(Written on June 15th by Brian)
Disneyland!
Favorite rides
Brian: Space mountain, though Phantom Manor was really fun too since it had a lot in common with Haunted Mansion
Devri: Pirates of the Caribbean. I would have liked Crush’s Coaster except for the bar in my gut every time it stopped. Maybe it would be better on the front side since I was on the back.
Michael: Tower of Terror
Rachel: Hyperspace Mountain, Tower of Terror, or Phantom Manor
Gabe: Either Avengers Flight Force or Hyperspace Mountain
Biggest difference from the US
Brian: Language barrier problems and rude people. There was a lady that refused to sit by me and would point at me, look me in the eye and say “I don’t want you in my photo”. She said it twice before I understood her. The worker finally said something to her in French (clearly her native tongue) and she sat down by us.
Devri: All the French, the languages mixed together. All of the roller coasters were more intense, they jostled me around a lot more. The amount of rude people. The layout of Frontierland and Adventureland were switched and that threw us off too. Also felt like there weren’t as many rides.
Michael: All French
Rachel: I missed popcorn and the other smells. I thought it was weird that some rides had one character in French and one in English, so you could only understand one.
Gabe: I feel like the rides are more intense and they also felt shorter.
Funniest thing that happened
Brian: Gabe screaming his head off on every ride. Rachel being ahead of everyone and then in the back again on the way home at the end of the night.
Devri: The kids joking around in the park together. Michael made me laugh quite a bit, especially with the animatronics at the end of Snow White. Rachel also led the pack the entire day, which is the complete opposite of the entire trip.
Michael: I forgot.
Rachel: Michael kept doing the speed walk and making me laugh.
Gabe: People were screaming on the drop that went (made a very small hand motion to show it was just a tiny drop).
Worst part to happen
Brian: Not getting my bingo. Also Devri not feeling well and waiting forever for Pirates to reopen, finally going across the park to get the only open restaurant food, and then finding out Pirates had finally opened so we could actually go on. Big Thunder was closed. I lost my voice completely by the end and had to whisper.
Devri: Feeling sick and drained of energy. Big Thunder was closed.
Michael: Feet
Rachel: Whenever we fought, or whenever somebody fought. And feet. Big Thunder was closed.
Gabe: When Hyperspace Mountain went down at the end of the day. Big Thunder was closed.
Biggest surprise
Brian: Indiana Jones wasn’t really fast or intense as I thought it would be. I kept expecting it to speed up but it actually slowed you down more.
Devri: There weren’t as many good snacks as there are at Disney in the US. Also how intense all of the roller coaters were.
Michael: Avengers was like Aerosmith
Rachel: All the roller coasters jostled you side to side a lot. It was crazy how my head hurt after every time.
Gabe: That all the rides were so intense and short.
(Summary by Devri)
Since Disneyland Paris doesn’t open until 9:30 am, we took advantage of the later morning and slept. I really struggled getting going. You want to know who didn’t? Rachel. Rachel, who really struggles to get going in the morning (especially on this trip), was up and ready and trying to get us all out the door. She was going around the apartment trying to get my things gathered for me. And when we got going out the door, she led the charge! She was SO excited to go to Disneyland Paris; I’m pretty sure it was the only thing that got her on the plane to come with us. (Okay, not really, Rachel is really good and will always go along with our plans without complaining, but the thought of going to Auschwitz and the battle fields made her sad).
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| Rachel leading the charge to the park |
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| Walking to Disneyland |
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| Rachel took this picture of Michael, who was making her laugh with his speed walking, on the way to the Park |
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| Mains Street, U.S.A. but in France |
We walked about 20 minutes from our place to the parks, and we hit up Disneyland first. We were initially going to go on the Indiana Jones roller coaster first, but Frontierland and Adventureland are switched in the spoke layout, so we ended up next to Phantom Manor (DL Paris’s version of Haunted Mansion) instead. We rode it two times in a row since there was no wait; Michael didn’t love that, but the rest of us did.
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| Phantom Manor, Disneyland Paris's version of Haunted Mansion |
Phantom Manor
Brian and Rachel in the Doom Buggy
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| Sadness that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was still closed for refurbishments |
From there, we headed to Pirates with its very cool entrance and queue. The order of things is a little backwards, but we did start out riding through a restaurant and having 2 drops, so it is better than the one in Magic Kingdom, but I’m biased and still like the Disneyland in California better. (Brian: I thought this one was a good mix of California’s and Florida’s, but yeah, completely agreed that California’s is better)
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| Pirates of the Caribbean |
We rode Indiana Jones, and it really was jostling, so while Brian, Rachel, and Gabe decided to do the single rider on it again, Michael and I went to find a snack.
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| Imitating Commander Raynal while bored in line |
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| Imitating Commander Raynal while bored in line |
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Commander Sylvain Eugène Raynal, commander of Fort Vaux during the Battle of Verdun
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| Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril |
We found some Mickey Waffles and drinks. We ended up getting more waffles because it was nice to have something different to eat (we’ve been eating a TON of sandwiches and we’re tired of them).
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| Tell me you're in Europe without telling me you're in Europe |
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| EVA and WALL-E |
After our snack we decided to buy a premium access pass to Hyperspace Mountain. We felt so posh walking by everyone. Michael said, “did you see the peasants back there?” The ride itself was awesome, but it did a number on me despite the motion sickness medicine and band. I found a nice bench to sit on afterwards and they rode it on the single rider line two more times while I waited. On one of the trips, this French woman with two kids got really angry that Brian was siting next to her family, evening out the numbers like a good single rider. She pointed at him, looked him in the eye, and said, “I don’t want you in my photo.” She kept saying this until one of the cast members talked to her in French, probably explaining the situation about single riders or else telling him that guest services could blur him out, or (less likely) the woman told her that she was being a complete jerk and could either let her daughter ride next to Brian or they could leave the park for being so entitled.
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| Hyperspace Mountain |
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| Hyperspace Mountain, design inspired by Jules Verne |
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| Hyperspace Mountain--Single Rider Line |
We walked through The Nautalis,
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| The Organ in the Nautilus |
then went to see the castle’s dragon and stained glass windows (and where I got really dizzy walking down the spiral staircase—I should have realized what was going on with me by that point), and went over to Walt Disney Studios Park.
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| Sleeping Beauty's Castle |
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| Goofy inside the Castle |
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| Maleficent in her dragon form in the basement of the Castle |
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| View of Fantasyland from the upper level of Sleeping Beauty's Castle |
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| More winding staircases |
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| Gabe with Baymax |
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Walt Disney Studios Park
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Entering Walt Disney Studios Park
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Everyone wanted to ride the Hollywood Hotel Tower of Terror. Michael almost convinced me to go on it with them, “Don’t you want to be able to say you rode the one in Paris?” However, I had to deny him; the last time I tried riding it with Jen and Brian, my heart was racing with anxiety, and that was before I had A-fib. I knew that going on it could be really, really bad now with my heart, especially with how drained I felt. Tired + high anxiety = bad things for my heart and health. Instead, I told them to shout my name when the doors opened to the outside. They did, but I couldn’t hear them. Meanwhile, I listened to a podcast.
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| Hollywood Tower of Terror |
Next, we rode the Avenger’s rollercoaster.
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Avenger's Assemble Flight Force ride
 | French Ironman in the Flight Force Ride
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French Ironman, but with Michael (notice the hair before the ride)
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In the queue for Flight Force
 | Michael's hair after the ride
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It would have been fun, but again, it jostled me pretty badly, and I was starting to feel really awful. The line for Crush’s Coaster was super long, so we bought Premier Access Passes for it as well, but they were a little later, so everyone rode Hollywood Tower of Terror while I sat on a bench playing on my phone. I was starting to feel a bit bummed out. I’d done everything I could to not be sick that day, but my body was determined to revolt against all my efforts to enjoy the day. It’s the first time I’ve been in Disney Parks and just wanted to be done with them. I started to realize that I was having one of my low energy/not feeling well days that I occasionally get since having Afib. They are more spread out now instead of being constant, so they take me by surprise. I feel so great for so long that I forget that I have days where I don’t feel great, and then I feel discouraged that I’m living with a heart disease. I went back and forth between feeling bummed that I couldn’t enjoy Disney and feeling grateful that I’d made it this far into my trip without having a day like that. When I started feeling grateful, things changed. I stopped being bummed out as bummed out. I was so grateful that my low energy/not feeling well day happened at the thing in Europe that we can actually enjoy in the states. And I did get to try everything that the US parks don’t have, even if they didn’t make me feel well.
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And since your children have bravely decided to join you in the frigid, oxygen-less vacuum of space, please supervise them
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We rode Crush’s Coaster, and again, it did a nasty number on me, but even with all that, I mostly liked it. We got food, and then we headed to the other park again.
The kids all wanted to ride Hyperspace Mountain again, but Brian said, “Hey, have you noticed how Mom hasn’t been able to go on any rides, but we’ve all been going on fun rides? I think we should let Mom decide where we go next.” They agreed, and nobody complained when I said, “Small World.” (Brian: our kids are awesome. They immediately just started watching out for Devri and making sure she was having fun and liking what we were going to. I didn’t hear any complaints the rest of the day when we said we were going on a ride they might not have liked usually or a ride that wasn’t exciting.) Michael and I did our traditional backstory game, and we all enjoyed seeing the American section that we don’t have back home—New York and Hollywood.
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Small World
 | The American section of Small World
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We tried going to Alice’s Curious Labyrinth (a hedge maze), but it had already closed. We got more food and then rode Pirates.
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Small World Entrance
 | Tea Cups!
 | Tea Cups--they need two cups now
 | New matching Disneyland Paris Sweatshirts
 | Goodbye, Disneyland Paris
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Michael walked me back to our apartment, and Brian stayed with Gabe and Rachel to ride Phantom Manor once more. (Brian: we also wanted to ride Hyperspace Mountain again, but it had closed the last couple of hours of the park being open and unfortunately never reopened. It was probably for the best as we already had a hard time getting out of the park due to the crowds waiting for the fireworks/final show. Also, once we were out of the park, my GPS had been acting funny all day showing me at a different location than I was actually at, and that caused us to get a little lost for maybe 5-10 minutes. We finally identified the Five Guys that we had seen and I restarted my phone which fixed the issues.)
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Fireworks to send us home
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Brian's Disneyland Paris Bingo Card
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I went to my room after getting home, and Michael brought me our clothes that the dual washer/dryer had washed and dried while we were in the park, and I folded them. Not too long after that, Brian and the others arrived. He got the the kids headed to bed and and got another load of laundry set to wash and dry while we slept. None of us could believe it was our last night in Paris.
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