Euro Disney/Disneyland Paris - basically DLand + Ratatouille

Bonjour! What's it like to go to Disneyland Paris?

Essentially it's the same as Disneyland with a few ride variations, slightly more French than English (cast-members all still know Anglais thank god), and a whole Ratatouille area with a ride and restaurant!

Disneyland Paris is about a 1-1.5 hour train ride [RER-A] from Paris city-center.  Upon entrance, Disney Paris has a much grander entrance than the simple gates in CA, you walk to a big pink palace-like building before scanning your ticket and entering the park:

Chanrith is thrilled to do DLand Paris for the 2nd time.

It also happened to be the 25th anniversary this year.

I LOVE this snapchat filter/geotag. 

Main Street USA is almost exactly the same as CA's, (I recognized the same music and felt at home). At the end of Main Street is Sleeping Beauty Castle. We stopped by Sleeping Beauty Castle first since crowds are usually smaller in the morning. It was tall and big. 

Danna told me I match the castle! 

One of the first rides we did was [Hyper]Space Mountain- and this one was a lot more intense than Dland CA. 

Here, you are strapped on from above and the restraints are super-tight to hold you into the car. Pretty sure there were 1-2 loops on this ride. 

Afterwards, we did Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (BLAB), which is essentially the same as in CA. 


Next was It's a Small World, which was sung in English more than French and which summarized the US as SF, LA and NYC (basically true- except for the taxi on the Golden Gate because that should be an Uber): 
Look to my right and I see the Hollywood sign.

There were also a few 25 anniversary ride signs as part of the celebration. 

It was getting close to lunch so after debating between a buffet and a 3-course meal we decided on a bougie meal at Captain Jack's restaurant - aka Blue Bayou. It was expensive (45 euro per person for a 3 course meal), but the meal was a much better value than ordering individual entrees. We both chose different appetizer, entrees, and desserts to sample as much as we could. Below are some crappy photos due to dim lighting and my lack of food photo skillz: 

Some kind of fish fritters. 

Beef.

Pork and rice.

Chocolate tart. 

Another perk was getting a pic with Jack Sparrow - so if you're a huge pirates fan or something then maybe that's extra incentive to dine here. 

Next we went on Peter Pan, which had over an hour wait but we fast-passed it and waited maybe 15 minutes. However, we also spent 5 min stuck in the beginning of the ride due to a malfunction. Chanrith's reaction: why do people wait an hour for this ride? 

Walt Disney Studios (WDS) is the equivalent of Disney California Adventure (DCA), and we paid more for a park hopper because I wanted to check out the Ratatouille area and thought I would get bored of normal Disneyland. 


Like DCA, WDS has a Tower of Terror and it's the original without a Guardians of the Galaxy makeover, so it was nostalgic to go into the twilight zone once again. We tried to get fastpass and the castmember told us they ran out, but he was super nice to us and let us in with the fastpass people anyways so we saved 45 minutes! 

Next was the main attraction: Ratatouille! 
Chanrith and I both did single-rider (I still want to do a parody of single ladies with single riders but it probably already exists), and waited maybe 5 minutes to get on the ride. 
Basically, you shrink to the size of a rat and experience what Remy does in the movie in 3D in a spinning car. The ride was very mediocre. 

Next to the ride is a $$$$ French restaurant: Bistrot Remy. 
I really wanted to eat dinner here, but we were full from our large lunch and the meal was super pricey so I will have to try Remy's Ratatouille another time. 

There was a small food festival featuring food stalls from different regions of France and some Spanish food- so we walked by looking at various foods before leaving the Ratatouille area. 

Au revoir! 

Next door was Toy Story Land- it was the same as the one I saw in Hong Kong Disney (HK) in 2011, and we only went on the Slinky-dog ride since the wait was less than 15 minutes.

 

Next we saw a show "Mickey et le Magicien," which was about half an hour long and air-conditioned. Mickey spoke French while all other characters spoke English. It was mildly entertaining and the main theme was decently catchy. 

There was also a Marvel-festival, and I got a Black Panther pic before peacing out of WDS. 
Wakanda forever.

Being done with WDS, we walked back to Disneyland where we saw the 25th anniversary parade. The opening theme is kinda annoying but got stuck in my head after a couple of minutes. We did the walkthrough of Sleeping Beauty castle and went underneath where we saw the Dragon in a cavern! We walked to the entrance again to use the bathroom at the Disneyland Paris hotel, and then decided to eat at the best value meal in Disney Paris resort: 


Earl of Sandwich's Chipotle Chicken Avocado is the most CA sandwich ever- and it was one of the best meals I had in Europe: 

We went back in to Disneyland, where we used our fastpass on Big Thunder Mountain. 
The version here is a lot bigger than CA, and it's quite beautiful to ride around sunset because its basically a peninsula and there are nice views of the surrounding "river" from the roller coaster. 

Our next ride was Indiana Jones- which is completely different. It's a coaster that goes around the Temple building and has like a loop so it's more intense than the average Disney ride. 

We also went on Pirates, which was slightly more elaborate and had a photo-op: 
I saw a flash with the boat ahead and able to expertly foreshadow the camera snap.

Blanche-Neige is still the scariest children's ride in any theme park. (Skeletons everywhere!) 

Star Tours is also the same as normal Disneyland.

The fireworks are at park closing, which in summer is 11 PM. Illuminations- the fireworks show- is more about light projections on the castle than fireworks themselves. It's more of a hybrid of World of Color and fireworks. If you want the best view- stay close to the castle. The view from main street was not great- but I am glad we beat the rush to the subway otherwise we would've had to wait another half hour.

Disney Paris overall was a fun experience as a super Disney fan. It's the most international park I went to as I heard so many different languages- French, Spanish, German, Russian, and even Japanese and Chinese; and I was impressed with the polyglot cast members who repeated instructions in 3+ languages. If I had to do anything different- I would've tried Ratatouille and sat closer to the castle for fireworks (if I didn't have to worry about rushing to the subway to get back to Paris). 

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