Trip Report Disneyland Paris, for the first time in forever

Songbird76 · Oct 27, 2017

Tuvalu said:
Seems poor parenting extends across the pond as well.

Absolutely....Now I don't remember if I mentioned it, but one of the times we got on Carrots, there were a couple of kids playing with the wait time board and had changed it to say 20 minutes. Don't know where the parents were or why no CMs stopped them, but it seems oblivious parents is an international thing.

Swissmiss · Oct 27, 2017

My first time at DLP was when they still had MNSSHP and I went to a kiosk to get DD (then 4 years old) and my sister something to drink and a small snack. It came to EUR 9 and I handed the woman a EUR 50 note. She looks at it and tells me that she doesn't have change and l'll need to go elsewhere. WRONG ANSWER. I tell her that my child is thirsty, they sell water and SHE needs to find a solution. At this point a supervisor comes by and she complains to the supervisor that she doesn't know what to do. The supervisor tells her it's really quite simple, giver her a roll of EUR 1 pieces plus one more. Which she did - AFTER unrolling them and giving me 41 loose coins. :banghead:

She was probably the worst I've encountered over the years, but as I mentioned in another post, I lowered my expectations about service and stopped comparing to WDW.

And for some reason, people don't seem able to line up properly and wait their turn there. On another trip, Chip and Dale where hanging out in a random place (small pathway between Star Tours and the backside of Videopolis or whatever it's called). DD is politely waiting her turn and just as it arrives, another parent (who had more or less just arrived) pushes their child towards Chip and Dale. Fantastic reaction on their part: they push the child back, grab mine, and make a point of fawning over her for much longer than they normally would just to stick it a bit to the other family

Cesar R M · Oct 30, 2017

Songbird76 said:
That whole section of the park was decorated in that style. The program described the parade as being colored with a Mexican tint, too. Must just be the theme for this year? I don't know if they do the same thing every year. But that parade literally only lasted 2 minutes...it was a group of dancers with one character (The first time we saw it, it was a parrot, the second time was Goofy in a skeleton costume), then a van painted in that style, then another group of dancers, and then 2 people holding up a rope decorated in Halloween style between them. It was very short. But those decorations were everywhere in that part of the park.

Aaah I see.

Speaking of Mexican tint. I proudly Endorse the movie COCO by pixar.. very well done.. good plot twists and general stuff. lots of references too.

Songbird76 · Nov 1, 2017

Swissmiss said:
My first time at DLP was when they still had MNSSHP and I went to a kiosk to get DD (then 4 years old) and my sister something to drink and a small snack. It came to EUR 9 and I handed the woman a EUR 50 note. She looks at it and tells me that she doesn't have change and l'll need to go elsewhere. WRONG ANSWER. I tell her that my child is thirsty, they sell water and SHE needs to find a solution. At this point a supervisor comes by and she complains to the supervisor that she doesn't know what to do. The supervisor tells her it's really quite simple, giver her a roll of EUR 1 pieces plus one more. Which she did - AFTER unrolling them and giving me 41 loose coins.

She was probably the worst I've encountered over the years, but as I mentioned in another post, I lowered my expectations about service and stopped comparing to WDW.

And for some reason, people don't seem able to line up properly and wait their turn there. On another trip, Chip and Dale where hanging out in a random place (small pathway between Star Tours and the backside of Videopolis or whatever it's called). DD is politely waiting her turn and just as it arrives, another parent (who had more or less just arrived) pushes their child towards Chip and Dale. Fantastic reaction on their part: they push the child back, grab mine, and make a point of fawning over her for much longer than they normally would just to stick it a bit to the other family

No, I noticed people were not good at lines there. We experienced several times where people cut in front of us. We got in line for Pinocchio and I don't remember why, but we had to stop..maybe to put something in the backpack? DH was ahead and we let the people behind us go ahead so we didn't hold up the line...it was only 2 people...no biggie...so we catch up to DH in the line after that and the people we let ahead of us stop to let the other 5 people join their group and they did not return the favor of letting us pass them...we let them past us and then they held us up to let even more people in. No line etiquette whatsoever. I don't count that against Disney though...they can't really do anything about that. It's not their fault that people don't have common courtesy for other guests.

Songbird76 · Nov 1, 2017

Day 3 (continued...)

Once we woke up from our nap, DD and I decided to try again for Carrots. DS just wanted to play computer games and DH wasn't really in the mood to go back to the parks. He was content to stay with DS at the hotel, so it was just DD and I. We had had perfect weather the whole time...no need for jackets or anything, though it had been a bit windy after our arrival day. I had brought disposable rain ponchos but we hadn't needed them. To cut down on the weight in my backpack, I had given the ponchos to DH to carry...I had pretty much everything else...snacks, the maps, the extra ears we made to give away, the camera and batteries, etc. We got all the way to the park and through the entrance when it started to rain lightly. I looked in my backpack...oops...no rain ponchos. Well....we didn't need them. It wasn't raining hard. Within 2 minutes, it was POURING and we ended up ducking into a shop to get out of the rain, which of course all the shops were PACKED now. As we had walked into the park, people were leaving in droves, which I hoped meant it would be a short wait time at Carrots. When the rain slowed down a bit, we headed there, via our super secret pathway that's not so super secret. The wait time said 30 minutes....now, pretty much every time we had done Carrots, the wait time had been HALF of what they said it was. But, we had to admit, the line looked LONG. But we had come all this way and we had planned out what pose to do for our picture, and it would put us at Illuminations just about right on time. So we decided to go for it. We were about half way through the line...maybe a bit more, and we hear the intercom...both DD and I thought "OH NO!! It's shut down temporarily!" and then we heard the English...and at first it sounded like there was some emergency that they were telling people to get out...turned out to be "Get OFF the rocks". Someone was stupid enough to be climbing on the rocks in the line. Idiot. But we were relieved...at least it wouldn't hinder us. We got to the turn styles and noticed one was blocked off. So they were only using half the boats and the other half were going empty. It was finally our turn. And we got to the part where they are singing Yo HO Yo Ho a Pirate's life for me, and the ride stopped for several minutes. SOOOO noisy! And we couldn't hear a bit of the announcement because the music from the ride was so loud. We got going and did our pose for the picture and then DD went running to get to the picture screens and find our picture before it disappeared. We got our number and then went to get in line to get it added to our photopass. OMG it took FOREVER.

They only had one line open to get pictures and there were a few people in front of us, none of whom had the photopass...so they all had to get their orders done manually. We got done and tried to get back to the castle for Illuminations, but there were CMs redirecting everyone in a different direction than we were familiar with. The upside was that we got to see a part of the park we hadn't crossed before. The downside was it took longer and the hub was FULL. We found a spot on the sidewalk, so we were just a few inches above the people on the main hub part. The only bad thing was there was a speaker pole in the way a bit, but it was to the side a bit and it was certainly better than our spot the previous night.
It had obviously rained again while we were in Carrots...there were fresh puddles and no dry surfaces...nowhere to sit, regardless. So we're standing there right on the curb and about a meter and a half away from us is the little dip in the curb for wheelchairs and strollers and this guy comes from Frontierland side with his wife and a kid in the stroller...he heads for that dip, but misses it with one wheel and manages to dump his wife into the puddle. The kid went sailing as the wife stood up to keep herself from landing her rear in the puddle, so the kid managed to miss the puddle and the wife only got her feet in it. They debate where to stand, walking back and forth along a 10-15 foot stretch on the edge of the hub, which we had decided would not offer a great view because it was too low and as soon as the show started, there were bound to be shoulder-riders blocking everything. They found a spot...and then changed their minds. And rather than go the 4 feet back to that little dip in the curb, idiot man pushes his stroller, now with just a kid in it, as hard as he can up over the curb...right where DD was standing. Fortunately she was QUICK and jumped out of the way and also fortunately there was no one behind her, so she didn't injure anyone with her jump. As hard as that guy pushed the stroller, he could easily have broken DD's shins if she hadn't moved out of the way. I asked her if she was ok as the guy was bowling through the crowd, and she said he didn't actually touch her, so I didn't yell at him, but perhaps I should have. He's VERY lucky he didn't hurt her...he would have been paying some medical bills instead of enjoying the show if he had.
But we really enjoyed the show and actually got to see the projections this time. I was particularly impressed with the Star Wars part...we hadn't been able to see anything the night before, and I thought it was really well done, how they incorporated the lights and fountains into that part of the show. DD hates Star Wars and even she thought it was cool, though she said it was too loud.
When it was over, we latched onto each other and waddled our way out of the park in the middle of the crowd. We did notice that most people were taking the right pathway around the gazebo, so we saved a ton of time by going through the Gazebo area and then merging back to the exits. I had thought we could exit straight ahead, but they only had one exit open for some reason, so it was really crowded.
I had snapped a few pictures earlier when we entered:

I loved that the picture in the circle on that building changed....it was really cool. Or I'm easily amused...maybe a bit of both. And then DD and I headed to the hotel to meet up with the boys for our Hunters Grill: take 2 reservation.

Songbird76 · Nov 1, 2017

Day 3 (continued...)

The boys met us outside the restaurant and we were greeted by a hostess who looked around for a while and finally found a table for us, all the way in the back corner, which was a mystery to us as there were TONS of tables open and we HAD a reservation. She seated us and told us a server would be right with us to get our drink order. After about 10- 15 minutes, we flagged someone down and asked if we could order our drinks...she was new and had to go ask someone how to handle that as we weren't really in her section. So FINALLY someone came to get our drink order and we went to the buffet. It had changed from the previous night. Ham instead of the beef, and some vegetable medley that did not look appetizing at all even though I LOVE veggies. I skipped it...it looked nasty. They did have the ribs, which made me happy, though they were not cooked as well so they were hard to get off the bone, but they tasted good. At one point, I was trying to get to the carving station and there was a woman standing there, turned around and standing in the middle of a narrow pathway, talking to her friend 10 feet away. I said "Excuse me" since she was taking up that whole path and I wasn't the only one trying to get past her...she glared at me and sarcastically said "Sorry" like I was being unreasonable for asking her to step aside so people could actually access the food. I got back to the table and DS was very upset that there were no fries tonight....they had hashbrown patties instead...which he won't eat. So DH asked the server if they would have fries in a bit, and no, they wouldn't, but they would ask the kitchen to make some for him, which they did. Crisis averted...until DS tasted the fries and said they tasted funny. *sigh* Oh well. He was THRILLED with the glow cube we bought for him and he played with it the whole night. The food was not as good this night...not only were there not as many choices, but what they had was not as well cooked. The ham looked so dry I didn't even try it, the ribs were tough, the veggies were way overdone and almost unrecognizable as veg. The previous night, they had had ice cream cones filled with a sort of Mousse thing that was really good, and they had had little jello cups in shot-size glasses. This night they had mini pancakes and some sort of...pudding? in those glasses. They had one that we still don't know what flavor it was supposed to be...I thought maybe lemon as it was yellow, but it didn't taste like lemon. DD didn't like it. And they had a strawberry one that DD loved but there were so many of the yellow ones and the few strawberry ones went fast. DD kept going back but they hadn't replenished, or they were all gone. I wanted to try one, but there was only one left...DD dove for it, but being the sweetheart she is, gave it to me since I hadn't gotten to try it yet and wouldn't hear of taking it herself, so I took a small taste and pretended not to like it so she could have it.

The blue thing with stars is the nutella pastry thing, the brown square said it was creme engles or something like that....it was coffee flavored. Blech. The white thing was WEIRD....it was like...egg whites or something, but it was really really soft and foamy and had a kind of syrup over it that looked like honey but was not. And then you can see the little glass with the yellow stuff on the left there behind the plate.

DH took DS to McDonald's in Disney Village while DD and I went to inquire about using the breakfast vouchers in the hotel buffet and paying the difference, and also to get my room card re-keyed since it wasn't working when DD and I came back in the afternoon for our nap. I had DH's key so we could get into the room, and he would just knock when we got back. So we went to the check-in desk and the guy re-keyed the card and also gave us a new one just in case. So we get to our room, try one key...nope....doesn't work. We tried 4 or 5 times before switching to the 2nd key....which also didn't work. So good thing I still had Hubby's key...we tried it....nope. It took several tries before it finally worked. So I put the 2 non-working keys aside and kept the one that DID work apart so we knew which key to use. We'd only need it the next morning when we were loading the car.

Songbird76 · Nov 1, 2017

Day 4 October 20th

Since EMH had not been fruitful the day before, we had agreed to skip it the next morning in favor of sleeping in and having a decent breakfast instead of the less-than-appetizing "omelet sandwiches" covered by our vouchers. Of course, since I could finally sleep in, I woke up just before 7. I went to check my phone and it was almost dead...weird...it had been plugged in ALL night!! But, I had plugged everything in by the bathroom...the only outlet that our power strip fit in. DH had not liked having everything piled up there, nor did he like it being so far away from his bed, so he had unplugged the lamp in the room and plugged the power strip there and piled all the electronics there in that corner...forgetting that that light goes out when you flip the light switch by the door. That outlet cuts off power with that switch. So when we went to bed, everything we had just plugged in, was left on, but not charging. So DH's phone was the only one charging since he was using the one outlet in the desk (where the power strip wouldn't fit). DD's and DS's phones, which they were using to take pictures, and DS was using to play games when he got overwhelmed in the park and wanted to rest, were dead. So I had to switch everything over to the bathroom outlet and put everything in Airplane mode to help it charge faster. Not happy with DH on that one. We headed to the hotel character spot. My camera SD card had somehow gotten stuck on lock, so I was fiddling with the camera and didn't get any of my own pictures. Fortunately the photographer this morning actually took pictures of everything...signing autographs and everything, not just the posed pictures.

We headed downstairs for breakfast and the woman at the podium hardly spoke English. She sent us inside to someone who spoke really well and sounded British...she was from London. No wonder her English was so good! She complimented our ears and we had a nice conversation while we waited for someone to show us to our table. She commented on how many Dutch families she'd had that week, so we explained that it was Fall Break in the Netherlands. We were finally seated...again....wow, no wonder it took so long to find a table for us since it was ALMOST EMPTY! We did manage to get enough to eat, but it wasn't a whole lot better than those sandwiches. The eggs were RUNNY...really undercooked, and perhaps not even real eggs. They tasted a bit weird and had a spongy texture. There was really not a lot of choice. It was scrambled eggs, bread, or cereal. There was no other type of egg, no yogurt, no pancakes...and the cereal was cornflakes, frosted flakes, or a chocolate thing. Oh well...it's not like we were going to find anything better there, I guess. So we ate and headed back to the room to grab a load of stuff to put in the car. DH had the one key that had worked the night before, and I grabbed the other 2 just in case...we had to turn them in anyway. We told the kids to stay in the room to let us back in. DH took off without me for some reason and by the time I had my load, he was at the corner and there was no way I could catch up to him. So I took the other hallway, out the doors to the back pathway, and took the stairs up the back and met him right by the elevators where he was just stepping out. We got the car loaded and he requested a morning alone to do all the things at Studios that the kids and I wouldn't do. I had tried to give him time the day before, but he didn't want to go back to the parks then...whatever, I want to do the railroad and that's one the kids will both do, so I'll take them and he can have his solo morning.

Our first stop was a bathroom...we asked a CM where the closest one was. She directed us to one, we went...it was locked. There was a little girl there, probably about 9...we offered her some ears and she shyly shook her head. So we went in search of another bathroom that was actually opened. We found one!! And now we headed back to the entrance for the train. We couldn't see a line at all at first, and when we got upstairs, the line didn't look that long. I figured we'd have to wait 15 to 20 minutes...I thought the trains at WDW went about every 15 minutes? And there was one JUST leaving when we got up there, so I figured another would be along soon. WRONG. They only go about every 30 minutes, but they can't put many people on them. So we ended up having to wait for 2 more trains and it was late, so we ended up waiting about an hour and a half when they had said 45 minutes to an hour.

On our way back from the bathrooms, we had found another girl who did not have Minnie ears, was not wearing an expensive dress indicative of her parents shelling out massive amounts of money for souvenirs, and no siblings to be jealous that she got something they didn't. So we asked the mother if it was ok, and offered the girl a pair of our homemade ears. And her eyes lit up...we let her choose which ones she wanted and she looked so happy...we felt good. One down, 2 more to go. As we moved through the line we saw a few more girls...most already had ears they had bought. We saw one girl and offered, but she said no. Then DD saw a girl with her dad. They were French and the girl didn't understand what DD was offering. She turned away and DD tried to get the dad's attention. When she finally did, he looked at us warily, turned away haughtily, and studiously ignored us. I guess they don't like pixie dust and free things? Ok...we'd wait. We found another girl and she also didn't understand DD, so we got the mother's attention and asked if her daughter would like some ears. "No...no ears." I think the girl would have taken them if the mother had not said no. I don't know if she thought we were trying to sell them or she just didn't trust strangers, or what. Ok....this was turning out harder than we expected. We finally did find 2 takers, but it took us a while and we hadn't expected that. We finally got on the train...it was kind of a disappointment. There's really not much to see. While WDW's train takes you around the outside of the park and you get to see parts of various attractions, DLP's version basically shows you one scene on each of the four legs of the trip. That's it. We waited in line for more than an hour to catch a 2 second glimpse of theming in four parts of the park?? We DID meet some nice people who got on the train at the Discoveryland stop. They were from the Florida Keys and they all had bright pink shirts that said "Magical Pride 2017". I complimented their shirts and we talked about the hurricane which had just recently hit the keys. After a completely pointless and disappointing train ride, we decided to do some shopping. I wanted to get a magnet for my niece and DD wanted to get an ornament or something to commemorate the trip. As we were looking for the shop where we had seen really pretty ornaments, we found a bakery with fudge and cupcakes.

Then we found a shop with a woman blowing glass, which DS found fascinating and he didn't want to leave.

She was really good about explaining everything she was doing...she was making wands for the Crystal shop in the Castle. We hung out there until DH was done in the studios and came to find us.

Songbird76 · Nov 1, 2017

Day 4 (continued...)

We never did find the ornaments we were looking for, but we did find the magnet and DD had wanted SOMETHING Lady and the Tramp, but they had very little in the shops. The only thing she found was a pin, which she thought was way too expensive and refused to even let me buy it for her. I didn't listen, as I also got a pin for DS, but she won't let me give it to her...I guess it will be a stocking stuffer at Christmas. DS's was neat...Part of his therapy has been filling out a "thermometer" to rate each day, so when I saw the pin from Inside out, I thought it was perfect. It's got a dial to turn and it says "Today, I'm feeling..." and you can set it to whichever character.
Having reunited with DH, we went to Casey's again so DD could get her hotdog with the cheese sauce and crispy onions. And for once, DS was ok with the fries somewhere other than McDonald's! We sent them to find a table and we got in line again, and we were smart...there was a line at the end where almost no one noticed there was a line, so we only had to wait for one couple to order and then it was our turn. We got our food and the kids still hadn't found a table...there were several people who were just parked at tables, who had obviously been there for a while...they had already eaten their food and their trays with empty containers were just sitting on the tables while they chattered. And there were several people looking for a place to sit. One woman and her child or maybe grandchild, had asked a CM to wipe down a table for her, and she very kindly asked us if we'd like to share her table, but DH said there was a group leaving and we could have their table....we just had to have the CM wipe it down because they had used it to change the baby's diaper. (EEEUUW. Do NOT change your baby on a surface where people eat. That's why they have changing stations in bathrooms!!) We ate and then DH was going to take DS on Buzz and let DD do Carrots again since he had had the whole morning to do his stuff. DD and I went to find a bathroom by Casey's and noticed there were a whole bunch of empty tables INSIDE. THAT would have been helpful to know. They are separate from the ordering area, so you can't see them from the actual restaurant. You have to go out of the ordering area and around the corner into the arcade. May you all learn from my mistakes! After our bathroom break, we decided to go back to the kiosk with the cookies, that didn't have change...I had enough for a cookie without having to break the 50, and since we had gotten our apples the day before, all we needed was the cookie to share.
So then we used our super secret pathway and headed to Carrots. We decided on a metal-head pose.

We no more got out of Carrots and DH apped me asking me to come take DS because he really wanted to do Hyperspace Mountain and DS didn't want to do ANYTHING except Buzz, for which they had a fast pass later. *sigh* Ok...so we head to rescue DH at Videopolis and we sat for about an hour while DH did HSM and I think Star Tours
.

Then he came back to take DS to their FP for Buzz. We decided to do another bathroom break before heading to the Crystal shop in the Castle...holy cow that line was LONG. It must have taken us 15 minutes to get through there. We went to the Castle where they finish off the wands made at the shop where we watched the woman making them. At the castle, they fill them with crystals and close them.

In case you have 15,000 Euros lying around:

The wands were actually a perfectly reasonable price at 40 Euros...you get to choose 3 different colors of crystals to put in it and they have a whole big thing around making the wand, kind of like picking an oyster at Japan in Epcot. We would have gotten one except that there's no way we could have gotten back home with it in one piece and as pretty as they are, you can't really do anything with them.
And then DH apped me that we should get going...we wanted to beat the parade. DD had a headache anyway, and we were ready to go, so we said goodbye to Disney and headed into Paris.
DS was suddenly feeling really sick for some reason, and the GPS sent us right through Paris rather than on the high way like DH had looked up. We had booked this particular hotel, even though reviews said it was not a good neighborhood and not to be out past dark, because it was an easy drive from Disney and you didn't have to actually enter the city. DH didn't realize all the highways are toll roads, which he had set the GPS to avoid. We finally made it, we check in, go up to the room...we're looking...wait, we booked a room with one double bed and 2 singles...this only has the one single with a pull out mattress. I go to check out the bathroom, open the door and OMG!! The smell about knocked me over...it was soooo bad. Musty, like mold. And now the whole room smelled like mold. Um no....not staying in that room. So DH went down and asked for a room change. They had obviously recently renovated the rooms and they put in those pre-fab bathrooms. Like...the toilet looked like it belonged in an airplane. It was completely separate from the bath and shower, which were also pre-fab. This one had a faint smell of paint and glue, but it was not NEARLY as bad as the room before. We ordered pizza, and DH forgot to order fries, so he ended up having to take DS to McDonald's which was only a 2 minute walk. We went to bed pretty early so we could get a decently early start in the morning to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. This was a last minute decision to add a day in Paris itself because the kids both really wanted to see the Eiffel Tower, and it wasn't that expensive to book a room for one night on the outskirts of the ring. I can't recommend the hotel (Novotel Montreuil vincennes)...it was ok for one night, but the shower was not well-designed. It had 2 glass doors that opened outward, and once opened them you couldn't get to your towel. There was only one hook for a towel, right by the sink and the towels were on a shelf under said sink, which was too far away to reach from the shower. There was also no rim around the shower, so the water all leaks out onto the floor around the shower. There was again, a lack of outlets....I don't know who is designing hotel rooms in Europe, but we had this problem in Dublin in September, at Disney, AND at this hotel...we have a 2 person bed and then beds for the kids, but for some reason, they only put an outlet on ONE side of the 2 person bed. And it's ALWAYS on Hubby's side. Which means that DH can plug in his phone or his laptop, but I can not. I have to plug mine in across the room somewhere....like the bathroom, or on hubby's side of the bed IF the power strip fits there, which it did not. At Disney, there was no outlet anywhere near the bed at all, on either side. But here, there was one spot on hubby's side and then one across the room next to DS's...so I had to plug my stuff in and have a cord running across the room. Not handy. And good thing we had the power strip so we COULD plug in all our phones and such. I would expect more than 2 outlets in a hotel room. I was wrong. So if you are traveling, bring a power strip and make sure it has a small plug. Also, the hotel elevator only works with a room key and they only gave us one, which meant we couldn't split up at all to load/unload the car. And there were 3 elevators, but only ONE goes down to the parking level...and it will fit 4 people, OR 2 people and 2 small suitcases. It will NOT fit the whole family and luggage, and you can't split up because you need the key card to work the elevator. And it really was in a less than lovely part of town. I wouldn't have wanted to spend more than one night there...and in hindsight I'm not sure I'd have wanted to spend ONE night there. If we hadn't been exhausted and just going straight to bed, it wouldn't have been doable. But for just a few hours to catch some sleep before we left to sight see a bit before our drive home, it was passable. I wouldn't say DON'T stay there under any circumstances, but I also wouldn't call it a great option. Staff was friendly, though. And thus ends the Disney portion of the trip. I'll post some random pictures I didn't get to when I'm done with the Paris part...won't take long as we didn't see much.

Figgy1 · Nov 1, 2017

Yup watching the glass demonstrations can be addictive and my dh said no to the pretty castle

Gabe1 · Nov 1, 2017

Duly noted. The French are known for awesome foods but that doesn't trickle into Disneyland-Paris I guess. I like the rules you have for you don't have to ride but we still will. I seem to remember your WDW trip report too with your Hubs abruptly changing plans too and getting upset during the trip. I admire your roll with it attitude. Sounds like you guys enjoyed your trip.

Hoping Paris was fun too.

Songbird76 · Nov 2, 2017

Gabe1 said:
Duly noted. The French are known for awesome foods but that doesn't trickle into Disneyland-Paris I guess. I like the rules you have for you don't have to ride but we still will. I seem to remember your WDW trip report too with your Hubs abruptly changing plans too and getting upset during the trip. I admire your roll with it attitude. Sounds like you guys enjoyed your trip.

Hoping Paris was fun too.

Well, I am a planner...Hubby is...not. And I am by no means a park commando. I just like to have a basic idea of where we're going to be, but I also kind of feel like since Disney is more my thing, I am willing to make a few sacrifices so that he has a great time and is more willing to go back. I have to say, it's a LOT easier at DLP. For one, it's a lot smaller...Hubby going to Studios while we went to the main park, we walked together until right before the entrance gates. You can walk between the 2 in just a couple of minutes. So when he was done at Studios, he could just hop over to us. At WDW, everything is so spread out and you have to take buses, or boats, or monorails....whatever is available and it takes a while and is crowded. For another thing, there's not nearly as much to do at DLP, so you don't have that rushed feeling like you need to pack everything in or you're going to miss something. And because the park is smaller, you can walk one end to the other pretty quickly when you see on the app that something else has a shorter wait time. It made it a lot easier to change plans if you noticed "Oh hey! Phantom manor is only a 10 minute wait and snow white is 20....ok, we'll do phantom manor then." In WDW, you have to do what's in the area or you have to walk so far to get to something else. This was just a lot less planning and a lot more go with the flow. It's amazing how 10 days in WDW didn't feel like enough, but 4 days in DLP felt like plenty. DD did Carrots 6 times. (5 with me, once with daddy) And yet we didn't feel like we MISSED anything...like we had to sacrifice other things to do Carrots. We still got to do pretty much everything we wanted to do. (I missed a few things at studios because the kids just weren't into it. But nothing that I was just dying to do....I don't feel like I missed anything huge. There's a LOT in WDW that I wanted to do and I wish we could have fit in....I figure when the kids are older, that will be easier. But for DLP, it wasn't an issue.

Songbird76 · Nov 2, 2017

Paris Day, October 21st

I don't actually have notes for this day....it wasn't a full day anyway. We got up and showered and went to McDonalds around the corner for breakfast. It was so weird...DD and I ordered hot chocolate with our breakfast. A guy comes out from the back, goes to a machine on the wall that's NOT behind the counter, and fills 2 cups with hot water. Then he takes them back to the kitchen area, sprays some whipped cream from a can into the water, and puts 2 little sachets of chocolate drink powder on the tray. The guy ordering next to us has also ordered hot chocolate and asks them to put the powder in BEFORE putting in the whipped cream and they seemed to think this was an odd request. Is that a French thing? I was watching him put the whipped cream on ours and thinking...wait...why didn't he put the chocolate in first. But that's apparently how they do it there? (French McDonalds also do not have milkshakes.) It was interesting to see the differences in McDonalds in different countries...the milkshakes in the US come in a pretty, clear container with whipped cream and a cherry on top...it looks fancy. In the Netherlands, they are just the standard soft serve and flavoring in a paper cup with a plastic lid. France didn't even have them, and Belgium did not have chocolate. Only vanilla, strawberry, and banana. The Netherlands serve breakfast until 11:00, but you can also get the full menu, not just breakfast. In France, they did not offer the full menu in the morning, but their breakfast menu was a bit broader....more selection. Anyway...so we had our breakfast and then we checked out and loaded the car...made a bit more difficult by the fact that you need the key card for the elevator. Again, DH took off without me, but this time there was no short cut...I had to wait until he came back up because he had the key card. Then we walked to the Metro station about 10 minutes away and bought 1 day tickets that were supposedly valid in zones 1 and 2 for the whole day. We were on our way.

First stop, the Louvre...just to see the outside. This is in the Metro station.

Then on to the outside.

DD was trying really hard to photobomb.

If you look closely, in the distance is the Arc de Triomphe. We didn't actually go up to it because DS was hungry. He hadn't eaten breakfast because they don't serve their full menu and he won't eat a breakfast sandwich. So we had to wait until they started serving chicken nuggets. So we ended up skipping Arc de Triomphe close up.

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Another photo bomb, this time at Place de la concorde, the site of Marie Antoinette's beheading, where now stands a fountain instead of a guillotine. We couldn't see the Conciergerie from here, where Marie Antoinette spent her final days in prison. We'll have to go back sometime and see everything properly. DD was really interested in the history of it all, having studied revolutions last year in school, including the French Revolution.

Songbird76 · Nov 2, 2017

Paris (continued...)

We found the closest metro and took it to a McDonald's...I'm sure there must have been one closer, but this was the one that came up in the google search. It was the McDonald's where everything was broken. DD wanted Orange Juice...their juice machine was broken. She doesn't like carbonated drinks very much...won't drink coke, or sprite...she loves rootbeer, but they don't have that in Europe. And with no milkshakes, she opted not to get anything. I was still full from breakfast, so I just got a drink. The seating was upstairs and the bathroom was in the basement. The Elevator was broken...there were men there fixing it at that moment. I go downstairs to use the bathroom...there is only one...it is unisex and it has 2 stalls. In one, there was no toilet seat. In the other, the door would not close...I had to hold it closed with my foot.
We went back to the Metro station and tried to enter...it denied our cards. They were supposed to be valid the whole day. There was no one in the office to help us. But there was an intercom to buzz for help. We buzz, explain we have tickets but it won't let us through...the person mutters something unintelligible...and nothing happens. We figure she's sending someone to fix it. No one shows up. A couple with a small child in a stroller comes through...they can't go through the turnstyles, so they buzz the intercom to ask them to open the wheelchair gate....nothing happens. So the mom goes through, the dad passes the stroller under the turnstyle to her and then he goes through himself. They tried to hold the port open for us, but the turnstyles wouldn't work. We tried the intercom again...different person, also unintelligible, also does nothing. So when someone came out the exit, we dove for the gate and went through it. DD really had a hard time with this...she felt very dishonest and was scared we were going to get in trouble. We explained, we HAVE valid tickets...it's not our fault that the machines aren't working. There is no one to help us, so we just have to do what we can. So we get on the train and we step off, and as we are exiting, there are 2 conductor/policemen there checking everyone's tickets. Whether they were called there with reports of people entering without tickets or not, who knows. But obviously they looked at our tickets, which were supposed to be valid and they waived us on through. I think the sight of these officials scared DD half to death and she was really subdued and emotional and didn't want to do anything anymore, but wouldn't tell us what was wrong. We walked to the Eiffel tower and there were people everywhere selling the knock off touristy stuff like keychains. We told the kids to stay by us, and we watched one guy run off to hide his bag. DH explained to the kids why they had these blankets with the stuff on them...that they weren't actually allowed to be there, so if the police came, they could just grab up their stuff in the blanket and leave quickly. DD was truly scared by this time...Paris is huge, and she is not used to city life. She was still feeling guilty about entering the wrong way to the Metro. We sat down outside of the Eiffel Tower and I talked to her a bit and she finally felt better. We headed to Trocadero where we could get pictures of the Eiffel Tower.
We crossed the street and there was this carousel

DS was complaining about wanting to sit again, so I took DD up the hill and DH stayed with DS and they would catch up.

And then the boys made it up.

And we headed for a Metro station. DS was about done...he was tired of walking. But he also hated the Metro. He was so scared he was going to fall...they were all so full there was no place to sit. DD had been so sweet the whole day, standing behind him with her arms around him holding the pole. The original plan was to take the Metro a few stops further and transfer, go to Notre Dame to take a few pictures outside, and then head back to the hotel where the car was parked and go home. The line we were on was the one that we would need after Notre Dame to get back to the car. And DD said she really didn't want to go to Notre Dame anymore...she really just wanted to go home. We had actually managed to get the kids a place to sit on the Metro this time, so we decided to just take it all the way up to our original starting point...with the added benefit that we didn't have to deal with the cards not working AGAIN. At least when they didn't work AFTER the Eiffel Tower, there was someone in the office to buzz us through when we showed our valid tickets. And so ended our day in Paris. So we got back in the car and we weren't far out of Paris when we went by this:

I believe that the sign said Ville Saint Denis, but I didn't have time to take a picture of the sign. I just thought it was pretty, so I took a picture and figured I'd look it up later...which I still need to do.
And the back part

And then we went home. We got home just before midnight and we all turned back into pumpkins.

Thanks for riding with us. We hope you enjoyed your backseat travels. We'll post random photos tomorrow that we didn't get to in this report. Until next time, have a magical day!

Figgy1 · Nov 2, 2017

Songbird76 said:
Paris (continued...)

We found the closest metro and took it to a McDonald's...I'm sure there must have been one closer, but this was the one that came up in the google search. It was the McDonald's where everything was broken. DD wanted Orange Juice...their juice machine was broken. She doesn't like carbonated drinks very much...won't drink coke, or sprite...she loves rootbeer, but they don't have that in Europe. And with no milkshakes, she opted not to get anything. I was still full from breakfast, so I just got a drink. The seating was upstairs and the bathroom was in the basement. The Elevator was broken...there were men there fixing it at that moment. I go downstairs to use the bathroom...there is only one...it is unisex and it has 2 stalls. In one, there was no toilet seat. In the other, the door would not close...I had to hold it closed with my foot.
We went back to the Metro station and tried to enter...it denied our cards. They were supposed to be valid the whole day. There was no one in the office to help us. But there was an intercom to buzz for help. We buzz, explain we have tickets but it won't let us through...the person mutters something unintelligible...and nothing happens. We figure she's sending someone to fix it. No one shows up. A couple with a small child in a stroller comes through...they can't go through the turnstyles, so they buzz the intercom to ask them to open the wheelchair gate....nothing happens. So the mom goes through, the dad passes the stroller under the turnstyle to her and then he goes through himself. They tried to hold the port open for us, but the turnstyles wouldn't work. We tried the intercom again...different person, also unintelligible, also does nothing. So when someone came out the exit, we dove for the gate and went through it. DD really had a hard time with this...she felt very dishonest and was scared we were going to get in trouble. We explained, we HAVE valid tickets...it's not our fault that the machines aren't working. There is no one to help us, so we just have to do what we can. So we get on the train and we step off, and as we are exiting, there are 2 conductor/policemen there checking everyone's tickets. Whether they were called there with reports of people entering without tickets or not, who knows. But obviously they looked at our tickets, which were supposed to be valid and they waived us on through. I think the sight of these officials scared DD half to death and she was really subdued and emotional and didn't want to do anything anymore, but wouldn't tell us what was wrong. We walked to the Eiffel tower and there were people everywhere selling the knock off touristy stuff like keychains. We told the kids to stay by us, and we watched one guy run off to hide his bag. DH explained to the kids why they had these blankets with the stuff on them...that they weren't actually allowed to be there, so if the police came, they could just grab up their stuff in the blanket and leave quickly. DD was truly scared by this time...Paris is huge, and she is not used to city life. She was still feeling guilty about entering the wrong way to the Metro. We sat down outside of the Eiffel Tower and I talked to her a bit and she finally felt better. We headed to Trocadero where we could get pictures of the Eiffel Tower.
We crossed the street and there was this carousel
View attachment 241230

DS was complaining about wanting to sit again, so I took DD up the hill and DH stayed with DS and they would catch up.
View attachment 241232
View attachment 241233
And then the boys made it up.
View attachment 241234
And we headed for a Metro station. DS was about done...he was tired of walking. But he also hated the Metro. He was so scared he was going to fall...they were all so full there was no place to sit. DD had been so sweet the whole day, standing behind him with her arms around him holding the pole. The original plan was to take the Metro a few stops further and transfer, go to Notre Dame to take a few pictures outside, and then head back to the hotel where the car was parked and go home. The line we were on was the one that we would need after Notre Dame to get back to the car. And DD said she really didn't want to go to Notre Dame anymore...she really just wanted to go home. We had actually managed to get the kids a place to sit on the Metro this time, so we decided to just take it all the way up to our original starting point...with the added benefit that we didn't have to deal with the cards not working AGAIN. At least when they didn't work AFTER the Eiffel Tower, there was someone in the office to buzz us through when we showed our valid tickets. And so ended our day in Paris. So we got back in the car and we weren't far out of Paris when we went by this:

View attachment 241235

I believe that the sign said Ville Saint Denis, but I didn't have time to take a picture of the sign. I just thought it was pretty, so I took a picture and figured I'd look it up later...which I still need to do.
And the back part
View attachment 241236

And then we went home. We got home just before midnight and we all turned back into pumpkins.

Thanks for riding with us. We hope you enjoyed your backseat travels. We'll post random photos tomorrow that we didn't get to in this report. Until next time, have a magical day!

THNX for sharing.

amjt660 · Nov 2, 2017

Thank you for sharing this DLP adventure with us.

It is great to see reports from different Disney parks

(insert shameless plug for my upcoming Hong Kong Disney TR here)

Max

MinnieM123 · Nov 2, 2017

This was a pleasant TR. Actually all TRs are interesting, because everyone has their own perspective on a vacation. By the way, I like how you and your daughter have matching jackets--very cute!

Regarding the earlier part of your report about trying to give out Minnie/Mickey ears to kids, I can understand that some cultures are more reserved and might not quite "get" the fun and sentiment of it all. I thought it was very nice of you to offer them to kids, regardless. (If you were at WDW and offered them, I'm sure you'd have people who'd be excited to receive them. :cat:

ajrwdwgirl · Nov 2, 2017

Thanks for the report. It was fun reading about your DLP and Paris adventure! Do you think you will go back anytime soon to DLP?

Gabe1 · Nov 4, 2017

Songbird76 said:
Well, I am a planner...Hubby is...not. And I am by no means a park commando. I just like to have a basic idea of where we're going to be, but I also kind of feel like since Disney is more my thing, I am willing to make a few sacrifices so that he has a great time and is more willing to go back. I have to say, it's a LOT easier at DLP. For one, it's a lot smaller...Hubby going to Studios while we went to the main park, we walked together until right before the entrance gates. You can walk between the 2 in just a couple of minutes. So when he was done at Studios, he could just hop over to us. At WDW, everything is so spread out and you have to take buses, or boats, or monorails....whatever is available and it takes a while and is crowded. For another thing, there's not nearly as much to do at DLP, so you don't have that rushed feeling like you need to pack everything in or you're going to miss something. And because the park is smaller, you can walk one end to the other pretty quickly when you see on the app that something else has a shorter wait time. It made it a lot easier to change plans if you noticed "Oh hey! Phantom manor is only a 10 minute wait and snow white is 20....ok, we'll do phantom manor then." In WDW, you have to do what's in the area or you have to walk so far to get to something else. This was just a lot less planning and a lot more go with the flow. It's amazing how 10 days in WDW didn't feel like enough, but 4 days in DLP felt like plenty. DD did Carrots 6 times. (5 with me, once with daddy) And yet we didn't feel like we MISSED anything...like we had to sacrifice other things to do Carrots. We still got to do pretty much everything we wanted to do. (I missed a few things at studios because the kids just weren't into it. But nothing that I was just dying to do....I don't feel like I missed anything huge. There's a LOT in WDW that I wanted to do and I wish we could have fit in....I figure when the kids are older, that will be easier. But for DLP, it wasn't an issue.

Both Universal Florida and Disneyland Cali are designed better. I understand what Walt was thinking with the vast amount of land he purchased over the small plot of Disneyland. But the overall ridiculous amount of miles between attractions is hurting Disney World commuting wise. So much wasted time, so expensive to transport guests, failing transportation.

I understand budgets but they just need to try and stop consolidating and running fewer buses and boat and just accept they need to be more efficient. The vary cost per room justifies a boat captain or a bus drivers cost given the amount of rooms per resort. Bean Counters.

Songbird76 · Nov 21, 2017

ajrwdwgirl said:
Thanks for the report. It was fun reading about your DLP and Paris adventure! Do you think you will go back anytime soon to DLP?

Soon? I doubt it...I really want to go back to WDW, but we'll see. My best friend is talking about coming to Europe in 2019 and we thought it might be fun to do DLP together. But that was also the year I was planning to go back to WDW...DH wants to wait until like 2022...I told him no way I'm waiting that long!!

fractal · Nov 21, 2017

wouldn't think trying to get rid of Mickey ears in a Disney park would be so difficult!

thanks for the report!

Trip Report Disneyland Paris, for the first time in forever

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