT: Dublin was really pretty and I cracked up reading your comment about almost getting ran over, because you kept looking the wrong way...haha, that would have been me :) London, thought all the old construction with the new was interesting; the B&B you stayed at was lovely. The train ride...180 mph? Crazy, that would be neat to try. The train station was very clean. I would have liked the breakfast...I like my bread too :) Disney Paris, neat to see it all...but makes me homesick for the Fort :) Enjoying your TR! So much so, that I had to check in on my phone while we are camping :)

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Wow... really far behind, so too much to comment on BUT: Dublin was really pretty and I cracked up reading your comment about almost getting ran over, because you kept looking the wrong way...haha, that would have been me :) London, thought all the old construction with the new was interesting; the B&B you stayed at was lovely. The train ride...180 mph? Crazy, that would be neat to try. The train station was very clean. I would have liked the breakfast...I like my bread too :) Disney Paris, neat to see it all...but makes me homesick for the Fort :) Enjoying your TR! So much so, that I had to check in on my phone while we are camping :)

[caveat lector 181]

I hope you address whether they have love bugs at the campground in France. I'm sure Disney wants to make it authentic. Also, I (along with Rocky) will be perusing the pics to see if the French have an off leash park for the pups.

Eisner....where do I start. My mom told me to not say anything, if you can't say something nice....welll.....fortunately Mike left before completely destroying the Mouse house. Fortunately, his lack of creativity and execution skills were over shadowed by his above average height. That's the best I can do.

DLP was an attempt at a money/market share grab, with literally no heed given to the Disney principals of quality. The genius tried to replicate successes without learning why Disney wanted to do things different in WDW than Disneyland.

It was Britain, but Clark griswold couldn't find his hotel room because of weak markings, but it could apply to you finding your French campsite...I'm just saying.

[Daverene 14]

LOL. Gross.

Good to know. The only issue I see, though, is that the unit is just in the main room, with no way to cool the air in the bedrooms.

That is a ac its a mini split. Install them all the time

Yes, that's the AC. I thought that's what I said. Did I goof?

Thanks. There's my answer. That explains a lot about what I felt was a lack of pixie dust there.

TCD

[jmaul 65]

Caught up.

 

Frontierland looks awesome.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Busted. That was what I was going off of.

 

No worries- you get points for being observant.

 

It seemed to me that if the name did not tell what the place was, then the first line below the name on the map was a description in French of what that place was.  Then English and the other languages.  But if it was obvious from the name, they didn't include the further description in French.

 

(I started writing this hours ago, but got distracted by kids and homeschool and laundry and dinner.  Forgive me if anyone else mentioned this already.)

 

Good job, Marty.  There was way more English used at DLP than I expected, but it didn't seem to be consistent.  There were some things that could have really benefited from translation that were not, and many things that were obvious that were.  Very odd.

 

I'm an ex-smoker who is now driven crazy by it when people aren't considerate. I would not be cool with that around Z. 

 

The parade looks OK. Nothing compares to FoF now. 

 

Good for you for quitting.

 

I didn't think about comparing the France parade to Festival of Fantasy, but you're right, FOF is much better.

 

I need an eye exam. I thought that was Sully.

 

Yeah, you do need an eye exam.  Have them check for colorblindness too.

 

I had German friends that said French law was very restrictive on smoking ,

but , every one smoked every where in France .

NTM

 

I don't know about the French law, but your friend is right on the money with saying that everyone smokes everywhere in France.  It's true, and very noticeable after being in Ireland and England.

 

Wow... really far behind, so too much to comment on BUT: Dublin was really pretty and I cracked up reading your comment about almost getting ran over, because you kept looking the wrong way...haha, that would have been me :) London, thought all the old construction with the new was interesting; the B&B you stayed at was lovely. The train ride...180 mph? Crazy, that would be neat to try. The train station was very clean. I would have liked the breakfast...I like my bread too :) Disney Paris, neat to see it all...but makes me homesick for the Fort :) Enjoying your TR! So much so, that I had to check in on my phone while we are camping :)

 

Thanks for reading and commenting while you were camping.  That's the sign of a real Fiend there!

 

I hope you address whether they have love bugs at the campground in France. I'm sure Disney wants to make it authentic. Also, I (along with Rocky) will be perusing the pics to see if the French have an off leash park for the pups.

Eisner....where do I start. My mom told me to not say anything, if you can't say something nice....welll.....fortunately Mike left before completely destroying the Mouse house. Fortunately, his lack of creativity and execution skills were over shadowed by his above average height. That's the best I can do.

DLP was an attempt at a money/market share grab, with literally no heed given to the Disney principals of quality. The genius tried to replicate successes without learning why Disney wanted to do things different in WDW than Disneyland.

It was Britain, but Clark griswold couldn't find his hotel room because of weak markings, but it could apply to you finding your French campsite...I'm just saying.

 

Negative on the love bugs.  And negative on the dog park.  Also, no tetherball, so Rocky would not be interested.  Which is a good thing.  I'm pretty sure it was no pets allowed there.

 

Since getting back, I've been poking around and looking for some good sources about the history of Euro Disney.  I think you're right about it being a cash grab, but that's understandable considering the success Disney enjoyed in California, Florida and Japan.  The little I've read tells me that they put a lot of effort into deciding where to put the park and what to put in it.  I think where they went wrong was with deciding what to include in the park, and with their projections on what it would all cost.  They ran out of money, and have had tremendous financial struggles from the beginning. 

 

I really need to re-watch European Vacation now that I've been there.  I forgot about how Clark couldn't find the hotel.  We had that same problem with poorly marked streets in London.

 

 

That is a ac its a mini split. Install them all the time

 

 

Do you install one unit to cool three rooms?

 

Caught up.

 

Frontierland looks awesome.

 

Good job.

 

The theming of Frontierland was awesome.  Actually, that can be said of the whole park- it looks like they spent a lot of money building it.  I don't think they've kept it up as well as they should have, but, still it was very nice.

 

TCD

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

 

Thanks for reading and commenting while you were camping.  That's the sign of a real Fiend there!

 

 

Yes... apparently I like the TR so much, that I felt the need to post my comments, several times :)

 

Silly ghost...

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Let's finish up with the parade photos, and move on to our dinner and other things.

 

Here's one more photo of the Toy Story float:

 

 

For no reason I can determine, the back half of the Toy Story float was Winnie the Pooh.  I noticed that the float looks like an open book. That's fine for Pooh, but Toy Story wasn't a book first:

 

 

The silly old bear got to ride and eat his hunny.  It's good to be Pooh:

 

 

The next float was obviously jungle themed, and had Lion King up front:

 

 

And Jungle Book in the back:

 

 

When's the last time you saw Baloo out and about?  He apparently moved to France:

 

 

The next float was British themed, with Peter Pan in front:

 

 

And Mary Poppins in the back:

 

 

They even had Big Ben on the float:

 

 

Bert had to walk:

 

 

Next came some more parade performers on wheels.  I think these performers are why they're so concerned about guests not having their feet out in the street:

 

 

 

The parade was on the short side.  Which is fine with me.  The last float has all the stuff they didn't fit in on the other floats:

 

 

There's Donald, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Goofy, Duffy and Mickey:

 

 

The chipmunks:

 

 

The big guy got the best spot:

 

 

There were a lot of people leaving right after the parade.  Good:

 

 

Look who was hiding on the back of the last float- Tinkerbell:

 

 

We stayed where we were and let the mob pass by-we needed to go the other way:

 

 

Then we went looking for the Plaza restaurant.  It was in the general location of where it is in the MK and Disneyland, but there was a restaurant called Victoria's close to Main Street, and the Plaza was on the other side of it:

 

 

This is the view of the area in front of the Plaza.  Again, I have to hand it to the groundskeepers, DLP has great landscaping:

 

 

The Plaza restaurant here is a buffet, and we were able to use our Half Board vouchers to pay- so it cost nothing out of pocket.  I took a photo of my receipt the next morning after breakfast, and we will talk about whether or not I got a deal then.

 

I'm sorry that I don't have any photos of the actual buffet, but it was crowded with people and I had my hands full.  I would compare it to a buffet that you would find on a cruise ship.  There were a lot of salad and vegetable choices, and a lot of pasta.  There were a few meat choices, and a carving station where they were slicing up a ham.  There was no fried chicken, but there were steak fries.

 

Here's my plate:

 

 

And here's DD's:

 

 

The food was OK here.  I wouldn't say it was on par with what you would expect at a WDW buffet, but there was plenty of food, and it was hot.

 

We were done with dinner and back out in the park by 7 pm.  It was still very light out:

 

 

This is a shot of the roofline of the Plaza- this is very similar to the outside of the restaurant at the MK:

 

 

We decided to head over toward Adventureland to see if there was something we could ride there, or another FP that I could pick up, before we headed to cash in our Big Thunder FP's.  We decided to walk through the castle on the way.  These topiaries were part of the Swing in to Spring event:

 

 

 

I liked the fact that the view of the castle was not obscured by a stage, the way it is at the MK.  They do have a stage here, but it is off to the right side as you face the castle.  The castle still serves as a backdrop, but the stage doesn't block the view.  That is a good idea:

 

 

It was interesting just to look at the castle and see all the different elements of it.  Also, check out the waterfall there to the left- that is a nice touch:

 

 

They don't have a restaurant in their castle.  Instead, there are caves that you can explore beneath it, and a walk-through display inside (similar to Disneyland).  We went through the caves beneath:

 

 

The caves are great.  They are very dark, and there is fog and strobe lights.  And a big animatronic dragon.  The dragon is very well done, and it is realistic enough that it was scaring kids.  I am all for that- there used to be more things to scare kids at WDW back in the good old days.

 

My first photos of the dragon are fails.  I tried to not use a flash, and all I got was some blurry lights.

 

I did get some decent dragon photos before we left, and I'll post those when we get there.

 

For now, though, we will be moving on to Adventureland, where we found one of the attractions unique to Disneyland Paris.

 

TCD

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

I really like the parade... especially the Pooh float; how cute was that!!  The topiaries were really pretty.  Don't know if I missed this but, whose castle is it?  WDW has Cinderella...who does DLP have?

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

I am guessing that the toys from Toy Story and the stuffed animals from Winnie the Pooh are things you would find in a child's room, which is why they are together. You also might find a child's book, so maybe that is why they are joined that way.

Or I just have way too much spare time and thought about it too long.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I really like the parade... especially the Pooh float; how cute was that!!  The topiaries were really pretty.  Don't know if I missed this but, whose castle is it?  WDW has Cinderella...who does DLP have?

 

That's a great question about whose castle this is.  There is a major clue in this photo-does that design at the top of the sign remind you of anyone?:

 

 

The official name of the castle is French.  It is:  Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant.  Plug that into Google Translate, and we have our answer:  The Castle of Sleeping Beauty.

 

I am guessing that the toys from Toy Story and the stuffed animals from Winnie the Pooh are things you would find in a child's room, which is why they are together. You also might find a child's book, so maybe that is why they are joined that way. Or I just have way too much spare time and thought about it too long. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Boy, you could be an Imagineer.   I guess Winnie the Pooh and his friends are also toys that came to life.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

We left off looking around the castle, and we are still there.  Now we're in the front part of the castle, looking at the different walkways they have- it's pretty cool how you can explore and poke around the castle here:

 

 

You can see that there are some stairs over there, and what looks like a wishing well over to the right.  This is all designed to let guests wander around and enjoy the details.  It is very well done.  A lot of people say that this castle is the best in all the Disney parks:

 

 

There are bridges that you can walk across if you want to look at the water and rocks below:

 

 

More flowers:

 

 

We walked through the castle and came out on the other side.  I didn't take any photos while walking through, as it was kind of dark and crowded in there.  I don't think there were any murals, like we have in WDW, but it's possible I missed them.  I did notice a lot of stained glass, and a couple of gift shops.

 

This is a sign for a gift shop on the Fantasyland side of the castle.  It is located in the area where Sir Mickey's is in the MK:

 

 

Here we are looking up at the back of the castle- as you can see there are walkways back here, and guests are standing on them for photos.  It looks like there's a room up there where the restaurant is in the MK castle, but I think that's part of the walk-through, and there is no restaurant in this castle:

 

 

 

To the best of my knowledge, Cinderella's Royal Table (or King Stefan's Banquet Hall as it was previously known) has always been a success at WDW.  It doesn't make sense to me that they wouldn't have put a restaurant here.  Maybe there used to be one.  I've been trying to find information about this, but so far I haven't.

 

Since there's no restaurant in the castle, they have another one where they have princess meals, it's themed based on Cinderella:

 

 

They have a carousel here in Fantasyland, in the same location where WDW and Disneyland have theirs.  Unfortunately for us, this is one of the attractions that was being refurbished during our visit:

 

 

 

 

There's a ride over there called Blanche Niege et les Sept Nains:

 

 

We planned to be back here in the morning for EMH, and Fantasyland would be open then. It didn't look like there was a line for that ride, but we decided to wait to check it out.  In case your French is rusty, that's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

 

There's the entrance to Adventureland- this is kind of the back entrance.  The main was closed and being refurbished:

 

 

A big area of Adventureland is dedicated to this Peter Pan themed play area- which must be a lot of fun for younger kids:

 

 

There's the archway we just came through to enter Adventureland- Fantasyland and Adventureland are neighbors here:

 

 

One more shot of the Peter Pan play area- that skull rock is cool:

 

 

I was surprised to see a palm tree growing here.  We are really far north, but there it is:

 

 

There's a big fake tree in the center of this photo.  They have a Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse here:

 

 

We found what we were looking for tucked into a corner of Fantasyland- the Indiana Jones et le Temple Du Peril ride:

 

 

I thought that the park was still moderately busy, and that we would be picking up a FP to use later, but the standby line was only 5 minutes.  If that was accurate, we could ride it now, and still make our Big Thunder FP return time, so into the queue we went.

 

The queue was long and had a lot of props.  There normally must be long waits for this ride:

 

 

 

 

We walked past all of that and more without stopping, right up to near the loading area, where we got a good look at the tracks.  This is a little roller coaster, and is nothing like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland California:

 

 

 

You can't see it in these photos, but we saw that the coaster makes a complete loop at one point along the track.

 

We got to look down at the loading platform right before we got there- you can see that they have some pretty heavy duty restraints there:

 

 

You can't really see it in the photo, but the CM's down there were really goofing around and jumping across the track and such.  Very un-Disneylike.

 

We got in and rode.

 

Wow, that thing is rough.

 

My head kept banging from side to side against the shoulder restraint.  I finally had to put my head all the way against the headrest, and exert a lot of effort to stop being pummeled by the ride.  It was kind of fun, but also kind of unpleasant.

 

At least it was very short. 

 

Here we are heading out already:

 

 

From there, we reported to Big Thunder Mountain with our FP's in hand.  I never did figure out how we got on the island.   There must be a movable bridge in the queue.

 

The signs around the props here were in English, since we are supposed to be in Colorado:

 

 

The queue here is nicer than the queues in WDW or Disneyland:

 

 

The CM costumes look kind of French to me:

 

 

The loading area is covered as it is in WDW, and kind of looks like it.  But there is only one loading area, not two:

 

 

Having the FP here saved us only maybe 10-15 minutes, the standby line was really short here too.  That was a good sign.  The ride track was totally different than it is at WDW or Disneyland, but it's the same idea.  They even have fake goats here:

 

 

You see that big house behind the goat?  That's Phantom Manor. That's what they call their Haunted Mansion.  We decided that we would try that next.

 

There's Tower of Terror in the park next door.  We will see that up close tomorrow:

 

 

Note how many trees there are between the parks- they have a lot more green space here than they do in California.

 

Next up, we will try to check out Phantom Manor, and see if the short lines continue.

 

TCD

[red...Susan 37]

The Indiana Jones rides looks the same as the one in Disneyland Tokyo sea.

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

I'm finally caught up after taking over a week off!

 

There were so many things I wanted to comment on that I have now forgot so I'll just say great trip report and I'm looking forward to more!

 

I am interested to hear how you liked actual Paris.  I was surprised how much I liked it.  I never had an issue with rude people or thieves but we were always real careful.

 

WBI

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

So, Sleeping Beauty's castle...uh?   You'd think Disney would have mixed it up.  I was thinking Snow White, as that would have only been "fair" :)

 

The park is very pretty; some really nice landscaping and I do like the construction of the castle.

 

Nice to see that you had some pretty short lines :)

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Always wondered why they didn't make it Belle's Castle (formerly the Beast's, but they got married and you know how that goes).  Being France and all....and Beauty and the Beast was released a year before the park opened.  I guess by then it was too late as the castle would have been designed several years earlier.  

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

The Indiana Jones rides looks the same as the one in Disneyland Tokyo sea.

 

OK, you made me look.  Wow, the Tokyo Disneyland website is so much better than Disneyland Paris'.

 

So, I found this Indiana Jones attraction described there:

 

 

That one looks and sound like the Disneyland California version:

 

http://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/attraction/detail/str_id_ld_indiana/

 

But, reading on, I see they have a ride called Raging Spirits.  That one looks like this Disneyland Paris ride:

 

 

http://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/attraction/detail/str_id_ld_raging/

 

I'm finally caught up after taking over a week off!

 

There were so many things I wanted to comment on that I have now forgot so I'll just say great trip report and I'm looking forward to more!

 

I am interested to hear how you liked actual Paris.  I was surprised how much I liked it.  I never had an issue with rude people or thieves but we were always real careful.

 

WBI

 

We will be heading to actual Paris after our two nights at Disneyland Paris.

 

Every guidebook I read told me to be real careful.  I learned a hard lesson about how careful you need to be when I went up against the Paris pickpockets, but I'll wait until we get to Paris to tell that story.

 

So, Sleeping Beauty's castle...uh?   You'd think Disney would have mixed it up.  I was thinking Snow White, as that would have only been "fair" :)

 

The park is very pretty; some really nice landscaping and I do like the construction of the castle.

 

Nice to see that you had some pretty short lines :)

 

I am no expert on main Disney Park castles, but I think they are all either Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty themed. 

 

The landscaping and construction quality around Disneyland Paris exceeded my expectations.  It is a very beautiful park.

 

Those short lines were also a surprise.  I don't know if it's normal for the park to clear out that early in the evening, but it was great for us.

 

Always wondered why they didn't make it Belle's Castle (formerly the Beast's, but they got married and you know how that goes).  Being France and all....and Beauty and the Beast was released a year before the park opened.  I guess by then it was too late as the castle would have been designed several years earlier.  

 

Good point.  It was strange to me that there seemed to be no references to Beauty and the Beast or to the Disney movie Hunchback of Notre Dame in the parks.  The best we could figure is that somehow these movies offend the French people, so they're ignored in the parks.

 

TCD

[red...Susan 37]

Sorry I got confused. You are correct it was raging spirits. I should have verified my facts.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Sorry I got confused. You are correct it was raging spirits. I should have verified my facts.

 

No worries- it's kind of weird that they have two attractions with very similar themes there in the same park in Tokyo.  I think you're right that it might be the same coaster in both parks, just with some tweaks to the theme.

 

I appreciate your sharing any comparisons that you see to other parks, since I think this is the only Disney park that you haven't visited.

 

TCD