Un jour mon prince viendra...

On the weekend of March 6, I went to the place where all dreams come true. That's right--Disneyland Paris! Our friend Mikael, who used to live in Global Village, graciously took Mandi, Angela, and I to Disneyland for the day, got us discounted tickets and food, and procured something like 50 fast passes for us!

The night before we left, the three of us went with Mikael to his friend Charlotte's house for dinner so we could all meet each other and make some plans for the next day. Mandi and I were jumping-out-of-our-skin excited, and it was Angela's first time going to Disneyland, so I think she was part excited, part terrified of our Disney obsess-fest. We had a good time trying to figure out what the French Disney songs translated to in English. Difficult ones include "A la file indienne," "Ce rêve bleu," and "Tu t'envoles." (Lit: "To The Indian Line" "This Blue Dream" and "You Make Yourself Fly"...Real Translation: "Following the Leader" "A Whole New World" and "You Can Fly.") There were a couple other difficult ones that I can't remember the translations for. Guess them for extra credit: "J'en ai rêvé" and "Partir là-bas." We went to bed pretty early though because it was going to be an early morning.

We left Lille at 6:30 AM. Yes, you read that right. We're serious about our Disney! We got to Walt Disney Studios as it opened and jumped in line for Crush's Coaster. The line gets REALLY long if you're not there early, and there are no fast passes. I have trouble explaining this ride, but it was awesome. It's a roller coaster, but it starts off as kind of a story thing, then you get to the top of a hill, and the car starts spinning freely as you "ride the East Australian Current." Watch the video if you want a better idea. It was cute because Crush, the turtle, had a southern French accent instead of a Californian accent. We also went to Stitch, Live! which was interesting because we saw it in French. In this show, Stitch interacts with the audience, so the three American girls were praying we wouldn't get called on! We were able to understand everything that was going on, but I really didn't feel like butchering the French language in a room full of French people. We met up with Mikael's friend Aurélien, and all rode the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Roller Coaster. Fun!

After that, we headed over to Disneyland to secure Fast Passes. We also met up with Mikael's friend Caroline. Caroline, Aurélien, and Mikael all work at Disney, so they know how to cheat the system and we were able to get Fast Passes for everyone for all the rides at one time. Score! After we rounded everyone up, we got some lunch. Those chicken nuggets tasted like America, but I still paid tribute to France by putting mayonnaise on my fries. We had a great afternoon of rides like Indiana Jones, Pirates, Space Mountain, Les Voyages de Pinocchio, Peter Pan's Flight, Buzz Lightyear's Lazer Blast (my first time on it...so fun!), It's a Small World (it really is), Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor, and Star Tours (made me really motion sick...ugh).

We also got to see the Once Upon a Dream Parade, and saw the fireworks before park closing. I ended the night with my first BigMac ever, and made it home to Lille at 2:30 AM. Long day, but what can I say? There's nothing like Disney to bring out the child in anyone.