A more relaxing day at Disneyland Paris

Wednesday was a planned "down day" at the parks for us (well, not for Marika--she took the opportunity to head into Paris, meet a fellow Girl Scout delegate and see lots of impressionist art and had a wonderful time--thank you Amy!).  I got up, took Marika to the train station, then headed over to the central area at the ranch and sat outside catching up on things online while the boys slept in.

After a slow start, and leisurely breakfast, we set out to enjoy the large indoor pool at Davy Crockett Ranch.  The pool includes a lazy river, slide, basketball nets (and balls to borrow), several jets and fountains, two hot tubs and a water fall feature

  As we had hoped, there were very few people there early in the day and we virtually had it to ourselves:

We lingered a while and were not actually headed in from the parking lot until about 1:00.  There is one restaurant (New York Style Sandwich Shop) in the Disney Village shopping area that takes the lunch vouchers ( you pass the Village when going between the parking lot and the park entrances--it is right across from the train station).  We decided to check that one out for lunch and were happy to see that there were several options--we could choose any entree other than pizza:

Rio's pasta was very good and a pretty good size.  David and I split a hot panini (in hopes of getting fajitas once in the park) and it was okay, but very dry (it was supposed to have BBQ sauce, but we could not taste or see any) and quite small.  

In the park, we finally got our fajitas (they're good, and that menu, with Mexican rice,  is plenty for two adults to split, we were glad our sandwich had been so small):

We grabbed some fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain and then took another spin on Phantom Manor, taking the time to enjoy the "Boot Hill" graveyard as we exited (you have to turn off of the direct exit route to walk though this.)

If you are having trouble reading this:  the Manservant "kept the Master happy" and the Chamber Maid "kept the Master happier)

There was an afternoon showing of Cinemagique coming up, so we hopped over to The Studios for that (and finally got to see it).  Ironically, the show starts with Martin Short interrupting the film by his cell phone ringing--and just as that happened, David's began to vibrate--Marika was calling.

After the show we headed over to use our fast passes at Big Thunders Mountain, and called Marika back.  By the time we were off the ride she was with us again, and we all decided to try the Storybook Boats--these (and Casey Junior) were only open until 6:00 pm on the days we were there.  The boats are typical of that type of ride and it was a cute ride with almost no wait:

The afternoon parade at DLP is at 5:30 during this time of year.  We were able to catch it on our way out of the park.  It was a nice parade.  We liked the split floats (two shows would be represented on one float; one on the front and one on the back, and generally with similar settings: for example The Jungle Book and The Lion King shared a float).  We also liked the theme of dreams being in books.

By the time the parade ended, and we got back to the hotel, we had about a half hour to relax before our 8:00 pm dinner reservation.  All in all it was a relaxing and enjoyable day.

--Hadley