I had been waiting for Paris the entire trip, and not for
the cheesy Eiffel tower pictures or just to say I’ve been there. I’ve been looking forward to it because of a
certain theme park that is nearby… that’s right; DISNEYLAND PARIS! I mean, talking about Disneyland Paris is how
they sucked me into looking into going on this trip! Paula, one of the directors, saw me walking
through the Wilkinson Center on campus, with my Disney backpack on and called
out, “Hey we are going to Disneyland Paris on this trip!” Obviously, being the Disney lover I am, I
couldn’t resist. Naturally, Paris was
what I looked forward to most, not to discount the other cities because I’ve
been surprised by many of them! The
entire trip has been a blast! Before we
get to Disneyland Paris, I’ve got to talk about the rest of the days there.
The
first day was a very long drive from Amsterdam to Paris, which I mostly slept
all the way through. We didn’t have our
beloved bus driver, Marnix, to drive us so most of us were sad, but luckily we
only had to deal with him for one day.
Miranda and I (my partner for Disneyland Paris planning) had decided we
wanted to go scope out the trains to get to Disneyland Paris so we didn’t run
into the same problem we did in Hamburg (being 45 minutes late to a business
visit). Debrief took FOREVER, so we
finally got out of the hotel around 5:30 pm.
We took Macie and Spencer with us so we could navigate the trains all
together, plus having a guy with us has always eased my mind a little bit. We didn’t have too many problems getting
there and were able to walk right up to Team Disney, where our visit was going
to be on the next Monday. We took some
pictures in front of the signs and Miranda and I (both former Cast Members)
were like little kids on Christmas. We
didn’t even get to go into the park, but Disney Village, which is like Downtown
Disney, was good enough for us! We went
to World of Disney, which where Miranda worked when she was a Cast Member, and
looked around at our options for memorabilia when we were there. We had Earl of Sandwich for dinner, which
made Spencer very happy because all he actually cares about is food! J We knew it was getting late and that it would
take a little while to get home, so we caught the train back and headed in the
for the night.
The
next day we got to tour the Louvre. I’m
not sure if it was because I had just gone through the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
or what, but thinking of going through another huge museum seemed a little
exhausting to me. I got a glimpse of the
Mona Lisa (much smaller than I expected), the Goddess of Victory, and Venus de
Milo. Other than those big ones, I
wasn’t really looking for anything much in the museum. I feel like I’ve never done as many stairs as
I did in that museum. Every time we went
up a really long stair case, there was an equally long one after it that we had
to go up as well. The museum was
beautiful but again, exhausting. I know
I’m sounding really ungrateful, but hey, these are my thoughts, right? Anyway, after we were all super tired, we
decided we were done for the day. We met
up with some friends and made the plan to go see Notre Dame, which I was
excited about. Coincidentally, while I’m
writing this The Hunchback of Notre Dame is playing on my Spotify playlist;
perfect background music! We grabbed
some lunch (I needed some comfort food, so I got a pretty good bacon burger)
and we walked to try and make the last English tour of the day. When we got there, the line for it was SO
LONG! We waited and the though the line
went fast, we missed the start of the tour.
Our walk around the cathedral was incredible though. The outside is just as amazing as the inside. The rose window was gorgeous and I
appreciated that I knew what things were because of the History of Interior
Design class I took. There happened to
be a choir singing while we were in there, which made the experience even
better! We sat and listened for a while
and I was in heaven. I’ve come to love
all the beautiful cathedrals in Europe and wish there were more in Utah! While we were in there, it started to pour
outside. Like straight up DOWN
POUR! We couldn’t go back in, so we were
going to walk to the metro and go get hot chocolate at a place called
Angelina’s; but the rain kept getting worse (it was cool to see the gargoyles
actually spit water out of the top of the cathedral) so we stopped into a
souvenir shop close by. I could tell the
owners were mad everyone retreated to their shop, so I bought my mom some salt
and pepper shakers shaped like the Eiffel tower. They seemed a little happier after that. Once the rain let up a little bit, we headed
for the metro and to Angelina’s. The hot
chocolate was really good! Almost tasted
like literal melted chocolate. We
actually had to sit down for it and we even waited in line outside. The experience was awesome, but
expensive! It was 8 euros for one hot
chocolate, luckily I split with someone because I definitely didn’t think it
was worth that much. Basically the
entire day I’d been battling a headache.
I took the meds required and they didn’t seem to do much. Jessica and Danielle were gracious enough to
accompany me back to the hotel so I could go grab a nap and just relax, which
is probably what I needed. We went to the
McDonald’s and then relaxed on my bed and just laughed and talked
together. We decided later that I should
probably go see the Eiffel Tower at night so I could see it sparkle. I went with Spencer (we had to promise we
would go get food), Jessica, and Danielle.
We watched it sparkle from the Alexander the III’s bridge which gave us
a great view. They told me not to look
at it yet and I even got a handstand picture before I actually saw it with my
own eyes. I have wonderful friends. J We had quite the adventure getting food (we
ended up back at McDonald’s) and waited for over a half hour! This was seriously the most inefficient
McDonald’s I’ve ever been to! Anyway, I
got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle! It
was magical and wonderful! J The next day I was super nervous because we
were planning for Disneyland Paris! I’ve
got a whole day to talk about so I’ll just make another blog post about it. :D
The day started out...rainy (like usual) and we left really early in order to get to our business visit early. We met at Team Disney in their offices for a business visit. This business visit was really interesting and something I thoroughly enjoyed. I noticed we spoke a lot about how Disneyland Paris started out really badly and was able to turn things around. They are still the least profitable park, but they have definitely improved over the years. After the business visit, we got to go into the park!
They have two parks there, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios. Disneyland Paris was the typical Disneyland layout with different lands. One major difference? Space Mountain. Holy cow. Space Mountain there was absolutely incredible! To start off, it's called Space Mountain: Mission 2 and it has more of a Rockin' Rollercoaster feel than a Space Mountain feel. You shoot upward to begin and the rest of the ride is just a series of turns, corkscrews, loop-dee-loops and fun music. I was not expecting this ride, but it was absolutely amazing and I loved every second of it.
We explored the park a little bit more and then headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. This was an AWESOME rendition of the California version. Definitely better than Disney World (sorry, someone had to say it). The ride was a little backward in that the skeletons came last instead of first so the story line seemed a little off, but overall, a fantastic ride!
The main difference between Disneyland and Disneyland Paris is that Paris has a lot of beautiful gardens and walk through attractions, which isn't always characteristic of a Disney park. There was an Alice in Wonderland labyrinth that I absolutely loved. I just loved the entire experience of a new Disney Park and being able to live my dreams. I can't wait to go back someday!
