Paris - August bank holiday 2016

[peep]

Disneyland Paris announced another new show so Patrick and I decided the August bank holiday would be a great time to go. Parc Asterix decided to throw their super generous offer at me again for like a third year in a row so we made use of that too!

Sat 27th

Our day started super early for the first Eurostar train to Paris. We arrived at Disneyland about 11am. We hopped on the Paddy Wagon on Main Street, always a weird experience getting on the Main Street transportation vehicles, people are so unaware that they exist that sometimes the vehicle has to stop for ages for people to get out of the way. People <//3

The time board indicated that the park was fairly quiet, which was odd because it was August, where the people at? We decided to go for Pirates first. Saw the pirate band out which is always fun. The ride is in pretty good condition at the moment. The donkey is finally back and there's a dog that I don't think I've ever seen before!

It was lunch so we went on a bit of a trek before deciding on Hakuna Matata in Adventureland. One of the awesome drummers was inside intimidating peeps in the queue. He's awesome, and we got to see the whole lot outside after our meal (which was tasty). They had more instruments for this performance and they had a huge crowd going, created such a fantastic atmosphere in the area.





We checked out the pin trading shop which had loads of pin goons showing off their collections (the pin trading event was on the Friday night). I got a fab Mickey and the Magician limited edition pin <3

So much of Adventureland and Frontierland is currently under refurb but at least they've been creating some nicely themed signs...



We decided to head over to the Studios. Just as we exited out of Studio 1 the Incredibles were doing their little show thing. It's weird, they essentially get random volunteers out to do a bit of exercise and then cart off again. Yet again it was really popular and people were loving the interaction - what is happening? The European crowds were never this happy about interaction.





The weather was far too hot, but at least blue skies make for nice pics...



We headed over to Rock n Rollercoaster which barely had a wait. Love a bit of Rock n Roller. We then had a "10 min" wait for Tower. No idea what was going on but the wait in the boiler room took forever. Lots of the staff were in character though which was fab to watch. Oh and our guy included Pokemon Go into his spiel <3

We were going to see the next performance of Mickey and the Magician but we COULDN'T GET IN!!! Jeez, this show is crazy popular. Not sure how this is working, rides had small waits, shows were more popular than we've ever seen. Talking of short waits, we joined a like 20 minute single rider queue for Crushs Coaster. Yeah. That happened, we couldn't get into a show but we got on Crush mid-Saturday in August!

By the time we had faffed with Crush (I had to sit on the brake run for a while because people were being awful at life in the station) it was time to wait for the next performance of Mickey and Magician over in the "Animagique theater". The amount of people already waiting with like 20 minutes to go was crazy...







So Disney need to make a formal queue for this, as the big area doesn't work at all, it caused people to be split up and just generally felt horrible and chaotic. Anyway we got in and we were ready to finally watch a brand new show in the Walt Disney Studios park.

At the end of the show we sat just stunned as to what we had just witnessed. I think it might be one of the best Disney park shows I've ever seen. The set was great, the performers were West End quality and the magic tricks were simply... magical. I can't deal with how this is in Disneyland Paris and that it's a permanent show.

We then headed over to Ratatouille for a short wait via the single rider line. Still love this ride. Then we cooked to death in the single rider line for RC Racer. Then we managed to have another 10 min wait for Rock n Rollercoaster. Yay.

We opted to go for dinner in the village and ended up trying the buffet at Billy Bobs. We somehow have never been in here for food before and it was pretty good. Considering I'm not a fan of the other buffets in the Resort I would be happy to return to this one.



It was then back to the Studios for a little more ride time. We started with a pretty much walk on Cars.





Then round to Ratatouille.





We then went to watch Cinemagique. We're such huge fans of this still, I love hearing all the reactions from those around us. Always at least one British woman moaning about the water effects. The park was then closed for the day so we headed over to the Disneyland Park.



Just as we entered Anna and Elsa went past in their little carriage...



We then went to see the last performance of the day of Frozen singalong. This is always a fun experience as several cast members from the show just happen to sit in the back and are uber active. Oh and the smoke effects have been given a ridiculous boost.



We then headed to the back of Adventureland for some night rides on Indianna Jones. There was no queue and it was running amazingly well. It was super quick and the brakes were all turned off. It was insane.



We then headed over to Phantom Manor where it was totally dead. We were in the stretch room with 2 other people and it was just a really weird experience. We loved it and wanted to do it with just us so we went around again. This time we weren't alone but there were like 8 of us and about 6 of those in the stretch room were quoting the whole spiel. One of the girls was rather excited and walked around being creepy too. It was kinda amazing. Has been added to our collection of "amazing things happen at night in Disneyland Paris".

We then ended the day with Disney Dreams. Such an amazing, yet too hot, crazy day.


Part 2 soon.

 

[Jamesss]

Great stuff. I'm pleased to hear that the Animagique replacement is worthwhile.

It's odd that the parks are quieter than usual for August. Maybe due to all the refurbishments this year?

 

[peep]

The thought is that it's super quiet due to the stupid attacks that happened earlier in the year, mixed in with all the other awful things going on this year. The huge refurb list was just the icing on the cake for putting people off.

Sun 28th

We started our day at the fab bakery in Val d'Europe (we might be a little obsessed with their almond croissants). We got over to the parks just after opening and we were once again shocked by the low wait times (Sunday tends to be busier). We managed a 10 min wait for Buzz Lightyear. I managed to get a great score which made me very happy.



We then had a quick ride on Space Mountain before heading into Fantasyland. Apparently all of the people were in the queue for Small World, so that was weird. We headed to the back of the area for a little ride on the fab Casey Jr...

[tweet]https://twitter.com/coaster_chat/status/769829348702580737[/tweet]

After some faff we decided to head over to the Studios. On the way we caught the Main Street band performing. They were amazing.



In the Studios we caught Goofy going to work at the hotel...



After some more faff it was time for our reservation at Bistrot Chez Remy. We'd never been in before so it was all rather exciting. Amazingly before being taken into the restaurant the waiter stopped us and told us that as we turn the corner we're being shrunk down to the size of a rat. I don't think I've ever been told a restaurant story by staff before, so that was great. The restaurant feels much bigger than I thought it would, it's well themed and yet bright and spacious.















For starter I got the salad which was ok, had an interesting soy based vinaigrette.



I got the steak for the main course which was tasty.



I got the chocolate mousse for desert which was really filling.



Overall we liked the food and it's clearly replacing our posh meal that we usually have at Walts (new menu is expensive and "fancy" food which looks awful).















After our food we managed a quick ride on Ratatouille (about 15-20 min wait in single rider line). We then went to see Mickey and the Magician again, yet again it was hard to get in - still can't get over how popular this show is. The show is still absolutely incredible, we tried our hardest to work out Genie's trick and nope, no idea.

We then popped over to Rock n Rollercoaster where we got two rides in as there was no wait! We managed to get the good soundtrack both times even if it was a bit quiet. It was then back over to the other park where we got to see the amazing Main Street band again!



After some faff we ended up trying one of the new Pineapple whips in Adventureland. Lots of fans were annoyed to find this isn't the same as a dole whip but never having one of those we didn't really have any pre-judgement and we liked it. Very refreshing on a hot day and it's much bigger than we expected (although for the cost it better be big!).



We ended up in Fantasyland and queued for Peter Pan next. The wait was like 30 minutes which is yet another wtf - it's a Sunday in August! Anyway, we wanted to see the new changes that recently happened in it's long refurb. Wow, amazing what some projection effects can do to these old dark rides. I was loving all the water based projections everywhere, made the scenes come alive.

We then went on Pirates which had a short wait, to It's a Small World and then Space Mountain. Somehow the day was just disappearing though, after some faff in the shops we saw Anna and Elsa go down Main Street...





Before getting on the Disneyland railroad after it's lengthy refurb.







We managed another fairly empty ride on Phantom Manor before another epic time on Indianna Jones. This thing at night is just so good. Before Dreams started we managed to cram in another ride on Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain.





Dreams ended our two days in Disney nicely, it had been a rather surreal weekend.


Mon 29th

We were up super early as we had to travel to the other side of Paris for Parc Asterix. I still can't believe that it cost us €15 each to get in with the crazy offer they sent me (better than the usual 40+!). I always looking forward to visiting this park but the weather was a bit wet so we had to grab a poncho first . It was pretty pricey at 8 euros but it actually came with a bag and was high quality.

When the park 'opened' the usual crowd split occurred. Thinking we'd follow the crowd going right and for Oz'Iris we noticed no one was going to the log flume. Neither of us had been on the log flume before because it gets stupid queues (as it did later in the day) so we decided to just go for it. They forced both of us to sit in the front of the boat. We were mainly dry from the ponchos but there was a rather big leak in the front and water completely submerged our feet, so that was gross. Still, it is a really good log flume, has an amazing air time hill. #suchacred

We then went straight past Oz'Iris as the crowds around it were now gross. Instead we went straight over to Gudourix which was walk on. I really enjoy this ride, it's very smooth (apart from the odd kink here and there).

The weather was getting to us a bit so we headed inside and the ridiculous haunted house dark ride. I'm not the biggest fan of this ride, it feels so out of place and it doesn't really tell a story, it's just a mass of various haunted house effects. What I would currently love to see happen is for them to turn this area into the version of London that they featured in the live action film some years ago with a suitably ridiculous dark ride.

We then headed over to Cesar, the elaborately themed mad house. It's always fun but the screens are still a bit broken which was distracting. We decided to grab an early lunch to avoid the crowds. We went to the pizza/pasta place near Cesar. It's ok, one of the better options in the park.

With the weather starting to dry up a bit we headed over to Discobolix, the new disco-coaster. I am in love with the theming for this, it's perfect. There's a water effect as well as a fire effect! It just looks fantastic and the location is brilliant too. The queue is a bit weird but at least it's not a big cattlepen.














fire!







[tweet]https://twitter.com/coaster_chat/status/770229274049712128[/tweet]



We then headed over to the stunt show. It's my favourite stunt show in a theme park (after Waterworld at Universal). It's funny, well performed and the stunts are great. It hasn't changed since the first time I saw it like 8 years ago and it doesn't need to. Excellent stuff.



We then queued up for Oz'Iris which was only about a 20 min wait which was great. As we came off we noticed the single rider queue was open and only had 3 people in it so we went for it. We were on so quickly that we ran around and did it again pretty much instantly <3 Such an amazing ride though, I'd happily sit on it all day.





We opted to go on the little boat ride around the Gaul village, unfortunately the awesome projection effect wasn't on. Still a nice relaxing ride though. And then it was time for the Roman arena show. Urgh, we totally fell in love with this show last year (it was new) and they somehow managed to make it EVEN BETTER! They split up the messy third act which made it flow better, they added another advert and it just worked really well, some fantastic little touches just really added to it. Oh and scary camera man didn't come near us so we didn't have panic attacks <3








She's so fab





It was then back to Oz'Iris for another two very quick rides via single rider. The staff were on fire, extremely happy and efficient, they were filling like 3-5 single seats each time, it was incredible. We decided to end our day on a good note and get back into Paris for our train home in good time.

I love Asterix so much, such an under appreciated park and it's staff are just excellent, the entertainment matches Disney quality and Oz'Iris, I just, soooo good. Can't wait to return next year for their massive family coaster, should be fab.


Thanks for reading!