A Scrap of Life: Magic & Mickey

Wow, what a day! We started out bright and early because we have extra magic hours. This entitles Disneyland Paris hotel guest to an hour of time in the parks in the morning and is one of the biggest perks to staying onsite. We had a great breakfast at the hotel before heading to see Disneyland Paris for the first time.

The entry gate to Disneyland Paris is unlike the US parks, in that it is actually underneath the Disneyland Hotel. Very interesting setup. We took some pictures then entered the park.

We entered Main Street and it looked familiar - a similar setup to what we have in the US parks.

But once I looked down Main Street I saw the castle and was astounded. It’s tall and narrow and a pepto-like shade of pink. It wasn’t that busy, so of course we had to take some photos. 🙂

Then we headed into Fantasyland for rope drop. It’s a tradition for our family to rope drop Peter Pan. This means we enter the park early and wait at the rope they hold at the front of the park. When the rope drops we power walk it to Peter Pan. It’s something we’ve done most of our trips with the kids and Brian and I have continued to do it on our trips. Well the Disneyland Paris experience was very different. First off, there’s no rope, just a cast member standing there asking you to wait. Thankfully we had a beautiful view of the carousel and got to listen to the carousel music while we waited.

And then at rope drop here everyone scatters, whereas in the US parks Peter Pan is a big morning draw. So Brian and I hightailed it over there and were the first on the ride this morning.

Next up came as a surprise to me - Brian offered to ride Dumbo with me. We have been married 25 years and he has never ridden Dumbo, not even on our honeymoon (which we spent at Disneyland)! He says the spinning makes him sick. Well, he managed it just fine! I let him fly us and I just rode along and took photos.

Our next Ride was Hyperspace Mountain over in Discoveryland, DLP’s version of Tomorrowland. It’s all steampunk themed and looked super unique. You know what else is unique - this ride! Not only does it have a launch off but it has an inversion and a corkscrew. Plus it’s Star Wars themed, which made me think of my fellow Disney-loving (and Star Wars nerd) friends Jason and Jason. They would have loved this! It’s fast and smooth and AMAZING! Elsewhere, Space Mountain is take-it-or-leave-it for me, but this version changed my mind. It’s so good and was my favorite ride of the day.

We still had plenty of our magic hour time left so we trekked over to Frontierland for Big Thunder. This one is neat because the ride goes under the water and then comes out to run on a patch of island. Pretty cool.

Nearby was the DLP version of Haunted Mansion, called Phantom Manor. It was in the Frontierland area, which was confusing until we realized the entire thing is western themed! Yes, the ride about ghosts has a old town, shoot-em-up, western feel to it. It was a shift for us and we will have to go visit it again before we can give an opinion on it.

It was quarter to 10 by now and the park was opening soon so we hustled over to the Indy ride while also trying grab a character meet and greet spot through Lineberty, an app DLP uses to schedule meet times. So when I put the phone away and looked up at Indy I was a bit confused. This was not the Indy I know! Thankfully, it was a quick ride on a tight coaster. I walked off it with a small head ache from the number of times I smacked my head during the ride.

After Indy we kept walking until we ran into Skull Island. It looks super cool but that is not where we were headed - Pirates of the Caribbean was. This one is a Paris bummer. Slow going and not exciting or different.

By now the park has opened. If you’re keeping track you will see we did 6 major rides in the magic hour. This is why we are up and at ‘em every morning at Disney - you can get so much done before the hoards descend.

Up next is my favorite part of visiting Disney - meeting Mickey. We waited in line here at Mickey’s house for 45 minutes because it was important we meet him. It didn’t disappoint!

Afterwards we went to It’s a Small World. This one has a very cool boat at the entry and a unique look to it. Because the French weather is often more wet than California or Florida, the outside boat path is covered. This makes it hard to get a photo of the facade but you can catch some glimpses in my photos. The most unique part of the ride was it’s American section, which included an old time farmer type scene and some sports players.

DLP does this interesting thing called Lineberty. You use an app to get a spot in line to meet a character. We chose Mickey and friends and ended up with Mickey again. This was in the studios park next door and afterwards had some lunch.

On our way back into Disneyland I showed Brian what I think is one of the most ingenious design ideas - behind the shops on Main Street there is another corridor that is a covered walkway. They open up in the back side of the shop so you can use these corridors to stay dry during the day or make a easy exit after the fireworks.

We walked by the castle and grabbed more pictures. As you can see the blue skies were gone. It sprinkled on and off for the next few hours.

Another unique thing about DLP is it’s dragon. Under the castle there is a large green dragon that moves and roars and breathes smoke. It was pretty cool.

The lines were getting busy by now but we happened to walk by Hyperspace Mountain just as it was opening back from a temporary closure so we jumped in line and were on the ride within a few minutes.

When we stopped at Hyperspace Mountain we were actually on our way to Philharmagic. We love this show but it was interesting to hear it mainly in French!

Up next was another unique piece of DLP - Alice’s Curious Labyrinth. This is an old fashioned hedge maze but every once in a while you come upon characters from the movie. I loved it! We walked for a while and thought it was a really unique activity while still incorporating so much Disney.

We had walked almost 10 miles already so returned to our room mid afternoon for a rest. We grabbed churros on the way back and they were so good! They even had Nutella to dip them in. Yummy!

Brian ran down to the hot tub but I hadn’t brought a suit so I just hung around the room and put my feet up. I also charged my phone, as I know the evening would bring tons of photos!

On our way back to the parks we had dinner at Annette’s Diner. Of course, we had to eat here! We got shakes with our dinner. They were pretty but more like flavored milk than a shake. My meal was the winner here - rustic bread with Parmesan on the outside and a cheeseburger on the inside. It was so good!

It was now 6:50 and we walked into DLP just about half an hour before the fireworks started. In either US park you would be hard pressed to get anywhere near the front that late. We had no problem getting mid-hub and could have gotten even closer. The fireworks here are called Illuminations (like the now-defunct EPCOT nighttime show). It was castle projections and Disney music, though much of it was in French. It was a really good show. It’s no Wishes (my favorite Disney fireworks show) but it was a good show.