Disneyland Paris is a bust
December 26, 2004Okay, maybe partly it was because the park was chilly and very very crowded, but I was really unimpressed with Disneyland Paris. It’s actually two parks, the main Disneyland and a newer Disney Studios theme park. 49 euro gets you a park-hopper ticket to both, it’s 40 euro for just one park.
Of the two parks, Disney Studios was the bigger disappointment. It seemed like a poor copy of Universal Studios, with a similar backlot tram tour and a stunt show. Two of the shows are especially worthless–the Armageddon Special Effects and the Animagic. The Armageddon show you all crowd into this room that looks kinda like the space station from the movie, and then the station gets hit by a simulated meteor shower–there’s lots of shaking and a fake airlock blows out, stuff like that. But it’s simply not well done and doesn’t seem worth the time you spent standing in line.
The Animagic I have to warn everyone away. It’s a very bad puppet type of show, I doubt even the little kids liked it. I will say the theater is nice and warm so if you’re looking for a break from the cold then maybe it’s worth sitting thru this little piece of torture.
The main Disneyland is I think larger than Disneyland California, but smaller than Disneyworld. Of the three rides I wanted to take, two were not in operation–Indiana Jones, and the Nautilus Adventure. Nautilus is apparently like the submarine ride they used to have in California, which was always one of my favorites. A real disappointment that it doesn’t run after dark, and of course it was dark by the time I had made it over to that portion of the park.
Did manage to do Star Tours, which is a kick to experience in French. But otherwise it’s identical to the US versions.
The food at the park was somewhat different. Like they had lasagna, 7 euro and it wasn’t very good. And the orange Fanta soda here tastes different from the Fanta in the US–I guess a localized formula.
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