Un Jour Chez Mickey

Some days study abroad is frustrating. Some days study abroad is not much different from my regular UVa days. Some days study abroad is awesome. Today was one of those days, because I went here:

Disneyland Paris is in many ways very much like its American counterpart. I have been to Disneyland in Anaheim several times, enough to know the names of most of the rides, where they are, and they experience they provide. Quite a few of them have been transplanted into Disneyland Paris verbatim; the little Snow White ride, The Haunted Mansion, Star Tours, and the Tower of Terror were basically the same, except the recorded dialogue was mostly in French. Some were completely different; Paris's Indiana Jones ride is just a roller coaster, and not at all the fun wild jeep ride I love so much in Anaheim. I almost laughed aloud when I saw that instead of churros, the French Disneyland sells crepes, and it was certainly odd when Eva asked a shop assistant about Rapunzel merchandise, and I had to clarify with her French name (Raiponce) because we were met with a blank stare. The overall experience, however, feels very familiar.

It was a beautiful day to go, warm enough that I nearly took off my jacket around lunchtime, and clear as a bell. Eva and I were happy to discover that the TGV station we had chosen was right next to the park, and getting in was a cinch, complete with excellent student prices (46 euro for a one-day park-hopper pass). Since Eva has some problems with motion sickness, we rode quite a few of the smaller, child-oriented rides; it's surprising how nice a time you can have just floating in a boat on Storybookland or chilling on a carousel horse. I do appreciate not having to worry about a height limit anymore, however; The Tower of Terror is one of my favorite rides, and I loved going on it once again.

There were a few hiccoughs; neither of us realized how early the parks close in the offseason, and we ended up having about three hours to kill once we left the smaller not-MGM-Studios-but-similar park. The food is as expensive as you might expect, and not really worth the price, especially if you're a vegetarian, so I regretted not bringing more with me instead of eating something substandard. Incidentally, there is a Downtown-Disney of sorts with a much nicer and cheaper sandwich shop, which had delicious tomato soup and vegetarian options that looked tasty (never got to try one, unfortunately). Eva's motion sickness hit on Star Tours and wasn't helped by Space Mountain, and while I didn't mind waiting with her until she felt better, I wished she had been able to have a nice, illness-free day. When all is said and done, though, it was a great time. A day at Disneyland is a day of virtually guaranteed fun, Paris or otherwise.