Disneyland Paris Not The Park You Are Expecting






I had been dreaming about going to Disneyland Paris for a quarter of a century. I remember seeing the opening day special on TV and hoping I could go someday. I know it was 25 years because I went  for the 25th anniversary.

The park is beautiful, but beyond that it does not have much going for it. When I went tons of rides were breaking down. Space Mountain had relaunched as Star Wars: Hyperspace Mountain about 6 months earlier but still clearly had kinks to work out as it would open only to close again repeatedly throughout the day. Thunder Mountain was down most of the day. Other smaller attractions also had closures in the park.

Across the way at Walt Disney Studios Park things were about the same. The Tram Tour was down a good amount of the time I was visiting. I was fortunate to get to ride it right before heading back to Disneyland though. The Tower of Terror was down almost the entire time I was in the park.

Maintenance seems to be a big problem at both parks. These were not scheduled days off either these were days they were supposed to be running.



One of my other main problems with traveling to Disneyland Paris is there are few rides. Frontierland has Thunder Mountain and the Phantom Manor and that is it. They are not even close to each other. At the park you do a lot of traveling to get from one attraction to another. Going to the Indiana Jones attraction felt like you were really going deep into the jungle after a 5-10 minute trek to get to it as it is all alone. The Pirates of the Caribbean is the only other ride in Adventureland.

The park has some things going for it. It is beautiful and fully immersive. There is a store in Fantasyland that has and entire exterior of Snow White's Cottage. There are lots of walkthrough attractions including The Mysteries of the Nautilus and The Dragon's Lair being the most notable. Each land has at least one walkthrough. However a bunch of walkthroughs are no match for some actual rides.



One other positive I will mention is Star Wars: Hyperspace Mountain was by far my favorite. I never was able to ride any of the other versions and I know some prefer the older versions but the version I rode was by far my favorite Space Mountain.



The Walt Disney Studios Park had many copied attractions which were often inferior to their original.  The high level of immersion is lost when you travel to this park. There are some areas that theming is done well but most of the park looks like a movie studios with a bunch of soundstage. It looks like they were just trying to be cheap and make the fastest cheapest buildings they could.



I was not impressed with any of their original attractions. I do acknowledge that the Ratatouille attraction has its fans but I am not one of them. It is better then some parks that use only projection screens and nothing else but that is not saying much. The area is well themed though. The one good thing about the second gate is the price. It was only about $5 extra to add it onto my pass and the tickets are cheaper in Paris then the US so it was not a bad deal. I would not spend the money on the Studio Park by itself though.

I sadly was disappointed in the parks I still would go back but I would not make it a priority. The biggest problem is I have to travel to Paris to get there.

That was my experience but what was yours. Did you have a good time, bad time, or somewhere in the middle? Please feel free to comment below and let use know what you think!

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