h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks for this write up - very interesting comparisons!

" Which just goes to show what everyone knows all along – at school you're not taught how to talk French the way that the French speak French"

Yeah, I know that feeling... "Je voudrais une glace au chocolat, s'il vous plait" - "Pardon?" - "Je voudrais une glace au chocolat, s'il vous plait" - "Pardon?" - "Can I have a chocolate ice cream, please?" - "Ah! Une glace au chocolat - certainement!"

I enjoyed it in DisneyWorld Florida, that I learned some Spanish because many things were in both Spanish and English, but that's interesting that the Disneyland Paris 25th Anniversary Show was in French only. I got good at calculating the tax in Florida, too, as that was a shock the first time I went to the till, so quick budget recalculations were required in order to obtain all the merchandise I needed

Love the analysis of TinkerBell and Casey

I'm not partial to eating cuddly toys, but that would be awesome if Gummi Bears was ever released on DVD - I could watch them over and over again...

"I pictured a shop full of everything Disney had ever made, where if you say 'The Gnome-Mobile had a strangely memorable theme song but I saw The Reluctant Dragon on a midnight flight from Heathrow Airport heading East in winter' to a member of staff when the shop is quiet, they will secretly pass you Song of the South in a brown envelope under the counter."

Not in DisneyWorld, but my mum managed that in Memphis - we were in a shop and she heard some music playing in the background, and she just had to buy it as the song was a rarity by Elvis, so she found a member of staff and said the magic words

Fascinating that your hotel was Isle of Wight themed!

Rather aptly, I didn't get time for a cup of tea at the same time as I had to stop reading, so I will carry on reading later from "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea"...

"we discovered that they had put milk in hot water and left the tea bags outside the paper cups."

Yikes, that is most definitely not how to make tea...

"There were some cases of there being longer queues for the loos than the rides."

Wow... Not good at all...

"I never got tired of saying 'Photopass' in a The Fifth Element (1997) accent, a wonderful film in which Leeloo gets a multipass."

A wonderful film indeed

I salute your photo guidelines - that is awful that every single ride photo you got didn't include your son, especially given that you paid a non-trivial amount of money for the pleasure of seeing other people's hands...

That's interesting that It's a Small World is bigger in Paris

Fascinating comparison of service... Yes, I find a minimal amount of attention from waiting staff to be quite sufficient, too, and as you say the most important attention is the actual paying and leaving moment... Shocking indeed about the 'first aid' treatment... Glad all was OK, as that could have been a lot worse...

Wow - an epic adventure for you all, and your analysis is very useful Glad you all enjoyed the holiday

Yep, I was shocked in Florida too when buying something because of the tax.

You're right that it would be awesome if Gummi Bears and other lost classics would be released – the annoying thing with Disney is how little of their back catalogue they are prepared to release, and how much they charge for what they actually do. And then though they used to sell 'Special Editions' 'Diamond Editions' and so on which had a good range of extras on, now they are only prepared to sell vanilla editions but at Special Diamond prices.

That's great news about your mum and !

Well, I reckon the hotel was Isle of Wight themed. It would probably come as a complete surprise to the architects, but if there's a tenuous Isle of Wight connection there somewhere, I'll find it

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