Disneyland Paris - Day 2

Photo credit : Disneylandparis.fr

The day started well with none of yesterday’s energy-draining heat. After a good breakfast at the hotel, we clambered onto the free shuttle service and alighted at Disneyland. I was dismayed at the sight of throngs of people at the gate but it was only a bottleneck due to security checks.

The first thing I saw was Chip n Dale characters, posing for photogaraphs. Excitedly rushed there, dukung the little one and MH took a quick snap. The characters are all out in full force. Goofy was next but he was totally swarmed with kids. Still managed to get a photo after some strategic manouvering. Got one with Pluto too. Those poor people in the costumes must be swearing silently. I was looking out for Princesses for little one to take a photo with but only found Mary Poppins.

Left them searching for more photo opportunities while I dashed to Discoveryland for the Fastpasses and the elusive tickets to the live Lion King show. Fastpass is such a terrific idea. You slip in your pass and they print out a Fastpass with a time slot for you to return back to the ride. When you returned, you go on the fast queue through. I took fastpasses for the three most popular rides before heading off to Videopolis to get the Lion King tickets. They start giving tickets out after high demand and you can only get them at 11.00am. Thank goodness I managed to bag tickets for the 2.00pm shows.

Met the rest at Discoveryland after my frantic dash and we had 30min. to browse through the shops before our first Fastpass. In the shop, MH found my dream hat. I had been looking for that silly Goofy hat with floppy ears and teeth. Looked through the park yesterday with no success and hooray, we finally found it. I had that hat on for the rest of the day and MH cannot talk to me without laughing.

We went on Buzz Lightyear LaserBlast which is the newest ride in the park. The animatronics for Buzz is astonishing and we had fun blasting the aliens. Little one was tearful and was scared of all the nois though. She ended up sitting at the bottom of the ride with her face in my lap. Poor sayang!

After Buzz, it was time for Star Tours which is really Star Wars. It is probably renamed because of copyright issues. We “boarded” a space vehicle, which according to the story, was heading towards the exit but due to malfunction, went through restricted area. It was a simulation ride with a big screen and it felt like we were flying through space. What with all the tumbling and X-wing fighters flying past. We even went to hyperdrive. In the screen, you see the hyperdrive with the stars streaming past you (like Han Solo’s Millenium Falcon) and the seats went inertia like you are going really fast. The effect was mind-blowing! We passed the Death Planet and went to one of the grooves, just like Luke Skywalker did, but was sucked out at the last minute and landed back to where we started, just narrowly missing a fuel tank.

Space Mission was next. MH went on the Orbitron queue with little one instead while Jenol and I went onto the Fastpass queue. From the outside, it doesn’t look like much. Just a ride with a fast trajectory but how wrong were we! The ride started slow enough but the trajectory elicit a scream from both of us. Inside the dome, it was pitch black. I can’t see a thing except felt lots of juddering and swoops. Neon lights exploded with whirls and galaxies above us which are quite beautiful but I am glad to land safely on terra firma.

MH was still in the Orbitron queue so I went to get lunch. Oh my goodness! It must be the slowest queue ever and they are just serving burgers. and the prices are just too expensive for bad quality food. Managed to get four Kids meals which have huge servings anyway. Blotted down our food before heading for the Lion King show.

We managed to bag seats near the stage although it was too far to the right of the stage. It is a condensed version of the live musical playing in London but no less amazing. At the start, a whole curtain of water fell at the back like a huge waterfall and we were transported to deepest Africa. Timon and Pumba were two costumed characters with Pumba just metres next to us. The singing and dancing was spot-on and we left wanting more.

After the show, we traipsed across to Adventureland. Thunder Mountain Fastpass was not working and the queue is 55min. so we went to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. It is an outdoor rollercoaster ride with one 360 deg. loop. It was a short ride and good but not as scary as Nemesis or Oblivion at Thorpe Park. Now that had 10 loops! A few last minute shopping with me mulling over which t-shirts to buy for whom and we hopped over to Walt Disney Studio next door.