Disneyland Paris

In the interest of time, I decided not to blog for 3 days whilst majority of my time was spent in Disney.

I could totally feel some people (the few that read my blog) are already objecting, and are probably thinking “what the hell is she talking about, she blogged all through her trip whilst she was in Japan at the end of last year, and she blogged very night whilst she was in Vienna last summer”.

The truth is, I didn’t have enough time to write anything by the time we finished every night.

All I wanted to do when I get back to the Hotel room was crash and burn.
On the bed.

So instead, I am writing about my last 3 days (Out of the 72 hours, I think 18 of those I was in England, and most of time I spent travelling) today.
Because it still feels completely surreal, and it feels like I was somewhere completely away from reality.

Friday morning, which is the official day that I turned 30 (Yes – I am now officially 30, and I can say “back when I was in my 20s” without any hesitation).

Having spent a very lovely day on Thursday with a new haircut (and managed to only let a few people know), I got up nice and early on Friday morning and headed to platform ¾.

Carrot Top was already sitting waiting with a cup of tea, so I got my coffee and we waited for Curly and Midori to arrive.
Because it has been proven I can’t function without coffee.

Curly and Midori arrived not only with their weekend bags, but also picnic and small presents for me.

I would like to also mentioned that Carrot Top got me my presents and sent them via the post to me so that neither of us have to carry them.

It was a pink furry (my favourite combination) loop scarf, a nutella cookbook, a Coca-cola cookbook, some truffles, a really really pretty treble and bass clef heart necklace and One Direction stickers.
Yes.
Not kidding.

Anyways.
We managed to get through security and check-in relatively easy (pity I can’t say the same thing on the way back), and though it was busy at the terminal, we got onto the train in good time and was settled in rather quickly – even though someone else were sitting on our seats.

As a lot of you know, I have been known to nazi-plan everything.

Like this Disneyland Trip.
And previously BST Hyde Park.

So when I told them my plans stops here (the moment we got onto the train), they were all shocked.

The only thing I wanted to do when I get to Disney is to go to Tower of Terror, which I didn’t think any of them would have come with me (Curly and Carrot Top did at the end).

The train journey was amazing.
They got me a birthday picnic with a very lovely cake which was amazing.
I celebrated my birthday acrossed 2 country and we ate across 2 countries.

When we got to Marne-la-Vallée, we headed straight to the hotel and check-in, not knowing I have upgraded ourselves to the Golden Forest Club, which means different check-in (excellent) and Fastpass and meal coupons and seperate everything from everybody else.

I felt special and it really did make my birthday special.

I would also like to do a massive shout out to Vince, who was epic and checked us in, handed all the paperwork to us and explained everything to us very carefully.
I also felt like a straight A student when he asked if we know what a “fast pass” is – I knew EXACTLY what it was.

So proud.

We quickly change into something comfortable, and then we went straight to the Studio.

Of course, we got lost first because we didn’t know we can actually go across the village.

We thought we needed to walk OUT of the hotel, onto the main road and the back into the Park.

The studio was really nice – we walked through the very old-schooled Hollywood style shops and restaurants, and reached the park.
The first ride we went on was Rock and Roller coaster (starring Aerosmith), that none of us knew anything about.

We did however, know there were 360 loops because the board said it.
Not sure how many though.
Midori didn’t like that, so only 3 of us went onto it.

And WOW it was AMAZING.

The technical stuff
– it goes from 0 to 5 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds.
– it is the fastest ride in France.
– riders experience 4.5G as they entre the first inversion (astronaut experience 3G as shuttle launch and reentry)

I love it.
Curly and Carrot Top however, kept their eyes shut all through the ride.
Because of the madness of it, we decided to go for something that was a lot tamer.

The Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin.
It’s basically Slinky Dog (from Toys Story) chasing its tail and it goes up and down, round and round.
I could have taken a nap on it and I wouldn’t notice it was a ride.
It was good for Midori though, it was her first ride.

After that we did Ratatouille, which is the newest ride at Disneyland Paris.
We all loved it, with our epic 3D glasses.
It’s a 4D ride, with 3D glasses and you sit in a moving rat, which means everything is massive, since you’re only rat size.
Again, very chilled – but very cute.

We went to Crush’s Coaster afterwards (Nemo themed), and two people went forward and two went backwards.
Carrot Top and I went forward first.
We all loved it – Midori was okay on that one, because she couldn’t see where she was going.
Pity there wasn’t any photo of that, becase it’d be nice to have one.
I know my face was funny.

Having had a bit of a laugh, and that we thought Midori was ready for a little bit more, having experience Crush’s Coaster, she would be okay going onto something quieter – like the Magic Carpet, which is named “Flying Carpets Over Agrabah” here and we were told that we are the extras in the movie and the genie was filming us on the flying carpet.

Unfortunately she wasn’t okay – because you can see where we were going and being high and off th ground quite a bit, she wasn’t comfortable with that.
Curly was sitting at the front with her, and they got the control, which was a bit depressing because we didn’t do anything – we just stayed at one height, and went round for a minute and a half.

We couldn’t delay it anymore, because I wanted to go onto Tower of Terror.
Curly and Carrot Top came with me.
I have no problem with thrills, and I love fast rides and all that jazz.
However, I do have a massive issue when it comes to (un)dead things.
To me, things that are dead, should stay dead.
And I have some problems with paranormal too.
I don’t think it should happen that way.
The problem is, this ride, which was based on the TWilight Zone, and the storyline of this ride is based on paranormality – where 5 people stepped into the lift one night and they disappeared in the lift and disappeared forever.
It made it worse by telling us to “step on the carpet and not outside” when we got into a lift.

Then they start saying:
You are the passengers on a most uncommon elevator about to ascend into your very own episode of The Twilight Zone.
One stormy night long ago, five people stepped through the door of an elevator and into a nightmare. That door is opening once again, and this time, it’s opening for you.
You are about to discover what lies beyond the fifth dimension, beyond the deepest, darkest corner of the imagination, in the Tower of Terror.

Apparently there’s a movie that based on it with Kirsten Dunst in it.
Anyways, once we were through all that, and I was told “It’s going to be your last birthday” by some of the cast members (seeing a badge on me saying “30” on it), I finally gotten onto the ride.

AND WHAT THRILL!

It’s a vertical drop that doesn’t only drop, but also pulled you back up and down for a bit before you reach the bottom.

And when you once reach the bottom, again in that terrifying voice, they said:
A warm welcome back to those of you who made it, and a friendly word of warning, something you won’t find in any guidebook. The next time you check into a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you’re filling. Or you may find yourself a permanent resident… of the Twilight Zone.

Because we have dinner booked at six, we we back to the Hotel for dinner.

And I got another birthday cake – that JB paid for and pre-ordered it for me!
I was so surprised and so touched.
And I thanked him for the birthday cake.

After dinner we went into Disney Village, which was opened until 2300.
We shopped.
Well, Carrot Top did – she wanted to get her shopping list over and done with first.
The rest of us just tried on a lot of hats and hair accessories and took photos of it.
And I found my Ohana – rows and rows of Stitch (626) and Angel (624).
And Leroy too of course… so tempted to get a Leroy.

We got back to the hotel when the shops were closing, and then all went to bed.
We all slept like a log.

Number of photo taken: 130
Number of video taken: 0
Number of steps taken: 18K

Saturday morning I woke up earlier than everybody else, because I wanted to go down to the pool and have a quick swim.
Also I wanted to make sure my knee would be up for a whole day or walking and wandering, because we have decided to be in the park from the moment it was opened and leaving the park last thing in the evening.
We did majority of the rides on Saturday.

We got up, have breakfast (Pluto came to breakfast, but we didn’t really want a photo with him – the Goofy was outside afterwards) and then rushed off to the park.
Majority of the first hour when we were at the park, we took lots of photos.

LIKE LOTS.

First thing we did was to go to “la tanière du dragon” – where Maleficent’s dragon lives, at the bottom of the Sleeping Beauty Castle.
The dragon breathes and the tummy moves, the crawl moves and his tail wags.
It so beautiful and it looks so real.
I personally thinks he’s a bit skinny.
But at the end of the day, he’s still a dragon and he looked pretty cute.
From the Dragon’s dent (hahahaha) we went to the Carousel, which we loved, and sang along with the music, took a few photos of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party along the way and into the Teacup – which I have an epic video to proof we had fun.
Not that I think we need to proof anything.
From the teacup, we went towards Dumbo and we FLEW up into the sky on Dumbo’s back (Dumbo and the Magic Carpet is pretty much the same ride).
Then we went and got lost in Alice’s Curious Labyrinth, where I was constantly shouting “Iron Man” (because Curly was wearing an Iron Man Hoodie) but a kid started to join in so we ended up with “Macro Polo” instead.
The view from the top of the Queen of Heart’s castle was beautiful, you get to see pretty much most of the Park.
Then we went and queue up to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, which is a ride that takes you through the story.
After that was Indiana Jones (where my hand got crushed by Midori because she wants to hold someone’s hand as well a the handle bar and my knuckles were crushed against the handle bar and ended up rather bruised) which I have a photo of, and then it was off to the Phantom Manor.
The Phantom Manor is the one that I dreaded the most.
Like I mentioned before, I don’t like (un)dead things.
If it’s dead, it should stay dead.
Halloween plus haunted house is my biggest nightmare.
I like halloween on it’s own but the moment they put (un)dead things in it, I am screwed.
I somehow managed to come out without crying.
Unlike all haunted house and phantom manor that I have been into.

Anyways.
It was about midday when we had lunch in the steakhouse.
It was AMAZING – we didn’t have to pay for anything because of the half board, and I had a caesar salad, a 300g steak and a selection of dessert.
Thoroughly spoiled.

After lunch, we went through to Thunder Mountain, I laughed like a maniac and Midori was quiet and probably got scared shitless again before we made it into Discoveryland and got onto Thunder Mountain.
That was fun.
Then we did the Star Tour, which I swear to God I have done multiple times at different places but I don’t remember where and when.
And we headed to Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast afterwards, where there was a photo of Curly and I looking strangely constipated (because we were concentrating so hard), and Midori, the person least likely to computer games or shoot a gun – got top score between the four of us.
We were just in time for the afternoon parade, so we stayed around and watched that (I videoed the whole thing).
After the parade, we legged it to It’s a Small World, and enjoyed the calming boat ride before heading to the Studio again, but caught sight of a short teaser fountain show. Then we did another round of Ratatouille and Crush’s Coaster and headed back to the Park for the evening laser show.
Then my camera ran out of battery – so I only got half the laser show.
Boo.
Also.
At some point we went on the Peter Pan’s Flight and Pinocchio’s Fantastic Journey.
And big Thunder Mountain.
And pirates of the Caribbean.
But I can’t remember when.
I don’t have any photos because I forgotten to take them.
Oops.
Curly has the list, I haven’t.
I am sure she can tell me when they were.
Number of photo taken: 181
Number of video taken: 5
Number of steps taken: 25K

Sunday morning was a drag.
I got for a swim, but I found it really difficult.
I was completely knackered.
We did take a photo with Donald Duck, who took a liking to Curly.
We dropped off our bags, and ran into the park to Orbitron, which went faster than we expected and I actually had to hold myself in.
After that we went back to the studio, I had a quite trip over to Rock and Roller Coaster again on my own so I can get a photo and then head to Armageddon.
That was fun.
It was a special effect thing and we get to experience what it was like when they filmed it.
The fire, the wobbly ground, the smoke… It was pretty amazing.
Then we went to the tram tour, which took us to a few sets found the studio, saw some pretty cars, saw the Dinotopia (I didn’t know that movie existed) set and also experience a water tidal wave thing that they do in the movie.
It was okay, I did it when I was little and when I was in LA.
Of course, we headed back to the Park, do the Fairy tale canal thing.
We were going to go to Casey’s Jr. Circus train but it broke down so we left and had lunch.
Lunch took us nearly an hour to buy.
But it was a lovely lunch and we were in good time to see the Halloween parade.
We sat down and got front row seats for the parade.
I have to admit.
I was in tears.
It meant the end of the trip.
And I really didn’t want it to end.

We headed back to the hotel (and shopped along the way of course), had a drinks at the bar, did more last minute shopping at the hotel shop and then we got the cases and head to the train station.

That was the end of the Disney trip.

However, we got stuck on the way when we got back to England. So we were running 45 minutes late, and then we were stuck at the home office security.
So I didn’t get home until just after nine.
It was painful.

Number of photo taken: 75
Number of video taken: 7
Number of steps taken: 28K

Curly stayed with me and got the train home first thing this morning instead.
And I am completely knackered.
I am going to bed.