Disneyland Paris. What a strange little place.

As you may or may not know, I have grown up a Disney kid. I believe most of my childhood was spent in the original Disneyland park is Anaheim California. So the parks have always been a big part of my life and weirdly helped me become who I am. Disneyland is my home away from home so naturally as I was beginning to miss home while here in Paris I thought a visit to their version of Disneyland would be a nice little treat.

Back in California I work at the Disneyland Resort and know the in's and out's of how the company holds their standards. I know every single inch of my parks, every single ride and show, and how the company runs the parks day to day operations. I have gone through Disney training and have had the Walt Disney company values slightly ingrained into my little brain. I was surprised to see all of the differences of this European park both as a guest and how things seem to run from the perspective of a cast member.

So the first thing I did was go creep on the cast members that work for the equivalent to the department I work for back at home. Hotel recreation is funny little department compiled of the cast members that create events for guests staying at the hotels and the lifeguards at the various pools. So  I walked around all the hotels of Disney Paris for about two hours to see how they compare to our department at home. I think we hold ourselves to a very high standard in California because we pride ourselves in safety and a welcoming presence. I didn’t see this at all in Paris. The lifeguards weren’t doing their jobs correctly at all. I saw a guard slouching in his chair just picking at his fingernails, completely ignoring his water. It was so crazy to see, I started sending Snapchats to my coworkers back home and we all were surprised that they can get away with this behavior. If I did anything I saw here in Paris I would be fired on the spot. The other entertainment cast members were sitting behind a desk on their cell phones completely ignoring the guests. I was able to walk on all of the decks and none of them started an interaction with me apart from one guard who saw me taking a snap of him and started making funny faces at the camera, but that was one who should have been watching the water. It was extremely disappointing to see. I talked to one of the guys working there for a minute just to be friendly and see if this is how things normally are here and he was surprised to hear how differently we run things at home. So this was the beginning of a strange day.

I opted to check out their Walt Disney Studios next. This ended up being a great decision because I met a group of Florida cast members in line to get tickets and they were sweet enough to just sign me into the park with them so I got a free ticket for the day. When you walk into Walt Disney Studios you're in this little plaza area with just a few trees and a mickey statue in the middle with a building that resembles a sound stage in the back. It all seems small at first and a bit disappointing. Then you move forward and enter this sound stage building and it's a loud, crowded, and overwhelming room full of "Hollywood" style restaurants. When you exit this, you're finally in the park and it starts to feel like Disney. Right front and center stand the famous Walt and Mickey statue, hand in hand in front of the Hollywood backlot, similar to California Adventures. Now what's weird here is this statue is normally in front of the castle, both in California and Florida, so it was weird seeing it in front of the wrong backdrop in this park. Anyhow, as we move on the animation academy and Hollywood tower both sit comfortably in their place. Both on the right and left of this sound stage building are two different shows to watch. I went ahead and watched one of them called "Mickey and the Magician" and it lived up to Disney production standards. It was a creative and well-done show. I love shows back at home so it was so much fun seeing a show while here. What was interesting about this one was half of the show was done in English and the other half in French. It was amazing seeing these characters switch back and forth between the languages both in the songs and their lines. Now this park is split into two halves. The right side is all Pixar themed with Finding Nemo and Cars themed rides as well as Ratatouille and Toy Story themed lands. It was all very sweet and charming. The left half was a Hollywood film theme with action packed special effect shows and backlot tours. Apart from the central area of the park, it was unique compared to California Adventure which left me pleased because I think it's important to each have our special things.

Then it was finally time to step into the big guy. The Disneyland Paris park. No matter what park you're walking into, no matter what country you are in, as soon as you step through the gates of the main park you are in the same Main Street USA. That felt like home. Sitting on the edge of Main Street, watching the parade felt so nice, but made me want to get back to the states where I could do this with friends whenever I want. Now when I started venturing further into the part is where things started to get a bit disorganized and confusing. I can walk around my Disneyland with my eyes closed. The layout all makes perfect sense to me and is easy to move from one area to the next. This park was extremely spread out and things seemed out of order. Silly things such as Frontierland being under Adventureland rather than vice verse seemed so strange. There was no clear and simple path to take to move around the park in a smooth way. I felt lost which was weird to me. It all seemed familiar, but just every so slightly off. Thankfully most of the cast members still had that "Disney" personality. It's a special type of friendliness that is so specific to cast members and it was refreshing to see that carries over even across seas. It was nice to know, no matter how different the park itself can feel, the community that is Disney will still feel welcoming thanks to the people.

Finally to talk about the rides in the parks. The thrill level compared to the Disneyland parks in the states was so surprising to me and came without warning. Disneyland is a theme park mainly aimed for children that adults can enjoy as well. With that in mind, I have always expected the rides to be fun and excited but still tame enough for an 8-year-old kid to go on. Most 8-year-olds I know are afraid of one thing on big roller coasters and that's the upside-down loop. I don't blame them, it can be scary and intimidating. That's why in California we only have one ride with a loop and it's very visible so you see it from anywhere in the park before you even get in line for the ride. Now I only went on three thrill rides at the parks here and 3/3 of them had multiple of these loops and I had no idea that they would until the moment it was happening. It was so disorienting! I have friends at home that would be so upset if that happened to them. I guess Europeans are more thrill seekers than we are after all. Another odd thing I noticed was that even the storybook type rides that you would assume would be the same across the board were very different than at home. Pirates of the Caribbean, a personal favorite of mine, was all changed around for absolutely no reason. The scenes that are meant to be at the end of the ride were at the beginning and the parts that are meant to be at the beginning were at the end. But why Paris? Points for California for having the better rides that Walt himself actually had a say in.

In the end, it was a great day. Disneyland is Disneyland no matter where it is or what it has compared to another. Paris may have a stunning castle and a dragon and bonus points for having Marie as a normal character because she's my favorite, but nothing compares to the original park that I've just been lucky enough to call home. And I can't wait to get back to that home and catch the tail end of the Christmas decorations. Yes, I will probably find myself back at Disneyland Paris to give it another chance and maybe get a chance to see what I missed this time. Whether that happens or not, this was my European Disney experience and I'm glad I can finally say I've been to a new Disneyland.

Until next time,

Julia Carrington