Parks of Paris

[pluk]

The last attraction at Studios is of course.....



one of the best rides in the world. The Paris incarnation in this instance living right up to our memories of its American sisters. People don't need telling of what a detailed work of perfection The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is, I can not throw a single criticism at it. In Paris it really stands out as being in every way complete, whether that is because of what is around it not being quite as spectacular as elsewhere or if it really is that good I'm not sure.

After the time that has passed it is hard for me to make a direct comparison with the others, but in my hazy memory this is the best actual ride sequence. It is the same every time but it doesn't need to vary when it is so good. The second rise and fall in particular is so well timed it manages to give something like 5 seconds of weightlessness. Every time the ride came to an end the lift filled with clapping, whoops, cheers and chatter, not many manage that. 10/10

Other than that we didn't go in Playhouse or Stitch Live, not for us. Studios, done.

[Mark9]

One day another ride like Tower of Terror will appear. For now though, Tower of Terror is that perfect ride.

[pluk]

Are people really still reading this? We're near the end now, lets plough on through.

On to the main event, Disneyland Park. Yay!



This park starts off much better than Studios, with a real Disney feeling walking down Main Street to Sleeping Beauty's Castle with wonderful Disney scores playing. It hits you, you're in Disney and the outside world doesn't matter any more. A total detachment from reality and into the world of fantasy, that is the feeling Disney is all about.

ERT is a solid two hours long with a good line up, including Dumbo,



which is Dumbo. 7/10

The Carousel,



which is a carousel, with too few adult horses, 7/10

Peter Pans Flight, which felt smaller and less impressive than the original but still cute and a solid 8/10.

Buzz Lightyear



Oooh look, '5 minute' (read zero) queue. I love a good shooter, especially when the ride is designed for it and not causing the desecration of something superior. The only problem here is the near constant stopping and starting of the ride, presumably for the hard of understanding to board before the floor disappears, breaking any flow it might have, each and every time with an infuriating message warning you the ride is about to restart. Just restart the damn thing already. Aside from that though it is a whole lot of fun. 8/10.

Space Mountain



Oooh look, another '5 minute' queue. This was one I had been really looking forward to, but was for the most part left disappointed. The exposed launch is daft and shows just how stupidly slowly the train creeps into the building, all effect of speed is lost. The ride, especially near the back, is downright painful through the third inversion and horribly rough (mainly restraint based pain) throughout. The effects are bland compared to what Disney usually do and what I was expecting. I was expecting something that looked like this

Basically a modern take on the feel of Lumiere, I don't really know why I expected that, probably from the look of the building and something I read somewhere once, but obviously as reality turns out to be some plastic planets and a projector I was fairly comprehensively let down. That's not to say we didn't actually enjoy the ride which, with a ride count of well over 20, can't be that bad! Just not what it could be. It is also improved no end by sitting at or very near the front, which if you ask for you get nearly every time. 8/10

Also open early were the Orbatron, which looses marks for not being a cute elephant 6/10,



and It's a Small World which for my money is the most insulting, patronising hateful piece of junk ever forced upon the world. The small amount of enjoyment which can be found on the original is nowhere to be seen here as 80% of the lighting doesn't work, 90% of it is static, and 100% of it is covered in dust, grime and cobwebs. 1/10 as I'm feeling generous.

[pluk]

On park opening the rest of Fantasyland opens with a couple of my favourites, Snow White and Pinocchio both looking clean fresh and bright and for me are like the distilled essence of Disney even if they are relatively simple and short, both 8.5/10. Storybook Boat with a stupidly long name is a cute little thing, nice and secluded and relaxing with some quite beautiful miniatures from fairytales. 7/10.

I've never come across anything like Alice's Curious Labyrinth in a Disney park before, and thought it was fantastic.



It takes a good while to get out again and is full of scenes and themed sections from Alice, getting curiouser and curiouser. Even on a quiet day it got a bit congested but we had great fun finding our way through. 7/10

Further round the park, through some really odd dead ground beyond Small World which looks like space for future development, into Discoveryland. Star Tours feels pretty tiered really. It's not something I'm much of a fan of in the first place but in French it's annoying and the simulators are creaky, jerky and a bit out of sync. 6/10. Autopia is utter chaos, the cars seem laughably unreliable causing stressed French men with petrol cans running all over the place to try and keep it moving. The cars have no anti roll back and the course is very hilly, the car in front of us slammed into us backwards at quite a speed when it stalled. We found all this hilarious, I know it is for kids but I could have hours of fun driving those little cars around. 8/10



Little Wall-E statue outside Star Tours, I wish it was Wall-E themed instead. That is Disney, however much they pay for LucasFilm.

[pluk]

On to t'other side of the park...

starting at the back with Pirates of the Caribbean, I was underwhelmed. I'd heard good things about the Paris incarnation, and the queue line walk through is really nicely done being dark and atmospheric, but the ride itself felt static and shrunken compared to the others. Especially the battle scene. Still a bloody amazing dark ride by other standards, but against Disneys own, not good enough. 7.5/10. Around this area is Adventure Isle, a small collection of pathways, caves and bridges. It is like Alice's Labyrinth without stuff to see and do on the way round, I like the idea of this sort of thing but it has to have a point. 4/10

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril is just about the least Disney ride I have ever found at a Disney park. It put me in a bad mood before we even started by opening at 11.00 with no one bothering to put any signs up explaining this leading to a largish group of people standing at a rope with no one coming out to tell us anything for about 15 minutes. It is just basics and not good enough to allow things like this to happen. After an OK themed collection of cattlepens on to the ride itself, it really is average at best. Small, too open, uninteresting layout with rotting looking theming. It is not on a Disney scale and with the Temple of the Forbiden Eye showing what can be done with the franchise this can't help but feel like a wasted opportunity. Still, as it was walk on we rode it loads and enjoyed it for what it was, 6.5/10

For no apparent reason I took no photos of this side of the park, so here is a picture of a castle.



Phantom Manor is another example struggling against its direct comparisons. All in English, which is nice, but the whole way through I was distracted by the ceiling being too well lit and unthemed to the room. Sounds like a silly little thing but really detracts from the ride. Still clever and amazing in a lot of ways 7/10. Riverboat Landing is the traditional boat ride, nice and gentle but floats by an eyesore of a mess towards the end. I can't think of anything it may once have been but now lloks like an ugly pile of white concrete. Odd. 7/10

Still no photos, lets go back to Asterix to see what Zeus did to my face...



...still smiling about that ride now. Anyway,

Big Thunder Mountain is the highlight of the park. Immaculately themed from start to finish (none of this theming fell in our faces, which was a bonus) fast, long interestingly unsmooth without ever nudging uncomfortable, interesting lift hill, interaction with scenes as you move through, the novelty and speed of the underground section. It can't be faulted really, so we rode it over and over and over. The highlight being the one ride we managed to get in the dark before the show 9.5/10

[pluk]

Should really consider wrapping this thing up!

So that is pretty much everything ride wise, then there are the parades.

The 20th Anniversary Train is just that, a single train along the parade route to a great catchy song. Doesn't really draw the crowds so it's easy to get up close and is a fun little diversion. 7/10

Disney Magic On Parade is the main procession, and even on a quiet day pulls in such huge crowds you'd need to be in place early to get anywhere near the front. It is quite long and pretty spectacular with some really beautiful floats.



Not too sure what paedo bear is doing up there though? 8/10



As night time falls the park becomes beautifully lit and even more magical than during the day, just a shame that the 21.00 ride close time only allowed for about 45 minutes of dusky dark ride opportunity, which is pretty much all best spent on Thunder Mountain. Most people stop riding at about 20.00 to get in place for the nigh time show but that really isn't necessary when the park is not too busy.




And then Disney Dreams happens. We loved it, so warmingly traditional Disney but done with such technologically clever and effective laser mapping on the castle. Here the characters projected on to water fountains have conversations with one in French and the other in English so everyone can follow what is going on and the language barrier suddenly becomes charming rather than a burden. The castle looks indescribably stunning, I have no idea how they do it as it changes colour and shape before your eyes, and they even fairly successfully manage to make it look like it disappears, but the technology doesn't get in the way of a good bit of story telling.



Pro tip - for the best show it doesn't really matter how close you are, but being central is key to getting the most from the effects. We did it from a few positions and the best we found was directly behind the disabled area which although quite far back is bang in the middle.

It is hard to fault. I wasn't expecting it to be so good, I'm much more of a fan of the displays over water usually where there is more scope for a bit of spectacle but this showed what can be done with limited space. The only thing it lacked was a real explosive finale, but I understand the locals were moaning about the bangers they were setting off at the end so they've toned it down. Shame that, as it is otherwise pretty flawless. 9.5/10

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So what do I think of the park over all? There is no doubting it is quite odd. Looking back at that report there are a couple of real glaring omission to the line up; how a park of that size can have no water ride is beyond me, and looking at the Disneyland park alone there are no shows. A Disney park without any shows, be it live action or 3/4D is a very odd thing. My park map shows a theatre somewhere near Thunder Mountain and one in Fantasyland but they were not in use, and at the exit of Space Mountain is a huge theatre still with the captain EO signage up but showing nothing.

As well as this there were a HUGE amount of areas boarded off with ugly fencing. From the top of my head - about a third of the entrance plaza, a huge lump of adventureland which I now know was hiding a closed Aladdin walkthrough, another area near the entrance of adventureland which as far as I can tell houses nothing, part of the castle housing 'Dragon' and Casey Jr Train along with the advertised to be closed but not boarded off teacups. It is not that things were closed so much as the ugly fencing. Also there are information boards around the park with queue times etc displaying wait times for rides which don't exist, I can only presume they are ex attractions (I've just looked up 'Honey I Shrunk the Audience' it closed 2 and a half years ago, yet is still displayed!), this sort of thing really makes the place feel unloved and run down. I could not make up my mind whether all these closed areas were a sign of improvements, that they were working to make it better, or if instead it is things they can't be bothered to fix properly so they board it up ad pretend it's not there. Surely they can't be actively working on all these areas at once?

As a first time visitor here, and having done all the American Disney parks, there is really no comparison. Paris does not come close to offering the escapism and perfect fantasy off the originals, but as a stop gap, a way to satisfy some Disney craving without having to get across the Atlantic, it is still very much worth a visit. Not as a replacement though, for those who have the choice it is more than worth it to save, fly to America, and do it properly.

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And so ends Disney and our trip. Time for a sad face as we leave the room for the last time.




We were planning a few nights camping in the outskirts of Paris but the weather took a turn and trying to fry your sausage in the rain is no ones idea of fun, so we drove back to Calais and hopped on the next boat outta there, tired but happy and with some great memories.

I think that's more than enough of that. Paris - done.

[Deleted Users]

Thanks for making this report Pluk! I have very fond memories of Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain (best mine train ever?) and Magic Kingdom. Judging rides and landscaping alone, I prefer it to the Florida version but over the recent years it's started to look messy and reports on staff have been mixed.

You said you were disappointed by Space Mountain's theme which prompted me to hunt out the old De la Terre à la Lune version concept and poster artwork for you. I actually fond a pretty detailed blog describing the old experience as well which sadly if it was looked after may have been better than its current state. For example, where the explosion takes place on the lift hill, there used to be the smiling moon.

http://ultimateorlan...arks-facts.html (pictures at the bottom).

Blue Moon Mining Company taken from Verne books I believe.

This is what the original area was supposed to be before budget cuts. It was called Discovery Mountain and would have housed Space Mountain, an underwater restaurant, the Nautilus (now outside) and a drop ride similar in style to Tower of Terror and themed to Journey to the Centre of the Earth. It would have been pretty spectacular

[pluk]

Thanks for that, I've never seen all that info before. Looks to me a great shame they made those 'improvements' to the ride, hate it when money is spent making things worse when there are so many things it could be spent on instead. The original style is beautiful and pretty much what I had in mind before going. Also unfortunate the original plans couldn't be afforded but they do look ridiculously ambitious so it is understandable.

I'd forgotten all about Nautilus until I saw it in that picture, which is probably for the best. I didn't really get the point of it.

[Benin]

The original Drop Tower concept was more of the 1st generation Intamin drop towers, rather than a true Tower of Terror... However, that concept was important in leading up to it...

The Nautilus is actually a walkthrough (ish) attraction, hidden... It's quite cool, not amazing, but worth a look around if it's raining...

[Deleted Users]

To be fair, the Mission 2 effects at least in its opening year were really good. I don't know if they have gone way of the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster effects though.

[Fred]

The best memories of Space Mountain in Paris was the queueline - I was incredibly pissed off when I saw that white walls had replaced the cool windows.

[Spider]

Loved the trip report, Pluk.

Having just been to DLRP for the first time in probably 15 years I thought I would add a few thoughts here (the main DLRP thread seems a bit dead!).

Starting with the Studios - this is one of the most ridiculous parks I've been in. It's not bad, by any means, it looks lovely and has one amazing ride and several good ones, but it is just so small! I don't mind underdeveloped theme parks, but when it's a Disney park it seems pretty unforgivable that after over 10 years of operation it is still in this half-baked state.

The main problem, to me, seems to be the baffling decision to go down the 'Studios' route. I'm not clear on timings, but by the time this park was being built it must have been clear from elsewhere (Disney Hollywood Studios, Universal Studios Orlando) that the romantic idea of a theme park attached to a working studios was outmoded - both in terms of failures to actually keep the studios working and in terms of attractions people want to ride. Presumably it was chosen as it is a good excuse to go cheap - there's a justification for theming to look 'fake' as its all part of a 'set'. Even so, it now looks very silly that DLRP went down this route, and with new attractions (and the closure of the Backlot tour) it's clearly an idea that is already dead in the water, leaving a park with a massive identity crisis and its main raison d'etre (not pretentious, we're in France!) gone. I read an interesting article somewhere about the park - and the best thing in it was comparing the Flying Carpets of Agrabah in Paris to the equivalent attraction in Tokyo DisneySea (google it), the difference really shows how Paris was shafted with this park.

Anyway, if we accept that this is really a park themed around movies, not the process of moviemaking, it's next problem, and here's the really criminal one, is the low capacity rides. I would love to have gone on Crush's Coaster, but by the time the ride had OPENED for the day the queue was an hour, and when we left Studios (after doing TWO rides) it was at 90 minutes - this on a day when over at Disneyland Park, the coasters were between walk on and 20 minutes. It's just crazy that they would have put in a Maurer Sohne like this. Similar story in Toy Story Playland - RC Racer had a 50 minute queue. This coaster can't have been expensive for Disney, and it has a tiny footprint - why aren't there two of them next to each other? it's think kind of crap that stops Paris being as good as WDW.

As for Disneyland park - it's really really nice. Indiana Jones and Space Mountain get a really bad rap for being rough. The American Disney fans (who don't seem to go to any other kind of parks) act as if going on them is a genuinely risky decision, to me they just seemed standard old Vekomas - rattly but not ridiculously so. The Temple of Peril is a pretty bad coaster - but it's nicely themed and has a great fast small loop, I like the short mine cart style trains as well. Space Mountain is a great ride - I'm sure it would be stunningly average if it wasn't dark, but the launch is great and it's a fun ride. BTM is, obviously, amazing. Being on its own island adds something over the American versions, and these are great mine trains - the only thing it lacks is a bit more airtime, but either way it's an amazingly themed family coaster.

As for the rest of the park - there's not actually a massive amount to do. Pirates and Snow White were both closed. The Fantasyland dark rides are a joke - dated and short - these should be about 10 minute queues but because there's been no upgrade Peter Pan was 80 minues and Pinocchio was 30. We really enjoyed Phantom Manor - but why oh why is there that awful lift first - it's an invitation for French rudeness to come to the fore, and very claustrophobic.

Riding Star Tours was ridiculously nostalgic - I used to think this was the best ride I'd ever been on - it's really really naff now! With the rumours around that DLRP will be the first Disney park to benefit from Disney's Star Wars acquisiton, it seems that this will become Star Tours 2;0, along with a shop and a Cantina! Frankly, I'm not fussed about simulators anymore, and this sounds like a very underwhelming development. It was funny seeing Star Tours now though, really quiet and tucked away at the back of Discoveryland, almost forgotten - last time I came it was the main draw and Michael Jackson was all over it!

Anyway, tl:dr, I understand! I really enjoyed my visit. I was very sceptical of going - but it's better than I thought it would be, it definetely has that Disney magic which I didn't think it would now that I can compare if to the Florida parks. It's nice to know that I can have a good Disney experiece on my doorstep (relatively), and I will be visiting again when Ratatouille opens.

(Oh and finally, on Ratatouille, whilst it looks amazing and all - what Studios needs is rides, rides, rides. Sounds like they will blow most of their upgrade budget on this and no matter how good it is, one ride is not enough)

[Alpha.Jacob]

Sailing adventure

You got the best way to escape from road journey and to get a new kinda travelling adventure.

Lets have a talk about Disney Paris, as we all know that Paris is the land of fashion,glam and entertainment. Choclate to any brand can be declared leading and impressive which make the persons spell bind. I saw your all the pics and can imagine that how superb jouney you have enjoyed there in Paris with the unforgetable amenity and fun in Disney as well.

If you can share few instructions and suggetions with those who want to go on this journey too then please let us all know..

Any how your journey was impressive.