A Georgia Girl in Germany

Back in May, the base chapel offered a family retreat to Disneyland Paris, so we jumped at the opportunity to go so we could enjoy some quality family time with just the four of us, no outside distractions, and a few rides and attractions to boot. We’d wanted to go to Disneyland Paris for a while, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. This is the main entrance -- to both parks, Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios. Unlike Orlando where the different parks are a bus or car ride apart, these two parks are only a 10-minute walk away from each other!

Disneyland Paris is set up much like the Magic Kingdom park in Orlando, with a few differences. Our main goal for the day was to ride as many rides/roller coasters as possible, and we did pretty well meeting that goal!

Benjamin wasn’t tall enough to ride Space Mountain here (he would have been in Orlando, but it was closed when we visited there last summer), so we grabbed four FastPasses and split up. Zachary did the race track with Benjamin while MacKenzie and I rode Space Mountain, then MacKenzie rode the Space Orbiter with Benjamin while Zachary and I rode Space Mountain. I love that the kids are old enough (and responsible enough) that we can split up like that!

One of the differences about this park was that Space Mountain had a loop and a spiral -- unlike in Orlando. When we discovered that, we understood why Benjamin wasn’t tall enough to ride!

After Space Mountain, we ended up waiting for a while to ride the train to the other side of the park to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad. We should have walked so we didn’t kill so much time, but it did feel nice to sit a bit. We were on the train when a little rainstorm rolled through, so that was a bonus as well.

Since Benjamin couldn’t ride Space Mountain, he chose the Tower of Terror ride in the Walt Disney Studios park as his must-ride attraction. After a 10-minute walk out the Disneyland Paris park into the Walt Disney Studios park, we were in line. Benjamin really enjoyed this ride in Orlando, and he enjoyed it just as much in Paris.

I think the first drop caught Zachary off guard! When we were done, Benjamin said it was awesome!

When at Space Mountain, one of the employees told us the Rock’n Roller Coaster in the Walt Disney Studios park was essentially the same as Space Mountain, but had a shorter height requirement so Benjamin would be able to ride. We headed there for our last ride of the day, and sure enough it had the loop and spiral. Benjamin did OK with them, but afterward said he didn’t like it. Lesson learned: while he likes the thrills of roller coasters, he also prefers to not go upside down.

I’m not sure if we’ll make it back to Disneyland Paris again before we move back to the states, but we certainly enjoyed this visit!

Labels: Benjamin, Disney World, France, MacKenzie, Travel, Zachary