We spent a fun-filled day in Disneyland Paris today, which was "interesting". It was about 20 degrees fahrenheit, and very croweded, although we were able to do everything that we wanted. It took us about an hour to reach the park from our hotel by the Eiffel Tower (la Tour Eiffel). The park is about 30 miles east of the city in the suburb of
Marne-la-Vallée.
We were able to do Space Mountain, which was amazing. Although, this was the ride where we figured out that the 'fastpass' service that we've learned to love from the US parks is apparently interpreted differently here. People seem to line up in a big herd in front of the fastpass entrance before they can use the passes apaprently to ensure that they are the first ones in the queue once their earliest arrival time is called. This was very odd to us, as the staff would then tell those of us with 'valid' fastpasses to
push our way through the herd. Thankfully we were caught in a stream of people that carried us to the front for space mountain, and figured out to ask the cast member for the Indiana Jones ride.
This leads me to another distinction between the US and Paris parks. Apparently, it is 'customary' to push a lot in line and let your children run amuck. We found a lot of
times that people behind us in line would bump, or brush up against us as the line moved forward. There's definately a lack of personal space in this situation that we would say is very different, but we learned to adapt. :)
The decorations were amazing, as they had all the Christmas stuff out. Pere Noel (aka Father Xmas) was there and there was a huge tree near the entrance. The setup of the park in general was strikingly similar to Disneyland in California. The parisens even retained the "Main Street USA" signs in the central plaza.
The other attractions were great, including the Aerosmith indoor dark roller coaster, the Indiana Jones temple of peril, Pirates of the Carribbean which had a very midevial 'castle-ly' theme. The cas
tle for the park (i believe it was belle's) was also very well themed and illuminated in the evening.
The tower of terror was also in the process of being constructed while we were there so it was exciting to see the state it was in. This one is being modeled after the one in Disneyland and is supposed to be completed sometime in 2007.
Other than that, we seem to be adjusting OK to the time difference, and are able to function OK in general. I think that we expected more of the locals to speak english more fluently, but perhaps this is because we are not here during high tourist season. Oh well, At least this gives me an excuse to use my mad french skillz.
Tomorrow we begin our museum tour, so hopefully I will update this blog soon. I am also on g-chat frequently in the evenings between 10-11PM, which is 2-3PM PT.
Avoir!
Brian and Dave
