Cinemagique (the show we had to exit just as it was beginning the day before) was not running until after lunch, so we bopped over to Armageddon. This is a really different show ? ride? in which you are told you are cast as extras in a film and need to react to the special effects as they happen--then everyone goes into a mock up of a space shuttle deck and a variety of effects take place, simulating the ship being hit by an asteroid. There is darkness, shaking floor and ceiling panels, flames, etc. It's especially fun to go on with Rio because he hams it up and acts out the part. Here is our group waiting in the main show area just before things start to happen:
We had an early dinner scheduled so wanted an early lunch, and ate a smaller breakfast to be ready--so we hopped on over to the Disneyland Paris park because one of the restaurants there had chicken fajitas as Menu 3 and that appealed heavily to all but Rio. The plan was for Dave and Marika to wait in line for those while Rio and I walked to the nearby pizza place and waited in line for a pizza meal for him and then we could all eat together.
We walked through one of the arcades on the way in. The arcades are a little bit of DLP awesomeness which is often overlooked and should not be. On either side of Main Street, BEHIND the rows of shops, is an indoor walkway from top to bottom. These walkways have much lighter crowd levels, seldom used and super clean restrooms and awesome theming.
As you head towards the castle, the one on your right is dedicated to inventions and showcases mostly older and more novel inventions and also has loads of reproductions of vintage posters from World's Fairs showing what the future was imagined to look like.
On the left, the side we took, as we were headed to Frontierland, it is dedicated to the Statue of Liberty. The first third is all about the design and build of the statue, in the center there is an animitronic presentation of her dedication, and on the far end it is all about Ellis Island. These are very cool areas--not to be missed by Disney fans. Here are a few photos of the Statue of Liberty Arcade (yes, those are REAL gas lanterns and not an effect):
We arrived at El Fuente del Oro at about 12:15 and there were a couple of dozen people waiting outside of locked doors, much like we encountered on the first day. We figured it would open soon, and Rio and I went off to pick up his pizza at Colonel Hathi's Pizza Outpost. There was a sign out front of Colonol Hathi's that it was closed for the day, and a list of all the places that were supposed to be open (about half of the counter service in the park). I was happy to see our fajita place listed as open--so confident that those would be waiting for me once Rio and I found something for him to eat, we set off to search (noting that the other place that served pizza, from our first day, was also closed). All but two of the remaining options served only burgers as Menu 3--all with special sauces and mayonnaise, which my picky kid will not eat. We could probably order those items plain, but didn't want to wait in a half hour line without knowing we could (after all, logic did not seem to apply to most of the other food issues in the park). The other two options were fish and chips at Toad Hall (Rio will not eat fish) and a Doner Kebab.
By the time we knew all the options, none of which appealed to Rio (and nothing a vegetarian could eat--the ONLY options in the Disneyland Park that a quick service meal voucher could be used for that are vegetarian are the two places that allow for cheese pizza, both of which were closed. It is a good thing I just don't eat beef and pork, some people must really get stuck with these), we had spent 30 minutes traipsing all over the park and were tired, and hungry. We decided to go back to David and Marika, Rio could eat some side dishes while I ate my food before it was stone cold and then we could hop over to the Studios to feed him.
It was about one when we got there, only to see Dave and Marika sitting forlornly in front of a restaurant that had never opened. And this is when I had a melt down. Yes, me, the supposed adult. I was tired and hungry and had thought we would avoid all the food hassles of our prior trip by having things prepaid with this plan, and there we were with nothing to eat and a ton of wasted time.
Dave was frustrated as well, and we ended up at Guest Relations (the one inside the park), where we were quickly ushered into a small room to sit and explain why we were upset (apparently having a tearful guest is not what they want people to see--and yes I know it was a huge overreaction, I cry easily and I was just so frustrated I couldn't help it).
The "resolution" was that calls were made to Blue Lagoon, where we had been told the day prior that we could not use vouchers at face value, and we could now use them there and would be seated without a reservation. We were also told we could go into guest relations each morning to get an accurate listing of which places would be open.
So, off we headed to Blue Lagoon--which is inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and an excellent atmosphere. We decided to see this as a positive in that it gave us the chance to dine in one of the nicer places the one time:
4 entrees (small ones-we left not hungry but not really full either), 2 sodas, one much needed bottle of their least expensive wine, one appetizer:
and one dessert later:
our bill, after handing over 4 vouchers and receiving a $12 credit for each, was still a whopping 108 Euro. That is right up there as one of the most expensive meals I have ever had. It is certainly the least food for the money I have had. It was fun, and it was okay under the circumstances, but I have to be honest and say it left me feeling rather taken advantage of by the system at DLP.
After lunch, we did another of DLP's amazing walk throughs: the castle. Actually, on the way we went into my favourite shop, the adorable Snow White's Cottage--which is almost an attraction in itself:
and then into the castle itself, which has two themed shops on the ground level:
From the central archway
you can climb up a level, from stairs that have a copy of Sleeping Beauty in a case at the base:
Walking around the upper level, the story is retold in lovely stained glass and hand woven tapestries:
(that's a spinning wheel burning in the fireplace)
(I loved the sleeping guards)
Here, at the end of the story, you can walk out onto the balcony overlooking parts of Fantasyland before circling back around and down a very castle like spiral staircase:
Once back down, look for one of the many entrances to the dragon's lair underneath the castle--this is the piece de resistance, a really well done cave full of twists and turns, lanterns, stalactites and an excellent audiomatronic dragon (it is dark and I struggled to get photos, but trust me this is so worth a visit):
So, much cheered by the lovely castle, we headed out for a break. The kids took a nap, Dave and I went to an off site grocery store to pick up some wine, soda and snacks, and then we all had dinner. After dinner we headed back over to the park and packed in quite a bit, including:
Pinocchio's Voyage (a classic dark ride), The Snow White ride (also a classic dark ride), Small World, Tea Cups, and the Carousel. Here are some photos of the theming in Fantasyland:
We finished up our evening tour of Fantasyland with yet another fabulous walk through: a half hour of fun and silliness in Alice's Curious Labyrinth.
As the sunset, and Fantasyland closed to prepare for the nighttime show, we headed into Discoverlyand to ride the Astro Orbitors and Buzz Lightyear.
5 minutes before show time, we found a lovely seat on some futuristic "rocks" and settled in for the nighttime show: Dreams. This is a fabulous and very different show--sort of the best of illuminations, Wishes and Fantasmic all in one. If you are not familiar with those Florida shows, just trust me that this is much more than just fireworks and is worth hanging around for. I only snapped two photos because it was hard to capture and I wanted to enjoy the show (and BONUS it was not overly loud--a huge plus, especially for Marika):
And so ended a (mostly) excellent day and so ends a very long blog post.
--Hadley
No comments:
Post a Comment