More Disneyland Paris

We had one more day of magic at Disneyland Paris. Much like Six Flags St. Louis, Disneyland Paris is not in Paris.

It is out in the suburbs in a town of 6,000 called Chessy.

We sadly had to check out of the Hotel Cheyenne and then have them hold our luggage.

I happened to notice there was a character photo opportunity at the hotel while casually checking out the hotel map. Yes please!

We got a good shot with Jessie from Toy Story.

I was very excited by the prospect of getting a reservation to eat at Walt's - an American Restaurant. Club 33 is a private dining club for VIPs that seems to exist in maybe all of the parks around the world except for Paris for some reason. I've been mildly obsessed with this magical place I will likely never see. I think that in Paris Walt's is meant to be a similar experience: upscale dining with a lot of fun memorabilia all over the place. But in this case you don't need a fancy membership or anything. When we booked the tickets for Disney the restaurant was actually closed and not taking reservations. I checked it religiously to see if anything had changed but there was no movement. I didn't see anything in the English internet but I went as far as to translate French news about the restaurant and saw some gossip that the restaurant was likely going to open soon for the 30th anniversary celebration. Anyway it finally opened up and I snapped up a lunch reservation for us. So exciting!

I was not disappointed by the amount of Disney memorabilia. There were so many family photos in the place that I sort of felt weird about it. Like we were invading the family's privacy or had just broken into their living room.

The restaurant wasn't quite ready for us so we wandered around a bit to kill time.

There was a whole lot of Statue of Liberty related stuff to look at in one area nearby.

Each of the restaurant's rooms was themed after the six worlds within Disneyland Park. We were seated in the room with the Frontierland theme. "Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor and Thunder Mesa Riverboats dominate this library-like room themed after the haunted town of Thunder Mesa."

We got a great view of a parade passing by in between courses.

I laughed and had to order this when I saw this on the menu.

"Chilli con carne, tortilla chips, cheddar and Isigny creme fraiche, red onion, coriander, white rice and kidney beans.

'The two are inseparable' said Ron Miller, Walt's son-in-law, he loved chilli and his favourite recipe was served at Chasen's in Beverly Hills. This deconstructed version comes with a can of chilli which was another of Walt's firm favourites. The delicious Isigny creme fraiche is a little nod to France."

Some of my friends from Springfield like to make fun of me because of how much I like canned chili. So to see it being one of Walt's favorites as well, plus the high humor of eating chili in France out of a porcelain can? Can't beat it. I noticed that they are using the "chilli" with two Ls in the menu description as well. I thought that may be a nod to the regional spelling of the word in Illinois, where Walt was born, but in this case it seems to be a silly British thing.

Lydia ordered this fancy little thing off of the 30th anniversary celebration menu. 

"Gateau celebration du 30

Celebration cake

White chocolate mousse, strawberry and almond shortbread"

I think due to the circumstances I pretty much just ordered anything off the menu that said Walt liked it.

"Pineapple upside-down cake and vanilla-infused Isigny creme fraiche

Pineapple was one of Walt's favorite fruits. Walt loved pie. This recipe mixes two of his favourite desserts with unctuous Isigny cream."

Before we left I had to check out the other rooms.

The US government still requires a negative covid test in order to return to the country. We are crazy people and have gambled our lives on not getting covid and being able to go home numerous times now. In order to get our tests we had to leave the park and take a train to the Val d'Europe shopping mall.

Once we had a stick jabbed up our nose a few times for our tests we returned to the happiest place in Europe.

Another little unique part of this Frenchy version of Disneyland is that you can not only enter Sleeping Beauty Castle but you can go down in the basement and visit the dragon who lives there.

Eating at the restaurant you pass by at the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride is another one of those experiences that seemed out of reach in my younger days that I was now able to fulfill. I'd like to think that younger me would think I'm cool. Anyway the restaurant that lives in the ride here is called Captain Jack's - Restaurant des Pirates.

The place was themed very well I thought. We were seated right next to the water so we could yell "YARR" really loud at the ride-goers boats passing by.. if we were into that kind of thing.

We shared a bottle of Bordeaux AOC Mouton Cadet Baron Philippe de Rothschild. Drink up me 'earties, yo ho!

After eating we turned around and hopped on the ride to round out the pirate's life experience.

Another fun thing that you can't find at American Disney parks is Alice's Curious Labyrinth.

The view from the Queen of Hearts' Castle.

Lydia loves the various Mickey shaped treats. This was a donut.

What a fun time.