Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Plane, rental car
Resort: Offsite
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
DLP Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent
Comments: You'll find this hard to believe about a Larry Wilmot trip report, but this one is just overflowing with sarcasm, wit, and strange punctuation. Perhaps growing weary of Walt Disney World, Larry and friends (and family) head to Disneyland Paris.

Larry Wilmot -- October 2004 -- Disneyland Paris (Offsite)

Le Travellers

  • Larry Wilmot. Social Work Manager.
  • Jill Wilmot. Nursing Home Inspector
  • Greg Wilmot.
  • Ed Wilmot.


21st October 2004 - 24th October 2004.

Bon Jour - Welcome to the Wilmot's mini European Adventure. If you are new to the Wilmots we are seasoned Walt Disney World visitors, having spent far too much money in the past six years on the Floridian Economy. I think nine trips have been taken, however, I don't want to be accused of being mean to my European cousins by spending all our dosh on trips to the good old US of A. So we have also had three previous trips to Eurodisney as it was called and Disneyland Paris as it is referred to more recently.

As any seasoned followers of matters Disney will know, one of the reasons Mr Eisner is as popular as an Eskimo Ice Cream Salesman is that Eurodisney is once again in severe do-do's. The new park, (or 2/3rd Park, as I scientifically proved on my last trip. - See Mouseplanet dot com for proof.) is not exactly setting the world on fire. In fact it's not even setting Marne Le Vallie on fire either. However, being a philanthropic kind of guy, I want to help out my friends when they are in trouble, so a plot was hatched to spring over the channel for a little visit-ette. We can then spend a few Euros in Aid to the poor old Walt Disney World Company and its French Subsidiaries.

Regular readers will be well versed with my friends Tom and Leanne, these are good chums who live in Florida and who have "visited" with us when we have been to Florida for the last four or five years. They have also visited us in Scotland, to take a little bit of history home with them. Leanne is a big student of History, and is particularly interested in Scottish History. In fact she knows about 100 times more than me and I've lived there for eleven years.

Fortunately Tom and Leanne are on a business trip to Spain, which for my friends in the USA who are fairly geographically challenged, Spain is just below France and next door to Portugal. I think some of you know where Portugal is. Anyway Spain is just a mere hop by aeroplane. So a plot was hatched a few months ago, that we would meet up and do Disneyland Paris together. Tom and Leanne are flying into a different airport, Charles De Gaul, and we are flying into Paris Beuavais.

Actually, we are flying with an airline called Ryan Air, which is one of these cheapie airlines, which provides fairly cheap flights, (ours didn't seem that cheap to me.) However, the service does seem pretty cheap and cheerful, with the Emphasis on Cheap. (So much cheap cheap, I think it is a budgie airline rather than a budget.)

You fly form airports that vaguely are close to the Cities they speak about, like about 30 miles away. They have an amazingly tight fisted baggage allowance, (not a problem for a weekend jaunt. ) And if you are half a second past the boarding cut off, don't expect to fly. But the airport is so far north of Paris, and the airport described as Glasgow airport is so far south from whence we fly, It feels like we are driving half of the way ourselves. So being not exactly on the door step of Paris we have decided to hire a car. (Using Tesco Clubcard Points for the last time ever- sadly they have stopped the deal with Holiday Autos, so I am going to have to actually pay for car hire in the States on Future Visits.) Anyway back to our chums at Ryan Air, I will fly with them and if it is brilliant I will happily tell you all about it.

It has got to be better than our last trip, when we were supposed to fly from Edinburgh. But with 12 hours notice we found out that the French Air Traffic controllers were on strike so we ended up driving almost 1000 just to get there.

We are also for the first time not staying in a Disney Hotel. The reason for this is that they sell packages, of transport, tickets and hotel to the Brits and quite frankly it is very very expensive. So we have decided to stay in one of the "off world" hotels, which is on Disney Property, but actually is a Holiday Inn. This is very new, and we have booked a Kidsuite, I understand that there is a bus to the park, and it is near the Disney owned but privately run Shopping Centre. Val De Europe (I think it is called. May be Cite De Europe, but be assured it has the word Europe in it somewhere. And Frankly I know that you dont actually care what it is called.)

This method of having a Disney Jaunt has worked out at about half the cost of one of the packages. We are also going to come here next July with a friend our ours Robin from Texas, so I am thinking of getting Annual Passes, depending on the cost, which I have so far not managed to establish. If two separate passes works out more sensible, I will get a two day pass. Though there is something rather comforting about holding a Disney Annual Pass, my WDW has run out. And with no idea when I will be back at WDW, I find it frankly rather depressing. This is not to say that Disney Trips are not planned, I expect on this very day next year to be in Disneyland. (The original - In Cali Forn I hay.)

Tom and Leanne are staying in Central Paris, so we have agreed to meet them at that modest little pad, that Louis xiii had built Versailles - (Ver-sigh) on Friday at noon. Flight delays permitting. I have done most of the sights of Paris, Le Tour Eiffel , Le Folles Berger. Le tomb de la Napoleon., Le Notre Dame. La Etcetera. So we wanted to do something we hadn't done. We did go to Versailles, when we were students in 1980, on a grand tour de la Europe, with a load of Australian and New Zealand Tourists. But we were either too poor or too mean to pay the entry fee, so we went round the marche, and bought some Peche Blanche and sat and ate them on a wall instead. (Oh for simple pleasures) So I figured we were due a trip to look at the plush palace. There is nothing like a bit of gold gilding to put a bit of sunshine in your life. Hopefully we will be able to figure out how to go for a meal somewhere with Tom and Leanne afterwards, the difficulty being we are via le auto, and they are via la Locomotive.

On Saturday, the plan is we meet up at Disney and do Disneyland, with a quick trip to the Studio's if that is possible. (I mean you haven't lived if you haven't sang. La La Lar Lar anamagique.) Then a nice meal in a Disney Hotel may be a good plan. The hotels at DLP are very nice, and on a par with those at WDW. This includes the restaurants that are OK in the hotels, as opposed to the fast food at DLP which in my experience is terrible. I had a freezing cold hot dog at Casey's last trip with cardboard bread roll, and I had the most disgusting ribs I have ever had the misfortune to eat, or spit out actually, at the Cowboy Shack in Frontier land on the trip before that.

On Sunday, we are going our separate ways, Us to the Studios and Tom and Leanne for the flesh pots of Paris, (No sorry the museums of Paris.) We don't fly home until 10pm, so we will be able to stay in the parks until 6pm or so. And hopefully a jolly time will be had by all.

Day One. Thursday 20th October.

Thursday, I was on a course during the day on Health and Safety Risk Assessments, but that was over by 3pm, so I nipped off home early and we set off on our Journey, for Prestwick Airport, near Ayr by half past four. Stopping off, at Perth MacDonald's for a Big Mac, we were at our hotel in Ayr before 10pm, where I passed the time by writing this introduction, for the benefit of you my loyal readership. I did a little quality control on my last WDW TR and I thought it was a bit, er crap. So I have decided to go back to the Live Format for this trip. As they say "Summery Trip Reports are for Wimps".

I have set the alarm for 4-45am, and I need to be at the airport for six am for our flight at seven. Hopefully it will be on time, so we have no problems meeting Tom and Leanne. The weather forecast for Paris is good. Well I will bid you a pleasant night, and I shall, blow out the candle and nod off for five and a half hours sleep. Nighty Night. Don't let the bed bugs bite.

Day Two. Friday 21st October.

It's really funny but I defy anyone to go to sleep and stay asleep for the whole night before you get up for a Disney holiday. I spent a fitful night, tossing and turning, I woke up at around 3-45 thinking that the alarm was about to go off, and something would go wrong with it and I would miss the plane, and it would be all my fault. However, when I realised there was still an hour to go I forced myself back to sleep, and that hour was the best that I had.

So we got up just before five, and had hot chock sashay, and blueberry breakfast bar. Got ourselves out of the hotel and into the car, and drove down to the Money Making Machine, sorry the airport car park. Being sleep deprived I was not in a great mood, and when we had to get out of the car to get a ticket because the barrier was broken, whilst at the same time having to re-mortgage the house to pay for two and a half days parking, I was in even less of a even temper.

However my mood did rise considerably when I walked into Prestwick Airport, It is fantastic. It looks like a 1960's New Town Railway Station, well that was my first thought, then I started affecting a bad European Accent, and saying "Velcome to Dubrovnik Airport." I have to admit that they have upgraded it in some parts, but clearly there is a little bit left to do.

Mind you it wasn't as funny as when we arrived at Paris Beauvais Airport, which the aircraft pulls up next to a (and I promise I'm not making this up" a tent. Ryan Air to be fair to them ran a very punctual operation this morning and we were in France in two shakes of a lamb's tail. Though having a drinks menu stuck on the roof rack, and the safety instructions in bright yellow, on the head-rest in front of you, struck me as a little bit on the tacky side. But hey, I was in Scotland and Now I'm in France and it didn't take me 11 hours to drive there for a change.

As the Eagle Eyed of you will have spotted, the plan was to drive to Versailles and meet Tom and Leanne at the Railway Station at Noon. Then to finally after 20 years of trying go and look at the palace of the Sun King. Louis the Fourteenth, the King with the Gold Leaf Fetish. We managed to drive there OK, with tempers kept in cool, not an easy thing to do when driving in a strange land in a very silly looking French Car. We even managed to find a car park, within walking distance of both the Palace, and the Railway Station.

So we made it to the Station with five minutes to spare. Sadly Tom and Leanne didn't make it, and at the time of writing we don't even know if they have made it to France. We waited for five trains and a hour to pass, but with no Joy. Hopefully they just missed us and didn't have too bad a morning themselves. I have visions of them, sat at an airport in Spain looking at there watches and wondering what we are up to. The silver lining was that there was a Macdonald's opposite the station, so we managed to get lunch from across the road.

We abandoned ship at 1pm and went up to the Palace. There seemed to be a lot of people milling around in the courtyard. So we found the place you buy the tickets. Twenty Euros per person, and Six for the offspring, not too bad for such a magnificent castle. So we decided that this time we would go in there. We then noticed a notice on the door, in French and English. Which said "Due to a power cut, we are unable to operate all our security systems, therefore, we are unable to admit guests for the foreseeable future" - Or words to that effect.

I looked up at the sun in the sky and gave the sun king a little smile. So we walked around the back of the palace, and gave 3 Euros each to the nice lady in the wooden hut and went for a walk in Louis garden. And mighty big gardens they are too. Unfortunately the spectacular fountains were being serviced, (we saw a fountain repair van) and there were not any plants in bloom. We walked down to the Grand Canal, and sat by the rowing boat hire dock, Jill and the boys had an ice cream, and they fed some of the carp, (Im not sure which variety, if you were to guess, very very ugly carp, you would be in the right ball park.) I laid on the grass in the sun for five minutes and actually dropped of to sleep.

We walked back up to the palace and the booking office was still shut, so we walked down to the car, and headed towards . Disney. It is probably around 30 miles and it took us three hours to get there. We headed towards the City, seeing the Eiffel Tower, and headed around the inner ring road, and basically if you imagine a tightly packed Car Park with Bikes and Scooters blasting between the parked cars, you get an idea of what it was like. Regular readers may know that I am very biker friendly, but I have never ever seen such mad idiots as French bikers. (And to be honest quite a lot of the other drivers are just as bad.= At the end of the three hours of torture, my nerves were shot.)

We finally made it back to the hotel, The Holiday Inn at Disneyland Paris Resort, and it is a spanking new place and very nice. Our room is a kid suite and it is very nice but not as circus themed as I expected it to be.

We spent the evening down the Village, which is a bit like a shrunken Downtown Disney in Orlando. For our evening victuals we ate at the new King Ludwig's Castle. Which seems like a cross between, Le Cellier, Octoberfest and the Adventures Club. I was a bit disappointed with the food, my steak was very nice but alas the food was very cold. (and I'm not a great sender back of cold food - Complaining is for wimps.) Jill liked her chicken, but she agreed it was not over hot. For Pudding we had Apple Strudel. I genuinely didn't know if it was supposed to be hot or cold. (You know I have a big downer on the food at DLP, and I just don't seem to be able to shake that off, perhaps tomorrow's dining experience will prove me wrong.) There was also entertainment, L'Ochestre Bavarois, turned out to be a couple of guys on accordion and organ and a woman singer, kinda Orchstre Lite. But hey there put a bit of oomph into the oompha so who I am I to knock. However, they were replaced by Ericka et Kurt who had to be seen to be believed, she was in full Astrix's the Horrid Outfit and he was in far too skimpy lederhosen . To be honest you would not invite her to sing at your dinner party, and you defiantly wouldn't ask him to be the baby sitter.

Well a quick turn around the lake and a look at the menus at the Newport Bay Hotel and the Hotel New York, used up all the energy we had left.

So we got the bus back to the hotel and settled down for a little bit of Trip Report writing for me, and watching BBC1 for Jill.

Lets hope we find our friends tomorrow.

See you guys soon.Cheers Larry.

Day Three Saturday 23rd October.

Hi there good friends, welcome to Larry's trip to Disneyland Paris, which for the geographically challenged of you is in France, the home of Gaston and Belle.

Regular readers will have been worrying for the past 24 hours, about the fate of our friends Tom and Leanne, who didn't make it to the rendezvous at Versailles yesterday. Well just to relieve tension, you know it is always important to do that. I will tell you from the start that they are safe and well. So what happened I hear you ask, well they were caught up in the mle that is Paris, they made it to Charles Le Gaul on time, but it took hours for them to get to their hotel, and then hours again to make it to Versailles, and although they gallantly went there, they didn't make it until four pm, a cool four hours after the point that we were going to meet. Fortunately I don't think they were too surprised that we had left. Anyway they, unlike us, managed to spend some time in the palace.

The funny thing is that we almost didn't meet today either. This was because we thought we were meeting at 10am, and they thought that we were meeting at 9am, so they were there at the entrance to Disneyland Paris, and we were not. Anyway, it turned out that we all had the idea independently to go and have breakfast at the Cable Car Bakery on Main Street USA. So we bumped into each other at around 9-50 and much joy was had by all.

I had a nice breakfast of a hot chock and a croissant , and we had a little chat about yesterdays travel weary days. Then it was time to have some fun, with our new annual passes. Yes we have bought annual passes. We are coming here next July with our friend from Texas Robin Goble, another Trip Report writer., and it worked out that an annual pass is actually cheaper than a three day park hopper. There is a drawback, which is that you have to go and get a photo taken for the id card, which sounds simple enough but actually turned into an absolute nightmare, later on in the day (something for you to look forward to then reading about the Annual Pass misery.)

However, before that let me tell you about the pleasant day we had with Tom and Leanne, you know there isn't anything much more fun showing some people you like around a Disney Park for the first time. Tom and Leanne are veteran WDW visitors, living almost next door in Florida they visit there lots and lots of times each year. And although they have been to Europe plenty of times, this was there first trip to DLP. One of the priorities for me was to let them ride the rides that they also have at WDW, like Pirates, Big Thunder, and Peter Pan, so that they can "compare and contrast".

However there could only be one ride that would be fitting for Leanne to ride as her first attraction and that was "It's a small world". Poor old Leanne is suffering from withdrawal symptoms from It's a Small World, as it is down for "re-hab" in Florida for a good twelve months. So she was itching to go on the Paris one. And I think she was pleasantly surprised at how good it was, she liked the entrance and the little garden area you float through, I noticed her eyes light up when they came to the USA section. When we came out, there is a France Telecom exhibition, with a walk through version of the ride in the exit area. Tom's comment was "I knew the French didn't like American's much but this is too cruel."

We then went over to Frontierland which has been renamed Halloweenland for the duration of October. And to be honest it looks like there has been an explosion in an orange paint factory. Disney have gone to town with Halloween stuff in DLP. There must be 100 Halloween men, up poles, sat on seats, on an overground cable car system up the Thunder Mesa., and there were some people dressed up as pumpkin men who were walking around, and scaring the natives. They were like demented cave men, except they were big round and orange. There were lots of acts at a stage set up in Halloweenland, including the Pumpkin Men and a Jazz band, who normally play in the Studios. We went and got fast passes for Big Thunder, and then went and did Phantom Manor. This is similar to Haunted Mansion, actually it is 90% the same, but the French want to pretend it is all there idea, so they changed the name. It is a little shorter than the WDW one but the effects are more sparkly and modern, it is very good, with a haunting melody playing throughout the ride, and more of an emphasis on the bride. Tres bien though. This was followed up with a ride on Pirate's, Ed and I were quoting from the film of the same name, and I was doing my Jonny Depth Charge swaying walk, and saying you will remember this as "The day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow" The ride was gooooddd and everyone had a Salty Sea Dog-tastic time.

Then we went and tried to get our Annual Pass Photos taken but there was a tres grande queue, so we opted to go back later. (Tres Grande Mistake.) We went for lunch at Casey's which despite my bad experience previously actually resulted in a nice lunch, I had Dog with cheese, fries and half a portion of profiterolles. We sat in the arcade which they don't have at WDW which is a shame, because Tom was lamenting the lack of indoor places to eat food from Casey's in Florida.

We then went back to try to ride Big Thunder but the ride was down, so it was a bit of a walk for nothing. Anyway it was then time to go and show Tom and Leanne around the Studios. So we did the five minute walk across to the new park. The layout of Paris is very similar to Universal Studios in Florida. If you imaging a three pronged star, with Disneyland on one prong, The Studios on another and the Village Entertainment and dining area on another you will not be going two far wrong. All three are within five minutes walking time of the other two. Not too shabby at all.

The first thing we did was the Tram tour, because of the multi language nature of DLP, you get a video on a big TV in each segment of the Trams. The English Commentary is by Jed Irons, of Scar and Spaceship Earth Fame, and he does a good if slightly bored job. There is a catastrophe canyon, just like in Florida but I suspect that if you whipped out your tape measure you would find it is a good three inches smaller at least. There is a nice Reign of Fire segment which looks very London like down to the gunge written on the walls of the "tube" station. (Though have you seen the film.Nah don't bother it is grim.) There is assorted junk lining the route, (rowt?) and although it isn't great it isn't bad either. The video screens are a good idea, as they can really show you how Cat Canyon works.

Then we saw the Movie Parade, and it is short but fun, with a catchy tune. Then it was over to Cinemagique which is good and should be henceforth transferred to the MGM Studio's in Paris where it and Martin Short, would be a big hit. Of that there can be no doubt. And Tom agreed with me, so that is all the proof that you need. And as an added bonus, I didn't have an astma attack like I did 18 months ago.

We split up then, the boys and I doing Rock and Roller Coaster, and the "grown ups" did Armageddon, which slightly singed Leanne's arm, I understand and as she showed me the offending marks, I am tempted to believe her. (Any good litigation lawyers reading this???)

By then we were getting a bit tired, so we went back to the original park, to get the Annual Pass photos, taken, this was an absolute farce. It took 90 minutes, there were 11 cast members in the room and three of them were engaged in processing the passes. I being the stroppy young thing that I am, spoke to the suite, and asked for a comment card, but sadly he didn't have one, but I explained to him the problem we had, (We had already paid the 101 Euros each, and couldn't get in the park tomorrow with the temporary pass and had people waiting outside.) He didn't make anything happen faster, but he did actually give us 15 or so Fastpasses good for any ride tomorrow. So I guess that was good of him, and stopped me actually complaining, as he had tried to rectify the situation as best he could. Though the system needs a bit of tweaking, If you ask me, (which they probably won't.) Mind you, you never know who reads these Trip Reports.

Well we then went for a couple of rides in Fantasy Land, ie Peter Pan and Snow White, and that was us done for the night. We all went and ate at the New York Sandwich Deli in the Village, and I had a nice Tuna baguette. And a pleasant chat. Then I drove Tom and Leanne back to there hotel in Central Paris, and saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up and pretty looking, and apart from slaving away for a good hour to bring you this missive that was that.

OK, Gotta get some sleep now, thanks for reading this far.

Cheers Larry your Pal in Paris.

Day Four Sunday, 24th October.

Good Morning, and Happy Sunday, well this morning finds us getting up quite early, well reasonably early anyway, around 8am, I am the first out of bed, and after sorting things out bathroom wise, I pop downstairs to the check in desk to check out. Things are very reasonable, everything tallies with what I expected from the booking I made on the internet some time ago, the only extras being for connecting to the Internet to send you my dear readers your daily missive. And as you know my only motivation in life is to keep my readership happy.

So I pop over to the car, a Renault Megane, and put in the big suitcase and pop back to the room, where I implore them to speed up a little especially Edward who is a bit of a slow coach when he gets into a bathroom, in fact, it is hard to know which is longest getting him in or getting him out. The whole process could easily top an hour.

Anyway we leave the room and drive over to the Parc Disneyland. Leaving the car in the car park, which I no longer have to make a financial contribution to park., courtesy of our Annual Passports. The normal fee is 8 Euro's which is around 9 dollars, which is a bit steep. It is especially steep when you consider that the car park is miles away from the gates of the two parks, and the tightwads have not provided a tram. There is a moving walk way, or should I say there is a broken moving walkway. This is not much of a problem when you are keen enthusiastic and happily bombing along on the way in. When you are completely cream crackered on the way out, it is less of a fun situation. And the 8 Euros fee in my estimation warrants some electricity to make the walkway work. In fact is there any torture known to man, other than being locked in a room with only a tape of It's a Small World for three weeks, than being forced to walk almost a mile to your car, after 10 hours of Theme Parking, I think not. I suppose I should have just told myself, "think of the calories burnt Larry, think of the calories" Hey, would my trip reports be much use without a great moan or too, no obviously not, anyway you all know how much I love Disney, the complaints are merely to provide some contrast. I like contrast. Contrast is Goooooooooddd.

As usual I am digressing so back on with the narrative, we decided that like yesterday we would head for the Cable Car Bakery to get some breakfast, had some hot chock and a croissant pour moi, and yummytastic it was too. We then went over to Discoveryland, which is the equivelent of Tommorrowland and it is themed in Jules Verne- HG Wells mode. "How many times have you travelled in Time Mr Wells? " "As many times have you travelled from the Earth To the Moon, Mr Verne." One of the bad things is that three of the attractions are not operating at the moment, Autopia, the car driving experience, (Think Tommorrowland Speedway.) Le Visionarium (Timekeeper) and the entrance to the Railway Station is closed off, (though the train operates from other stations.) So basically very much the same as Tommorrowland in the Magic Kingdom, then.!!! Sod all open for most of the time. (Hey at least you guys get Lilo and Stitch soon, I may have to wait years for the pleasure!!!

Jill went and queued for the Legend of the Lion King Tickets, (A strange system where you have to queue twice, once for the ticket and once to get into the show.) The boys and I went on Star Tours, and it was posted a 10 minute wait, which is probably why we had to wait 30 minutes. We then used some of the Fastpass Tickets that we obtained as compensation for waiting for hours to get the passport photos done yesterday. Putting them to good use we joined Mr Verne on his trip to Le Lune, and did Space Mountain, this is one Mr Jerky Ride. I had done some neck exercises in advance to help my poor ancient neck cope with the rough time it was to have, and I think that helped. I was being so brave, I decided to have a second go, with the normal Fastpasses we got from the machine earlier. However the ride was down, so we blobbed out of the line, and joined Jill who was waiting at the exit. We then went over to Halloween land - Fronteerland, and used a freeby fastpass to ride Big Thunder, which still had quite a line in the fastpass queue. (No sign of any monitoring system here!!) This is an excellent version of the genre and I love the whizzing under the tunnel especially on the way back. I was just sad that Tom and Leanne had not had the opportunity to have a wee shottie on the ride, so they could compare and contrast with the BTMR in Florida, the eagle eyed of you will have noted that the ride was "down" yesterday and they couldn't get a go.
Following this we went to the petting cowboy corral, (Hmm that made sense when I typed it, now in the editing phase it sounds like you get to pet cowboys. Can I point out that that is not the case, if you want to pet cowboys, you had better go to Texas or somewhere like that.) for some reason I had the desire to have my photo taken with a goat, but they had shifted the goats out of the pens, and put Pony Rides in there at 2 Euros a go, spoiling my carefully thought out plans just to make a couple of bucks (Euros) Pah Humbug. (Oh and by the way I do edit my T.R.s before I post them, just not every day)

We were going to do another Ride on Big Thunder but you could see that the fastpass line was long, so we didn't bother and we were feeling a bit peckish, so we decided to go for Lunch, we went to Pizza Planet, which I remember Kevin Rushforth, had raved about some years ago, and I guess it was ok, but the Pizza I had was a bit on the revolting side, and reports from my correspondents were that the chicken sandwiches were naff as well. (And to add insult to Injury we forgot to ask for out 10% Annual Pass discount.)

After Lunch it was time for the Lion King Show, though we waited almost an hour to get in, though we were rewarded with seats on the front row. This was different to the Lion King Show in the Animal Kingdom, it was more of a run through of the story, and it certainly wetted my appetite for seeing the Show on Broadway, in January with Robin and her sister, Paula. (Do I get in the good books for mentioning Paula in my TR?) The acting and singing were very good and the costumes of the animals excellent. Disney have stuck gold with that particular franchise and who can blame them for milking it in when they can. Let's face it I don't see a Treasure Planet West End or Broadway Show Imminent.

Well it was time to say good by to Parc Disneyland for this trip, and we popped over to the Studios and did La La La La Anim. (I just can not spell this and I am too tired to try.) Anyway it wasn't as much fun as I remembered but I taped a bit of it to send to people so they can hear the catchy tune, Send me an email if you want a copy emailing to you.

We finished off proceedings with a trip on Rock and Roller Coaster, and that then my friends was that. The end of yet another Disney Trip, always a sad moment, and you know horror of horrors, I forgot to get my hand stamped, which I always do. (Maybe that is a WDW thing!) We did a little window shopping at Val De Europe and bought some baggettes to eat on our Journey, which took 90 minutes, to Beauvais Airport. I am writing this final episode of this little trip to Paris, from the Airport Lounge in Beauvais which is the, and I am not exaggerating I promise you, the very very worst airport I have been in ever. I am sat in a tent with my laptop on my knee typing this. The departure lounge is situated in this big ten, (I'm not making this up honest.) is packed with people most of whome are standing, fortunately I got a seat, and when an aircraft goes by the whole tent shakes. Something tells me that a little investment is well overdue her. Well I have a 90 min flight and a four hour car journey to get me home, I should be in bed by 4am, and I have to be at a Council Meeting 25 miles away from home in my smart black suit at 10am, let's hope I make it.. No Promises. (I did))

See you all next time, (Which officially will be July at Disneyland Paris, though I may write a January New York TR for friends and any regular reader who wishes to find out what the Empire State Building is like in the snow. - let me know if you want to be on the list, I dont want to post a non Disney TR on the Disney related boards. See I do try to play to the rules sometimes.)

Au Revoir,

Larry Your Pal in a Tent.

larrywilmot747@aol.com