Gazza
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Posts posted by Gazza
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You can scan only once so why does it matter if it's shared?
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1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:
Without doxxing anyone, no - Wonderbuzz is not Wonderbus.
Bussy made it clear he was a former ride operator \ supervisor. Buzz.... wasn't.
He goes on longer trips. He still drops by every now and then.
The bus has now left for Long Weeny Creek, NSW
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What I mean is it going to sound like one of those radio ads where two people mindlessly yabber to each other?
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ManyDLP rides followed a format where there was a mixture of French and English, sometimes in that conversational style.
Eg
So you could still get enough to understand the stories.
I wondered how it would sound to someone who could speak both languages though.
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Phantasialand, Cedar Point and Californias Great America have carousels in the entry plaza I guess.
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On 26/08/2023 at 1:00 PM, Spotty said:
I think another wild mouse style coaster would be pretty pointless... given you have Scooby Doo. I'd rather see something different. After Flash and WOO I'd like to see Movie World stay away from coasters for a bit and get some filler rides in like some flat rides to round out the park. Something reliable at least, cause the park only has 1 flat ride (Batwing). And I'm not counting doomsday, because that requires it to actually be operational.
Other than the footprint, what makes it a mouse though?
I'm a purist I guess, and a mouse for me is something with 2 or 4 person cars, and has a zigzag section followed by a few drops.
Meanwhile the RMC thing has an actual train and a twister layout.
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I visited France back in June and visited a few parks over the course of 3 weeks.
Might as well get one of the easier ones out of the way, with Walt Disney Studios.
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/walt-disney-studios
I had a two day pass which was the right amount of time for Disneyland Park / Walt Disney studios.
But for the purposes of this TR I'll just go attraction by attraction rather than a recount of both days.Getting to the park is easy, about 40 mins from Central Paris on the RER, then through the security checkpoint into Disney Village and the two parks.
When you arrive, the main street is actually a sound stage, with plywood sets forming the shops and restaurants.
Crush's Coaster
Recommended to start on this one since it draws long queues. I frequently saw it reaching 120 minutes. It was broken down when I arrived, so I hung around for 20 mins and got on as soon as it opened.
Really good! An indoor marina themed station (complete with seagulls chanting "mine") leads into a short lift hill, a couple of turns outdoors before heading back into the building. From there are a few dark ride scenes where you are going with the sea turtles to ride the east coast current, a jellyfish field, and finally a lift hill in the hull of a ship with sharks chanting "fish are friends not food".
From there it's into a very dark show building with the standard Maurer SC2000 layout, with a few scrims with projected flowing bubbles to simulate riding the current. Much darker inside than scooby. The coaster is zippy and good fun.
My only criticisim would be that too many coasters at Disney Paris rely on being in a big dark room with a few effects. Avengers, Crush's and Space Mountain all rely on it, so thats half the coasters.
A tip, the single rider queue time lies. I saw it advertised as 50 mins, walked in and there were 3 people waiting, so it was more like 5 mins! Worth using since there is nothing worth seeing in the standby queue.
RC Racer
Similar comments to the one in HK. I really like these compared to the spinning halfpipes because the beyond vertical spike creates this great sensation where you are floating, but also being forced forward in your seat (much like the beyond vertical drops on GL/Abyss), combined with the launches picking up speed. Again the single rider queue is the way to go.
Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin
Missed the one in HK so did this because it has a short queue. Most gentle matterhorn ride ever lol, but the theming looks great. Not sure who makes it, but I suspect Intamin because it looked like the cars actually run on Intamin track. The theming is great, with a pile of dog toys on a bowl as a centerpiece.
Ratatouille
Hmmm, a bit underwhelmed by this one sadly.
I love trackless and 3D dark rides, so was really looking foward to this, but it falls a bit flat. The vehicles can spin, but cannot do the full range of motion like you get on rides like Spiderman or Planet of the Apes or the Justice Leauges at Six Flags.
You ride in large rat shaped cars that seat 6, and scurry around through the kitchen, being chased by angry kitchen staff, with a mixture of oversized sets (including going under a stove, into a fridge, through the wall cavities), interspersed by scenes in front of giant screens. For some reason I thought that despite the reduced range of motion the vehicles would still maybe scoot around a tiny bit on the spot or rotate a bit from side to side in front of the screens to give a little feeling , but nah you're just parked there in front of a giant screen for 30 seconds watching a giant movie, with things popping off but it feels strange and muted without any movement. The best part probably is the giant sets. A nice touch is when you are under a giant waiters trolley, and as you roll fowards the castors either side of you rotate as well.
In this area they had a food festival going, with very permanent looking stands selling food from different regions of France. I tried this cheese and potato thing but it was a bit pungent!
Spider-man WEB Adventure
Ok, so it wasn't until shortly before I went on this trip I found out they built an Avengers campus at WDS (For some reason I thought it was just Rock n Roller coaster being re themed with other stuff coming later)....Cool, means I don't feel guilty about skipping DCA!
This is another 3D dark ride, with vehicles that track the movements of your hands and allow you to shoot webs. Can tell you ahead of time there is nothing special enough to see in the standby queue, so by all means do this with single rider...You still get to see the preshow either way . The ride is themed like an old brick warehouse that used to be "Stark Motors" that has now been taken over by a tech startup called the "World Engineering Brigade" .
The preshow is set in a research workhop and uses a few layers of scrims, and has Peter Parker showing you his new spiderbot . The spiderbot is able to mine materials and 3D print it's own replicas, which sounds cool until they start cutting holes in the walls and replicating out of control. That's where you come in to start hunting them down before they replicate into the millions, by blasting them with webs just like spiderman.
The ride reminded me of a long lost relative of toy story mania, with large back to back vehicles travelling in front of game screens. The bits in between were probably better themed, and in this case yes they did take advangage of the spinning of the vehicle to get a bit of wild movement between scenes.
I've heard this ride bagged out a bit, but I had a great time. The graphics and the gesture tracking was super crisp, and each scene had heaps of ways you could interact with it, eg shoot webs at the spiderbots, or you could fling a web at an oil drum, then sweep your hand a across and cause it to fling across the room and cause a massive explosion.
Avengers Flight Force
This was a rethemed of Rock n Rollercoaster, with a snazzy, but perhaps sterile queue set in Avengers HQ. Think lots of stainless steel and chamfered panels, like an Apple store without the wood. Simple storyline, some missiles have been sent towards earth by the bad guys, all the other avengers are busy with other missions, so its up to you to help Captain Marvel and Iron Man by flying in a manner that draws the missiles away from earth. There's a really good Iron Man animatronic in the preshow. Another touch I liked is the pulsating lighting tubes throughout the queue that all go haywire from the power surge when the ride launches.
The coaster, again, excellent, with flashing red lights on the launch, followed by 3 inversions taken smoothly in the dark, with the odd curved screen with the two heroes shooting beams etc in the battle. The finale is a huge panoramic screen where you see the baddies missiles blown up in a spectacular green explosion, coupled with a cresendo in the music, all at full speed, before finally hitting the brakes.
Pym Test Kitchen
Forked out for Sit Down Meal for a change. This restaurant was a buffet with novelty food items that were either bigger than smaller than normal. The theming reflected this.
Eg for burgers, you could get sliders, or get a slice from a burger the size of a hubcap.
There was a bit of scientific mixed in too, eg blue coloured salad dressing, things in test tubes, this really nice lemon dessert that had an crystaline atomic structre pattern on the top etc.
49 EUR, ouch!
Tower of Terror
This thing is wild. I've done other TOTs in Cali, Florida and Japan but this one has the best most intense ride cycle and its not even close! Right from the first pushback, you are rocketing to the top forcefully. No slow lifting floor by floor, just several sustained ups and downs, all the while a creepy girl at each floor tells you "not to scream, it will only make it worse".
I get the feeling Europeans are a bit tougher in terms of thrills, so they get a better cycle as a result.
The queue is the same as the others. Gorgeous.
Cars Road Trip
Urrrgh. This is unashamedly a filler while they build the Frozen area.
It was the studio tour, it has been cut short due to construction work in the park, and they kept the catasrophe canyon bit, and stuck it in with this utterly rubbish road trip thing where you look at 3D props of roadside landmarks. Think lame stuff like a giant spanner, billboards, the Tyre-ful Tower.
But then the catastrophe canyon bit is ham fisted too becasuse they took the tanker that blows up and put a cars face on it, so you're literally watching a setient tanker getting burned alive with a look of mild concern.
Walk on queue said it all.
Tapis Volants
You know, out of all the Disney rides I've never done one of these Dumbo/Orbiter type things, time to rectify that.
It's themed as if Alladin is being filmed as a live action movie.
You can move the carpet up and down with a little lever in front of your seat. Supposedly the other lever makes you tilt back and forth, but despite reaching back and trying it did nothing?
The viewing area was nice too.
Cars Quatres Roues Rallye.
Same sort of ride as Patricks Jellyfish Frenzy, a figure 8 motion demolition derby, but with Cars theming. The queue predates cars land, so it's like a mini mish mash of Radiator springs.
Despite having two of the rides installed side by side it still must get long queues.
Final thoughts
The park is pretty good, though a lot smaller than every other Disney Park. The offering is about 1/3 of Disneyland next door.
I did appreciate the thrill rides here, probably the most 'intense' lineup of any Disney park.
Perhaps what it lacked was strong themed zones. The whole front of the park is this open bitumen area with a lot of plain looking studios and food trucks. The bits around Avengers Campus, Ratatouille and Toy Story felt immersive, but then the rest of the park is a bit mish mash. Perhaps once frozen is finished it will feel a bit more consolidated. At the moment, even the orignal DCA is better!
The park seemed popular, with crowds and 30-60 min waits all day.
As always, photos are here.
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/walt-disney-studios
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This thread.
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All I see is they put people on the existing Surf Rider train for a promo shot, there's nothing further that could be concluded from that.
There's a promo shot of Vortex floating around with Intamin restraints instead of Huss for example.
https://seaworld.com.au/attractions/rides-and-precincts/the-new-atlantis
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The CO2 tank is one of those stainless steel BOC / Air Liquide type ones, from memory its at ground level at the corner of the station.
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Firstly it is not a CO2 effect
You can see the CO2 tank from the final brakes 🤷
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I also reckon it's because its easier and cheaper to "slap something down".
Designing something that wraps around other rides takes a lot more effort and coordination, and sometimes even requires modifications to existing rides.
And lets face it SF barely want to spend more than chainlink fencing and sheds on their rides sometimes, let alone a bigger design budget...
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My interpretation was that the CO2 fog was there to provide something for the train to pass through (hence being at the opening in the wall), much like the pit of fog on storm coaster, or the now gone steam effects on the Superman tunnel.
Thus a door might not help if the train stirs it up each time.
If the intent was to make the whole room foggy, then the emitter would have been in the middle of the room in the first place?
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I reckon since they replaced the boats WWF is here to stay.
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3 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:
They are swing outward doors. So are Justice League. I excluded JL and WWF from my reply earlier as they're both designed as swing doors and the front of the car will bump them out of the way - they're hinged to move in the direction the ride vehicle moves (and moves slowly). Sliding doors are more likely to be broken through, unless they have a breakaway section attached in case of collision..
Does that mean it would be ok to have swing doors then on other rides?
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Are the doors on WWF going?
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I dunno why there is so much hyperventilation about the idea of a door across the track.
Heaps of rides use soft rubber doors, and lets be honest the station is a low speed environment.
Meanwhile you have coasters like Juvulen or Blue Fire with actual doors across the launch track the train could hit at high speed.
If its controlled by the ride system, and you verfiy with a sensor, how is the risk the door doesn't open any worse than the risk your transfer track on your multi pass launch isn't in position, or that your vertical elevator car isnt in position before the car rolls into it.
I do prefer the light lock idea.
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You can get "high speed self repairing doors" that are basically glorified vinyl blinds that roll up very quickly. If something like a forklift crashes into them they just flop out of the way so cant really injure anyone. I have seen these used on some attractions.
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That Shark Coaster will be appearing in Browns Plains 11th-20th August.
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But if its going down the roll at high speed why can't it go up at high speed?
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How come the heartline roll causes an issue?
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It should be called a coaster within a coaster because if it's a ride within a ride they've already got that at Luna Park Sydney with the kids rides in the middle of Boomerang.
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Hong Kong Disneyland
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/hong-kong-disneyland
The last park from my trip in April was Hong Kong Disneyland.
Im on mobile so it's a bit harder to do my usual formatting and add many pics, but of course all 300 are already uploaded here:
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/hong-kong-disneyland
Again I won't do a blow by blow of the day. Rather ill do each ride.
Space Mountain
Im still not big on the whole star wars overlay. The original music is much easier to follow and the theming doesn't make sense. You have classic space mountain with planets etc in the station, which is completely different to how a space ship interior looks in Star Wars.
And then on the ride yeah they have a few lights that represent laser fire which looks great, but there's no hiding that a lot of it is just backdrops with a small 2d projection of a star destroyer. Just all feels forced on the wrong type of ride.That said the coaster is still great. The station is much smaller than the other ones so you lose a bit of that buzz of looking down over the station and seeing trains pump through.
Iron Man Experience
Pleasant surprise!
I was expecting a reskinned star tours, but it felt so much more.
The queue is like a tech expo with lots of cool stuff to look at.The ride film is incredibly detailed, and your usual "on a tour but stuff goes wrong" sort of storyline.
My tip, have a walk around Hong Kong island and ride the tram east on a day before you visit the park. You'll get a lot more out of the ride film if you can spot real details.
Ant Man Vs the Wasp - Nano Battle
This was also better than expected.
It was previously themed as buzz lightyear, but of course the MCU rules at Disney now.
The ride was panned a bit in POVs for looking "boring" but it's fine and better than Buzz imo. Really bold visual design with you making your way through a high tech facility, before being shrunk down to fight the bad guys inside a computer. A nice touch was that the targets aren't just flat things with LEDs, instead they are actual screens built into the sets, with animations when hit."its a small world"
Yeah its fine, but probably the longest ive waited for it. It's hard to separate any of the versions of these in my mind.
This was the first to integrate Disney characters into it but to be honest it was fine. It wasn't in your face at all.
Winne the Pooh
The scenes seemed similar to the Tokyo version, just without the trackless cars.
You start in hundred acre woods in some gorgeous scenes that are all flats but have a real picture book feel.
Eventually you see pooh in bed, he falls asleep, and there is a great peppers ghost effect of his soul seemingly leaving his body.
You I've been transported into poohs dream, with a circus of "heffalumps"
Instead these ones were tracked, but could still bounce up and down at certain points.
Mickey and the Wondrous Book
I made an effort do some shows since I normally don't do many at parks.
Was great! There's a huge projection mapped book on stage, and as Goofy and Mickey turn through they release characters from various stories.
Elaborate song and dance numbers with quite a large cast, tied together with your usual cool Disney FX. Worth a look.RC Racer
So imagine Surfrider with the TOT2 car on it. Greater than the sum of its parts! It wierds you out for a moment since you keep mentally expecting to a bit of spin. But what makes it great is the multiple moments of floating airtime. Would have ridden twice but it's somewhat low capacity (was a one and done early in the day)
Oh and the theming is great. I liked the plastic car model parts on a frame in the station, and the queue paths themed like a scaletrix track (complete with the metal slots and the joiner pieces between track segments)Toy Soldier Parachute Drop
Eh was ok. Good if you want a view of back of house areas and very mild drops in a short ride cycle.
Again has a great themed queue, with lots of props looking like green plastic parts from an army playset.
Was able to bypass a 45 min wait with single rider.Mystic Manor
Did not disappoint.
You ride in a trackless ride vehicle through the antiques collection owned by an eccentric old man and his pet monkey (in fact 4 go at once and they dance around each other in each room)The antiques come to life as you go through each scene, and this is a ride where a few laps can help you spot all the great gags.
I quite liked the room with all the Mediterranean antiques. There's a Greek vase with the print on the outside coming to life and physically popping out the neck.
And the final room has a great effect of literally falling apart around you!
My only critique is that the ride looks like a cool old mansion from the outside, but you don't walk in the front door.
Instead you go into the "loading dock" down in the basement, which feels like a cop out.Dunno I reckon it would have been more dramatic if you went through the foyer of the house and a few rooms and THEN go downstairs to the basement with the treasures.
Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars
Great fun!
A mine train coaster that wraps around a whole themed area.What i loved is the number of times goes under pathways and itself, so you can't just glance at the whole layout and map it out in your head.
So it makes it feel like more of an Adventure since you don't know whats coming.
Starts with a regular lift hill.
At the top a grizzly bear pleasuring itself on a railway points lever causes your train go down "the wrong track" and a few turns follow.Then theres a dead end lifthill like a boomerang where you go up, then roll back down backwards
The reverse section is mostly straight with Gentle turns, so no risk of feeling sick for anyone.
Eventually you run backwards into a mine tunnel with a switch track. Some bears playing with dynamite cause an explosion, launching you forwards again.
The remainder of the ride is several quick turns back to the station.
It feels well orchestrated, with all these highlights on the way, a pace that gets faster as the ride goes on, and of course some good humour.
Festival of the Lion King
The other big show.
Its a circular theatre and they bring in floats of African animals to the middle.
There's acrobatics, fire twirling, bits of stage that rise up etc.It's done in a format where its a tribal retelling of the Lion King story, so Simba, Scar etc are guys in tribal dress, not actors in fursuits.
Jungle Cruise
I know its a classic but I just don't get it. Cruising past static sculpts of jungle animals just doesn't do it.
Yeah there is some fire and water at the end, but not enough to warrant a repeat imo.
Momentous.Really good and a genuine highlight.
Recently the park renovated the castle from something that was once the size of the one in California, to one that rivals the Magic Kingdom.
And after dark it becomes a giant projection mapping surface. Add some lasers, fountains and fireworks (Which HK is really good at for some reason) and of course a rousing soundtrack and the results are spectacular.
The content is often a bit touchy feely, with memorable moments from Disney movies put up on the film.
It was a particularly good sequence where they had all the villains and a song which I wish knew the name of.
If I ever get back I'll definitely try and get there for a front row seat... I ended up sbout halfway up main Street which was decent enough view but you couldn't really see the fountains that well.
Overall impressions... If nobody compared it to the other parks, it would be a fantastic place in its own right.There's always going to be certain Disney rides they could add, but as it stands now the lineup feels quite complete.
I stayed from open till close and there is still stuff I could have tried (Slinky Dog, Astro Orbiter, the Teacups)
Did repeat rides on Grizzly, Mystic, Iron Man, Ant Man, Space Mountain.
Lines weren't that bad, maybe 30 mins at worst.Some of the rides are scaled back from the originals but it doesn't meaningfully impact the experience.
Place is spotless, I loved the shady feel of Adventureland, the creative theming in Toy Story Land and the little thematic touches.
There's a chance ill be back in HK next year, so I'd definitely go back again, and check out the new Frozen stuff too.
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Ok time to get the last Malaysian park done,
SplashMania is a brand new water park that opened in Februrary.
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/splashmania-water-park
It's not far from Putrajaya, and on the main motorway from KL Airport. You cant miss the big pirate ship perched on a mountain.
Overall, it's a really good water park! In terms of land area, it felt similar in size to WWW, but it had all bases covered, with a very "complete" feeling lineup, with slides from both Polin and Proslide.
I rode virtually everything except for Monsta and Twista, the two big proslide multi person rides, which were days away from commissioning.
This will be another brief TR, so here are the rides.
Thrills and Spills
A cross beween a behemoth bowl and a boomerango.
Great drop into a sort of spiral shaped bowl, you hug the outside but lose speed as you reach the top, before stalling out and coming back down the helix.
Becomes a bit dull after the stall out as you sort of just cruise down this massive expanse of fibreglass.
Atlantis VR
This is supposed to be a family raft slide you ride with a VR headset, but wasnt operational.
I've done a VR slide before at Galaxy Erding, so wasn't particularly upset it wasnt working. Very gentle as family raft slides go, with very wide turns the raft barley banks up.
Maniac Racers
Good RallyRacer that starts off with a helix, then both sides split into 3v3 and cross over each other, before one last enclosed s bend.
Wouldnt have minded an extra final straight to the finish line though...
Twin Turbo
First encounter with a dueling pipeline. To be honest the europeans have been building raft slides like this for years. Reminded me a lot of Screamin Right handers with quick turns and small drops, alternating between open an enclosed.
Typhoon Terror
Despite the saucers being a total gimmick, the slide is great and you do pick up a heap of speed on those saucers. All over in 10 seconds.
The long one called Tiki Waka at Skara Sommerland reigns supreme.
Curl and Swirl
Proslide make a bowl that is even smaller than the type used on Little Rippers (WWW) / Typhoon (Funfields)
As a result its heaps more intense, especially if you go down backwards
Amazonia
So that giant ship on the mountain...You can actually go up and explore the decks of it. There's a staircase around the back, and you full expect to hit a gate at the top, but nope, you first head into the bowels of the ship, before emerging on the top deck. A great lookout over the park.
Theres also a controlled bungee from up here, as well as a zipline but neither was operating.
Hillariously, the park also describes something called "The titanic experience". Nope, this isnt a revival of Fox Studios, but rather a point on the bow of the ship where you can stand and stick your arms out and pretend to be "the king of the world".
Omba King Cove
Wave pool with a real sandy beach. I swam for a few minutes so I guess I can tick it off as "I've experienced this" on the Parkz database.
The pavilion at the side with swings you can sit on was a nice touch.
Rush Havoc / Loopa Woopa / Shaka Waka / Whacka Boom Boom
Cant be arsed remembering which was which. Two are raft slides with LED ring effects. One is supposed to also have interactive touch pads on the way down but this wasn't working.
The other two are enclosed body slides that have a timing system, so you can race.
I find Polin slides have way too many continous helices, and going around a long turn gets boring after a while IMO
The daylight ring effects does make them visually pleasing to ride.
Wild Rush
Short and sweet, these two slides have a drop at the end where you can bomg into the water. More parks should have these, great fun, and check out the spectator crowds they draw. Now that's what you call passive capacity!
Plunge & Sumaumeria Drop
Conventional old school freefall slide (Excellent of course!) and a superLOOP (like Wedgie). The helix was a little more drawn out, so it wasn't so brutal. Liked it, but it got long lines.
Ravage River
Lazy river encircling the park. Really liked this because there was a lot of "stuff" along the way, be it bubblers, waterfalls, a tunnel etc.
A nice touch was how one of the entrances had massage stones in the floor.
Treasure Tower.
Hot Take. Polin make the best water play structures. Everyone is allowed in this, and there was just SO much going on. Heaps of fountains, heaps of slides, you were constantly getting soaked, which was refreshing in the tropical heat.
They had a fun bowl slide, though instead of dropping out the middle there was an exit chute you sort of guided yourself into.
They also had another area for smaller kids with a few mini proslides including a totally cute mini tornado wave.
Overall impressions of the park is that it had a really nice atmosphere, a real resort vibe, and some quite impressive theming. Very wide variety of things to do, lines moved quickly, and already the landscaping looks lush so just imagine in a few years time when it is a proper jungle.
Even with 2 major slides closed I stayed for several hours.
More pics:
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/splashmania-water-park
And thats's Malaysia done.....
Jokes, one night I happened to go past a carnival in the car, so there was a whacky worm and a reverchon mouse I rode in my time there too.
Disneyland Paris 18/19 July
in Theme Park Discussion
Posted · Edited by Gazza
Disneyland Paris
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/disneyland-paris
So, the other half to my trip report for Walt Disney Studios
Both days I visited I went into the park in the afternoon. This probably makes sense because there’s not really anything you want to ‘rope drop’ in Disneyland, it’s all quite high capacity attractions (aside from Peter Pan, which I ended up skipping both days, just couldn’t be arsed waiting 90 mins for it.
Most rides seemed to be around 30-40 min waits, so no problem visiting a wide variety of attractions.
Overall impressions is that it is very nice, you can really see how they went above and beyond with the theming here in order to impress the well cultured European market. The castle is ornate. They have nice arcades behind main street. More details in general. I also felt that Paris has the “better” version of many of the classics. Their big thunder mountain is better, Pirates of the Carribean has a better themed queue and facade, Phantom Manor looks a lot cooler than the haunted mansions, and of course who can forget their more thrilling Space Mountain.
Only downside is I don’t think the park has enough ‘unique’ rides (Aside from Space Mountain being very different). It’s like how Tokyo has Monsters Inc or Beauty and the Beast, or HK has Mystic Manor, or MK has Seven Dwarfs mine train. The main unique thing Paris has is some additional themed walk throughs.
So Paris is good if you are a fan of the classic E-ticket rides, but you’ll have to go next door to the studios for something more unique.
On to the rides!
Indiana Jones - Et Le Temple du Peril
Ugh got this one out the way early. It’s like a bigger version of Nitro Coaster type layout, a glorified galaxi with a loop, but built by Intamin. Rough as guts, and the theming is decent (But not a touch on Raging Spirits)
The queue line is down under a canvas tent and you go up a grand stone staircase to the ride, which is built around a temple. It does get points for how well they position a stone arch that hides the structure of the loop, so if you are not paying attention you might not be aware it goes upside down.
Star Tours
Yeah, this one is always nice for its well themed queue. The storyline we got was a bit older, it was the pod racing sequence and then ending up on Naboo, which I think debuted when the new 3D version of star tours was launched. The last time I did star tours in Tokyo in 2019, it was a brand new film based on the last Jedi
Space Mountain
This was perhaps the one I was most hyped for. When they would show Disneyland Paris on shows like Getaway as a kid, Space Mountain would alway feature prominently.
The outside looks gorgeous, particularly the enormous cannon pointing up the side of the mountain. It’s a shame they deactivated the whole mechanism where it woul roll close and recoil when fired. It was such an iconic thing. Maybe one day they will bring it back, and delete the star wars overlay in the meantime.
The first bit of the queue is outdoors, before going through some plain corrugated metal corridors inside.
Eventually you reach the well themed open air station.
It has the new Vekoma trains with onboard audio, so comfort wise it was fine. Out of the station is an enclosed turn, drop and then incline which gets you onto the catapult launch. Despite not being the fastest launch, the fact you are pushed back in your seat going uphill gives it a bit of force.
Inside, its like a more drawn out version of RNRC / Avengers Flight Force. Starts with a big drawn out turn that does a lap around the ride building, eventually leading into a sidewinder and a couple of tighter turns, mcbr, then a drop into a corkscrew. From that point the layout peters out a bit, with a regular lift hill towards the end, some more turns and helixes, and vekomas early attempt at an overbanked turn.
All the while the audio is playing chaotic star wars music and there are projections on the wall of tie fighters etc being blown up.
It’s a Small World
What can you say about this ride? Does anyone other than kids enjoy it? Do people just ride it for tradition? For its infamy? Because it has a shortish queue and it gets you out of the sun for 15 mins.
Possibly all of the above. I think all the kooky imagineers get put on the design team for this, with all the stylised design sets depicting various countries.
Molly Brown Riverboat
A moment to relax. I rode this in the afternoon which allowed for some awesome shots of Big Thunder.
Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast
A ride I secretly enjoy and will always ride at Disney.
There was a 30 min wait for this one, so I actually googled how do get a high score. A couple of the secret targets are very hard to to hit, but i was able to spam some of the difficult triangular targets and at least get a score in the hundreds of thousands rather than the tens of thousands.
Pirates of the Caribbean
This is proper POTC. Other versions have you going straight out from a New Orleans area into this pirate boat ride. Meanwhile this one has you going into the actual corridors of a pirate fortress, so big points for having an actual themed queue.
All the scenes were the same, including the pirate battle and the burning town. What made this version better was how the layout was on a few levels and had a few crossovers, so youd get views through to other scenes from a higher level before actually arriving in it a few mins later.
Phantom Manor
Another Disney classic, and well executed. It looks a lot more spooky having the house sitting up on a hill by itself, surrounded by overgrown gardens. There were a couple of scenes unique to this version. In the load area there is a lonesome bridge, staring out a huge glass window with a thunderstorm raging outside. At the end of the ride you go through a haunted mining town (to tie in with its location in Frontierland), and that part was reminiscent of Fire in the Hole.
Still, my favourite part will always be the floating head in the glass ball.
Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains
Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. These fantasyland dark rides are a bit ‘blink and you’ll miss it’. You speed through a quick retelling of the story in what feels like a couple of minutes, so only have a brief moment of time to appreciate the scenes before crashing through the doors to the next one. Nice enough, but I struggle to think of a single moment in the ride that really sticks with you or where I was like ‘woah how did they do that’.
Ok there was one memorable thing. The ride control panel is themed like an old open book, and the buttons are on the pages.
Les Voyages Des Pinnochio
Similar Comments to the above. Mostly UV black light painted sets.
Autopia
Big Ole car ride through some pleasant pine trees, and a handful of billboards with advertisements for space destinations, and themed bridges to give it that Discoveryland feel. If you are short on time you could probably skip this, but again, not much of a queue so I gave it a go.
Big Thunder Mountain
Ended up saving one of the best for last.
There was an intial false start. The ride needed an evac so they emptied the queue and i came back an hour later.
The paris one is different because the coaster is on an island in the middle of the river, with the station on the mainland. This means you have a pitch black tunnel at both the start and end of the ride to get over to the island and back, which bookends the experience nicely with thrilling moments. So from the station you drop down into a mine, and it feels like you go really quite deep underground. I’d just about say its a better tunnel than Oblivion. From there it’s classic Big Thunder, with themed lift hills (including one with projection mapping involving fuses burning towards a stack of TNT) and helixes, but also a lot more random drops, and it seems to maintain speed better than the others, rather than hitting a lift the moment you build up a bit of speed. The end of the ride has you go into a themed tunnel, but then the track starts diving deeply and getting darker, and then you just keep diving and diving and go around a huge underground banked turn, and head back up a lift hill. The train practically makes it to the top before the chain finally catches and you rise out into the daylight and coast into the station.
So one thing you must know about Paris is that it has a handful of well themed walkthroughs. This seems to be a European ‘thing’ since you see similar attractions at Efteling and Europa Park.
Adventure Isle
A series of bridges, caves and passageways and great themed sections, like a grotto full of pirates treasure, and a skull shaped rock you could look out through. Needs more slides
La Cabane Des Robinson
Not Far from Adventure Isle, and another Disney Staple.
What I find notable is the way it uses a lot of visual distraction to still maintain the reveal of different parts.
From a distance, all you see is this giant tree and a couple of platforms sticking out.
When you get there, you basically just see a staircase disappearing up into the tree and the famous water wheel. Quite unassuming considering all that is going on above.
When you are up there in the tree canopy, you can see walkways going everywhere, above and below you, and the bits of the treehouse perched in different parts of the tree, so all you can really do is follow the walkway along and be guided through the labyrinth. Thematically its one of my favourites.
La Cabane Des Robinson
Not Far from Adventure Isle, and another Disney Staple.
What I find notable is the way it uses a lot of visual distraction to still maintain the reveal of different parts.
From a distance, all you see is this giant tree and a couple of platforms sticking out.
When you get there, you basically just see a staircase disappearing up into the tree and the famous water wheel. Quite unassuming considering all that is going on above.
When you are up there in the tree canopy, you can see walkways going everywhere, above and below you, and the bits of the treehouse perched in different parts of the tree, so all you can really do is follow the walkway along and be guided through the labyrinth. Thematically its one of my favourites.
Le Passage Enchante d’Alladin
This has a few dioramas behind glass telling the story of Alladin. Havent seen this film since about age 5 when we watched it on the last day of term before school holidays, brought back memories, ended up watching it again on the plane home!
Les Mystères du Nautilus
Probably my favourite of the walkthroughs, and I almost missed the best part!
From a small building next to lake in Discoveryland you go down a spiral staircase and through an underground passageway into the interior of the Nautilus submarine (You see the top of the Submarine poking up through the water next to the entrance. All the rooms are ornately themed, with a cool engine room full of moving equipment. The main room I strolled straight through, but when I looked back i noticed a crowd of people gathered around a small circular window. Went back to have a look, and all of a sudden the window expands like an iris / camera shutter, revealing a much bigger circular window looking out of the submarine. The iris opens and closes every few mins, revealing something new each time, eg a pod of whales swimming by. Amazing bit of imagineering to build that mechanism.
La Belle Au bois Dormant
I found out about this one via the Imagineering Story. They did some really ornate stained glass windows in an area in the ‘foyer’ of the castle, so definitely take the time to check this out.
La Tanière du Dragon
Under the castle, there is a damp cave with a dragon that occasionally wakes up and roars. Easy to miss if you dont know about it.
Alice’s Curious Labyrinth
A large hedge maze with statues from Alice in Wonderland. You eventually reach a small castle, but its bloody narrow and crowded up there, though its a great vantage point for photos over the park.
Disneyland Paris Railroad
I thought this was going to be closed for my visit but it ended up re-opening late afternoon day 2.
They've designed the carriages to only load from one side, so most of the views are designed to face into the park…If you are riding, sit on the side closest to the platform.
For those of you not familiar with the Disneyland Railroads, you dont just do a lap around the park, a couple of times you pass through other ride buildings, and through a couple of indoor sections with actual built sets (The latter too hard to get photos of in the darkness.
The other “train” Casey Jr Circus Train was closed on my visit, so no powered coaster for me.
So final thoughts. Nice park, superb theming, but perhaps it just feels middle of the range compared to the other Disneylands since it’s all ‘classics’ and the last new ride they got was Buzz Lightyear.
More photos here:
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/disneyland-paris