Day 6: Disneyland Paris

  We weren't sure what we were going to do when we got up this morning but I was LONGING to go to the gates, yes just the gates, of Disneyland Paris. How could I be that close and not go?  Everyone else was going to be headed into town and I was afraid of getting lost. Our tour guide marched me yp to the desk and called a taxi for Clay, Galen and I to take us to the train! She said the train dead ends at the gates of Disneyland, I had no excuse. What she didn't know was that I was more worried about getting the 3 of us back to town in time to catch the train to Florence!

   So, we 3 hopped in the taxi, he wasn't the most chipper of cabbies. He was angry that we didn't speak enough French. Once he dropped us off at the train station we bought our round trip train tickets and hopped on.  We had been warned about the pickpockets here so we paid close attention to our belongings.
    Once we got to the gates and snapped a few photos, we decided we may never be there again and that we had several hours to spend so we did it, we bought tickets and went in!

       

The gates of Disneyland Paris

   We decided to just do one park (there are 2 at DLP) and we grabbed our maps and headed in. As any die hard Disney fan does when they walk into a Disney park, I teared up a little. It was so different than my home park of Walt Disney World in Orlando!

Mickey Garden inside the gates

I wanted to experience some of my favorite rides to see how they compared to WDW so we went directly towards Phantom Manor, known as Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World.

Mr. Phantom

Queue for Phantom Manor

It was completely different! The soundtrack of the attraction was different and of course everything was in French but at least we knew (I think) what they were saying. Next we headed on to Pirates of the Caribbean. This is my favorite Magic Kingdom attraction so I had to compare.  I really liked the Disneyland Paris version better. There were more and bigger drops. It was mission some of the scenes that you see at WDW but all in all the ride was more fun.

Part of the exterior for Pirates of the Caribbean

One of the scenes inside the POC attraction

   If we wanted to grab something to eat and do some souvenir shopping, we only had time for one more attraction.  We decided to check out Star Tours. I was a little disappointed in the attraction.  There were no 3-D glasses and the scenes were different.  Not as fun, in my opinion.

Outside of Star Tours

   Next on the agenda was some food. Since we weren't planning on even coming through the gates, we had to be budget conscious. We found a quick service restaurant and I grabbed a kids meal with a chicken sandwich, fries and a small drink in a cute little lunchbox (my excuse was that it was part of my souvenir). The food was reasonably priced and tasted great too.

My cute little lunchbox

We didn't have much time left so we decided to check out a few shops and grab some souvenirs before catching the train in to town to meet everyone else. All in all, this was my favorite day of the trip. I may not have had much time to spend there or take in the whole park, but at least it is something I can say that I have done and mark it off my bucket list! Stay tuned next time for the rest of day 6 when we head into town and grab a night train to Florence, Italy.

Part of the exterior of It's a Small World
I couldn't convince them to ride this one!

WALL-E and Eve