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Disneyland Paris https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/disneyland-paris So, the other half to my trip report for Walt Disney Studios Both days I visited I went into the park in the afternoon. This probably makes sense because there’s not really anything you want to ‘rope drop’ in Disneyland, it’s all quite high capacity attractions (aside from Peter Pan, which I ended up skipping both days, just couldn’t be arsed waiting 90 mins for it. Most rides seemed to be around 30-40 min waits, so no problem visiting a wide variety of attractions. Overall impressions is that it is very nice, you can really see how they went above and beyond with the theming here in order to impress the well cultured European market. The castle is ornate. They have nice arcades behind main street. More details in general. I also felt that Paris has the “better” version of many of the classics. Their big thunder mountain is better, Pirates of the Carribean has a better themed queue and facade, Phantom Manor looks a lot cooler than the haunted mansions, and of course who can forget their more thrilling Space Mountain. Only downside is I don’t think the park has enough ‘unique’ rides (Aside from Space Mountain being very different). It’s like how Tokyo has Monsters Inc or Beauty and the Beast, or HK has Mystic Manor, or MK has Seven Dwarfs mine train. The main unique thing Paris has is some additional themed walk throughs. So Paris is good if you are a fan of the classic E-ticket rides, but you’ll have to go next door to the studios for something more unique. On to the rides! Indiana Jones - Et Le Temple du Peril Ugh got this one out the way early. It’s like a bigger version of Nitro Coaster type layout, a glorified galaxi with a loop, but built by Intamin. Rough as guts, and the theming is decent (But not a touch on Raging Spirits) The queue line is down under a canvas tent and you go up a grand stone staircase to the ride, which is built around a temple. It does get points for how well they position a stone arch that hides the structure of the loop, so if you are not paying attention you might not be aware it goes upside down. Star Tours Yeah, this one is always nice for its well themed queue. The storyline we got was a bit older, it was the pod racing sequence and then ending up on Naboo, which I think debuted when the new 3D version of star tours was launched. The last time I did star tours in Tokyo in 2019, it was a brand new film based on the last Jedi Space Mountain This was perhaps the one I was most hyped for. When they would show Disneyland Paris on shows like Getaway as a kid, Space Mountain would alway feature prominently. The outside looks gorgeous, particularly the enormous cannon pointing up the side of the mountain. It’s a shame they deactivated the whole mechanism where it woul roll close and recoil when fired. It was such an iconic thing. Maybe one day they will bring it back, and delete the star wars overlay in the meantime. The first bit of the queue is outdoors, before going through some plain corrugated metal corridors inside. Eventually you reach the well themed open air station. It has the new Vekoma trains with onboard audio, so comfort wise it was fine. Out of the station is an enclosed turn, drop and then incline which gets you onto the catapult launch. Despite not being the fastest launch, the fact you are pushed back in your seat going uphill gives it a bit of force. Inside, its like a more drawn out version of RNRC / Avengers Flight Force. Starts with a big drawn out turn that does a lap around the ride building, eventually leading into a sidewinder and a couple of tighter turns, mcbr, then a drop into a corkscrew. From that point the layout peters out a bit, with a regular lift hill towards the end, some more turns and helixes, and vekomas early attempt at an overbanked turn. All the while the audio is playing chaotic star wars music and there are projections on the wall of tie fighters etc being blown up. It’s a Small World What can you say about this ride? Does anyone other than kids enjoy it? Do people just ride it for tradition? For its infamy? Because it has a shortish queue and it gets you out of the sun for 15 mins. Possibly all of the above. I think all the kooky imagineers get put on the design team for this, with all the stylised design sets depicting various countries. Molly Brown Riverboat A moment to relax. I rode this in the afternoon which allowed for some awesome shots of Big Thunder. Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast A ride I secretly enjoy and will always ride at Disney. There was a 30 min wait for this one, so I actually googled how do get a high score. A couple of the secret targets are very hard to to hit, but i was able to spam some of the difficult triangular targets and at least get a score in the hundreds of thousands rather than the tens of thousands. Pirates of the Caribbean This is proper POTC. Other versions have you going straight out from a New Orleans area into this pirate boat ride. Meanwhile this one has you going into the actual corridors of a pirate fortress, so big points for having an actual themed queue. All the scenes were the same, including the pirate battle and the burning town. What made this version better was how the layout was on a few levels and had a few crossovers, so youd get views through to other scenes from a higher level before actually arriving in it a few mins later. Phantom Manor Another Disney classic, and well executed. It looks a lot more spooky having the house sitting up on a hill by itself, surrounded by overgrown gardens. There were a couple of scenes unique to this version. In the load area there is a lonesome bridge, staring out a huge glass window with a thunderstorm raging outside. At the end of the ride you go through a haunted mining town (to tie in with its location in Frontierland), and that part was reminiscent of Fire in the Hole. Still, my favourite part will always be the floating head in the glass ball. Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. These fantasyland dark rides are a bit ‘blink and you’ll miss it’. You speed through a quick retelling of the story in what feels like a couple of minutes, so only have a brief moment of time to appreciate the scenes before crashing through the doors to the next one. Nice enough, but I struggle to think of a single moment in the ride that really sticks with you or where I was like ‘woah how did they do that’. Ok there was one memorable thing. The ride control panel is themed like an old open book, and the buttons are on the pages. Les Voyages Des Pinnochio Similar Comments to the above. Mostly UV black light painted sets. Autopia Big Ole car ride through some pleasant pine trees, and a handful of billboards with advertisements for space destinations, and themed bridges to give it that Discoveryland feel. If you are short on time you could probably skip this, but again, not much of a queue so I gave it a go. Big Thunder Mountain Ended up saving one of the best for last. There was an intial false start. The ride needed an evac so they emptied the queue and i came back an hour later. The paris one is different because the coaster is on an island in the middle of the river, with the station on the mainland. This means you have a pitch black tunnel at both the start and end of the ride to get over to the island and back, which bookends the experience nicely with thrilling moments. So from the station you drop down into a mine, and it feels like you go really quite deep underground. I’d just about say its a better tunnel than Oblivion. From there it’s classic Big Thunder, with themed lift hills (including one with projection mapping involving fuses burning towards a stack of TNT) and helixes, but also a lot more random drops, and it seems to maintain speed better than the others, rather than hitting a lift the moment you build up a bit of speed. The end of the ride has you go into a themed tunnel, but then the track starts diving deeply and getting darker, and then you just keep diving and diving and go around a huge underground banked turn, and head back up a lift hill. The train practically makes it to the top before the chain finally catches and you rise out into the daylight and coast into the station. So one thing you must know about Paris is that it has a handful of well themed walkthroughs. This seems to be a European ‘thing’ since you see similar attractions at Efteling and Europa Park. Adventure Isle A series of bridges, caves and passageways and great themed sections, like a grotto full of pirates treasure, and a skull shaped rock you could look out through. Needs more slides La Cabane Des Robinson Not Far from Adventure Isle, and another Disney Staple. What I find notable is the way it uses a lot of visual distraction to still maintain the reveal of different parts. From a distance, all you see is this giant tree and a couple of platforms sticking out. When you get there, you basically just see a staircase disappearing up into the tree and the famous water wheel. Quite unassuming considering all that is going on above. When you are up there in the tree canopy, you can see walkways going everywhere, above and below you, and the bits of the treehouse perched in different parts of the tree, so all you can really do is follow the walkway along and be guided through the labyrinth. Thematically its one of my favourites. La Cabane Des Robinson Not Far from Adventure Isle, and another Disney Staple. What I find notable is the way it uses a lot of visual distraction to still maintain the reveal of different parts. From a distance, all you see is this giant tree and a couple of platforms sticking out. When you get there, you basically just see a staircase disappearing up into the tree and the famous water wheel. Quite unassuming considering all that is going on above. When you are up there in the tree canopy, you can see walkways going everywhere, above and below you, and the bits of the treehouse perched in different parts of the tree, so all you can really do is follow the walkway along and be guided through the labyrinth. Thematically its one of my favourites. Le Passage Enchante d’Alladin This has a few dioramas behind glass telling the story of Alladin. Havent seen this film since about age 5 when we watched it on the last day of term before school holidays, brought back memories, ended up watching it again on the plane home! Les Mystères du Nautilus Probably my favourite of the walkthroughs, and I almost missed the best part! From a small building next to lake in Discoveryland you go down a spiral staircase and through an underground passageway into the interior of the Nautilus submarine (You see the top of the Submarine poking up through the water next to the entrance. All the rooms are ornately themed, with a cool engine room full of moving equipment. The main room I strolled straight through, but when I looked back i noticed a crowd of people gathered around a small circular window. Went back to have a look, and all of a sudden the window expands like an iris / camera shutter, revealing a much bigger circular window looking out of the submarine. The iris opens and closes every few mins, revealing something new each time, eg a pod of whales swimming by. Amazing bit of imagineering to build that mechanism. La Belle Au bois Dormant I found out about this one via the Imagineering Story. They did some really ornate stained glass windows in an area in the ‘foyer’ of the castle, so definitely take the time to check this out. La Tanière du Dragon Under the castle, there is a damp cave with a dragon that occasionally wakes up and roars. Easy to miss if you dont know about it. Alice’s Curious Labyrinth A large hedge maze with statues from Alice in Wonderland. You eventually reach a small castle, but its bloody narrow and crowded up there, though its a great vantage point for photos over the park. Disneyland Paris Railroad I thought this was going to be closed for my visit but it ended up re-opening late afternoon day 2. They've designed the carriages to only load from one side, so most of the views are designed to face into the park…If you are riding, sit on the side closest to the platform. For those of you not familiar with the Disneyland Railroads, you dont just do a lap around the park, a couple of times you pass through other ride buildings, and through a couple of indoor sections with actual built sets (The latter too hard to get photos of in the darkness. The other “train” Casey Jr Circus Train was closed on my visit, so no powered coaster for me. So final thoughts. Nice park, superb theming, but perhaps it just feels middle of the range compared to the other Disneylands since it’s all ‘classics’ and the last new ride they got was Buzz Lightyear. More photos here: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/disneyland-paris

Snort - who goes to the Gold Coast theme parks on Boxing Day? Ha ha, silly people. Wait. That’s us. We went to Disneyland Paris during French school holidays, AND on Halloween - a very popular time at any Disney park. We didn't have much choice, and I'd planned to get a quick pass or two to help with the crowds. Mrs and I jumped on the Metro in the dawn light (7:30am sunrise in late October) and took the short trip to Les Halles, a big station that combines Metro and the next rail service up from that, the RER. The cool thing with being on the right platform there is that the stops on the way flash as the train approaches and waits. If the Marne-La-Vallee - Chessy light's flashing, jump on that train. Despite my forward planning, we snagged an earlier train than I had planned. We jumped on our train and began to notice lots of people dressed up for Halloween. At 8:00 in the morning. They were coming to Disneyland Paris as well. As the park gets decorated for Halloween, guests are welcome to dress up as well. Best part about it was that most of the people dressed up, were in some kind of spooky theme. A 50 minute train ride later and we had arrived. Having been 9 years earlier, we knew the process of security and ticketing, but even though we had arrived before rope-drop, there were still significant lines. This was the point I realised it was going to be a very busy day. As the place is split up into two parks, Disneyland Studios and Disneyland Park, I had availed myself to a few game plans to fit in as much as possible, especially those in the thread here on Parkz. So it was to be into the Studios park first, as there was many new, and a few missed attractions since last time. Queue-jumpers, may you engage in unsatisfying bedtime encounters with yourselves. People had been lining up for over an hour (we were lining up 45 mins or so) and people just forced themselves in. Arrgh. Once in DLS, our first stop was the Ratatouille ride, as it wasn't yet there in '13. We had agreed that part of the best way to fit in as many things as we could, was to go in the single rider lines. You miss a little bit of the queue theming, but you’re not waiting 45min - 2 hours! So we were almost a walk-on at Ratatouille: L'Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy, which if you're not familiar, is an indoor trackless car ride, as a rat joining Remy in the kitchen and restaurant. Some scenes are screens with you using 3D glasses, others involve being in oversized rooms themed to the fridge or serving trolley. Well worthy of being regarded as one of the best dark rides in the world. Luckily, Mrs and I were put next to each other, even though the single rider queue is meant to put one person at a time on rides to fill seats, and separate groups doing what we were doing. The way the ride works, with 3 trackless cars that often change spots in their group, works really well. Adding water and smell effects really enhanced the experience. Walking to our next attraction, we passed where the new Arendelle land is going in - a whole new land themed to the combined universe that Frozen and Tangled are set in. Will be a great new addition to the Studios park, which needs one big new area to round it off. Allegedly it was a tough decision between Arendelle and another Galaxy's Edge, and I think they made the right call. This will make an attraction unique to this park for visitors to come from all around the world. We next moved over to the Hollywood Tower, a Twilight Zone ride we didn’t do last time with a 9 year old. In the zig zag exterior line I started composing my daily recap of the day before for my Facebook post to the family back home...but with head in a phone screen in an outdoor mouse maze queue, the 30 mins went quick. The old early 1900s theming was perfect, moreso when waiting at our 'elevator'. The hotel bellboy who sorted our ride and checked our seatbelts made the pre-ride so enjoyable. Unlike Movie World these days, it’s great to see park where ride operating cast being in character absolutely adds to the experience. He was creepily aloof, yet eerie in his engagement with people. Perfect. When at DLP/DLS, you quickly adapt to the rides, staff and signage being bi-lingual in French & English (often adding Spanish as well based on who is in your ride group). On this ride, you really didn’t need to understand what was being said by the scary ghost girl in the elevator - we were in for a bad time with the hotel’s spirits! The poor kid next to us who was conned onto the ride by his dad was beside himself - to me the story was quirky, but through the right eyes, it's quite scary! Just around the corner is the new Avengers Campus, with the re-theme of the Aerosmith coaster skippable I’d been on before, and the new Spider-Man W.E.B ride which had a single rider line. The general queue had a 90 minute line, and the single rider 45. Again, absolutely worth it. The tricky thing they did was taking the whole single rider queue in at once to the pre-show. You wonder why so many people go to go in, until realising the exit of the pre-show puts you into another single rider queue. Well done. Well done. For the pre-show, you join Peter Parker in the Stark WEB lab (a converted Stark Motors factory), where a prototype self-replicating spider-bot has gone rogue. The whole pre-show is in French (great French by the way, Tom Holland!) but is easy enough to follow. He ‘goes to get Spider-Man’, and you rejoin the queue (now within sight of the station), where you hop on board the ride with 3D glasses. You use your hands to launch webs to either catch the bots or use the environment to help destroy them. You’re joined by Spider-Man and team up top defeat the bots. Great fun ride that is made more fun with your interaction. Luckily Mrs and I were grouped together again! Of the 4 people in our car, I had a come-from-behind win in the points issued to the riders. I'd figured out how to make combos by using explosive environment assets to take out more bots at once. This ride is move to a screen, action happens, move to next screen, but it works really well. We wandered through the Avengers Campus next, waving at Captain Marvel. It doesn't matter who or how old you are, if a character as a Disney Park interacts with you, you play along! Pym’s restaurant was booked out and the Stark one didn’t impress, but we found a retro 50s diner in the area and sat down to have an early lunch of New York sandwiches. Limited menu, but not pricey either. While having lunch I opened the app and bought Fast Passes for Thunder Mountain over in Disneyland Park, as it was the main ride I'd missed out on back in '13. You get the pass as a scannable code you use at the ride entry via email and the app, so it was quite flexible. It was very helpful being able to book a fastpass for a ride, even though I was in the other park. On our way out of the Campus we watched a gathering of many Avengers on an elevated platform, including Black Panther, the Dora Milaje, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Captain Marvel. Cool to see if you’re into the Avengers stuff! The super heroes are likely rotated through based on staffing and whatnot. At the end of the performance, they waved and walked away, except Spidey, who did another lap of the platform in a playful way. 10.MOV I'd forgotten to check in advance if there's an animatronic Spiderman slinging over the Campus in DLS, or just in California Adventure Campus. I couldn't find an area similar to the version in LA, so we continued on. Having done mch of DLS on our last visit, our plan was to spend the rest of the day in Disneyland Park, so we decided to try our luck at Ratatouille again before leaving. The single rider line was almost as short as the first time, but this time we had to ride it separately. Still, a fun and exciting ride, and this time I noticed small water and smell effects much more knowing when to expect them. With real estate a bit of a squeeze, this is one of the few rides at DLP/DLS where the gift store isn't directly part of the ride exit, but certainly in the themed area of the ride's exterior. We made our way out of the Studios which were still filling up, and crossed over into the main park. We then noticed plenty of signage outside between the parks that stated the place was a sell-out AND there was no entry without tickets & bookings. When was the last time a GC park had a "sold out" sign out for something other than a special event..? Upon entering DLP, we wandered down Main Street, jaws agape at the Halloween theming - lots of trimming on buildings, many statues of scarecrows and ghosts, but in that fun Disney way. The 30th Anniversary decorations are still in place as well. We entered Frontierland, with the Halloween theming now that of Coco. Many static characters from the movie were along the paths, all in the land of the dead style. The fast pass line for Thunder Mountain was further along than the main entry, and the line looked huge in the general queue. We had our passes scanned, and used the fast pass queue that had its' own queue to the station, joining alongside the general queue near the platform. We were about 2 trains worth of people away from riding - before the ride had either an e-stop or breakdown. With the fast pass ($18EU each) we’d only have waited 10 minutes, but for the big line of people waiting over an hour, the feeling of the lines being cleared out must have been very frustrating! At the fast pass entry they re-validated our pass for anytime later in the day we wanted. I had taken the kid on Phantom Manor last time (as Mrs had done the Californian one before), so this time I wanted to ride it with her. We had seen the Muppets Haunted Mansion special last year so I was keen to ride it - unfortunately so did many other people who had exited the Thunder Mountain line. The theming is always on point at any Disney park, even in the zig zag overflow queue for Phantom Manor. I continued to compose my day-before-recap while in this queue. When we finally got on after our longest queue of the day, the best part of 80 minutes, the ride had a stoppage just before we boarded. We were dreading the potential ride close twice in a row - I’d have laughed at the situation, then it restarted and we boarded… unfortunately the ride stopped and restarted 3 more times while we were on it, breaking the immersion. Still, it’s one of the classics of Disney and worth a ride every visit. As we exited the ride, Thunder Mountain was running empty train tests, so we quickly returned to the fast pass line as the ride reopened, with the head for the general line already growing quickly, it was still worth the pass. We had a great time on the ride, with three separate hill climbs it certainly feels like a couple of rides in one! The pitch darkness parts as the ride goes to and from the island its on are crazy fast. With my bucket list of rides done (from the '13 ad this visit), I turned the day over to the Mrs and we went straight to the castle (and Fantasyland) and explored places we hadn’t last time, including the tower, themed to sleeping beauty. By this stage it was well into the arvo, and we popped into and out of the dozenth shop by this point (they merchandise so well!). Gifts for the family were certainly on the menu. Most haven't been to a Disney Park before. Passing back through the castle, we encountered Maleficent herself! Her grace and eloquence at giving park guests a bit of slander was amazing. We caught the back end of the Halloween parade, and then made our way into Discoveryland to ride Star Tours, the Star Wars ride. It had been re-themed since '13, and was great. No spoilers, but the droid you're expecting to 'fly' your ship isn't flying your ship! A very well known droid from the Star Wars universe is flying by accident. Being a Star Wars fan (most sci-fi in general), the gift shop after was an exercise in restraint! We grabbed burgers for dinner from Hyperion as it began to drizzle outside. A addition since last time here in '13, inside the same building as Hyperion and the stage show area, is a room full of power points and a hirable phone charging locker. We sat, plugged the phones into a floor plug, and ate. The room was a bit darker, with blue-ish ambient light and simulated stars. The perfect place for someone who might need somewhere if they we having issues with sensory overload. Then, it was on to the fireworks and evening show- The only big downer of the day was that by the time we got close to where you could watch it, the staff were already funneling visitors towards the front of the park and out the gates. If you weren’t plonked somewhere well beforehand, you kinda weren’t going to be able to watch it at all. The Park was to reopen that night for the special Halloween event, so it sadly made sense for them to clear it out as son as they could. Other than this, we had an excellent day there. The plus side of leaving just as the show was ending, was that we snagged some seats on the train back to Paris. Questions welcome of course. I hadn't planned to document the whole day, so that's why there's very little pics of rides such as W.E.B and Thunder Mountain - apologies.

First The Imagineering Story, now Behind The Attraction... I'm surprised that there isn't an episode on Pirates Of The Caribbean!

Hi everyone i am back from Disneyland Paris and made a short movie abbout this trip please check this one out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l8nvgPC0NM&t

Me and my brood are off to Paris and the U.K. next month to visit the rellies. We've bought a 2 park, 1 day ticket for DLP so I did some research on how to fit both parks in. I noticed that the new Ratatouille ride opened last month and that it cost $270m (US) $AU 300m+. What made me wonder is what size theme park could you construct with that sum of money?