Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios 6/6/2024

[DoomPlague]

Some family encouraged me to check out Disneyland Paris during my Europe trip and a couple of us ended up going. I only have vague memories of going to Disney World in the 80s, so perhaps it was time but making my first trip in that time at a park where everything is in French...felt a bit strange. I had heard Walt Disney Studios is the weakest of the Disney parks, so I decided to get 1 park tickets, especially since Disney Paris pulls in around 10 million guests a year and would likely be crowded. Well...it turns out that students in much of France and Germany are still in school until late June or later...

Disneyland Paris 
We get to the park and make our way to the Frontier area and check out Phantom Manor. It's Haunted Mansion but with a more frontier setting. Frankly, I loved it. Top tier dark ride...and the wait was only 5 minutes.

-Big Thunder Mountain. Maybe 15 minute wait. Decently smooth Vekoma mine train with great scenery and decently smooth. I barely remember BTMR at Magic Kingdom and can't really compare.

-POTC was closed but we rode Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. An old Intamin looper. It has annoying OTSRs and little leg room and its a bit rough. Not a great ride. The next time someone trashes the choice of going with Zamperla for TT2, I'm going to remind them that this is the kind of ride Intamin made before they made their first 400+ foot LSM coaster.

-Hyperspace Mountain: I had low expectations and it failed to meet them. The OTSR was uncomfortable and the ride was rougher than expected. On the outside it still looks like a Jules Verne ride, so the tacked on Star Wars theme just feels, well, tacky.

-As far as the non-coasters. Star Tours was all in French (most other attractions have English and French. I guess you can sometimes get it in English instead? I've never done the US version so it was kind of fun.

-Dark rides: We did the Snow White, Peter Pan, and Pinocchio rides. I felt some memories come back to me on Peter Pan. But were these rides always so fast? The vehicles blew through the attractions. Also checked out It's a Small World. I felt some nostalgia for that awful, repeating song. Buzz Lightyear Laserblast was decent but I mostly prefer non-interactive dark rides.

-We also checked out the walk through attractions like Alice in Wonderland's hedge maze (probably more fun with kids), the Swiss Family Robinson one (alright), Aladdin (not worth your time), the Nautilus (cool) and the dragon sleeping under Sleeping Beauty's Castle (cool).

We did everything I wanted to check out and all of the major rides other than flat rides (like Dumbo) by 4:30 (without fast pass or "Premier Access" as its called there). I ended up asking to upgrade my ticket to do Walt Disney Studios and the cost of doing that turned out to be cheaper than if I got the 2-park ticket to begin with.

Walt Disney Studios:
-We headed towards Twilight Zone Tower of Terror which had the longest line of the day and the time on the app was pretty far off. Probably waited an hour but it was fun. I've heard its a bit different than the other versions and its in both English and French.

-Avengers Assemble Flight Force. This is Rock n Rollercoaster converted into an avengers ride. Not sure which I dislike more between this and Hyperspace. I can't believe people trash Flight of Fear when these rough old-Vekoma's exist with their bad restraints.

-Spiderman Web Adventure. An interactive projection ride. Honestly, this was more fun than I was expecting. Reminds me of some of the motion VR games I've played.

-Crush's Coaster. Got this barely before Walt Disney Studios closes (it closed at 9 where Disneyland closed at 11). Fun little Maurer spinner. It might be my favorite coaster in the 2 parks.

-RC Racer. An Intamin surf coaster. It was okay. Feels more like a flat ride than a coaster.

-Cars Road Trip. It became immediately obvious that this was a studio tour tram ride, complete with a scene with a semi, earthquake, fire and a flood of water. Still, it wasn't bad.

-Ratatouille: Heard many things about this ride but wasn't sure what to expect. It was definitely one of the more fun experiences.

In all, I was glad that we got to do both parks and all the attractions that I wanted to hit (sans Pirates). The studios park honestly isn't horrible. It just needs...more. Seems like they're doing some major work as there were construction walls everywhere.

[johnjniehaus]

Sounds like an interesting park for sure! You mentioned that Big Thunder Mountain was Vekoma but isn't the one at Disneyworld Arrow? I'd be curious how they compare if they were indeed built by two different manufacturers...?

[Tr0y]

56 minutes ago, johnjniehaus said:

Sounds like an interesting park for sure! You mentioned that Big Thunder Mountain was Vekoma but isn't the one at Disneyworld Arrow? I'd be curious how they compare if they were indeed built by two different manufacturers...?

The one in Disneyland California is Arrow, Disneyworld is Vekoma.

[TombRaiderFTW]

I believe you've got that backwards.

EDIT: Ignore me. I thought we were talking about Space Mountain.

[Kenban]

4 hours ago, Tr0y said:

The one in Disneyland California is Arrow, Disneyworld is Vekoma.

For Big Thunder Mountain, both Disneyland and Disney World, had the original rides built by Arrow.  Disneyland had the coaster retracked a few years ago by Dynamic Attractions.  This thread is about Paris though, and that is the version built by Vekoma.

What is special about Paris is not the manufacturer, but where the ride is located.  The park does not have Tom Sawyer island, but it still has the river, island, paddle boat, etc.  There is a drop out of the station into a tunnel that takes you under the river and the lift hill and the ride itself happens out on the island.

At Disneyland Paris the park has I believe four roller coasters, and three of those are built by Vekoma.  I always thought their version of space mountain was the most unique.  It is the only version of space mountain with a launch and inversions.