First Disney trip with kids - DAY TWO: DLP, dinner disaster and Studios maze

[Ollie]

Back home from a 5 day trip to Disneyland Paris with our two girls. Now that they're getting older (5 & 9) they're at the age now where we can start looking at theme parks for family days out. Did Legoland earlier in the year which they both loved and recently surprised them with a 5 day trip to Disneyland Paris over half term.

This trip report is mostly going to focus on what it's like to travel from England to Disney, the days at the parks and all the extra bits we did to make the trip as magical as we could for the girls. Some of the ride orders may be slightly out of order as we bounced around the parks a lot.

Anyway lets start with:

DAY ONE: TRAVEL AND DISNEYLAND PARK: Step count 19,045

We'd stayed at a hotel near Kings Cross the night before as we wanted to be at the station by 6am to get through security and passport control ready for the first Eurostar of the day. The hotel was one of the weirdest Travelodges I've stayed at with our room essentially being in the basement with a window looking up to the dirty and police siren filled streets above. The guy at the desk was friendly though and gave the girls some chocolate as we checked in.

After getting up at 5am, we showered, got all our bags and suitcases ready for travel and made the short walk past the small army of beggars over to St Pancras. Passport control and security was a breeze as we were there so early so didn't have to queue. So we grabbed some overpriced croissants for breakfast from the food place to get into French mode. We sat down and chilled whilst other passengers started filtering in and filling up the seats. Just like at an airport, as soon as our gate/platform number appeared on the screen everyone dashed up like they'd brought out the yellow sticker foods at Tesco and pushed their way onto the platform.

We were lucky for both our journeys on the Eurostar we ended up with a table seat. Depending on if you get the newer or older trains there's only 2 table seats per carriage so if you get one you feel like royalty getting to spread out whilst everyone is staring into the back of the headrest in front contemplating what they've done with their life. Our seats were moved a few days before travelling out (luckily still a table seat in another carriage) so if you're travelling via Eurostar keep an eye on your booking to see if it changes.
The train was huge and long so it can be quite a walk along the platform if your carriage is down the end. There's only a single door going into each coach so if you know your seat is down the other end it may be quicker to get on the carriage next to it and walk through the door connecting the coaches.

Anyway, we were soon departing on time and I hurriedly reached into my hand luggage to grab my rubber duck and rushed to the toilet to flush it down into the suction cup of doom but soon had my dreams crushed.

The train journey went smoothly, the seats were comfy and the girls were entertained with snacks and colouring books we had got them. I tried not to wince too much each time they coloured outside the lines. We arrived on time in Gare du Nord station in Paris for the next leg of our journey. A thing to be aware of in Paris and Disney is the amount of pickpockets. We read loads of horror stories before travelling so took precautions by padlocking all our bags and making sure we had nothing in our pockets. Even so, we've heard stories of people having their bags cut open and items stolen from them in the station so be wary. There were definitely a lot of shady characters around as we went though the station that were obviously pickpockets. Going round by themselves, standing in corners watching people and signaling targets to each other. As long as your attentive and looking around often and keeping your items secure and close you'll be fine.

As soon as we got off the Eurostar we got hounded by taxi drivers trying to herd people into their cabs. As we knew the cost of a Taxi from Gare du Nord to Disneyland was upwards of €100 we had already planned to take the RER train instead which worked out about €7.50 each and got us there in half the time. There's limited ticket machines so the queues can get quite long. But once you get to it it's simple enough to change the language to English, and if you click on the tourism button the station for Disneyland Paris comes up straight away. The tickets are very small and easy to lose so keep them safe as you'll need them both ends. We ended up helping the other family in front as they were struggling to find the station using the search bar. After the awkward interaction we were hoping they weren't going to become one of those families you keep bumping in to during your stay.

The RER journey was super simple and straight forward. You go through the ticket barriers and down onto the platform for B and D lines (they're right next to each other) and hop on the first train that arrives for one stop to Châtelet Les Halles. From here you just walk across the platform to the A line and get on the first train that goes to Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy. It even has a little Mickey Mouse symbol next to it to make it easier. Once on this train it's just a straight 40 minute journey to the end of the line where you arrive at Disneyland Paris.
The trains themselves are cool as they're double decker, so the kids (and me) obviously wanted to go on the top floor. It's easy to track where you are with constant announcements for each station and little lights appear on the maps to show where you are and which station is next.

We quickly arrived at Disneyland Paris and the train station brings you out right by the gates to both parks and the Disney Village. Our first stop was to go to our hotel to drop our bags off and pick up our Magic Passes. This is where we first encountered one of the main gripes with Disneyland Paris. Lack of signage. The way into the Disney Village said exit only so we wandered round trying to find the way in. We ended up walking down a path towards the bus station where we were approached by several people loitering around by the station trying to scam you with money or attempt to pickpocket you. It had also started raining at this point so we felt right at home coming from Britain. Once we reached the dead end we turned around and saw a cat run across the path with a dead rabbit hanging from its mouth. Welcome to Disneyland!

We soon found out that to get to the hotels you had to go through the main security like you're going to the theme parks, make a U-turn and then go through the village. The village has barely changed since I last visited in 2006 so is looking quite tired and dated. They are currently doing works to it which means most of it was covered in construction barriers.

After a 10 minute walk we arrived at our hotel, Sequoia Lodge. Check in was nice and easy and the receptionists were nice and friendly as she handed over our Magic Passes for the trip. Our room wouldn't be ready until later so we dropped out suitcases off at the free luggage storage and made our way over to the parks.

First stop was obviously going to be the main Disneyland Park. It was around 2pm by this point.

We walked down Main Street to get the photo by the castle which is probably a legal requirement at any castle park. Not wanting to get arrested by the mouse on our first day we avoided all the sheep fighting for a place to take a photo on the plaza and bridge outside the castle and made our way a little over to the left where there's a hidden spot you can get photos at with no-one in the background. After castle pics we looked at the app for queue times and made our way over to our first ride...

It's a Small World: 15 minute queue
After a nightmarish start avoiding pickpockets, getting wet in the rain and seeing animals carrying corpses across the park we thought this would be a fitting start. This was our youngest's most anticipated ride and I'd already had to endure weeks of her singing and humming the theme song after she had seen POVs on Youtube. I must admit it's not a favourite ride of mine, but watching her face light up with joy as she was experiencing the ride for the first time was magical. Whilst everyone was taking in the sights of the singing and dancing dolls I was looking around spotting all the hidden speakers and the rides maintenance bay because I'm a massive nerd.

We got off and walked through a busy Fantasyland, we had to queue to empty our bladders and then walked past the 2 hour queue for Peter Pans Flight as we headed for our next ride...

Brb, our cat is currently throwing up on the floor next to me

Anyway, as Fantasyland was packed we jumped in the queue for:

Pirates of the Carribean: 15 minute queue
Missed out on this on my last trip to Paris as it was closed. We got in the queue and were amazed with how quickly the queue was moving. Once inside there was plenty to look at as the queue moved along at a rapid pace. We were soon inside the incredible station area for the ride. Absolutely loved this and much prefer it to the Orlando version, the interaction at the start going alongside the restaurant and one of the most atmospheric lift hills ever with tons of kinetic energy and movement. Both drops were also super smooth and you glided along the water at the bottom. The only negative I can point out (which also applies to a lot of other Disney rides) is that I think they have too many ride vehicles. We ended up stacking and queueing from before the second drop all the way back to the station which killed the pacing of the ride a little. As a family we all loved the ride and it became an instant favourite.

Upon exiting into the gift shop we picked up a temporary PhotoPass. This isn't really advertised anywhere but we read about it online. It's a great way to load up any photos and videos from rides and character meets onto a free temporary pass where you can decide at a later date if you want to upgrade it to remove the watermarks and be able to download your photos.

Once back outside it was still raining. The park isn't really build for rain and the paths get very wet with lots of puddles. The very few covered areas they do have get super crowded making it difficult to pass through if it's an area into a different land. As we came prepared with ponchos we pushed through the crowds and made our way into Frontier Land over to one of my favourite rides...

Phantom Manor: 5 minute queue
Remember loving this my last visit and even still preferring this version over the one in Orlando when I finally rode that. The facade of the building is my favourite out of all of them and sets the tone for all the spoopyness inside. Was concerned that the girls may find it a little too spooky but they were fine and said they loved it. Its had a bit of TLC and updated scenes since I last rode which were great. Especially loved the bride disappearing from the stretching portraits before we went down. We had a vehicle stoppage right at the end in front of the mirrors and got a great photo of us all in the two doom buggies next to each other with the ghost in the car with us. Could genuinely live in this house if it was real. Love it!

Whilst queueing for Phantom Manor we saw a character meet and greet with Phantom Mickey under the Gazebo outside. He was still there when we came out so we joined the queue for what was about to become the first of many character meet and greets. Usually I'd avoid these as it takes up valuable ride time but as I'm now visiting Disney with kids I can't avoid them. The queues can be longer than the rides as well. The Princess Pavilion I never saw below a 200 minute queue during out entire stay with families queueing up to meet a randomly assigned Princess. Ridiculous!
The queue for Mickey didn't look that long but ended up taking around 45 minutes. This is because they spend a decent amount of time with each group, have some interactions, take photos, sign autograph books etc. It also took longer as every 25-30 minutes they take the character away for a couple of minutes while they swap with someone else (kids didn't seem to realise that Mickey was a bit taller when he came back) We finally got to the front and the girls had some great interactions with Mickey. There was a photographer there who took some pics and added them to our PhotoPass and the girls got Mickey to sign their autograph books. The big mouse himself as the first name in the book. Not too bad.

At this point we didn't have long left before our first dinner reservation of the trip so checked the queue times on the app to see if anything had a short enough queue to squeeze one more ride in. Luckily there was so we headed to...

Star Tours: The Adventures Continue: Wait time 10 minutes
Another fast moving queue. Felt like we didn't stop moving and barely had time to take pictures of R2D2 and C3PO without feeling like I was holding up the line. Our kids have never seen Star Wars before but our youngest was obsessed with all the robots and she was saying hello and trying to talk to them as we went past.
It wasn't long before we were outside our boarding gate ready to get on our space ship. The bag holds under the seats were quite small and I struggled to fit my backpack in so ended up having to hold it with my legs. Considering this attraction has been around for years its still great fun. Doesn't feel as violent as I remember it. So either the movements have been tamed, the one in Florida is more violent or I'm just completely misremembering it. The C3PO animatronic in the front of the ship was impressive and the new scenes they've added this year were good fun as well. This quickly became our youngest's firm favourite with her constantly asking how long the wait for Star Tours was every time we were looking at queue times in the app.

After Star Tours we made our way out the park and into the village for dinner at Billy Bobs buffet. Didn't get any pics here as I was too busy ramming food down my throat as was starving by this point. The food tasted amazing though. Especially the potato Dauphinoise and the beef stew. There wasn't loads of choice but what they did have was great and they even had a section of kid friendly food.

After eating ourselves into a food coma we waddled our way back to our hotel. Whilst at the park we'd got a text with our room number saying it was ready and our Magic Passes were already linked to open the door. We grabbed our suitcases and started following the signs around the hotel to find our room. Praying it wasn't one of the ones miles away. We were on the ground floor but the way the hotel is laid out you have to go up a floor to go over the hotel restaurant and then back down again the other side to get to the rooms.

We finally found our room and settled in the night as it was nearly 10pm and we were all shattered from being up from 5am and travelling and walking round the park. The room was larger than I expected and the beds were super comfy. Especially the pillows. But that may just be because my bed at home is currently broken so I'm sleeping on an angle in a dip each night now so being able to lie flat on my back and not worrying about waking up with my face on the floor is an instant win. The was also some cute Bambi artwork and the TV came up with our name welcoming us to Disneyland when we turned it on which was a nice touch.

So that concludes day one of this 5 day adventure. The plan for tomorrow was to get up early for magic hour so we set out alarms for 6am and passed out for the night!

​

 

[Ollie]

DAY TWO: DISNEYLAND PARK, DINNER DISASTER AND STUDIOS MAZE: Step count 23,413

With alarms set for 6am we got up and ready to head over to breakfast in the hotel. It was nice and quiet when we arrived so there was no queue for the much needed coffee machine. There was a good choice available and plenty out. The pancake machine was very slow and seemed to run out of mixture quite quickly so if you're also a pancake enthusiast, make sure you get there early. This was also the morning we discovered that butter doesn't seem to exist in France. They offer bread left right and center with every meal but no butter. So you have to hope you like cream cheese as that's the only offer option for something spreadable.

After several rounds against the breakfast buffet we made the 10 minute walk over to the parks. There's a smaller security on the way into the village with just a couple of scanners which can get quite big queues, but it seemed to move quite quickly and we soon got through. We were soon outside the park ready for the early magic hour.

There was no signage telling newbies like us where to go for magic hour so there was a few people stood around. Turns out you have to go round the edge of the hotel down a side path where there's some turnstiles there. We were soon in and on our way to a ride not many of us were bothered about, but magic hour is the only chance to ride it without waiting in a disgustingly long queue...

Made sure I got a picture as you never see it with a single digit number outside We were held outside the ride entrance until it opened and a huge queue was already forming behind us. By the time we had ridden and got off the queue was already up to an hour.

Peter Pans Flight: 5 minute wait
Never bothered with this ride at any of the Disney parks I've been to as always seems to have one of the longest queues in the park. The ride system itself was fun with a suspended track meaning you could navigate the scenes in unique ways and have things below you. The scenes themselves ranged from nicely done to potentially made in a school art project (looking at you miniature Neverland). Definitely gave off classic attraction vibes. Was surprised at how dark the ride was in places with a few areas where you're just swinging around in inky darkness. It was a cute (if short) ride and after getting off said I'd be disappointed if I'd waited anything longer than 20 minutes for it.

Adjusting our eyes to the daylight again we saw another ride open with a short queue that our youngest was desperate to go on (along with every other ride).

Dumbo: 10 minute wait
Another one of those rides where getting on/off takes longer than the actual ride. The cast members were trying to help load quicker by assigning people an elephant number as they went into the holding area but as soon as the gate opened we watched as people went in whatever they wanted. We saw a family of 4 split up and take up 4 elephants which meant several people had to walk back and wait for the next ride. Definitely fit its circus theme. The ride itself was standard. Nice and gentle until the girls tried to make the elephant bounce rather than just go up and down. After what felt like a few laps the ride was already slowing and stopping.

We exited dumbo and made our way out of Fantasyland whilst looking at queue times on the app trying to get attractions out the way that usually have a long queue. So next we headed to...

Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast: 15 minute wait
Remember not being that impressed with this when I first visited the park as a teen. Having the long trail of omnimover cars and lifeless sets ruined it for me. It's still the same now but found a new appreciation for it. Being able to spin the car is good fun, The targets can be trickier to hit than other shooters as its quite brightly lit and has no haze or fog meaning you cant see where your laser beam is. Just a quick blip of a red tiny red dot on a surface that you've got to hope is yours Always good to have interactive targets that move or trigger effects when you shoot them though so that was good.

As we exited Buzz we saw the queue for Star Tours was only 5 minutes so we hoped into the queue for that (much to the youngest's excitement). The ride was a literal walk on and we were straight up into the loading bays. We saw a family in front where the kids were full on punching each other whilst the parents just ignored them. They were proper little sh*ts and made us both appreciate how well behaved our kids were doing in comparison. Even though the ride was a walk on you still have to spend what feels like ages stood outside the doors waiting for them to open watching the videos on a loop above you. The ride was still great fun and we had all different scenes apart from the last scene which is recently added to the ride from the latest Star Wars series (can't remember what its called as I cant keep up with them all ). Guess they've made this scene guaranteed every ride for now as it's new and it'll eventually end up on the random wheel of destinations you can go to.

Back on earth, the rain had started again. The new parade Million Splashes of Colour was due to start soon so we wandered over to the hub in front of the castle. Didn't take long until the announcements played saying that due to the drizzle it would be a reduced version of the parade. Usually there would be loads of dancers and extra characters and then they stop and do a 5 minute dance routine on the stages in front of the castle before getting back on the floats and heading back. Instead we had 3 floats with limited characters dancing on the spot and waving whilst sheltering under rain ponchos and umbrellas.

The music is really catchy and it was still good fun to watch. Although our eldest was still grumpy that they got rid of 'Ready for the ride' song from the previous parade as she liked that one better.

We saw the queue for Big Thunder Mountain was only saying 45 minutes so we headed there next. The queue was out the entrance and into an extended queue but having not been on in years we had no idea how long it would be. The times on the app had been accurate so far so we got in the queue which seemed to be moving quite frequently. As we finally started walking under the entrance archway the queue time jumped to 65 minutes. But as we were already in the queue and the girls wanted to ride we stuck it out. The outdoor queue portion was ok with bits to look at and sound effects would play as the train whizzed around the island and into the tunnel. However, once we got undercover we were dismayed to be greeted with a huge cattlepen queue area cramped into a tiny section. It was here where the girls started to get bored as the all you could see were people surrounding you in all directions with no sense of progress when you moved. As we got to the front we found out that they were only using one side of the station for the main queue with the other side dedicated to those that had paid to skip the queue.

Big Thunder Mountain: 70 minute wait
We got the front two rows which the girls were excited about so we hopped on ready for our wet and rainy ride around the island. This is still the best Big Thunder coaster in any of the Disney parks. Its so unique travelling underwater to get to and from the island and the whole ride makes a great point of interest that can be seen across Frontierland. It picked up some great speed, had some brilliant head choppers and a splash down. The ride ends on a high as well as it makes its way back under the water where you get so disorientated and you don't know if you're going up, down or just travelling flat. We got back to the station and everyone loved it.

As we didn't have long before our lunch reservation we were looking for something quick to do we had a look around the shops on Main Street where both the girls ended up buying princess dresses. The eldest went for Meredith and our Arial obsessed youngest got a little mermaid dress to match her ears. After coming straight out the shop and ripping the tags off (because of course they wanted to wear them straight away) we headed back up Main Street towards the castle.

We ventured under the sleeping beauty castle into La Taniere du Dragon to say hello to the dragon. It was rammed under here as everyone was hiding from the rain. It was very dark in there so had to hold onto the kids to make sure they didn't get separated or we'd never find them again After shuffling our way to the front and watching the dragon for a few seconds we moved out the way to let others have a look. Didn't get many pics in here as it was super dark. We headed up the staircase back into the castle and across to our dinner reservation that we had kept a surprise from the girls.

Auberge de Centrillon
The wife wanted to go all out on this trip to make it as magical as we could for the children. This is essentially princess dining and costs a staggering €95 per adult and €50 per child. We did use our dining plan on it but still had to pay a big excess to make up the difference. We decided to do it as its a way of guaranteeing to meet several princesses without having to queue 3 hours each time you want to meet a random princess over in the pavilion.

The food was very fancy in presentation, so may not be suitable to fussy eaters. When we first went through the menu choices with the girls they started complaining that there was nothing they liked. However, when it arrived the both said they enjoyed it. The kids went for Pumpkin soup, tomato pasta (they gave it a fancier name on the menu) and Cinderella's Surprise (which has no description as to what it is) and we went for Pumpkin Soup, Beef Casserole and Chocolate Lava Cake.

Things started well, we met Cinderalla soon after sitting down, closely followed by Snow White. Aurora came shortly after finishing our starters and then we met two of Cinderellas mice before we'd had dessert. Things were going great. All the princesses were great with the girls, spoke to them, hugged them, had photos and signed their autograph books. Just Jasmine left to go. Several times we saw her in the sections near us and then we'd see her walk past us and down the other end of the restaurant and out of view for ages. Dessert had come and gone and the server asked if we were still waiting on anyone, so we told her it's just Jasmine left to go. We'd had several instances where Jasmine would work her way down the room going from table to table and then as the girls got excited thinking they were next she'd walk straight past us into another part of the restaurant. This went on for another 45 minutes after we'd finished eating. We gave it the benefit of the doubt to begin with as we didn't know if there was anyone who had been waiting long or if there was a certain system to how they were circling the tables.

After 45 minute after Jasmine had walked past our table for the 5th time and the girls were both in tears out of boredom and feeling like they were being ignored I went and spoke to another cast member and explained the situation. To give him props he did say he'd mention it to try and fix it and shortly after we saw him walk over and show another cast member where we were sat. 10 minutes later Jasmine was back out and she started greeting other tables and working her way closer, then as we were next she walked straight past us again. I understand if there's a set way they do things or some complicated system they follow. But the fact that you pay all that money for a premium experience. To be left waiting that long when all we wanted was a quick photo and signature so we could get the f**k out of there was unacceptable. You'd think they'd want the tables cleared soon so they can get more guests in. I want to be clear that we don't blame the cast member playing Jasmine at all as she was just going where she was told. It was whoever was managing the characters overall.

She FINALLY appeared at our table 90 MINUTES after we had finished eating. The interaction was fine but by that point both the girls were tired and fed up and we all wanted to leave. Overall as an experience the princess dining was great (although expensive) and we all enjoyed it. However it all ended up on a sour note that tainted our experience and leaving on a low.

After this the girls needed cheering up. We were going to get in position ready for the main parade but we spotted this ride only had a 5 minute queue. So we headed back over to....

It's a Small World. We were soon sat down in our boats taking a trip round the different countries. It was as enjoyable as usual and we made our way back to the station. We stacked behind a few boats and after not moving for a few moments the break down announcements stated playing over the speakers. Now I may be wrong, but there doesn't seem to be too many parts to the ride system that can break? I assume it was an issue with the belts that pull the boats up into and along the station. We sat floating motionless with the occasional bump as another boat came out the show building and crashed into the back of the queue. After about 20 minutes of multiple announcements being played over the top of each other on repeat in different languages we finally started to move again. Hurray! Although this delay meant the parade was soon starting in about 20 minutes so we rushed off the boats to find the parade route already packed about 3 people deep as far as we could see. We walked along it as far as we could trying to find a spot. We ended up in the hub in front of the castle where we found a bin that helped make a small gap between the crowd we could see through. As I was getting ready to break my back and try and lift 2 children for 20 minutes while the parade was on so they could actually see it a wonderful family at the front asked if the girls wanted to stand in front of them so they could see better. Not long after, the music came over the speakers to signal the start of the parade.

Stars on Parade:
Loved this parade! The soundtrack was great, there was plenty of dancers and the scale of the floats were impressive. Sadly the dragon wasn't breathing fire (just vaping today) but assume that's down to Disney's track record with fire breathing dragons. The whole parade was worth it though just for one moment. Our youngest is obsessed with Arial and loves the little mermaid. This parade is the only place you can see her without queueing up somewhere for ages to hope you get to randomly meet them. Ariel spotted her wearing her dress down the front, waved, drew a heart symbol and waved at her. You could hear her squealing and yelling in excitement from the front as her whole trip was made in just that one moment. Totally worth it and made us forget a little about the last couple of hours.

After the parade we made out way out of the main park and walked over to the Studios park as I don't think the girls believed us when we told them there were two theme parks to explore.

The whole of the Studios park is a bit of a mess at the moment (like the Village) whilst it undergoes loads of work. The main entrance through Studio One is currently closed and boarded off so you're sent down a side back between the buildings into the park before you enter the next part of the maze of construction walls. You're met with a long straight path to either the left or right side of the park.

We headed over to the Avengers Campus area first which as a massive fan of the Marvel movies I was looking forward to. The area looks great. Probably because it's the only area of the park where you can't see any construction. The queue for Flight Force was quite short and our eldest was tall enough to go on so we split up from my wife and the youngest and we got in the queue...

Avengers Flight Force: 15 minute wait
Already had the cred as went on it back with it was Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, but this would be our eldest's first coaster with a launch or inversions. Was interested to see what they had done with it. The queue looked nice and clean and the iron man animatronic was amazing, even if everyone just pushed past the preshow because the exit door were broken. Loved how all the lighting in the queue is synced up with the ride launching, which pulses and flashes as the trains are launched. The cars are much smaller and more cramped than I remember, not leaving much room for your elbows. Still find it nuts that Disney just tell you to put any backpacks on the floor by your feet.

The launch was much better than I remember. Probably helped with the lighting giving it a bigger illusion of speed. The layout was as twisty as I remember it with the first two inversions being great, but it does lose its pacing as your circle around for a bit. Sadly there isn't much interaction in the main show building besides a couple of screens and projectors (definitely had more as RnRc). Luckily, the ride picks up a bit of speed again at the end as it goes through the final inversion and into the break run. Fun ride overall and a decent length. But probably not worth more than a 30 minute queue.

The photo screens at the end were a bit of a pain. It takes about 5 minutes for your on-ride photo to appear so people are just stood clogging up the screen area. Then you have to manually go through every photo one by one until find your one. Such a slow system.

We got back outside and reunited our party where we found out our youngest got chosen to dance with Star Lord and Gamora whilst we were on the ride. The whole Avengers area has mini interactions and character appearances that happen randomly every 15 minutes or so. Helps give the area more life and feel more interactive which is great.

We headed right over to the other side of the park for Cars Road Trip as it was showing as only a 5 minute queue. This is what remains of the old studio tram tour and is tucked away in the corner of the park down it's own path. We arrived to see the queue time screen broken so a cast member was having to try and slide in pieces of paper with a brush while standing on a fence every time the time changed. So magical. We got in the queue which looked long at a glance, but as you can fit loads on each tram it moves in big chunks. Watching the tram leave the station and another one not arrive for ages we soon realised they were only running the ride on one tram. So already this "5 minute" queue had gone to about 30 minutes as we stood waiting in a massive cattle pen queue line. It didn't help that our youngest decided to pick this moment to suddenly become desperate for a wee. We finally got on and began our journey. The ride is now a shadow of its former self. You go past some static scenes and posters. Into "Cars-tastrophy Canyon" which is just the same scene as before with some Cars vinyls slapped on the truck and then you make your way back to the station via a few more static scenes. The canyon scene is still great fun. Especially if you don't know about it, but the ride just now feels like a massive waste of space as it still takes up quite a large footprint of land just to experience a single scene. As we walked out they were stopping more people from entering the area. Seems like it only opens during reduced hours and it shuts early.

We headed back towards the Paris area for a wee stop and jumped in the queue for...

Ratatouille: 20 minute wait
Whilst in the queue our eldest was messing around, spinning round and swinging off fences. I told her to stop before she got hurt, she didn't listen, spun round and hit her head on a wooden frame. After the tears had settled and several "I told you so's" we'd got into the indoor portion of the queue where we walked past the old windows where you picked up your 3D glasses (the rides in 2D now). This was my first proper trackless ride so I was excited for it. The cars were super cute and the station area had a great sense of scale to it. The ride itself was great fun and the interaction with other cars are we were weaving in between scenes was great as well. Love the extra details as well such as the giant wheels turning in sync with the motion on the screen in the scene where you're underneath the food trolly. I do think it would have been better in 3D to get that sense of depth with the screen based scenes though. As in 2D it did just feel like you you were parking in front of a big screen and you noticed the edges a lot more.

It was getting close to park closing so we decided to hit one more ride before leaving. A quick look at the queue time app showed Tower of Terror on a 15 minute wait so we made our way over there. Surprisingly our youngest is just tall enough to ride which is mad as she looks way too small to go on something that big with just a seat belt restraint. She was adamant she wanted to do it though so we joined the queue while my wife found a comfy bench to sit on (she doesn't like drop rides).
Just as we're about to enter the hotel lobby the youngest has a change of heart and suddenly decided she doesn't want to do it anymore. So had to make a quick phone call to my wife to get her to come over to the queue entrance so she could escape. With just me and the eldest left we ventured inside...

Tower or Terror: 15 minute wait
When I first rode the version in Florida I remember being slightly disappointed with it. It was my most anticipated ride but it just didn't have the sensation and thrill I was expecting from it (probably overhyped it or had a less intense sequence). Walking into the Paris lobby it instantly felt familiar. We were into the library for the preshow where we had a group of teens screaming at every lighting flash. We were loaded into the lift on the upper level of the basement and soon our cart was rolling backwards into the shaft. As I was prepping for the lift to start its climb we suddenly dropped. Holy hell I wasn't expecting to drop before going up. Completely caught me off guard. What followed then was rapid ups and downs with incredible ejector as you lifted out your seat with just the lap belt preventing you from seemingly falling to your death. The view at the top when the door opens is stunning and the show scenes with the little girl were nice and creepy and gave a much needed breather from being thrown up and down the elevator shaft. Such an incredible experience and miles better than the more elaborate version in Florida. The eldest absolutely loved it as well and it instantly became her favourite ride. The only let down we found is that the on-ride photo wasn't very sharp. Either it needs focusing better or the lens needs a clean.

After catching our breath and reuniting with the others we slowly made our way back through the maze of walls back to the park entrance. As we'd used our dining plan meal on the princess dining earlier we headed into the Disney Village to find something to eat.

We found a place that did the Mickey shaped pizzas that we thought would be a cute meal to end the day on. The service in here was all over the place and took quite a while even though it wasn't overly busy. When we finally got the food and sat down on a table outside we realised there were some items missing but we also ended up with extra items. The food was nice, nothing to shout about but filled some empty stomachs. We soon got back to our hotel room where it didn't take long for everyone to fall asleep ready for the next day.