Disneyland Paris

Sandy Tarvet

There in front of us loomed a life size replica of the Walt Disney palace. I was gob-smacked! It was one of the most amazing sights I had ever seen, with its giant spires penetrating the sky. A flag was flying from the top spire, but I couldn't make out what it had on it. The main street was bustling with people coming in early to get on the main rides that would later on have queues that had at least a half an hour wait till you got on. Seeing the castle was one of the best moments in my life, but sharing it with my closest friends was something else. Jamie, Michael, Cam and I stood there for a minute just staring at the castle until we saw the rest of our group disappearing down the Main Street. We followed, trying not to get left behind.

The Main Street was lined with expensive shops, most of them containing over-priced Disney memorabilia and merchandise. The buildings were in the style of old western buildings, just more updated. As we picked our way through the crowd I decided that we should probably look at the map to see where we should go first. My older brother had been on the Paris trip the year before with the school and had told me what he thought were the best of the rides. I looked at the childish map that Disney had created to make sure everyone knew where everything was. In a second I managed to pick Out the Disneyland palace on the map, it wasn't really hard to spot since it was located right in the centre of everything. Our supervising teachers made us gather in the oval just in front of the palace and told us to meet them there at 12:30 sharp for lunch. After she said this, our big group split into smaller groups of friends and soon dispersed. In one of the groups were Jamie, Michael, Cam, Euan, Ryan and I. We first went to take a look around the area with the ride 'SPACE MOUNTAIN' because my bother had told me that this was the best ride, but the queues were always long. We went and had a look anyway. The ride itself looked really cool. There was a big dome with a cannon at the side that looked like it would fire the carriage into the air. I asked everyone if we should try it first and they all agreed. Running like mad we climbed the stairs to enter the terminal where we would get into our carriage. Surprisingly, the place was almost devoid of other tourists and we managed to climb in and get ourselves strapped in.

Jamie sat beside me and Michael and Cam sat behind. We pulled the safety harness across our bodies and waited for the hydraulic levers to do the rest. With a click the harness snapped into place across our chests, I for one found this slightly uncomfortable especially around the groin area. With a jerk, which cracked my neck back, we made our way into a dark tunnel. Michael, for a laugh, let out a girly screams s we entered the tunnel. From then on it was just hilarious. The carriage went into the cylinder shaped object, which from the outside was the cannon. Then bar lights above started flashing red as the count down began. CING! QUATRE! TROIS! DEUX! By this time I was getting really scared because I had no idea of what to expect. And then it came, UN! The whole row of carriages flew forward at a frightening pace. I felt as if I had left my stomach back at the start. My head smacked back off of the headrest as the carriage continued on its frighteningly quick assent to what looked like sky. At the last minute I screamed. The carriage plunged at a more than welcome pace into pitch-blackness. I shouted Jamie's name to make sure I wasn't dead. He replied. That took my mind off of things a little as our carriage began to spiral and circle inside this dark dome. My head felt like it was going to burst! I was being thrown from side to side violently inside my harness. Jamie was obviously getting the same treatment from the seat because I could hear him shouting. We whirled about in the abyss for a while. Michael occasionally letting out a high-pitched scream, causing our bashed sides to ache from laughter.

Then the ride slowed slightly, as we started to climb. In front of us was a hologram of a super nova and as we neared it the hologram exploded, and we were sent flying down once again into the abyss. Now we were speeding down a tunnel of red lights spiralling around us. My eyes began to hurt and started to water. It was so exhilarating! And then we burst into sunlight. I felt so tired and bruised that I just sat there looking bewildered until the safety harness came loose. Then all four of us clambered Out of the carriage and staggered onto the platform to get out. Everyone looked like they had had a rough time. Jamie's hair was a mess and he looked slightly white, Cam and Michael also looked very pale. Although I ended up the worst. I had water trails plastered on my face and I had the worlds best come-over. Looking at the display screen outside we saw our picture come up. We looked so scared but it was the most fun I've had on a ride in ages. We stood there laughing for what felt like five minutes until Michael said "Let's go on again!"