I had set the alarm for 09:30 but was awake just before 09:00. I got up and had a quick shower. I said goodbye to Graham and then I headed out. I was not sure how busy the shuttle bus would be, and I figured it would be better to get to the shuttle bus nice and early. There was one family that had the same idea. It was a beautiful morning and there was a bench right by the shuttle stop. I did not mind sitting there and waiting. At some stage, I headed over to the carpark to get a photo of the outside of the hotel. Then I went back to my bench. The bus got there pretty early, and I got on. By the time it left, it was pretty busy, and a few people ended up standing. We had a nice clear run to the bus station. They had expanded that area and it is now much better organized. I noticed that the stop for the airport shuttle was right next to the stop for our hotel shuttle.
I headed towards the park entrance and went through security. This was not as busy as I had thought it would be. The Monday was Bastille Day, which is the most significant public holiday in France. I later found out that this was also the first weekend of the French school holidays. I expected things to be manic, but it was not bad at all. Security was well organised, and all lanes were open. I had a gift bag with a birthday present for my friend, but thankfully this passed muster.
I had one errand to run. I had realised with horror that morning that I had forgotten my sunhat at home. As the weather forecast indicated that it would be hot and sunny all day, I knew that I would definitely need a sunhat. I headed to World of Disney to sort out that issue. They had quite a good selection. I initially looked at a plain black hat that just had the words Disneyland Paris embroidered on it. They wanted €50 for this. In the end, I found white reversal sunhat that had Disneyland Paris, the castle, the Eiffel tower, and Mickey embroidered on the outside and the word Paris plus the Eiffel tower and the castle printed on the inside. This was €25, which I thought was fair. I got this and then headed to our meeting point. I took a photo of the entrance on my way.
One of my friends had sent me a photo of our meeting point. This seemed straightforward enough when I got the photo as there was a prominent guest services sign in the photo. That was until I got there and realised that there are identical guest services signs at opposite ends to the building. Fortunately, I have some passable investigative skills and noticed that roofline on both sides is slightly different and the roofline on the side where I was seemed to match the photo. I found a seat on a low wall in the area.
I knew that we would meet up with a friend of my friends who is a cast member at Disneyland Paris. For a while, a guy sat next to me whose hat, t-shirt and bag represented different Disney parks from around the world. I did wonder if this was the cast member friend but was too shy to ask. At around that time, I got a message from one of my friends stating that they were running behind as they had bumped into a rare character in their hotel lobby. I did not mind sitting in the shade and watch the world go by. Eventually, I saw my friends coming down the hill and we were joined by the guy that had sat beside me early who was indeed their cast member friend. I handed my friend his birthday present, and he had to open it straightaway before putting it in his wife’s backpack.
My friends asked me if there was anything I particularly wanted to do. I told them I was basically happy with whatever was coming my way as my main aim was spending time with them. I did however mention that it would be great if we could fit in It’s A Small World and Phantom Manor. I was told that Phantom Manor was a given anyway and we should definitely be able to fit in It’s A Small World. With this taken care off, we headed towards our first destination, Pirates of the Caribbean. The two men walked together and us two women walked together. It was nice to be able to catch up in person.
The posted waiting time for Pirates of the Caribbean was 45 minutes. We decided to go for it. The cast member friend had to go into Paris to run some errands but promised he would join us again later in the afternoon. He headed off and we got into the line. We spent about half the waiting time in an outside line. This was my first visit to a theme park since I have had reaction lenses. This was an interesting experience. The line on Pirates of the Caribbean is extremely dark anyway and the reactions lenses did not help. In the end, I took off the glasses. I figured I would not see anything with the glasses anyway so I may as well take them off. I left them off for a couple of minutes to make sure that they had gone back to clear. Once I put them back on, I could see again.
The posted waiting time was pretty accurate. I think in the end it was about 40 minutes from the point that we entered the line until we got into a boat. I had been a little nervous about this trip as this was my first visit to a theme park since my arthritis diagnosis. I was worried about the amount of walking and standing that I was likely to do and how this would affect my knee. However, the true challenge was getting in and out some of the ride vehicles and Pirates of the Caribbean was particularly tricky. This should not have surprised me as I still struggle with stairs. I am not entirely sure if this is a true physical limitation or if this is more psychological with me being worried of falling and then tensing up. I suppose time will tell as at the time of writing this, I had actually taken a tumble on a staircase and apart from the fact that my knees were showcasing all the colours of the rainbow, I had not suffered any ill effects.
The ride was definitely worth the effort and getting out was easier than getting in. We then crossed over into Fantasyland. After a quick pitstop, we did the Pinocchio dark ride. I had not done this for many years.
We decided that after this, we would get some lunch. They do now offer mobile ordering, but unlike its counterpart in the US parks, it does not let you choose a pickup time, nor does it give you any indication prior to paying what the pickup time would be. We decided that this was too risky. We were only planning to go to Au Chalet de la Marionette anyway, which is a quick service location and very close to the Pinocchio ride. We figured we may as well head over there and see how busy it was. It was not too bad at all, and we got in line. The food there is German inspired. I had the hot pretzel sandwich with loin of pork, red cabbage, and mustard sauce. I had some French fries and a cheery Coke to go with this. Like it is to be expected in a theme park, it was not gourmet food, but it was quite tasty, and it definitely filled a hole.
We figured that after lunch; a slower pace was in order. We headed over to It’s A Small World. This had a posted wait of about 20 minutes and again, this was quite accurate. We were talking about some common friends while we were waiting. I know this is the kind of ride that you either love or hate. I have always loved it. I just love the whimsical nature of this. On my last two visits to Disneyland Paris, this ride had been closed. It was nice to finally get to do it again.
During the summer months, Disneyland Paris has hosted the Disney Music Festival. There were all kinds of special kinds of entertainment for this. There was a show in Videopolis in Discoveryland called Disney Music Hits Concert. My friends really wanted to see this. I was happy to tag along especially as it meant sitting down in an air-conditioned space for a while. I had not been inside Videopolis since this had hosted the original Lion King show. The show was very well done. They had a great band and some very talented singers. Some of the song choices were well-known Disney songs and some were more obscure. They were also a good mix from high energy to ballads. The show finished with a special guest appearance and surprise DJ set from Chip & Dale. We all really enjoyed this. On the way out, we were given some M&Ms.
There was one last thing that my friends wanted to do before we headed over the Walt Disney Studios. This was to go to the pin trading area in Frontierland. We headed in that general direction. Friends of theirs were in the park. They had lived in Germany for the past 5 years but were about to head back to live in the USA. Their annual passes for Disneyland Paris were expiring that day and they were there for one last visit. We met up with them. One of my friends spent a while pin trading and then we headed to the adjacent pin job. They were looking at what was on offer there and bought a pin each. I just got a bottle of water. Once they were done, we headed towards the exit. The other family had to leave for the airport shortly and decided to do some more shopping at Disneyland.
We headed over to the entrance to Walt Disney Studios to meet up with the cast member friend of my friends again. He was running slightly late, but there was a handy tree in this area that provided some shade. He arrived shortly afterwards, and we headed inside the park. Walt Disney Studios is currently undergoing a multiyear redesign and expansion. Once the first stage of the expansion is complete, the park will be renamed Disney Adventure World. Two areas have already completed their redesign. What previously had Disney Studio 1 is now World Premiere. They have done a great job with this. It is a more open space and looks more inviting. It also contains a number of visual puns. The second area that has been redeveloped is what previously was the Backlot, which is now Marvel Avengers Campus. We did not make it that far.
Our destination was the Studio Theatre. Once upon a time, this used to be home for CinéMagique. Since then, it has hosted a variety of shows and events, most of which were short-lived. Since 2023, it has been home to Together: a Pixar Musical Adventure. This was a great show. The story is Charlie, a child who is passionate about music, dreams of conducting the orchestra for their school’s end-of-year gala. But something unexpected happens and Charlie loses the precious sheet music on the eve of the concert! As the child falls asleep, Woody and their Toy Story friends join forces to recover the scores scattered throughout various Pixar stories. The way Disney words this, I think that Charlie can be played by either a boy or a girl. When we watched this, Charlie was played by a girl. The show had a life orchestra and various characters. The sets for the different scenes relied heavily on video and for some scenes puppets were used. There were also some interactive elements. We all thoroughly enjoyed this, and we had really good seats. The only issue that I had is that there was not a great deal of legroom and my knee started to protest towards the end of the show.
After the show, we headed to the Animation Celebration building. They have a model of the park expansion in this building. It looks really impressive. I definitely need to make a point to visit once this is open. While we were looking at the model, Olaf came walking by. Unfortunately, I did not have my phone handy to take a photo.
We still had a bit of time until our dinner reservation in Disney Village and decided to head to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure to check out how long the wait for the single rider line was. This looked OK, but at some stage, it just stopped moving. Thankfully, once it started moving again, it moved very quickly. This used to be a 3D ride ever since it had opened. This was still the case when I last rode this in 2023. The quality of the 3D film was always questionable. My friends warned me that this was no longer a 3D film. I did not feel that this fact took away from the experience, but some scenes were still blurry. The ride will undergo a lengthy refurbishment later this year and into next year and I hope that they will then fix the issue with the film. It worked out that the two men ended up in one ride vehicle and the women also ended up in one ride vehicle. Once we were done, we made a rapid exit and headed for our dinner reservation at Disney Village.
We made it to The Steakhouse just a very short while after our reservation time. We had a little scare as they could not find our reservation. When my friends got married, they both kept their last name. One of my friends thought the reservation was under his name, but it was actually under her name. Still, we got that straightened out soon enough and were shown to our table. Graham and I had eaten at The Steakhouse many years ago and had enjoyed the meal. The food was still great. I had the Filet Mignon with smoked pepper sauce with baked potato stuffed with cheddar, cream and chives. It was very tasty. I do however suspect that they mixed up my plate with my friend who had the same. He had ordered his steak medium, and I had ordered mine medium rare. He commented that his steak was cooked to perfection with just a hint of pick. Mine was medium well instead of medium rare. My friends encouraged me to send it back, but I did not want to hold everybody else up and it was still tasty even though it was not cooked to my preference.
After dinner, my friends wanted to some shopping in Disney Village. Disney Village is currently being redesigned. A lot of it is still under construction, but there are a number of new shops and restaurants. The shop we went to was called Deco by Disney. This shop sells art, collectibles, gifts, housewares, pins, and figurines. They had a great selection of Stitch stuff. If luggage space had not been an issue, I could have done some serious damage with my credit card. As it was, I only got a Stitch fridge magnet.
When we were all done, we headed back to Disneyland. We did some more shopping on Mainstreet USA. My friends got a few odds and ends. I fell in love with a Phantom Manor keyring in one of the shops, which was on sale and only one Euro. My friends go this for me. I also found a Spirit Jersey I liked and that was on sale, but unfortunately, they did not have this in my size. Once we were all shopped out, we headed over to Frontierland to check out the waiting time for Big Thunder Mountain. At 30 minutes, this was not crazy, and we got in line. Again, this was pretty accurate. This is one of my favourite rides and I was glad that I got to do this. Considering this was the weekend before a public holiday I had figured that the waiting time for this would be crazy.
When we had done this ride our cast member companion decided to call it a day. One of my friends decided to walk to the exit with him as she wanted to check out one more shop as she was looking for something specific. The other friend and I decided to head to Phantom Manor, which was a walk on. This is another ride I really love. Shortly after we came out, the other friend rejoined us. My friends decided they wanted to ride together, but I was done. I had actually thought about heading back to the hotel once we finished dinner as my knee was being a little troublesome. In the end the pull of Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor was too strong. I figured I got this far; it would be a shame to miss the nighttime show. However, I decided to send them onto Phantom Manor on their own and find somewhere to sit. They left their stuff with me.
Once they were back, we headed back towards Main Street. Since the beginning of the year, they had a new nighttime show, Disney Tales of Magic. The show involves projections, fireworks and drones and showcases scenes from Disney and Pixar films. The previous shows were very much concentrated on the castle, but for this show, the projections involve all the buildings on Main Street, too. My friends suggested that we should watch the show from halfway down Main Street. With about 20 minutes to go before the start of the show, we did get a decent spot. The show is very well done and includes scenes from Pinocchio, Cinderella, Inside Out, Moana, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lilo and Stitch, Toy Story, Wall-E, Encanto, The Lion King, and Coco. It was nice that the show did not include Frozen and Star Wars segments that tend to be overused in Disney shows.
After the show, we headed down Main Street together. My friends wanted to do a little of last-minute shopping, but I was ready to head out. I said goodbye and headed for the exit. Mickey was waving goodbye from the railway station, and I briefly stopped to take some photos.
I was hoping to make the next shuttle back to the hotel, but it was leaving when I was nearly at the bus stop. I had to wait for 30 minutes. When the shuttle came, it was pretty full, but I did manage to get a seat. When I got to the room, my key card was not working. I had to go back down to reception to get it reprogrammed. Once I was finally back in the room, I got ready for bed.
Even though I had felt really tired when I arrived back at the hotel, I could not fall asleep. At some stage Graham woke up as well and we talked for a bit about what we both had been up to that day. After this, we both went to sleep and slept through until the following morning.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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