9-17-19 -Disneyland, Paris (Kyle)
/Day 93. Kyle Here.
Today we experience another act of kindness, this time from someone we’ve just met. At dinner last night, we tell Frederic we are planning on going to Disneyland Paris tomorrow (actually 5 of us as Leanne are going as John and Leanne are splitting off and doing a mini-trip to the Netherlands and Belgium). Frederic whips out his phone and calls someone and a rapid-fire conversation is French ensures. From our (non-French speaking) perspective, the conversation sounds like “jfhfuskfhvufkf, Leanne, kdjfikdo,dnxjkf, Kyle, kdkdficjcldjxicd, Disneyland Paris, fjkfjdfokdmcf fjvjdlcx fjcxkfcmfc olfcmcvmkklc, Perfect!” Frederic hangs up and we hold our breath in anticipation.
“My cousin Richard is an avid Disneyland fan and he has a special annual pass that allows his to bring up to 5 people, buy their tickets for a 90 Euro savings and get access to the park an hour before it opens. He has to go out with you and bring you into the park but he said he would do it tomorrow morning for you.” Frederic tells us. Richard is my new BFF!!!
In the morning we meet Richard at the metro and he goes out with us. He brings us breakfast on top of everything else he is doing. It is about an hour to take the train out to Disneyland and get into the park. We talk to Richard and learn he is a fashion designer who worked for the large fashion houses in Paris and designed outfits for Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, J Lo and Michael Jackson. He is now starting and launching his own fashion brand. We get to park and Richard whisks us in a flash and get us to our first ride. He has to go back to the city for work so he bids us adieu and leaves. He invested 2-3 hours to hook us up having never met us. He is one really super nice and super cool dude.
It turns out getting into the park an hour early is huge. We go on Big Thunder Mountain, Hyperspace Mountain and Buzz Lightyear before the park opens. Post park opening, these three rides would have taken us 3-4 hours to check off. We head Disneyland Studios (a second park similar structure to California Adventure in Disneyland) which has some rides which Disneyland LA does not have. We get a fast pass to Tower of Terror. The fast pass machine is broken so an attendant is handing out the tickets. Ahhh. That means we can get a 2ndfast pass before using the first one so we get one to Ratatouille. We go to Crush Coaster which doesn’t have a fast pass so we have to wait an hour (our longest wait of the day) but it is worth it since it’s a new ride for us.
We go to the Tower of Terror at our designated time. Apparently, Disneyland California had the ride at one point as Justin had been on it but shut it down as I hadn’t been on it and don’t remember it. I’m hoping the CA ride wasn’t shut down after an elevator full of guests plunged to their death when the cable got caught and snapped. I decide it best not to share my concern with the kids until after the ride is over. My fears are unwarranted as we survive the elevator plunge and it ends up being the favorite ride of several of us at the end of the day.
After Tower of Terror, our Ratatouille fast pass window ends in 5 mins so we have sprint run all-out from the other end of the park. We arrive at 12:29pm and go to hand in our fast passes but apparently one of the five passes printed out a blank pass instead of the actual fast pass with necessary info. I brace for the expected “No! No fast pass, no ride!” I look at the attendant decked out in the mouse ears with a pleading expression and she breaks out in a big smile and says “No problem, you can go in.” I can’t say “merci” enough times. Score a big thumbs up for Disneyland Paris - we are loving the French mouse!
We have checked off most of the rides that open and we are interested in. Late in the afternoon, we enter the line for Pirates of Caribbean which winds inside and down into a subterranean level that is dark. Next to where we are waiting, there is a waist high swinging fence door. Corey and Justin are talking and Corey inadvertently lifts up the gate latch on the door and it swings open. I look up and there is a French attendant running over towards us who looks mad as hell. “Ut-oh Corey, this guy doesn’t look happy.”
The guy arrives and starts yelling at Corey in a mixture of French and English. Sounds like “djdjfufjfkfdfnfjdfjfjf, What are you doing?, dskdkdklfkfk!” “I’m sorry,” Corey politely responds. “dfjfjfjfjxlxlxhjs dkckdk dkdkdk, Where you trying to sneak in there?” “It was an accident,” Corey says with a “what the hell is going on” look on his face. The French guy continues, “djfjfjdjd dkdfkfkf fjfjf, You seem confused, you need to go to the back room to clear this up,” as he points to the open gate. Corey takes a few steps and Justin moves to follow him. The French guy says to Justin, “oh you want to go too, ok, you go.” The boys take a hesitant step and the French attendant bursts out laughing and says “I’m just kidding with you.” Apparently the French Disneyland attendants have a sense of humor although I think Corey & Justin would have preferred they employed their “you got punked” humor on some other unsuspecting guests.
With all the rides checked off, we decide to stay for dinner and watch the fireworks show. We go to Planet Hollywood, one of our favorite vacation restaurants. We walk in and they are playing a Taylor Swift song from her Fearless album on the giant center TV. I am a big Taylor Swift fan and Fearless is my favorite TS album. The day is going perfect. I must say the day is in stark contrast to my Disneyland, CA experiences which has led me to dub that place, “the unhappiest place on Earth.”
We finish up with the Illumination and fireworks show. We beat the rush to the train and have a long train ride back but everyone is glowing with happiness and will go to sleep dreaming sweet dreams of French mice.
