Patrick and I decided to take a relaxed weekend over the May bank holiday weekend to check out the new things at Disneyland Paris for the 25th anniversary. The resort was absolutely rammed over all 3 days so we didn't actually ride much but there were plenty of surprises throughout the trip.
Saturday 29th
The weather on the Saturday was fantastic, we entered the park to discover the awesome Main Street band playing some tunes.
Tinkerbell can be found in various poses on top of all the Main Street gas lamps
We headed into Discoveryland to discover Space Mountain was in soft opening! For those not in the know, it has been closed for the last 6 months to make some changes for Hyperspace Mountain. Despite all the signage all interior effects and lights were off bar a few Mission 2 sound effects and a couple of star lights. However it meant we got to check out the shiny new trains!
So, the new trains... Fairly comfortable, the restraints are really tight though, not much moving around now! Obviously without those chunky restraints though there is no headbanging so the whole ride felt really smooth, it also felt faster. However there are minor issues with these new trains. This is all about the leg room, in the front of each car half of your space is occupied with a wheel cover, we both had to sit with one of our legs at an uncomfortable angle. This also means it's more awkward if you have a bag which is not ideal when everyone is trying to load/unload as quick as poss. On top of this there is no longer a step incorporated into the seat design which means getting in and out is just a general mess (always was, but now it's worse).
There is more good to come out of these new trains but I'll come back to that later on. For now, food was required so we headed over to Hakuna Matata in Adventureland for some tasty grub. Patrick tried a new menu item, a bread bowl with some things in it. It got a thumbs up. I had a tasty kebab, I really recommend this fast food restaurant, always tasty.
To get an idea of how stupidly busy the park was I took a photo of the queue for the treehouse...
That... That is a 20 minute queue for the bloomin' treehouse. There's never a queue for that. Seeing as there were gross queues we meandered around Adventureland for a bit.
We then headed back over to Discoveryland for Star Tours II. So glad this version is now in Paris, I love it to bits. Slightly miffed everything is in French and not multi-lingual. Everything looks great though, the new Star Traders at the exit also looks fantastic.
We then decided to go find a spot for the parade. We have never seen so many people waiting so long before the parade before. We're talking about 90 minutes beforehand. We managed to get a semi-decent spot but due to annoying people it wasn't perfect and it got insanely busy, we had safety concerns for those on the bridge, it was completely full of people, with kids hanging off the lamps.
Have to commend the cast members though, they did their best at trying to control the crazy crowds everywhere, actually, that goes for the staff throughout the whole weekend. They were all incredible. We saw them enforce park rules (selfie sticks and smoking) as well as generally being happy and playful, it really added to our trip. The parade was ok, I love some of the kinetic pieces of the parade floats (the acrobatics on the Toy Story float is fab) and the dragon is fantastic in Paris, it feels really intimidating and it got a massive applause after it blew fire. The song is ok but rather forgettable compared to the last few songs the park has had. Photo time...
After the parade we headed over to the Studios for a couple of quick rides. Ratatouille was running really well with the final kitchen scene pumping out some wonderful smells. Rock was great, lots of smoke and we got audio! We ended our time in the Studios with some Tower of Terror goodness where the staff were in a super playful mood, it was awesome.
Back over to Disneyland for some night time fun at Phantom Manor before watching the new night show, Illuminations.
So what did we think of Disney Illuminations? Not a lot of good things. It's very poor in comparison to the excellent Dreams. The combination of scenes is random, Mickey is sort of introduced and then totally forgotten about, the transitions between some of the later sequences are laughable and it's just a bit rubbish. I'm sure most people who don't have much to compare to will love it. However after a performance of Dreams there would be massive applause and people would sing during most of the songs. Illuminations ends with a distinct lack of emotion, a very audible "meh".
Saturday 29th
The weather on the Saturday was fantastic, we entered the park to discover the awesome Main Street band playing some tunes.
Tinkerbell can be found in various poses on top of all the Main Street gas lamps
We headed into Discoveryland to discover Space Mountain was in soft opening! For those not in the know, it has been closed for the last 6 months to make some changes for Hyperspace Mountain. Despite all the signage all interior effects and lights were off bar a few Mission 2 sound effects and a couple of star lights. However it meant we got to check out the shiny new trains!
So, the new trains... Fairly comfortable, the restraints are really tight though, not much moving around now! Obviously without those chunky restraints though there is no headbanging so the whole ride felt really smooth, it also felt faster. However there are minor issues with these new trains. This is all about the leg room, in the front of each car half of your space is occupied with a wheel cover, we both had to sit with one of our legs at an uncomfortable angle. This also means it's more awkward if you have a bag which is not ideal when everyone is trying to load/unload as quick as poss. On top of this there is no longer a step incorporated into the seat design which means getting in and out is just a general mess (always was, but now it's worse).
There is more good to come out of these new trains but I'll come back to that later on. For now, food was required so we headed over to Hakuna Matata in Adventureland for some tasty grub. Patrick tried a new menu item, a bread bowl with some things in it. It got a thumbs up. I had a tasty kebab, I really recommend this fast food restaurant, always tasty.
To get an idea of how stupidly busy the park was I took a photo of the queue for the treehouse...
That... That is a 20 minute queue for the bloomin' treehouse. There's never a queue for that. Seeing as there were gross queues we meandered around Adventureland for a bit.
We then headed back over to Discoveryland for Star Tours II. So glad this version is now in Paris, I love it to bits. Slightly miffed everything is in French and not multi-lingual. Everything looks great though, the new Star Traders at the exit also looks fantastic.
We then decided to go find a spot for the parade. We have never seen so many people waiting so long before the parade before. We're talking about 90 minutes beforehand. We managed to get a semi-decent spot but due to annoying people it wasn't perfect and it got insanely busy, we had safety concerns for those on the bridge, it was completely full of people, with kids hanging off the lamps.
Have to commend the cast members though, they did their best at trying to control the crazy crowds everywhere, actually, that goes for the staff throughout the whole weekend. They were all incredible. We saw them enforce park rules (selfie sticks and smoking) as well as generally being happy and playful, it really added to our trip. The parade was ok, I love some of the kinetic pieces of the parade floats (the acrobatics on the Toy Story float is fab) and the dragon is fantastic in Paris, it feels really intimidating and it got a massive applause after it blew fire. The song is ok but rather forgettable compared to the last few songs the park has had. Photo time...
After the parade we headed over to the Studios for a couple of quick rides. Ratatouille was running really well with the final kitchen scene pumping out some wonderful smells. Rock was great, lots of smoke and we got audio! We ended our time in the Studios with some Tower of Terror goodness where the staff were in a super playful mood, it was awesome.
Back over to Disneyland for some night time fun at Phantom Manor before watching the new night show, Illuminations.
So what did we think of Disney Illuminations? Not a lot of good things. It's very poor in comparison to the excellent Dreams. The combination of scenes is random, Mickey is sort of introduced and then totally forgotten about, the transitions between some of the later sequences are laughable and it's just a bit rubbish. I'm sure most people who don't have much to compare to will love it. However after a performance of Dreams there would be massive applause and people would sing during most of the songs. Illuminations ends with a distinct lack of emotion, a very audible "meh".