Disneyland Resort Paris - 30/03/09 - 03/04/09 Big PTR

[marc]

There is speaking in Snow White and Pinochhio by the characters as you go round.

I am not complaining about it I am just saying its not in English, but at the back of the room I can not read the subtitles I am little and can not see over peoples heads . The shaft part does not bother me as I am more worried about the drop lol.

As one of my mates says he does not have a clue what the story is on the Haunted Manor so did not enjoy the ride the 1st time. He looked up the story so enjoyed it more the 2nd time.

From what I have seen from peoples trips to Japan they give you translation things for rides not in English.

Anyway the park is in France so its a bit selfish to expect things in English, but I can see why people who I work with complain when they say their kids did not enjoy it as they did not understand things. But as I said before it has got better.

 

[peep]

Oh, didn't see the photos of Fantasyland on the other page (I was confused about the change in conversation lol).

Nice pics again. Ha, yeah Casey Jr has the best ride soundtrack ever! I may get round to uploading my HD on ride video with the music one day

 

[Screaming Coasters]

Ollie Peter Pan, Snow White, Star Tours, ToT are never in English they have been French from day 1.

Tower of Terror can do French, English and Spanish.
I've had several English rides on it as the hosts scope out the ratio of nationalities in the pre-show, which has also been in English.

Star Tours is half and half, Peter Pan doesn't even speak, Snow white doesn't do much talking either...

Phantom Manor used to run in English until they discovered that there are more French goers than British, so they stopped it.

 

[Crazycoaster]

Part 6 - Discoveryland

Now for the final themed zone in Disneyland Park, Paris; Discoveryland.

See.

The entrance is flanked by volcanic looking rocks.

And pretty rock pools.

Looking back towards the Hub.

On the right hand side we have a monument to Jules Verne.

Aand on the left we have Buzz Lightyear.

I found this version much more enjoyable to the florida one. Mainly because of the better target reactions and unattached guns. Plus I kicked ass.

Next door is Constellations.. a store. Storewise, Florida was much better in terms of product and store range, I found that in Paris, once you'd been to one store you'd been to all.

It has a funky plaque on the side..

Next up we have Orbitron. Average ride which forces you to move your carriage up all the way to avoid painful laterals.

Very similar picture but different light and shizz..

Far off shot which also shows the next part..

Videopolis.

This large blimp/derigable/zeppelin/airship is called the Hyperion.

From the Jules Verne / old Disney film 'Island at the top of the World'

Contains a quick service (that wasn't very quick..) and a big screen theatre that currently shows Mickey Mouse Cartoons, but I believe is also used for shows.

Side view...

Hello Hyperion!

It has a gondola. Yay.

Airship butt.

This place has friggin' cool Condiment stands.

And drinks machines..

The main ride of the area is Space Mountain - Mission 2.

See.

The original concept for this ride was MUCH bigger. Originally called Discovery Mountain, the structure would contain a space mountain coaster, along with the Nautilus, a french version of Horizons off of Epcot.

It would have linked to Videopolis through two large tunnels, which would have gone here. Due to budget constraints, we got the ride we see today.

http://disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2007/04/disneyland-paris-discoveryland-project.html
More information and concept art can be found here.

Paris has a much better version of Space mountain to the rest of the rides. It launches you out of the Cannon 'Colombiad'.

Moody type shot..

KA-BOOOMY

I think its trying to compensate for something with such a large gun.

Random theming inside.

Cool lights.

One thing I will say though, the safety videos shown during the ride queue, and the whole of the dark section of queueline don't really seem to fit in with the rest of the whole idea of the ride IMO, they work with the other futuristic space mountains, but it sort of spoils it a tad for me. The safety video should have been done by a man in a top hat. With an immense mustache!!

It has a double loading station.

The train goes VERY VERY FAST =O

Peaky-boo Castle!

Next is Autopia. The californian and Parisian versions of this car ride have much more complex layouts compared to the Tokyo or Floridian versions, and have more to see along the way.

This ride had awful queues. And for some reason only opened at 11.30 instead of when the park opened?

Brrrmmmmmmmm!!!

Slooow loading.

Brrrrrrrrrr-a-brrrrrrrrr! Sckreeeeee!!! *pretends to be driving really fast*

The Mysteries of the Nautilus. This is a walkthrough attraction of the Nautilus submarine off of Disney's version of 20,000 leagues under the sea. CLOSED ='(

Nice view of Discoveryland.

Here be the Nautilus yarr.

A sign..

The Nautilus.. FROM THE OTHER SIDE!!

A bridge..

Crazy lamppost.

Star Tours. Even worse to the Floridian version.

Don't ride.

They had some crazy ass stitch dance show with colourful circles.. It was very camp.

VERY VERY camp..

Pizza Planet eatery type thing, located just outside of the train boundary.

Home to the Pizza burger. Have one and you might just get a random free hot drink.

Honey I shrunk the audience. Saw it in Florida and didnt want to see it again here. I don't like this and Star Tours in Discoveryland, I don't think they fit in very well.

We got the train from here. It took friggin' ages!

Tower of Terror looms in the distance.

Now I have a load of pictures of the Dreams of stuff coming true parade or whatever it is, But i assume most people won't really want to see them? So the next part may just be the Walt Disney Studios. Probably smooshed into one update as the park has much less of its neighbour parks detail.

I also have a bunch of pictures of my hotel, The Santa Fe, would anyone like an update on that or should I not bother?

Oh also an update on Frontierland, I just saw a piece of concept art for a potential new water ride for the area, instead of the heavily Songs of the South Splash Mountain, they may be adding a version of Grizzly River Run off of DCA. Artwork found here:

http://www.photosmagiques.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6878

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

So that's what those walls next to Star Tours were for... Good lord...

Grizzly River Run is amazing... So that would be a decent addition to the park which is still crying out for more water rides...

Although in all honesty I think a log flume would be more suiter to Frontierland and a rapids to Adventureland but that's more of my wanting a Jungle Book themed Rapids :lol:

I miss Space Mountain You got smoke as well which is very unfair...

 

[Crazycoaster]

We got the smoke effect, but sadly not the cannon moving. If you look in the pictures the cannon was in a folded away position the whole time.

You can see here how much longer the cannon should be under normal opperation.

 

[nadroJ]

I want updates of everything! I love the whole resort it's just amazing. I find it so much more stylish than the Orlando version, though you are very right about the shops, they all sold the same things!

As much as I'd love Splash Mountain at DLP it's completely ruin the whole story of the area. It's a mining town, with dead miner ghosts and runaway trains, and racist cartoons that are banned in the USA........yes, sounds great.

To be honest I'd love to see Disney do a completely custom rapids or log flume for Frontierland, I get a bit bored of replica rides that I've seen in other parks. They have the ability to wow us and I'm sure they won't have a budget problem.

Also sort out Star Tours/HISTA. Both are extremely dated and have nothing to do with Jules Verne.

 

[Crazycoaster]

^ I agree. Apparently a Star Tours 2 is in the distant works, but Paris is waiting until one of the other resorts coughs up the R&D money so it can copy it for cheap.

I've always been a bit skeptical on the Splash mountain idea for Paris, I don't think it would really fit in at all with the rest of the seriousness of the place. The only place I'd heard of SotS was in a sing along disney video I had as a kid that had Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Da in it. Alot of people seem to be thinking that the rapids will be far too wet for the climate, but Disney have proven before that they can edit these rides to deal with different levels of wetness.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

They could always have the Log Flume with a theme fitting Frontierland?

How I don't know, but that's why I'm not an Imagineer :lol:

 

[peep]

I prefer the idea of that rapids ride coming to DLRP than Splash Mountain. I just hope they give it something original theme-wise. Btw Benin I envision Jungle Book more as a log flume or river ride, but yeah Adventureland NEEDS something Jungle Book themed.

Once again you have some nice pics in your TR, especially with the smoke on Space. I tend to always take the photo one moment too late.

I quite like Star Tours for some odd reason, needs effects ajusted and seats renewed at least. Whether it will get this rumoured Star Tours 2 is a whole new subject.

 

[marc]

They probably wont update Star Tours until Star Tours 2 is ready, but DLP wont be getting that for some time as the translation needs to be done. I think we read it would be about 2 years after the other parks get Star Tours 2.

Tbh I have only been on Star Tours once in Paris as I have done the ride so much in Orlando, so I have no idea what state its in.

If they get a rapids ride I hope its like the one in California and not the Animal Kingdom. The park does need another big high capacity ride as weekends there are hell.

Paris needs a Toon Town, that would add to the park and would please younger kids and families.

 

[Ollie]

What was your hotel like? I saw it when driving passed to mine and I thought it looked really ugly from the outside.
Our hotel Cheyenne (sp?) was great. Disney do amazing all you can eat breakfasts. <3

 

[Crazycoaster]

The Santa Fe is definitely the most basic of the Disney hotels in paris, and its was quite a shocking difference to the hotel I stayed in when I went to Florida (Animal Kingdom Lodge). But we got what we paid for really. We wanted to go for the cheapest resort as we knew we wouldn't be spending all that much time in the hotel itself.

Staying there a few days you did start to notice some of its run-down looking charms, and taking a look around it, its nice to see some of the stories the designers put into it. There are four sections of buildings, each named after a different animal (snake, fish, roadrunner and Buffalo) and each section had a theme running through it. For example the fish had many streams and flowing water.

The buffet restaurant also did an AMAZING breakfast, we filled up every morning and nicked a bunch of rolls for lunch lol. The theming was definately best inside the restaurant, with lots of little details here and there. I'd go as far as saying the free breakfast was better than the £20 buffet dinner. I went right off of this when they charged us £6 for two cans of coke.

But yeah, Im not really sure why they picked the barren roads of route 66 as a hotel theme as it makes the place look so empty and abandoned almost, but I suppose thats why its the cheapest one to stay at. I shall show some pictures of the hotel along with the parade in a joint Part 7.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Hotel New York is lush...

Especially when it was only £600 odd quid for 3 nights with all the breakfast and tickets included over half term...

I wanna go back

 

[peep]

^OMG, that morning buffet is awesome. The person who greeted us was really cool too, I think that made my morning when I stayed there

It's definitely not the nicest place to stay. I always stay in Val D'Europe as it's soooo much cheaper and is the same sort of room.

 

[nadroJ]

I've stayed at Santa Fe twice, Davy Crockett's once and a Best Western in Val D'Europe. The Best Western had such an amazing breakfast *drooool*

Davy Crockett's was nice as that time I went we stayed for 5 days so it was nice to have a break from the parks and go in the hotel pool etc.

I really like Santa Fe though, nice rooms, nice breakfast, nice theme (as with all things Disney). I just think the DLP resort does a fab job with everything (apart from stupid Star Tours and HISTA crapping up Discoveryland) It's my favourite Disney park are Disney Hollywood Studios <3

 

[marc]

The last time we went we stayed in the main hotel that over looks the park, its stunning in there one of the best if not the best hotel I have ever stayed at.

In the past I have stayed at some others, did you guys pay for the upgrade breakfast? as its normally just rolls and stuff like that.

Discovery Land is hum well, again dont know. The left side of the park is a lot better than the right side thats for sure. I like the area as it has space but I 100% prefer Orlando and California in this area, if it was not for Space Mountain I would probably not even enter the land. HISTA just does not belong there neither does the Lion King show (Even though its good). I just feel the other parks are a bit more intergrated even though I know this area was meant to be different. But at night time Discovery Land is stunning the lights are just amazing. Hope you understand what I mean.

 

[Crazycoaster]

^ We snuck into the main hotel to have a look around, and IMO the outside of it looks so much prettier to the inside. Im not sure about the rooms but as for the lobby and everything I found it a bit plain.

Also it felt like you had to take off your shoes at the entrance..

 

[marc]

Did you go upstairs and look at all the detail in there?

I agree about the lobby area.

 

[peep]

Lion King show (Even though its good).

The Lion King has been cancelled due to the new Mickey party rubbish for this season. I can't remember if it's returning after the celebration or not.

I've only seen pictures of the rooms from the Disneyland hotel, looks amazing. Then again for the money you pay for it you expect it to be good.