Paris, France
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Normally I wouldn't even think of visiting Disney on my vacation but Cory has insisted. We both work at Disney in Orlando so it will be interesting to compare the two.
Today we took the metro out to Disneyland Paris. I screwed up and purchased the wrong kind of ticket so we had to pay a supplement once we arrived so that we could get off of the train and through the turnstiles.
We are using our employee pass to get into the park. I am glad that it is valid and that we don't have to pay admission. We travel on such a budget that admission to Disney would really push our budget over the edge.
The park in Paris is really beautiful. It is really weird to walk down main street. It is very familiar and looks like the park in Orlando but there is something very different about it. The signs are in both French and English. There seems to be more attention to detail.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z6f1xzfg6o will give you a bit of a visual of the park.
PHOTO_ID_L=5-disneyland-paris.jpg]Hearing all of the safety precautions in french is a little surreal especially in the wild west section of the park. We rode the Indiana Jones roller coaster. It is great. It is set to go backwards, I would think that it would be pretty dull forward but going backward through a loop that you don't see coming is crazy. It gets you a little motion sick but it is so cool.
I really loved Pirates. It is twice as long as the one in Orlando and it runs through the restaurant. Phantom mansion was really a great ride. Hearing it in French made it even more scary. I really like Tomorrow land here better than Disney World. It is themed to be a Jules Verne type theme. It looked so much more tasteful. Plus Space mountain is a much better roller coaster.
The one thing that did suck was that only one restaurant in Disneyland Paris serves French food. It was pretty expensive so we settled on Fries and burgers in the Frontier land.
I am so proud of us. I have tried so hard to be a cultural ambassador. I figure that if I portray someone that is polite and aware of the culture that I represent other tourist from America in a better light. One of the things that I read was that you should always greet the employees of an establishment with Bonjour Madame. It was at Disneyland that we saw how this gets you a better reception. As we waited in line to order our food we discussed in English what we were going to order. The woman in front of us was not rude but didn't attempt to say anything in French. The reception that she got was not rude, neither was it warm. The cashier answered her in English so it was obvious that she understood and spoke English. When it was our turn I said "Bonjour Madame" and then made a poor attempt at ordering in French. The cashiers whole demeanor changed. She smiled and repeated our order back to us. We found this to be true all over France. I really believe when you are in a country that is not your own you should do your best to observe their traditions and culture. It really pays off.
We also visited Walt Disney Studios. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhoLnbSKPMw is some of the video we took. I must say that I prefer the Studios in Orlando. It was okay but there weren't as many movie street sets and all of the buildings, instead of being themed were in big metal buildings like on a movie lot. We grabbed a bite to eat and rode a few rides and then hoped the train and came back here to the hotel for our last night at Hotel Bonne Nouvelle.
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