Staying at one of the DLRP hotels means that you can take advantage of "extra magic hours" -- basically, an hour's head start over the crowds. We foolishly thought it was good for both parks... until we walked over to a suspiciously quiet Walt Disney Studios Park and discovered that the gates were locked. Harrumph.
So back over to the main park which, in the morning rain, was empty. Weirdly empty. We got pictures of Main Street USA that were virtually empty. Not "extra magic hours" empty -- more like "pre-opening restaurant reservation" empty. Pity the weather wasn't better... but maybe that's why the park was so empty.
We went into the castle walkthrough -- fantastic stained glass, "sleeping" suits of armor, pillars turned into trees, etc. Really gorgeous -- especially when empty. We walked by it again later in the day, and it was rammed with people -- clearly we got lucky.
At some point we wandered over to the Disney Studios park.. but we were totally underwhelmed. Most of the rides weren't open... either not open yet for "summer" (hey, it was only June 8), closed due to some mechanical problem, or, in the case of Toy Story Playland not yet open at all. Boo. So we walked around a bit, went on Tower of Terror, saw lots of closed rides, and managed to successfully see the "Armageddon Experience". But then we gave up. At one point we joined a huge queue for Crush's Coaster... to be told that things were not working, but they hoped to fix them, maybe in an hour, maybe tomorrow, peuf. Infuriating. So after poking around in some shops, we just went back over to Disneyland.
What else is there to say about DLRP? We had this idea that it would be glorious... but a lot of it simply wasn't up to snuff. For example, the teenagers who work the railroad are bored teenagers, rather than train geeks. Because, of course, Europeans who love trains can actually WORK ON TRAINS. Seeing that snotty kid with his overalls undone "just so", his bandanna and hat in his pocket, and absurd hipster sunglasses almost made me angry. So pathetic.
And the whole character thing... the absolute crush that greeted any character "in the wild' was terrifying. Take cultures for whom standing in lines is simply not done, and throw excited kids in the mix. Yikes. At first we thought they only had fur characters out there... but then at one point we saw Snow White essentially pinned against a railing by a 6-deep crowd of people. So much for our finding out what language the princesses all spoke!
By about noon, we were pretty much done. We had another night we could have stayed, but for what? A wander around the dispiriting "Disney Village"? Another weird meal in the hotel? Plus, the weather was getting worse and worse... absolutely dumping with rain.
We went back to the hotel to have a nap and to think. A couple of hours later, with the rain still pouring down, we decided to just pack up and head back to Paris.
We took the shuttle bus to the train station, the train back to Paris, and were in our lovely little flat by evening. Nice!
No comments:
Post a Comment