Thoughts about Disneyland Paris

We visited Disneyland while in Paris. Here are some thoughts regarding that experience.

Getting There from Paris is Convenient... But Comes With a Few Tricks Required!Paris' underground train system - the Metro - is so conveniently planned you can find a nearby Metro system from nearly every possible location in Paris. The city system is called the Metro, and the suburban system is called the RER. Both connect easily  at various terminals throughout the city. The best strategy is to find your way via Metro to the massive junction at Chatelet (in the center of Paris, right by Forum Des Halles - apparently the largest subway station in the world) and get on the RER that runs east to Disneyland. The train stops right at the entry to the park, so once you are on the correct train you having nothing to do but wait. The ride takes about half an hour.
There are two tricky parts.
The first is purchasing the correct tickets. You can use a Metro ticket to get onto the Disneyland train, but you will find that the turnstyles at the Disneyland station will refuse to let you out. That is because the exit styles only accept the RER tickets. We were among many baffled passengers who relentlessly tried feeding their tickets into the machines, only to have them rejected before we forced our bodies through the gap in the gate.
The second is getting on the correct trains. The train that heads to Disneyland forks, one heading northest to Disneyland, the other heading southeast to.. well, NOT Disneyland. You have to read the boards carefully by the track. A sign at the station states all destinations for the next train coming, with a light next to the ones the next train serves. If the light for "Disneyland parc" is not illuminated, then the next train is the WRONG train.

The Entry to Disneyland Paris is Much CoolerThe Disneyland hotel sits right on top of the ticket gates to Disneyland. You have to walk through - er, under - the hotel to get in. The building is gorgeous, and really makes walking into the park a lot more fun than at Disneyland California.

The Castle is Better in Disneyland ParisThe castle exterior is much more stylized, much more fantasy looking than in California Disneyland. There are more in and outs getting around or through it to Fantasyland. The "Sleeping Beauty" storybook walkthrough on the second story is a very large, open space that is far more comfortable than the claustrophobic, overly hot narrow passageway in the California castle. But, best of all, the castle has a full sized dragon in the dungeon. The dungeon is kind of fun, as there are entries into it from the back of one of the stores, as well as from the exterior front and back of the castle. And this is no small, what is that thing over there kind of dragon. The dragon is big, very animated, and close up to the viewing walkway. Definitely a big plus.

Phantom Manor Has Plusses and MinusesThe exterior of the Haunted Mansion - or rather, Phantom Manor - is victorian, and looks almost identical to the house from the movie Psycho. It sits on a crest pretty high above Frontierland. This contrasts greatly with the house in California, whose exterior is antebellum (which makes it fit in with New Orleans Square - post civil war mansions had more roman pillars and such), or with the Haunted Mansion in Florida, whose exterior is gothic. The exterior of Phantom Manor is much more worn and dilapidated, making it feel really creepy. It fits in well with the Frontierland theme, and is meant to be part of a story involving the Thunder Mountain Railroad ride. The inside of the first part of the ride is almost identical with the California ride. The interiors of both are Victorian, with mostly the same illusions and gags. However, these gags have a story more solidly woven into them with the Paris park, involving a ghostly bride, and a phantom character that appear consistently throughout. In spite of that, those parts of both rides feel like essentially the same thing with minor adjustments.
The end of the Paris ride is completely different than the California ride. In California, you descend out the back window of the mansion and into the graveyard, where ghosts dance and sing around the tombstones. The effect is largely comical and light hearted. In Paris, you descend into the grave and underground, where you wind up in a "Boot Hill" nightmare land below ground. There is mockup western ghost town with ghouls and spooks all over. The effect is not nearly as whimsical. It is downright creepy. It fits the western theme really well, but I wouldn't say it has the same charm as the California ride. It is fun, but it is also most certainly different.

Alice in Wonderland is a Hedge MazeIn a park like Disneyland, you would think a hedge maze would get so little room that it couldn't possibly be entertaining or amusing. I was very pleasantly surprised with the Alice in Wonderland hedge maze. It was marvellous. It felt like we were walking through it forever, and the various little gimmicks and such were fun to see. The castle of the Queen of Hearts in the middle was fun to climb up, and you get a really good view of Fantasyland from up there. The view was good enough that I spotted the storybook canal boats in a location I didn't even know was available.

Pirates Uses its Space More EfficientlyThe California version of the ride has a lot of dead air time while the boats float through the caves. The Paris version of the ride has pretty much the same gags and gimmicks (in different order), but packed more closely together. It is a pretty good ride. What it does not have is the bayou entry point, which has always been one of my most favorite immersive experiences at the California park. I always felt that the "you are in a swamp" illusion there was so complete that by the time you had entered the remainder of the ride all disbelief had been tossed overboard and dumped in Davy Jones locker.

Critter Country and New Orleans Square are Gone...The space for these two lands is added to Frontierland and Adventureland, both of which are much larger than their California counterparts. Adventureland is very large, making for a better walking and getting around experience. The "Tom Sawyer Island" (which I think now in California is "Pirate Island" or something) idea has been turned into a much larger space and pretty much 50% of the navigation through Adventureland requires traversing various mountains, going through caves or crossing suspension bridges. I think this was a brilliant idea, because stuck on the island as they are in California the really are only accessible to those willing to get on the keel boats to get there. Given how dry and hot that island gets, it becomes pretty undesirable for most adults, and the island shuts down at night for Fantasmic. In Paris, the Island is where Thunder Mountain Railroad is. That was a brilliant swap.

Spaceplanning in Disneyland Paris is Mostly Much BetterI am not sure if it would be capable of accomodating the same sized crowds that California Disneyland has on a regular basis (Disneyland Paris feels smaller... not sure if it is), but something about the way the laid out the streets, walkways, rides and thoroughfares seems much, much smarter. For example, running parallel to Main Street, on the interior, is a long wide hallway that runs completely uninterrupted from the start of Main Street to the circle at its end in front of the castle. The hallway is decorated in 1900 styling, with artwork and display cabinets all up and down - so the theming remains strong, consistent with Main Street overall and still attractive. There are wide doors on the side toward Main Street which open up to interior facades that back the stores and cafes along the street. This results in a fast, high capacity way to exit or enter the park without having to deal with congestion on Main Street itself (crowds, parades, fireworks).
In general it felt as if there were fewer impassable chokepoints in the park. That horrendous train wreck of space planning that happens in Adventureland in California just doesn't exist.

Space Mountain SurprisesSpace Mountain is all cyberpunk and Jules Verne. The external theming is gorgeous. The ride interior theming could be stronger (I think they lost some great opportunities for decoration and ornamentation). The ride cars have rivets and bolts on them. They look like they were constructed in 1900, not 2300. The ride has a giant gun on the exterior of Space Mountain from which the riders are launched up to the top and down into the mountain. This is reminiscent of Jules Verne's "From Earth to Moon", as well as George Melies' movie of the same title, where the first manned moon vehicle is essentially a giant shell launched from a massive gun.
The ride itself surprises, especially if you have ridden its California counterpart. In California, the cars descend slowly up the hill, and slowly pick up speed as the come around the first corner, and then commit to going faster as the begin steeper descent. In Paris, the cars are launched from the bottom at high speed, just like being shot out of a gun. The inside has more visual effects in terms of planets and celestial objects and such. The car feels faster (and more shaky, so if you have neck issues I would avoid the ride). But, above all, the biggest surprise was the loop. A loop is a very bizarre thing to encounter in the dark on a roller coaster when you don't expect it. Your only awareness of it is the sudden change in G forces. To add to that, soon after the loop, the ride does a corkscrew, which, again, your only hint is the sideways turn and inversion. The ride was a blast, but I was walking sideways by the time I was done.

There is a Lot More FoodIt felt like Disneyland Paris has many more food service facilities than Disneyland California. Then again, it seems like Paris in general has many more food service facilities per square meter than anywhere else I have ever been, so maybe that is just a requirement of doing business in France.

People Don't Wear as Much MerchTanya noticed this. In California, every other child is wearing Micky ears. The guests are all adorned and decked out in Disney themed merchandise. We didn't seem the same thing in Paris. There were a lot of little girls in princess dress costumes, but otherwise, we just didn't see the people walking around with Disney product swinging from their bodies and perched on their heads.

Disney StudiosWe didn't really get what we should have out of Disney Studios. There was a Toy Story themed area that was pretty cute. There was a flying carpet ride (think Dumbo ride, but with carpets). There was an inside roller coaster with a "Finding Nemo" theme (spinning cars, on a roller coaster, in the dark - I got slightly nauseous). But overall, there didn't seem to be that much of interest as rides went. The facades were also all mostly flat painted building structures, and they did a poor job giving the guests a preview of exactly what the ride or attraction actually had to offer. That said, Tower of Terror is located there, as is an Aerosmith themed roller coaster, which both serve as a pretty big draw.

Noteworthy Disappointment - Backlot Tram RideI normally don't harsh on rides for being less than expected, but this one in particular had to be the most miserable, dreadful waste of park space, and my own time, that I have ever seen. The ride is presented much like the Universal Studios tram ride, but doesn't even come close to comparing. You get driven past a couple of props, which, as far as I can tell, all came from the following movies: 1> Dinotopia, 2> Pearl Harbor (the one with Ben Affleck...), 3> 101 Dalmations. I had to explain to my children what the movie Dinotopia even was. The tram cars had a video on them with an actress I did not recognize and Jeremy Irons delivering what I believe was meant to be humorous and ironic commentary on the ride's offerings. "Phoning it in" would have been a un-deserved complement to Jeremy Iron's performance on this video. A better term might have been "Self-loathing, depressed, bitterness filled daze". There are two special effects sequences on this tram ride. One is "calamity canyon", which I would summarize as "fake canyon, some fire, and then a lot of water". The
next sequence went something like this "And now we are travelling into London, but not any London YOU MAY HAVE SEEN, but instead a London as if it were ATTACKED BY DRAGONS". Okay, so this was an outdoor set of a crumbling London street scene, as if it had been hit with an earthquake. The tram curves through the set, and then pauses by a big circular structure. Steam starts coming out of the circular structure. I think "Oh... cool... dragons! They are going to have a dragon!!! A big, cool looking mechanical dragon". I turn to my kids and smile and I can see they think the same thing. I turn back to the circular structure, because, you know, where else do you hide a giant hydraulically powered robotic dragon? The steam increases, a loud rumbling sound starts, you feel the heat building. Flame starts coming out of the structure, and you just know
the dragon is going to pop out any second. Then the tram starts up and leaves and goes back to the start of the ride where, dizzy from the earth-shattering disappointment of NOT getting to see a dragon, you get off.

Is it Worth It?I have a hard time answering this in a way that I think might appeal to most people. For myself and my family, we have visited Disneyland so often that we are very sensitive to small changes and differences. We can tell when something in the California park has been moved, altered or painted differently. Just looking for differences from visit to visit is fun for us. So in a lot of ways what I really wanted to see was how different the Paris version of the park was. I have heard people say "Disneyland Paris is the same as Disneyland California, except that Mickey speaks French". To that, I think this is someone who really just doesn't LIKE Disneyland all that much. So if you are the sort of person whose plans for someday going to Disneyland are "Let's spend half a day, put the kid on Dumbo, and then leave", then I guess Disneyland Paris is not for you. But if you are the type of person who has the words to "Grim Grinning Ghosts" memorized, and taps the person next to you in your Doom Buggy on the shoulder and says "Hey, check it out! The Grave Digger's dog is missing!!!", then Disneyland Paris is going to seem as if it has hundreds of differences. So, if you are in the "Disney indifferent" crowd, and don't have little kids, I would say skip Disneyland Paris. If, however, you are a Disneyland fan, and you wind up in Paris with at least a day or two available, I say jump on the subway and take the relatively pain free ride out to the park. I wouldn't even bother with booking one of the hotels near the park - the train ride back really is easy enough to do if you have a place in Paris close to a Metro station.