Annual Family Trip - Disney Studios Paris Day 3

Walt and Mickey welcoming us to Disney Studios

On our last day to enjoy all things Disney, we visited Walt Disney Studios.  We knew this park was not as big as Disneyland and that suited us since we had plans in the evening and had to be at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Dinner Show at 5:30.  

                                                                                                                                                                   First things first though, breakfast was at Earl of Sandwich today.  This was pretty good. There are choices of meal deals, French, American and English.  

French was obviously a croissant and coffee, American was a filled roll with too much variety to tempt me - although it did sound delicious, the full English breakfast is what everyone decided on.  Bacon, sausage, eggs, beans and toast.  Just what we needed to fuel the beginning of our day!

As we got nearer the gates, this outfit impressed me so much. She had planned her clothes with everything Disney, I especially loved her backpack!

We had no plan but went straight to the first thing we saw, which was the behind the scenes Tram Tour.  But right as we were going to board, the whole thing stopped dead!  And it was going to be stopped for a very long time due to someone standing up when they were told not to.  This sounds like overreaction, but some of the tram tour is bumpy and earthquake feeling so there is a danger.  Once a person stands up, the whole process stops and has to be re-programed, water re-stored - there is a flood during the earthquake, so much to fix.  So we left and went to the car stunt show after getting a nice pass to return to the tram tour and not have to stand and wait again. 

This looked way different when they
showed the finished scene!

So impressive

The next stop was the stunt show and that was so interesting!  I won't bore you with all the stunts shown, but just the fire ones. And it took me a while to realise those brick walls are actually cloth!  I was so impressed with how close the cars got and NONE of them had any scratches.  Yes, now I know why!

Earthquake and flooding!  

Not us, but this convinced me the ride would be ok.
It wasn't! At least for me, everyone else enjoyed it.

The background tour went well when we returned and, for some unknown reason, we got another pass to Crush's Coaster!  I had heard good things about this and it did not look too scary....boy was I wrong! But everyone else loved it.

Dancing in the street!

Lunchtime was really fun since there are stalls all along this part of the park with a variety of countries and their food for sale.  We all ate the French food though, mainly Raclete, a cheese dish and a potato dish that I can't remember what it was called. Both were delicious!

Cheers!
AT the Ratatouille fountain

Our first attempt at single riders, two of us got in one car and
the other two were in the next ones. Perfect!

And then there was the Ratatouille ride!  We decided to try the single rider approach and it worked so well we could have done this over and over. It was our grandson's favourite ride!

The Toy Story section of the park was super!  It felt sort of like the old Honey I Shrunk the Kids, where the toys were big and we seemed small.  Loved the feel of it.  I rode the Slinky ride, racy enough for me. The boys enjoyed the toy soldier parachute ride!

As we sat and enjoyed Churros, we wondered what to do next and decided it was probably time to head off to the Wild West Show, but not before our grandson tried his shout meter and the Monsters Inc door! 

This park did  not feel as familiar as yesterday, but there is still a "Hollywood" buzz about the place, with so many parts of it looking like backdrops to scenes.  There are dedicated areas to certain movies, such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc and Ratatouille, and it was fun to participate in these areas.

That was a wrap for this park!

Our next stop was Buffalo Bills and it was a a wonderful experience!  This was very well done, it was  a dinner show, sort of based on American western history and a rodeo.  I loved it and the food was great, they could even work around my allergy to cumin, and that would have been difficult because the entire menu was based on barbeque!  I only agreed to go because everyone else thought it sounded like so much fun.  I expected to simply go hungry, but I honestly enjoyed my meal and the show!

A perfect way to finish a magical trip to the wonderful world of Disney!

Annual Family Trip - Disneyland Paris Day 2

Down Town Disney

Going through security to enter Disneyland Village

Happy to say everyone agreed to catch an early bus so we could eat and get to Disneyland as early as possible.  The bus service from the Vienna House Circus Magic could not be better and we were very lucky to have this right at our front door.  The few times I have stayed in Orlando and used hotel buses were never as seamless as this service is.  Maybe it is because there are not quite the number of visitors here, but then this is relatively off season so who knows?

We chose not to eat at the hotel since breakfast was 16 Euro for adults and 11 Euro for children, seemed quite a bit to us.  For our first morning, we went too McDonald's.  Not ever my first choice for any meal, but it is predictable and relatively inexpensive.  When I say relatively, you have to remember this is Disney and food is typically overpriced and not as good as it should be. So McDonald's seemed a safe bet.  

Making a decision at the McCafe

Plus, I always to to the McCafe where there are always delicious croissants when in this part of the world!  Everyone else just had egg mcmuffins and that sort of thing, but with that over, lets go discover a new Disney!  (new to most of us anyway!)

The funny thing is, this does not feel "new"!  It feels as if we have been here before. The park is so well done that I imagine any Disney park in any part of the world must feel familiar.  Yes, Cinderella's castle is a bit smaller and there are other things just not the same, but all in all, this feels like home, with a bit of French thrown in!



We let our grandson lead the way and he discovered Dead Man's Cave and we wandered around that for a while.  It WAS fun, but we were there early to beat the crowds so eventually I herded them  out of that maze.

Since we were already in Adventureland, we decided to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and it was really fun to experience this again with a new generation!  Our daughter was unable to join us since there are quite a few rides that do not permit pregnant women to participate in. Some we did wonder about, like this one....but better safe than sorry.

Looks like we got our own
Captain Jack!

This was a great ride to start out with and our grandson wanted to do it again, I had to explain there is a whole lotta park out there to discover!

Everyone could do the Dumbo ride so that was next!  I never thought I would be doing these again, but so much fun to have a young person to share this excitement with!

Look closely under the pink turret and there they are planning!

Me as the Mad Hatter!

There is a maze close to Dumbo and the only two interested were our son and grandson. Alan and I sat and rested, well he walked around and took photos.  The others went in search of coffee and pit stops!   It was funny to see the two "boys" at the top of the castle in the maze planning how they were going to conquer it.  And they were successful!

And then we found this boat ride that I had not seen before, it goes through lovely fairy tales, and our pregnant daughter could participate.  We in we jumped!

Making this little train even more
exciting, such a great uncle!

Attached to this fairy tale boat ride is a train that goes around it, so those of us who could do this jumped on the train next!

Its a Small World

All countries are
represented, here is
Scotland

London!

Of course, no visit to Disney is complete without experiencing "Its a Small World" and that was our next stop!

Adios!

Lunchtime arrived and we went into the first place we saw - the Videopolis.  The menu was not extensive, mainly different types of burgers with different types of meal plans.  We all got beef burgers with fries and a drink.  It also offered an ice cream or yogurt.  As expected in any Disney park, they were overpriced but they were also ok.  Two of us got yogurt, my reason was so I didn't have to worry about my ice cream melting and that I could get one later!

We were so close to what I thought was Space Mountain with a simple name change of Hyperspace Mountain.  This is/was the only roller coaster I ever enjoyed and I was looking forward to doing this again, and the wait was not that long. So 3 of us decided to go after lunch.  The nearer we got to the beginning of the line and the more we got in the middle of the building, the louder the screams got.  And the rolling of the building really did not sound familiar.  This really sounded like a "real" roller coaster.  Then, when I saw the seats, I knew this ride was much different and I bailed out. The two guys went on it, loved it but agreed it was not my kind of ride!

Our daughter was really looking forward to the Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast since she has done well in the past.  So we all did this and it was even more fun than ever!  Such a simple concept but so much fun!

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We never got on this train.

The day just went on and on, I had been worried about time, but this was never an issue, we wandered aimlessly along and accomplished everything we wanted to. Well, expect the runaway train, that line was simply too long.

Haunted Mansion

The last things we did were the Haunted Mansion and the Riverboat Cruise. Then it was time for the parade. We cut it too fine and did not get in the front, so our grandson could not see as well as I would have liked.  It has been too long since we were at a Disney park, I forgot how early you need to get to the parade to be able to see it well!

the Molly Brown riverboat!

ready for the parade!

The floats were huge!  And there were loads of cast members accompanying the floats but it was almost impossible to see them.  It was such fun though.

It took us a while to realise how much Halloween decoration was all over the park, considering this is only the middle of September it surprised us.  But Halloween and Christmas are their busiest seasons, so it makes sense to begin decoration early, it is a lot to cover!

Dinner was a struggle since many places were busy and we were pressed for time to get back in time for the fireworks. We ended up dividing and some went to the Earl of Sandwich and some went to Starbucks.  Whatever worked, then we reconnected and enjoyed the end of day show!

The feel of this Disney is so much more relaxed and laid back, not sure why. Could be that it is smaller, or we were there off season, or the crowds are just not as unbearable as Orlando. Whatever it is, I am hooked and hoping we can return again next year!