Mixed reactions when this was the answer to the question other people posed to me as to what I was doing for my New Years Eve. It was either "Oh my gosh I'm so excited for you. That'll be so fun." or "Oh my gosh you're probably going to hate it. It's extremely lame."
That being said, I agree with both sides. It was extremely good fun, and it was also extremely lame fun. But it was fun nonetheless. Helps when you have good company too.
Katie and I started off the day early taking a train to just outside of Paris where Disneyland is located. It was cold and rainy/snowy when we got off the train and continued to be that way for the first two hours while we were there. However, while we were in line for our first ride, STAR TOURS, the precip let up and it was a bit more enjoyable. I can't say the same for Star Tours
though... not so enjoyable. First of all, I didn't know how the Fast Pass worked yet, so we waited in line for 90 minutes for a 5 minute "ride". I had a few problems with it. 1) The droid was talking in French, and it's very difficult to understand droid talk in French. 2) It was a simulated Star Wars virtual reality ride to Endor that took us to the Death Star where the rebellion was attempting to destroy the FIRST Death Star, which was located by the planet Yavin. Different sides of the galaxy. 4) In the simulation, some other pud blew up the Death Star instead of Luke Skywalker... seriously? -- It just didn't compare to the Star Wars ride that I went on at least 3 times when I did DisneyWorld. I was hoping it wasn't an indication for what was to come.It wasn't, because we figured out the Fast Pass system and got ours for Space Mountain. We came back and did it later in the day, and though it doesn't compare to American roller coasters, it was pretty fun.
But in between Star Tours and Space Mountain, we did a few other things. We looked around in some gift shops, wondered around and explored the park (which wasn't terribly large but still had plenty to see), and ate lunch. I had the Fish 'n Chips and Katie had the fish sandwich. Both were expensive, but good. They don't to a lot of catering to the American crowd since not a lot visit. Rather they take American cuisine and give it the European twist, whether it's Fish n Chips for lunch or Balsamic Vinegar for your Taco Salad at dinner. Not recommended to mix with Guacamole and Salsa.
Of course, we went on as many rides as possibly, many of them one could deem "lame". But they kept us warm on a cold day and gave us some good laughs. We went on the Phantom Mansion ride, Pinnochio's ride, Pirates of the Caribbean (which has 0 reference to the popular cinematic adventures), and to complete the experience, It's a Small World. The highlight of this ride was us pointing out which country was which, and finally coming upon America which featured a football player and a fan eating a greasy snack. Hilarious.
It started to fall into nighttime and they lit up the place. Except for the Western Frontierland, which they kept extremely dark. I guess it was for the ambiance of being on the Frontier, but we could literally not see where we were walking. After taking the train to the Frontierland, we stumbled upon Woody's round-up here, where there were a few characters out and about. We saw Donald Duck and I got a picture with Jack from Nightmare Before X-Mas. And we took a photo with Stinky Pete.
We went on one more ride before the New Year, Buzz Lightyear's Laser Adventure, which was pretty cool. For those of you who have been to Silver Dollar City, it was like the Great Mine Shootout. Needless to say, I kicked Katie's butt. Then we made our way over to get a spot in front of the castle, and there was a "DJ party" going on. It basically consisted of loud European Techno, American 80s songs, and people getting there dance on. But the castle was magnificent and they put on a brilliant fireworks show (which I got a little video of). It was quite magical.
The train ride back, however, was not so magical, because we had to wait an hour to even get on a train and by the we were very tired. But we did make it back and finally went to bed after a long day.
So that's the magic of EuroDisney. Of course it doesn't compare to Disneyworld, but Americans just know how to do entertainment better than Europeans. There I said it.
A Bientot
Justin
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