and they had this cool gadget that you put eggs in and it would either poach, soft boil or hard boil them for you depending on how long you left them in for. i never did get a chance to use it, but i thought it was kinda neat.
everything was delicious though, and we were happy campers.
so i'd booked us a driver that would take us to disneyland paris for the day and then come back to pick us up and take us back to the hotel. he arrived promptly, was very polite and once we were settled in the back seat, tried to stealthily take a picture of us. we just kind of laughed it off, but it was a little weird. heh.
i'd read that it's about 45 minutes away, but because homey put the pedal to the metal i was seeing these signs about half an hour later:
he handed us our tickets and confirmed our pickup time, and then we were off for a super fun day at the parks.
the castle here is so pretty. also sleeping beauty's castle, it's twice the height of ours, with a cool walk-through that tells the story.
but they definitely have an edge on us though, because when you go around the side, you'll find this sign:
and downstairs, the dragon awaits. a full-sized audio-animatronic dragon that roars and snorts and moves his head around and watches you as you watch him. a dragon! underneath the castle! so cool!
we had fast passes built into our tickets, but just like rope drop at home, the lines don't really require using them. we got onto hyperspace mountain in about five minutes - and it was just as fun as i remembered. there's a loop and a corkscrew and i don't even remember what else, but it's more intense than the one we have at home.
they also have star tours, which we passed on:
and a version of videopolis, which i remember disneyland at home having back in the 80s - it was a dance club. but theirs is a building that seems to have a jules verne theme, and apparently has a restaurant inside.
hi, buzz lightyear! hope you're getting lots of rest during your renovation!
we wandered into adventureland next. i was hoping to see the genie pop out around the corner, but he didn't. maybe it was too early.
the hub's favorite ride at disneyland is this one, so it was our next ride. all of my pictures from inside are super blurry because of darkness and movement (and i'm a terrible photographer), but at least i managed to catch jack sparrow. and funny - they take a picture of the boat when it drops here.
i remembered the skull rock area from last time - the hub and the bean spent a good amount of time here, exploring the caves and crossing bridges and whatnot.
and i'm pretty sure this is where we ate with them last time, too.
next up - indiana jones. they have fun stuff to look at while you're in line (which wasn't for too long, yay).
captain jack's restaurant is one of those full service places that takes reservations 2 months in advance, but also leaves a little room for walk-ins. we decided to head there for lunch and managed to get a table pretty easily.
and here they offer drinks from a full bar:
we both opted for the prix-fixe "pirate's treasure" menu. the hub chose the smoked chicken starter, while i went for the island-style fish soup. both were meh.
for his main course he ordered the caribbean chicken, and this was the oven-baked mahi mahi that i ate.
desserts were island-style rice pudding with mango puree and shortbread with roasted pineapple and bourbon-vanilla whipped cream.
i have a picture with "captain jack," but i can't find it. oh well.
after our somewhat disappointing lunch, we went into fantasyland to walk it off.
the wait to meet mickey was an hour...pass. we fell for that last time and then he wasn't even dressed in anything special.
we'd also gone through the alice in wonderland-themed "curious labyrinth" area with the girls, but there weren't as many people there that time and so i settled for taking a few pictures from afar.
how cute is this food stand, though?
we decided to wait in line for their version of storybookland. it was here that we noticed even more examples of their lack of attention to detail. it's not like disney at home, where everything is pristine and really well maintained. there's cracks and chipped paint and cobwebs and things everywhere here. it's like they just don't care, which is sad.
at least the ride was okay. miniature versions of scenes from various disney movies that you ride through in a boat, but here there's no guide sitting in it providing narration.
there's "small world," of course:
and here you can still try to pull the sword out of the stone. that sword disappeared from our fantasyland long ago. maybe this is where it went.
we lucked out as we went into frontierland and found our way to phantom manor, which is their version of the haunted mansion. it had apparently been down for a bit and when we walked up they had just reopened the line, so our timing was perfect.
we could see big thunder from the top of the line:
and then we went inside to experience the ride. it's pretty similar to ours, but they have this cool grand staircase after you emerge from the elevator where the bride is standing to begin the story.
and there's lots of details to look at outside.
they have a version of the golden horseshoe:
and we took a couple more castle pictures because why not.
their main street is pretty similar to ours, with most differences being just different names on stores and restaurants.
here, they have mickey rain boots instead of flip flops and sneakers. i'm sure they come in handy pretty often.
i knew we had to pick up souvenirs to bring home to the kids, but i passed on this:
and they have this cool walkthrough behind the shops that would come in handy when it's time to leave and you want to avoid the crowds:
there's a whole display of the process of creating and sending over the statue of liberty, which was kind of fun to look at.
and that does it for the disneyland side of the parks! next up...the french version of walt disney studios. the fun never ends, folks.
Your driver probably thought you were celebs!
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