Paris Disneyland Park

9/09/2016 04:43:00 PM Nyanko 0 Comments

So on our very first weekend living in France, we decided to drive to Disneyland!

Hi Ho!

Disneyland Paris is about a 40 mins drive or train ride to the east of Paris. The direct train departs regularly from Paris Gare de Lyon and the park just seems too accessible compared to the airports (ironically). The opening hours vary by day but the parks are typically open at 10:00.

Sleeping Beauty Castle holds the fort here at Paris Disneyland

We took some time settling our tickets/ annual passes (check out my next post on why we decided to get the annual pass!) and even so, the crowd wasn't all too bad. We walked towards Discoveryland, and yahoo! the first ride we saw is one of the man's favourite: Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast.

Mr Buzz giving instructions on what to do!

This is a very family-friendly ride where you use the toy laser guns to shoot the baddies. Depending on the number and type of targets shot, you accumulate points. At the end of the ride, you can check your score and will be ranked accordingly. For the competitive young ones out there, this is a ride not to be missed!

As you can see, i'm not a very good shooter :(

Since we are in the area, the next ride up is Autopia.

Vrrrrrrmmmm!

This is definitely one of the best similar genre rides i've taken. For one, the cars can go at reasonably fast speeds, and there are several daytona-like turns and slopes that actually give you a bit of the thrill without any compromises on safety. There is a similar ride in Tokyo Disneyland, but it is a lot milder there. The plus side is that the Japanese crew are so adorable and came up with their own hand gestures and loud cheers to flag you off you feel like really part of a race. And yes they did it for each and every car that i'm rather concerned about their throats *ahem*...

When we were there there are still working on upgrading the Star Tours ride. Having been to upgraded one in Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR), we kind of expect them to do the same modifications. It's another very fun 3D motion ride and we would most definitely like to take it again when it reopens here. I'll let you know again if they are any different!

C3PO giving the commands at TDR.

In the same zone, there is the Discoveryland Theatre hosting the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival. They edited the short films and made them into 4D (i.e. 3D with the glasses and the 4th dimension being some seat movements/jets of air/sprinkles of water). In the theatre, 3 short films are played and we watched Get a Horse, For the Birds, and La Luna. I've watched the earlier two before, and while i love the animation, i wouldn't say that the 4th dimension effect was any where near amazing. There are much better 4D rides out there, and if you've been or are going to Universal Studios Singapore (USS), their Shrek 4D Adventure is so much better (even though personally i do not like Shrek). Anyways, i'm glad i ticked a "new" ride off the list!

Next, we had lunch at Cafe Hyperion. Coincidentally, they had a live show of the Jedi Training Academy at that time and we caught the performance while having lunch! There is a separate seating area for those who are eating (and hence entered through the restaurant) and for those who are just catching the show (and entered through Videopolis).

Our lunch. A half attempt at making something "disney". That's a "Yoda Cupcake" by the way.

The Jedi Training Academy.

Young Padawans, pick up your light sabers!

Aspiring young padawans aged 7 to 12 years old can register to join the training academy. A senior Jedi will train and guide them on the usage of the sabers and practise some moves. All because the big bad wolf will arrive shortly and duel with them one on one!

"Give yourself to the dark side!"

Even Duffy got into the dark side :(

Please tell me you are just cos-playing!!!

After we had enough of the dark side, it's time to return to the light at Fantasyland:

But it's still a small world after all!

Here in Paris Disneyland Park, there actually IS a queue for It's a Small World! o-O The ride was integrated perfectly with the railway and that made it look like a little toy town by itself!

How nice is that!

The sights in the ride varies slightly from the one in TDR. Now having been to several places in Europe, the sights reminded me of my earlier trips to several countries. They just look so much more meaningful when you've been there yourself!

Amsterdam (Netherlands)

London (England)

Venice and Rome (Italy)

The official Disneyland brochure indicate several rides/shows as "Not to be Missed" on the map. Right next to this ride are two of those "Not to be Missed": Le Pays des Contes de Fees and Casey Jr. - le Petit Train du Cirque. These two rides are not available in TDR. Since it's recommended, we need to check it out, right?

The circus train's from Casey Jr. and the boat's from Le Pays des Contes

Just like "It's a small world" and the railway train, Disneyland Paris has done a great job blending the two rides into one another. Le Pays des Contes de Fees is truly beautiful and memorable. You cruise down river into the miniature worlds of the fairy tales!

Hansel and Gretel

The little Mermaid

And my personal favourite:

Beauty and the Beast

I love it that they actually created the entire "poor provincial town" and Beast's castle in the far distance!! It is just amazingly beautiful...

The queue for Casey Jr. - le Petit Train du Cirque was slightly longer but now i fully understand why! You sit on board the circus train which Dumbo and his mom ride on as the cruise tours around. And of course, you get to enjoy the beautiful views from Le Pays while enjoying the mildly thrilling semi-coaster. It is now one of my favourite rides from Disneyland Park!

Cruising near to Beast's castle!

Next up is Alice's Curious Labyrinth. Right whack in the middle of the self-guided maze is the huge face of the Cheshire Cat which everyone clamors to take photographs with. But there are a lot more things to see such as the angry Queen of Hearts and her foot soldiers etc. Beware that some of the figurines are motion-sensitive so they may pop out and give you a nice surprise when you walk past!

See? I told you everyone just wants to take photo with Cheshire.

One of the Cards (opps i mean, Guards) who came after us!

Minus the Cards/Guards, it's a pretty nice view up the Queen's castle!

Then off we go to another strangely crowded ride: Peter Pan's Flight. By the word "strange", i don't mean to say that it's not worth the time, but that the queue here is 50 mins for the ride when really, it's one of the shortest queues in TDR with an average of 20 mins maximum? I've come to appreciate that the French and the Japanese have very varied preferences. Hmm...

Admiring Wendy's house to kill time...

And there we go! All ready to fly!

Since several rides were closed for renovation, the last rides we took for the day were Pirates of the Caribbean at Adventureland and Phantom Manor at Frontierland. The Pirates of the Carribbean has some splash action while Phantom Manor is a very mild ride that basically just taunts your mind with the "restless spirits". Both of them are also available at TDR.

The Phantom Manor. Not so scary with Mickey around right? :D

If you have some time to kill while waiting for a show (like us), you can also visit the Le Passage Enhante d'Aladdin at Advenureland or Les Mysteres du Nautilus at Discoveryland. Both of them are self-guided attractions where you walk around to take a look at the display.

As it started to drizzle after that, we took a coffee break while waiting for the La Magie Disney en Parade ! (Disney Magic on Parade) at 17:30. Since we have our annual passes and will most definitely be back again, we decided to catch the show from the window seat in the cafe. Lazy us!