Day 3
This day I had to be disciplined. I did not get a run in the day before so I had to go out for a run this morning. I got up at 8:15 and got dressed while letting Graham sleep. There was a lovely tree-lined street just round the corner from the hotel, which I thoughT would be perfect for running. I was less than impressed when I stepped out of the hotel as it was actually snowing. Still there was nothing I could do about it and with where I live; it is guaranteed that at least some of my runs will be in bad weather. At least it did thaw as soon as it hit the ground. I figured that the sooner I started running the sooner I would be back. So I set off. I had always known that Champs sur Marne is a quirky kind of place. Up until this point, I had not realized quite how quirky it is. So there is that lovely wide, tree-lined avenue and then it suddenly stops after about half a mile. So I backtracked and found another nice straight road and the same thing happened again. By the time I got to the end of the third road, I had fortunately finished my run and just had to do the cool down walk. This ended up perfectly timed as I had only less than a minute left by the time I got back to the hotel and just as I was walking up to the lift, the app that I use told me that I was done. I woke up Graham before having a nice long hot shower. I don’t think a shower has ever felt so good. I got dressed and ready and then we headed down to breakfast.
I do not normally eat breakfast, but we had decided the evening before that we would add breakfast to our reservation. The breakfast offered was of the continental variety, but was very nice. We both had some juice and they had a rather fancy coffee machine. Graham had a latte and I had an espresso. We both had some fruit, baguette with cold cuts and cheese. I had a Madeleine cake and Graham had a croissant. Once we had finished my breakfast, we headed back up to the room where I collected what I needed for the day. We agreed where and when we would meet. Our plan had been to go to a Korean restaurant near
Disneyland Paris that evening. I then said goodbye to Graham and headed off. I got lucky again and the train was pulling in just as I came down the stairs to the platform. Unfortunately this is where my luck ended. I came out of the station at Marne la Vallee and was faced with complete and utter chaos. The whole area between the station, the fence for Disney Village and the fence leading down to the parks was wall-to-wall people. I actually felt that this was a thread to security. It would have been easy for somebody up to no good to exploit this. It took me an hour to get through security that day. The practicalities were similar to the day before with x-ray machines and random manual checks, but they had additionally set up metal detector frames. I do not understand why this added so much time to get through security. Sure, it was busier that day, but this should not have made so much difference.
Eventually I was through security and I was worried what I would find at the other end. However, I was positively surprised. There was next to no lines at the entrance and I was inside the park very quickly. By then I was frozen solid and I decided to check out the shop near the entrance to warm up. Once I felt a bit warmer, I headed into the park proper. I had to stop at the Partners statue to say “hi” to Uncle Walt and take a photo and then I made a beeline to the Ratatouille ride. I caught this at the right time. The standby line was already 90 minutes at the time, but the single rider line was only 15 minutes, which is very fair for that ride. The standby line peaked at 200 minutes later in the day. The ride is really good, but it is not that good that I would stand in line for that long. Still, with a 15-minute wait, I really enjoyed it. I then crossed over into Toy Story Playland. I pondered RC Racers for about 30 seconds, but then chickened out. Instead I headed over to Slinky Dog Zig Zag Spin. I had wanted to try this in November, but never got round to it. I checked the waiting time, which was 15 minutes and got in line. The posted waiting time was pretty accurate. I really did enjoy the ride. I then headed over to the opposite end of the park. I had hoped to do the Studio Tram Tour as I thought that this would be closed for refurbishment by May, but with a waiting time of 60 minutes, I decided to pass especially as it was freezing and the line is all outside. As it turns out, it will still be open at the beginning of May. That time I will be there on a Monday so hopefully the line will be a bit more manageable.
I decided to head over to the sound stage where the Spiderman meet and greet is. With the park being so crazy busy, I did not really expect that the waiting time would be anywhere near what I would find acceptable. I was positively surprised. The waiting time was only 20 minutes. That was much less than it had been in November on a relatively quiet day. I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that Rock’n’Rollercoaster was closed and that there is not much else in that part of the park. Anyway, whatever the reason, this was too good to pass up. So I got in line. In the end I waited slightly longer, but the line is indoors and this was actually quite welcome. The interaction was not as great as the one I had in November, but I still had fun.
There was one slight issue. The photographer was extremely quick scanning a temporary Photopass card and when I handed him my Photopass card, he was not able to scan this. He gave me the temporary card and told me where to go to have the photos transferred onto my annual Photopass card. It looks like the location for this recently changed as I was twice sent elsewhere, but once I found the correct location it was quick and easy to rectify. As I was near the exit at this point anyway, I decided to cross over to Disneyland.
I had a wander around Main Street. I spotted the decorations on the lampposts and had a closer look. All of the lampposts along Main Street had hanging baskets with artificial flowers hanging from them and some other decorations featuring various characters. I really liked this. People started to arrive for the Minnie’s Spring Train mini parade so I decided to hang around and find myself a spot for this, too. This was rather cute and I am glad that I made the time for this.
I knew that it was futile trying to do any of the rides that day. So I decided to just have a good look round and “smell the roses”. I checked out the character topiary around the hub and then had a look at the decorations around the castle. By the time I had had a good look around and had taken some photos, I was ready for some lunch. I ended up at Au Chalet de la Marionetteand had a Bavarian Hot Dog with Currywurst sauce. This came in a pretzel roll and was very tasty. Afterwards I decided to check out some characters. Captain Hook was out near Au Chalet de la Marionette, but the line was very long and it looked like it was about to rain again so I passed. I walked past Café Agrabah to see who was out there. If was Jafar, who I had met at Disneyland in September so I passed on getting in line there, too. Instead I headed back to Main Street to see Thumper and Miss Bunny. The line did not look very long, but moved very slowly. Still, for those two I am happy to stand in line. While I was waiting I saw some of Goofy’s Garden Party. I decided to check this out properly the next day.
Eventually I got to meet with Thumper and Miss Bunny. This was fun again and was worth the wait. I then decided that I had got quite cold enough for one day and would head out. On the way out, I decided to check out the new character meet and greet spot near the bottom of Discovery Arcade. This was listed as Donald or friends on the map. I was hoping that I would get to meet one of the characters in the spring outfit. However, when I came closer, I saw a flash of blue. I was just about to turn around and head out, when I spotted something that did not look right. Instead of a sailor cap, the character in front of me had something black on his head. Disappointment turned into utter delight. It was not Donald in his everyday outfit that was out and about, but Scrooge McDuck. I got in line. I had a bit of a wait, but it was worth every second as I had a fantastic interaction with him. First he took an interest in my glasses pointing out that he had some as well. Then he developed an obsession with by handbag and deducted that I must be rich. It was so funny.
Once I said goodbye to Scrooge McDuck, I headed out. I decided to go via the Disneyland Hotel to check out if they had their lobby decorated for spring. As I had liked the way they had decorated the hotel for Christmas so much, I thought it would be worth a look. I was right. They had set up a beautiful spring pavilion in the lobby. I had a good look at this and took some photos and then I decided to check out their gift shop. There was nothing there that took my fancy so I headed to the station.
Again everything worked like clockwork and it did not take me long to get to the hotel. Graham was already there. I was chilled through the bone and slipped under the covers before catching up online. Neither of us felt like going out again that evening so our plan to eat at the Korean Barbecue went out of the window. Instead we headed down to the hotel restaurant. I have to admit I was not exactly inspired. I am not a big fan of French cuisine at the best of times. The menu was also all in French and the server seemed to be in a mad rush. Graham had a vegetable soup followed by a steak with chips and a rather nice dip. I had not really got much further than the starter menu when our server came to take an order and somehow I could not get through to him that I needed a little longer. So I gave up and just had a starter. I had baked Camembert with a salad garnish and warm onion marmalade. With the bread that we had on the table, this actually ended up being a pretty filling meal and I rather enjoyed it. I also “helped” Graham with his chips. I had spotted that there was Crème Brulee on the menu and I had planned to have one of those for dessert, but I was stuffed. Once we both had finished our food, we headed upstairs. We ended up having an early night. It had been quite a tiring day.
