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Saying goodbye to Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster - Disneyland Paris/Parc Asterix July 2019

Jamesss

Hyper Poster
I went to Disneyland Paris in the second week of July to get some final rides on Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster, before it closes on 1st September.

Not gonna lie… I am devastated it is being rethemed. No ride has ever had so much personal meaning for me.

It was the first “big” coaster I ever went on, back in 2003 for the first time. Since then I have ridden it 150+ times over the years. It has always remained one of my favourite coasters.

I spent countless hours trying to recreate it in RCT3 when I was a kid. I know this ride like the back of my hand.

Honestly, seeing it rethemed is going to be like seeing my childhood home get destroyed only to be replaced with an ugly block of flats. Not a Marvel fan.

Anyway, I arrived on the Monday evening, and just had time to squeeze a couple of rides in. The queue was only around 15 minutes.

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This pic was not from Monday evening, hence the lack of crowds.

Going on this trip I was fully expecting the ride to be in pretty poor condition given that it is closing in less than 2 months. Over the years, the music, light and smoke effects have always been pretty unreliable, and I really thought that they were going to just let it fall apart in these last few months.

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How wrong I was.

The music was the loudest I have heard it in years, nearly all of the lights were working, and there was a decent amount of haze in the gravity building too.

It was the best condition I have seen the ride since about 2005. I am so pleased that Disneyland Paris are letting it go out with a bang, so to speak.

At the same time, having it ride so wonderfully, with nearly all the effects working, makes you question why they would get rid of such a good ride?!

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At one point, the ride broke down, and the lights were turned on in the load and launch area.

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The ride was evacuated and the queue line was emptied. I got a Fastpass out of it, which I never ended up using and kept as a souvenir.

After that, it was time to go to the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West dinner show for the first time. It was good fun, although I thought that Mickey and friends being shoehorned into it seemed really out of place.

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On the Tuesday I visited Parc Asterix for the first time ever.

Planned to head to Tonnerre de Zeus first, but ended up on Vol d’Icare because it was along the way. Nothing special, although I wasn't expecting the single seat car design.

After that, a 30 minute wait had already built for Tonnerre de Zeus. I wasn’t expecting too much from this ride, and it ended up just meeting my expectations. It wasn’t as rough as I expected and it had just a comfortable amount of ricketiness. Fun, but felt like it could have done with a bit more speed over the hills.

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Not really anywhere to get good pics of Tonnerre.

Did the park’s kiddie cred next SOS Numerobis. Not much to say about that.

Then waited about 45 minutes for OzIris. Wow. What a great coaster. Definitely one of my favourites inverts and probably one of my favourite coasters overall. The first drop really whips you down, and the first few elements really pack a punch.

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It was a hot day, so did some water rides next. The log flume (I think it is called Menhir Express) is worth mentioning. It was terrifying. The logs seem to float really low in the trough, so that the water level comes dangerously close to just flooding into the boat, at several points. It never did actually pour in, but it came within centimetres.

Did the splash boat ride next, can’t remember the name. It was nothing too special, but a fairly long ride for what it is. Could have done with some more theming.

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The next coaster was Trace du Hourra, which I was really looking forward to because I haven’t done many bobsleigh coasters. It was quite good actually, probably the best I have done (the other two being Avalanche at Blackpool and the one at Europa). It picks up some good speed in the first half, although the first mid-course brakes really kill it unfortunately.

Then onto Pegase Express. I don’t always like coasters that have backwards parts, because I get nauseous. But this one was fine as it was quite tame. The coaster itself was nothing special, but a decent family coaster.

The final coaster was the one I was least looking forward to: Goudurix. Possibly one of the most infamously rough coasters, although I think it did have some re-tracking done in the past few years? We waited about 30 mins for it. Got a seat towards the back of the train, and was not pleased to see that there was no padding on the restraints. Whilst the ride didn’t bash my ears or shoulders as much as I thought it would, it did turn out to be real neck-snapper. There was one particular transition, somewhere around the second inversion I think, which was the worst. Not a good coaster.

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The ride was down for the first half of the day, hence the empty train whilst testing.

Did a few of the other rides around the park, as well as one re-ride on OzIris, which was equally as great the second time.

Overall my impressions of Parc Asterix were that it was a pleasant park, although for some reason I expected the theming to be a little more thorough. It felt like it could have done with a dark ride or two as well. I probably wouldn’t go back until they have built their new coaster.

One big positive was the operations, which were fantastic; all of coasters were running multiple trains and being dispatched quickly and efficiently. The park was reasonably busy but not as bad as I thought it would be for school holidays in July. Most of the coasters had 30-40 minute waits for most of the day, with the longest wait being OzIris which reached about 50 minutes at one point.

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The last couple of days were spent back at Disneyland. I’m not going to go into too much detail about the rest of the trip, because I have been there loads of times before and nothing was particularly new to me.

One highlight was going for a meal at Walt’s - An American Restaurant. I have always wanted to do this but never got round to it in previous trips. I finally managed it this time and was sat at a table right next to a model of the Nautilus submarine.

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The food and service was great. One of the best steaks I have ever had.

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Went to see the refurbished Phantom Manor, which was one of my favourite theme park attractions before the refurb, even though it was desperately in need of some TLC. Honestly, considering it was closed for such a long time, it hasn’t changed much. If anything, they have made it a little worse. The transitions between the soundtracks in different sections of the ride is a bit clunkier now, and they have messed up the story. The lighting is better and darker now, I will give them that.

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Went to see Mickey and the Magician at one point, which I had heard was a really high quality show. Whilst it was a high quality production, it wasn’t for me. I’m not into theme park shows or musicals, and I just found the whole thing super cringey.

Also, I must mention Big Thunder Mountain, which even after accumulating a coaster count of 245, still remains in my top 10. It’s such a fantastic ride, and it is much better than its American counterparts (despite the smoke effect on the third lift not working). A front row ride at night is surprisingly intense and scary.

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After this trip, I really felt that Disneyland Paris as a whole could be operated with a little more care. I absolutely love the Disneyland Park - I think it could potentially be the best magic kingdom style park - however the way it is run is what lets it down. There were a number of effects around the park which were not working this trip, and there were just loads of little show-related problems (e.g. whilst riding Phantom Manor one day, some of the maintenance lights were left on in a backstage area, which could be seen from onride). They just need to tidy the place up a bit a really put on focus on show quality.

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Generic castle pic.

I got plenty of final rides in on Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster. I think I had 22 goes this trip, reaching a grand total of around 160 altogether. I will sorely miss this ride. The cast members left a little notebook at the exit to the ride where you can write your memories. I left a message saying how much I will miss it.

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The cast members have a whiteboard in the load area where they are counting down the days until the closure.

Fun fact: Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster has a high-speed launch mode, where the ride can be launched a good few km/h faster than usual. The best way to catch one of these is to ride it first thing in the morning, when it is still being warmed up (although sometimes they do it just after a breakdown too). I was staying in a Disney hotel, so I had access to Extra Magic Hours where I could get on it first thing. The high-speed launch actually makes the ride quite a lot better than usual. The only problem is, given the extra speed around the circuit, I did notice that some of the lighting effects don’t always trigger properly.

My final ride was on Soundtracker 2, which plays Young Lust, FINE, and Love In An Elevator. This train usually has the pink lightshow, but it was glitching this trip and it had the multicolour lightshow instead. Regardless, it was a great final ride. The music was loud, and the show was fantastic.

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My last look back at the ride after my final go.

That was the end of the trip, and I’m honestly doubting if I will find the motivation to visit DLP again once my favourite ride is gone.
 
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Matt N

CF Legend
Great report @Jamesss! I must admit I liked the Florida version of Rock'n'Rollercoaster more than I expected to, so I'm sure the Paris one is still great! It was also smoother than I expected, although I did sit in the very front car.

As for your Parc Asterix visit, seems like you had a great first visit! OzIris is a B&M I can't wait to get on, so I'm glad to hear you loved it!

If you're sad about RnRC being rethemed, it's always worth remembering that below the Iron Man theming, it is still the exact same ride! Also, remember that the Aerosmith theme still exists in Florida!
 

Jamesss

Hyper Poster
Great report @Jamesss! I must admit I liked the Florida version of Rock'n'Rollercoaster more than I expected to, so I'm sure the Paris one is still great! It was also smoother than I expected, although I did sit in the very front car.

As for your Parc Asterix visit, seems like you had a great first visit! OzIris is a B&M I can't wait to get on, so I'm glad to hear you loved it!

If you're sad about RnRC being rethemed, it's always worth remembering that below the Iron Man theming, it is still the exact same ride! Also, remember that the Aerosmith theme still exists in Florida!
I find it strange how often people say that RnRC is rough, I just don't feel it at all. I must have sat in every car of the train on this trip and not once was it even slightly rough. I reckon people pull down the restraints too tightly or something!

Even though it is still going to be the same coaster with the Iron Man theme, it was never really the coaster itself that I loved about this ride. It was the lightshow, the music, the fantastic launch sequence, and the general atmosphere. I might have to try and do the Florida one again at some point, as it wouldn't surprise me if that one closes as well in the coming years.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
I find it strange how often people say that RnRC is rough, I just don't feel it at all. I must have sat in every car of the train on this trip and not once was it even slightly rough. I reckon people pull down the restraints too tightly or something!

Even though it is still going to be the same coaster with the Iron Man theme, it was never really the coaster itself that I loved about this ride. It was the lightshow, the music, the fantastic launch sequence, and the general atmosphere. I might have to try and do the Florida one again at some point, as it wouldn't surprise me if that one closes as well in the coming years.
Admittedly, I did sit in the very front car of Rock'n'Rollercoaster, so it might well be rougher further back, but I'm glad to hear it wasn't rough for you!

For all we know, the Iron Man theme may well encompass elements of Rock'n'Rollercoaster's existing theme, so there may well still be similarities.
 

peep

CF Legend
I only have two worries when it comes to the re-theme from Rock to Iron Man.
1) The cool light show being replaced with partial cardboard cut-outs like the ugly Orlando one
2) No more "I'm lovin' that!" on the break run

Fingers crossed we'll get an AC/DC soundtrack and some neat effects. Losing the Aerosmith theme isn't that big of a deal.


Yay for more Oz'Iris fans! My favourite B&M invert.

Asterix does already have 2 dark rides, you must have accidentally missed them. One is the best mad house (althought it has seen better days) with some ridiculous pre-shows in the Roman part of the park (Le Défi de César). The other is a horror dark ride which is long and random but people love it (Transdémonium).
 

Jamesss

Hyper Poster
I only have two worries when it comes to the re-theme from Rock to Iron Man.
1) The cool light show being replaced with partial cardboard cut-outs like the ugly Orlando one
2) No more "I'm lovin' that!" on the break run

Fingers crossed we'll get an AC/DC soundtrack and some neat effects. Losing the Aerosmith theme isn't that big of a deal.


Yay for more Oz'Iris fans! My favourite B&M invert.

Asterix does already have 2 dark rides, you must have accidentally missed them. One is the best mad house (althought it has seen better days) with some ridiculous pre-shows in the Roman part of the park (Le Défi de César). The other is a horror dark ride which is long and random but people love it (Transdémonium).
I just can't see anything they do to RnRC looking cooler than the current lightshow. Admittedly, I am secretly hoping for an AC/DC soundtrack, but it still won't be better than Aerosmith for me. By the way @peep, you might vaguely remember me from the old Photosmagiques/magicforum, pretty sure you were there too, if I remember correctly. My username was RnRCj. That was a while back!!

I am tempted to say OzIris is my new favourite invert too. Knocks Montu off the top spot.

I intentionally missed Le Defi de Cesar because I realised it was a mad house and they tend to make me nauseous. But I wasn't aware of Transdemonium? I don't think I saw it on the park map. I might have missed it accidentally. Either that, or it's not there anymore @Coaster Fellow.
 

Sammi71

Roller Poster
RnR was my sons first upside coaster, and one of my favourites. I agree that DLP does need some tlc but it has improved vastly over the last few years so fingers crossed it continues to improve
 
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