Tout commence avec un rêve - a day in Disneyland Paris

One day being a child again. That was our motto for our day in Disneyland. Every and each one of us would tell the others: “When we go to Disneyland tomorrow, I will be four years again and I will behave like that”, “if there will really be a firework at the castle, I will cry”! We were all looking forward to it. Sunday morning, we met at the station of Chatelet and took the RER direction to Disneyland, where we met the rest of the group. We got our entry tickets, which we got with a special discount because of the EIAP membership.

A lot of cries and happiness and - who would have expected something else? - a photo marathon. Everyone together, everyone alone, him with her, her with him, him with him, her with her …

Walt Disney Studios

Our first way led us to the Walt Disney Studios. Everyone was excited and suddenly you would hear shouts like: “Nemo! ”, “Buzz Lightyear! ”, “Mickey Mouse! ”, “Wait a minute, I have to take a picture! ”, “Let’s go here! ”. There was so much to see and everyone had his personal favourite. The houses, fences, paths and decorations were always fitting the surrounding topic and we discovered a lot of childhood memories that we already had forgotten about. Our first roller coaster was the RC Racer in the Toy Story Land. It was inspired by one of the toys from Toy Story.

The only sad, or exhausting point was that you had to wait everywhere for at least half an hour, sometimes even one and a half or two hours. The times were shown on signs, but normally it was longer than it said. You even have an application, where you can look up the waiting time. You could not estimate the length of the queue, because it would continue inside and you could not see for how far. You can get a fast pass, which allows you to pass the queue and you don’t have to wait. But, this is only possible for one attraction and only one time in one and a half hours. Next stop was Rémy’s Adventure from Ratatouille. It was a drive with 3D glasses, where you see a short version of the story, accompanied by smells of food, fire and water. At the end, you were directly led into the restaurant, where you, obviously, could get dishes from the film. It was really well made. We didn’t eat there as the prices were immensely high.

Afterwards, we went to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. I didn’t know the film from which it was taken, but also here everything was well made. You entered the hotel, where a page boy welcomed you and showed a film as an explanation about the hotel. You are entering the fourth dimension with the service elevator. It was genius. The elevator went up in the dark and suddenly you had a great view over the park and then… it went down! Like really down! Up again, down again, up again….

Next attraction was the Armageddon Special Effects Studio, because there was no queue. Here, you get explanations about the special effects and can experience that in an enterprise destruction scene. It was funny to be in such a situation. We went to get something to eat and then split up. Some of us wanted to go to the other park, they were afraid of not seeing everything. I stayed with some other to go with the Rock’nRollercoaster. There was also a long queue, but everywhere were posters, records and guitars from Bon Jovi, Red Hot Chili Peppers and other artists. The roller coaster was also great! It has a rapid acceleration, some loopings in the dark and was one of the best until now.

Disneyland Park

After half the day already had passed, we also went to the Disneyland Park and this one was much bigger and had a lot more to offer than the other one. First things first: the castle. And everyone was blown away. It was exactly as we had imagined. Again, we took a lot of pictures. Everything else was also beautiful: the streets, fences, trees. It was already decorated for Halloween, pumpkins everywhere.

First, we visited the Adventureland. There you could find everything associated with Robinson Cruso, Aladdin, Indiana Jones and pirates. Now, the sun was also shining and added to our anyway immense happiness. We loved the small details, everything was perfect. In the Pirates of the Caribbean we experienced the attack of the Spanish on a little boat trip. While waiting for our turn, we admired the nicely decorated corridors with bottles of rum, skeletons and treasure chests. The next roller coaster, the Indiana Jones, was also really brilliant. For every topic, there was a fitting restaurant and nature.

Then, we watched the Disney parade, where all figures were taking part: Mickey Mouse, Lion King, Elsa and Ana from Frozen… We didn’t stay long, because this was really more for small children and so we used the time to not having to wait so long at the attractions. We followed the way through the castle to Fantasyland. We passed the house of the seven dwarfs and did the tour of Snowwhite. It was also more for kids, but today we were also kids, so we enjoyed it and dreamt again our childhood dreams. Sadly, the princess castle was already closed and we also didn’t find the time for Meet Mickey Mouse. So, we went to Discoveryland. The Space Moutain is a really fast roller coaster, where you go on a space mission. For me it was always like: before I didn’t know what to expect, while driving I would scream like crazy and fear to never leave it alive and afterwards, if the waiting times weren’t so long, I would do it again!

In Star Tours, we went on a light with a new pilot and get in a star war. After some technical difficulties, we get back home safe. This attraction was a little disappointing and we all felt a little sick afterwards. As it was only a simulator and consequently, the movements didn’t fit, what we saw, we all had a headache. Now, that the children already leave the park, the waiting times get shorter and we could go to the Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast. Here, you get a laser pistol and have to shoot aims and enemies to get a high score. It was an easy attraction for kids, but we had the most fun and compared our scores afterwards. I already forgot my title that I got, but then you also you to admit it is not so easy to remember space ship related vocabulary in French…

As the attractions started to close, we hurried to Frontierland to ride the Big Thunder Mountain. It was real cool one, but it was so old that it was hard and edgy and not really comfortable. In every turn, I hurt my head and the security poles didn’t close very tight, so I was afraid of falling out. Which, of course, didn’t happen. But, I was really happy that it was just going up and down, because I was able to get out of the car, with all security devices closed :D

A little shopping pause

Shopping! That was a really important part of the day. I could have bought almost everything in the shop and my friends had the same problem. Everyone was carrying around heaps of things and asking: “ Is that too childish? ”, “Is that too expensive? ”, “What do you think? ”… In the end, everyone bought a small souvenir, even the ones that had sworn all day long that they wouldn’t buy anything. Oh, that was me… You could find everything in these shops: princess dresses, pullovers, back packs, hats, caps, gloves, scarfs, blankets, jewelry, toys and dishes… you cannot not find anything.

It was already dark, when we left the shop and we were starving. So, we went for something to eat. You could get a Jedi Burger, a Dark Vader Burger or Mickey Mouse Brownies. I ate a normal Burger Menu, because I don’t pay 5 euro more, just because my Burger is called Jedi Burger.

The Disney Animation

At around half past nine, we went back to the castle. We wanted to have a good view for the show at 10 o’clock, which should be the highlight. On and around the castle films were shown, with fitting music and a big firework. It started with Peter Pan, over Belle and the Beast, Ratatouille, Aladdin, Lion King, Frozen, Rapunzel…

One of us was always crying the name of a film, sighing loudly or singing along. After every part, we were sad: “Oh, that was it… ah no, look, it continues! ”. It took more than 20 minutes and was breath-takingly beautiful. My personal highlight was Lion King. It was a also a point, where I thought it was over and then the song of Circle of Life started. I had goosebumps! I am a big Lion King Fan. When it was finally over, everyone was sad and didn’t want to leave. But, we told ourselves to come back to see everything that we hadn’t seen today.

I want to end this post, with a citation of Peter Pan “Tout commence avec une rêve” – “Everything starts with a dream”. So, don’t forget to dream!

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