Day 39

First day in Disneyland Paris today!!! We woke up at 8 and got to the park at about 9:20.  We had to exchange our tickets that we printed out to actual tickets and then got in line. I expected that there was going to be this huge line of people, but there wasn't. We were let in early, and walked around main street. Everything was decorated for Halloween and there were themed ghosts and pumpkins for each store. We headed towards Space Mountain: Mission 2 to get a Fast Pass immediately. It's like in the olden days where you have to scan your ticket to get a paper fast pass. We got one before the actual park and rides even opened. Someone we slipped in with the hotel guests for early magic hours in the morning, so we started our day off early. We then headed towards Indiana Jones. Indiana  Jones here is not like the one in California.  It is an outside rollercoaster with a loop.  Mom and Ash would have loved it. Nothing scary for Ashleigh. We made it on perfect timing because the ride broke down as soon as we got off.... The rest of the day went by quickly, but I'll give you some highlights.

First of all, Disneyland Paris is breathtaking. The castle might actually be the prettiest one out of all of them, and the landscaping near it is beautiful. Also, there's an animatronic dragon in the castle that moves and breathes fire and is literally the coolest thing. Disneyland Paris is also big for rides where you walk through them. There was the dragon walkthrough, an Alice in Wonderland Labryinth, a 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas walkthrough, Aladdin walkthrough, and a Pirates walkthrough and a Sleeping Beauty one. Very unusual. The rides here are also a lot scarier, literally. Space Mountain had 3 loops. Three. Does any other space mountain have loops? No. Was I expecting loops going on? Absolutely not. I didn't think indoor roller coasters could have loops. But we went on twice today because the outside of the building is really cool and it was a fun ride after I got done screaming. The Snow White dark ride is also a lot darker. There's a lot of skeletons and the trees are scary in it. It reminds me of what the original ride used to look like in Florida until they deemed it too dark for kids. Pirates of the Caribbean also had a lot of skeletons and no Jack Sparrow. It was a shorter ride but had 3 drops, so I'm not sure Mamma would have liked it as much. They also didn't sing the iconic song. We went on this twice. It was cool to hear the animatronics speak French though everywhere. French C3PO is pretty cool. Haunted Mansion  (called Phantom Manor) would have freaked Ashleigh out. This is completely different from the Haunted Mansion. It focuses on a bride and on a Phantom. The Phantom is shown hanging the person from the ceiling in the beginning and responsible for killing the bride. The pictures in the stretching room are all different too. There was no friendly graveyard scene where they are singing happily. Instead there are scary dogs and disturbing skeleton/corpses and the nice bride at the end is shown as a disgusting skeleton. I wouldn't say it was family friendly. But we went on that twice too. Dad would have loved the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad here. It was a really long ride and was so fun and was a lot better than the other versions in the other parks. Definitely my favorite ride here surprisingly. We went on this twice as well. Peter Pan wasn't as good here. It was really, really short, but the wait today for it never went above 30 minutes (surprising right?). The most we waited today was 25 minutes for Dumbo, but everything else was shorter than that. It was busy, but not like Florida crowds at all. We could easily go through crowds and walk on rides. It was almost funny to see people wearing winter coats, hats, and gloves because I'm so used to people wearing shorts and flip flops at Disney.  I got to see Abu, Maleficent, and Halloween Mickey today and got pictures. My pictures aren't loading on my computer though so I might have to post them when I get back. We watched the Disney Dream parade today and the songs were all in English and it was a beautiful parade. Everything here is in English, all the signs, menus, etc. The food here is all American too. For supper I had a burger because that was our only options.  A lot of food places and merchandise places didn't open today, so I'm not sure whether it was because it was a Friday, or just because it wasn't busy enough, but it was weird to see closed places. Unfortunately It's a Small World is not working while we are here, too. Anyways, we stayed until the park closed at 8, and walked to the Disney Village to shop. I got Ashleigh a couple things, and bought myself a green long sleeved Tinkerbell shirt because it was the prettiest shirt I think I've ever seen. There's so much else to write, but I'm really tired, so I'll tell everyone about it later. Tomorrow we are going to Hollywood Studios, the second park here. Ratatouille ride and Crush Coaster here I come!! Being here makes me so excited for living in Florida next semester , too. Everytime I see "cast members only" I keep thinking that I'm going to be one soon! My home away from home here!