Last year we planned on going to Europa Park for 40th-birthday-of_furie. It took a lot of arguing and convincing to make it Europa instead of Disney. The park is a better family park in terms of attractions, it's quieter, more efficient and still gorgeous.
However, the boiler broke, so we had to downscale from Europa Park to Scarborough, where Madame_Furie wanted to go.
This year it was decided - as Madame_Furie had only gone to Cannock for her 40th birthday - that she would get to pick the holiday destination this year. So she chose DLRP :roll: :lol:
I suggested Florida, but she likes France. I also suggested Scarborough, but apparently that's a **** place to have a 40th birthday holiday
We've been to DLRP twice, back in 2001 and 2004. The second time the Studio Park had only just opened, but there's been a lot added there since. The main park has just gained the Buzz Lightyear ride.
So, it was time to see if the stunning park of 2004 had degraded as much as was promised, and is the Studio Park as awful as people seem to think...
Obligatory shot in front of the entrance of Step-Sister-In-Law_Furie and Maxi-Minor_Furie. It looks good. It's a little weathered, but it's sparkly and exciting. MMF is beside himself with excitement by this point.
I wish I'd made a note of what time we arrived*, but it was early afternoon, sunny and exciting!
The hotel still looks lovely. Everything looks good so far... The only real disappointment is the baggage check area between the station and the village/entrances. Still - if it keeps out the riff raff....
Equally as obligatory shot in front of the castle. The park was busy, really busy. Okay it's a bank holiday and we were expecting it, but it heaved and heaved...
I love the complexity of the castle, the complexity of the theming as a whole. It's superb and I can't see why everyone complains so much about the park?
I always head to Frontierland first, because I love it. The scale of Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor up on the hill side. The entire area is great.
Winnie the Pooh makes Phantom Manor much scarier!
We grabbed Phantom Manor as it only had a five minute queue. Everything else was 60 minutes plus. I thought it was a bit naff. I remember it being really good, but for some reason I was massively disappointed. It's really plastic and "meh". Lots of dead spaces (harhar) and not much going on. A couple of highlights don't really make up for the entire thing. I'll come back to this later
I loved the Spring Time displays in the centre area in front of the castle. It's this kind of thing that really sets the park apart from others I've been too. There's such a lot of effort.
Important things though, meeting up with Sister-of-madame_furie, nephew-three-of-Madame_Furie and fiance-of-sister-of-Madame_furie and.... COASTER FIFTY FOR MMF!
I loved the original Space Mountain. Not so much for the ride, but for the whole experience. I loved the entire theme and the way the ride worked so well with the music and images. It was a brilliant ride, with a mediocre coaster.
MMF is trying not to show that he's pooing himself in terror at the ride. It looks big and loud and potentially scary. I spent half the (40 minute by now - phew) queue calming him down. Fortunately you rush through the indoor bit once they've let you into the building.
Oh look - I see head banging in my future...
I found the ride surprisingly smooth for a looping Vekoma. I didn't get battered at all - it was fine. Awful though - what have done to the brilliant ride experience??? Why make such a devastating change to the ride? A ride that was a work of art to this travesty? Dreadful.
MMF loved it, really, really enjoyed it. He wasn't keen when I told him he'd inverted as he's terrified of doing inversions. That's got that out of the way anyway, as the inversions were his favourite bit. He also didn't get too bashed about.
SSIL_Furie did however and came of complaining that if she wasn't already deaf, she would have been after the battering her ears had just undergone.
We met up with the extended family who were half an hour ahead of of us on Space Mountain. They all hated the ride and had got properly beaten up by it. Haha! Smug!
We then headed for Star Tours and allowed the entire queue thing to sink in. It's horrendous the sheer amount of queueing. I was expecting it, but even so, it was bad. Again, I'll cover that more as we go through the week.
This looks rubbish now that Eva's bush has grown out. It feels very 70's.
I should have taken more care of my shot of the X-Wing, but I was tired and looking at an hour queue for Star Tours...
IT'S A TRAP!
Lots of Star Tours photos, as we had a lot of time to take them...
"I'm bored! Do a Jarrett!!!"
Tired now and hungry after 4 hours in the park and three rides, we hit Rainforest Cafe for dinner. MMF loves visiting his real father there:
I was now feeling like DLRP was draining my time, my energy and definitely my money. Yet there's still something about the place that kind of drags you in. I had a long conversation with FOSOM_Furie about how DLRP is pretty much all kids rides and it's a miserable place for adults.
On the way back into the main park, we stopped off at the Town Hall to see what they could do for SSIL_Furie, as she's got problems standing for long periods and falls over in dark queues. She got a disabled pass to go on rides via the exit. I love coming in the exit, so I was happy with this.
We tried it first on Buzz Lightyear thingy ma doodab
We went through the exit and to the station, to be turned around by the ride op who frog marched us back to a gate we'd passed through, checked the card SSIL_Furie was holding and then frog marched us back to the station.
This was very common we discovered. The disabled access is hidden near the exit and barriered off. You are supposed to wait until some kind of psychic signal alerts a ride op to come down to see if there's somebody there and then they bring you to the ride after filling out what looks like a game of disability lottery on a card on a clipboard. It worked well on some rides, but others you would just stand there for five minutes, then have to go and get shouted at by a ride op to get back. Then the op would come and attend to you and be all polite. It's a very odd system, but better than massive queues
I love Discoveryland in the dark, Orbitron especially
It's so funky and Steam Punk!
Autopia doesn't run in the dark, but it looks fab!
We finished the day with a slightly side on view of Disney Dreams. It looked superb, but a bit wonky. It's a brilliant idea though and it really finished the day off.
Here's the castle just before the show started:
And that was it for Day 1! We slunk back to the hotel (Cheyenne) to collect our bags and bed down for the night. Slightly underwhelming first day to be honest, but there was a lot of promise too.
Day 2 involves mostly the Studios park... I'll write that when I get a chance.
*
However, the boiler broke, so we had to downscale from Europa Park to Scarborough, where Madame_Furie wanted to go.
This year it was decided - as Madame_Furie had only gone to Cannock for her 40th birthday - that she would get to pick the holiday destination this year. So she chose DLRP :roll: :lol:
I suggested Florida, but she likes France. I also suggested Scarborough, but apparently that's a **** place to have a 40th birthday holiday
We've been to DLRP twice, back in 2001 and 2004. The second time the Studio Park had only just opened, but there's been a lot added there since. The main park has just gained the Buzz Lightyear ride.
So, it was time to see if the stunning park of 2004 had degraded as much as was promised, and is the Studio Park as awful as people seem to think...
Obligatory shot in front of the entrance of Step-Sister-In-Law_Furie and Maxi-Minor_Furie. It looks good. It's a little weathered, but it's sparkly and exciting. MMF is beside himself with excitement by this point.
I wish I'd made a note of what time we arrived*, but it was early afternoon, sunny and exciting!
The hotel still looks lovely. Everything looks good so far... The only real disappointment is the baggage check area between the station and the village/entrances. Still - if it keeps out the riff raff....
Equally as obligatory shot in front of the castle. The park was busy, really busy. Okay it's a bank holiday and we were expecting it, but it heaved and heaved...
I love the complexity of the castle, the complexity of the theming as a whole. It's superb and I can't see why everyone complains so much about the park?
I always head to Frontierland first, because I love it. The scale of Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor up on the hill side. The entire area is great.
Winnie the Pooh makes Phantom Manor much scarier!
We grabbed Phantom Manor as it only had a five minute queue. Everything else was 60 minutes plus. I thought it was a bit naff. I remember it being really good, but for some reason I was massively disappointed. It's really plastic and "meh". Lots of dead spaces (harhar) and not much going on. A couple of highlights don't really make up for the entire thing. I'll come back to this later
I loved the Spring Time displays in the centre area in front of the castle. It's this kind of thing that really sets the park apart from others I've been too. There's such a lot of effort.
Important things though, meeting up with Sister-of-madame_furie, nephew-three-of-Madame_Furie and fiance-of-sister-of-Madame_furie and.... COASTER FIFTY FOR MMF!
I loved the original Space Mountain. Not so much for the ride, but for the whole experience. I loved the entire theme and the way the ride worked so well with the music and images. It was a brilliant ride, with a mediocre coaster.
MMF is trying not to show that he's pooing himself in terror at the ride. It looks big and loud and potentially scary. I spent half the (40 minute by now - phew) queue calming him down. Fortunately you rush through the indoor bit once they've let you into the building.
Oh look - I see head banging in my future...
I found the ride surprisingly smooth for a looping Vekoma. I didn't get battered at all - it was fine. Awful though - what have done to the brilliant ride experience??? Why make such a devastating change to the ride? A ride that was a work of art to this travesty? Dreadful.
MMF loved it, really, really enjoyed it. He wasn't keen when I told him he'd inverted as he's terrified of doing inversions. That's got that out of the way anyway, as the inversions were his favourite bit. He also didn't get too bashed about.
SSIL_Furie did however and came of complaining that if she wasn't already deaf, she would have been after the battering her ears had just undergone.
We met up with the extended family who were half an hour ahead of of us on Space Mountain. They all hated the ride and had got properly beaten up by it. Haha! Smug!
We then headed for Star Tours and allowed the entire queue thing to sink in. It's horrendous the sheer amount of queueing. I was expecting it, but even so, it was bad. Again, I'll cover that more as we go through the week.
This looks rubbish now that Eva's bush has grown out. It feels very 70's.
I should have taken more care of my shot of the X-Wing, but I was tired and looking at an hour queue for Star Tours...
IT'S A TRAP!
Lots of Star Tours photos, as we had a lot of time to take them...
"I'm bored! Do a Jarrett!!!"
Tired now and hungry after 4 hours in the park and three rides, we hit Rainforest Cafe for dinner. MMF loves visiting his real father there:
I was now feeling like DLRP was draining my time, my energy and definitely my money. Yet there's still something about the place that kind of drags you in. I had a long conversation with FOSOM_Furie about how DLRP is pretty much all kids rides and it's a miserable place for adults.
On the way back into the main park, we stopped off at the Town Hall to see what they could do for SSIL_Furie, as she's got problems standing for long periods and falls over in dark queues. She got a disabled pass to go on rides via the exit. I love coming in the exit, so I was happy with this.
We tried it first on Buzz Lightyear thingy ma doodab
We went through the exit and to the station, to be turned around by the ride op who frog marched us back to a gate we'd passed through, checked the card SSIL_Furie was holding and then frog marched us back to the station.
This was very common we discovered. The disabled access is hidden near the exit and barriered off. You are supposed to wait until some kind of psychic signal alerts a ride op to come down to see if there's somebody there and then they bring you to the ride after filling out what looks like a game of disability lottery on a card on a clipboard. It worked well on some rides, but others you would just stand there for five minutes, then have to go and get shouted at by a ride op to get back. Then the op would come and attend to you and be all polite. It's a very odd system, but better than massive queues
I love Discoveryland in the dark, Orbitron especially
It's so funky and Steam Punk!
Autopia doesn't run in the dark, but it looks fab!
We finished the day with a slightly side on view of Disney Dreams. It looked superb, but a bit wonky. It's a brilliant idea though and it really finished the day off.
Here's the castle just before the show started:
And that was it for Day 1! We slunk back to the hotel (Cheyenne) to collect our bags and bed down for the night. Slightly underwhelming first day to be honest, but there was a lot of promise too.
Day 2 involves mostly the Studios park... I'll write that when I get a chance.
*