To Infinity ....

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.... And Beyond!!

With Tuesday being Bastille Day, the French national holiday, I decided to beat the crowds and head to Euro Disneyland on the Monday instead. Like Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea, the European version is split into two parks, Euro Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios Park. The similarities don't stop there either... Disneyland is split up into "lands" with nearly the same headings and even the rides are almost identical (and of course they both have the trademark Disneyland Castle).

Frontierland, home to the wild west, covers Big Thunder Mountain as well as attractions from Pocahontas, The Mark Twain Paddle Boat and Woody's Roundup. It also has an old mansion house set up as a spooky ride called Phantom Manor.

Adventureland captures everything from Indiana Jones, La Cabane Des Robinson (Robinson Crusoe's Treehouse) and Pirates Of The Caribbean.

At the back of the park is Fantasyland with all the Disney classics including The Tea Cups, It's A Small World, Peter Pan's Flight and Pinocchio's Voyage. The is a hedge maze and with a giant grinning Cheshire Cat that created a spark of difference from what had been seen so far and don't tell me I'm too big for a decent hedge maze!!

Discoveryland is France's version of Tomorrowland in Tokyo with Star Wars, Buzz Lightyear, The Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Space Mountain, which I have still yet to go on because another similarity between the two Disneylands is that I managed to go to both of them while this ride was under routine maintenance. GRRRR!!!!!

Walt Disney Studios Park reminded me more of Movie World on the Gold Coast. With huge sheds set up as studios where the magic of movies and animation comes alive through presentations about how an animated character develops through to the use of green screens for superimposing images, and even a sound stage where the noises and voices are put into the films. Apart from that it had the best rollercoaster I've been on since the 4th Dimension at Mt Fuji. The Rock & Roller Coaster is one of those ones that shoots you off from the start and then plunges you straight into a pitch black room with strobe lights and lasers flashing from all directions with only just enough time to see you almost hit a bit of the track just above your head. Brilliant!!!! Like DisneySea in Tokyo, this park has the Tower of Terror too but also flaunts Crush's Coaster developed around the turtle from Finding Nemo. I'd love to tell you what it was like but after queuing for 70 minutes as it was the last ride of the day before the parade for me, it broke down when i was nearly at the front of the line and a voice eventually came over saying they don't know when they'll have it up and running again. Damn.... fantastic waste of time that was. I could have gone on the Rock & Roller Coaster three times in that wait but oh well.

Last for the day before heading home was the Once Upon A Dream Parade as with the daylight sticking around until 10.30pm, I wasn't going to stick around with it for the night parade when I was over an hour away from my hostel.

All up... not as good as Tokyo Disney for a couple of reasons:
1) Not as many rides across the two parks
2) The crowd doesn't seem to get in to it as much as the Japanese do, and
3) Everything is in French with almost no allowances for English other than the map. Some of the productions aren't even translated through headsets and it is definitely more a French Disneyland than a Euro Disneyland.

It Does have some positives though like:
1) Rock & Roller Coaster!!!!
2) Less crowds
3) I did meet a nice lady that restored my faith in the French people and even got an offer for a free place to stay down near Nice!!! Not bad.

"An adventure is never an adventure when it's happening. Challenging experiences need time to ferment, and an adventure is simply physical and emotional discomfort recollected in tranquility." - Tim Cahill

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