Back to Disneyland Paris

After our late night shopping excursion, we were pretty tired the next morning and contemplated skipping the continental breakfast at our hotel we had scheduled for 7AM, but decided to go down anyway. It was not as impressive as the one the day before at Disneyland, but it was free, so we didn't complain too much. We chose to skip early entry today since we'd done all of Disneyland we wanted to. So we went back to the room, where Janie napped for awhile while we packed up what little luggage we had. Then she headed off to check us out while J. R. went to store our bags for the day. Then it was off to the big yellow bus and the Disney Studios.

We headed first to Crush's Coaster, which already had a pretty big line forming, which only got worse when the ride broke down. We considered bailing as some other people did, but stuck it out, and soon the line was moving and we were able to ride again. After that, we picked up FastPasses for Tower of Terror and J. R. headed off with the boys for Rock-N-Roller Coaster while Janie went to the restaurant for a drink. The pre-show is much shorter here than at WDW and no pretense of being at a concert -- just testing the ride. Janie seemed to think the music was in French, but ours was definitely in English.

After RnRC, we thought about seeing "Stitch Live" but it was starting to rain and we'd have to wait too long for the English version, so instead we went over to "Animation". Like its counterparts at WDW and DL, they show a movie about animation and show some classic Disney movies and then you have all of the interactive stations and the ability to learn to draw a character. We skipped this last part and decided to try "Cinamagique", figuring it was at least good for a nap. Au contraire, the show was very funny, even for something starring Martin Short, as he jumped from scene to scene through classic movie moments. To us, it was what the Great Movie Ride ought to be.

J. R. decided to beg off on Tower of Terror and went to the gift shop in search of some Paris pins and also picked up some hair bands for our daughter, who was complaining about her pony tail holders being in our luggage. When we met up again, we decided we needed some lunch. We considered the buffet at DS, but then thought we'd try the Blue Lagoon at Disneyland. So we went to Guest Services and got a 2:30 priority seating, which was later than we wanted, but all they had. We went back to DL and decided to go ride Pirates of the Caribbean again before lunch, which we did.

Lunch was okay, but nothing special. We ended up seated in the back, so we couldn't see much of the ride. J. R. ordered a fish dinner which was dry and tasteless, although the chicken Janie ordered (which was what J. R. had originally planned to order) was pretty good. We had creme brulee for dessert and the kids enjoyed watching them flame it at the table.

Paris

After lunch, it was time to board the bus to go back to the hotel to pick up our luggage so we could get back on the bus to go to the train station to go to Downtown Paris. This was a last-minute decision. We'd originally planned to call BS Transports to come pick us up and take us downtown, but since our luggage consisted of two backpacks and a big Disneyland Paris shopping bag, we decided to use the train. We had purchased three-day Metro/RER passes before we left home, so we were able to hop right on the RER train at the DLRP stop (after a little trouble figuring out how the passes worked since apparently we ran into a broken machine at the first turnstile and thought it was a problem with our passes) and headed to downtown. After a quick change at Les Halles, we were on the Metro to the Louvre stop, which was near our hotel. We only had a short two block or so walk to the hotel from the Metro, which was great.

The hotel was nice. It was a little old, but that was to be expected. The staff was great, especially the British woman at the main desk who told us all about the troubles at Terminal 5 and how bad they were. We had booked two rooms and they had plenty of room for us, which surprised us a little based on our experience of European hotels vs. American ones.

We dropped our stuff off and went pack to the Metro to go to the Arc De Triomphe since it was a little late to do much else. We walked along the Champs-Elysees and stopped to admire the Arc. We planned to come back later to actually go up it since none of us was in the mood for climbing the 284 stairs.

McDonald's and Night in Paris

We were a little hungry so we decided to do the "American" thing and just go to McDonald's since we were trying to save some money and weren't hungry enough for a big meal. We knew how to order a Quarter-Pounder in France (thank you, Pulp Fiction), but we confused the French garcon by trying to order four of the same meal. We thought at first it was the language barrier but then realized we were in McDonald's, home of order-by-number and realized we'd have the same trouble back home too.

After dinner, we took the Metro back to the hotel. J. R. decided to get on the Internet at the hotel to check on our luggage and make sure BA knew we had changed hotels. We were going to do a little research, but then the power went out in the hotel! Janie and J. R. went back upstairs and since it was dark due to the power being out, we decided to just call it an early night.