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Thread: Disneyland Paris May 2013

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    Disneyland Paris May 2013

    Just got back from a trip to Paris and London, and I got to spend a day at Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios Park (the husband would only let me have one day, haha). Their park is beautiful!! The esplanade looks like a gorgeous park, complete with gazebos, fountains, and grassy picnic areas. We visited on a Thursday (May 16), and the crowd levels were awesomely low. The longest we waited for any attraction was 15 minutes. We got to the parks at opening and left at closing, leaving us plenty of time to get to all of the attractions, soak in all of the details, and see the nighttime Disney Dreams show at the castle. I'll break down our visit by park to make it easier to skim. I'm listing only the attractions we did while there.

    Disneyland Park:
    Space Mountain: Mission 2 - This is MUCH more intense than Anaheim's Space Mountain. It has a loop and corkscrews and throws you all around. My husband loved this, but I am not at the correct height to enjoy roller coasters that have the over-the-shoulder restrainsts. My head bangs back and forth in them the entire time and I ended up with a slight headache and sore ears. The ride theming was amazing though, I do have to admit that.
    Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril - Same comment as above. MUCH more intense than Anaheim's Indiana Jones. This ride doesn't have the theming that Anaheim does. It's an outdoor coaster that looks Jones-esque, but there's no story or anything further than that.
    Phantom Manor - LOVED this. We went on it twice. The manor itself is on a high hilltop, making it look really grand and giving you a great sense of foreboding. The stretching room is very similar to Anaheim, but the portraits are all different. Many of the portraits in the hallway after the elevator are the same, but the bust whose eyes "follow" you has been given an upgrade here - he looks skeleton and has evil glowing eyes. Phantom Manor has almost the same layout as the Haunted Mansion, but Phantom Manor focuses on the bride more and is darker than Haunted Mansion. Instead of cheery ghosts, much of the attraction has creepy skeleton animatronics that don't quite strike me as "grim grinning." The animatronic zombie dog may in fact give me nightmares. The ballroom scene includes a wedding cake and a pile of wedding presents instead of the birthday party theme of the Haunted Mansion. Outside the exit, there's a walk-through graveyard with joke-ish stones similar to Haunted Mansion's, but a bit naughtier.
    Cinderella's Castle - This castle puts both of the U.S. castles to shame. It's on a hilltop, has multiple waterfalls, and the inside has a much more extensive walk-through of the Sleeping Beauty story than Anaheim. In addition to the storybooks and window scenes, there are stained glass windows that help tell the story, larger props (like the spinning wheel and a few snoring suits of armor), and a balcony where you can walk out and take some great Fantasyland photos. We also loved the cave on the side of the castle -- it has a very cool animatronic dragon!
    Alice's Curious Labyrinth - This was a very cute walk-through maze that included many Alice references and animatronics. It ends at the Queen of Hearts' castle, and along the way you can take some pretty cute photos with the card soldiers and a few other Alice scenes.
    Pirates of the Caribbean - This attraction is mostly the same as the Anaheim version, but the scenes are ordered different and there are a few subtle differences in characters and scene setups. It also takes your picture on one of the drops.
    Adventure Isle - This is a much bigger version of Tom Sawyer Island/Pirate's Lair. There are cave walk-throughs, bridges, paths, etc. to explore, and you can go aboard a pirate ship. Fun to explore and get lost in.
    Star Tours - I was delighted to find that this was the "old" Star Tours and not the new 3-D one that Anaheim has now. Loved the blast from the past. It was identical to the old ride (you know, other than the fact that it was in French).
    Nautilus - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea walk-through. This was a bit underwhelming, but it had no line and was fun to walk through. I've only seen the film once, so perhaps I just needed a refresher to really enjoy it.
    Videopolis - This is a giant theater and resting-type area that plays short films all day. We stopped to rest for a bit and watched a Wall-E short I'd never seen (didn't catch the name), and Presto (Pixar short).
    Main Street - LOVED walking down Main Street and exploring everything. The park has an extra hallway behind all of the shops on either side of the street, with more windows to look at and assorted coin machines (all of the ones I found were round gold coins that cost 2 Euro each; not the pressed penny machines like in Anaheim). I especially enjoyed that one of the stores is called "Harringtons" - a reference to Pollyanna, one of my favorite childhood movies. There is also a Dapper Dans barber shop of sorts that offers haircuts and shaves! Didn't notice this until after it was closed, but thought it was fun.
    Big Thunder - Similar in style and intensity level to the Anaheim attraction. This one was a bit grander though -- it's across the Rivers of America on an island, and you go through an underground tunnel initially to make it out to the island. Very cool views!
    Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast - Almost exactly the same as the Anaheim attraction, but the picture isn't free or email-able.
    Enchanted Passage of Aladdin - This is a walk-through attraction that tells the Aladdin story and has a window scenes. Very cute and worth a few minutes to stroll through.
    Disney Dreams show - This was WONDERFUL and so worth staying until park closing. It was a cross between our firework shows and Fantasmic. It incorporated two water screens (like Fantasmic), fireworks, fire blowers, and a lot of amazing castle projection. Peter Pan (speaking English) and Wendy (speaking French) narrated the story, which was about Peter's shadow escaping and going through a number of scenes and songs from various Disney films. Very cute, and so beautiful. A great way to end our day.

    Walt Disney Studios:
    Animagique - This is a stage show led by Mickey (speaking French) and Donald (speaking English). It ran through a lot of different movie scenes and songs. Very cute! I recommend this highly, as it's very different than anything the U.S. parks have.
    Stitch Live - This show is offered in French or English, so we opted to wait around for an English one. Very similar to Turtle Talk with Crush, but with Stitch (of course). He has stolen Captain Gantuu's cruiser, and you're speaking to him on a sort of video chat from his space ship. More fun for kids, but it was still cute to see.
    Crush's Coaster - This was the highlight of this park for us. It's a roller coaster that puts four people in a turtle shell. Two start out facing forward; two backward. Once the coaster gets going, your "shell" car spins around the whole time to simulate being on the EAC with Crush. So awesome!! This was our longest wait at 15 minutes, and it was well worth it. Kinda wish we had done it again.
    Rock n' Roller Coaster - My husband did this one alone; I'd had enough intense coasters, and this is supposed to be identical to the one at WDW (we're going in November). He loved it though!
    Character Meet and Greets - There were some fun characters around that we don't see often here. Remy and his brother Emile were out, as were Lilo and Stitch in his Elvis costume (so cute!), and Gaston. Donald and Daisy were in Parisian gear, which was also cute. I didn't get great pictures with them, but I got some of them with other people. The characters don't have lines and dedicated CMs like in the U.S. -- these were pretty much a crowd/shove/free-for-all surrounding each character, and I'm just not pushy enough to want any part of that. Oh well! Still fun to see.

    Snacks we tried:
    Croque monsieur from Market Deli - Ham/cheese toasted sandwich. Not bad, but we had better versions of these on our trip elsewhere in Paris.
    Hot dog from Casey's Corner (much like Coke Corner, but baseball-themed) - Much larger than the ones in Anaheim, but not as tasty.
    Gaufre - Waffle with ice cream and sugar on top. Delicious, especially since this park has Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Peanut butter cup is the best thing ever.
    Sandwiches from Earl of Sandwich (Disney Village)
    Beignets - These were cold and were more like cream-filled donut holes... not the best, since we were expecting something warm.
    Candied apple - Apple on a stick coated in a candy coating the texture of really thin glass or plastic. Not gooey, but flaky and crunchy. Good, but a little strange.
    Donut/cookie/brioche from Market Deli - Brioche was a bit dry, but the donut and cookie were wonderful. These were our "waiting for Disney Dreams" snacks.

    Transportation to the parks: We took the metro and transferred to the RER train. This went smoothly and was super-easy on the way there. It practically drops you at the park gates. The last train going back to Paris was supposed to leave shortly after midnight, so we thought we were golden since the park closed after Disney Dreams at 10:30. However, when we got to the train station, it was locked, dark, and clearly closed for the night. There was no explanation we could find anywhere on the website with the train schedules. There was also a big freeway closure that day, so our only thought was that the unexpected closure also affected the train. We still haven't found a reason for the change. So anyway, we ended up taking a taxi back to Paris, which cost 120 Euro, on top of the unusable return RER tickets. Not the best end to the night, but we weren't willing to figure out the bus system at that hour and weren't sure how safe it was to go that far by bus at night, etc. So perhaps have a backup transportation plan if you use the trains!

    Pin trading: I only did this a few times, because my French is AWFUL and I was a little intimidated approaching CMs who might or might not speak English. I did encounter a few differences from pin trading in Anahaim -- one CM told me that he got to pick the pin off of my lanyard (vice me trading him whatever I wanted). None of the others did that, so I'm not sure if that's the norm or not. I also found a pin trading board at one store, and there was a regular part of the board that you could trade "anything for anything", and a limited edition part of the board that you could only trade limited edition pins on. I was also rebuffed by one CM completely -- she was wearing a lanyard near World of Disney in the Disney village. I asked if I could see her pins, and she looked confused and said, "These are mine! They're limited edition," and kept walking. Woops! Guess things work a little differently there...

    Overall: My husband and I both loved it. The thought and detail that were put into the park are clear everywhere you look, and it was fun to look for the differences from our parks in Anaheim. Visiting during the week made our visit even more awesome; I highly recommend going on a low-crowd day to be able to appreciate all the details without feeling rushed or having to wait too long for anything. The only negatives were really that people are allowed to smoke everywhere (not in the lines at least, but the moment you exit an attraction, people are lighting back up) and our transportation snafu. I think I would have enjoyed two days just to repeat some attractions and go on a few more that we didn't budget the time for, but I feel like we got a lot out of our single day. Yay Disneyland Paris!


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    Nice report, and sounds like a great day (end of day return notwithstanding). The one thing you said that I'll disagree with regards Big Thunder Mountain--we found the Paris version to be far superior to any others in the world and by the far the best coaster in the park. It's quite a big longer and faster, and SMOOTHER! Because I will agree 100% about Paris' Space Mountain being headache-inducing and Temple du Peril being intense but short and haphazardly-themed. And Crush's Coaster is super-fun, isn't it?! I hope they bring that one to the States one of these days...

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    Registered User anniedg's Avatar
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    Great summary of the resort! I really appreciated the info on the Studios, Crush's Coaster sounds great. We got to go in May too. My family has always known if we're ever in Paris (even for a day I used to say!) that I'm heading to DLP! We also had only one day and took the quick 30 min RER ride from Paris. We decided to just do the Disneyland Park and skip the Studios (I'll get there next time!). I thought it was such a neat feeling to be in a Disney park that definitely felt Disney, but was all new to me at the same time.

    I'm with you on most of the rides. We LOVED Phantom Manor, it's our favorite of the Haunted Mansions we've been on. Also, Adventure Island was fantastic. My boys especially liked that their Pirates does not have the Captain Jack additions. Their Space Mountain is so cool looking from the outside, but I also didn't care for the ride as much, too rough for this gal. I loved how BTMRR was on it's own island, sadly it was down for refurbishment when we were there though. My sons used to be huge 20,000 Leagues fans so they loved the Nautilus walk-through. One of my favorite little things was The Old Mill snack stop next to the Labyrinth.

    We found that virtually all cast members spoke English which was a lifesaver for me. My one French phrase is "I'm so sorry I don't speak French,do you speak English?" I thought it was interesting that rides tended to be a mix of English and French. Overall we had such a fun day and absolutely loved the park. The only downside for us was that we were there on a very cool day with rain off and on .. the upside was that there were virtually no crowds.

    And my favorite thing of all was the Disney Dreams show, just as you described, it was fantastic!

    Thanks for the report.

    ~Annie

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