The Purple Penguin

Actually Joe has been saying that since we got here. First view of the adobe hotel – gee I came to France to see the western US? Eat at the NY sandwich shop – come to France to eat at a NY deli? (It was actually more French than New York but there you are.) Go to Billy Bobs – come to France for a country western bar? So I pointed out that the first time we went to the US we went to the Epcot Centre in Florida and went to the World thingy and saw France. And England. He’s still saying it, but a bit quieter now.

Up far too early for a holiday and off to breakfast. Not the greatest breakfast in the world but the funny bit was all the people coming to their table with heaps of break on their trays. They then wrapped these up and shoved them into various bags. Getting their sandwiches for lunch!

We could get into the park early – 2 hours before it opened – and a few rides were open. So we headed off and got there just as we could get in (8am) and headed for Space Mountain. No queue at all and we were off. Great way to wake up in the morning! So good we did it again. And got in several other rides before the masses turned up. Actually, the park was just about ok – about the longest wait time was 35 minutes and it wasn’t that bad. We roamed through the park, stopping to ride various rides, peeking into various things, and generally having a good time. Many of the rides are quite different from the parks in the US (Pirates of the Caribbean is much darker, with several sections of sudden drops!) so it was interesting and we filled the day.

Highlights of the morning: waking up to Space Mountain, riding the carousel, playing on the Dumbo ride, getting in all the popular rides before the park was open, finding out that some rides didn’t open until 11 or 12, riding way too many rollercoasters (according to Joe), finding the dragon under the castle, and lunch. Quote of the morning ‘we’ll do this one more ride then go get something to eat’ which was said before every single ride. For about 3 hours. Started as a suggestion of tea/coffee and biscuit and by the time we got round to it, it was lunch. So we started looking for lunch and decided, as we’d been thinking about it for a while, we’d treat ourselves and went to the Blue Lagoon restaurant, which is in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride! The first part of the ride, as you turn from the loading area, runs right by the seating for the restaurant! We had a lovely seat and could watch the boats go by, but that also meant we got a lot of camera flash! Still the food was wonderful and very filling.

So, feeling very very full from lunch, we went and rode the Pirates of the Caribbean again (we’d ridden before lunch and thought we’d like to try the food!) Highlights from the afternoon – the Star Wars ride, touring the Nautilus (very well done), taking the train around the park and timing it to perfection – it started to rain while we were on the train and stopped when we got off, the Alice in Wonderland labyrinth which is great fun, It’s a Small World (this may have been a low point), Joe driving around Autopia, seeing old Mickey Mouse cartoons, and generally wandering around and poking into things!

Funniest moment of the day – Joe said we had to ride the Indiana Jones ride. He says we rode it in Japan and hadn’t a clue what was going on, so if we rode it in France we might figure it out. So when it opened we went to get in the queue. Well, first thing a parent decided he didn’t want to take his camera, so he pushed his way back out of the queue to leave his camera and left his boy to hold the place in the queue. He was gone for long enough that the boy was getting worried, then here comes dad pushing his way back into the queue. We got a bit further along and Joe is looking at the nifty Aztec/Mayan arch just ahead of us, when -whoosh- goes a couple of carriages up and over the loop following the line of the arch. I turned to Joe to say ‘nifty’ just to see him standing there with wide open eyes and mouth. Then here comes dad and boy pushing their way back out of the queue – I thought Joe was going to follow them! Instead he just said ‘no one said it did that!’ So I pointed to the sign where it said ‘inversion’ and reminded him it was his idea. We rode it and had a good time. Well I did.

At the end of the day we headed out and had a snack at the sports bar – not very good but ok, and not nearly enough screens for watching the games – then walking back to the hotel. Ready for some sleep to start again tomorrow! Wake up to Space Mountain!