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wow disney...then paris..then back to disney?! what a lot you guys can fit into a day!!!!!!!

Fantastic trip report. I cant believe how much you managed to do!

Well, it was a hard day, but I always say: "When you travel you can sleep and relax when you are back home. There must not be time for it during."

[DLP-Photos.com]

Day 3 - The powerful rain shower

So we started off day 3 with breakfast in La Cantina at 7.45, so another early morning after a late night - no problem though! The breakfast here was okay, although it lacked a bit compared to Chalet de la Marionette the day before. As said before the fruit was not as fresh and there was no yoghurt. After this little disappointment we went towards Disneyland Park to catch Space Mountain during EMH - this was the only attraction planned, as we wanted to queue up for the studios before the gates opened at 9.30 sharp.

This time I was more relaxed and enjoyed the ride a bit better - especially the blast off and first round inside is great - I found the 2nd round with the cork screw a bit rough due to the comfort of the seating, whereas the 3rd and final round was a bit more down on earth, although the light tunnel was great fun. [spoiler:j17aqram]The best effect was IMO how long it seemed to take going upwards facing the supernova, that was a special feeling.[/spoiler:j17aqram] I liked the effects, but wished it would have been the original layout as all I have heard is that it was much more amazing. Well a fun ride and we walked towards the Studios through Main Street U.S.A.

We were in the queue for the Studios right before 9.30, so we were a bit back in the queue. When the gates opened and people were allowed inside some people were going crazy they ran towards Studio 1 as if the Axe murderer was chasing them. It was fun to watch while walking slowly towards Crush' Coaster and still being among the first 100 in the queue. What wasn't fun to watch was how people used the unorganised queue for queue jumping (they hadn't opened the dedicated queue and rope lines yet). Some people walked up to the front of the queue pretending to look at the signs and then just went into the middle of the queue. I cannot understand why people bother when it is this early in the morning??? (I never understand it and I hate it, but this time it seemed just a tat more stupid)

As for Crush itself, me and my friend were a bit scecptical since none of us really likes spinning rides (hence, us not going on Cars, carpets, Orbitron, Tea Party or Dumbo - well more reasons for the latter but you get the point ) However, we wanted to try it and we were not disappointed. We rode in the front and some of the effects in the non-coaster part was not working from this seating. [spoiler:j17aqram]I did not see the jellyfish or the fish "jumping" out in your head[/spoiler:j17aqram]. The non-coaster part is very beautiful and the coaster part is extremely funny. [spoiler:j17aqram]The first drop is the funniest drop I have ever tried - amazing![/spoiler:j17aqram] I begin to understand why this is so popular - a shame about the capacity.

Having already crossed my own boarders by trying Space Mountain and now Crush I was thinking about TOT. We took fastpasses for later so I could think about it as I wasn't sure yet having said before the trip, that this was the only ride that I was absolutely sure I wouldn't try. Just after taking the fastpasses a small but heavy rain shower took over the park. We were looking for some shelter and I suggested the Tower of Terror queue as it was only 20 minutes. And this was how a rain shower made me go on TOT. My heart was pounding a bit, but most of all with excitement about what to expect having never been on a drop ride before. I have a fear of heights, so I had that in mind too.

From the moment you step inside you forget every thoughts about whether you dare to try or not. You are absorbed into the magical story telling that only WDI can bring. The immersive themening and attention to detail is as Disney as everything. I loved it.





When we met the first cast members I was even more impressed - they were very much in character and made some of the PM CMs look like CMs from the local entertainment park :lol: It was very impressive and I would personally love a job like that, altough it must be hard during the hot summer months.





We were taken to the left library which was in French, but we got the feeling and our cast member freaked a group of girls out. You were really taken into the hotel feeling from the moment you stepped inside and the library pre show was perfect in duration and execution. It was looking better and better and we were getting closer and closer to the drop sequence (which in fact is only the climax of an amazing experience which starts when you go into the queue.) The boiler room just takes the themening further and keeps you in the right mood. Are you scared, excited, fascinated or nervous? You never really get to know The cast members' speech right before the drop sequence is great and really offers them a spot to be creative - we never had the same speech on any of our 7 rides.



The special effects used before the drop are mindblowing and true WDI magic - I don't quite know how they do this and especially the mirror scene fascinates me. [spoiler:j17aqram]Whereas the integration between the hallway scene and the drop sequence is very clever and surprising on your first ride.[/spoiler:j17aqram]

As for the drop sequence itself it is one of the funniest things I have ever tried. [spoiler:j17aqram]The one drop when it shoots you upwards then only to drop you right away is extreme and great fun. You really feel that you are travelling faster than gravity.[/spoiler:j17aqram] We bought the photograph afterwards and this is the best since we do not know what is about to happen or that we are photographed.



After this we went on Studio Tram Tour - still a must-do for me, but ONLY due to Catastrophe Canyon. After trying it this time I have some prayers for this attraction:

1. Please add new props or reorganise the current - the way towards and from Catastrophe Canyon is completely identical and it is a bit boring.

2. Please remove the sign to Walt DIsney Studios Costume Department - it looks pretty stupid with this sign with no building.

3. The most important: Please redo or reedit the onride movie - it is not updated with the reorganized route and it seems very unprofessional that they still tell about what is going on inside the costume department, when you're not going through it. As an alternative they could just have a live host - I guess this could make it more diverse, interesting and updated.

4. The movie still ends with: "Sponsored by Orange" - I do not know if Orange and Sony Ericsson are co-operating with each other, but otherwise SE must be pretty darn tired about this.

Well, Catastrophe Canyon worked perfectly and that still excites and impresses me, so I will still visit the ride for this, but please look into it. It is a pity that a somewhat unfinished ride takes up so much space in this park.

Afterwards we still had our fastpasses so it was time for another drop into the Twilight Zone and this time we got the English library which was just the icing on the cake.

After this we caught the Cinémagique showing on 12.00. My friend had some few memories of the show, but being a huge fan of the movies as myself, he fell in love with this show from the very first second. I still find this one of the funniest, most clever and well-done attractions in the whole resort. I love it! After half an hour in the company of Martin Short and co. we walked around a bit, ending up in Restaurant des Stars. The buffet is a bit expensive (23.70 € excl. beverage), but the food is also very delicious in here. We both had three platters stuffed with great food (2 with hot food and 1 with the lovely desserts). I took an extra lemon jelly on the way out just to get something for every euro cent

After this my friend had a fast pass for Rock'n'Rollercoaster. I decided not to try this ride at this time, due to the acceleration and the fact that we had just eaten. My friend liked it, but described it as more uncomfortable than Space Mountain and Indy and this was when I decided I would not go on it and he decided not to try it again. We were hoping for a spot for the 2 PM Moteurs Action..., but the theater was full So we had to wait until the final show of the day at 3.45. We used the waiting time to walk around the park visiting the Blockbuster Café for a quick look - I still despice the HSM room and adore the POC room. Most of all I wish they had left this restaurant untouched in the first place.

We ended up going to Art of Disney Animation. I love the exhibition before the attraction and the first showing. The second showing is a bit irritating when you do not speak French, since the live hosts audio is much louder than the one in the head phones. Plus Mushu is a bit to excited here for me - he ruins the interesting information you get in this show.





It was now time for the exciting Moteurs, Action... Stunt Show Spectacular... A lot had been changed since my friend had seen it - it seemed untouched for me (last seen it in 2008), although Herbie didn't split in half. Is this permanent or would it have been due to technical issues? Well this show is best decribed through these pictures (cropped in to 16:9 to give the real effect )





















And not to be all negative, but this is how an attraction should be seen from this theatre without you noticing it:



... this is not:



I will be giving my review of Toy Story Playland in tomorrows Day 4 update.

After this we went back to the hotel visiting some shops and Haägen-Dasz on the way, before going to Disneyland Park for the evening. We once again missed Toad Hall but got to Bella Notte just before they closed. I once again got the Pizza Royale and my friend the Pasta Bolognaise.



After this we went for another (and the last) first for me: Star Tours. When reading the warning signs we almost changed our minds when thinking about the fact that we had just had dinner, but we continued to our Starspeeder through the very well-themed waiting area. You were in the Star Wars universe although everything seemed a bit dated. As for the attraction itself we found it VERY dated and uncomfortable. I am amazed by the effects they can make with these simulators, but in this you were thrown too much around in your seat. I hope they will make the moving a bit more smooth for Star Tours: The Adventure Continues, and I might ride it again. If this doesn't happen or the update doesn't make it to Paris, I can say for sure, that this was the only time I did this attraction.

The rest of the night had rides on Captain EO, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean before we had our 4th, 5th and 6th ride on Big Thunder Mountain, with the final giving us once again a view of the fireworks. Once again a magical end to a great day.

Note that this was also the night, on which we started the silly ride photos as a protest to the expensive on-ride photos:









Day 4 will follow tomorrow.

[toritinker]

haha loving the on ride pics!!!!!! such a good idea!
I love TOT - it's my fav, great to read that cast members are still just as great!! can't believe how in role they keep.
thanks for sharing yet more great pics/report..can't wait for more xx

[tubbsy]

Again another brilliant report. I love the on ride photos :lol: In one pic theres a guy joining in at the front!

[Soap]

Great report and pictures!
Thx for sharing them with us.  :thumbs:

[burntsienna]

Oooooo! Nicolai your trip report makes me want to go to Disney right now...this very second.  :mrgreen:
And all the photos! =O
Eeee I can't wait to go next year!
I'm looking forward to the rest of your report! :mrgreen:

[dagobert]

Great trip report and pictures Nicolai!

Can't wait to see and read more!

[DLP-Photos.com]

Day 4 - Disneyland Park, Walt Disney Studios Park, Shopping

Well, first of all thanks for all the comments

Todays update will be a bit short since I took this day cameraless - no camera at all besides my iPhone. Since I tend to recap the events of the day through my pictures this day's report cannot be as detailed as the previous and future ones

You are about to know our morning routine. This day it was breakfast at 7.30 in La Cantina and then off to Disneyland Park for the EMH before Studios at app. 9.20.

During the EMH we once again tried Space Mountain, which was starting to grow on me - this being my 4th ride of the trip After this we went for a spin at Buzz - I lost big time and my friend denied me an opportunity to get my revenge  :x  :lol:



After this we went towards the Studios - I had to stop by the bakery to get one of their chocolate cookies. I always get these watching the daytime parade, but since we weren't gonna see this on this trip, I had to get it now before I forgot it. A tradition is important - especially a DLP tradition

This morning we were actually the first in our queue for the Studios - for some reason people seemed to ignore the left entrances on this morning. Despite being first in our queue we were still situated a bit back in the Crush queue, because we didn't want to run towards the queue line. This early (before park opening time) you will get to ride it pretty fast even though you do not run your heart out :lol: They had learned from the day before and had opened the queue line at the same time as the gates so the queue was much more organized with less opportunities for queue jumpers.  :thumbs: This morning, however, they were very strict with the time inside WDS and the first people were allowed into their shell at 10.00 AM sharp!

We rode the back this time and found that this was best (at least at this time). [spoiler:1ni1pchr]We saw way more effects working in the non-coaster part and the first drop was even funnier this time. However we didn't see the effect with Squirt and the fishing net right before the coaster part. Is this only visible when you are in front?[/spoiler:1ni1pchr] We had so much fun again this time.

As for TOT we got a fastpass ticket for later in the morning/noon. The waiting time was used for Armageddon, which I am sorry to say was a bit boring to both of us. The pre-show is exhaustingly long in comparison to the actual ride, which has some pretty nice effects, but it just seems to be over in a second having just witnessed that pre-show. The idea of a special effects attraction is great and the kind of stuff the Studios need, and I actually think Armageddon can be that ride - just with a few adjustments.

It was time for TOT and it was yet another great ride on this funny attraction. The CM's were great once again - we especially enjoyed Cedric, Francisco and a guy named Joao (something more). When exiting we took fastpasses for later (1.05 PM) - it fit perfectly with the 12.00 showing of Cinémagique. [spoiler:1ni1pchr]This time we sat close to the actor and it was very funny to look at him before the show and how he prepared. I was amazed at how quickly he got into the theater - we were there before him and decided to look out for the seats. We were looking away for 3 seconds at most and suddenly he was there. You could sense that he was a bit irritated by us and the guys behind us - I guess he could sense that we knew what was going on, although we tried not to show it.[/spoiler:1ni1pchr] A great show!



The funniest experience with TOT was when we had to enter with our fastpasses for 1.05 PM - we were there 12.55 and of course we knew this was too early so we waited a bit. During this we observed the CM Cedric - man, was he in character! He said to everyone "Enjoy your S-tAy" it was so much fun to watch. We tried our fastpasses by him at 1 PM and he laughed at us and waved us away. Then again at 1.02 PM - waved us away. Then when it was 1.05 PM he waved at us and gave us the "Enjoy your S-tAy" - he was really great!


Cedric

After this we wrapped up WDS for that day and let me wrap it up with my thoughts on Toy Story Playland (quoted from an earlier post in the Toy Story Playland topic)

I have just returned from DLP and here are my updated views on Toy Story Playland (bad in red and positive in green):

- I got to ride Crush - for me the negative development started with the Toon Studio addition. Crush is really great fun, but what does it have to do with a studio. I did not see ONE studio reference in that attraction and I do not see this in TSPL either I'm afraid.

- The capacity of the rides. Crush was almost impossible to ride if you didn't ride it 9.45 as we did 3 mornings in a row. I can fear the same happening to especially RC Racer which will attract some of the European thrill seekers.

- I for one do not like the giant Buzz or Rex - that are just a bit too much for me + they and the many details of the land, which has to be colorful to be effictive, will require immersive refurbishing on a regular basis. Will this money be taken from refurbishing beautiful sights like Captain Hooks Ship, Main Street U.S.A or Fantasyland? I hope not.

- I am sure the rides will be popular with a lot of people no matter if they are American, Asian, African or European. There are different kinds of guests in a Disneyland park. (On my latest trip with my friend, he was mostly into the thrills while I love the traditional Disney attractions - we taught each other something of each parts and had a blast.) And please remember that the money is the same to Disney whether it comes from a passionate fan for 50 years or a newborn fan on his/her first trip. Let's just hope that this money will put into good use - for instance a mindblowing unique Ratatouille attraction, The Little Mermaid or something only the guys at WDI can come up with.

- The greenery - almost any greenery put into WDS is a plus in my book.

- If the feeling of being shrunk into the size of a toy is as impressive as stated by some witnesses it could prove to be a stroke - a small one though - of magic that will put this above things like Midway Mania, Fliks and Dinorama, although not as good as Mermaid Lagoon.

No matter what: one addition will not make me ignore or stay away from DLP. Is THAT what Walt would want? That you stay away from old, classic attractions (Pirates (the only without Jack S), Phantom Manor, BTM, Swiss Family Robinson Tree (not Tarzan), it's a small world) or new attractions that has the finesse, character and imagination that Walt admired and gave the world (Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Cinémagique and Moteurs, Action...)

Photos of Toon Studio from Thursday: (just to spice up this update )





For lunch we finally had Fish'n'Chips from Toad Hall - in fact we were greeted by some sort of manager giving us a menu and showing us a line to go to. Was this a test perhaps? If so the printed menu can proof to be a brilliant idea which makes a language barrier no problem at all. This Fish'n'Chips was just as good as I remembered and IMO the best food option if you are not offering the money for a buffet or real restaurant experience like Aubergde de Centrillon or Walt's.



The rest of the day was just a day filled with excitement and excellent experiences. We went on Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Captain EO (twice), Space Mountain: Mission 2 (twice), Phantom Manor and Big Thunder Mountain (4 times).





In between these experiences I went for some shopping. First of all I got my first addition of the trip to my Walt Disney Classics Collection:



And in the evening - after the fireworks I bought all the presents for my family: a mug for my dad, some candy and a tin box for my mom and for my sister and her husband I got stuff for their baby to come: a Winnie the Pooh shirt and an extremely cute Cars/Buzz Lightyear plushie. My sister loves Winnie the Pooh and her husband is into Pixar especially Toy Story and Cars, so these presents seemed perfect.

I will post pictures of my merchandise with the Trip summary in the weekend.

We had dinner in the Videopolis: Chicken Nuggets. A bit dry but better than the burgers.

Tomorrow I will be seeing Inception so Day 5 might be postponed for Saturday afternoon

[loladelorean]

More brilliant additions and excellent photos, thanks for sharing!
Your thoughts on TSPL seem measured and probably quite close to my own although I havent seen it yet. Looking forward to making up my mind in November.
I'm so happy you enjoyed all the thrill rides, although you're seriously missing out by not going on RnRC - do it next time!
And, wow, can't believe you got a photo of Cedric! What a legend, he was our ToT CM twice last year and we found him to be hilarious. Those CMs are definitely the best in the parks.

[toritinker]

great update, again!!!! noooo don't go to the cinema, finish this instead haha!!!
Love the CM comments you raise about TOT - they really are the best characters!
I still cannot believe how much you guys can get done in one day!!! what's the secret?!
tori x

[DLP-Photos.com]

Thanks for the comments

More brilliant additions and excellent photos, thanks for sharing!
Your thoughts on TSPL seem measured and probably quite close to my own although I havent seen it yet. Looking forward to making up my mind in November.
I'm so happy you enjoyed all the thrill rides, although you're seriously missing out by not going on RnRC - do it next time!
And, wow, can't believe you got a photo of Cedric! What a legend, he was our ToT CM twice last year and we found him to be hilarious. Those CMs are definitely the best in the parks.

I tried making a thought trough TSPL comment in stead of some of those presented in the topic. I tried posting this in there, but it was just ignored

Cedric really was brilliant - unfortunately we only saw him in the fastpass queue and the library - I would have loved to see him right before the drop sequence This is a photo of a photo

great update, again!!!! noooo don't go to the cinema, finish this instead haha!!!
Love the CM comments you raise about TOT - they really are the best characters!
I still cannot believe how much you guys can get done in one day!!! what's the secret?!
tori x

I guess it is all about visiting the rides at special times when the queues are short. For instance go to BTM, SM, Cpt. EO in the evening and do SM, Buzz and Peter Pan during the EMH if you have the opportunity. Otherwise take all the fastpasses you can, get into the studios when they open (helpful regarding Crush aswell as TOT). Another explanation could be the lack of parades/shows we watched - the queues are smaller during the parades.

[tubbsy]

:lol: I think TSPL topic gets just a teeny bit heated at times!
Loving the report and the CM is brilliant!

[Aveen2008]

Brilliant Trip report and excellent photos! Sounds like you had an amazing time!

I love our photos of the notre dame as I never got to go see it when I was in Paris, it looks really nice inside, I can just invision Esmeralda walking about hehe!

Thanks for sharing!! :thumbs:

[dagobert]

Thanks for another update!

Did you take all the pictures with your iPhone, because the quality of the pictures is really good.

[CafeFantasia]

The photos were taken with a Nikon D90 DSLR.