Euro Disney and the Disney Studios

Wow!  I’m exhausted, but it’s been a pretty awesome day over all.

The day started just before 9am this morning as we wanted to get to Euro Disney before the crowds, fortunately for us, it was also a weekday.  So while the park had plenty, and I mean PLENTY of visitors, it wasn’t too unmanageable.

Anyway… it’s after midnight now as I type this, although it’ll publish earlier as my blogging client is still set for Seattle time. 

I’ll update this posting soon too, it’ll even come complete with a YouTube video, possibly even two.

Hooroo for now I need to get me some sleep!

*** Update 3rd April 2008, 1.38pm (GMT +10)
Well, here I am again, still trying to be industrious, despite my eye lids getting heavier by the second.  It’s a little turbulent at the moment as I type this, so the backspace button is getting a real workout.

After we arrived at Euro Disney and exchanged our online vouchers for tickets we finally entered the park, and I have to say, it’s pretty bizarre to be in the middle of France at a theme park that looks so blatantly American, despite the majority of the signage being in French.

***Update 11th April 2008, 7.59am
Speaking of signage, we took great delight in amusing ourselves translating Disney advertising for Winnie the Pooh, to what we thought was more appropriate, especially given we were in France to “Winnie le Merde”.
Puerile humour at it’s finest.  *grin*

Back to it…

Euro Disney, or the Disneyland Resort Paris, was a lot of fun.  Of course I had my preconceived ideas of what to expect, based solely on what I’d seen on television as a child growing up, with just a little spice from stories told to me by people I’ve met who’ve been to one of the Disney sites around the world.

All I knew, was that when I got there, I wanted to ride on Space Mountain, the Mad Had Hatter’s Tea Cups, and the It’s a Small World rides.  I can now tick all boxes.  Mission accomplished!  *insert happy dance here*

To be quite honest, I can’t remember much about Space Mountain, other than I queued, it was fun, and it was dark, so no bad memories is an acceptable state of affairs for me.

As for It’s a Small World, well how could I not love that one.  I grew up listening to the soundtrack.  Back in the day, yesteryear, when I was a boy…  also known as a VERY long time ago, my sister and I had my grandfather’s old record (old archaic vinyl music disks) player, on which we used to play the soundtrack “It’s a Small World” incessantly while we read the accompanying children’s book.  How my mother never resorted to alcohol is anyone’s guess.  *laugh*
As a ride it’s very tame, you sit in a boat, on tracks and follow a pre-destined route while animated dolls and other assorted characters dance and sing in various costumes and accents representing all the countries of the world.

It’s pretty much a big LSD trip child-fest of fun and happiness.  Of course I videoed it using the small digital camera and showed my sister as soon as I got back to Melbourne.  Then we both spent the next couple of hours trying to rid the song from our heads.  *laugh*

As for the Mad Hatter’s Tea Cup ride…  That was just hilarious.  Incidentally, it’s also the ride that I’ve been trying to upload the video footage to YouTube for, so you can see for yourself.

For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s essentially a ride where the carriages are shaped like tea cups.  The cups move around on a turntable, which in itself is quite fun.  But, you can spin your own cup.
There’s a metal disk in the middle that if you turn it, your cup spins, and of course if you turn it really fast, your cup turns equally fast.

Being the competitive type I am, you can imagine I spun our cup pretty fast…

While we were waiting for our turn on the ride we saw another group of people spin their cup pretty fast, I rose to the challenge and span ours faster.  In the video footage you can see the crowd behind us pass faster and faster until they’re nothing more than a blur.  Hilarious fun, although I have to confess that watching the footage is much more nauseating than experiencing it first hand at the time.

There were many other rides, but those three were the most memorable ones.

Of course while we were there the skies opened up and we were virtually drowned, so had to shell out over 16 Euros for 2 yellow plastic poncho’s.  Tres sexy!  *laugh*

We also managed to get across to the Disney Studios where we rode on what became two of the best rides of the day.  Both were rollercoaster rides, and both of their names and experiences elude me.  Dammit!  I apparently waited to long to finish this blog posting.  But I do recall they were fun.

So that’s it.   Euro Disney all caught up…