The dampiest place on earth
Feb. 24th, 2024 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luckykaaDisneyland Paris! Weather was a little grotty but that's because it's northern Europe and February.
flickums wanted to be a Disney shill for her birthday, so we're spending 3 days here.
Airport was surprisingly empty. Plan was frustratingly late. There seemed to be a lot of taxiing, and walking through airports. As ever, a 90 minute flight took around 6 hours. Still, we arrived at hotel and slept ready to start the next day.
Train took us from right outside the hotel to right outside the Disney park in a single stop. France does still do trains well. Decided to do Star Tours first because it's a nice safe ride that we both enjoy. After that I went of Hyperspace Mountain, while Flickums queued for Princess Meet and Greet.
This caused issues. Flickums didn't want to go in alone, so asked me to catch her up. I felt way too socially anxious to queue jump! Flickums tried cajoling and bullying me to push past... I felt that you have to respect the queue. Eventually I decided to ask the very nice door dragon whether there was a way to join my fiance at the front. She made a call and said that I could. So yay! Flickums was very happy to see me despite my being a bit rubbish here.
So, we met Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). She seemed very happy that we were getting married and gave Flickums a big hug! She was very sweet.
Oddly, there was a guy at the front of the queue with a Belle doll who I'm guessing wanted to get a picture with Belle and was waiting until she was available.
We seemed to be lucky with the weather, in that while there was a massive downpour it happened while we were in Phantom Manor, and there was also a hailstorm but that was while we were on the snow white ride.
We had dinner booked at Captain Jacks. Decided to head there a little early but we saw that there was a very short queue for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride so had enough time to do that. Turns out "very short" was "none at all" so that was good. Wasn't that taken with Captain Jack's restaurant. Starter had these weird sausagy balloon like things, and the fish was overcooked
After a bit we were ushered out of Fantasyland. We didn't want to do a lot but wanted to watch the light show. We found at this point the sitting on a wall ride very enjoyable.
The Electrical Sky Parade (Drone show) was fantastic!!! Especially the first minute or so. I mean the whole show was great and so was the Disney nighttime extravaganza, which was music and light show centred on the castle, with lost of animated action going on, but the start was just so strong!
Long windy walk to the station followed by a very crammed train. Fortunately there was a little space at the front carriage and it was only one stop.
Saturday we decided to take things easy. Went on the rides we didn't get round to on Friday. Mostly the gentle wussy rides like It's a Small World and the canal boats. We went to Alice's Labyrinth, where, for some reason, the entire park decided to arrive shortly after we reached the castle.
We met Darth Vader, although the line length sign lied to us! Visited the Disney Village. Went on a ride in a vintage police car - that was fun; people seemed to be somewhat oblivious of a big car coming along, so they got honked at! Decided that the Videodrome had the best sitting on a bench ride since it was indoors and there were videos to watch.
Hung around a bit for the parade - I felt I had just enough time for another go at Star Tours, and they shuffle the videos around each ride so it was a different experience. The rain started just at the end of the parade so we made a beeline for the steakhouse. Rather cleverly, Flickums had booked us a table so we weren't turned away.
After that we went on a waffle hunt. Sadly the wafflarium that sells mickey waffles was closed. Almost bought a cookie but the people in front of us seemed to have an unusually complex order. Not sure how that was possible since the food outlets typically have about 4 items on offer.
Some of the queues in Disney Studios were extremely short so felt we should switch to the other park and I could take the opportunity to go on the Avengers Flight Force ride. Flickums was very nice in going along with this. We also found three's a wafflarium there. Closed but it's an option for tomorrow. Flight Force was good fun - another roller coaster in the dark with lots of twists and loops. Flickums (who doesn't really like roller coasters) was surprised how soon I got out but there was no queue.
At this point it was getting close to closing time. Decided to get ahead of the queue and get a non-rammed train home.
flickums wanted to be a Disney shill for her birthday, so we're spending 3 days here. Airport was surprisingly empty. Plan was frustratingly late. There seemed to be a lot of taxiing, and walking through airports. As ever, a 90 minute flight took around 6 hours. Still, we arrived at hotel and slept ready to start the next day.
Train took us from right outside the hotel to right outside the Disney park in a single stop. France does still do trains well. Decided to do Star Tours first because it's a nice safe ride that we both enjoy. After that I went of Hyperspace Mountain, while Flickums queued for Princess Meet and Greet.
This caused issues. Flickums didn't want to go in alone, so asked me to catch her up. I felt way too socially anxious to queue jump! Flickums tried cajoling and bullying me to push past... I felt that you have to respect the queue. Eventually I decided to ask the very nice door dragon whether there was a way to join my fiance at the front. She made a call and said that I could. So yay! Flickums was very happy to see me despite my being a bit rubbish here.
So, we met Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). She seemed very happy that we were getting married and gave Flickums a big hug! She was very sweet.
Oddly, there was a guy at the front of the queue with a Belle doll who I'm guessing wanted to get a picture with Belle and was waiting until she was available.
Next stop was Bella Notte - the Lady and the Tramp restaurant. Yes, they do meatballs. Unfortunately, they're veal so I went for the lasagna instead.
The one thing I did want to do was the paddle steamer because we missed out on that at Anaheim last year. For some reason we kept getting distracted! Eventually I insisted we go straight there! I would have accepted Phantom Manor first but I wanted to go on that damn boat! And very nice it was too.
We seemed to be lucky with the weather, in that while there was a massive downpour it happened while we were in Phantom Manor, and there was also a hailstorm but that was while we were on the snow white ride.
We had dinner booked at Captain Jacks. Decided to head there a little early but we saw that there was a very short queue for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride so had enough time to do that. Turns out "very short" was "none at all" so that was good. Wasn't that taken with Captain Jack's restaurant. Starter had these weird sausagy balloon like things, and the fish was overcooked
After a bit we were ushered out of Fantasyland. We didn't want to do a lot but wanted to watch the light show. We found at this point the sitting on a wall ride very enjoyable.
The Electrical Sky Parade (Drone show) was fantastic!!! Especially the first minute or so. I mean the whole show was great and so was the Disney nighttime extravaganza, which was music and light show centred on the castle, with lost of animated action going on, but the start was just so strong!
Long windy walk to the station followed by a very crammed train. Fortunately there was a little space at the front carriage and it was only one stop.
Saturday we decided to take things easy. Went on the rides we didn't get round to on Friday. Mostly the gentle wussy rides like It's a Small World and the canal boats. We went to Alice's Labyrinth, where, for some reason, the entire park decided to arrive shortly after we reached the castle.
We met Darth Vader, although the line length sign lied to us! Visited the Disney Village. Went on a ride in a vintage police car - that was fun; people seemed to be somewhat oblivious of a big car coming along, so they got honked at! Decided that the Videodrome had the best sitting on a bench ride since it was indoors and there were videos to watch.
Hung around a bit for the parade - I felt I had just enough time for another go at Star Tours, and they shuffle the videos around each ride so it was a different experience. The rain started just at the end of the parade so we made a beeline for the steakhouse. Rather cleverly, Flickums had booked us a table so we weren't turned away.
After that we went on a waffle hunt. Sadly the wafflarium that sells mickey waffles was closed. Almost bought a cookie but the people in front of us seemed to have an unusually complex order. Not sure how that was possible since the food outlets typically have about 4 items on offer.
Some of the queues in Disney Studios were extremely short so felt we should switch to the other park and I could take the opportunity to go on the Avengers Flight Force ride. Flickums was very nice in going along with this. We also found three's a wafflarium there. Closed but it's an option for tomorrow. Flight Force was good fun - another roller coaster in the dark with lots of twists and loops. Flickums (who doesn't really like roller coasters) was surprised how soon I got out but there was no queue.
At this point it was getting close to closing time. Decided to get ahead of the queue and get a non-rammed train home.
