4.8.
Yeah! Here we gooo! Two girls on their way to Disneyland Paris (once again
Even though we started on a normal weekday, traffic was quiet and we had a relaxed journey. After two short breaks exit number 14 with the famous mouse finally came into view. While we were driving it rained several times, but as soon as we reached the exit, the sun came out. Now that's how it should be, when visiting the magic kingdom ;-) Alas, we didn't get rid of the rain for the whole holiday.
Since a long time we had booked the Sequoia Lodge again, as I wanted to test the new Golden Forest rooms. We parked the car and walked to the reception. As the Golden Forest Club has it's own reception, we had no waiting time and the check-in was done in a few minutes. The nice receptionist explained, where the Golden Forest rooms are, where we will find the Lounge etc. We got a fastpass-ticket per day and person (which were more than useful, even if you can't use them between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.) Finally he said, we shouldn't be surprised, the room would be a little bit larger than expected. Whatever he meant with that, we decided to have a quick look into our room before getting our luggage. We took the elevator to the seventh floor (boy, that one is fast) and seconds later stood in front of the door to our room. After opening the door we stood there open-mouthed. It was one of the suites overlooking the lake, with a balcony and everything. Wow! That's an upgrade I would take every time! I guess it had three times the size of a standard room.
here's our view
After a short relaxing break in this wonderful room, we headed towards the parks. Lazy as we were we took the bus, since the bridge near the Sequoia Lodge was still under construction and we would have had to walk around the whole lake.
Against our tradition we first entered the Studios – Ratatouille was calling :-)
As we had still some time until our Fastpass would be valid, we soaked in the atmosphere of Place Rémy. I love the fountain. Sadly there where so many people around, that you couldn't get a clear shot with the camera.
Well, it was beautiful nonetheless. We had a quick look inside the waiting area for the restaurant and decided to try and book a table for 5 p.m. It wasn't a problem at all and with the reservation in hands we entered Ratatouille via Fastpass. No waiting time, we could walk right up to the boarding area after grabbing the 3-D-goggles (which are quiet comfortable, even my friend who wears glasses had no problem with them)
What to say about Ratatouille? Beautifully themed ride and amazing effects. I don't wonna spoil it, only a little warning: you may get wet at the end
By the way, the regular waiting time that day and the following was about 1 hour.
So after visiting the rooftops of Paris and Remy's kitchen we entered the restaurant.
A friendly CM escorted us from the waiting area around a corner and stopped us. She explained that by crossing this point we will shrink to the size of a rat, but nothing to worry about, it won't be permanent (whew, lucky us). And right she was, the tiles on the floor suddenly grew bigger and bigger (it didn't hurt, I swear!
She showed us our table, which turned out to be the top of a tea-box. Chairs were made of the metal tops, that hold the corks on champagne bottles.
We both chose menu Emile, starter is a mixed salad, main course we opted for the codfish with ratatouille and mashed potatoes, dessert was mousse au chocolate for me and for my friend a piece of brie with jam and a kind of cinnamon fruitcake.
Salad: just great; normally I'm no friend of beetroot but chopped into thin pieces and kind of smoked it tasted great with the mixed salad and cheese (lightningy
)
Main Course: very yummy, especially the ratatouille
Dessert: wow, nearly too much to eat and great taste; I tried a little piece of my friends dessert. The cheese combined with a little bit of jam and the fruitcake was very tasty.
We didn't meet Rémy, but I'm sure, he was very busy in the kitchen ;-)
After that feast we more or less had to force ourselves to get up again, but we wanted to do some more things that day and so we pulled ourselves together and left Chez Rémy.
Then we had a premiere. We hopped on Cars Race Ralley. I don't know, why we never did this before, but with only 5 minutes to wait, we couldn't say no again. And in no time at all we sat in a tiny car waiting for the start of the race. We expected it to be a little bit like the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups, but it's much faster. And really fun! At some times you really think, you would crash into the next car. A little bit dizzy we checked the time at Crush's Coaster single rider line. It was 40 minutes and my friend wanted to try it. She hadn't done Crush's in years since it was either closed, out-of-order or the waiting time was beyond good and evil.
As I won't do Crush's again, we agreed to meet later at Studio 1 and I did a little foto-shooting and people-watching while she queued for Crush's. I don't have any problems to pass time in the parks on my own :-)
I even discovered a “new” path, which I never used before. If you walk the street between Cafe des Cascadeurs and Stuntshow, you'll emerge between Studio tram and Tower of Terror. You can always find something new, when visiting Disneyland Paris.
It was only about half an hour later, when my friend called on the mobile, that she was already at Studio 1. So the single-rider-line works!
We decided to rummage through the shops as a little rain shower was coming by.
After this little tour we left the Studios and headed to the Disneyland Park. What would be better than a little caribbean adventure with pirates? The two fencers were hidden behind a curtain again, but it's still one of my favourite attractions.
As we both were pretty tired that first day, we put Dreams off to the next day and strolled leisurely back to the bus terminal.
