A Little Disney Magic

Disneyland Paris (Parc Disneyland) is where we're spending Wednesday and Thursday, 4/9 and 4/10.  It's about an hour east of our apartment in Paris and we passed through a lot of French hinterlands on the RER, the French railroad that brought us here from Paris.  Although it is only about 20 miles east of Paris' "outerbelt", it took nearly an hour overall from when we left our apartment, boarded the metro, changed trains to the RER and arrived.

Open since 1992, it is the second Disney park outside the US and was preceded by the one in Tokyo which opened in 1983.   We had been telling the girls that we were taking them to the spoon museum, even up to the point of sitting in the hotel lobby (Relais Spa) awaiting our transport to the park this morning.  In fact, Dave was spinning a fanciful tale about being able to swim in a bowl of milk after sliding down a giant spoon and the girls were genuinely excited.  When Cheryl and Jenny walked around the corner from the bathroom with mouse ears on and they understood where they truly were, the excitement went to a new level.

We got there about noon and found our way to meet with one of Ashley Cole's associates, George, who promptly guided us into the park.  There are two parks, side by side, and we chose the smaller one for starters, the one that had more rides attached to movies and TV shows with which the girls would be more familiar.  We started with the most complex ride of the day - Spiderman - and waited about 40 minutes to board cars that allowed us, through 3D glasses, to sling webs from our hands at mutant spider targets.  

It was fun but, once again, I found myself really tired and cranky after standing in a hot, loud, concrete enclosed set of queues for too long for the limited satisfaction of the "ride".  I sat the next one out and, after that, it was one after another - kiddy rides that they loved - as I got my second wind for the rest of the afternoon.  

We had dinner and then Cheryl and I went back to check into our hotel and the kids followed soon after.  They have a connecting room while we are a few doors down the same hallway in this relatively new, nice hotel recommended to us by niece Ashley as it is where she stays when she's here on business as an Imagineer for Disney.

No matter how many times you visit a Disney property, I'm always impressed.  First, it is spotless.  Second, most of the workers here are at least bilingual.  We're lucky in the US if they can speak English relatively well.  And, finally, there is something just magic about the whole Disney experience and it shines through.  Walt would be really proud of the monstrous machine that he created that has children of all ages, wearing costumes, screaming for more.

Our hotel has a pool so the girls get to swim between 10 - 12 p.m. tomorrow before a return to the park for Round 2.  We're staying over again tomorrow night and then up on Friday morning for our return to our lovely Paris apartment.

Until tomorrow, Bon Soir!