First thing's first though: breakfast. At Davy Crockett Ranch you pick up breakfast and take it back to your cabin. I got up a little earlier than the group to head out to the breakfast wagon at the entrance to our loop and pick up food--only to find a sign telling me our wagon was closed for the day and I needed to go two loops down the road. I walked back to our cabin, grumbling about lost time, and jumped in the car--I did not want to spend the time to walk to the further loop, and juggle bags coming back.
Breakfast was carb heavy but good and for 4 people includes:
1 liter of milk
a can of either apple or orange juice per person
choice of instant coffee, instant hot chocolate or tea bag per person
one half sized baguette per person
choice of one croissant (fresh and very good) or single serve box of cornflakes per person
an applesauce per person
several butter, nutella and jelly packets
It takes about 15 minutes to drive from the ranch to the parks, including going through the parking gates and getting a parking spot (so it takes closer to 10 going home, without those slow downs) and another 15 or so minutes to get from the parking space to the entry gates of either park (the TGV train station is so much closer--if you are going in for a day trip the station will leave you almost at the entry). There were always three armed soldiers there near the station--which felt a little unsettling. We weren't sure if they are there all the time or if there was some specific threat, but they were around every day last week:
We made it to the studios about 15 minutes past park open. The entry are at the Studios is indoors and designed to look like Hollywood at night:
We headed directly to Crush's Coaster--a totally unique ride that we loved last time we were at DLP and one that gets huge lines and has no fastpass option. The line was already up to 90 minutes, so we kept going to explore the new Toy Story themed area instead.
This might be a good time to mention that I think Disneyland Paris is the most beautiful and fully themed of any of the Disney parks I have been to. On the other side of that coin, Disney Studios Paris is the least themed of any of them and looks largely thrown together and like a bunch of warehouses with billboards on them. The newer Toy Story are is small, but DOES have a Disney level of theming, and the new Ratatouille area that is scheduled to open July 10 looks like it will be a huge improvement as well.
In the Toy Story Playland we rode the Slinky Dog ride, that is billed as a coaster but actually just spins around really slowly--too slowly to get at all dizzy even. Not much of a thrill, but very adorable.
The kids then jumped into the singles line for the RC Racers (they don't mind riding solo to save a long wait) and Dave and I explored the area and took some photos of the cute details and theming:
(we loved Andy's footprints--that is the kind of detail that makes Disney parks)
We also peeked over the fence to get a sneak preview of the new area opening soon:
The kids were done with the "fun but really short" RC Racer ride in less than 10 minutes. The Green Army Men Paratroopers ride (which we dubbed, Tower of Terror lite) already had a 45 minute wait, so we decided to catch it another time (oh the joy of a long trip!). heading out we snagged some fast passes for Tower and some for Rockin Roller coaster (neither David nor I wanted to ride either, so we could get the kids a set of passes for each) and then went to watch the first showing of Cinemagique. We remembered liking this Martin Short film about movies quite a bit on our visit 5 years ago. We snagged a seat with lots of leg room above the entry hallway and waited for it to start:
and we waited, and waited some more. About 15 minutes after the show was supposed to start they came out and made the no flash photography announcements, started the audio and about 30 seconds in it cut off abruptly and we were told to evacuate the building. Um, okay. Well that was a waste of time for no apparent reason (Dave thinks the projector bulb was out).
The kids went to ride Tower and Rockin' a few times each with a combination of fast passes and stand by lines (which were not long) and David and I went to see the first of two daily showings of the Lights, Motors, Action Stunt Spectacular.
The stunt show was pretty boring (not that I have ever loved it). The Lightening McQueen car broke down right after coming on stage and had to be towed off and most of the stunts have been drastically cut back (we wonder if there was an accident or their insurance premiums just went up)--so what you see now is a huge let down compared to the show 5 years ago (or even as recently as two years ago in the US park).
The Broadway Cafe, directly across from Rockin' Roller Coaster had no menu three, only a Broadway Menu in which you could choose from any of several entrees and several desserts, and our vouchers were good there--so we jumped at the chance to have lunch. David and I decided to split a meal because an entree, side and dessert after such a big breakfast seemed like a lot of food, and if we had vouchers leftover we could apply them towards lunch on our last day (you get one voucher per NIGHT and we were there for 5 nights but 6 days at lunch time). The food was good--if we ever have those vouchers again it will be a place we return to for sure.
Heading out, I had to have my photo with the Singin' in the Rain umbrella:
We still had not heard from my friend, so we decided to catch a performance of Animagique. This is a black lit show with live performances of several Disney songs held together by a loose plot in which Mickey speaks only French and Donald only English. For those who are familiar with Walt Disney World: imagine a live action, Little Mermaid Style version of Mickey's Phillermagic and that is about right. It is also one of the few newer things I have seen to include the drunken hallucinations scene from Dumbo (Pink Elephants on Parade).
Finally, it was time to head over to the other park and meet up with my friend. She and her nieces were on Pirates of the Caribbean when we arrived, so we had a short wait. Our lunch vouchers said they were good at any restaurant not listed as taking them (with a few exceptions in Disney Village, like McDonald's and Rainforest Cafe) for "face value" so while we waited we went into Blue Lagoon restaurant and asked what "face value" would be. We were informed that even though the vouchers say that, we could not actually use them at the Blue Lagoon at all. Darn.
We only waited a few minutes:
and then, presto, the joy of "meeting" a long time friend for the first time! Very fun--and we had no troubles spotting one another.
My friend and her nieces had not had lunch yet, and it was past 2:00. They were getting hungry, and most counter service closes at 2:30. Having searched out where to use our vouchers, when they said they were hoping for somewhere with a chicken sandwich available, we knew right where to go (Cafe Hyperion in Discoveryland) and headed off. It was about a 20 minute wait to order and get food, which is the fastest we encountered all week. DLP will close registers and half the counter service to keep those lines averaging 25 to 30 minutes--very odd in my opinion--if the lines had been short and moved quickly we would have spent money on a relaxing drink and snack every afternoon. They lost money from us with this policy.
It was about 4:00 by the time lunch was over. During lunch, my friend said she was thinking of upgrading their one park tickets to hopper passes so they could go to the Studios since they were primarily interested in coasters and thrill rides. The Studios closed at 6:00--so that kicked us into high gear! Next stop, guest relations, right on Main street, where, after a short wait, she was told to go to Guest Relations. Huh? Aren't we there? Yes, sorry, go to the OTHER guests relations outside the main gates on the left as you leave. Yes, in Paris Guest Relations will send you to Guest Relations. This is where we ended up:
It was nearly 5:00 when we finally entered the Studios as a group. Just over an hour to park close, and three major rides to hit--could it be done? First up, Tower of Terror. I rode this time and enjoyed it. This is a drop ride, for those not familiar with the US versions, tied together with a Twilight Zone story. We got lucky, the preshow was in French with English subtitles and the show during the ride in English (the kids had had the reverse earlier in the day-and there are no subtitles in the ride itself). I thought it was a well done version of the ride. You never leave the elevator shaft, as in Florida, but there is still a lot of story given. Here are a couple of photos of the queue:
The line moved very quickly and we still had 40 minutes to go as the kids (all 4 teens) and my friend dashed over to Rockin Roller Coaster. Dave and I took a seat outside of the Broadway cafe to wait (you can see the exit from there). We would have happily paid for some drinks while we sat, but it was closed. We shook our heads a little at the litter that was there the entire time (in the US parks that stuff gets cleaned up pretty quickly):
The line for the coaster was a bit longer than the sign had indicated, and I was starting to think we would miss the chance to ride Crush's Coaster, when the group came out at about 5 to 6:00. A mad dash across the park, with a super fast bathroom stop along the way, and we ducked into line for Crush with about 2 minutes to spare! And the line was down to just a 25 minute wait. Score!
It's really a great ride. Part dark ride, part tea cups, part coaster, all unique and all fun. Here are some shots of the queue area, a wharf by night:
At that point we set goodbye to our friends as they headed back over to Disneyland Park (which was open until 11:00) and we headed back to our cabin to watch the last half of the Germany-Portugal match in the World Cup.
Guess who won?
I had scheduled a late dinner for us, to allow for watching the game. We headed over at about 8:30. One nice part about staying at the ranch is that a character was out every evening, with basically no wait--this would be a great advantage with young kids. Robin Hood must have been a Germany fan--he signed 4-0 and a thumbs up to me.
By the time dinner was over it was close to 10 pm and we were ready to call it a night.
--Hadley
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