Bon Jour

Yes, Mickey DOES speak French. On our quick trip to Disneyland Paris, we got a kick out of all the French speaking characters. Tigger still sang in English though.

We joined all millions French and English families who were on Easter break at Disney. It was so, so crowded with long lines for every single thing, from rides to shows to the drink stand. We were a little tired of waiting, but I have to give my kids credit - they never complained. Funny to see the difference of taking our kids when they were very young and now to take them as a teen and tween (or "teen weenies" as B calls them). They didnt ask for any souvenirs until our last walk out the front door. No fancy Disney cups, no waiting in lines to talk to the characters, no crying when they were tired or hungry, no complaining about the lines - just enjoying the park. What a treat for me!

The park used to be known as Euro Disney, but they now go by Disneyland Paris. It is made up of 2 parks right next to each other: Disneyland and the Disney Studios. I believe it is about a 30 min. train ride outside of Paris (we didnt travel from Paris) and only one stop away from Charles De Galle airport. We traveled on both the Eurostar and a local French train. The train station is literally at the front door to the park gates.

I was a little frazzled on the train ride because we needed to transfer trains, but we did not get any notice that our stop was coming up and all of the sudden we were in the station for a 1 min. stop. (one minute is very short time when your kids have spread their stuff all around like we were on a 10 hour plane ride!!! - with luggage to handle as well) Would have helped if I had known how many stops to count or something, but when my ticket reads "Lille Europe", I was listening for "Lille Europe" to be called which I thought I could pick out from the French speaking announcer, but no - never heard it. I just happened to show my ticket to the person in the next seat, point to the words, shrug and she nodded "yes". That is how I decided we were supposed to get off the train. Not too confident of my decision. However, it all worked out well and we arrived as planned.

Disney was built in the middle of NO WHERE France. Flat, dusty fields give way to a color filled mass of buildings, master planned hotels, roads, etc. It's a little shocking to the senses. Our hotel, the Dream Castle, was nice, but heavily themed with a tad too much tile that echoed all the millions of little, crazed kids running around. B loved the curtained off bunk beds in our room. She thought she was a princess. I thought it felt more like spending the night in your local Disney store in the mall.

B was very excited because this was our first trip to a theme park where she was tall enough to ride some of the rides by herself. Just had to drive the car alone. Perfect that she was assigned the purple car and L the red sports car.

One difference I noticed from the Florida Disney people was that there werent any people "doing Disney" with lists as to what to ride when and in which order. I know in Florida, many guests have researched the whole vacation. Know when to get on which ride, when to get a fast pass, where to eat, which toilets have the shortest lines, etc. Here it was the much more laid back Euro style. Just casually walk around in your WINTER clothes (yes, Disney in April in long pants, long sleeves and a jacket!) and just ride whatever you come upon. It's much more relaxed that way... I didnt feel any stress to get somewhere by a certain time. I liked that part of it.

The kids with CARS characters. Luigi's tire shop.

Our only problems came curtesy of Expedia!!!!!! As I was checking in at the hotel desk, she told me that our hotel reservation had been cancelled. She did some work behind the scenes and was able to find a place for us. Thankfully. Then, as I tried to exchange my prepaid vouchers the next morning for our park entrance tickets, there was a huge snafu and we waited for 1 and 1/2 hours at the window while they tried to figure out why Expedia had not sent our tickets over - with a line of 50 people behind us cussing in French. I kept asking if I should step to the side as they figured it out so they could go ahead and serve the other customers, but they said "no, stay there". In the end, I had to buy more tickets at full price. UGH> an irritating call to Expedia will be placed today!!!!

Disney Paris is nice and new. Has all the popular rides from the Florida park, but is definitely smaller and much more condensed which may be why it felt so crowded. Also seemed a little understaffed. The Disney customer service ideal was not really seen, but I knew that already, so I didn't expect it. However, I must give the French people credit that every one I came in contact with was very pleasant and friendly.

My kids give it 2 thumbs up.

Oh, 2 crazy pictures I had to take:

This one of the guards with Uzi guns standing by the Disney village. Just gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling doesnt it????

This sign was in the train station. Talk about scaring the kids. "If you let go of your Mickey balloon, you will zap him to death!" I'm sure the train stations has had some serious issues with all the thousands of balloons Disney sells, but this sign was a little graphic I thought.