Completed 11/24 - BURN IT ALL (well not the Disneyland part) - a June 2024 TR for Paris and Disneyland Paris

[Araminta18]

Adventure Awaits! - Thursday June 13, 2024 (part 6)​

Next up, Big Thunder Mountain! We had a fastpass for it, cause we love it.


This is also one of my favorite ride photos - they put the camera at just the right spot to get great reactions

We kept going into Adventureland afterwards, and ran into one other photopass photographer (I realize that means my earlier comment was in error. Oh well - two is nothing to boast about, come on Disneyland Paris!)


Fun magic shots though.

That was over by Swiss Family Robinson, and it was open this time! So of course we had to do it.

1. I really like the whole Treehouse vibe and 2. there are great views!

From the treehouse is basically the only place to see this boat with Russell and Carl.

And you can't beat that view of the castle.


I have an unreasonable nostalgic fondness for the organ music they play at the treehouse.

And don't the hammocks look comfy? Though maybe not three on top of each other!

I think it's basically the same as at DisneyWorld, but still, gotta do it.

 

[Araminta18]

More Things We Hadn't Done Yet - Thursday June 13, 2024 (part 7)​

The one thing that's a bit different is that you can see the shipwrecked boat that the family came in on. And it's right by Skull Island which makes for some fun views as well.

Ok, next up, Aladdin's Enchanted Passages! It's a walk through with several dioramas of scenes from the movie.


Creepy Genie moon aside, it was neat.

They had some fun lighting effects to add some movement to each diorama. I wish there were more of these type of attractions - just fun theming things.

We dumped out pretty close to the hub, and we realized it was time for the next Million Splashes of Color show, so we ran up and managed to get a great spot!


It was a fun show! I liked the medley of all the Disney songs.

We needed snacks afterwards, so we went to Victoria's Cafe (which is basically a dessert shop) and got the special treat for Million Splashes of Color:

Not gonna lie, this looked better than it tasted - not that it tasted bad but I really liked the decorations. Also, it's way bigger than you think - like 8 inches across! This was raspberry biscuit, passion fruit confit, and vanilla mousseline cream. We didn't manage to finish it! But it was nice to have a sitdown break, and plan our next move, to another attraction that was closed before. Where were we heading? The Mysteries of Nautilus!

It's a walkthrough attraction where you walk through the submarine, but again - awesome theming.

 

[Araminta18]

Run-Ins with Authority - Thursday June 13, 2024 (part 8)​

HAHAHAHAHA as if that was all the pictures I'd include of this attraction.






There was even a "window" to look out and see sea creatures:

I really liked it - again, not exciting but just really cool theming.

The exit was again over by Space Mountain and Star Tours, so as we wandered around, we ran into Stormtroopers!

They started by harassing Trevor but I couldn't keep my mouth shut...oops!

We also got some snacks: a Stormtrooper waffle:

It's powdered sugar there on the top, but it was cold and not good. Bummer

Trevor also got some chicken nuggets to get some actual protein:

These were interesting - they tasted fine and normal but the breading was a bit different. So again, interesting.

Suitably fortified, time to ride Hyperspace Mountain again! We bought the fastpass though.

(dang picture limit)

 

[Araminta18]

Entering Our "Rides" Era - Thursday June 13, 2024 (part 9)​

I made us ask for the front row in each car 'cause there was a bit more leg room and it was easier for me to fit. Sitting in the back row of the car the first ride in the morning was hitting my knee a bunch, but sitting in the front row was way easier.

At this point, it was a little before 4:30, and it was time for us to head over to Disney Studios! Had to stop and get a croque monsieur on the way though:

Basically a ham sandwich with cheese on top. So yummy. Highly recommend.

We made our way over to Avengers Campus - Spiderman was hanging out saying hi!

We made our way over to Web Slingers and jumped in the single rider line that had a short wait - it ended up being about 15 min total (including the pre-show). I got 231,600 but Trevor got 204,600. Smoked him! LOL

Afterwards we ran into the Guardians of the Galaxy Dance party which was neat to see - it always makes me laugh.

After this, it was time for us to meet an Avenger at the Hero Training Center! We got Black Widow this time - woot! I like Black Widow.

Not gonna lie, I have literally no memory of this meet and greet but I'm sure it was fun.

Afterwards, it was time for WebSlingers again! We bought a fastpass this time so we could ride together, and waited about the same amount of time as we did when we did single rider, so not too bad!

Say hi to the spiderbots!

I got 243,300, while Trevor got 151,800. We were #1 and #2 in our car though!

Next we ran over to Flight Force, cause it was posting a short wait - woot!

 

[Araminta18]

Closing out Disney Studios - Thursday June 13, 2024 (part 10)​

Zoom! Flight Force gets a bad rap but Trevor and I really like it - I definitely like it better than RockinRoller Coaster. It has an IronMan animatronic in the pre-show that is pretty amazing.

Afterwards, we jumped over to Tower of Terror, for a different type of thrill.



I want to stay in the High Society Suite!


We got off at like 7:45, and the diner we wanted to eat dinner at closed at 8 - we snuck in just in time!

Super Diner!

We ordered the shawarma to split:


We wanted to get the giant Choco-Blast but they were out. Oh well! The shawarma was really good.

We actually finished eating 2 min before 8, so I ran outside to the food truck to try and grab one of their to-go desserts before they closed at 8 but the CM closed up right before I got there. *shrugs* It happens!

From here, we figured only one last ride to really close out the park, so we bought a fastpass and did Crush's Coaster! It felt like we spun a LOT more this time than the first time, which I liked better. Whee!

We were off by 8:15 and were planning to head back over to Disneyland, but the Cars Rally ride was right there, with no wait. It's a fun little spinner ride, like a combo of the teacups and Alien Swirling Saucers.

It really is way more fun than you'd think.

Right after we got off Trevor saw a fun helicopter and took a video:

Up next, back over to Disneyland!

 

[Karen Willett]

I believe the boat is suppposed to be the mayflower

 

[Araminta18]

I believe the boat is suppposed to be the mayflower

ooh that would make sense. clearly i was not thinking historical aspects!

 

[Araminta18]

Hi everyone! I'm back! I was really trying to get this trip report finished before we left on our Disney trip but my computer kept blue-screening and crashing so I wasn't able to. But we just got back and I just got a new laptop, so gonna try and finish this report up this week (maybe today if I'm suuuuuuuuuper productive ) and then jump into our latest trip!

How Long Are We Willing to Wait for Big Thunder Mountain? - Thursday June 13, 2024 (part 11)​

We hopped off the Cars Rally ride and I made us take a selfie with Mater:

Mater is my favorite.

Ok, now we were heading back over to Disneyland park! We passed by the Pixar theatre as we were heading out - I love the marquee with the lights.

So fun!

The Disneyland Hotel really is just so pretty:

Gorgeous.

Our first stop was...Star Tours! Star Tours is one of Trevor's favorite rides so we always have to ride it.

I ended up being the rebel spy! Woohoo! We got the Wookiee planet, then the middle person was Ahsoka and then the ending scene was Space Whales. At least it wasn't Naboo.

After Star Tours, we hopped right over to Space Mountain. It was a walk on - 5 minutes to get to this point right before loading:


Yay!

It was about 9:30, and we wanted to 1. ride Big Thunder and 2. see the drone show again. So we had a bit of time, and decided to ride Indiana Jones again 'cause it was a short wait, so over to Adventureland we went!

Had to take a picture of Skull Island on our way. I love the water coming out of the mouth.

Indiana Jones was great fun - we got rattled around a bit - and then over to Big Thunder Mountain, only to find that it was down. Womp womp. But we really wanted to ride it again, and we didn't have any other plans, so we decided to just kind of hang out and enjoy the ambiance and hope that it would open up soon. We ended up waiting about 40 minutes - we were going to bail but then we saw them start cycling the coaster, so we stuck it out a little bit more.

Pretty mountain coaster at night!

And at 10:33, they let us in and we walked through the queue!

We ended up being the first ones on, and so we got the back row like we love, and had an amazing ride!

Yay! Absolutely worth it.

We got off basically at 10:40, so we rushed over to the hub (where it was INSANELY crowded) and just grabbed a spot cause we really only cared about seeing the drone show. It wasn't an AMAZING spot but it wasn't bad for rocking up right at show time.

I love that drone show - Disney Paris is fantastic with the drones.


It was a great night, even if Big Thunder was done for a bit. I was glad that they did bring the ride back up for the last 20 minutes of the night, rather than letting it stay down. Phew!

After the drone show, we headed back to our lovely room - had to get ready to leave the next day. Sad.

Fun with Metrics: (all the metrics are back!)
Steps Walked: 24688 (11 miles)
Ride Count: 18 (Hyperspace Mountain x3, Small World, Phantom Manor, Big Thunder Mountain x2, Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, Aladdin's Enchanted Passages, Mysteries of the Nautilus, Web Slingers x2, Flight Force, Tower of Terror, Crush's Coaster, Cars Rally, Star Tours, Indiana Jones)

 

[Paulaparm]

That drone show is so cool!
Welcome back! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip

 

[Araminta18]

Last Morning at Disneyland Paris - Friday June 14, 2024 (part 1)​

Our last day! So sad to be leaving this gorgeous room and hotel and park. Thankfully our flight wasn't til about 5, so we did have some time in the parks before leaving. But first we had to finish packing! At this point we're down to a pretty good system, so we were about ready by 9 am, and so Bell Services came and picked up our luggage. I did have to take a few last pictures of the room.

Rapunzel mirror!


It's not Sleeping Beauty but still pretty.

As we headed out of the hotel, we saw Cinderella in the main rotunda area waving at guests!

We made it into the park at about 9:20, so for the last 10 minutes of the Magic Hour, and the only time we got to use the specific gate for Disneyland Hotel guests! All the other times that gate had been closed, and while we didn't need to use it (the other gates were pretty empty) it was kind of neat.

Where to go? We decided to head to Buzz Lightyear cause there was no wait.

We don't know this Buzz Lightyear nearly as well, and our scores reflected that.

I got 602,100 and Trevor got 226,800.

We of course went around again.

This time I got 220,400 and Trevor got 76,200. Womp womp - we did better the first time around! Oh well. Still fun!

Afterwards, we wandered up to the castle, cause I wanted to look at the dragon and go through the Sleeping Beauty walkthrough as well. But we found the photographer out in front again, so we stopped and got some photos.

 

[Araminta18]

Sleeping Beauty Castle - Friday June 14, 2024 (part 2)​

Then, dragon!

We looked around a bit, and then actually ended up exploring around the front of the castle and under the bridge.

Nothing super exciting but it's kind of cool to be able to poke around down there.

Then time to wander inside!

The Sleeping Beauty walkthrough they have on the second floor of the castle is my favorite - it's so pretty and so detailed.

When we got to the end, with the stained glass window of the Prince kissing Sleeping Beauty, I had to take some more photos with my Sleeping Beauty bag.



Disneyland Paris just announced that you can buy a replica of this window - for 1750 euros! It's a good thing we're not there cause that is bonkers expensive but I'd be tempted.

Selfie!

 

[Araminta18]

Now We Do Rides! - Friday June 14, 2024 (part 3)​

Ok one more selfie -

We really were kind of wandering at this point, hoping that Space Mountain would come back up (it was closed earlier) and it had started to rain, but we didn't let that stop us. More castle exploring!

The turret with the snails on it.

Cinderella's carriage in the gate!



So pretty - this was after the rain had mostly stopped and the sun had started to come out.

Then, Space Mountain came back up so we ran over there! It was posted 20 minutes but had bought a fastpass. Not too bad!


Then the plan was to go over to Big Thunder Mountain, but Trevor had to run to the men's room, so I explored the upper level of the fort that's on the entrance to Frontierland.


That was pretty neat - so cool that they have this second level.

We detoured from Big Thunder and went over to Phantom Manor - how could we skip Phantom Manor on our last day? We got stuck just a little bit at the end so I got the picture of the Manor from the graveyard that I'd been looking for -

So cool!

Next up, really Big Thunder this time.

 

[Araminta18]

Speedrun the Rides! - Friday June 14, 2024 (part 4)​

Big Thunder was amazing, as you'd expect.


Seriously Big Thunder is the best ride. So good!

And with that, it was time to head out of Disneyland and head over to Disney Studios.

One last goodbye picture of Thunder Mesa!

I love this poster under the train station on the way out.

As we headed into Avengers Campus, we saw Spiderman out doing stunts on one of the catwalks.

We didn't have time to watch though - we had to meet a super hero at the Superhero Training Center! It was just slightly before noon at this point and we were running a little bit behind schedule but I didn't want to miss out! So I just ignored it. We'll see if that was a good choice or not... Anyways, who did we meet?

Dr Strange!

It was a fun, but quick (by our choice ) meet. Dr Strange is cool!

Then we used our fastpass for Web Slingers - I hate that the merge point is so early. We ended up waiting 20 minutes even with a fastpass, mostly cause of the pre-show and that whole long line after the preshow. So it was 12:30 when we boarded (aah! my initial plan was to have us in a cab to the airport at 1:15!), but we had fun. I got 224,400 and Trevor got 171,300. Not too bad! I wish they'd bring Web Slingers to Disneyworld.

Some spiderbots caught in our webs.

We got off the ride at like 12:36 and it was time to book it back to the hotel! Well with one quick stop for a picture at the Avengers Campus sign.

Trevor is wearing a Hufflepuff hat. #shame

 

[Araminta18]

One Last Disneyland Hotel Experience - Friday June 14, 2024 (part 5)​

Back to the hotel we went!

Yea, I'm giving you this shot like every time, cause it's so pretty!

We had one more thing to do before we were ready to leave (which was part of why I was rushing us), so we took the elevator up to the right floor.

The castle is etched in the mirror!

Where were we going? The Fleur de Lys bar - drinks and snacks before the airport.

It's such a pretty setting - they have these cool coats of arms for each princess too.

A bit hard to see, but this is Beauty and the Beast.

Cinderella

Sleeping Beauty!

I got a hot chocolate:

Very good, and it came with a fun cookie:


Trevor got the Queen's Tonic: Mediterranean tonic, fresh cucumber, juniper berries, fresh lemon juice, pomegranate and fresh rosemary.

It came with a bite of pastry with creamy cheese inside:

The little bite was really good. The drink was more interesting - very refreshing is probably how I'd describe it. You can smell the cucumber and taste all the various flavors. So yea, interesting.

 

[Araminta18]

Home Again (hopefully with no hitchhikers!) - Friday June 14, 2024 (part 6)​

Then Trevor got the lobster roll: Lobster Rolls with bourbon vanilla mayonnaise, green apple, and lettuce, made from croissant dough.

This was small, but tasty (per Trevor). The bite I had with very little lobster was also yummy. Overall we had fun in the bar, and it was really nice and peaceful, just SUUUUUPER pricy. The lobster roll was 35 euros. Woof. But it was good.

It was about 1:15, so time to go! We bid farewell to the lobby:

then called for an uber and retrieved our bags from Bell Services. Our uber arrived at 1:30, and off we went to the airport. We ended up taking these seemingly back roads, and 'cause it's Paris we saw this tiny little castle just in the middle of the field.

So random.

We made it to the airport at 2:20 pm, so about two and a half hours til our flight. We took some time to wander around and find the tax refund place (cause you can get the VAT refunded if you're not a EU citizen and I definitely want that money back!), but we found it, and scanned the forms, and then got ourselves checked in. We ended up having to pay to check my extra bag (my second checked bag) - 93 euros! Woof. But necessary cause I buy too many souvenirs.

Then off to our gate! Our gate area/terminal was super fancy - way more comfortable than other terminals I've been in.

Lots of seating, lots of plugs, lots of tables - just a step above. It was nice. We grabbed a spot, and then Trevor and I each went off exploring. He found a McDonalds and got some food 'cause he was hungry. His was a standard burger, but he got me a "Croque McDo" - McDonald's version of a croque monsieur?

This was interesting, but not that great. The sauce was way too liquidy and the taste was weird. But it was fun to try! And then in the shop nearby I got some chocolates and such to take back for friends, and got a Shirley Temple soda for me.

This was yummy.

Our flight was delayed a little bit (something with the crew, I think), but pretty soon we were boarding and on our way. And I apparently didn't take any pictures of the plane or anything! I think Trevor and I each got our own row this time but I don't 100% remember. Oops!

We made it back home without incident and made it through customs super quickly. The plane landed at 7:45 (or was scheduled to) and by 8:55 we were in an uber back home. We got home a bit before 9:30, so of course it was dark, and that was when the fun began - we'd ordered some really large garbage bags and so spent some time outside on our back deck putting all our stuff in bags and getting out some of the things that we needed that were not cloth and wiping them down with alcohol (like glasses, etc). We left most of the stuff outside in the bags, and then came inside and fell into bed. Didn't want to accidentally bring home any hitchhiking bedbugs!

Fun with Metrics: (all the metrics are back!)
Steps Walked: 14867 steps (6.3 miles)
Ride Count: 6 (Buzz Lightyear x2, Space Mountain, Phantom Manor, Big Thunder, Web Slingers)

 

[Araminta18]

Wrap Up and Haul!​

So we'd fallen into bed Friday night with most of our stuff in garbage bags out in our backyard, waiting for us to figure out how to make sure they were bedbug free. The plan today was to go to the laundromat to run all our clothes and cloth things through driers at super high heat (a laundromat so we could do it all at once instead of doing it one load at a time in our dryer), and then the plan was to leave stuff in garbage bags in the back of our cars 'cause summer in Virginia - we thought it would get hot enough in the back of cars in the sun to heat it up. But we'd bought little bluetooth thermometers and it absolutely did not get hot enough. So we ended up buying a thing from amazon that is just big enough for a suitcase and sticking our suitcases and other stuff in it, and it would then heat up to whatever temperature we wanted for however long. I'd done a bunch of googling and so we heated everything up to like 140 or 150 farenheit, for about 90 minutes, to make sure EVERY part of EVERYTHING got heated up that hot to kill any bedbug eggs, nymphs or anything. The little bluetooth thermometers were super helpful for that - I buried them in the middle inside of something and so I figured once they got up to the right temp, for 90 minutes, we were probably good. That took several days, but eventually we were done. And did we have any bedbugs?

No! YAY! I still have some PTSD but we didn't seem to bring any into the house or get any more bites. So while the heater thing was expensive, it was ABSOLUTELY worth it. Phew! I was so terrified we'd bring them home. But thankfully we didn't seem to. The best possible ending to the whole adventure. We had a great trip otherwise but I really could have done without the whole thing. And thankfully this seemed to wrap it up.

So yea! Bedbug scare aside, it was an enjoyable trip. I'm glad we went! If you ever get the chance to go to Disneyland Paris, I highly recommend it.

Now, haul!

Some Disneyland Paris prints and keys and such.

I got these DLP exclusive Sleeping Beauty ears, and some pins and pens, and the Disneyland Paris notebook!

An Avengers Campus towel and a Star Wars blanket behind it.

EPIC Fun with Metrics:
Steps Walked: 217,103 (95.3 miles)

Video Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLD2n0Bq57wlNblqSYeM9tS4fQcv_NN95

VAT Refund: $136.19
$122.76 from Disneyland Paris
$13.43 from my other purchases

Total Ride Count: 31
Crush's Coaster x2
Avengers Flight Force x2
Web Slingers x4
Tower of Terror x2
Big Thunder Mountain x4
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril x2
Phantom Manor x3
Hyperspace Mountain x4
Small World
Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse
Aladdin's Enchanted Passages
Mysteries of the Nautilus
Cars Rally
Star Tours
Buzz Lightyear x2

 

[Araminta18]

That drone show is so cool!
Welcome back! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip

Isn't it awesome?! Disney Paris has the BEST nighttime shows with those drones. SO awesome.

Thank you!! I'm excited to share - we had an awesome time.