2nd July 2026: Disneyland Paris After a successful trip to Parc Astérix on Monday and trips in between to Paris and Versailles, we headed to another theme park (well, duo of theme parks) today; we visited Disneyland Paris! Now unlike Parc Astérix on Monday, I had visited Disneyland Paris prior to today, but this was over 15 years ago, so my memories of it were quite vague. I was also under 8 years old on my first visit, so there were also numerous attractions that I was either too short to ride, too scared to ride or both on my first visit, so I was excited to experience some of these, as well as attractions I’d remembered from my first visit! And it’s also been over 7 years since I’ve been to a Disney park full stop, so it was interesting to visit some Disney parks again! Now, I should say before I get into this report that we did only spend 1 day across both parks, so this was very much a flying visit and our visit plan was designed around key highlights and things we hadn’t done previously in either Paris or Orlando. I’m aware that this is not really how Disney is designed to be visited, so the report should be taken with this in mind. Anticipating that the roads could be busy and wanting to start early, we headed out of our house at around 8:15am, arriving at Disneyland Paris just after 9am in time for the 9:30am opening and starting our day in Disneyland Park: Upon entering the park, we decided to start on a key memorable highlight of our previous visit… Big Thunder Mountain Big Thunder Mountain was on an advertised 55 minute queue time, so as it had been a key memorable attraction from our previous visit to Disneyland Paris, we decided to have a ride on there to start our day. The 55 minute advertised queue time ended up being overstated, with us getting on within 40 minutes after a relatively fast queue; I can never moan about that! So, how was the ride? Well, 8 year old me had this ride down as being the absolute best thing ever, so naturally as someone who has now ridden far more coasters, I did not expect it to live up to my childhood memories and I did not hold the same view as I did in 2011, but it was still a very good fun family coaster nonetheless! I was sat in row 3, and as you’d expect, it was along much the same lines as its equivalent in Florida; very much a pink-knuckle ride, with not too much going on in terms of intensity, but offering a really good, fun experience with some fun twists and turns, areas of mild speed and tickles where it threatens airtime. As family mine train coasters go, I do think it’s a strong example; I would perhaps place it slightly higher than the Florida version, but not notably so. All in all, then, Thunder Mountain was an enjoyable way to start the day and it was very nice to get back on there after 15 years; we certainly all enjoyed ourselves, although my mum did comment that 15 years and many more thrilling coasters ridden had “ruined good, fun rides like that for [her]”: After Thunder Mountain, me, my mum and my dad headed to another ride in the area that we hadn’t previously ridden… Phantom Manor Phantom Manor was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so as none of us had ever done it previously, we decided to take a ride on there. We pretty much walked straight into the stretching room, so pleasingly, the queue time was short as promised; in a park like Disney, it’s never a bad thing to have a 5 minute queue! For context, I hadn’t ridden Phantom Manor previously because me and my sister were both scaredy cat children and wouldn’t ride it when we were 8 and 10 respectively, so it was interesting to get on it today. My sister still wouldn’t ride it today, as she doesn’t go for loud noises and scary things. So, how was it? Well, having ridden Haunted Mansion in Orlando 7 years ago, I was interested to see how Phantom Manor compared, and I would say that similarly, it was quite a nice ride with lots to look at and some nice scenes, and it did seem a little bit more polished and story-driven than Florida’s version. The stretching room pre-show also seemed more impressive than Florida’s, and both my parents said this was the most remarkable bit of the attraction for them. It’s a fairly gentle affair, with nothing too scary for the faint of heart (I.e. me!), and I thought it was quite a nice ride overall, if not a top, top dark ride for me, although my dad thought it was “dull”: After getting off Phantom Manor, we met back up with my sister and moved to Adventureland to complete our next unridden attraction… Indiana Jones et le Temple du Peril Indiana Jones was on an advertised 20 minute queue time, so as none of us had ridden it previously, we decided to give it a go. My sister and I were too small to ride it on our previous visit 15 years ago, so we were all interested to try it, and the queue took 20-25 minutes as advertised, so none of us could complain! So, how was it? Well, I was seated in row 5, and we sadly didn’t miss much on our first visit, as this was absolutely terrible! The ride had very old-fashioned OTSRs and seemed to bash your head around horribly whenever it turned faster than about 10mph, but to make matters worse, I didn’t even think the layout was anything that interesting; it felt like there was basically a loop and an awful lot of filler around it, with multiple very dead sections. All in all, I was glad to have ticked off Indiana Jones, but I don’t think any of us would lose sleep if we didn’t go back on it any time soon: After Indiana Jones, my plan originally put Pirates of the Caribbean on the agenda, but it was unfortunately closed for maintenance, so at my mum’s request, we instead headed into Fantasyland to ride a different dark boat ride… It’s a Small World It’s a Small World was on an advertised 5 minute queue, so as it’s a quintessential classic Disney attraction, we decided to have a ride on there. As we were boarding, it looked as though many people were watching the parade, so we managed to pretty much walk on the ride; I can never moan about that! So, how was it? Well, I had previously ridden the version in Orlando and found it delightfully twee, and I had similar thoughts here. As much as it might not be anything intense or earth-shattering, there is something strangely enjoyable about riding through rooms of animatronics singing and dancing in different languages… it’s a nice, gentle little ride that we all enjoyed! My dad also thought it looked a bit newer and more polished than the Orlando equivalent, which I agreed with: After getting off It’s a Small World, we took a walk around Fantasyland and the Sleeping Beauty gallery in the castle before heading into Discoveryland to ride our final unridden coaster in Disneyland Park… Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain Hyperspace Mountain was on an advertised 50 minute queue, so as none of us had ever ridden it before, we decided to take a ride. I was too small to ride it in 2011, and my noise-phobic sister bailed out as a child upon seeing that the ride launched out of a cannon, so it was new to all 4 of us! The queue was broadly accurate, with us waiting 55 minutes to ride, but might I just say that Hyperspace Mountain might be the most half-hearted retheme I’ve ever seen. The ride is supposedly themed to Star Wars, but externally and pre-ride, it’s very much still Jules Verne-themed aside from a few flags and stickers in the queue (which was also surprisingly bland in general given how beautiful and detailed the building exterior is… was it originally better?). Internally, it’s better, with a bit of Star Wars music and audio and some screens making the theme more convincing, but even then, I definitely saw plenty of calling cards of Jules Verne left in there… I’m no die-hard nostalgic, but I feel like the ride must surely be crying out for a return to a Jules Verne theme at some point! But that’s enough about the theme; how was the ride itself? Well, I was intrigued to try the French Space Mountain because while I’d ridden the version in Orlando, that is a lot tamer whereas Paris’ version is a proper launched thrill ride closer to Rock’n’Rollercoaster in style. I was sat in row 9, and I have to say that I did find it a more impressive ride than its Floridian counterpart, with a fun launch and some good speed and inversions, but it definitely isn’t the smoothest of things! The vest restraints make it less uncomfortable than it might have been, and it was hardly brain-melting to the extent of, say, Goudurix, but it was definitely a little bit on the rougher side in places, which did require some defensive riding when combined with the darkness. Even still, it was a fun coaster and I’m glad to have ridden it, even if Thunder Mountain is perhaps still my preferred coaster within Disneyland Park: After getting off Hyperspace Mountain, we ended our time in Disneyland Park for the day, heading out for lunch in Disney Village to break up our day: After lunch, we began the second stage of our day with a visit to Disney Adventure World, which was the more drastically altered park compared to our previous visit: Upon entering Adventure World, I had originally planned for us to start on Tower of Terror, but the queue times in Avengers Campus were looking more favourable, so we instead decided to start on… Spider-Man WEB Adventure Spider-Man was on an advertised 35 minute queue, so as it was a new ride since our previous visit, we decided to give it a whirl. This proved to be a grave error, as the queue time was grossly underestimated and we ended up waiting 75 minutes in what must have been one of the slowest-feeling queues I’ve waited in for some time. I’m not sure what made it so slow, but it seemed to take forever, perhaps not helped by the queue not being the most interesting by Disney standards, with it mostly consisting of painted walls and cattle pens! So, how was the ride after our unexpectedly long wait? Well, I thought it was quite good fun; the shooting technology is quite novel, the 3D was good, and while the ride is mostly screen-based, the novelty of the shooting tech makes for an interesting ride! It’s not a patch on the superb Spider-Man dark ride in Universal Orlando for me, and it perhaps wasn’t worth a 75 minute wait, but similarly to Ninjago at Legoland, I thought it was a fun dark ride with clever shooting technology and good 3D: After getting off Spider-Man, we headed for the other ride in Avengers Campus… Avengers Assemble: Flight Force Flight Force was on an advertised 30 minute queue time, so me, my dad and my sister decided to take a ride. Now of all the rides on offer at Disneyland Paris, this was the one I was most insistent on riding at some point during the day, and there’s a bit of a personal backstory behind that. On my visit 15 years ago, I was tall enough to ride Rock’n’Rollercoaster (as it was then known, and as I kept repeatedly calling it today!), but I refused to ride because a classmate of mine at primary school told me that it gave him tummy ache after he rode it… so I didn’t ride it all trip and I’ve been slightly bitter about that missed coaster ever since, particularly after my family told me about how brilliant it was! I later managed to ride the Orlando version some 8 years later, but I’ve always been keen to return to Disneyland Paris and redeem that missed coaster credit, so I was insistent that I wouldn’t leave the resort today without riding it! The queue for this took 35-40 minutes, and I have to say that it was a somewhat more interesting queue than that for Spider-Man, with some videos and a pre-show with a very cool Iron Man animatronic! So, how did Flight Force stack up after 15 years of regretting not riding it? Did the experience live up to the personal thrill of finally redeeming my 8 year old self and (indirectly) giving my primary school classmate his comeuppance? Well, I remembered the Orlando version of this coaster being a really decent coaster in 2019, and this was decent as well; it’s probably my personal favourite Disney coaster! I was seated on the front row, and in terms of some particular highlights; that launch is excellently punchy for an LSM launch and if I didn’t know any better, I’d have said it felt almost like a hydraulic launch, and the ride also carries its speed well and has some good, forceful inversions! As well as this, the ride also isn’t overly rough either, being notably smoother than Hyperspace Mountain earlier in the day, which makes for an enjoyable thrill coaster and a nice headline coaster for the Disney resort overall! All in all, then, I was glad to finally get on Rock’n’Rollercoaster (it’ll always be Rock’n’Rollercoaster to me regardless of the Avengers theme!), and the ride itself was about as good as I’d remembered from Orlando, which was pleasing: After Flight Force, we headed to another new ride that none of us had ridden anywhere previously… Ratatouille Ratatouille was on an advertised 55 minute queue time, so as it was new since our last visit and we also haven’t visited Walt Disney World recently enough to have experienced it in Epcot, we decided to take a ride on there as we were all interested in seeing it. The queue was understated and took around 45 minutes despite being nearly to the ride entrance, which I can never complain about! So, how was it? Well, I thought it was quite an interesting ride! There were some good bits of physical scenery in there, even if the ride is predominantly screen-based, the animation sequences were generally quite good, and the spinning and interaction between the cars was quite a cool touch! They also very much liked the water squirter in there! One thing I did think, though, is that unlike some rides with lengthy movement sequences in front of one screen (I would give Street Mission at PortAventura and Snorri Touren at Europa Park as examples), I thought the screen sequences felt quite static and less like you were believably moving around; I’m not sure whether this was down to reduced car movement or something else, but it was something I noticed. All in all, then, I thought Ratatouille was quite a good, fun dark ride, and I’m glad we got to experience it for the first time: After getting off Ratatouille, it was gone 5:30pm and my family were starting to flag, so I was told I could ride one more attraction. As such, me and my dad went to ride a favourite of mine from Orlando… Tower of Terror Tower of Terror was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, so as I absolutely loved the Florida version and had never done Paris’ before (me and my sister were too scared to ride it in 2011), I was keen to give it a go. The queue time was broadly accurate, with us waiting around 45 minutes for our ride, although we did have an interesting experience upon boarding in that our lift broke down and had to be brought back to the area for a restraint recheck; that was intriguing! So, how was the ride? Well, I loved Tower of Terror in Orlando 7 years ago to the extent where I would have easily declared it my favourite Disney attraction and quite possibly my favourite non-roller coaster attraction full stop, and riding the Paris version reminded me of the brilliance of these rides. They’re still easily Disney’s top rides for me; the unrestricted airtime is absolutely incredible, and the wonderful theming, story and ambience adds quite a unique dimension to the whole experience compared to a regular drop tower! This version, unlike the one in Florida, was also quite interesting in that it had a spooky little girl appearing in each scene and adding comments; that was a nice touch that I wasn’t necessarily expecting! All in all, then, it was great to get on Paris’ Tower of Terror; this attraction really is wonderful, and definitely some of Disney’s finest work, in my view: After getting off Tower of Terror, it was gone 6:30pm and my family were incredibly keen to go home, so we called it a day there and headed out: So, that brings a close to our day at Disneyland Paris! I had a really good day; it was interesting to return to the parks 15 years after my last visit, and despite us not managing the full day, I managed to get on most of what I’d planned to (I had also pencilled in Frozen and Crush’s Coaster in Adventure World, but my family decided it wasn’t an issue not to ride these as we rode Frozen in Orlando and we rode Crush’s Coaster on our last visit 15 years ago), including everything that was new to me! I do think that doing both parks in a day was slightly ambitious, in retrospect, and I acknowledge that I was perhaps unable to give Disney the chance to show its full potential. Rides-wise, my highlight was easily Tower of Terror, but I also enjoyed getting on some of the other rides I’ve never done before, with Flight Force being a key favourite of those, and getting back on things like Thunder Mountain too. In terms of my thoughts on the Paris Disney resort; I thought Disneyland Park was overall a fair amount nicer to walk around than the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, with lots more little details to look at and a general more polished feel, and I also thought that some of the rides were better like-for-like (e.g. Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor). Disney Adventure World was also nicer than I remembered, and some of the new additions are really good. Both parks, particularly Adventure World, are surprisingly thin on rides, and I do think that some new attractions in both would not go amiss. My dad said that “both parks put together were smaller than Parc Astérix on Monday”, and while I’m not sure I agree with that statement, I would agree that neither park is particularly big individually. What I will say Disney does well, though, is making the environment very nice to walk around and be in. Disneyland Park in particular is a supremely pleasant environment with lots to look at, lots of little details and no visual expense spared, and it does make for a pleasant park to be in. I found it much nicer to look at and be in than the Magic Kingdom, which I wasn’t necessarily expecting. The Disney parks do feel very premium and like real “spectacle” parks in the same way as the Disney and Universal resorts in Orlando do. Of the two theme park days we’ve had in France this week, I would argue that our group perhaps got more out of Parc Astérix on Monday, and while you can fairly argue that we perhaps didn’t let Disney show its full potential, I think what it partly boils down to is that Disneyland Paris isn’t really designed for us, and I should probably elaborate a little on what I mean. My dad argued that this is because the parks are pitched primarily at families with young children, but I disagree; I think it’s that they cater more to fans of Disney than fans of theme parks. If you are a die-hard Disney fan and you love all the magic and pixie dust and characters, you’ll absolutely love it, but we are an older group and not absolute die-hard Disney fans, so we maybe feel less of a connection to the product. I’ve long felt similarly about the Disney parks in Orlando; I really like the parks, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t excite me like the Universal parks or some other places do. With all that said, it was fun to return to Disneyland Paris and we had a good day! Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! I don’t know when my next theme park trip will be or where it will be to, but I’m sure I’ll go somewhere else before too long, so keep your eyes peeled!
I do agree. The buzz we had with Hyperia and the Passholder Group has certainly gone, and we're technically 2 rides down with Rumba Rapids permanent closure and Zodiac being SBNO for over a year. I'd love to see some new flat rides to bring some excitement back into the park, but there are also some pretty significant issues that need addressing, such as the security/entrance procedure and the Ghost Train. One thing I will say though, is that although we've had nothing new and not much excitement, it's still the best run Merlin park in the UK by far in my opinion, and it continues to have the best opening hours. Operations are always on point whenever I go, and I always have a pleasant day. I can't say the same for most other parks in the country. I usually avoid the park most of July and August but will certainly be going to a couple of the 9pm closes in August.
So does anyone know what’s up with Vortex? Think it’s been closed almost a month now, makes that area of the park seem almost abandoned with the continued closure of Zodiac next to it too!
My excitement towards Thorpe has gone downhill recently too. I’m definitely going to contribute a decent chunk of this to me moving to Nottingham for Uni so I’m no longer a 30minute drive from the park; but I’ve still not looked into booking a trip for this season while I’m back home for the summer which considering I used to visit 10-15 times a season before I moved is quite a stark contrast. The period from 2021-2024 seemed to be so full of change and engagement from the park. Changing fright nights lineup, sparkle project, passholder group, multiple events from park vibes to mardi gras and of course everything surrounding Hyperia. It seems at the moment, the park has hit a stagnant phase - the only new investment we’ve got recently is the new launchpad area, which (not entire due to the parks fault) is rather underwhelming to say the least, and not really drawing me back to the park.
Yeah kinda. I personally don't feel that hard done by though, the amount of investment that is going on across Europe right now, even here in the UK, says to me that Thorpe is just a bit dormant right now. These things come in waves and the reality is, Hyperia needs to be the big thing for a while. At some point they have to address Rumba and the Slammer sites as well as the flat ride section of Lost City. Vortex and Zodiac just seem pretty dead right now with Quantum not far behind.
The issue of nothing on the horizon hasn't helped. You'd presume SOMETHING will happen on Rumba site but then Slammer's old spot is still decaying. The "rest area" is just so badly executed. Was always a hard sell for it to be the exciting new addition, especially when there's no events happening to utilise the space. Hyperia could've done with a couple support rides to keep the interest going. Surprised they didn't go for the spinning or backwards car on it (though given the ride experience probably for the best that they didn't). Even the influencers barely seem to visit Thorpe. Guess it doesn't get the hits that Towers does or has something new to regularly update like Chessie or Lego.
There's a few contributing factors I think... -Post-big investment lull. As Benin mentioned, there can be lulls after big investments at parks. Not every park, but it is common. It's funny because historically Thorpe was good at avoiding that by having some marketing gimmick for the year after a big investment (Stealth's "upgrade", Saw with Saw Alive, Swarm's Brave it Backwards, DBGT and Rise of the Demon). Hyperia didn't have that, and there's not been anything to follow up. It happens, but it's very bland, yes. -'Time thing'. I assume by this Matt you just mean getting older, and that does play a part of it too I reckon. You get older, and busier, and times just change. And also ties in with what Benin says about the world being general a bit rubbish right now. -Lack of updates. There's things happening at the park, whether it's little touch ups here and there or bigger things behind the scenes. Admittedly right now that is minimal, but it is there. But there's less noise about it all now. The Passholder Group on Facebook closed down. Jack Silkstone, who has been the main source of such things for a few years now, has moved into a more professional capacity so isn't making the little update videos. Fansites (like TPM) have succumbed to the time thing. And there's just very few places providing general updates. -Lack of anything to be excited about. There's no plans to the council for anything new. There's no rumours of anything new coming. Other parks in Merlin are getting things and Thorpe aren't. We're kind of just ticking on by. It makes it hard to have the same enthusiasm. On a personal level, I found 2024 to be such a huge buzz of a year for Thorpe. New coaster, obviously, but the Sparkle Project invigorated lots of other parts of the park. There was optimism for the future and such a positive. Since then, they've followed that up with a much-needed open space by the front of the park (although that execution has split opinion), and nothing else. The park is effectively exactly the same as it was 2 years ago, even down to food outlets. With seemingly nothing new on the horizon, there's only so long one can revisit the exact same place before a bit of burnout hits.
This might be a time thing but I’m not sure but does everyone else think the excitement from 2021-2024 has died down now at Thorpe Park. Nothing really happening throughout the year, nothing really to look forward to. I think if Fright Nights stays the same this year, I think maze wise it will. Then it’s quite a boring year and much of the same for next year. There used to be quite a big fan base active on social media but I think that’s completely gone now.thumb.png.ae62487961fbf986a4aaa917b0aa3016.png)
my favourite part about all this is the nespresso machine. you always know where you are with that. no matter how un-affable the weather is, or how much the spanners get into the works, you know you can pop in your lovely nespresso pod and enjoy a luscious, tasteful refreshment. it really is the best thing about the park of the thorpe of the park, and if I had my way, we would be introducing nespresso machines at the entrance to every ride tomorrow. sadly, I do not often get my way. budgets are tight, you see. the benefit of introducing a nespresso machine at the entrance to each ride would be measurable, but it would not be practical to do on a small budget. there is a lot to think about, such as, if the machine broke would the experience actually be worse than it was before? the thorpe park visitor would then know there was something 'missing' as they would not be able to enjoy the refreshing warmth of a nespresso pod whilst queueing. whereas if we do not introduce the nespresso machines, there will never be anything missing. apart from to me, because I know about nespresso. I know about the potential, the huge benefits and the sheer beauty of the nespresso pod. once you have discovered this for yourself, there is no going back and thorpe park will never feel the same again without nespresso.
Does anyone else find that last, or second last little turn out of sync with the rest of the ride. Obviously it's lining you up to come back to the station. A bit of an anti cimlax.
2nd July 2026: Disneyland Paris After a successful trip to Parc Astérix on Monday and trips in between to Paris and Versailles, we headed to another theme park (well, duo of theme parks) today; we visited Disneyland Paris! Now unlike Parc Astérix on Monday, I had visited Disneyland Paris prior to today, but this was over 15 years ago, so my memories of it were quite vague. I was also under 8 years old on my first visit, so there were also numerous attractions that I was either too short to ride, too scared to ride or both on my first visit, so I was excited to experience some of these, as well as attractions I’d remembered from my first visit! And it’s also been over 7 years since I’ve been to a Disney park full stop, so it was interesting to visit some Disney parks again! Now, I should say before I get into this report that we did only spend 1 day across both parks, so this was very much a flying visit and our visit plan was designed around key highlights and things we hadn’t done previously in either Paris or Orlando. I’m aware that this is not really how Disney is designed to be visited, so the report should be taken with this in mind. Anticipating that the roads could be busy and wanting to start early, we headed out of our house at around 8:15am, arriving at Disneyland Paris just after 9am in time for the 9:30am opening and starting our day in Disneyland Park: Upon entering the park, we decided to start on a key memorable highlight of our previous visit… Big Thunder Mountain Big Thunder Mountain was on an advertised 55 minute queue time, so as it had been a key memorable attraction from our previous visit to Disneyland Paris, we decided to have a ride on there to start our day. The 55 minute advertised queue time ended up being overstated, with us getting on within 40 minutes after a relatively fast queue; I can never moan about that! So, how was the ride? Well, 8 year old me had this ride down as being the absolute best thing ever, so naturally as someone who has now ridden far more coasters, I did not expect it to live up to my childhood memories and I did not hold the same view as I did in 2011, but it was still a very good fun family coaster nonetheless! I was sat in row 3, and as you’d expect, it was along much the same lines as its equivalent in Florida; very much a pink-knuckle ride, with not too much going on in terms of intensity, but offering a really good, fun experience with some fun twists and turns, areas of mild speed and tickles where it threatens airtime. As family mine train coasters go, I do think it’s a strong example; I would perhaps place it slightly higher than the Florida version, but not notably so. All in all, then, Thunder Mountain was an enjoyable way to start the day and it was very nice to get back on there after 15 years; we certainly all enjoyed ourselves, although my mum did comment that 15 years and many more thrilling coasters ridden had “ruined good, fun rides like that for [her]”: After Thunder Mountain, me, my mum and my dad headed to another ride in the area that we hadn’t previously ridden… Phantom Manor Phantom Manor was on an advertised 5 minute queue time, so as none of us had ever done it previously, we decided to take a ride on there. We pretty much walked straight into the stretching room, so pleasingly, the queue time was short as promised; in a park like Disney, it’s never a bad thing to have a 5 minute queue! For context, I hadn’t ridden Phantom Manor previously because me and my sister were both scaredy cat children and wouldn’t ride it when we were 8 and 10 respectively, so it was interesting to get on it today. My sister still wouldn’t ride it today, as she doesn’t go for loud noises and scary things. So, how was it? Well, having ridden Haunted Mansion in Orlando 7 years ago, I was interested to see how Phantom Manor compared, and I would say that similarly, it was quite a nice ride with lots to look at and some nice scenes, and it did seem a little bit more polished and story-driven than Florida’s version. The stretching room pre-show also seemed more impressive than Florida’s, and both my parents said this was the most remarkable bit of the attraction for them. It’s a fairly gentle affair, with nothing too scary for the faint of heart (I.e. me!), and I thought it was quite a nice ride overall, if not a top, top dark ride for me, although my dad thought it was “dull”: After getting off Phantom Manor, we met back up with my sister and moved to Adventureland to complete our next unridden attraction… Indiana Jones et le Temple du Peril Indiana Jones was on an advertised 20 minute queue time, so as none of us had ridden it previously, we decided to give it a go. My sister and I were too small to ride it on our previous visit 15 years ago, so we were all interested to try it, and the queue took 20-25 minutes as advertised, so none of us could complain! So, how was it? Well, I was seated in row 5, and we sadly didn’t miss much on our first visit, as this was absolutely terrible! The ride had very old-fashioned OTSRs and seemed to bash your head around horribly whenever it turned faster than about 10mph, but to make matters worse, I didn’t even think the layout was anything that interesting; it felt like there was basically a loop and an awful lot of filler around it, with multiple very dead sections. All in all, I was glad to have ticked off Indiana Jones, but I don’t think any of us would lose sleep if we didn’t go back on it any time soon: After Indiana Jones, my plan originally put Pirates of the Caribbean on the agenda, but it was unfortunately closed for maintenance, so at my mum’s request, we instead headed into Fantasyland to ride a different dark boat ride… It’s a Small World It’s a Small World was on an advertised 5 minute queue, so as it’s a quintessential classic Disney attraction, we decided to have a ride on there. As we were boarding, it looked as though many people were watching the parade, so we managed to pretty much walk on the ride; I can never moan about that! So, how was it? Well, I had previously ridden the version in Orlando and found it delightfully twee, and I had similar thoughts here. As much as it might not be anything intense or earth-shattering, there is something strangely enjoyable about riding through rooms of animatronics singing and dancing in different languages… it’s a nice, gentle little ride that we all enjoyed! My dad also thought it looked a bit newer and more polished than the Orlando equivalent, which I agreed with: After getting off It’s a Small World, we took a walk around Fantasyland and the Sleeping Beauty gallery in the castle before heading into Discoveryland to ride our final unridden coaster in Disneyland Park… Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain Hyperspace Mountain was on an advertised 50 minute queue, so as none of us had ever ridden it before, we decided to take a ride. I was too small to ride it in 2011, and my noise-phobic sister bailed out as a child upon seeing that the ride launched out of a cannon, so it was new to all 4 of us! The queue was broadly accurate, with us waiting 55 minutes to ride, but might I just say that Hyperspace Mountain might be the most half-hearted retheme I’ve ever seen. The ride is supposedly themed to Star Wars, but externally and pre-ride, it’s very much still Jules Verne-themed aside from a few flags and stickers in the queue (which was also surprisingly bland in general given how beautiful and detailed the building exterior is… was it originally better?). Internally, it’s better, with a bit of Star Wars music and audio and some screens making the theme more convincing, but even then, I definitely saw plenty of calling cards of Jules Verne left in there… I’m no die-hard nostalgic, but I feel like the ride must surely be crying out for a return to a Jules Verne theme at some point! But that’s enough about the theme; how was the ride itself? Well, I was intrigued to try the French Space Mountain because while I’d ridden the version in Orlando, that is a lot tamer whereas Paris’ version is a proper launched thrill ride closer to Rock’n’Rollercoaster in style. I was sat in row 9, and I have to say that I did find it a more impressive ride than its Floridian counterpart, with a fun launch and some good speed and inversions, but it definitely isn’t the smoothest of things! The vest restraints make it less uncomfortable than it might have been, and it was hardly brain-melting to the extent of, say, Goudurix, but it was definitely a little bit on the rougher side in places, which did require some defensive riding when combined with the darkness. Even still, it was a fun coaster and I’m glad to have ridden it, even if Thunder Mountain is perhaps still my preferred coaster within Disneyland Park: After getting off Hyperspace Mountain, we ended our time in Disneyland Park for the day, heading out for lunch in Disney Village to break up our day: After lunch, we began the second stage of our day with a visit to Disney Adventure World, which was the more drastically altered park compared to our previous visit: Upon entering Adventure World, I had originally planned for us to start on Tower of Terror, but the queue times in Avengers Campus were looking more favourable, so we instead decided to start on… Spider-Man WEB Adventure Spider-Man was on an advertised 35 minute queue, so as it was a new ride since our previous visit, we decided to give it a whirl. This proved to be a grave error, as the queue time was grossly underestimated and we ended up waiting 75 minutes in what must have been one of the slowest-feeling queues I’ve waited in for some time. I’m not sure what made it so slow, but it seemed to take forever, perhaps not helped by the queue not being the most interesting by Disney standards, with it mostly consisting of painted walls and cattle pens! So, how was the ride after our unexpectedly long wait? Well, I thought it was quite good fun; the shooting technology is quite novel, the 3D was good, and while the ride is mostly screen-based, the novelty of the shooting tech makes for an interesting ride! It’s not a patch on the superb Spider-Man dark ride in Universal Orlando for me, and it perhaps wasn’t worth a 75 minute wait, but similarly to Ninjago at Legoland, I thought it was a fun dark ride with clever shooting technology and good 3D: After getting off Spider-Man, we headed for the other ride in Avengers Campus… Avengers Assemble: Flight Force Flight Force was on an advertised 30 minute queue time, so me, my dad and my sister decided to take a ride. Now of all the rides on offer at Disneyland Paris, this was the one I was most insistent on riding at some point during the day, and there’s a bit of a personal backstory behind that. On my visit 15 years ago, I was tall enough to ride Rock’n’Rollercoaster (as it was then known, and as I kept repeatedly calling it today!), but I refused to ride because a classmate of mine at primary school told me that it gave him tummy ache after he rode it… so I didn’t ride it all trip and I’ve been slightly bitter about that missed coaster ever since, particularly after my family told me about how brilliant it was! I later managed to ride the Orlando version some 8 years later, but I’ve always been keen to return to Disneyland Paris and redeem that missed coaster credit, so I was insistent that I wouldn’t leave the resort today without riding it! The queue for this took 35-40 minutes, and I have to say that it was a somewhat more interesting queue than that for Spider-Man, with some videos and a pre-show with a very cool Iron Man animatronic! So, how did Flight Force stack up after 15 years of regretting not riding it? Did the experience live up to the personal thrill of finally redeeming my 8 year old self and (indirectly) giving my primary school classmate his comeuppance? Well, I remembered the Orlando version of this coaster being a really decent coaster in 2019, and this was decent as well; it’s probably my personal favourite Disney coaster! I was seated on the front row, and in terms of some particular highlights; that launch is excellently punchy for an LSM launch and if I didn’t know any better, I’d have said it felt almost like a hydraulic launch, and the ride also carries its speed well and has some good, forceful inversions! As well as this, the ride also isn’t overly rough either, being notably smoother than Hyperspace Mountain earlier in the day, which makes for an enjoyable thrill coaster and a nice headline coaster for the Disney resort overall! All in all, then, I was glad to finally get on Rock’n’Rollercoaster (it’ll always be Rock’n’Rollercoaster to me regardless of the Avengers theme!), and the ride itself was about as good as I’d remembered from Orlando, which was pleasing: After Flight Force, we headed to another new ride that none of us had ridden anywhere previously… Ratatouille Ratatouille was on an advertised 55 minute queue time, so as it was new since our last visit and we also haven’t visited Walt Disney World recently enough to have experienced it in Epcot, we decided to take a ride on there as we were all interested in seeing it. The queue was understated and took around 45 minutes despite being nearly to the ride entrance, which I can never complain about! So, how was it? Well, I thought it was quite an interesting ride! There were some good bits of physical scenery in there, even if the ride is predominantly screen-based, the animation sequences were generally quite good, and the spinning and interaction between the cars was quite a cool touch! They also very much liked the water squirter in there! One thing I did think, though, is that unlike some rides with lengthy movement sequences in front of one screen (I would give Street Mission at PortAventura and Snorri Touren at Europa Park as examples), I thought the screen sequences felt quite static and less like you were believably moving around; I’m not sure whether this was down to reduced car movement or something else, but it was something I noticed. All in all, then, I thought Ratatouille was quite a good, fun dark ride, and I’m glad we got to experience it for the first time: After getting off Ratatouille, it was gone 5:30pm and my family were starting to flag, so I was told I could ride one more attraction. As such, me and my dad went to ride a favourite of mine from Orlando… Tower of Terror Tower of Terror was on an advertised 45 minute queue time, so as I absolutely loved the Florida version and had never done Paris’ before (me and my sister were too scared to ride it in 2011), I was keen to give it a go. The queue time was broadly accurate, with us waiting around 45 minutes for our ride, although we did have an interesting experience upon boarding in that our lift broke down and had to be brought back to the area for a restraint recheck; that was intriguing! So, how was the ride? Well, I loved Tower of Terror in Orlando 7 years ago to the extent where I would have easily declared it my favourite Disney attraction and quite possibly my favourite non-roller coaster attraction full stop, and riding the Paris version reminded me of the brilliance of these rides. They’re still easily Disney’s top rides for me; the unrestricted airtime is absolutely incredible, and the wonderful theming, story and ambience adds quite a unique dimension to the whole experience compared to a regular drop tower! This version, unlike the one in Florida, was also quite interesting in that it had a spooky little girl appearing in each scene and adding comments; that was a nice touch that I wasn’t necessarily expecting! All in all, then, it was great to get on Paris’ Tower of Terror; this attraction really is wonderful, and definitely some of Disney’s finest work, in my view: After getting off Tower of Terror, it was gone 6:30pm and my family were incredibly keen to go home, so we called it a day there and headed out: So, that brings a close to our day at Disneyland Paris! I had a really good day; it was interesting to return to the parks 15 years after my last visit, and despite us not managing the full day, I managed to get on most of what I’d planned to (I had also pencilled in Frozen and Crush’s Coaster in Adventure World, but my family decided it wasn’t an issue not to ride these as we rode Frozen in Orlando and we rode Crush’s Coaster on our last visit 15 years ago), including everything that was new to me! I do think that doing both parks in a day was slightly ambitious, in retrospect, and I acknowledge that I was perhaps unable to give Disney the chance to show its full potential. Rides-wise, my highlight was easily Tower of Terror, but I also enjoyed getting on some of the other rides I’ve never done before, with Flight Force being a key favourite of those, and getting back on things like Thunder Mountain too. In terms of my thoughts on the Paris Disney resort; I thought Disneyland Park was overall a fair amount nicer to walk around than the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, with lots more little details to look at and a general more polished feel, and I also thought that some of the rides were better like-for-like (e.g. Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor). Disney Adventure World was also nicer than I remembered, and some of the new additions are really good. Both parks, particularly Adventure World, are surprisingly thin on rides, and I do think that some new attractions in both would not go amiss. My dad said that “both parks put together were smaller than Parc Astérix on Monday”, and while I’m not sure I agree with that statement, I would agree that neither park is particularly big individually. What I will say Disney does well, though, is making the environment very nice to walk around and be in. Disneyland Park in particular is a supremely pleasant environment with lots to look at, lots of little details and no visual expense spared, and it does make for a pleasant park to be in. I found it much nicer to look at and be in than the Magic Kingdom, which I wasn’t necessarily expecting. The Disney parks do feel very premium and like real “spectacle” parks in the same way as the Disney and Universal resorts in Orlando do. Of the two theme park days we’ve had in France this week, I would argue that our group perhaps got more out of Parc Astérix on Monday, and while you can fairly argue that we perhaps didn’t let Disney show its full potential, I think what it partly boils down to is that Disneyland Paris isn’t really designed for us, and I should probably elaborate a little on what I mean. My dad argued that this is because the parks are pitched primarily at families with young children, but I disagree; I think it’s that they cater more to fans of Disney than fans of theme parks. If you are a die-hard Disney fan and you love all the magic and pixie dust and characters, you’ll absolutely love it, but we are an older group and not absolute die-hard Disney fans, so we maybe feel less of a connection to the product. I’ve long felt similarly about the Disney parks in Orlando; I really like the parks, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t excite me like the Universal parks or some other places do. With all that said, it was fun to return to Disneyland Paris and we had a good day! Thanks for reading; I hope you’ve enjoyed this report! I don’t know when my next theme park trip will be or where it will be to, but I’m sure I’ll go somewhere else before too long, so keep your eyes peeled!
Though when I attended today, a train had stopped on the lower turn to the platform, it was sorted proper within an hour. Stealth then ran continuously with two trains until close.
Preventing pipe leakages, why not newspaper and bootlaces?
