It’s a small world after all
We went to Disneyland Paris as a starter off our holiday. My daughter wanted this as a kind of gift for her birthday.
I did visit Euro Disney about 12-13 years ago, a couple of years after it opened. I had some mixed feelings about it. The main thought was that it was a decoction of the US parks I’ve visited a while before. Somehow it didn’t seem to feel/fit properly. I was time to go back and see what’s changed. And there were a lot of things: besides the amusement park itself, there are now the theme parks, the studios, the golf terrain, the hotels, etc. In other words big business and it shows: there’s a lot of crowd, even before the opening hours. That seems to cause some anxiety with a cocked military and bag control at the entrance as result. I don’t know what they were looking for, but it wasn’t thorough since I was afraid that would question my GPSr. They didn’t even notice it.
Anyway, once inside, its became clear that it would be long queuing at some attractions, so we took a fast lane ticket for mutual interest attractions and then girls and boys split up for each of the thing one wanted to do. The son and I combined the roller coasters with the “Disneyland Paris *virtual*” GCF5CA cache. I left a bit with an unsatisfied feeling though. First of all, I’m a big fan of wooden roller coasters and secondly a lot of the roller coaster thrills are taken away because some are inside and in the dark and the others are made that save that young kids even can join. It follows a strange security policy though. In contrary to other attraction parks, where absolutely no bags or trailing goods are allowed, everything was allowed to bring alone. At the other hand, a safe attraction like the Dumbo merry-go-round is checked not twice, not triple but quadruple wise by at least as many staff (or cast they are called over there), resulting in long waiting times of at least an hour whereas the attraction barely lasts a minute or two. Speaking of staff; never seen so many people working in an attraction park. Each job has at least one backup it seems. I’ve seen three people cleaning an oil spot after the stunt show: one for spreading the sawdust, the other for cleaning it up and the third for holding the garbage container.
Whilst going from one attraction to the other one, I could look for the solution of the second virtual “Le Roi Arthur” GCF981 and the only traditional inside the park “Disneyland Paris *traditional*” GCF5C9. The latter will be very expensive to maintain. Let’s face it, Euro Disney is very expensive. Not only the entrance but also the food (despite the VAT cuts) costs a lot. A simple ice cream costs 3-4 times more than at home. But then you don’t have the ambiance of it of course.
Day two started with a trad outside the park: “Disneyland – Le phare” GC1D8CP. Then we decided to visit the Studios. There were some nice shows which could entertain the whole family. It’s not always clear though. There is this Twilight Zone Hotel, which was indicate to suit small (in size) children. So we took our 6 year old daughter with us. It was indicated that some thrills might occur and thus not suitable for pregnant women, cardiac patients, etc. but we didn’t know what the expect. It happened to be an elevator that goes up and down at high speeds. My daughter didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. After that we went for a very calm boat trip where we suddenly somebody calling my daughter’s name. It was her friend at school/class with her family. It’s a small world after all.
