Disneyland Paris (and Paris in general) Trip Report

[brifraz]

Speaking of crusades, our next expedition was to Big Thunder Mountain. There's a bit of a different backstory to this one than to Florida, but still involves mining and legendary spirits. Although, in this case, the backstory is very directly tied to Phantom Manor as well as the surrounding areas of Frontierland including the restaurants, shops, and the fort that is the entrance to Frontierland. I actually rather like that everything is tied together and as we waited in the queue, our daughter shared a lot of the backstory info that she had found online with us.

Again, queue is excellent and doesn't feel like quite so much of a mass of humanity squeezed into too small of a space. Not that the updates to the Big Thunder queue in WDW didn't help make it better, and this one does include a bit of that maze through the mining operation, but also is much more outside and with more diversions along the way!

Yes, that is already in the queue. For those who don't know, Paris' Big Thunder is on an island in the Rivers of America - much like Tom Sawyer Island at WDW. You actually board the train on the 'mainland' and then the beginning and end of the ride are tunnels under the river. But, back to that cool queue.

Lots of abandoned mining equipment along the path before you get into the building. Here's another view across to the island with the ride and also of the exit path.

You get a very nice view of the trains entering and exiting the load area as you wait.

And then somewhat similar things as the WDW queue once inside, but perhaps slightly less punny/gimmicky.

And, look who we found in one of the rooms!

Spooky, but fun! (be careful of making sure that there is a comma in that sentence because otherwise the meaning gets a little different)

No pictures from on the ride, sorry. We REALLY enjoyed it, though. In our opinion, vastly superior to the WDW version. Although a lot of it is very similar, it is definitely a bit longer, the tunnels are fun, and there are a few more (and better) effects in the mountain itself. Definitely a winner. And, since it had only just opened at 9:10am and we got in the queue just a couple minutes after that, we were off and heading back to Fantasyland at about 9:45am. See you there!

Okay, just a couple more pictures before we head to Fantasyland. These are actually from much later in the day and taken from near Phantom Manor, but to give you an idea of the watery portion of Big Thunder...

Here's right as the start of the train enters the splash zone.

And then about halfway through.

It might take a little bit of zooming in to really see what is going on there.

 

[Kevin_W]

We decided to take a pass on the other two attractions in the area (both similarly carnival type things with Toy Story paint jobs) - RC Racers (Pirate Ship-ish) and Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop (relatively tame outdoors drop attraction).

I think RC Racers is the best of the 3 attractions over there by a good bit.

I agree that DLP has the best version of BTMRR. I think the tunnel under the river improves the ride and having it on an island visually improves it when you aren't on the ride.

 

[brifraz]

I think RC Racers is the best of the 3 attractions over there by a good bit.

I agree that DLP has the best version of BTMRR. I think the tunnel under the river improves the ride and having it on an island visually improves it when you aren't on the ride.

100% agree on both points about BTMRR. We considered RC Racers, but the line was a bit longer than Slinky so we just went with that.

 

[Aramar]

I think RC Racers is the best of the 3 attractions over there by a good bit.

I must be the only person in th world who thinks the best ride in Toy Story Land is Slinky. RC is too intense for me, and there's always a long line for the parachutes (which is not the best ride for people afraid of heigths). Slinky is the most cute ride and almost everybody can ride it without problem.

 

[HauntedPirate]

I think RC Racers is the best of the 3 attractions over there by a good bit.

I agree that DLP has the best version of BTMRR. I think the tunnel under the river improves the ride and having it on an island visually improves it when you aren't on the ride.

I can't disagree with that (We did like the parachute drop as well). And DLP's Big Thunder is by far the best version.

Quick, fun story: We rode RC Racers when there was a bit of rain going on. At each peak, for a second you could see all the raindrops around you as if they were frozen in time.

 

[cjkeating]

We considered RC Racers, but the line was a bit longer than Slinky so we just went with that.

I must be the only person in th world who thinks the best ride in Toy Story Land is Slinky. RC is too intense for me, and there's always a long line for the parachutes (which is not the best ride for people afraid of heigths). Slinky is the most cute ride and almost everybody can ride it without problem.

Toy Story Playland was designed as a 'family' land. It has a kids ride, family ride and a thrill ride. People often write them all off thinking they are just for kids. When I visited with a group of non-theme park friends they actually found Parachute Drop scarier than Tower of Tower because they felt less 'safe' and had a great time on RC because they were expecting more of a 'pirate boat' sensation as opposed to the forces it offers.

 

[brifraz]

Didn't expect it to take us 5 days to walk from Frontierland back to Fantasyland? You might be right. Big Thunder queue and ride took about half an hour, so it was about 9:45am when we got back into Fantasyland. We didn't have any 'big' destinations, just wanted to experience things as much as possible!

First up was Les Voyages de Pinocchio!

Once again, very impressed with things in the queue. Thus far in our DLP experiences, the queues did a great job of keeping us entertained while we waited for each ride. That being said, we really hadn't experienced any very long waits for anything and a portion of that could just be that everything was new to us. But, regardless, here are some of the sights from our wait for Pinocchio.

The ride itself was... well, it was the same Pinocchio dark ride as in California - or if there were any differences, I certainly didn't notice them. There is still something quite fun about those simple dark rides and we enjoyed our ride with Pinocchio and decided to continue with the idea.

Blanche Neige et les Sept Nains! Or, for those not quite up on their French, Snow White! The queue wasn't quite as entertaining, but still had some good diversions while we waited. In case you were wondering, the wait for Pinocchio was only about 10 minutes, but Snow White was about 20. Sorry for less queue pictures!

Again, the ride itself is pretty much the same as Disneyland in California, although I feel like it might have had a little more to it. Which might be why it inspired us to take a couple pictures. Scared faces, first!

Then joyful faces!

 

[brifraz]

Time for one of the girls favorite rides. No matter what park we are in, Disney or otherwise, they find a spinny ride that would easily make me ill and get it spinning as fast as it will go.

Here in DLP, it certainly has a beautiful setting!

I know that canopy/roof wouldn't work in Florida, but it sure is pretty!

Thinking of the rest of the day and my desire to enjoy every minute of it, I decided to pass on this experience.

That really is them in there!!

And they really did spin as quick as you can get those teacups to go. My staying on the sidelines was definitely a very good choice!!!

 

[brifraz]

The next attraction we visited has a pretty rich history with our clan. Well, not the actual attraction, but the film upon which it is based. But, we aren't actually huge fans of the movie itself. Perhaps I should explain.

Many, many, many years ago (okay, maybe that only deserves two manys), I served as narrator for a concert using music that was inspired by Alice in Wonderland. It was the early 90s and the character I took was loosely based on Mike Myers' 'Dieter' from SNL. It required memorizing quite a few of the poems from Lewis Carroll's book and I still have portions memorized (including all of Jabberwocky). Fast forward about 25 years and our daughter was the Cheshire Cat in a school production of Alice which created a definite affinity (maybe bond?) between her and the character. So, we were very excited about this relatively simple attraction!

Full disclosure: we have at least 50 pictures from in the maze. I'm just going to keep this to a single post, so you'll get 10 of them! Welcoming us into the adventure was the White Rabbit.

Our daughter, of course, was delighted to get to see the Cheshire Cat resting in a tree.

The actual maze-ness of the maze is a little better than I would've thought. There are certainly a few times where a moment had to be taken to recall if we had passed that way before. But not enough to ever cause any stress or alarm. And some of the little wrong turns/cul-de-sacs had interesting things to see.

Really liked that there were some dancing waters!

For some reason, it was decided that I should pose in front of the Dodo (I'm pretty sure there was a reason that everyone thought this was the best location) doing my best Dieter.

Hard to believe that 30 years ago I actually looked like Dieter (although I'm sure everyone is glad I didn't do the happy as a little school girl pose).

As if the Cheshire Cat in his tree wasn't enough, he watches over the entire maze from a hill at the back.

As the maze goes on, you start to get closer to 'danger' with the Queen of Hearts. Well, not quite dangerous!

Almost at the end, is the actual castle of the Queen.

And, we all decided to head up and in. Well, actually the girls went up first so I could get a picture of them (imagine that their Mickey ears are actually armored and they are taunting me about their grail).

And the view from up top is pretty nice - looking back over the maze and some of Fantasyland.

We really had a lot of fun walking through and exploring the labyrinth - almost half an hour that was quite a good time.

 

[Swissmiss]

Blanche Neige et les Sept Nains! Or, for those not quite up on their French, Snow White! The queue wasn't quite as entertaining, but still had some good diversions while we waited. In case you were wondering, the wait for Pinocchio was only about 10 minutes, but Snow White was about 20. Sorry for less queue pictures!
View attachment 836243

Again, the ride itself is pretty much the same as Disneyland in California, although I feel like it might have had a little more to it. Which might be why it inspired us to take a couple pictures. Scared faces, first!View attachment 836247

Then joyful faces!
View attachment 836244

Funny you should say happy faces - the Prince always looks creepy to me and Snow White always looks like she has taken a Xanax.

 

[brifraz]

Funny you should say happy faces - the Prince always looks creepy to me and Snow White always looks like she has taken a Xanax.

I was just going with the dwarves, the true heroes of the story!! But, yeah the Prince and Snow White are certainly not at their best.

 

[brifraz]

After all that exploring, we needed a break for a quick snack. And, conveniently, there is just the place right outside Alice's Curious Labyrinth! The March Hare refreshments is just a tiny little place, but with three different themed ice cream cones and actual theming of both the building and the seating area it was quite delightful.

Sadly, didn't get a picture of the building with the walk-up window, but it's like a little English cottage, but with no straight lines and windows all a bit askew. But, in the seating area, there is a teapot.

Normally, it doesn't have my daughter in front of it or me peeking out from behind, but it does have a top that opens up on occasion and steam coming out of the spout. And it was really nice to have some theming in an ice cream window seating area.

And the ice cream was great. This was the Labyrinth cone.

The other two were an Unbirthday Cone (with the Mad Hatter's hat in it) and the Won'door'land cone with little brownie doors and a little cartoon doorknob. I know that I shouldn't be going on and on about it, but it was just impressively coordinated and themed. It's a similar over-exuberance that I felt when the Rapunzel bathrooms opened up (yeah, they are just bathrooms, but everything fits and is themed).

OK, back to reporting! Our next destination is a biggie.

Yup, a little mini-Small World display on a small hill behind a trash can!!

Oh, wait, no... it's this.

For those who aren't fans or are perhaps susceptible to getting a certain song stuck in their head - you may want to skip over the next couple posts. This is your fair warning - I'm not going to post them until this afternoon, but if you thought we took too many pictures in Alice's Labyrinth, that's nothing compared to what happened on It's a Small World.

Spoiler - we took 163 pictures. Yes. 163. No, I'm just going to post about 20 of them.

 

[brifraz]

Here we go!!! Time for a world of laugher and hope and let's try to avoid tears and fears.

For those not familiar with this version of the classic, you board outside, and then move into the attraction. On the bottom right of this photo are the boats just going into the attraction.

Here's the other side as boats are leaving the attraction.

The beginning room looks pretty familiar.

I'd say that the biggest difference is that the backdrop, sets, etc. are a bit more cartoon-like and certainly more detailed.

There are also more things that you pass under on your boat than in the familiar Florida version.

Again, lots more to the set pieces and a lot more detail.

Passing under another bridge, now in Russia.

The majority of the scenes in general are very similar to other versions.

But, as you can see, there are lots of additional little details!

 

[brifraz]

No, we aren't really halfway through! Going to end up with a few more than 20 pictures as we go through IaSW.

Some scenes are new and unique!

Or similar, but set up a bit differently.

I didn't think that this guy could have both of his eyes open, but here you go!

Just some of my favorite characters in every version of this attraction.

Lots more given to native cultures in the Americas.

And, quite a bit more for the United States.

But, wait, there's more!!

 

[brifraz]

It's time for the big finish!

If there is one room that is pretty similar to the Florida version, I would say it was the finale room. Oh, and the epilogue room!!

In case anybody was wondering what time it was when we left It's a Small World, well...

And seeing as it was noon and our last real food (except that ice cream cone) had been before park opening and we had been going pretty non-stop for the past 3.5 hours, it was time for us to find ourselves some food.

One little pit stop before food, though. It's beautiful wherever it may be!

Not a whole lot of the counter service places were looking good to us for food, so we decided to take a chance on walking up to a table service restaurant and try to get in. See you at lunch!

 

[Kevin_W]

And the ice cream was great. This was the Labyrinth cone.
View attachment 836454

I don't think that ice cream stand has ever been open when we've been there. (One of my pet peeves about DLP - difficulty purchasing ice cream!)

 

[brifraz]

I don't think that ice cream stand has ever been open when we've been there. (One of my pet peeves about DLP - difficulty purchasing ice cream!)

Glad we got lucky! It was very good ice cream and a fun location.

 

[brifraz]

LUNCH! We were pretty hungry. None of the counter service options were looking appealing. We had almost resigned ourselves to a Disney Village option again when I said I'd dash over into Studios and check if we might be able to get into Pym's while the girls were shopping for a couple minutes. When I got there, they said the walk-up wait would be about 5 minutes. 5 minutes!!! The girls dashed over and in we went.

Yeah, that's right - kids activity placemat. Loved it. May have even done a little coloring with the crayons on the table. Have to admit, the theming is fun and the gimmicks of the food are entertaining.

A little seasoning and vinegar and oil.

Giant pretzel.

Some pasta and some veggies with the giant crouton.

The mini-burger and a slice of the giant burger. Little shot glasses (mini-beakers) of some dips/salsas.

Big old piece of cheese there with some more standard buffet fare.

Was the food anything great? Not so much. Was it all decent? Definitely. Did it hit the spot for us? Absolutely. We were slightly in food coma land and had been going straight since walking to Earl of Sandwich before 8am so we headed back to the room for a little nap time.

But not without visiting Iron Man in front of the New York hotel and getting some pictures. Evidently our daughter is a fellow hero and helping Iron Man to protect everyone.

And I'm obviously a villain that he needs to put a stop to. Although, I always thought he was a little bigger...

It was about 2:30pm when we got to the room and we took a serious 3 hour nap before getting ourselves going again. Catch you later for dinner and an evening back in the castle park!

 

[brifraz]

Welcome back. While the nap might've been an epic three hours, I'm actually going to manage to get another post up within a 24 hour period. Truly epic!!

After the nap, we headed out. In case you were wondering about our room... here it is from the outside. I know I mentioned it earlier, but I really did like the cute theming of the Hotel Cheyenne. That's our room on the second floor of the Wild Bill Hickok building (somewhere on the left of this picture, I think pretty close to the R that you can see).

We decided we just wanted to be pretty chill for an evening meal and drinks, so we just crossed the 'river' to the Hotel Sante Fe to get some drinks and a light dinner at the Rio Grande Bar. No food pictures, but here are our drinks. I'm pretty sure that the main draw was whatever the drink was that you poured over the cotton candy!!

We just shared a couple plates between the three of us and there were only about 3 parties in there at the time, so it was a quick visit and meal and then back to the park!

Having checked and re-checked on the status of Space Mountain (still no bueno), we decided that a night ride on Phantom Manor was pretty important, so off we went. The wait was only about 10 minutes again which was great!

But before getting on the ride, we had to get some evening pictures looking across at Big Thunder. And, it was the classic scenario of... this is the coolest it's going to look in the sunset!

No, wait, this looks even cooler... and you can see the riverboat!

Oh, wait... I can get a little lens flare action!!

Sorry to have digressed a little bit there. Let's get back to the Phantom Manor itself! This next picture is actually from after the ride, but just wanted to share it and it fits better into the trip report here.

Kinda glad we got stuck right outside the door as the first in line for a couple minutes because it gave me a chance to get a fun little picture before heading in.

Pretty nice detail work on that knocker. Please, at this time, let's have a moment of silence for Teri Garr and Gene Wilder (IYKYK).

 

[brifraz]

This time on Phantom Manor, it was picture taking time!! Please note that at no point did we use flash and mess it up for anyone else!!!

Some portraits with the lighting 'change' similar to the first scene of the Florida version are actually in the queue in Paris.

That's before you get to the stretching room. Which is pretty comparable to all the others.

Thankfully, there is no cattle herd area after the stretching room that funnels everybody onto the ride. It's more of a standard queue and has more of the cool portraits.

The Phantom himself, I believe.

And, I'm guessing this is him getting rid of one of his daughter's suitors, perhaps?

And, the obligatory ghost ship portrait.

As you get closer to actually boarding the ride, there are a couple portraits of the sad bride-to-be.