Lets not forget that the tagline of my blog has to do with “Running, Disney & Dad”…so I MUST include a recap of my trip to Disneyland Paris. This trip was part of my trip to do the London Marathon, and was one of the main bargaining chips I used in order to convince Ali to come along to see me run the race. Given how Easter fell this year, I had Spring Break for the week or so before the day of the London Marathon. This allowed for earlier travel to Europe, and what better than just going to London….but to also go to Paris…namely, Disneyland Paris. So here is my quickly done post (frantically doing it during my prep period at work) about an amazing trip overseas.
It is obvious to anyone who has read my blog in the past 10+ years that I am a Disney Parks fan. Growing up going to Walt Disney World, eventually getting to Disneyland & California Adventure…doing many of the RunDisney races on both coasts, going on family trips, friend trips, you name it…I do it. But I had yet to go to an international Disney park. And that changed with Disneyland Paris.
Ali & I both flew in to Charles De Gaulle on the Tuesday morning after Easter. We were flying in from different originating airports, but we were able to manage getting flights that arrived around 30 minutes from one another. We easily found eachother past customs in the baggage area, got our stuff, and headed on out. We had done a little research into the transit options to Disneyland Paris (lets just call it DLP from now on…too much to type), and the Metro seemed potentially sketchy with all our luggage due to pick-pockets. And a long time because if you check a map, it would include a transfer and its all not very direct. There is also a direct high-speed train but it is expensive and runs at limited times. So we opted to book an Uber and chose the option for a female driver who would only drive female passengers. Perfect! Our driver happened to speak decent English also and she was so nice. The drive took around 45min-1hour, and we really just went through some different countryside areas until we happened upon the DLP resort.
We booked our resort, Hotel Cheyenne, through MEI & Mousefan Travel. DLP does hotel & ticket packages if you want to book at one of their hotels, so we didn’t even try to look at hotels on the outskirts because this just simplified everything. We were on property this way, could walk to the parks, and had 1 hour early entry by staying at a hotel property. In this post, I will mention some differences (good and bad?) that we noticed between DLP and the US parks. First weird thing for us was the check in process. We had our bags with us but they wouldn’t let us into the hotel check-in with our suitcases…we had to wait in a line outside to check our bag with an attendant, then went inside to check-in. When we checked in, we found out that our room was ready early (it was around 1:30 pm I think?) so then we had to go BACK outside to reclaim our suitcases. Anyway, we got to our room early so we could wash our faces, change and feel refreshed (even though I had not slept at all on the flight).
Hotel Cheyenne is themed like the infatuation people have with US cowboy stuff. Ali and I started calling it Hotel YeeHaw. Room was fine and worked for us. Had a double bed and a trundle bed. I slept on the trundle and it was actually the comfiest bed I had all trip. There was AC and a fan in the room, thank god, and we got that going. When looking at hotel options, we had first wanted Hotel Sequoia as the rooms are a bit nicer, a little bigger, and resort theming is better. And initially, the price point was the same. But in about 5 days from when we received the quotes and made a selection, it went up quite a bit more than Yee Haw. So we stuck with Yee Haw.
One positive we noticed at Yee Haw compared to US hotels is how quiet is was on property. This maybe had to do with the fact that none of the hotels have an outdoor pool (Yee Haw had no pool, but Sequoia has an indoor), but then also even though there was themed background music, it was only playing surrounding the main building. Our building area was silent. And we NEVER heard kids running down the hallway, screaming, yelling, etc. It was very peaceful.
The walk to the DLP version of Disney Springs/Downtown Disney is very easy and along a small river. There is a ton of construction right now because they are doing loads of upgrades at downtown, along with Studios Park & Disneyland. So yes, it’s an eyesore. But it was easy enough to get to and get through. We stopped at Petit Rosalie for cheese & wine to make our France arrival official. I am dumb and didn’t read a label on something that I thought was cheese wrapped in foil and instead took a bite out of a stick of butter, but yeah….we headed to Disneyland Park and then were ready to take it all in.
We right away noticed all the beautiful gardens as you were entering DLP. There is so much focus on gardens and nature in DLP-a lot less of a concrete jungle than the US parks. The architecture is also stunning. The castle…wow. WDW castle is larger, but this castle appears to be larger due to how it is built up. And what’s awesome is how you can walk through the castle in many different levels….below to see the dragon, above to see the stained glass. We spent a lot of time taking pictures and just wandering.
I’ll end up blending things from both our days in this post, otherwise it’ll get too long. We did Small World as our first ride and it was fun to see a different iteration of it, especially being North American and how they include our homes in the ride. We eventually made it over to The Disney Studios Park, which many will say lacks in Imagineering…oh, it does. But they are building the World of Frozen so eventually it’ll be better. I was able to get on Remy in single rider very fast going over there, and we got to experience the terrible Cars Road Trip tram ride. Oh, it’s so bad it’s funny. We later on did Pirates (and ate at Captain Jacks) and Phantom Manor. Both iterations of these rides I thought were better than the stateside ones, in particular Phantom Manor. Haunted Mansion is loved by many, but Phantom Manor really knocks it out of the park. We ended up doing it 3 or 4 times over the days we went to the park.
We were going to try to stay up for the nighttime show that first night, but we knew we needed to give in and shower and get back to the room. We did early entry the next day and were on Main Street while it was completely empty, albeit raining. We didn’t think through our morning attack, and I had neglected to see which rides were actually open at both parks for early entry, so we sort of wasted time trapsing around. But we got Hyperspace Mountain done (it goes upside down!), Buzz Lightyear and Pinocchio. Did more wandering in the rain. Did the Indiana Jones Roller Coaster (also upside down…who am I?), ate some comical Dorito nachos thing, before heading back to room for me to run and both of us to refresh.
What we started noticing by this point was how different the clientele at DLP are. In the stateside parks, everyone is complaining and pushy and rude–to other park goers and the employees. Here, we notice that European’s have no spatial awareness, in that they are always sort of cutting you off or in your personal space. However…no one is complaining. No one is fighting or arguing. Everyone just exists and goes with it.
After our little break, we luckily had a reservation at Walt’s on Main Street. This was our special treat for our 40th birthday’s. It was a three course meal and it was fantastic. We did more rides after, some repeat, then were able to check out Hotel Marvel Skyline Bar. It was very cool. When we made it back to the park later we trekked it over to Phantom Manor, again, and then eventually got onto Main Street for the nightime show. I was impressed with the show-it’s a mix of lights, projections, drones and fireworks. There are less fireworks than at the US shows, but we were comfortably able to get a spot on Main Street and see everything well. Yes, you could pay more for a reserved spot near the front, but being right down the middle of Main Street was great for us, and made it quick to exit when the show was done. Show started late-10:40 PM. It doesn’t get dark until very late in Paris, so it has to be this late really.
Our two night hotel package included three days of park tickets, so before checking out the following morning we took advantage of going in one more time to just soak everything in. To anyone who loves Disney Parks but hasn’t been to an international park yet….do it. I would encourage going to DLP, but maybe wait until all the current construction is done (we were sad when we found out a few months ago Thunder Mountain would be closed…you go in a tunnel under the lake to an island for the ride. Damn) so all the new enhancements are completed. I have spoken about a lot of positives we saw compared to the US parks. One thing that is different and I am not sure if it is a negative (or just something we take for granted) is the lack of good snacks and counter service restaurants. Our meal at Walt’s was excellent. Captain Jack’s was good. But all the other sit-down restaurants were buffets mainly. And the quick-service items were less than to be desired. Maybe North American’s just love their weird snack foods/appetizers/food-on-a-stick/etc…and maybe we are just used to all the options you can have at someplace like EPCOT. So that is different.
Will I go again? I have no clue. But I knew that if I was heading to Europe to do a marathon in London, I sure as hell wanted to try to check going to Disneyland Paris off my bucket-list while there. When we checked out, we took an uber to our hotel in Paris (near Gare du Nord) and had less than 24 hours to explore Paris itself before hopping on the Eurostar the next day to get to London. We had a great time in Paris and the Eurostar was an efficient and enjoyable experience. I can’t wait to get back to France someday in the future, hopefully with Dan and Andy, and take in more of Paris itself.
Je Me Souviens-To Infinity & Beyond! 