We’ve had a ton of posts on 919raleigh about our trip to France and while we were only there a little over a week we crammed enough in to create a couple of months worth of content to share. In the middle of reviewing the images and videos, it was hard at times to remember the reason we went to France in the first place – to run the Disneyland Paris Val d’Europe Half Marathon. Disney was planned as the last leg of our trip which was a marathon within itself and we were looking forward to visiting our third Disney Park in less than a year.
The park is amazing and while similar in so many ways to both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom it is different as well. The main attraction in the center of the park is Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty’s Castle) and is pink like Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in Disneyland but tall like Cinderella’s castle in the Magic Kingdom. The entire park could be compared in this fashion – many things both similar and different but only slightly. The biggest difference might be the absence of Tomorrowland and its replacement with Discoveryland. No – this isn’t something lost in translation but a completely different take on the area. This park much like every Disney park pays close attention to the details with little things like the rivets on the castle roof being snails an homage to the French dish escargot.
It is tough to go from the real castles of Paris to the pink ones in Fantasyland and not be a little disappointed. Yes – it is a fun park and we had an amazing time but after Paris, it is a little underwhelming. This was the only castle we saw with a La Tanière du Dragon and that does count for something but only so much.
Overall it was a great visit and very interesting to see the two parks in Paris. If you are nearby I would suggest stopping in if you have time but limiting your time to just a day or two. That is plenty of time to see the parks from what we saw they are not crowded. Not a Disney fan? Skip it. You’ve seen everything minus a few small details if you’ve been to either Disneyland Anaheim or the Magic Kingdom in Orlando.
