The (Second) Happiest Place on Earth!

Friday morning I woke up early to head to Disneyland Paris with a few people for my friend Remy's 20th birthday. It made me wonder why I have never spent a birthday at Disneyland... hint hint for all my 21st birthday is in February. Luckily getting to Disneyland from Gare de Lyon (right by our apartments) is super easy - just a simple RER ride away. Yeah, I got all the metro lingo down now. So usually you have to pay to take the RER if it's not dezoned, like it is on Saturday and Sunday... don't judge us, but we managed to sneak our way through once we got to the Disneyland station. Oopsies. But we were finally there and I was beyond excited. Disneyland is my favorite place in the world, so I figured Disneyland Paris would be even better! Overall, it was a really fun day and I loved seeing the similarities and differences between the two parks. But there was a distinct lack of magic going on at this park. It was kind of like the younger brother of the OG D-land who tries too hard to be like his older brother, but just ends up coming up short. Poor lil D-land.

Our first stop was Space Mountain because it's usually the most crowded ride at the park. While in line, I started to get a bit nervous because the ride looked like it was an outside roller coaster, which I'm not a huge fan of. Turns out, the beginning of the ride is like a rocket launcher, which is totally cooler than the OG space mountain. But inside it was like a torture chamber: the ride goes so fast and rough that my head was literally bouncing around the headrest and I think I may have gotten whiplash (ouch). That wasn't the only ride that differed from its California counterpart: the Indiana Jones ride was not really a ride, just a normal roller coaster. I'm not sure what was "Indiana Jones" about it besides its name. You could definitely tell that this park had been built with older people in mind - the rides were much more intense and geared towards people my age. But part of the charm of Disneyland is the nostalgia! I like to go to remind me of being a little girl obsessed with watching Disney movies. You know, as opposed to being grown up and obsessed with them (I may or may not be watching Tangled as I write...).

Can you tell I love the Sleeping Beauty castle?

The park is very small and there aren't many rides, so we actually went on almost everything in about three hours. Luckily, the lines were crazy short. Usually at Disneyland lines can be up to an hour long, but our longest line was only about 25 minutes. This meant we could go on some rides more than once and simply spend a lot of the day just walking around enjoying the scenery. One thing Paris has on CA is that the park is beautiful. A lot of it is expansive greenery and water attractions. My favorite is the big green pond featuring the old man and the little boy from Up! sitting on a little bench next to it. There were so many little hidden surprises throughout the park, including a few new attractions I'd never seen. There was a Wonderland Labyrinth which led to an amazing view from the top of the Queen of Heart's castle. We really wanted to go on the new Ratatouille attraction, but it ended up being in the other park, which we didn't have tickets for. One of my favorite parts was the hidden dragon's lair within the Sleeping Beauty castle, where a really realistically animated and colorful dragon roared at us. California needs to step up its game in the dragon department.

The best part of the entire trip, however, came at the very end of the day when the park was closing. The park technically closes at 8:30 (so early!), but at that exact time begins an amazing lights and sound show similar to Fantasmic at Disneyland. A huge crowd forms around the castle, but we nudged our way in, probably blocking some kids' views but that's their prob for being shorter than me. Finally at 8:30 it began: I had no idea what to expect but it was amazing. The entire castle was lit up like a screen and scenes from Disney movies were projected onto its face. The story followed Peter Pan's runaway shadow who travels into other Disney worlds. Some of the songs were in English and some in French which made it even cooler. My favorite part was when Lumière sang "Be Our Guest" (C'est la fête!) in French. I will unashamedly admit that I teared up a bit during the show, but anyone who knows me knows I love Disneyland more than anything. I was so grateful to be there and experiencing something that I loved so much in a new country. I'm not sure if I'll have a chance to go back, but I'd love to see it at Christmastime!