July 22- Disney Studios Park- Paris

The girls really enjoyed the hotel last night, and even more this morning. Even though the outside of the hotel is very bland and generic looking, the circus theme is carried throughout the interior of the hotel (though not as gaudily as Circus Circus in Las Vegas). Our breakfast was attended by a giant monkey. Anna and Emma got their picture taken with him, then went swimming in a really cool pool. The kids’ pool had a slide in it, and Anna and Emma had the entire pool area to themselves for the time they were there.

But there were bigger plans for the day. Disneyland Paris is bigger than it was when we went to it in 2001. The original Disneyland Paris park is like the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Most significant to us, there is another whole park that has been added to it-- Disney Studios Park, which is analogous to the Disney-MGM Park in Florida. The new park was our destination for today, partly because it closes at 6:00 and we have reservations in a different hotel for the next four nights that we have to find.

For a while there were news stories about how “Euro Disney” was very poorly attended. Never fear. Whatever problems it may have once had seem to have been solved. There were crowds of people there today. The new Disney Studios Park is a bit different from the Disneyland Paris park in its design, and that might add to the crowd problems. For example, in the original Disneyland Paris park, there are no less than 44 attractions listed on the park map. The Disney Studios Park only has 14 attractions on the same map. On the surface, we thought this would be a very quick park for us to see. However, a large number of those 14 attractions are shows that start at a certain time, only let a fixed number of people in, and are only given a small number of times during the day. To complicate matters, some of the shows have times that they are performed in French and some times that they are performed in English, and some that they are performed in other languages. There are very few of the traditional rides that have a continuous flow of people through them. The result is that there are very long lines for those attractions, and the general flow of people in the park is not up to Disney’s usual standards. As it was we were there from shortly after the park opened at 10:00 and until shortly before they closed at 6:00 and there were still several things we didn’t see.

At previous visits to Disneyland in California, Anna collected autographs of the various characters that she met, and apparently she liked doing that. She wanted to do it again. So, the first thing that we did when we entered the park was to visit the gift shop to buy one of the special photo albums/autograph books for today for the girls to share. Minnie Mouse was already out by her limousine, and the girls stood in line to see her. Sulley, from Monsters Inc., was around the corner. The girls got their picture taken with him, but his paws were too big to hold a pen.

We also had to get our family picture taken. One little Frenchman tried took our picture on the way in, and we expected him to give us a ticket to see it and possibly purchase it later. Instead, he was carrying a printer in the sack he had around his shoulder and wanted to print some for us right there. We walked away from him. (We were also surprised to see peddlers at the same spot outside the park gates on our way out. They were selling decidedly non-Disney junk. Disney Parks in California and Florida wouldn’t allow this on their property.) Anyway, we asked a family if they would take our picture and we returned the favor for them.

The Disney Studio is the first building that you enter and it acts as a gateway to the park. Inside the large building is décor that is supposed to evoke old Hollywood landmarks. Really, it is just a large gift shop and restaurant, but while that’s not fundamentally different than the Main Street USA concept for the Magic Kingdom, it doesn’t seem to be as well executed.

The first real attraction that we went to was a show called Animagique. This is a live action show with Disney characters performing songs from several Disney films. It is framed by a story about Mickey and Donald drawing cartoons. Donald enters the animation vaults, where he meets the Pink Elephants on parade from Dumbo, King Louie and Baloo form the Jungle Book, and Sebastian and other sea creatures from the Little Mermaid. All this is done under black lights, making parts of the characters glow fluorescently. While Julie and the girls enjoyed it, it doesn’t really seem up to Disney standards. (Plus Dad got in trouble with an usher when he started to tape the show.)

We started in line for “Crush’s Coaster,” (from “Finding Nemo”) but the signs said it would be a wait of about an hour and a half. We decided to skip it then and come back to it later (though we never actually did ride it). We went to the Flying Carpets over Agrabah which, like the original Dumbo ride, has carpets that circle while Aladdin’s genie looks on. There are similar versions of this ride in other parks we’ve seen.

By then it was time for lunch. We had a some quick ham sandwiches, and looked for more to do. After waiting more than a half hour in for the flying carpets, we knew we had to be smarter. We got FastPasses for the Tower of Terror, which assigned us the specific time of 4:25 to return. Emma saw Cruella de Vile along the way and got her to sign the autograph book. We then took the Studio Tram Tour, which mimics the original tram ride at Universal Studios in California. It tries to take the best of similar tram rides at other Disney Parks, and has the big disaster scenes with fire and explosions and tons of water. However, this park is not really an active studio like the other Disney Parks and Universal Studios are, so there really isn’t any backlot to see. There are a few cars and props from productions that were done elsewhere. Anastasia liked the Dinotopia sets. But the trip was far shorter and not as intriguing as the other studio tours. Emma didn’t care. She fell asleep in her mom’s arms while we were waiting in line and slept all the way through the ride.

One of the best shows of the day was the Stitch Live show, which features the mischievous blue alien from “Lilo and Stitch.” He really is “live” and he talks to the host and picks on specific people in the audience. It was probably the favorite attraction for the family today, and certainly had us laughing. It was certainly worth waiting for the English language performance of this, and we had Mickey Mouse shaped doughnuts filled with Nuttella, apparently, while we waited. When the Stitch show let out, the Playhouse Disney Live performance next door was seating it’s English language performance so we walked right into that. In the past, at other parks, this show was hosted by Bear from “Bear in the Big Blue House” and his real-person friend “Jaime” (who could be either a boy or a girl). The show has been updated to feature more recent programs from the Disney Channel. It is now host hosted by the real person “Sammy” (or is it “Sammi”?) and her friends from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. They have stories from “Handy Manny”, “Little Einsteins” and “My Friends, Tigger and Pooh.”

The “Rockin’ Roller Coaster” was shut down for some reason, so Anna and Mom were disappointed by that. We tried the “Armageddon” Special Effects show, based on the movie. The people are pretending to be extras in the filming of the movie as a meteor is crashing into their space station. The set-up for this is all in French, however, and the space station area is realistic and loud. Emma and Dad were both not liking the experience. When we saw a father take his little boy out the chicken exit, we all followed.

The three girls used their fast passes to go on the Tower of Terror. Scott chose to stay behind. The tower is basically the same as at other parks, and drops you down an elevator shaft several times. Anna loves this ride from other parks and enjoyed this one the most. Emma hated it, apparently. Mostly, she didn’t like the ghosts that make up the story that you see before the drop. After that, the family tried to ride spinning ride based on the movie “Cars”, but because families were splitting up when they entered the ride, Dad was left without a seat, and watched the others on this ride too.

When we were driving through Paris last night, right after we saw the Eiffel Tower, and everyone knew where we were, Emma said she was looking for Ratatouille’s restaurant. We were all excited to see that his restaurant is actually at the Disney Studios Park and if you eat there, the little chef will come to your table to greet you. We knew that if we went there, it would mean not seeing other things, but after thinking about it and taking a vote, we decided to dine there. We were all disappointed when we got there and the doors were locked for the day. Emma said, “They are closed because they have rats. Actually, one rat.” Instead, we ate at “Annette’s” in the Disney Village. It is a 50s style diner and at least a few of the staff were actually on roller skates.

We left the park to look for our hotel. Anna couldn’t get over how “cheap” it is compared to last night’s four star hotel. It’s…. utilitarian. We’ve always said that all we need is a place to flop. This is a place to flop. It reminds Scott of dorm rooms before the students put posters on the walls, except that it’s much smaller. There’s a double bed for the adults and a single bunk bed over the top of it for the kids, except that the kids wanted to sleep with Mom. Scott didn’t trust the upper bed to hold his weight, so we took the mattress off of that and laid it by the door, the only spot on the floor big enough for it.