{"id":73,"date":"2002-11-11T17:44:16","date_gmt":"2002-11-12T01:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/?p=73"},"modified":"2020-06-10T18:26:52","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T01:26:52","slug":"europe-2002-day-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/2002\/11\/11\/europe-2002-day-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe 2002 Day 8: Parcs Disneyland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Monday November 11, 2002<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today it was time to return to Disneyland Paris, one of my favorite Disney Parks of them all. It was Roger’s first visit to a non-US Disney park and he and I had a great time. I had forgotten the details of most of the attractions that I had visited before, so for some it was like visiting them for the first time. Big differences were that Space seemed more turbulent than before, and Pirates and Mansion seemed way cooler than before. I also finally got to ride the Casey Jr. Circus Train, something that was closed back in 1996. However, the Nautilus walk through still has eluded me as it was again closed while we were in Paris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Holiday Arches on Main Street USA for the Christmas celebration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Welcome to Disneyland Parc Paris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Sleeping Beauty Castle in the early morning light <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Midday, we headed over to the Walt Disney Studios Paris. It was a very simple theme park which had just opened a few short months ago. They were getting their operating feel down, and it reminded me of California Adventure post opening in February and March of 2001. One of things that most impressed me was the Aladdin Magic Carpets attraction. I liked the dual controls so the people in the back had something to do. Of course, that says a lot about a new park if the spinner attraction is the thing that impressed me most. I did like Rock and Roller coaster as I did in Florida, and I think the Lights, Motors, Action show has some good potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Walt Disney Studios Paris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Inside Stage 1 – the “Main Street” of Walt Disney Studios Paris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Strolling around the park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Josh and the Gorn recreate the Partners statue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We then headed back to Disneyland Park for the remainder of the operating day. As the hours winded down, I noticed that they shut their restaurants down early so getting something to eat was a bit of a challenge at the end. We got to see the Paris version of the Main Street Electrical Parade which felt very short compared to its California cousin. In a twist, it did feature some Christmas tunes interspersed with the classic Baroque Hoedown. The Christmas Fireworks were a nice 10 minute show. I described them to Roger as “10 minutes of pops and sparkles”. There were about 5 minutes left in the operating day at the conclusion of the Fireworks spectacular, but all the attractions were already closed. Apparently there was some sort of private party happening and they wanted to get us all out as quickly as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Phantom Manor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Looking over Frontierland from Phantom Manor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Sleeping Beauty Castle at night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Watching the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland Paris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I really enjoyed Disneyland Resort Paris. It is very beautiful and despite the shortcomings in several areas it is a lot of fun. Of course Disneyland Park in California is still the best, but I am pretty sure that is not a bias-free statement. I do want to come back, but I really would like to go to Tokyo Disney Resort before heading back here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After making the trek back to Paris, we met up with Nathan at the elusive Cafe Boubourg. The only incident on the Metro this time was some strange man with a cardboard stand up figure navigating he way through the train. Roger and I both wondered if the stand up had to pay full fare or not. We had a great time over drinks with Nathan. We gabbed for a while talking about careers, Paris Life, the cost of housing, where we need to travel next, and Nathan’s possible job with the UN. We made plans for dinner for tomorrow night at one of Nathan’s favorite restaurants and then headed back to the hotel for some well deserved sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Finally meeting up with Nathan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s Note 2020 – One of these days I will bring back the huge Disneyland Paris photo gallery. Just not a priority since there are a lot of much better ones online..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday November 11, 2002 Today it was time to return to Disneyland Paris, one of my favorite Disney Parks of them all. It was Roger’s first visit to a non-US Disney park and he and I had a great time. I had forgotten the details of most of the attractions that I had visited before, so for some it was like visiting them for the first time. Big differences were that Space seemed more turbulent than before, and Pirates and Mansion seemed way cooler than before. I also finally got to ride the Casey Jr. Circus Train, something that was closed back in 1996. However, the Nautilus walk through still has eluded me as it was again closed while we were in Paris. Midday, we headed over to the Walt Disney Studios Paris. It was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-2002","tag-europe2002"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2099,"href":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/2099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clubjosh.com\/diaries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}