The Wonderful thing about Tiggers Is Tiggers are wonderful things
The song goes on to mention how bouncy Tiggers are. This was Barry this morning who was suitably excited to be going into Disneyland Paris Park today. We went down to breakfast at 7.45am and were very pleased to find that instead of the advertised provided breakfast boxes due to Covid that instead a full hot buffet breakfast was set up. We all tucked in heartedly. The scrambled eggs were not bad at all.
Straight from breakfast we hopped on the shuttle to take us to the park.
Now on my watch I have the setting that alerts me if I am separated from my phone. When we reached the next hotel for their pickup, an alert came through. Sure enough I realised I had left my phone still on charge in our room. I was already to leave it for the day when Karen reminded me that I actually needed it to be able to show my vaccine status on the French TousAnti Covid app. I was very annoyed at myself at forgetting the phone and of the subsequent fact I thought I didn’t need it. So quickly Karen & I jumped off the bus, leaving Barry & Ellie and hoping we would meet them later.
We then frog marched it back to our hotel about 0.5 mile away. My aim was to get there and collect my phone to then make it onto the next shuttle. It was a real race, but we made it. Still cursing myself we made it over to the holding gates outside the park as it was not yet open and could see Barry & Ellie just in front of us.
Going through the first gates we then joined them at the next queue to get into the park itself. We had a bit of an issue using our paper tickets to actually get into the park because as we realised later was that the QR code was too big for the reader to recognise. Poor Barry was at one point stranded with no one around to assist him initially. Eventually he got through joined us, and we made our way over to HyperSpace Mountain. It said there was a 20-minute queue but we practically walked straight onto it.
This version of Space Mountain is so much better than the Florida one in many ways. From the coaster itself through to the cannonball start it is a lot of fun and we all came off smiling.
Then as we had to walk past Buzz Lightyear, we rode that. In the absence of the not very competitive Neil, I managed to win for a change.
Then we crossed the park to ride Karen’s favourite – Big Thunder Mountain. Yet again this is an improvement on its US equivalent. The ride is longer and seemed faster. I would describe that whoever was driving the train to be reckless as they seemed to accelerate around the tight bends which must be against all Health and Safety rules.
Phantom Manor came next. This is definitely not as good as in the US. It has weird, disjointed storyline that I can’t follow. Still the effects are good.
By now I was starting to flag with my back and out earlier powerwalk back to the Hotel. However, I soldiered on not wanting to spoil anyone’s day. Karen didn’t join us as we rode Indiana Jones. A ride that is nowhere near as exhilarating as Space Mountain, but the fact it is not in the dark means she could see the loop and that puts her off. Again, we were on the ride within 5 minutes.
Karen re-joined us to ride Pirates. Yet another ride that is much better here than anywhere else.
After a quick dash around the Alice in Wonderland maze. By now was now I was very sore and needed a break. We decided to stop for lunch in Fantasyland and went the Marionette restaurant where Karen and I had a surprisingly tender smoked ½ chicken with chips. Karen did have a minor meltdown when I didn’t get her an Apple Strudel with her meal deal like Barry & Ellie had with theirs. We all kept explaining that it was not an option on the chicken meal, but apparently, I should have made that clear to her even though she had told me she wanted a yoghurt. It was just a case of food envy.
The next ride we headed for was the Railroad around the park. As only one station was operating, we headed back down Main Street to get on and were lucky that a train was waiting for us. It was a pleasant relaxing way to see a different view of the whole park.
At that point Karen & I decided to take a break outside of the park and headed to Downtown Disney for a rest and a proper coffee for Karen. It was a decent walk, but we enjoyed our sit down and chill out from the hustle and bustle in the park.
After a good break we headed back into the park and to the Autopia ride that Barry & Ellie had said they were in the queue for. Not long after we arrived, they came out having enjoyed the ride.
We headed back to Fantasyland and rode Pinocchio which was simple and fun but probably had our longest wait of the day. Everyone was by now very tired, the temperature had dropped, and we were also all starting to feel the cold as well as hungry. So we made our way out of the park.
For substance we decided to find food in Downtown Disney. As we had all had a hot meal lunchtime, we went to Earl of Sandwich which is an expensive, posh but very good version of a Subway type of place. Three of us had Caesar Salad wraps whilst Barry had a Montagu Hot Sandwich. Karen & I also treated us to a small bottle of wine which we took back to the Hotel with us.
My body just about held out for the day. My legs and feet were very sore as was my back. I was though relieved to be back in our room for the night. Karen ran a hot bath and I lay in it for long time trying to soothe all the places that ached. It was very welcome. It had been a good day and very worthwhile just to see the pleasure on the faces of Karen, Barry & Ellie. We had missed Neil though.
