It was cold. And foggy.
The entrance to the park!
Everything all decorated for Christmas!
Three crazy kids... cold but excited to be at Disney!
The best part of this picture is Hayden's face in the background...haha!
Did I mention it was foggy?
We popped into one of the little cafes and grabbed a quick breakfast. Every hour they would play music on Main Street and make it snow soap bubbles!
Frontierland! We found that everything was similar to Disney world but it had its own little nuances...like the entrances to the different lands were different!
The Haunted Manor (it was closed for renovations but it looked so cool!)
Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas!
We headed to Pirates of the Caribbean next!
Waiting in line...surprisingly the lines weren't terrible for most of the day. The big name rides were busy, but I think forty minutes was the longest we waited. Much better than we all anticipated!
Walking around in Fantasyland
Alice's Curious Labyrinth!
We headed out to lunch at one of the restaurants in the Disney Village
After lunch we headed straight for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! At DisneyWorld this was the first ride we rode and one of Stella's favorites. This one seemed even longer than the one at world and we all loved it!
I LOVE this picture... its so good! And it was a great ride! Everyone's favorite of the day!
I LOVE this picture... its so good! And it was a great ride! Everyone's favorite of the day!
Christopher and I snuck away and rode the Indiana Jones ride... it was not impressive. It lasted maybe 30 seconds and went upside down once, which I was not anticipating nor was I prepared for (read: hadn't taken my Bonine to keep from getting motion sickness).
We headed to the tea cups and I stood on the sidelines wondering why anyone would want to do that to themselves...lol! Stella has this weird thing where she never gets dizzy (seriously...never) so these are her favorite types of rides!
Adventureland looks like Agrabah from Aladdin!
It's a Small World!
Theres a much larger outside structure to Its a Small World here- Stella loved picking out all the recognizable monuments.
The whole ride was decked out for Christmas and there was a mix of the It's a Small World song and Christmas songs!
And we made another trip on Big Thunder Mountain!
Riding a space ship ride in Tomorrowland!
The castle was so pretty at night!
While we were warming up and having some hot chocolate we looked at the app to see if there were any short wait times and there was no wait for Aladdin so we rushed over there only to find out that it was just a walk through of different scenes from the movie... just figurines and pictures. Whomp, whomp, whomp! But the entrance to Adventureland looked pretty cool!
With my favorite girl!
The lighting ceremony! Complete with Santa!
After we watched the ceremony we headed out into the Disney Village and ended up eating dinner at the pub there. After that we headed to a giant Disney store so Stella could spend some of her Christmas money. We wandered around for a while and then ordered an uber and headed back to the hotel. By the time our uber arrived and we got back into Paris it was close to midnight. We had plans to go see the Eiffel Tower but the lights were out and it was closed by the time we got to our hotel. I'm still not entirely sure how we made it til midnight jet lagged and all... I'm attributing it to Disney magic!
Speaking of Disney magic...our take on DisneyLand Paris... it did not meet our expectations... any of ours! I've seen pictures of Disneyworld and Disneyland California all decked out for Christmas and the difference between them and Paris is staggering. Not only that, but the cast members of Paris were just sort of... there...and kind of surly. They didn't enhance our experience or add to the magic like they do everywhere else. I don't know if it was because it was freezing cold and a gloomy day or thats just how they are in general. Obviously I'm not going to complain too much... we were still in Disneyland. But it definitely wasn't my favorite. Disneyworld is far better!
The end of the night... she didn't make it long in the cab!
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The next morning we set our alarms and got up early to squeeze in a trip to the Eiffel Tower before we flew to Bahrain. We skipped breakfast, finished packing, and headed out.... to realize that not only were the lights still out on the tower, but that the sun wasn't up yet...not even at 8 am so we drove right next to it, but couldn't see it at all! I was afraid Stella was going to be disappointed, but she was awesome and said it wasn't a big deal and that she would just come back again to see it!
And now for more travel saga...
We arrived at the airport super early since there was no Eiffel Tower stop, went to the check in counter for Gulf Air, and handed over our passports. And then it went to shit.
The ticketing agent looked at us and asked for our booking numbers and then told us that Stella's flight had been booked for the day before and she had missed it. There was nothing he could do since our trip was booked through Delta (which is who SATO booked it through) and that not only was that days flight booked completely, we had to go two terminals over and talk to the Delta desk.
I hate I snapped this with her eyes closed, but this is how she rode between terminals.
So, we gathered ourselves up and booked it over to the Delta counters and were met with a not so lovely agent who definitely made it clear we were not adding to her day. After explaining the situation to her and having her call stateside and try to get it resolved, she told us that we were going to owe a change fee and whatever the price difference of the ticket was. Obviously we didn't have a choice in the matter and told her to just do whatever she had to do. I mean, we couldn't just leave Stella in Paris. Finally, after her being on the phone for about forty minutes, she prints out a ticket and hands it to us.
We high tailed it back to the Gulf Air counter, handed our passports over again along with Stella's new ticket... and he told us that she had booked it, but it didn't reserve it. And the flight was still full. He said that a couple of people hadn't checked in yet so our odds were good that she'd get on the flight but for the time being she was on standby since there was less than an hour before checking in for the flight closed.
At this point I was exhausted, pissed off, and hangry. All of us were. We checked our bags and headed through passport control and security and booked it for breakfast while Christopher went to the gate to see if a seat had opened up. I grabbed a quick breakfast for all of us and headed over to the gate where a relieved Christopher told me that Stella had made it on board! We all sort of sagged with relief. The ticketing agent that had checked us in was back there to check everyone in on the flight and he motioned for us to come to the front and he had given us better seats and let us board early! So... that guy was awesome and definitely made up for the hellacious morning! We actually saw him from our window and waved to him and he grinned and waved back... apparently not all the French are stoic and surly.
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