Note: This whole post will be about Disney Paris and Disney Orlando. If Disney parks bore you, feel free to skip this post. I mostly compare and contrast the parks and give our experiences in the Paris parks.
The next day, Jeremy flew out early. I decided to bring my backup camera, since I knew that I was going to be banged around on rides, and didn't want to risk my new camera. My backup is not as good in darkness.
Miles and I also woke up early, and walked ten minutes to Chatelet - Les Halles station, the central train hub in Paris. We took the RER A line, with the last stop as Disney. It took about forty minutes. I had planned to get us there at least thirty minutes before the park opening, which was scheduled for 10:00. I read online that you should rush to Crush's Rollercoaster in the smaller of the two Disney Paris parks, Disney Studios. It does not have a fast pass, and it is new, so it was the one to go to. We arrived in line just before 9:30.
I walked up to the attendant and asked where the bathrooms were when we got in, and he misunderstood my question and answered, "two minutes." I asked the question again and he understood me that time. Sure enough, two minutes later, they started allowing people into the park. I was glad that I got us there early!
We went straight for Crush's coaster. It still took fifteen to twenty minutes on the line. I wanted to try to wear my glasses on the ride, since it was my first time on it, and I wanted to be able to see things clearly and I knew the ride was indoors. This was a mistake. The ride is a mild rollercoaster that spins the small car around. I spent the whole time holding onto my glasses and being spun so much that everything was blurry. I ended up a little dizzy. Ignoring this stupidity of mine, the ride was cute and fun. The first drop was the best and I had wished that there were more like it.
Next, we stopped nearby to pick up fastpasses for Ratatouille, another new ride. The line said 30 minutes. This would end up being a mistake. We walked by the kiddie section, which is themed after Toy Story. There was a ride Miles and I had interest in, but it only had one car and a long line. It would have taken forever. It was a U shaped track with a car that went up one side and then in reverse back down and up the other side and then back again a few times.
We went to the other side of the small park to try their Rock and Roll rollercoaster. I had read that this was not nearly as good as Orlando's version. They were right. Even the new crappy Aerosmith video introduction is unceremoniously cut short with the door opening almost immediately.
The countdown in Florida, for the ride to begin, starts at 5. The countdown here started at 3. Maybe they just figured it wasn't worth the suspense of two more numbers. The launch is just as good as the one in Orlando, but the straight starting track felt like it lasted longer after hitting maximum speed. You start off with a similar loop, but it is all down hill from there. Perhaps Steve Tyler was hinting to the audience at how crappy this version was when he talked about "going down..." It had one weak flip, but the rest of the ride was just nothing and over. It felt substantially shorter than Orlando's version. The space to make the ride seemed much smaller, and not as well decorated. They shouldn't have bothered if they didn't have the space.
I then made the mistake of going to Armageddon, a special effects show. I thought Miles might like it. It took forever to start and was embarrassingly short and just plain bad. Next, we went to the Tower of Terror. Miles went by himself and said that he enjoyed it and that the part before the drops was slightly different. He said that you don't move through clocks like in the Orlando Tower. We ate a ridiculously expensive lunch, that put Orlando's exorbitant prices to shame, and went back to Ratatouille, which would be our last ride of the park. Unfortunately, we arrived to find that they had shut down the ride due to the typical Disney "technical difficulties." Who knows what that means. They told us that the fastpasses would be good until the end of the day.
It was now time to head to the main park, Disneyland Paris. Before leaving Studios, I stopped to take a picture with Miles in front of a pretty cool statue. This was a recurring theme with the Paris parks. They have much better art setups around their parks. It seems to be more than just rides here.
When entering Disneyland, we were reminded that the park was celebrating its 25 year anniversary.
Their castle, as google informed me, is Belle's castle, as opposed to Cinderella's in Orlando. I preferred this one's look, even though it was smaller.
We went straight for Space Mountain, intending just to pick up a fastpass and move on, but the line claimed to be only ten minutes long, so we went for it, even after picking up our fastpasses. I forgot to mention earlier, but the fastpass system in Disney Paris is the old fastpass system, from before magic bands became the norm in Orlando. You scan your ticket, a fastpass prints out, and you come back at the time indicated. Then, you can pick up another. If you are at the parks all day, you can get many more fastpasses than with the magicband system. Unfortunately, very few rides actually use it. 6 in the main park and 4 in the other, I believe.
This was reported to be a souped up Space Mountain, and rethemed for Star Wars. It was more than just rethemed and souped up. It is a completely different beast, in almost every way. The only thing in common with Orlando's Space Mountain is the shape of the outer building. Instead of the 3 singular cars attached, followed by another three, this is a full style rollercoaster, with over the head restraints. It also had a semi movable rubber that goes over your chest, that allows it to mold to your body.
The Star Wars theme just didn't work for me here. It felt tacked on. When you start the ride, the music starts blaring and it just doesn't feel integrated. There are big screens occasionally throughout the ride and you hear some shooting effects from the movies. As for the ride itself, the best part is the beginning. You load into the tube going up the side of Space Mountain. You pause for a few moments, and then they launch you up the tube a la The Hulk in Universal Islands of Adventure. Unfortunately, they slow you down to almost a complete stop at the top, as they ease you into the ride.
The ride had two loops and has you riding on the side of a track twice. It is almost completely dark inside, and surprisingly, this works against it. Unlike the original, this one is so fast, and it is so dark, that you don't really know what is happening half the time. You are moving fast, but there is a disconnect from what is happening because you have no reference points. When you are flipped, it is fun and you know what is happening, but then you go back to moving fast and not really feeling much. By the end of the day, we had gone on the ride three times, and each time I was hoping that maybe I'd finally get it by the end. My opinion remained the same. Don't get me wrong. The initial acceleration alone made it better than the original dinky carnival ride in the dark, but it could have been so much more.
Near Space Mountain is an underground submarine that you explore. This is one of four such activities in the park and we liked it a lot. It adds a little exploration to the experience of just rides.
There was a neat Wall-E statue that we took the opportunity to take a picture with.
Then, we went to the other side of the park and stood in line at Thunder Mountain. This Thunder Mountain takes place on an island, and so you start the ride by going into a dark tunnel that leads you to the island. The ride itself felt slower and more constrained, maybe by the size of the island. One improvement, however, was that in one of the slow ascents, there is a special effect of sparks going up the side of the wall and into dynamite, that is supposed to be blowing up the top of the tunnel, to collapse on you. The end has you rushing down deep into a tunnel, and felt like a satisfying end to the ride. We rode on this one more time by day's end.
Something that struck me about the area in Thunder Mountain, was that it is based on the American frontier. I wondered if that really worked well for a European audience.
Next, we went to the corner of the park to try the Indiana Jones themed ride. I had heard mixed things about this ahead of time. It is a small outdoor coaster with a temple theme. It said that there was a five minute wait. After waiting ten, they announced that all outdoor rides in the park were being shut down due to thunderstorms in the area. We got a fastpass for the ride for later as compensation.
Since outdoor rides were out of the question, the Haunted Mansion was next. The line area was much better themed and much more orderly than the Orlando one. Inside, the ride was nice. Some of the same elements, but with more of an emphasis on a dead bride and a finishing area taking place in the wild west, which was different and well done.
Pirates was shut down for renovations. We went to the second of the exploration areas, which was a telling of the Aladdin movie via small windows with figures along a passageway. It was very cute and we both enjoyed it. We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and it seemed a bit more varied than Orlando, but maybe that was just the newness speaking. It was still fundamentally the same ride.
We asked someone at the park to called the Studios park to inquire about Ratatouille, and were told that it was open. We walked back to the ride in the other park.
This was a 3d ride modeled after the likes of Spiderman and the Transformers, at Universal. I generally dislike this kind of ride as they are a bit nauseating and are uninteresting after being on the ride once. This was no different.
After walking back to the main Disneyland park, I had to take a break. My legs were killing me. We found a place to sit down and eat, and we didn't leave for over an hour. During that time, it rained, was sunny, rained again, and then stopped. The outdoor rides were still closed. We headed towards fantasyland.
On our way, we went under the castle to see the dragon. At times, it slept. Other times, it moved its head around, with dragonlike breathing and grumbling. Miles was enamored with it.
Then, Miles tried halfheartedly to pull out the sword in the stone.
We stood in line for Pinocchio. This was a typical fantasyland ride like Snow White, Toad's Wild Ride, etc. It was something I hadn't seen before, but reminded me of just how much I disliked the darkness and story of Pinocchio. It was also super short. One neat part, however, was that there was a Mona Lisa with a mustache drawn on it, in the trash in one of the rooms.
We went to the last walkthrough area, which was Alice in Wonderland's maze, but it had apparently closed earlier in the day. How lame is that!?
We walked past It's a Small World, and the top of the building, with a clock on it, opened up and toy people walked out, like a cuckoo clock. Then, the theme song started to play. I thought that this was a nice touch.
We were exhausted and contemplated leaving, since the park attendants had no clue as to whether they would be reopening the outdoor rides. We decided to return to the Haunted Mansion, where we could see Thunder Mountain from, which would indicate whether they reopened the ride. By this time, it seems like many people had left due to the rains. We walked right onto the ride twice. We had the place almost to ourselves. We were just about to give up when we saw Thunder Mountain start running. After a quick Thunder Mountain, we headed back to Indiana Jones.
Indiana Jones was a disappointment, even with low expectations. It was barely a ride, though it did have a small loop to it. Miles was upset because his head bounced around between the overhead pull down bars.
I had wanted to go on two kiddie rides that were completely new, but they close early normally. With the rain, they never reopened them.
We were able to get onto Peter Pan fairly quickly. It was slightly different than in Orlando, with a bit more color. I offered to go on It's a Small World if the line was short, as our last ride of the night. Miles begrudgingly said sure. We walked right onto the ride. The song was sung in both French and English. The song is just background noise and not nearly as annoying when it is sung in another language. It was much better than the Orlando version, with areas dedicated to pretty much every major area, from Russia, to India, to the Mayans and Native Americans, and even a section for animals. The end of the ride had farewell/goodbye written in many different languages, including Japanese. I can now recognize and read their words, so this was kind of cool for me.
The bathrooms in the park were decent, but almost always sized too small. One cool thing about them, however, is that they have buttons on the wall to give them feedback on cleanliness satisfaction. A smiley face, a sad face, and one in between. I even caught a similar panel when getting off of Space Mountain, asking if you were properly greeted by the ride operators(I think I am remembering the question correctly).
It was a very enjoyable experience seeing the new rides and the variations on the old ones. My legs are still aching from all of the walking.
The next day, Jeremy flew out early. I decided to bring my backup camera, since I knew that I was going to be banged around on rides, and didn't want to risk my new camera. My backup is not as good in darkness.
Miles and I also woke up early, and walked ten minutes to Chatelet - Les Halles station, the central train hub in Paris. We took the RER A line, with the last stop as Disney. It took about forty minutes. I had planned to get us there at least thirty minutes before the park opening, which was scheduled for 10:00. I read online that you should rush to Crush's Rollercoaster in the smaller of the two Disney Paris parks, Disney Studios. It does not have a fast pass, and it is new, so it was the one to go to. We arrived in line just before 9:30.
I walked up to the attendant and asked where the bathrooms were when we got in, and he misunderstood my question and answered, "two minutes." I asked the question again and he understood me that time. Sure enough, two minutes later, they started allowing people into the park. I was glad that I got us there early!
We went straight for Crush's coaster. It still took fifteen to twenty minutes on the line. I wanted to try to wear my glasses on the ride, since it was my first time on it, and I wanted to be able to see things clearly and I knew the ride was indoors. This was a mistake. The ride is a mild rollercoaster that spins the small car around. I spent the whole time holding onto my glasses and being spun so much that everything was blurry. I ended up a little dizzy. Ignoring this stupidity of mine, the ride was cute and fun. The first drop was the best and I had wished that there were more like it.
Next, we stopped nearby to pick up fastpasses for Ratatouille, another new ride. The line said 30 minutes. This would end up being a mistake. We walked by the kiddie section, which is themed after Toy Story. There was a ride Miles and I had interest in, but it only had one car and a long line. It would have taken forever. It was a U shaped track with a car that went up one side and then in reverse back down and up the other side and then back again a few times.
We went to the other side of the small park to try their Rock and Roll rollercoaster. I had read that this was not nearly as good as Orlando's version. They were right. Even the new crappy Aerosmith video introduction is unceremoniously cut short with the door opening almost immediately.
The countdown in Florida, for the ride to begin, starts at 5. The countdown here started at 3. Maybe they just figured it wasn't worth the suspense of two more numbers. The launch is just as good as the one in Orlando, but the straight starting track felt like it lasted longer after hitting maximum speed. You start off with a similar loop, but it is all down hill from there. Perhaps Steve Tyler was hinting to the audience at how crappy this version was when he talked about "going down..." It had one weak flip, but the rest of the ride was just nothing and over. It felt substantially shorter than Orlando's version. The space to make the ride seemed much smaller, and not as well decorated. They shouldn't have bothered if they didn't have the space.
I then made the mistake of going to Armageddon, a special effects show. I thought Miles might like it. It took forever to start and was embarrassingly short and just plain bad. Next, we went to the Tower of Terror. Miles went by himself and said that he enjoyed it and that the part before the drops was slightly different. He said that you don't move through clocks like in the Orlando Tower. We ate a ridiculously expensive lunch, that put Orlando's exorbitant prices to shame, and went back to Ratatouille, which would be our last ride of the park. Unfortunately, we arrived to find that they had shut down the ride due to the typical Disney "technical difficulties." Who knows what that means. They told us that the fastpasses would be good until the end of the day.
It was now time to head to the main park, Disneyland Paris. Before leaving Studios, I stopped to take a picture with Miles in front of a pretty cool statue. This was a recurring theme with the Paris parks. They have much better art setups around their parks. It seems to be more than just rides here.
When entering Disneyland, we were reminded that the park was celebrating its 25 year anniversary.
Their castle, as google informed me, is Belle's castle, as opposed to Cinderella's in Orlando. I preferred this one's look, even though it was smaller.
We went straight for Space Mountain, intending just to pick up a fastpass and move on, but the line claimed to be only ten minutes long, so we went for it, even after picking up our fastpasses. I forgot to mention earlier, but the fastpass system in Disney Paris is the old fastpass system, from before magic bands became the norm in Orlando. You scan your ticket, a fastpass prints out, and you come back at the time indicated. Then, you can pick up another. If you are at the parks all day, you can get many more fastpasses than with the magicband system. Unfortunately, very few rides actually use it. 6 in the main park and 4 in the other, I believe.
This was reported to be a souped up Space Mountain, and rethemed for Star Wars. It was more than just rethemed and souped up. It is a completely different beast, in almost every way. The only thing in common with Orlando's Space Mountain is the shape of the outer building. Instead of the 3 singular cars attached, followed by another three, this is a full style rollercoaster, with over the head restraints. It also had a semi movable rubber that goes over your chest, that allows it to mold to your body.
The Star Wars theme just didn't work for me here. It felt tacked on. When you start the ride, the music starts blaring and it just doesn't feel integrated. There are big screens occasionally throughout the ride and you hear some shooting effects from the movies. As for the ride itself, the best part is the beginning. You load into the tube going up the side of Space Mountain. You pause for a few moments, and then they launch you up the tube a la The Hulk in Universal Islands of Adventure. Unfortunately, they slow you down to almost a complete stop at the top, as they ease you into the ride.
The ride had two loops and has you riding on the side of a track twice. It is almost completely dark inside, and surprisingly, this works against it. Unlike the original, this one is so fast, and it is so dark, that you don't really know what is happening half the time. You are moving fast, but there is a disconnect from what is happening because you have no reference points. When you are flipped, it is fun and you know what is happening, but then you go back to moving fast and not really feeling much. By the end of the day, we had gone on the ride three times, and each time I was hoping that maybe I'd finally get it by the end. My opinion remained the same. Don't get me wrong. The initial acceleration alone made it better than the original dinky carnival ride in the dark, but it could have been so much more.
Near Space Mountain is an underground submarine that you explore. This is one of four such activities in the park and we liked it a lot. It adds a little exploration to the experience of just rides.
There was a neat Wall-E statue that we took the opportunity to take a picture with.
Then, we went to the other side of the park and stood in line at Thunder Mountain. This Thunder Mountain takes place on an island, and so you start the ride by going into a dark tunnel that leads you to the island. The ride itself felt slower and more constrained, maybe by the size of the island. One improvement, however, was that in one of the slow ascents, there is a special effect of sparks going up the side of the wall and into dynamite, that is supposed to be blowing up the top of the tunnel, to collapse on you. The end has you rushing down deep into a tunnel, and felt like a satisfying end to the ride. We rode on this one more time by day's end.
Something that struck me about the area in Thunder Mountain, was that it is based on the American frontier. I wondered if that really worked well for a European audience.
Next, we went to the corner of the park to try the Indiana Jones themed ride. I had heard mixed things about this ahead of time. It is a small outdoor coaster with a temple theme. It said that there was a five minute wait. After waiting ten, they announced that all outdoor rides in the park were being shut down due to thunderstorms in the area. We got a fastpass for the ride for later as compensation.
Since outdoor rides were out of the question, the Haunted Mansion was next. The line area was much better themed and much more orderly than the Orlando one. Inside, the ride was nice. Some of the same elements, but with more of an emphasis on a dead bride and a finishing area taking place in the wild west, which was different and well done.
Pirates was shut down for renovations. We went to the second of the exploration areas, which was a telling of the Aladdin movie via small windows with figures along a passageway. It was very cute and we both enjoyed it. We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and it seemed a bit more varied than Orlando, but maybe that was just the newness speaking. It was still fundamentally the same ride.
We asked someone at the park to called the Studios park to inquire about Ratatouille, and were told that it was open. We walked back to the ride in the other park.
This was a 3d ride modeled after the likes of Spiderman and the Transformers, at Universal. I generally dislike this kind of ride as they are a bit nauseating and are uninteresting after being on the ride once. This was no different.
After walking back to the main Disneyland park, I had to take a break. My legs were killing me. We found a place to sit down and eat, and we didn't leave for over an hour. During that time, it rained, was sunny, rained again, and then stopped. The outdoor rides were still closed. We headed towards fantasyland.
On our way, we went under the castle to see the dragon. At times, it slept. Other times, it moved its head around, with dragonlike breathing and grumbling. Miles was enamored with it.
Then, Miles tried halfheartedly to pull out the sword in the stone.
We stood in line for Pinocchio. This was a typical fantasyland ride like Snow White, Toad's Wild Ride, etc. It was something I hadn't seen before, but reminded me of just how much I disliked the darkness and story of Pinocchio. It was also super short. One neat part, however, was that there was a Mona Lisa with a mustache drawn on it, in the trash in one of the rooms.
We went to the last walkthrough area, which was Alice in Wonderland's maze, but it had apparently closed earlier in the day. How lame is that!?
We walked past It's a Small World, and the top of the building, with a clock on it, opened up and toy people walked out, like a cuckoo clock. Then, the theme song started to play. I thought that this was a nice touch.
We were exhausted and contemplated leaving, since the park attendants had no clue as to whether they would be reopening the outdoor rides. We decided to return to the Haunted Mansion, where we could see Thunder Mountain from, which would indicate whether they reopened the ride. By this time, it seems like many people had left due to the rains. We walked right onto the ride twice. We had the place almost to ourselves. We were just about to give up when we saw Thunder Mountain start running. After a quick Thunder Mountain, we headed back to Indiana Jones.
Indiana Jones was a disappointment, even with low expectations. It was barely a ride, though it did have a small loop to it. Miles was upset because his head bounced around between the overhead pull down bars.
I had wanted to go on two kiddie rides that were completely new, but they close early normally. With the rain, they never reopened them.
We were able to get onto Peter Pan fairly quickly. It was slightly different than in Orlando, with a bit more color. I offered to go on It's a Small World if the line was short, as our last ride of the night. Miles begrudgingly said sure. We walked right onto the ride. The song was sung in both French and English. The song is just background noise and not nearly as annoying when it is sung in another language. It was much better than the Orlando version, with areas dedicated to pretty much every major area, from Russia, to India, to the Mayans and Native Americans, and even a section for animals. The end of the ride had farewell/goodbye written in many different languages, including Japanese. I can now recognize and read their words, so this was kind of cool for me.
The bathrooms in the park were decent, but almost always sized too small. One cool thing about them, however, is that they have buttons on the wall to give them feedback on cleanliness satisfaction. A smiley face, a sad face, and one in between. I even caught a similar panel when getting off of Space Mountain, asking if you were properly greeted by the ride operators(I think I am remembering the question correctly).
It was a very enjoyable experience seeing the new rides and the variations on the old ones. My legs are still aching from all of the walking.
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