As you may know, on August 24th, Rachel and I headed out for a 16 day trip to Europe to celebrate 10 years of marriage bliss. Today will be the second part of a series of blog posts highlighting this amazing trip. (Check out part one here!) Without further ado…Part Two – Paris Day One!

After spending 2.5 days at Disneyland Paris, we were ready to head into the city on Monday morning. We ended up taking the train into Paris, as it didn’t look to be too terribly long and was quite a bit cheaper than taking a cab.

Once we got over to our hotel, we checked our bags (since our room wasn’t quite ready yet) and grabbed lunch at a nearby café (which was delicious!).

Luckily, after lunch our room was ready so we were able to go ahead and get settled into our room before heading out for the rest of the afternoon and evening. 

Our time in Paris is best broken down into the 3 main days we were there. So…I’m starting with Mondayafternoon/evening. We headed over to the Arc de Triomphe (AdT) first, which is at the western end of the Champs-Élysées (probably the most famous avenue/road in Paris for shopping).

The AdT is absolutely amazing. We both were so blown away at the size and beauty of this monument. We ended up buying tickets and making our way up to the top to take in the city. And, of course, the first thing I noticed as soon as we got to the top was the Eiffel Tower! After spending some time taking pictures and videos, we made our way back down (it was all stairs, the entire way…).

We spent a little time making our way down the Champs-Élysées just taking in the city (including finding some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had) before heading down towards the Eiffel Tower and our scheduled 5pm tour. 

Now for me personally, there were several bucket list items I knew I wanted to check off my list during this trip. At the very top was the Eiffel Tower. And friends, as we finally came upon it, I was absolutely blown away. It was without a doubt even more impressive in person.

Our tour guide ended up taking our group up to the second floor (about halfway up) and gave us a great explanation/tour of the city. We had the option to go up to the top, but for multiple reasons, including the fact that it was a good 30-45 minute wait, we decided to pass on going all the way up. Once the tour part was over, we stayed on the second floor for a bit before heading back down and grabbing some more pictures/videos. 

This is the face of a giddy American.

After spending quite some time at the Eiffel Tower, we headed over to the Seine River for our evening river cruise. We ended up getting on the 8pm cruise (which lasts roughly an hour), which takes you around the river and so many amazing parts of Paris. 

As we got towards the end of the cruise, night began to fall on us, which allowed us to experience this beautiful city in a different light. Right at 9pm as we were about to dock, the boat stopped right in front of the Eiffel Tower and the tower began to sparkles as it does for 5 minutes at the top of every hour in the evening. It was breathtaking!

After getting off the cruise, we grabbed a few more pictures before making the walk back over to our hotel. All in all, we had a wonderful first day in Paris!

Stay tuned for Part Three – Days Two and Three in Paris!

As you may know, on August 24th, Rachel and I headed out for a 16 day trip to Europe to celebrate 10 years of marriage bliss. Today will be the first of a series of blog posts highlighting this amazing trip. Without further ado…Part One – Disneyland Paris!

The first stop on our trip was to Paris, France, or more specifically, Disneyland Paris. We left Thursday evening and arrived in Paris on Friday morning (Central European Time).

After getting our bags and finding our driver, we made our way out to Disneyland Paris, which was roughly a 40 minute drive from the airport. Let’s just say…the first experience of Paris was a little rough. It was absolutely pouring and our driver basically drove like the police were after him. Needless to say, I was happy to get to our hotel.

We had booked a hotel on the Disneyland property at the Sequoia Lodge, which ended up being quite nice. It had a little bit of a Wilderness Lodge feel to it (not as nice, but still pretty great). After checking into our room and dropping off our stuff, we made our way over to Disneyland Paris for the afternoon/evening. Fortunately, the hotel was only about a 5 minute walk from the Disney Village (the Paris version of Downtown Disney) or roughly 15 minutes from the two parks. (Just FYI…Disneyland Paris is split between two parks, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios)

Once we got over to the Disney Village, we stopped off for lunch as it was already after 1pm Paris time. We knew we were going to be dragging quite a bit the first day, but if we were going to adjust to the new time zone, we needed to start the first day.

After lunch, we hit up our first park, Walt Disney Studios (WDS). We were excited to see WDS, as they have a whole section dedicated to Ratatouille, which was absolutely wonderful. We walked around the majority of WDS, including riding the Ratatouille ride.

Plus, we scored a lunch reservation at Bistrot Chez Remy (the Ratatouille restaurant) for the next day, which was a nice surprise! Both of us gave Bistrot Chez Remy 2 thumbs up!

One of the big things we noticed about WDS is how similar a lot of this park is to Hollywood Studios in Orlando. Plus, the park is quite a bit smaller than the second park we hit up, Disneyland Paris. Still, we enjoyed our time at WDS over the course of the 2.5 days we were at the parks.

The second park, Disneyland Paris (DLP), was definitely the best of the 2 parks! We probably spent 75% of our time exploring all this park had to offer. And while it had a lot of similarities to the American parks, there were several things that truly made this park stand out.

• Disneyland Hotel Entrance The first thing you come to when arriving at DLP is the Disneyland Hotel, which serves as the entrance to the park. You literally walk through the hotel and into the park. This was a neat touch and really sparkled at night. Plus, the entrance right inside the gates was truly magical as well!

• Sleeping Beauty’s Castle The DLP castle is probably my favorite castle of the 3 parks I’ve been to so far. From the waterfall to the left of the castle and walking below the castle (with an animatronic dragon underneath the castle) to walking through the castle and up the stairs to look out over the rest of the park, the castle did not disappoint!

• Phantom Manor, Alice’s Curious Labyrinth and More So while a lot of the rides at DLP were similar to the American parks (except for the French language), there were a few new rides or similar rides that really stood out. Phantom Manor (DLP’s version of Haunted Mansion) was a totally new story and might have been my favorite ride at DLP. Alice’s Curious Labyrinth is literally a maze that takes you through the highlights of this animated classic. Plus, I personally think Thunder Mountain and Pirates are probably better at DLP. Also…Rachel will tell you that DLP’s Space Mountain was easily the best one she’s been on.

• Side Streets on Main Street U.S.A. One of my favorite parts was the fact that on both sides of Main Street U.S.A. (literally on the other side of the store fronts) was an indoor walking area that takes you to the front of the park. The US parks could 100% use this, as it gets so crazy and hot down Main Street a lot of days/evenings. Just saying…

And while we had a great time and a great experience overall…a couple of other observations should be made…

• The Cast Members were definitely not as friendly as the ones you encounter in the American parks. No one was ever rude to us at all, it was just a small, but noticeable, difference.
• Smoking, while only allowed in designated spots, was not monitored at all. Almost everywhere we turned, we came across smokers. Definitely took a little bit away from the Disney magic.
• Finally (and this was probably a good thing as we didn’t spend a ton of money) the Disney merchandise in the Paris parks was definitely not as good. Almost all of the stores were noticeably smaller and not nearly as crowded as you would find in America.

Anyway, we had a great time exploring all these parks had to offer over the 2.5 days we were there. And by Monday morning, when we checked out of the Sequoia Lodge, we truly felt like we had experienced Disneyland Paris and were ready to continue on our trip with our next stop, Paris!