Matt 236

Looks like I'm going be extremely envious then

Tag (old primary school games)

Part 6 is here to conclude the Disney & The Creek, featuring a short interview at the end. The end is here.

Professor Drunk will be there in spirit (I'll be drinking in Watford that evening after all)

tbh the way the park's going, they might need one eventually, but then with the green belt thing I doubt they will. In fact this year they have actually halved the main car park for hotel users, not a good move IMO. Chessington is just a game of tug of war at the moment.

Chestnuts

I won't be making this I'm afraid, as On top of father day, I'm working 2x Sunday & have a party on the Saturday. Have fun guys

Double Post [no one mentioned anything about Part 4], The fifth instalment of my Disneyland Paris Vlog is now up and ready, where the number in our parties goes up to 6. Part 6 will be coming tomorrow, tears at the ready

Bolt (Disney film)

I've decided I'm going to vote for the Matt Creek Party this year. Their manifesto says they plan to improve the economic situation by building more theme parks and experiences and they will improve transport structure by linking Glasgow and London by the worlds fastest roller coaster. They will help the housing crisis by building 100 themed hotels with 180 rooms, 70 which will be in London. One of their other policies is to scrap planning permission to replace it with a landscape alteration act which can only be revolver if it effects nature or pollution. Matt creek party it is for me.

Ok, Part Four of the trip is now up which features Ratatouille and the Dreams amongst other things.

What have I come in to? Back on topic, Southend is a decent little park with some decent rides such as Rage & Barnstormer and suite a lot of flats, it's not quite Thorpe but it's good.

Wow, that theming certainly does look spectacular, this ride almost seems to have appeared from nowhere.

Despite our slightly stumbly trip back from Mcdonalds, we made it back to the hotel in where Part 3 of the trip shall now entail. After a waking alarm at 7am, packing our bags and everything, we headed back to Disney, this time using Peajy Taxis instead of the train. During the 2nd day at the park, we gain a sixth person to our party, Sam [Lightyear93] as one of my sixth form mates was able to join us for the day [who is currently doing a placement in Paris]. He too has a Disney Pass. After failing to get my lovely chocolate croissant due an arrogant Frenchman in front at Mainstreet, I sadly had to settle for a normal bog standard one [though Alex kindly let me have a bite of his] where our first ride of the day would be Pinoccio's Daring Voyage. And what a loverly little dark ride it was. I've always had a soft spot for the Disney film [for some reason]. 7/10 better than the random knock off at Tivoli World. After giving a little whistle while we worked our way in Fantasy Land, we did the Snow White ride which was nearby. This was another exciting little dark ride which I really enjoyed and definitely had a lot more details and effects than what I had watched on POVs from ages ago and was very enjoyable, 7.5/10. I preffered the Snow White ride to the Pinoccio one, because I think it told the film's story just a little better and showed us more key scenes, eventhough the latter is a little higher on my list of favourite Disney films. In terms of all fantasy land dark ride, I would put Snow White first, with Pinoccio closely following second with Peter Pan third and it's A Small World unsurprisingly being fourth. We will take in a few shots of the Castle [because you can never see too much of the castle], before we check in to somewhere much different. We had problems with our hotel earlier one so were directed to this place which definitely looks a grand giant place. This Place sure looks like it hasn't been worked on for quite a while. It was moments later we were sent to the hotel's library where we waited for our rooms to be ready, just as the television suddenly turned on and told us about a strange incident that took place over 70 years, before we got sent to the service lift where we entered and left the Twilight zone. Twillight Tower of Terror is an absolutely fantastic attraction, highly immersive from beginning to end, starting with the creepy worn hotel foyer with the very much in character bell hoppers, the mysteriously themed library room, the eiry boiler plus the ride itself which is packed with some amazing scenes and effects on top of a drop sequence that upstages even Detonator, the weightless you feel is just amazing. I almost lost my Goofy hat my second go too Definitely the best ride at the resort, best drop tower I've done and my favourite dark ride which shoots straight up to number 1 on my dark ride top 10, where the result of the new credits of high quality dark rides on this trip have placed Hex down to 3rd. 11/10 Now on to an even bigger opinion splitter than Saw The Ride, Animagique. Alex hates this, but Peaj loves this, but what would I reckon to it? The show was alright. It was fun, it was cheesy and featured some good old fashion Disney fun with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and a string of other characters from Disney classics wrapped up in song and dance. It was very interesting how they did all the backdrops and transitions during the show and you can't fault a show that features Mickey in it. 6/10 I would much rather watch this on repeat all day than riding it's a Small World. During our time, we managed to experience Lights Motors Action, which was an absolutely amazing packed action show full of impressive stunts, effects and car chases featuring quite a few Vauxhal Astra cars [Adam's after us]. 7/10 Then It was Cinemagique which was an absolutely magical show, featuring the story of a man who answers his phone during the movie and is then sucked in to a reel of films from the ages including early black and white films, westerns and even Star Wars. There's also a Damsel in distress throughout the action too where both end up together through film. There's even a few touchy moments too including the end of Toy Story 3. 8/10 Next up was Rock N Roller Coaster, a ride which for me was definitely the most coherant to my occupation due to it's theme on being a music studio. Despite it's split opinions on this rides [some love it, others hate it], I really enjoyed this, from the music studio theme to the launch which felt similar to Rita's but far more pleasant. I love the light sequences and inversions on top of the synced audio throughout the ride which feels like a superior and thrilling equivalent to X at Thorpe [where similar statements about both ride's similarities have been made]. This was [and still is] Sam's favourite Disney ride which is no surprise really, however he wasn't too happy to learn that this ride in the future is set to be re themed in to A spider man coaster, when this will happen I don't know but reckon 2018 once the 25 anniversary celebrations start to wear off and focus comes back to improving the park's ride line-up. From a Rock Tour to a Tour Of Rocks, as we went on the Studio Tram Tour ride. It was an ok ride, nothing special really, very mediocre if I'm honest. The canyon effects with the truck was interesting and the London scenes were an ok distraction, but otherwise the ride was mostly forgetable, 3/10. We also did Armageddon later on. The actual main section of the attraction was pretty impressive, where youre very much in the centre of a working film set featuring loads of effects such as things from the side and ceiling moving and falling off plus several moments of fire interactions so close, you almost believe you're going to burn for the slightest of milliseconds. The pre show however ruined this for me as it was so boring and incoherent and one of the few moments in the day I felt underwjelmed. 4/10 [the preshow is that bad]. After this ride we went off to Planet Hollywood as we were all getting really hungry [the tour having not helped] to eat with the stars. Despite containg some pretty decent movie related theming inside, I was a little concerned at how this restaurant would turn out having read some negative reviews on there recently. However luckilly we had a very good meal, the food was much better than expected although in some cases a little smaller than expected, the burger I had there was excellent. The guy serving us was very friendly and a right laugh, asking if all of us were having a lads holiday thing or something and quesitoning why we went Disney, before we explained why, such a fun restaurant. After this, it was time to parade out of the planetarium structure back in to Disneyland Park in time to catch the daily parade [after Peaj did some pintrading]. I didn't take as many pictures as I had originally hoped [probably because I was filming and the weather was pretty miserable at this moment in time].. Absolutely loved the parade, it's a staple activity for any trip to Disney long or short and is such a great sight seeing all the characters from Pinoccio to Frozen and Disney mascots with all the performers looking so happy and enthusiastic [and as one would hope]. I also love the soundtrack too. After this, we paraded back to the Studios and did Crush's Coaster which proved to be the longest wait of the ride at 60 minutes which in the end we just went for [high popularity+ Low Throughput= Forest Fire]. The first queuing section of the ride is a fairly dull cattlepen [least it;s undercover and features the odd bit of theming], but the indoors bit of the queue is much better due to the range of extensive theming and the Seagulls with their famous catchphrase. Whilst Cattlepen's, Low throughputs and long waits don't often indicate great rides, this was actually fantastic. I loved the interactive elements in the ride and spinning of the car on top of the numerous twists and turns throughout the circuit. This is probably my favourite spinning coaster now [topping even fury just], probably helped that Finding Nemo is another film I strongly enjoy. 9/10 [if it weren't for the queue and throughput I might have given it 10]. From one PIxar land to another, we headed to Pixar play land to get a ride on RC Racer. Sam poses with Buzz and Buzz Lightyear, The Rc Racer queue line is very well themed, it's a lot like a giant Scalextric track and builds up the ride quite well. Until you reach the indoor cattlepen, least it's still themed though. Rc Racer was a ride I really enjoyed, I loved the ride when it got to the high points during the ride as it offered a bit of air time each moment it did this, shame it was a bit on the short side, 7/10. We didnt do the parachute drop or slinky dog due to lack of time so moved on to something new. [imghttps://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/11102662_948259215224775_6943918262360886461_n.jpg?oh=7685b2d40106df07c57ba166da4b4a85&oe=55DE2122&__gda__=1440660089_e78f3cdac430b41c58eece2a8f04b6d0[/img] Off to experience the park's latest addition Ratatouille, when approaching the ride you the attraction's own dedicated courtyard which features beautifully themed facade's to the ride and parisian style paving on top of a very picturesque centrepiece fountain. The queueline like most studios rides starts off rather cattle penny but for some reason feels more bearable queuing than most, maybe due to the atmospheric music, posters and bits of theming that are present in the surrounding areas, but then indoors again it becomes much more interesting due to the heavily themed Parisian rooftop style scenery and the interactive Gusteu who comes to life every few minutes in the queue. Ratatouiee for me is a very good dark. Whilst it doesn't quite top Tower & Pirates for me, it is overall a very fun interactive with lots of different features which work to a degree where it makes you feel like you're completely in the action from the kitchen chase to the exploding champagne bottle. 9/10 We entered the shop which like most at Disney is heavily themed plus featuring plenty of merchandise along the way too.It was also here Alex learned his disappointment on how he could've bought his Ratatouille hat for a cheaper price. The Studios Park had now closed for the day and from this moment onwards, I slowly got more of a feeling that the end was nearing, my magical trip to Disney was much nearer to the end. After this we went back to the main park and did another ride on Buzz Lightyear, Sam beat by quite a margin and Peaj dressed as Buzz with the mask and startled quite a few people in the ride's exit. Then we did it's a small world again [the horror] and in the process we had just missed our last chance at getting rides on Casey Jr & The Canal Boats as it was no 8pm. As we planned to leave the park around 9pm [before the crowds rounded up for another viewing of Dreams], we had around just an hour left to experience the magic of Disney and so it was decided we would experience two park staples once more, Pirates & Big Thunder. Pirates was amazing as ever [despite getting the slight stacking thing towards the end again] whilst despite appearing to have capacity problems as just one station was being used, Big Thunder was an excellent end to the trip featuring it's amazing layout in the twilight. Once our ride one Big Thunder was up, so was the Disney magic as it was time to prepare for the long journey back home. After slowly walking through the now lit streets of Main street for the last time this trip, Tom & I shopped around for merchandise in World Of Disney whilst Peaj and the others got food from the earl to eat just before our trip home. The World Of Disney shop is a massive place with loads of merchandise where I spent a good 90 euro or so on things to buy. One thing I have realised since going to Disney is unlike the uk parks, the big gift shops don't sell all the park merchandise so sadly I'll have to get a tower of terror and Rock N roller t-shirt on another visit. And once out of the shop, I said farewells to Sam who left just before us to get a train back to Paris and then reunited with Peaj & co. to eat my last Disney meal, an Earl Of Sandwich which was absolutely delicious and prepped me well for the long journey back. After final loo breaks and filling petrol up at the park's petrol station, we all headed off in the car watching Disneyland Paris slowly vanish and disappear in to the darkness with the smallest of tear in my eyes as the magic was over and we drove back to Calais ready to return to the real world. How Does Disneyland Paris Compare to everything in the UK so far? The park is amazing, it features heavy immersive theming, a great selection of rides, lots of shows and entertainment and decent park hours. Whilst the park has it's fair share of faults, the main park is in the middle of a parkwide refurbishment with scaffolding and closed attractions everywhere and the Studios seems to be an extreme of rides that are excellent such as Tower or poor such as Trams & Armageddon, I hate to admit it but the place wipes the floor with most of the uk offering. The overall magic of disney full of characters, theming and interaction verses the secondary full of rundown, mediocre themed and over kill of cattlepens can't be compared to what's just over the english channel.Then again, Disney has a much bigger budget for about everything, has the privilege of owning much more land and having much less hassling building issues such as landscape and noise pollution due to it's area. The uk themeparks however still win for me in the following categories though: Park Wifi Park Toilets They're easier to get to [mostly] So until my hopeful return here in September, I say Goodbye and head in to the sunlight of the real world once more.

Part 3 is now here for you all to enjoy, where we see the Studios Park for the first time. We managed the ride twice during our trip and thanks yeah, shall be bringing the hat back there when I return next.

Banned for upstaging my Disney trip very soon (Efteling is the joint park I most want to visit (in terms of parks I haven't visited after all)

Have no idea why it has taken 3 months and counting to get their unique flat ride running.

What the park think 2 train OpVampire is- Full Capacity What 2 train op vampire actually is- standard/medium capacity (or full capacity since recently). Pity we'll never see all 3 trains running again

Round 2 Second Part Of the trip is now up featuring more exciting adventures during the visit. I'm pretty sure the word fantastic doesn't appear

Welcome to Part 2 of Disney & The Creek-The Report. Previously we left you with some magical photos of Big Thunder amongst others. What other interesting sights is there to be discovered in what could be the happiest place in Europe? Adventure Isle, home to some great theming More Great Theming Further great theming And most importantly Pirates Of The Caribbean, an amazing ride full of great theming from the moment you enter the queueline. Pirates Of The Caribbean is an absolutely stunning dark ride filled up with top notch theming, animations and a very catchy soundtrack. The ride is much better in person that what the pictures show and none of the POVs of the ride properly justify the greatness of this fantastic ride. 9/10. This ride also features great theming But unfortunately even great theming can't save a rough ride. Indiana Jones is a film series I very much like and the theming for this ride which I think was redone in proper stone last year was absolutely fantastic.Unfortunately the ride experience does not live up to any of this as the ride is rough,painful and quite uncomftable, especially as you rise up from a drop and the ride slows down slamming you in to the restraint. Whilst some could argue the roughness fits in to the theme, for me it just detracts from the ride experience. 6/10 give this ride lap bars and it might actually be very good as it makes even Colossus look smooth. Behold more great theming, unfortunately we can't access this due to green construction fences This meant we couldn't see the Aladdin walk through :[ Ka & Zazu, these are nice additions and great theming to the area And then there is Fantasy Land, an area full of magic, charm and great theming And there's this ride, what a small world we live in? With hapyy great theming It's A Small World is a Disneyland park staple ride famous for it's appearance at the 1964 world's fair which Walt showcased. With it's catchy happy soundtrack [composed by the wonderful Sherman brothers] this surely has the potential to be a ride I quite like. The answer to this unfortunately is NO! I wasn't a massive fan of It's A Small World [or at least the Paris version] as I didn't feel as immersed compared to other rides like Pirates or Big Thunder. It wasn't the repetitive soundtrack or perhaps creepy dolls that made me not favour this ride, but the ceiling. The ceiling is awful, it sticks out a lot more than it should and detracts the ride experience. I found myself looking up far too much during the ride as it sticks out like a sore thumb [like one of those styles from a 80's or 90's office block]. The ride very much just felt like travelling around a giant warehouse or office block that was converted in to a giant boat ride at some point. 3.5/10 I know this sounds harsh to pan a Disney staple classic, but the roofing style was that bad and really did downscale the experience. Why couldn't it have the same style interior to dark rides like Pirates & Phantom as the roof design on these rides are far more effective and do not detract the experience. Even the other Small Worlds like the ones in Orlando & California where even judging from POVs their interior design is significantly better and makes the ride feel more like a voyage instead of the 'travelling with a warehouse of different dolls' effect which it feels much more like in the paris one. The ride here is set for a big refurbishment some point in July after Space Mountain opens up, which might be closed until Christmas, so hopefully maybe they will improve the ride's major faults [mentioned above] and make it feel more like the pleasant [but maybe repetitive] voyage around the world it should be. Even more park upkeep work taking place here, but the end result will hopefully be great theming. Tea Cups with great theming. Unfortunately we didn't get chance to experience these And here's some great theming. Also, the castle's there too. I bought myself a goofy hat during the trip [as someone suggested it], don't worry I didn't follow everyones suggestions during the trip as otherwise I might have returned dressed as Anna from Frozen for all I know Those of you visiting/returning september will get to see me wearing my [perhaps iconic] Goofy Hat. After this we left the main Disney Park to eat our lunch at somewhere we reserved earlier that day, full of excitement and great theming. This Place was Cafe Mickey. And like what DLP was to me, Peaj had been waiting to go here since forever. Hang on a moment, we're at Disneyland not Legoland [don't spoil things Merlin]. Actually this is the Lego Store in the Disney Village which opened last year. Cafe [Mickey was great, because I got to meet Goofy, my distant cousin whilst at Disney Alex meanwhile met Pluto who was behaving rather naughtily that day as he stole his hat just after this picture was taken. Moments later we say hi to Mickey, who welcomes us to his restaurant And just after we take our orders Chip from Chip N Dale arrives for a photo with Alex. He also steals his hat afterwards. Mickey suggests what food Alex should have for main Before sorcerer meets sorcerer Then eventually our food arrives. I went for the chicken salad to start which was quite nice and started the meal off rather nicely. I had a Burger for mains which was ok, but nothing much to write about really. The food at cafe overall okay which I would give a 6.5/10, but I found the choice of food a bit limited and most of the things on the mains were bit strange and not my thing so the burger was the only feesable choice on there really. Maybe I'm just fussy. Peaj feels rather full after his meal at Cafe Mickey, but a little dissapointed he didn't get to meet his favourite of the bunch, Donald Duck. After our generally good lunch, it was off to see what the second park at Disneyland Paris had to offer, Walt Disney Studios. Full of some of the best and worst rides in the resort, we will come back to here on another trip report because I can focus more and because I want to keep you in suspense . It was here Alex disappointingly found he could've bought his Ratatouille hat for a much cheaper price in the ride's shop [dear oh dear]. Where we went aboard Autopia. Shout out to Mark9's favourite ride Such an empty queue. The ride closed at 8pm that day due to reasons I'm not too sure. Glad I didn't queue up in all of this. It's clearly not the best, nor the worst but it was very fun. It's very much like having you;re own Go Kart that you can speed around the track. it's perhaps a little out of place compared to other rides, but it's just one of those fun rides at Disney you need to do at least once and it's better than Paris's Small World to say that. 6/10 We also get some interesting views of the currently sadly closed Space Mountain. [The sun starts to set in this magical place, but there's still more time to spend in the park/ Fantasy Land is so pretty at night Now to do Peter Pan's flight, the first of the three Fantasy Land classic dark rides to try. Whilst this is perhaps the weaker of the three classics due to it's slightly jarring scene changes within the ride, it's a charming little ride and the gimmick that makes up for this is the cars suspended beneath the track and makes it feel like you're flying through Neverland. The flying scenes through London is definitely the best part of the ride for me. 6.5/10 After returning from Neverland, but still having time before the magical dreams, there was only thing we could possibly do. Ride Big Thunder Mountain At Night [along with another ride on Pirates earlier on]. Whilst Thunder Mountain is good enough during the day, it becomes even more impressive and amazing in the dark, the impressive twists and turns in the dark in addition to the beutiful light clarity nearby teamed up by sitting towards the back made for some absolutely amazing rides in the dark. Soon it reached 10pm when all the rides came to a stop. But no, it still wasn't the end as we headed to the centre of the park to watch the closing show Disney Dreams. The Castle looks so pretty at night Disney dreams was absolutely amazing. I won't spoil it too much for anyone who hasn't seen it, but very much it features segments of selected films all projected on to the castle along with lots of effects. It's very much like a disney fireworks show but much much better. Once the show finished, we slowly left the park in the giant beeline of crowds [although stopping at one of the shops along the way]. But even at 10:45pm, the magic of day one still hasn't run out. As we headed off to see the nightlife in the Disney Village By drinking at Billy Bobs whilst watching some country bands perform. The music was actually very good and I enjoyed it so much. I never thought I'd experience Disney and a night life in the same day, it was just fantastic. A couple of hours and some more drinks later and we went off for a late night [Professor Drunk] Mcdonalds and had the usual Mcnuggets, chips and drink which tasted exacly the same as it does in the Uk. Even if I was sober I wouldn't have recognised the difference [Fuzzy Duck]. Once finished, a slow walk [as the trains stopped running and we could not find any taxis] through the Disney back to our hotel took place before we made it back to our Apart hotel around 2 in the morning ready to get a few hours sleep for the next day. But what terrors and rock N roll's would we experience during our second day and would Animagique be tram tour of disaster? Watch this space for part 3 where the six of us [you heard that correctly] will see the wonders of the second day at Disney.

Disney Videos Now On The Way!!!!!! Here's Part 1 of what will probably be many instalments of videos from my first ever trip to Disney.

Unfortunately Florida won't be happening to me for at least another two years unless I win the lottery, become rich or someone invites me along a visit and pays for my flights & hotel

It was a week ago today that saw a giant milestone reached with my first Disney park & park outside the UK and it was absolutely amazing!!! Where I go from here this year I'm not sure. Drayton doesn't look like it's happening now although hopefully I'll be back at Disney September. There's several other major parks I really want to get to but these no doubt won't be happening either.(the matt creek loophole) And with Disney off the list of parks I need to do, here is the next park/s you may see me frantically going on about not going to [but wanting to visit]

One year later: Tower Of Terror ( Paris version) is now officially my favourite dark ride. It is absolute perfection from the creepy eiry lift workers, dusted foyer (which is executed with great level) and the amazing Pre show and ride itself. I won't spoil too much but would suggest too any who hasn't ridden it yet, get down to DLP and get on Tower Of Terror.