When my husband K, daughter J, and I got up at 7:30, it was a frightening 46 degrees. This is not what residents of Florida and D.C. are used to.
We were out of the room at 8:15. In the lobby, we took a moment to ask about the Covid test we have to take tomorrow and the train. Then it was out the door and over to the security line. This time, there were three lines open. So, we were through at 8:26.
We did the circuitous route over to the Disneyland Hotel and the left entrance, which was set up for hotel guests to use to enter early for Extra Magic Hours. As we entered at 8:41, we noticed cast members in nice long coats.
The area in front of the train station was not crowded at all, which was great.
When we got up there, we had a wonderful view of the castle and the interesting kinetic sculptures that were around the circle in front of the castle. We did not take time to look at them all now. We'll do that later. Right now we took the opportunity for our photos in front of the castle.
We headed over to Frontierland next. The entrance is much fancier than ours, but this is entrance is an actual fort, which makes it easier. We knew there was a souvenir shop in the fort, but it wasn't open yet.
K and J wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain. This version is unique because you have to go under the water that the riverboat sails on to get to the mountain. My ride, Phantom Manor, which is what they call their Haunted Mansion, wasn't open yet. It was J's birthday and appropriate that her ride be first. So, they went off to ride the mountain at 8:51, and I tried to stay warm and did some Facebook posting. I also took advantage of the empty area to take photos without tourists in them.
I know you can see the mountain up there with the riverboat, but you have to see this great photo with the reflection.
When 9:20 rolled around and I could see the door of the Manor was open, I began to freak out that a terrible line would form before they got back.
Finally, they were back around 9:40. They'd had a long line at their ride. We hurried over to the Manor queue, which only had a couple of people making their way up the path. Unlike our Mansion, you go through the front door here. We paused to get my photo in front of the door, which was a thrill.
Before we talk about going in, I should tell you the back story of the Phantom Manor, which we learned from the guy who did the walk-through of the whole park on YouTube. It's a good thing that we saw that, because you definitely don't get it at the Manor. Unless, of course, if they said it in French. But, our voice was that of the magnificent Vincent Price in one of the last things he recorded. I read that his voice was replaced for a time, but it is back now and I was thrilled.
Anyway, the back story. The Manor is in Frontierland, because it belonged to the richest man in town, who made his money from mining. His mine ran under the town and one day they dug so deep that they released a phantom. He wanted the rich man's daughter and killed each of her four fiancés. (Strictly speaking, I really don't understand guy 3 and definitely not guy 4. Did they not notice what happened to the other two?) So, instead of our murderous bride, they have a mourning one. Eventually, the Phantom possessed the whole town, which you can see at the end of the graveyard part of the ride. Knowing the story really added to the experience.
When you walk in the front door, you are in the foyer. There is a portrait of the girl and her father. Then, you are led to the stretching room. Here, there are portraits of the girl with each of her fiancés. Then, she disappears from the paintings and, as they stretch, we see the coming fate of each guy.
Soon thereafter, there is a portrait of the bride. You walk down a hall of paintings, rather than ride as you do here. Here, they have a painting of a duel that comes to life, whereas, we have the two marvelous portraits above the ballroom. Later, there is an animatronic of the bride crying.
When we exited, I saw a cast member in their wonderful costume.
There wasn't a line when we came out. So, K suggested we ride it again. That was a great way to catch details we'd missed. One thing we saw this time, was a sign when we came out that pointed to Boot Hill around the corner. There were all these great tombstones. You could even see the geyser go off, that you probably only see from the riverboat. I wonder how many people miss this?
It is worth noting that, unlike our park, Frontierland is to the left of Main Street and then comes Adventureland above it. In Orlando, that is flipped. Or it is flipped in Paris. It depends on your point of view.
We next checked out the fort. K and J opted not to go up on the ramparts for the view. There were displays in the windows of various buildings in the fort about our West. There was even one on Davy Crockett, complete with the music from the show and a figure with Fess Parker's face.
After checking the shops for pins, we passed a building built like the American Southwest on our way to Adventureland.
Adventureland was much bigger than ours. There was even what amounted to a giant play area. Some things we chose not to visit, others like Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse here and Small World elsewhere were closed.
We crossed through Adventure Isle to reach Pirates of the Caribbean. Like Disneyland, this one has a restaurant attached. J had not wanted to make any reservations for a birthday meal today, because she didn't want to interrupt anything we were doing. And, yes, we have yet to eat breakfast today.
Pirates was pretty much Pirates. It is not a story line that you mess with. There were odds and ends that were different, but it was the same enjoyable ride.
We were not coming into Fantasyland, where the architecture was a mix of German, English, and fantasy. We passed the Peter Pan ride without going in, but we did appreciate the pirate ship above. The Dumbo ride was right across from it.
We were now very hungry, as it was coming on to 11:30. The line over at Toad Hall Restaurant was crazy long from our vantage point. But, it could have been for Peter Pan. Au Chalet de da Marionnette was to our right and the menu looked good. They were not yet open. We decided to wait and killed some time observing the area.
We were finally let in at 11:36. K and J stood in line to place the order, while I secured a table. I had the chance to look over the decor and marvel once again, that Disney took the rather Italian Pinocchio and put him in rather German surroundings.
We'd chosen the combo meals, called Menu here. Menu 1 was a Bavarian hot dog with currywurst sauce, fries, and a drink for 14 euro. Menu 3 was bratwurst (spelled bradwurst), fries, Mini Magnum Almond, and drink for 16. Menu 4 was a pretzel sandwich with pork loin and red cabbage and mustard, fries, strudel and drink for 17 euro. K was able to get 11.75 euros off the bill, which was nice. The food was fine, but unexciting.
After lunch at 12:15, it was time to take care of some business. The signs for it were cute.
On our way to the back of the castle, we saw the busy carousel and checked out the merchandise in Sir Mickey. The shop looked a lot like ours.
When the park was being designed, the French told the Imagineers that they wanted it to be an E-ticket. The Imagineers also knew that France was full of castles. So, they went for fanciful and they made it more of an attraction than the castle in Disneyland or Magic Kingdom. This one tells the story of Sleeping Beauty. Under the castle is an animatronic dragon, which is seriously cool. Upstairs, the story is told with stained glass, books, sculptures, and more. There are two sleeping knights, who snore. One is tinted pink and one blue to be reminiscent of her gown. There is a raven, whose eye is red when you use a flash, which we learned about from that video. It is a magical experience.
From inside the castle, you can look out of course, but you can also walk around up above the crowd and look at the details of this castle with 16 spires. The colors of pink and blue were not chosen for her dress, but rather because that pink pops against the often grey sky here. We were really lucky with our clouds! The castle faces south, so that it looks great any time of day and it is never backlit. There are snails up on the turrets as a nod to France. Each turret has a different weather vane. It's really beautiful.
When we got back around to the front of the castle, we took some time to admire the kinetic sculptures that were there in honor of the 30th anniversary of the park. I'll put some of them here. See if you can tell what each references.
We also took the time to look at the view up the ramp to the castle and to notice the cubed trees next to it. They are pruned that way to be reminiscent of the trees in the Sleeping Beauty movie. Cool!
Evidently, they are into fancy popcorn buckets like folks are here, too.
Having the passes doesn't mean that you don't stand in line. It just means that the line is shorter. The story line for Star Tours here is pretty much the same as at home, just in French. There were English subtitles, which were helpful. The X-wing out over the entrance was cool. Just like at home, the ride dumped us out into a gift shop.
We saw a little bit of the afternoon parade, before taking a dessert break at 3:20 to eat chocolate muffins and have drinks. Behind the bakery, in the arcade, I found interesting posters for Baltimore and DC. Whoever did Baltimore is a bit clueless- there is no such thing as soft-shell clams.
Since we were here on Main Street, we took the time to admire the buildings. They made clever use of the upper floor of the buildings by turning them into seating areas for restaurants. The R.O. D. on the building below is no doubt Roy O. Disney.
Other random things: I really wanted the Phantom Manor sign, but knew it would never fit in the suitcase. One of the arcades had displays on American ingenuity like this brick machine. The west-side arcade had an impossible to photograph display on the Statue of Liberty, which, of course, France gave us. The bookstore had the wonderful characters on the floor above. Look at how cool the candy shop column is. There were also great stained glass ceilings.
It was now about 5:50, and there was another parade out on Main Street, complete with a fire-breathing dragon, who was no doubt Maleficent.
After watching some of the parade and looking in shops, it was time for dinner at 6:30. We let J choose, since it was her birthday. We went over to Frontierland to Fuente del Oro, where we had decent burritos. K was even able to order beer.
It was 7:40, when we made our way to Adventureland again, passing from Southwestern to Arabian architecture. Here we found a building( Le Passage Enchanté d' Aladdin) devoted to the story of Aladdin, which was told in vignettes. It was quite effective.
The next stop was in Fantasyland just to the left of the castle for the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves ride, which didn't have too bad a line. Not exciting, but it told the story.
It was 8:30, when we wound up on the end of the diagonal across Fantasyland at Le Pays des Contes de Fées or The Land of Fairy Tales. It is a boat ride meant for kids, but plenty of adults were there to enjoy the miniature lands of Disney and literature. As a miniaturist, I loved it, which is why the others agreed to it. We were very excited to recognize the music from the France movie at Epcot.
At 9:18, we were in front of the castle, which looked beautiful in the setting sun.
We now had about an hour to stand in the cold looking toward the castle, waiting for the 30th anniversary fireworks. We decided that since we'd seen the actual fireworks last night, we'd only stay for the special ones tonight. It was 57 degrees and K got us hot chocolate for 5, 25 euros. It had reached only 65 today. We were parked on the left side of Main Street fairly close to the arcade on that side.
At about 10:55, the show began. It was an incredibly effective use of drones. We expect that that will show up in our parks eventually. I don't know who realized that the 30 could look like a Mickey head, but it was a brilliant idea.
There was a break before the regular fireworks and we took this opportunity to leave. The arcade looked really nice all lit up.
We stopped in the stores of Disney Village, which were still open even though it was almost 11:15. World of Disney, The Disney Store, The Disney Gallery, Disney Fashion, and The Lego Store were all worth a look. They did lack park ride pins, though.
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