We only spent one day, a Tuesday, in the parks, but spent that night in the Santa Fe and caught the TGV to the airport the next morning. This allowed us to have a full day in the parks.
On the ticket front, DLP has extended their 20th anniversary 1-day, 2-park ticket through September. This allowed us to park hop for about $75 USD.
We took the RER A out from Paris around 9am on Tuesday morning, arriving at the Marne-La-Vallee station a little before 10. We walked out of the station and grabbed the shuttle bus to Hotel Santa Fe. I was worried that our room would not be ready which would've caused us to have to store our bags and interrupt our day to go back and check in, but luckily a room was available. Note, we did have to ask though, as the cast member wasn't going to give us one on her own.
Our room had a Cars theme. Not sure if they all do, as the original motif was just southwestern. Here are some pics. I suspect the decor and furnishings are the same or similar to the Animation Resort in Florida.
The room was exactly the same size and layout as the Cheyenne. One strange thing, though, was that the door was misaligned with the strike plate, making it impossible to lock from the inside. We ended up having to barricade ourselves inside with luggage when we went to bed.
After dumping our stuff in the room we headed over to the Studios. The only goals I had there were to ride Crush's Coaster and possibly get in a ride on their version of Rock N Roller Coaster. We went to the latter first and were amazed, despite being almost noon, that the wait was about 5 mins. Look at the empty queue! This was all PACKED last month.
Obviously, we picked a good time to go, as a Tuesday in mid-April, so far from Easter, left the parks not deserted but not crowded either. Still, there was over an hour wait for Crush so we decided to come back later in the day. On the way out, we stopped off for a quick bite to eat before the lunch rush. A decent American-style burger and tasty fries awaited me.
I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of crowds over at Disneyland too.
We came in and decided to take the train. I am not sure if it is the French or what, but they had the dumbest process for loading the trains. Everyone had to queue up and board through a single gate at the front or back of the train and then they slotted people into each car like we were boarding a roller coaster.
We only took the train as far as Frontierland, but I was surprised to go through the Grand Canyon diorama just like at DL in California. I didn't know they had this, but it fit in well on this side of the park.
First stop, BTMRR. It was closed for mechanical issues but came up when we were walking away so we ran back and got in line. Here's a tip: The queue splits into a left/right configuration and everyone automatically went to one side (like always). They went on the right and we walked past them on the left and almost up to the entrance, easily saving 5-10 minute wait. Also, even if the lines are equal, take the one on the left because the right side merges with FastPass.
Note in this shot how empty the "left" side of the queue is! Suckers!
Molly Brown, one of their two river boats, was next. It's nice, although a bit smaller than what I am used to. The ride narration was a mix of French and English. All the stuff to look at (aside from BTMRR) are on the right side, which is different from the American parks where you get to go back and forth to see all the animatronics along the shoreline.
We then headed over to Phantom Manor. What a great ride.
We headed over to Discoveryland, walking through the Plaza to see the Castle and the Dragon.
Their Space Mountain is not great. The shoulder restraints are pretty abusive on your head. We were going to skip it, but with a 5 minute wait, who could say "no"? Well, we should have. It beat us up as expected. Still, FIVE MINUTES in the middle of the day!!!
Here are a couple shots of the inside of Videopolis. It's so darn big!
Next, a delightful stroll through Fantasyland
And a short ride on their Storybook and a RIDICULOUSLY LONG wait for Casey Jr. One train running, the wait was insane and not worth it.
5 minute wait for Storybook
More on our afternoon and evening to come...