04th July - IT WILL BE AN HOT SUMMER (on another planet) The alarm clock calls unmerciful at 7:30 sharp. We had planned to be ready by 8:30, but Roberto underestimated my speed when it's time to get ready and to get a real time Photoshop before heading towards a goal like Eurodisney. We are ready at 8 o'clock and I'm shining of joy from each squared centimeter of my body, while he, on the other side, has an expression between the “I give up” and the “am I so sure I want to take her there?”. It doesn't matter if once again the weather is not at its best: black clouds gather far near the horizon leaving little to hope. My happiness is shortly repressed when I realize that Autogrill SpA too possession of the whole French restoration, disguising like thousands of bars with different names that serve the same terrible fruit of the same terrible coffe machine. They might have invaded us with mass distribution (fnac, carrefour, auchan, leroy merlin, castorama, decathlon, marianon profumerie, sephora) and they can make us starve or stink like pigs, but we can poison then whenever we want (sorry if it seems a small deal). After all, you know, French can't live without their croissant for breakfast. And I still wonder why they stick to produce them empty like the outer space. If you try to ask for cream inside, they will always understand that you are asking for a croissant and a coffee with cream that you never mentioned. It must be a genetic fault or some sort of an ancestral and collective subconscious fear. While I keep a 4th degree burning on my tongue caused by a crap cappuccino, that will annoy me for the rest of the day, we get to Marne la Vallee', where there is the face of the devil that can be seen from the space. Actually Eurodisney resort is in fact made by three parks: Eurodisney, Disney Village, where shops and restaurant can be found, and Disney Studios, a smaller and still growing park opened just a few years ago. Seen from above the resort is surely shaped like the disturbing shape of the face of the world most famous mouse. Boasting our hopper tickets (that is we can hop freely from one park to the other) conveniently bought online, we hop the queue at the entrance and the dive in the magical Disney world. I don't think I have the right words (I don't either... Robbberto) to describe my commotion in the moment the pink castle from Sleeping Beauty, reproduced in 1:1 scale, rises in front of my eyes. Decorations for the 15th anniversary of the park can be found anywhere in the resort with Lumiere acting as the main character for the celebration (after all he is an expert of candles), while the other characters hold candles on the castle's spires. After passing through the castle, the first area encountered is Fantasyland, the true core of the park, a distilled of all the classic Dinsey's fairy tales. Starting from the story of Snowhite, passing through the adventures of Pinocchio and flying with Dumbo and Peter Pan, you eventually get to Alice's labyrinth and the swaying mugs of the Madhatter. That is exactly where our adventure starts from (not before having brought back to Earth Giorgia, who doesn't stop jumping here and there even if menaced by weapons... Robbberto). Alice's labyrinth is wonderful, nobody's missing and I have the time of my life taking tons of silly pictures with the Cheshire Cat, the Cards and the Queen of Hearts. The weather is not helping us, but it will be very variable all the day changing from sunny to rainy every 10-15 minutes. After a while we got used to this and our weather forecast became precise enough to let us plan our movements accurately. We are helped in this by the discovery of the Fastpass, a wonderful invention that allows to avoid the queue of some of the attraction, booking a time slot of half an hour. Useless to say, it's easy to book one attraction and queue another to save a lot of time. So we manage to dive in the following attraction: - Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, a classic little train for children, but during which you are given a laser gun to help Buzz in his mission against Zorg shooting at a number of targets that pop up while an automatic system keeps track of the score; - Star Tours, the classic dynamic cinema based on the adventures of Star Wars, taking the audience where everybody has always wanted to be: on a starship during the attack to the Death Star; - Space Mountain Mission 2, the real revelation... think of a roller coaster, but in a completely dark environment, between a Supernova explosion and a meteor storm... adrenalin and hits to our spines... we will come back 4 more times; - Phantom Manor, the classic house of ghosts, in a very impressive environment, but, after all, no a big deal; Pirates of the Carribean, the attraction that inspired the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow & Co., almost identical to Gardaland's Pirates, and I have nothing more to say on this. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, a ride on the little wagons of the mines seen in the movie, some sort of a roller coaster that has a close relationship with those of Luneur in Rome, with an added looping. Adventure Island, a simple reconstruction of a pirate hideout with Ben Gunn's cave, the house of the Robinsons, Captain Hook's ship and a grounded wreckage of ship taken from Lost. We end our classic shopping tour with the usual ride on the train that takes us around the park, so tired we risked doing three rounds in a row. How did our heroes manage to get to the end of the day alive? Thanks to an appropriate diet. Follow our suggestions and you won't regret it. After all the best dietologists of the world compiled the menu offered by Eurodisney to the visitors. Candies, fats and the more candies. Red candy apples that look like they just came out of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, pancakes dripping chocolate syrup from everywhere, tasty waffles that could be stuffed with whipped cream, sugar or other ultra caloric substances. All of this just to have fast sugar to face the struggle of the day. The whole park smelled with pop corn, chips, pancakes, hot dogs and any other junk food you could possibly imagine. Smells that mixed together and tempting visitors' sense of smell at each step. The meeting with Disney's characters was another pleasant moment, non only during the parade (of which I will write a report tomorrow), but also at specific time in strategic places. I was lucky enough, or shameless if you prefer, but in the end I come back home having taken a picture with Tweedledee (or Tweedledum, I will never know that), that playboy of FriarTack, the friendly Pluto, inside which there couldn't be Mauro Repetto. Why? Easy, because he could dance. Everyday, during the 15th anniversary of the park a so called Candlebration is held, some sort of a short musical during which the most representative Disney's characters go on stage singing and dancing: you should have seen Pluto with his electric guitar who jumped on one leg like a rockstar while his tongue was hanging outside his mouth. A personal thought: if they think they can beat me in queues, trying to sneak to overcome me, they should think again... I am Italian, don't try to steal in thieves' house. Roberto's corner: seeing persons who probably have practiced dance for 10 years or who have dedicated a lifetime studying a musical instrument working as the stuffing for a puppet performing for little children who will forget everything after an Happy Meal in the evening, makes you think about how life is unfair. GALLERY [ back to Report Index ]