Impressions
Well I'm back from my first visit ever to DLP. It was a one day organized attack at both parks and we were pretty successful in seeing most things we wanted to experience.
My overall impression of the parks is that they are beautifully designed and stunning visually. The Castle truly is breathtaking.
Most of the rides were similar experiences to their North American counterparts with some minor changes of course.
Couple of ride reviews, in my opinion:
Phantom Manor - beautiful to look at, very long queue area, the ride itself really lacked the "Ghost Host" and the my impression of the overall ride was that it wasn't quite as good as Disney World's version. Overall impression: Not as good.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad - Rocked! Was excellent and I would say even better than DW. It's a bit smoother of a ride and seems longer. Well done. Overall impression: Better
Temple of Doom Coaster - was very fast ride, smooth, but really seemed to lack theming, from afar it looks great and the queue area is nice, but once on the ride it just seemed to not hang together.
Pirates of the Carribean - more similar to DL I found than DW. Was a good ride, though I missed some of the Pirate banter that I've grown to love. Most of the banter was in French, though not all. Overall impression: Not as good.
Peter Pan seemed similar to DL, was good. Overall impression: Same'ish
It's a Small World - Very similar to DL
Space Mountain - Very good ride. Smoother than both DL and DW. Different, faster. I liked it. Overall impression: Very different coasters, I would say a tie, but they are very different.
Parks were only open from 10 - 7pm so not much to report as far as shows go, though we did catch a bit of one of the shows. Was typical Disney fair. Enjoyable.
The studios seemed to be really focussed on "shows" rather than rides. It wasn't quite as beautiful as a park.
We didn't get a chance to do much at this park but did the big three rides.
Rock n' Roller Coaster - Almost seemed unfinished, was really under themed inside. The coaster itself is very similar to DW but without any storyline, the music wasn't as loud, and there was no real theming around the track. Very odd. Overall impression: much worse than DW
Tower of Terror - Just like DL - Overall impression nothing compares to DW's
Crush's Coaster - Very cool ride, I like it, was well themed a good ride.
Toy Story Playland - I've seen some knocks on this area that it was too much like old style carnival rides, well... I'd have to say that while the motions of the rides might be reminiscent of old style rides the theming of this area is really great. It's a reat little place for kids.
Wish I had had a chance to catch cinemagique or animagique but didn't.
Overall I enjoyed my whirlwind day at the parks. The Halloween theming was wild and very pronounced in Frontierland. Everywhere in that land were pumpkins! Crowds were very low, only had to wait in a line for Crush's Coaster.
Low on the priority list to get back to see it again, but I was happy to do it.
It all has to do with the day, of course, and one's own mood but for me there seemed to be something missing. I don't know, just a little ingredient that wasn't there that made the place a little less magical.
Worth a visit though for Disney fans.
