Disney World in Paris: Le Jour Le Plus Magique #HogsAbroad

Salut! This is my most exciting post so far. I am seriously so excited to write it and relive Sunday because...
We went to Disneyland Paris!!!

Now listen, if you're one of those people who says "oh yeah Disneyland/world is cool but I just don't get all the hype," then you should probably stop reading here. Disney magic is 100% real and I am not exaggerating even a little bit when I say that it is my favorite place on earth, so this post is going to be long and overexcited and joyous. Also I'm going to describe my whole day in detail and it just really won't be interesting if Disney's not your thing. It's something fun for me to remember and look back on though, so that's why I'm writing it!

Disneyland Paris is not actually in Paris; it is in a small town about 40 minutes outside the city called Marne-la-Vallée. My friends Ireland, Abby, Carrie and I jumped on the RER (Paris regional train) at 9:22 a.m. so that we would be at the park right when it opened at 10 a.m.

We arrived at the park and immediately reached a state of overexcitement that lasted all day long.

We were already crazy enthusiastic before we entered, as evidence by Carrie's hand motions.

Walt & Mickey

We decided to do the Walt Disney Studios park first because we thought it might be less busy and that way we could end the day at the Disneyland park and see the fireworks show. For those who have been to Disney World before, the Walt Disney Studios park is a lot like Hollywood Studios. All the buildings look like a movie set, and they have the classics like a backlot tour, some stunt shows and, much to my chagrin, Tower of Terror.

On our way in to the park, we walked through a building filled with all these 50s-inspired restaurants, including the Brown Derby.

Here it is. The worst ride in the world.

Most of you probably don't know about my messy history with Tower of Terror. It is long and arduous and emotionally distressing, but I suppose I shall tell it.

On our first trip to Disney World in 2004, before Jenna was even born, let along adopted, we spent a day in Hollywood Studios (then called MGM). At the end of the day, my parents and brother decided that they would like to ride Tower of Terror. At only age 4, Simon was a brave, reckless rider. He couldn't see the danger in this ride like I could, at age 8. I could tell just from looking at this thing that I didn't want to ride it, and I said so. But my parents insisted that I would like it, so we got in line. I continued to protest as we waited, because the whole thing is creepy and covered in cobwebs and WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO RIDE IT? A teenage girl in front of me insisted that it was really fun and not scary; she lied.

We got in our seats on the worst elevator in history and I was shaking. They did the little light show with the stars and creepy music and ghosts and I was freaking out. Then the falling started.

Back then, Tower of Terror didn't have seatbelts. I was a really small skinny kid, so the minute we started falling I started flying into the air, a foot or more above my seat. Mom threw her leg over me to keep me in my seat, and I was just sobbing. It was definitely one of the worst experiences of my life, and I hated every single second.

We got off the ride and I was still crying so much that my parents had to buy my ice cream. They felt bad, but I was traumatized. We went to Disney the next year and in 2010, and I didn't even come near the Tower.

In 2012, I went on a mission trip to California with my youth group, and friends talked me into riding the dreaded thing again. I did, and it wasn't too terrible, but that doesn't mean I didn't shed a small tear in fearful anticipation. That trauma ran deep.

So when Carrie, Abby and Ireland wanted to ride it, I was a little nervous. This ride and I don't have a great track record. But I am much braver now than I was when I was 8 or even 16, so I persevered. I was actually kind of excited to see if it was as bad as I remembered or if I liked it now. (I was still nervous though, so Abby held my hand on one side and Carrie on the other.)

And guys, guess what? I DIDN'T DIE! It's still definitely not my favorite ride in the world, and I do find it unnecessarily creepy and over-hyped, but I conquered my fear! Yay!

Post-ride celebratory proof-of-survival selfie that I immediately sent to my mother in a haze of glory.

After Tower of Terror, we walked past the Toy Story Playland, which is just one of many things that was totally unique to Disneyland Paris - they don't have it at either park in the states. We didn't ride any rides here because they were mostly kid rides and the waits were very long.

They even had a toy solder parachute drop ride!

Lincoln Log house

Then we walked in to the Ratatouille area. They don't have this at any other park either, and it was really interesting to see what was clearly popular in Europe versus the States. For instance, Ratatouille is pretty much nowhere in the States, but we have a lot of Little Mermaid rides/merchandise, yet I saw almost none of that here.

On top of that building is a "Gusteau's" sign.

Remy's on top of the fountain, and of course the water shoots out of wine bottles because we're in France and wine is life.

Isn't the Ratatouille area so cute? We felt like we were back in Paris. The ride was really neat too! You get in a little rat car and wear 3D glasses while you drive through scenes of the movie, so it's king of like the 4D experience of what it would be like to be a rat and try not to get stepped on.

After Ratatouille, we went out left the Walt Disney Studios park. There wasn't much else that we wanted to ride, because the backlot tour and stunt shows weren't really up our alley, and the WDS park is very small. Several of the rides were closed for renovations as well, including Rockin' Roller Coaster, though I have no idea why they decided to do renovations in peak amusement park/tourism season.

To enter the park, you walk under this beautiful pink hotel.

We walked in to the second park and immediately snapped a pic with the castle. I LOVE the castle here. I mean, it's not nearly as impressive as the one in Orlando, but it's pink and so ornate!

And you can also see Abby in her little ears :)

Then we walked down Main Street USA. This is absolutely hilarious to us because there are a lot of aspects of the park that are very Parisian, like the Ratatouille area and the food and the ride options, but they still tell you that you're in the States.

We went to Space Mountain first to see if we would need a fastpass. There was no need - the wait was only 10 minutes. That's INSANE. This was seriously the perfect day to go. It was a little gloomy and it did rain some, but all in all the weather was pretty nice, definitely not too hot and the park wasn't busy at all, which was very surprising considering we went on a weekend in the summer, and during the EuroCup no less. That Disney magic is alive and kicking.

Space Mountain was so different here. First off, it just looks different the other Space Mountains are entirely indoors, but you are outside when you load in on this one. That above picture reminds of Silver Dollar City in that way.

Second, this ride is CRAZY. We unanimously decided that it was the best Space Mountain, but we screamed and freaked out the whole way through because it was just so surprising. Ireland had asked me before we got on if I thought it went upside down, because the harness covered our shoulders, and I said "no, surely not. The others don't." I could not have been more wrong. It goes upside and does corkscrews, and in the very beginning it shoots you off like a rocket like the Hulk coaster in Universal Studios. It is an amazing roller coaster, but it happened so fast and we were so surprised that we couldn't even remember it!

Then we rode more rides, including "Phantom Manor" (read: the French version of Haunted Mansion, which was weirder and creepier than the American version) and the Indiana Jones ride, which also went upside down and was just kind of downright terrifying and jerky. They seem to have less regulations in France about what kind of harness is necessary for upside-down rides.

These rides were in the Adventureland area, which was honestly hilarious. They combined everything even slightly ethnic into one park, which was super confusing and very inaccurate. There was a Lion King restaurant, a Pocohontas play ground, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Indiana Jones, the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse and we even passed by Jasmine and Aladdin:

And we met Tiana and Naveen:

Another funny thing: this whole park is bilingual. Literally everyone who works here speaks English and French, the signs are in both languages, and so are the rides! On the rides where characters speak, one character will speak French while the other responds in English, which is a very interesting little quirk. It was absolutely impossible to get used to Nemo with a French accent. Tiana and Naveen were actually trilingual, because they spoke Spanish too! They were so sweet and they spent nearly 5 minutes with each group - in the States you're lucky to get 2 minutes! They told us to visit them next year at Carnaval in New Orleans and that they would take us dancing because, in the words of Naveen: "look at their legs, you can just tell they're dancers!" (Coincidentally, Carrie is a dance major, so he wasn't entirely wrong.)

Then we went in to Fantasyland and rode pretty much everything. We even went through this cool Alice in Wonderland maze, which was actually really big and more difficult than I anticipated!

The castle was at the center of the labyrinth and you could go up in it and see the whole park! That was cool.

And we rode the teacups ...

And of course It's a Small World:

I liked this version of It's a Small World a lot! It was newer than the one in Disney World, so the dolls weren't as creepy and I found the sets to be a lot brighter and more visually stimulating.

Then it was parade time! I adore parades, and they're always a great opportunity to see characters that are pretty much impossible to find anywhere else in the parks, like:

The fairies from Sleeping Beauty! They were riding around on hoverboards.

The princesses AND their princes! Princes are hard to find, and Prince Phillip is my favorite :)

Prince Adam!

And Snow White's prince! We debated and then researched his name and discovered it is Prince Ferdinand.

Pooh Bear, Piglet, Eyeore and Tigger!

Baloo!

Peter Pan! He's everywhere in Disneyland in CA but pretty much impossible to find in Orlando.

Burt! Mary Poppins not pictured.

There were tons of other characters as well, but these were the most unexpected ones!

Then we explored the castle! It's technically Sleeping Beauty's castle, whereas the Orlando one is Cinderella's, and then I'm not sure about Disneyland California? We thought it was weird that it was Sleeping Beauty though, because her story is German if I remember correctly, but both Cinderella and Belle are French so they seemed like more likely options? Hm. Anyways, on the top floor they have a lot of stained glass and tapestries that tell the story of Sleeping Beauty.

We rode everything we wanted to ride in this park, so we decided to head back over to Walt Disney Studios to ride the Crush Coaster, which had an hour long wait the last time we stopped by. This time it was only half an hour, and it was so fun! We thought it was just going to tell the story of Finding Nemo, but it was actually another crazy-spinny-fast roller coaster-type ride, but in pitch blackness! It reminded me of the Forbidden Journey ride at Harry Potter world.

Then we left the park to go to Disney Village to eat, which is basically just like Downtown Disney. We may have done a little shopping as well ...

And then we headed back in to the Disneyland park to see the fireworks show! We had a little extra time to kill, so we rode Space Mountain again, this time with a ZERO MINUTE WAIT. LIKE WHAT.

And we finished off the night with the 'Dreams' fireworks show, which was incredible. I may have teared up once ... or twice ... or three times out of sheer joy.

It was such a wonderful day and I am so thankful that I got to go, and with such wonderful friends as well! I know it's not cool to say, but it may be my favorite thing I've done in Paris. It was just the most joyous, lovely time!

À demain!

Sydne
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Read more from Sydne at http://theyesgirlwrites.blogspot.com/
To find out more about the ISA Paris, France: Arts & French Language at the Institut Catholique de Paris program, check out http://studiesabroad.com/paris