Disneyland Paris: trip report part four

[battle beast]

We took the train to Disneyland Paris.

As you get out of the train terminal, on the left is Disney Village (Downtown Disney) and on the right is the entrance to Disneyland. To the top right is the entrance to Disney Studios.

In the central plaza, as you walk to your destination, there are many, many people hawking cheesy Eiffel towers and other cruddy merchandise.

We went to Disneyland.

WARNING!!!!

MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE DATES OF YOUR HOPPER VOUCHERS!!! IF YOU BOUGHT OFF EXPEDIA.CA OR EXPEDIA.COM, MAKE SURE THE VOUCHERS ARE VALID FOR THE LENGTH OF YOUR TRIP, NOT JUST ONE DAY!!!

We had this problem. Our vouchers were only valid for one day, so when we got to the park, we couldn't get our hopper tickets. We instead had to buy annual passes (are we really going to go back to Paris in a year? I don't think so!) which ended up being cheaper, but now I have to fight with Expedia.)

Before we could go on any rides, we had to go stand in line for two hours to get our annual passes.

As you enter, you have to check your bags like you do at DL and WDW for security. Then, you walk down past some fountains towards the DLP Hotel. You go under it through a small tunnel to find the ticket Wickets and line queues.

Inside is like a central courtyard, with the hotel on one side (behind you) and the tunnels into the Magic Kingdom in front of you (like at DL and WDW.)

Once past THOSE tunnels, you are on Mainstreet, USA. To the right is Discoveryland (Tomorrowland); to the left is Frontierland; to the west and north is Adventureland, and north is the castle. Easily the smallest of the castles, it was done up in gold and pink. Very nice. Beyond the castle is Fantasyland.

Under the castle is a big sleeping dragon that comes to life every now and again.

We first went on Honey I shrunk the Audience. Same as here, but in French. They have earphones that have English, but it's very hard to listen to the English when the French is going on.

Next we went on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. It's a roller Coaster ride not unlike Expedition Everest, but much crappier. The line took a hour, but the ride was like 30 seconds! It was really short and not worth the wait AT ALL.

Pirates of the Caribbean was themed VERY WELL, the queues were amazing, and has the best queues of the three I've been on. The ride itself is backwards.

It starts at the burning building, and then goes to the jail scene, then the ransacked town, then the pirate ship battle, and finally the beach and treasure room. It's totally backwards and really makes no sense the way they have it laid out. I still think DL is the best of them all.

Adventureland also has a "pirates island" kind deal, but we didn't go to it. They also have a big Swiss Family Tree house, which is better than the one at DL or WDW. Dl's is Tarzan's Tree house now, so I don't know where the Swiss house is.

From Adventureland, we went to Frontierland.

They have the two riverboats here too, but we didn't go on them.

The Phantom Manor (haunted Mansion) is essentially the same inside and out, until you get to the graveyard.

The Manor is supposed to be set in an old west ghost town, so when you would normally get to the graveyard, you instead enter the underworld, underneath the graveyard. They have animatronics of really cool skeletons, dead bodies, cujo-like demon dogs, and you see a set of an old west ghost town with dead inhabitants. This is the best "graveyard scene" of them all, but I still like WDW's HM better.

The inside of the manor has no narration... no "ghost host," to be precise. They do have the line, "Welcome foolish mortals." at one point, but that's all they say: "Welcome Foolish Mortals." with the same voice as in DL and WDW.

All of the scenes inside the manor are the same as in WDW and DL, but done ... a little cruddier, maybe, but not much. Some of the effects don't measure up, but none the less it's still as good as DL's HM. Also, they have the story set on the dead bride as she is in more and more of the scenes.

Big Thunder Mountain is the same as in DL and WDW, so if you've been on it, you know what it's like. However, it is a tad longer, I think.

We took to Discoveryland and went on Space Mountain: "Mission 2", The BEST OF ALL THE SPACE MOUNTAINS.

As you Queue, you go through some VERY dark rooms, only one of which has those cosmic, galaxy pictures like in DL and WDW. Most rooms are themed to Jules Verne's The Time Machine. In fact, the whole ride is themed to that book.

As you leave the loading dock, the "space train" (people are side by side, four people per car, six cars per train, 24 passengers in all, like splash mountain, but with connected cars) is sent up a 45° ramp and you are blast off into space (kinda like RnRC, but with a lot of steam, and on a ramp.)

The Train goes extremely fast with 360° loops, inversions, sidewinders and corkscrews as big planets and moons fly past you.

The ride is a total rush; it's the best ride at the park! now THATS how Space Mountain should be!

Star Tours is the same, too, except in French.

Buzz Lightyear is the same as in DL, where you can remove the guns and shot at will. It's almost identical to the DL ride, which is the better of the two designs of the ride as you can shot with your gun at will and rack up way more points. This is how I consistently get over 800,000 points on the ride.

It's a small world, for those of you who like it, was different. It had the same animatronics and song, but staged differently... the countries were a bit different, and the overall ride was a bit shorter. I think they took out one whole room. Still good to go on. It looks, on the out side, like the ride in DL, not WDW.

Fantasyland has Peter Pan: Flight, Pinocchio: Daring Journey and Snow White: Scary Adventure. We didn't get a chance to go on these rides as the lines were way too long, just like in WDW and DL.

It also has a HUGE hedge maze themed to Alice in Wonderland that's really neat to go through. It takes a while, but it's well worth the time. If you want to calm down the kiddies, take a stroll through and get them away from the sights and sounds of the crowd.

You can go to the top on Sleeping Beauty's castle. They have books on the story, and stained glass from the movie. you can go out on the parapet and look out over the park. It's really cool.

Food in the park is expensive, but not more than in some of the restaurants outside the park. We ate at Pizza Planet, and that was some good eatin'. We also ate at another place in the park, and for the most part, the park food was good.

And as for the crowds, it was busy; if you go earlier in the year, it might be colder and in the summertime it'll definitely be much busier.

So overall we had a great day at the park and we were really impressed by some ride and not by other rides.

Tomorrow, we went to Disney Studios.

Questions?

[joannep2bc]

Well bonjour fellow canuck. Sounds like you are having a wonderful, albeit pricey, vacation. You write terrifically detailed trip reports and I am soaking up every word of them. I am wondering if the Space Mountain at WDW will eventually rival the one in Paris given it is undergoing a lengthy refurb. now. I hope so, the way you described it. I am glad you included all of the sites in your reports and not just those of Disneyland Paris. Please keep them coming, as I am vacationing vicariously through you right now.
Thanks for sharing.

[faline]

I suspect that, like a visit to Disneyland, when you've mostly visited Disney World, is that the park should be judged - and enjoyed - on its own merits rather than on a comparison basis. Thanks for the report.

[battle beast]

I judge my parks on DL, the original. Did they improove on it, or make the attraction worse? In some cases, when the attraction appeared at another park first, I judge THAT one. LIke Buzz Lightyear. Better at DL.

As for my trip report, I will add more later or tomorrow,,, depending when I have the time.

joannep2bc > But rest assured, lots more to report!

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the Report!

[vizsla]

Thanks for the report.

[artyboy]

I really enjoyed Disneyland Paris...it was familiar, and then something completely odd would happen...like Goofy speaking French.

I prefer the Haunted Mansion in Paris, as I love how they re scored the music. It had more of a plot line, too, as the Bride story started in the queue.

I totally agree about the Space Mountain...it really was awesome.

[handmaidenofprincesses]

Did you see the dragon in the castle?? When I was researching DLP for my college's then in-the-works trip, that looked like the coolest thing there. (Malificient's always been my favorite villain) They really hyped it up on the website, like you could go down into the cellars of the castle and poke the sleeping dragon Sounded like fun.