007 Travel story: Paris (FRANCE) 2013, day 4/7: Disneyland Paris

In order to read this 007 travel story from day 1, please click here

Tuesday 15th of October 2013


We went to breakfast at the Gare de' l Est station's Café Pain A La Ligne. After that we walked to bus stop near Hotel Terminus Nord and waited for Disneyland Paris Express bus to take us to Disneyland. Package price was 89 euros / adult and 69 euros / child. Price included entrance to Disneyland´s both parks with all attractions there and bus ride to there and back.

Disneyland Paris is located about 30 km from Paris, in a place called Marne-la-Vallée. The trip took a bit over an hour because we picked up people along the way. We were there at the opening time 10 AM and went through the security check and then inside the park area. We had only one day to stay there and according to our original plan we thought that we would have had time to visit both Walt Disney Studios and Disneyland Park, but our time was sufficient only to the latter.

 
We arrived at the section of Main Street USA . There were number of shops, restaurants and toilets along the main street.

There was Halloween theme in Disneyland and we could see and hear Halloween music performers and their music in the area.

Mama loves you

The park was divided into four sections: Frontierland, Adventureland, Fantasyland and Discoveryland.

(All quotes in Disneyland Paris 007 Travel Story from John Gardner's book "Never Send Flowers")

"As the crowds began to jostle happily towards the main gates, passing under the arches of the Main Street Station, so Bond walked into the City Hall, showed his pass to one of the attendants and went through a door that led down to the heartbeat of the park: the maze of tunnels, changing rooms, offices, computer stations, and banks of closed-circuit TV screens which monitored every area of the Disney kingdom."

FRONTIERLAND:

First we went on a river cruise and took a trip on Molly Brown ship (Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing), which made a short tour of the river surrounded by hills. Bond also takes a river tour.

"He stood for a few minutes watching the hordes of people lining up to take a ride in one of the riverboats, Molly Brown or Mark Twain."

"He reached Central Place and took a hard left which brought him to the Riverboat Landing, leaping from the cart and climbing the metal ladder that would take him right on to the landing."

We also experienced the Phantom Manor, where Bond goes in the same book. This was a very exciting experience. First, we went to the room, which started to sank. It was actually an elevator. Man with a scary voice laughed all the time (he belonged to staff). We got to the train ride and drove past the various horror sites. Dancing party of the ghosts was reflected to the ballroom and it looked gorgeous. Our wagon turned here and there and felt like someone was shaking it all the time. And finally we saw that a ghost was shaking our wagon. Pretty funny idea!

"As on his last visit, in the United States, he enjoyed the Phantom Manor as they called it here with its incredible special effects, the ballroom full of twirling ghostly eighteenth-century dancers; the terrible time-wrecked dining-room set for the wedding breakfast that never was, with the hapless bride's wraith appearing in the room; then another phantom seated, playing the organ; a glass bowl in which a pallid human woman's head talked endlessly of terrible portents, and the amazing moment on the way out when a mirror showed him seated between a pair of ghastly creatures. It was certainly value for money."

"Coming out of Phantom Manor, he took a long and careful walk around the lake which was the main feature of Frontierland. Big Thunder Mountain reared up in the middle of the water and he watched as the rickety little train, with its open trucks full of screaming visitors, came spiralling down at speed to sweep through the water splash at the base, then rise again in a dizzying turn that would take it back to the starting point.

ADVENTURELAND:

We visited the pirate ship (La Plage des Pirates)

and after that we went for a Pirates of the Caribbean ferry ride which was running on the rails in the water. There were surprising downhills and incredible settings. We were in the dark and then arrived at the film's main scenes inside the shipwreck. The ride was so great, that we went there three times during the day.

 
We got food at the Blue Lagoon restaurant. We were able to follow Pirates of the Caribbean ferries passing by, while eating. Pirita's dessert was cool looking, since it was flambéed on the spot. The meals were very good otherwise as well and they were set beautifully.

"Early in the evening, he ate a pleasant salmon steak at the Blue Lagoon Restaurant, under what appeared to be a tropical night sky, with the sound of surf on the beaches. The lagoon itself was visible from where he sat, and every few minutes the boats full of visitors drifted past on their way to the adventure of the Pirates of the Caribbean which, he decided, would be his next experience.

Joining the line he soon found himself floating in one of the boats, through a tunnel and then down a sickening lurch of a waterfall and into the quiet of the lagoon he had been watching during his meal.

As he looked towards the diners, Bond had an overpowering sense that he himself was being watched by a malignant pair of eyes.

The smooth calm of the blue stretch of water changed as they appeared to round a headland to see a galleon under fire from cannon on the mainland. The explosions of the guns seemed very close and great spouts of water leaped into the air as shot struck the sea close to his drifting craft.

Then they were sailing slowly into the city under siege, full of pirates singing, pillaging, burning, drinking, chasing the local girls and even selling off some of the more sturdy ones.

Once more he marveled at the incredibly lifelike figures, and the consummate artistry of the experts and the Imagineers who produced such unbelievable effects, and the audio-animatronical beings."

FANTASYLAND:

At this park we visited the carousel of Le Carrousel de Lancelot, as well as Alice's Curious Labyrinth. It was a challenge to find our way out!

We also went for a Pinocchio drive (Les Voyages de Pinocchio) and to Peter Pan's Flight, for which we had FastPass tickets in order to pass usual queue.

and the evening's highlight was a parade of Disney Characters. 

"Now, as he wandered around the park, he smiled with pleasure to see Chip and Dale, or Minnie, signing autograph books for clamouring children, while Pluto and Goof played the fool with kids of all ages.

Then the chill struck him. 

What if the man inside the hot stuff Goo suit was Dragonpol himself?"

DISCOVERYLAND:

Bond tries Star Tours in the "Never Send Flowers" book, but for us the queue was too long and we gave up.

"Walking over to Discoveryland, he spent almost an hour in line for the Star Tours, watching R2D2 and C3PO preparing a craft for take-off and finally entering the very realistic spaceship which was to take the passengers to the moon of Endor. Only when the doors slid into the closed position did he discover, like his fellow travellers, that the Robot, Rex, was also making his first space flight, taking their spacecraft in wrong and terrifying directions as they shook, bumped and rattled at seemingly impossible speeds, straying right into a battle straight out of Star Wars."

However, we went to space shuttle Orbitron - Machines Volantes, where you can adjust the height of the machine by yourself.

We went also to Toy Story themed attraction Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, which was interactive. Mika and daughter shot the targets and Pirita drove the wagon.

The shuttle bus left back towards Gare du Nord at 8 PM, after the park was closed. The meeting was set 10 minutes before, so we had to follow the Disney Dream's fireworks show from a parking lot. Then we went back to the hotel.

There were many nice restaurants in the area

This 007 Travel story continues here


See the list of 007 LOCATIONS (visited), excluding 007 HOTELS (visited) and
007 RESTAURANTS (visited), which have sections of their own, please follow the links.

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