You two look so contented! I can tell Calvin is relieved to have you home.
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Actually I believe it is DLR in CA’s fault. If you go back to opening day pics the castle was originally painted pink with blue roof, albeit a far more muted pink and blue, but still pink and blue. The fact that DL in CA and DLP have the same color scheme makes sense, since they are both sleeping beauty’s castle. However it does not make any sense that Cinderella would also have the same color scheme!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theatlantic.com/amp/photo/594655/
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I think @SirGreggLadyV is closer. I always think he seems relieved.
When I picked him up he was super-excited and was jumping all over me, but once we got back home he seemed a bit subdued.
I was really tired last night and went to bed at around midnight (early for me). Calvin didn’t come through to the bedroom until five in the morning. And at some point he got out of bed and went back to the lounge to sleep.
I will say that I slept the sleep of the righteous last night. On Monday I broke my All Time Record for exercise, according to my iPhone, under all of the categories. On Tuesday I broke that new record. I am crazy skinny now.
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Some catch-up items, random thoughts and conclusions . . . in multiple posts.
Getting to Paris from DLP is really quite easy. The train station at DLP is actually a very large station — it’s not just a special branch line to the parks, it’s on the main trainline. The train I took to the airport, for example, goes on to Brussels.
Trains to (and from) Paris run frequently and aren’t expensive — about $15 return. The trains are double-decker, which I’ve only ever seen in France. You take the RER A to Châtelet–Les Halles, which takes around half an hour or so. That plonks you in the middle of Paris and you can pretty much walk anywhere you’re likely to want to go from there. Or you can take the Metro, of course, but I wanted to minimise my use of public transport.
The trip back to DLP was slightly traumatising. I was literally thinking how straightforward it had all been, when there were a series of announcements on the intercom that I knew were bad news, but I had no idea what was really happening. The train stopped for a while. Then slowly moved on to the next station. OK, I thought. Just a short delay. But at the station after that, we were told to leave the train. (I didn’t understand the announcement, but it became pretty obviously when literally everyone else got off.)
Ugh, I thought. I wonder how long we’ll be stranded here. Well, maybe ten minutes later another train arrived. Hurrah! We’re saved. Nope. Everyone was told to get off that train, too. Another ten minutes, another train, another load of passengers having to evacuate. This happened one last time. I began to be worried about how crowded the platform had become. Finally yet another train arrived and we were allowed to board.
I had — and have — no idea what was going on. And thanks to you people, my battery on my iPhone was literally down to 2% so I couldn’t really investigate.
It wasn’t a huge deal. I made it back to DLP. Just took a little longer. But when I did finally get back I was very hungry so I stopped off at Disney Village in search of food. I was hankering for McDonald’s — yes, this is the McDonald’s story — and I placed my order on one of those giant touch screens. I had some Euros in cash that I wanted to burn, so I told the touch-screen I’d pay in cash. I’m glad I did. The place was epically disorganised. A huge line of people waiting. Dozens of staff in the kitchen. No-one getting any food. Occasionally an enormous order would come out — as if someone had brought their entire football team with them.
In the end I got fed up waiting. So I slammed my receipt on the counter and said “Non, merci” and stormed out. I hadn’t even had the chance to pay, so I wasn’t out of pocket.
So I then went to the Earl of Sandwich, where I had been the night before. Now, I don’t know what it’s like at Disney Springs but the ordering system is ludicrous. You place your food order at one counter, you pay at another counter and you collect at a third. They give you one of those buzzer things to alert you when your food is ready — not ideal during COVID times, surely?
A fountain soda is about four bucks and there’s a big sign that says “NO REFILLS”. Why the hell not? The soda is costing them about one cent per gallon. They’re really too cheap to let you refill? Ugh.
I will say that the sandwich itself — I had the chicken and avocado, both times — was possibly the best sandwich I’ve ever had ever.
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Of the rides that DLP and WDW have in common, my one criticism is of Hyperspace Mountain. The original conception of the ride was a steam-punk Jules Verne Voyage to the Moon thing. The design of the ride looks like a huge cannon that fires you up to the moon. It even used to recoil when the train shot off, with a big puff of smoke. Then you had your standard Space Mountain experience, finishing off with a huge moon smiling t you. It was great.
But now WDW is obsessed with IP. So they rebranded it as a Star Wars ride. They stuck in some screens to turn the whole thing into a dog-fight space battle type thing. The external design of the ride now makes no sense and the cannon no longer fires. It’s stupid and they’ve ruined what was a really fun ride. Well, OK, if you take it on its own terms it’s pretty good and still better than the WDW version, though @Randall1028 won’t like it as it has inversions. (Oh God. I’ve become one of those tedious Maelstrom-was-better-than-Frozen / Soarin’-over-California-was-better-than-Soarin’-across-the-World / Wishes-was-better-than-HEA bores. Ugh.)
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Look, people. He’s all grown up now, and has become…a true Disney snob! 
But, yeah. The whole IP conversion of the parks makes sense from a purely business standpoint, but seriously, why they think modifying experiences and shoe-horning in IP to existing rides doesn’t make sense to me (most of the time). The Jules Verne original concept on top of the classic Space Mountain was really cool, and brought an element of classicness to the ride. Throwing Star Wars overlays on top of everything doesn’t make it better.
So, should you go to DLP?
The MK part of DLP is really very awesome. There’s so much detail and it is genuinely beautiful. Everything looks brand new. The castle is better than I remember it being and is pretty cool, particularly with a dragon in the basement. BTMR is better. HM is better. POTC is better. IASW is better. Space Mountain is arguably better.
WDS (Walt Disney Studios, if you haven’t been concentrating) is a disaster. Well, that’s not entirely fair. There’s good stuff in it. Ratatouille is a great ride and the theming of the area is brilliant. Though Epcot is basically getting exactly the same thing. TOT is not as good as the one at HS. TSL is pretty pathetic. Crush’s Coaster is a great coaster, it’s just a shame they cheaped out on the theming.
HOWEVER, while WDS now is like FW is now, it is soon to become how HS is now. They are building two (at least, I don’t have the detail nailed down) new lands — one Marvel themed, one Frozen themed (and a Star Wars one?). So it’s going to get a huge jolt of being awesome once all the building work is complete.
If you’re staying on-site and you do early entry, you can be done with WDS in an hour and a half. So I just regarded it as gravy. The current main attraction is MK (well, technically Parc Disneyland) and it’s really good.
HOWEVER, as I said before, right now it feels like there’s no magic. It’s like the most beautiful, most richly themed, most awesome theme park I’ve ever been to. It’s just wholly devoid of magic. Why? Because there are almost no characters. And no parades. And no shows. And no fireworks. It’s those that make the difference for me.
Not DLP’s fault, of course. But it is what it is.
Whenever I leave WDW’s MK I look back at the Castle, and when Mickey says “I’ll see you real soon” I think to myself, “You will, Mickey, you will.” And then the CM’s wave at you with Mickey hands and you feel kinda sad.
When I left DLP’s MK yesterday I felt none of that. I don’t feel the need to go back any time soon. (Awkwardly, I’m back in October. That’s another story.)
Which is not to say I didn’t have a great trip. I did. It was virtually perfect. My decision to take a day in Paris was genius. I got everything done I wanted to. And I did the good stuff more than once. Zero regrets about any of it.
If you go, of course you’ll do a side trip to Paris. If you don’t, you’re an idiot. It’s easy to do and its notoriously one of the most beautiful cities in the world. What the hell is wrong with you? And don’t do one day in Paris. You’ll easily need two. At a very, very minimum. On a ten day trip, three at DLP, seven in Paris.
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It’s an example of a thing I say to my students — just because you can do something, doesn’t meant that you should.
They built a stunning-looking, thrilling, location-appropriate ride. And they wrecked it.
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This is actually a fact and not a topic for debate. It is a good reminder for everyone that Soarin’ over California was better.
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Well, I had more to say but interest seems to be waning, so I’ll wrap it up here.
I’ll just end by saying that I was originally booked in October as a replacement for my October WDW trip. I will go back to DLP, but two months is a little too soon. So I’ve cancelled that trip.
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Stop being so over dramatic! I for one have enjoyed following along. Your pics were gorgeous and your summary/assessment has helped me feel less bad about no Disney, because I would miss those things too and I don’t want a Disney trip with no magic.
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Er, hello? This is me we’re talking about. What else were you expecting?
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When I took a solo trip a few years back I hit Earl of Sandwich in Disney Springs - similar ordering that drove me nuts.
So loud in there I couldn’t hear the person at the register with whom I was ordering, forget about that last pickup step where they were yelling out things like MMPPHJKert and FALLAASTOOVING and slamming food on the counter and walking away.
As I waited in the 6 square inches of empty space between the pick up counter and the massive river of humanity trying to fill their sodas then inevitably rolling to the counter through waiting hordes because none of the machines had ice, I noticed every single table was not only taken but also had a hovering Grandma ready to pounce when one opened.
Finally I heard a primeval call something like JOFFGHERENNNnnn and noticed something like what I ordered had appeared on the counter. I took a chance, sidled my way through the steaming humans and was able to reach just far enough around the people cramming the counter to grab the bag with my fingertips, yell FIRE IN THE HOLE and push my way through to the exit to eat outside in the humid wilds.
Sandwich was good tho.
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Thoroughly enjoyed this thread - thanks for all the details!
My 13yo daughter insists she will live in France one day. I have been hoping we could take a trip over to visit family in Ireland or the Czech Republic and also visit Paris and DLP.
Doigts croisés we can pull it off.
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I was expecting drama to be honest.
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Your interest in your own trip is waning?
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Interest isnt waning, lol, some or most of us were still in bed 
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DLR does this sometimes with Space Mountain, but it’s temporary. Do you think the same is true at DLP? Maybe they will take out the overlay and go back to the original at some point? I do not care for the Star Wars overlay at DLR either.
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Regarding your experience on the train back to DLP, that was nuts! We had a similar experience on a bus from Mexico City to Oaxaca. (In case you didn’t know, a lot of the crafts in the Mexico pavilion at Epcot are from Oaxaca.) The bus stopped, the driver got out and took a call. We kept going. The bus stopped again in a town. Lots of chatter. We had no idea what was happening. A very nice woman found a young girl on the bus who spoke perfect English to tell us the bus wouldn’t go further due to violent protests happening in Oaxaca. We had to get off there or go back to Mexico City. We went back and had a completely different vacation than planned, but still good. Did you ever find out what happened? Maybe they just were taking those trains out of service for the day! How frustrating, especially with your phone dying. You might need to invest in a portable charger for your next trip report. We’ll all chip in. 
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Yes! That was another complaint I forgot to mention.
Rude.
Yes. It’s over.
Lazy.
I naively thought that my phone’s own battery, plus the Apple battery case would be enough. I do actually have a credit-card sized and shaped portable charger. Maybe I’ll have to take that next time, too.
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