Even before we actually got up for the day, things were not looking good for me.  I guess I slept to much the afternoon we first arrived, because, my body didn't make the transition to Parisian time.  Last night I was bug-eyed awake until 6:00 A.M., which would have been midnight back home, my normal time to go to sleep.  The upside was that I got to watch most of the Super Bowl (gotta figure the one time we go out of the country during the Super Bowl, it's one of the most exciting Bowls in years!).  It was especially neat hearing the play-by play in French!  Needless to say, when it was time to actually get up around 8:30, I wasn't exactly completely with it.  Fortunately our day's destination promised to be a bit stimulating - Disneyland Paris!

We've gotten a lot of ribbing from our friends and family about traveling to Paris, only to then spend a full day at Disneyland Paris, but you have to understand that my wife and I are huge Disney Junkies.  Now having said that, let me add this one response to the questions "Should we go to Disney when in Paris?"  My recommendation is that if you are only going to be in the Paris area for several days, stick to things truly French. When we left the park and headed back into Paris, I felt like I was leaving an island of Americana in the middle of a sea of French. BUT, if you're in the area for a week or so, and you simply must see Mickey, the park really is worth the trip.  You just need to figure out for yourself what's most important to you.  One things to consider is that if you're over there in the Winter months, go on weekday - the park was almost completely empty, so there were absolutely no lines!

After taking the RER (Train A) out to Marne-La-Vallee, we discovered that people weren't exaggerating when they said the train station is close to the entrance.  I've stood in lines in the Magic Kingdom that we're a longer distance!  We got our tickets and headed on in.  First impression was that we were in the Magic Kingdom, but had just gotten the wrong language program installed!  Much of it is successfully replicated from Orlando.  Having said that, though, there are some great differences.

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Restaurants in the park are vastly better than those in the Magic Kingdom.  They offered more variety and better quality and (a great treat) they serve alcohol!

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Pirates of The Caribbean - they did a great job of keeping the atmosphere and story line of the ride in Orlando, but cranked up the excitement a few notches.  It's pitch dark for several parts, adding to the atmosphere and then the ride becomes an actual flume ride, with several drops that add a lot to the ride.
Phantom Manor (i.e. The Haunted Mansion) - one of my favorite rides over there.  A couple of things I preferred over Orlando.  (1) they stuck to the true story of a man (the man you see hanging from the rafters in the very beginning) kills his wife (the woman in the wedding dress) on their wedding night (hence, the wedding party and dancing).  (2) they made it a good bit scarier.  It probably won't give little kids nightmares, but I found there were fewer examples of comic relief.
Thunder Mountain - it was fun, but I found minimal upgrades over Orlando.  One was that the caves at the beginning and the end were almost totally dark.  Another was as you go up the final climb, where it seems as though there is an earthquake, the entire track shifts with the earthquake.

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Space Mountain - Probably my favorite "upgrade" over there.  The premise in Paris is based on Jules Vernes' Journey To The Moon (19th century novel where a giant capsule is launched to the moon from a giant capsule.  The ride itself was more along the lines of Disney/MGM's Rock n' Roller Coaster.  Your car (about 20 people go at a time) gets "loaded" into the cannon and then fired at about a 120-degree angel with an extremely high rate of acceleration.  This ride has corkscrews and loop-the-loops, so if you are weak of stomach, don't go in.  The French teenagers sitting with me (my wife wisely stayed out) had lots of fun teasing me as I staggered my way out.

By about 5:00, we'd been there and done that, so we opted to go over to Paris' version of Downtown Disney, where all their hotels, restaurants, and shops were.  After walking around a bit and getting in a little ice-skating, we investigated our restaurant choices, only to find that the top-notched ones were closed for the off-season (bummer).  So we jumped on the train and slept our way back in to the city and had dinner back at our little local restaurant, Café Tourville.  NOTE - one of the biggest stereotypes is of the obnoxious Parisian waiter (recall the café scene in the 1980's flick, Gotcha').  By Monday evening, we had had dinner at this place once already and breakfast there twice and we were greeted like Norm on Cheers!  Well, our waiter bought our first round of drinks and then spent part of the evening chatting with us, helping me practice my French, and giving us directions and ideas of where else to go.  A very pleasant surprise.  After that, it was back to the Hotel and off to bed. 

Tomorrow: La Grevé