Trip Report Our French chansons and a couple of hiccups trip report to Disneyland Paris

Good morning/day/evening everyone! I know most of the TR’s that appear on this forum are mainly written after a magical trip to The World but this is one from his smaller little ( European) brother, Disneyland Paris. Yep that’s right, a TR from DLRP! First off, you might need a short introduction from my travelling party and myself.

So without further due, my name is Laurence ( 24 yo) and the one who insists on yearly trips to DLRP
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. And I am travelling with my sister, Alix ( 21 yo) and the person who’s bankrolling this all, my Daddy, Dominique (age unknown : Top secret :D)
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Oh yes, our names might give the slight impression that we are from France but don’t be mistaken, we come from the lovely country full of beer, fries and chocolate, Belgium! One word: DELICIOUS ;-) ! As said in my PTR we are staying there on the 3th and 4th of February.

How do we start this TR? Oh yes, because we live relatively close to Disneyland Paris, my dad opts to drive to Disneyland. When we left our hometown (small village, nothing to see, seriously!) it was around 8 AM (I am, at this point, fully awake and super excited. My sister could, at this time of day, pass for a very good version of “Sleepy”. So to battle the sleepy mode, Alix got out her old Gameboy!
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Don’t know where she got that idea but we’ve been playing on the N64 since a couple of days ( yes we get a bit nostalgic during the holidays :D)

We always tend to arrive around noon so we (hopefully) don’t need to wait until we can drop our bags in the hotel room. The ride was uneventful but we had a good laugh during our short stop.
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My sister decided not to stretch her legs and dad gave her the keys to lock herself in ( don’t know why but Alix felt unsafe..) and when we headed into the rest stop my dad told me “I don’t know if Alix realizes that when she moves, the car alarm will go off.” I laughed at the real probability... and we were right! When we came back she told my dad “Oh god, the alarm went off!”... Haha the look on her face was priceless!

Oho, 31 more km and we were officially there !
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We only live 4 hours away from Paris but oh we got there in 3,5 hours.. (I wasn’t driving! Don’t blame me..). We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel for two days. Regular room, no Castleclub level (what a shame, I rooted for it but it’s just a tad bit too pricy .. even at the lowest season). Castle Club could be compared, I guess, with the Concierge Level of a WDW hotel? In Paris it comes with a separate check-in, a separate elevator to the CC level (elevator is right next to the entrance gates of the Disneyland park and only accessible with your CC hotel room keycard). Anyway I couldn’t care less if it was Castle Club or a regular room, I’m back in my happy place for the next 2 days !

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So while my dad and sister were checking in, I was playing the ultimate tourist: taking pictures like it would be my last ones (mental note: this is my last trip in February... I start working next year in the Audit department of EY and February is known as a busy season.. snif snif ).

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So, I don’t know how many people here ever experienced the Disneyland Hotel but that smell... HOLY MOTHER, I am truly HOME ! It’s their home perfume and it just smells lovely ( Reminder : get yourself a d*mn bottle Laurence so you can have it at your dorm room)!
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So by the time I’ve shot some pictures ( and shed some tears.. baby Laurence), we have the permission to access our room.
We were situated at the WEST wing on the 1st floor, room no. 3124. Normally the rooms aren’t ready until 3 PM but February is known as a very low season so this checks out quite well.
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More coming right up :)
 
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Laurenciaa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I’m not gonna say much about the room but the pictures will suffice. Honest opinion: while the hotel is super lovely; the rooms are a tad bit outdated but that won’t rain on my parade... no no no ! I mostly love the bathroom of the room ( double sinks, ohh yeah!). I only shot a picture of my dad’s bed because our bed was full of bags!
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Since this year H20+ is a new partner of Disneyland Paris. I've seen those in some DCL/WDW TR right?!

This was our view. I know on the 2nd floor the view would have been better but it’s better than a parking view! On the left you can see the exits barriers of the Disneyland Park . You can also use them as an enter way when you come back to the park for the second time that day, aka we were close to the magic !
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I don’t do the effort of unpacking; I just get my toiletries out of the bag and put them in the bathroom. It is only 2 days :(. So when that was done, my dad, sis and I were ready to hit the Parks !

Here’s a view from the passage between the Main Building and the Wing were we were staying. You are not seeing the entrance of the Disney Park but the area between the Disney Park, The Disney Village and the DHS. I couldn't take a picture of the other side because they stained the glasses so that we couldn't see the refurbs going on underneath the passage.
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First destination: Disneyland Park! Oh the feeling of sliding your card through the machine and how it says “Oewelcome” instead of Welcome.. makes me laugh very hard and a smile from ear to ear appeared on my face when I saw the entrance to Mainstreet USA. The fact that I was laughing so hard was that my dad, who has a very ( very) deep voice, said the Oewelcome in his own voice.. Hilarious!I should have made a recording of that but you would only hear me and Alix laughing :D!

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This is my Dad walking up to the entrance gates.. ( hahahah still chuckling when I think about it ! )Oh god, we were off to a very good start!
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Hello, low crowds.. We like this !

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The real adventure will continue in a next post but that will be for later on the day :) Right now I'm stressing a bit for my exam results !
 
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Laurenciaa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our family is one that sticks to a certain routine and this time it wasn't different. We usually leave Mainstreet fairly early to make a short-cut to Frontierland.( I know we don’t visit the chateau first.. shame on us). But first a small impression of the City Hall and the Liberty Arcade, the Arcade on the left side of Mainstreet.
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I really like this Arcade. All the lights were on and it's a good cut off to avoid the crowds on Mainstreet

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A couple of zig-zags later ( and a swift view of Pooh) and we were standing in front of the Phantom Manor

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The PM looks, personally, a lotmore creepy than the WDW-version I've seen on pictures.. Or maybe it's because some clouds were packing up above the PM :D !

The main reason why we go to Disneyland in February is because of the extremely low crowds. Plus my dad tries to pick dates when a very limited amount of people are on vacation. We have a week off after our exam period which is 3 weeks prior to the national winter holidays ( Vacances de Ski, like my mother/French calls them). This means: max queue = 5 min. Houray!

Back to the Manor, while the outside queue is a bit boring (nothing to see here), the pre-attraction story isn’t. Little family picture in front of the entrance of the PM.
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More in following post(s)
 

Laurenciaa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So my exam results are unfashionably late, I will keep myself busy by posting some more on this TR :)

[edit : I finally got my results ! I passed all three exams.. HOURAYY !]

... Ah the Phantom Manor!

You first enter a room where the story of Melanie Ravenswood is told. After ending at a surprisingly lower level that we first started, we proceed to our “Doom Buggies”.
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I sat alone on this one, oh don’t mind me, I took some pictures along the road. They were crappy! Didn’t figure out quite right what the best mode is to shoot in a “fast” doom-buggie!
I don’t know if the story is the same as in the other parks but it basically tells the story Of Melanie Ravenswood who is about to get hitched with a fine lad from the Thunder Mesa but her Dad doesn't approve. Since then she roams the haunted house waiting for her fiancé to return.

After that we proceeded to Big Thunder Mountain. While waiting for the Phantom Manor, we saw a train of the BTM hanging on a slope...
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That is never a good omen and what we thought was right! The BTM broke down a half hour ago and they didn't know when it would start-up again.

So I took some pictures from the lovely surroundings in Frontierland. Good temporary compromise, non?
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"Allemaal glimlachen,schatjes " aka in English : Smile please my darlings :)

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Now we normally walk up to the Indiana Jones roller coaster but it’s undergoing a massive refurb. What a shame, my dad likes this one! A short/powerful looping and a bit rough around the edges.. Hey, what did you expect? It’s Indiana Jones! Sadly no pictures.
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So we wandered around a bit and decided to take a look around the “Cabane des Robinson”.
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We always tend to skip the labyrinth-style caves around it but we decided we took a look. Wow! Even after more than 15 visits, we never noticed this waterfall and hidden treasure! We almost got “ambushed” by the many,many little paths !

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My dad was still astonished that he always missed this waterfall during our previous trips !

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... more to follow, if I don't bore to many people with my DLRP TR off course :)
 

Laurenciaa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After reminiscing on how good it felt to be back, we headed over to the Pirates of the Caribbean. Oh hello le Chateau !
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Oh man, I love this one! The boats, the life of a pirate, Arrrrr ! Again no queue and we were seated in a boat not 3 minutes later.Here are some pictures I tried to take. I have a new camera and I still need to figure out how to handle the different options.
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Adjoin to the PotC is the Blue Lagoon Restaurant. I ate there a couple of years ago and it wasn’t bad plus you literally sit next to the attraction!
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Blurry view of the Blue Lagoon from our boat! D*mn there were some fine dishes on the card. We were already getting hungry.. :)
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Yes, we rode PotC again. We just stayed seated and enjoyed the ride ( again). New since this year ( or better said since we were there in febr 2013) is a photo location. It’s taken during the last drop. Alix and I looked thrilled, my dad wasn’t! Haha he just didn’t know when to smile ;)

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next up : Fantasyland !
 
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Laurenciaa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
For now we left Frontierland behind us (Dad already hinted he might want to ride BTM at nightfall, fine by me ! ). So we headed to Fantasyland, for me the heart of Disneyland. Oh the music, the rides,.. you know :) !
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We first headed over to Peter Pan . Only a 5 minute wait : oh we love the low season! While waiting in the queue, which is mostly outside and windy, I took some pictures of the lovely surroundings. Here you see the mickey Mouse meeting place ( no matter how low the crowds, a whopping 60 minute wait is no exception) and the start of the Peter Pan ride.
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I really like this scene in the movie when they fly over London plus the music in the film is just wonderful. I tried to take some pictures of this ride but it goes so fast that most of them are super blurry .

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After this we went over to Alice’s’ Curious Labyrinth ! I like this one but I already know which path to follow ;). So no problems for us!
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The eyes were rolling but obviously that is not visible on a picture :)

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Laurenciaa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Good day everyone ! Another day, some more TR'ing !

So, where were we? oh yes, we were paying Alice a visite :)

Oh hello Alix and Laurence, what a coincidence to meet you here

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Next up was IASM. My dad and sister hate this attraction! But it was my trip so I won this argument! Another walk-on. I had to stop a couple of times to take some pictures.

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After we rocked a solid 6 minutes through several different countries we stayed for another round. Heck why not? I love the song IASM plays so I wasn’t unhappy to stay put.

Further we proceeded to Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups. I like this ride but I always feel a bit dizzy when we exit the ride. You can see, on the right, that there was no waiting line at all. What I love here in DLRP are the topiaries. There are two topiaries around the Mad Hatter’s that are a picture worthy! Later on this TR there will be another one in front of the Disneyland Park.

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[...]
 

Laurenciaa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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After our tour around Fantasyland it was time for a bite to eat! We headed over to Bella Note to have a quick lunch. We shared two pizza’s ( a normal one and a trois fromages) for the three of us. Sorry no pictures here, I love to eat but I don’t have the patience to first take a picture of my food.. Oups ! Sorry guys !

The only picture I took here was one from the décor. It was quite calm when we ordered. Only a third of the cash registers were open. Enough said about the very low crowds but we generally waited longer for food than for rides.

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After this Italian deliciousness ( seriously a good fast food pizza), we headed over to Discoveryland. No no no, not The Space Mountain yes but we first made an appearance at Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast.

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I knew from a fact that my dad will win this one. And my guess was right. He destroyed me and my sister! I got a moderate 26500 but Dad crushes us with a very nice 135700... I don’t know why but I always feel like I’m aiming at the targets but never hit them. Oh well it was probably my blaster or something besides my very bad shooting skills ;) !

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After that we headed to Space Mountain. YES YES YES ! I am quite a fan of rollercoasters so I already felt my adrenaline boost coming up. Needlessly to say, we didn’t use any FP’s during this trip. We got 3 complementary FP’s for each day ( from the Hotel) but never used them.

I don’t know how the ride in WDW goes but SM in DLRP makes a nice looping during the ride. One downside: it’s a very rocky ride. My head literally bangs from one side to the other between the headrests. Obviously no pictures from the inside but here are some from the outside of SM.

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[... ]
 

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FlaggNL

Well-Known Member
So my exam results are unfashionably late, I will keep myself busy by posting some more on this TR :)

[edit : I finally got my results ! I passed all three exams.. HOURAYY !]
... more to follow, if I don't bore to many people with my DLRP TR off course :)

hej great to see your report ;) Congrats with the exams!! Gefelicteerd ;) And DLP is never boring, only so different from WDW. And when reading your TR, wanna go back LOL But that ain't gonna happen before we go to WDW in October!!

But please continue!!!
 

FlaggNL

Well-Known Member
Good day everyone ! Another day, some more TR'ing !

So, where were we? oh yes, we were paying Alice a visite :)

Oh hello Alix and Laurence, what a coincidence to meet you here

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Next up was IASM. My dad and sister hate this attraction! But it was my trip so I won this argument! Another walk-on. I had to stop a couple of times to take some pictures.

Hej again, is it a Belgium and Dutch issue :) I personally do not like IASM as well... :)
 

Laurenciaa

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sorry for the short intermezzo, I will continue further in our Disney adventure :)

It is around 5 o’ clock and we still have two hours before the Disney Park closes. We debated to head over to DHS but then again we didn’t had a chance to ride the BTM yet! So we went over back to Mainstreet to check the general queue times. BTM had a 15 min wait.. wait what? 15 min? Impossible! Okay that was Laurence, the occasional drama lama speaking.

But first, we made a short detour to the hotel because I forgot my asthma puff and I felt a bit short of breath.. urgh perfect timing :( !So after my quick trip to the hotel, we wandered around a bit more in the Lobby. My dad turned the camera upon the decor/us and took some pictures.

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Oh don’t we look lovely.. AHUM AHUM. Don’t know what was so funny on that screen but I guess it was the menu from the Manhattan Restaurant at the New York Hotel. More on that later on !

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After our little hotel-intermezzo, we walked back to Frontierland and a load of people were heading out. The parade just ended and a lot of Guests were heading to DHS for the last hour of DHS. We on the other hand were on a mission, a BTM mission!

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This is the back of the Disneyland Hotel. The big windows in the middle are the "Mainstreet USA lounge" where you can eat your breakfast in the morning. Absolutely stunning views from there !

Oh bonjour!

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Little pose before we head over to the BTM queue :)

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Oh as you already might have noticed. We aren’t the biggest parade fans. Officially no pictures were taken from the parade on this trip!

So the BTM !This is our favorite attraction since we came here in the beginning. Enough speed to scream and still enjoyable for some views around the lake.

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Say Cheese! Okay the first try-out of a selfie with my new camera turned out quite dorky. Alix and I look like two losers who looked up just when the timer went off.. take two will be better later on. As you can see on the photo from Disney, I was at that time filming the BTM ! I will try to post that video if possible ( I am a youtube/technology klutz so don’t expect to much)

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