A Day In Disneyland

. . . Yeah, I know. It's been like a week since I wrote on here. But, I'm back to say that:

And that gif is especially appropriate for this blog, since last Saturday was the day of THIS:

Whaaaat?

Yeah, I, uh, realized that I didn't actually say I was going to Disneyland Paris at any point on this blog. Oh well. Surprise, I guess?

But before we get to that, let's talk a little bit about Friday. It wasn't a perfect day, but there were a lot of highlights! For instance, this beautiful combination of clouds/sun-shining-through-the-clouds on the RER:

Then the prettiness of la Tour Saint-Jacques, which I passed while walking with Quincy, Anna, Anisa, and Kate:

And the prettiness of ice cream that is in a bowl, so it won't fall on a yucky metro floor:

And lastly, the prettiness of ME:

I don't even care if that sounds self-centered. I genuinely felt really pretty on Friday, which doesn't happen often, so there you go--gratuitous selfie! (Yes, my scarf is tied in a Windsor knot. Why? Because wearing a tie makes me feel like a powerful business executive, and I wanted to, so there.)

Anyway, I know most of you are just dying for the deets on Disneyland Paris, so I won't waste any more of your time. Our day started at about 8 am, as we had to get on the RER and ride it allllll the way to the very end of the line, and we wanted to get to the park before it opened at 10 am. We stumbled across this gentleman while waiting for Quincy and Anisa to arrive so we could walk to the RER: 

He was just chillin' in the middle of the road, and I was like, hey, my dude, you do your thing but I don't think you wanna be crushed, you feel me? So I moved him to a nice grassy patch where he could be happy and safe. 

Let me just say, for the record: Snails>Spiders. All the time.

We had to change lines partway through our ride on the RER, which meant I had a chance to photograph these awesome warning signs that are posted all over the metro: 

They're being used to promote good safe behavior on the metro. You can't really see the first one super well, but it's this girl who leans her head out of the window and then, when another train comes by, gets her ponytail sliced off. The second one is hopefully more clear.

I seriously love these posters. There are so many more that I'll share with you. For now, on to Disneyland! 

It was a little bit rainy out, but nothing we couldn't handle. 

Also. Um. Is it awful of me to say that I kind of prefer the castle in Disneyland Paris to the one at Disneyland in California?

I mean, just look at it. It's all asymmetrical, with towers popping up all over the place. Very quaint and European. I like.

Our first ride of the day was the Peter Pan ride, which is absolutely gorgeous. No pictures of that one, but it's pretty much the same as in the states--which is to say amazingly beautiful and artistic. Then we went through an Alice in Wonderland maze:

Sneaky Cheshire Cat peeking his head out! It was adorable. Also, in the middle of one of the bushes there were those little bike-horn thingies from the movie, and right as we walked by they honked REALLY LOUD at us, which we were not expecting. We kinda yelped, but then laughed. Afterwards we did the teacups, Pirates of the Caribbean, and headed over to The Haunted Mansion (or as it's known here, 'Phantom Manor."

The Phantom Awaits??? Well, sign me the HECK UP!!

It was pretty cool, although the story was a bit jumbled I thought. The whole ghosts-waltzing-at-a-party thing is always A+ though. 10/10 extra spoopy.

After Phantom Manor, we decided we couldn't wait any longer and we got in line for Space Mountain. 

Guys.

Did you know that in Disneyland Paris . . . Space Mountain goes upside down????

It was insane.

Probably the best ride there. All told, we rode four different times throughout the day. 

Also, see that cannon-shooter thing? Instead of just getting gently pulled to the top like at Disneyland California, you get JETTED INTO OUTER SPACE at high speed. Awesome.

Sorry it's blurry, but you can tell we were having fun! (Except maybe Anisa, who looks like she's going to cry . . . but that was just bad timing for the picture. Sorry, Anisa.)

At this point we went to meet up with Grace, Lauren, and Hannah, and we basically hung out with them for the rest of the day. We headed over to the other park (Walt Disney Studios) after riding Space Mountain twice. Here's what it looks like:

Cute, huh?

We were gonna get on the Tower of Terror right away, but the line was so long that wasn't a viable option. We got Fastpasses instead and headed over to a different area of the park. 

Oh, I forgot to mention: at Walt Disney Studios in Paris, there's a Ratatouille ride. So this whole area was Ratatouille-themed! See the "Gusteau's" sign in the distance?

Everything was so pretty here! Man, it was almost like being in France!

;)

The Ratatouille ride was fun--even though it made me super dizzy. It was one of those 3-D movie rides, and basically we'd been shrunk down to the size of rats and stuck inside Gusteau's restaurant, which, as you can imagine, involved lots of chasing and running and screaming . . . it was intense.

There was also a restaurant connected to the ride (Chez Remy, as you could probably guess from my picture), and we thought about going there, but then we looked at the menu and had to try not to hurl--their cheapest deals were around 35 euros, almost as much as the park admission itself. Noooooo thank you.

I found this funny little toque in the gift shop, though, and thought it deserved a spot on the blog.

Cuuute.

After a quick snack/dinner-type interlude, we walked over to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to use our Fastpasses.

Um. 

I guess I forgot to mention this, but . . . I've never ridden on the Tower of Terror before. I had only seen people dropping in it, and I remembered having nightmares about it after watching this creepy advertisement about it when I was like seven. In other words, the only face I could make as we got in line to board the elevator was this: 

I'm not even attempting to do a pufferfish face there. That is just true and unadulterated panic.

I'm serious, I haven't been so scared to get on a ride since my first rollercoaster, and that was ages ago. But when it came time to get all strapped in and prepare to freefall from thirteen stories up, my hands were actually shaking.

In the middle of it, I think my brain was convinced I was actually about to die. But afterwards, I realized that . . . it wasn't really that bad? In comparison to the freefall ride at Silverwood, it was pretty tame. I didn't totally lose the ability to breathe like I normally do on rides like that, so that was a plus. Overall, I liked it.

Funny story: we also rode the Rock-and-Rollercoaster (like the one in Florida,) which has lots of loud rock music playing as you go through this indoor rollercoaster like Space Mountain. When I got on that one, there was an odd number of people and I ended up being the one to take the seat without a buddy next to me. Some dude in his 20s with scruffy facial hair and a big black coat on sat next to me, and said, "Vous etes Francais?"

"Non, je suis americaine."

He switched over to English then. "You have ridden this before?"

"Uh, no. Never ridden this ride before."

"Never?" He seemed amazed. Then he smiled. "Good luck!"

I was kind of like, okay, that was weird, but whatever. The ride was great, and that guy next to me was reaalllly enthusiastic about it--he was yelling so loud that I couldn't even hear myself scream. At the end of the ride, just before the bars came up so we could get off, he just turned and looked at me. Didn't say anything, just gave me this exact face: 

I was just like . . . . "Yeah! That was fun!"

And he nodded, still smiling, and we both got off the ride. 

I waited until he was out of sight to crack up, but believe me, it was a struggle. 

After riding that rollercoaster again, we decided it was time to head back over to Disneyland.

Yes, this is a cute picture, but I chose this one to showcase something very specific--or should I say someone:

Just look at that guy. He's totally smiling directly at my camera. He knows he's photobombing and he's happy about it. 

Well played, sir.

We headed over to It's a Small World, because that is a necessity at any Disneyland trip.

Fun fact: everything here is more brightly colored than at the original Disneyland, which is because of the weather. It's cloudy so much of the year that they decided to use brighter colors to make everything pop against the gray sky. I love it.

Why, hello there, blurry Eiffel Tower! (Can I just say that the Small World song sounds a lot cooler in French? Because it does. But basically everything sounds cooler in French.)

After that was the Fairytale Boats ride, where you ride in a boat past all these miniature fairytale castles. It was sooo cute! Picture montage! 

First up, the Beast's castle:

Rapunzel's tower:

 An extra-spoopy graveyard:

Prince Eric's castle from The Little Mermaid:

And the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin!:

It was all super cool, and had lots of really interesting details! 

This park is nowhere near as big as Disneyland back home, so that's about it for new rides. It started to get dark real quick, and while most people were going to Phantom Manor again I got myself some dinner:

It was some sort of kebab sandwich, with fresh slightly spicy meat, lettuce, and onions. Yumm.

After I ate I met back up with the other girls and we hopped on Space Mountain two more times, because the lines were really short. At this point it was really starting to get dark out, which I didn't mind, because Disneyland always looks so much cooler at night:

To finish the night, we sat down to watch the lights display that happens at 10, right before the park closes. We agreed that we were going to leave halfway through, so we could get to the metro before giant hordes of people started stampeding that direction.

But man, oh man, do I wish we could have stayed for the whole thing.

It was absolutely incredible. They projected all sorts of different effects onto the castle that coordinated with the fireworks and made it change colors and textures--at one point, they had a Hunchback of Notre Dame moment, which meant that Quasimodo popped out of a window and climbed all over the castle--it looked super real, even though it was just a projection! So cool.

Another thing that I loved was that all the stories that take place in France had their respective songs sung in French (others, like Frozen and Aladdin, were left alone)--there was a bit with Remy from Ratatouille, and Hunchback of course, and, best of all, the French translation of Be Our Guest--C'est la Fete. 

And that's what I want to leave you with today, to close out this blog. I was so happy to be in Disneyland Paris because I love Disney, but the thing that made me happiest was knowing that I was not only in Disneyland--I was in France! So the way I felt can only be understood by listening to this:

You are all awesome! Hope you have a great day!