A short August visit to DLP

[DisneyMomma81]

Great fotos! Have you visited the original Disneyland??

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

Great fotos! Have you visited the original Disneyland??

Thanks DisneyMomma! Did a one-day visit about 10 years ago (2000) with my DW. Have nice memories of that trip, particularly of Fantasyland.Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to visit it again, this time with Valeria in tow!!

Regards,

 

[DisneyMomma81]

Thanks DisneyMomma! Did a one-day visit about 10 years ago (2000) with my DW. Have nice memories of that trip, particularly of Fantasyland.Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to visit it again, this time with Valeria in tow!!

Regards,

You should ~ I prefer it over WDW *the weather is so much better* the only thing I wish DLR had is Epcot's World Showcase.

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

Although I couldn't ride on Space Mountain, Valeria and I went to the Buzz Lightyear ride, where my daughter quickly put her old man to shame in the game




It seems that Experiment 624 was everywhere: clothes, hats, plush toys, etc.




As we were leaving Discoveryland we found again our old friend, the little train parade...



I don't know, but it seems to me that some Pixar's characters do not "translate" very well to costumes.

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

Left for Adventureland, where Valeria explored the Pirate's caves.



Unfortunately, the attraction was packed (as was, in fact, the rest of the park), so we decided to visit other areas of the park. In our way we found this nice show in the Central Plaza:

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

Phantom Manor As for ambiance and exterior theming, I do prefer their WDW and/or DL counterparts.




Nevertheless, it has a nice view of its surroundings...






The ride itself is, of course, quite good:

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

It was getting near the closing time of the Studios, so we decided to try to do a couple of rides there. Here, Valeria is checking Moms stamina




And trying a pair of buckets for size:




It was strange to see Walt's statue here. We all thought that its proper place was in front of a Castle...

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

Valeria is a fan of Aladdin's toons on Disney Channel, so it was an almost sure bet she would like to ride the carpets...

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

Hollywood Tower (The Tower of Terror) is one of Valerias favorite rides. In 2008, during our last visit to WDW, she rode it at least five times, so she was eager to see how the French version fared.




While waiting in line, I was able to take this zoom photo of the parachutes in new Toy Story Playland...




Again, the exterior does not seem as elaborated as the WDWs version. That said, the ride sequence was one of the (if not the) best we have gone through

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

Time was running short, so we set out quickly towards the new Toy Story area.








It was almost closing time, so we went to the RC Racer ride. The queue line is one of the longest I have ever seen in a park!! Even though we skipped most of it (in fact, ran most of it until arriving at the inside of the attraction's building), we had to wait about an hour to ride.

Please, please, when will be our turn?




The ride is a lot of fun, although for that lot of waiting time I would have appreciated a little more time.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

More great fotos!

 

[Ms Poppins]

So glad you bought a new camera! Photos are amazing, thanks for posting

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

The Studios closed about 8pm (a little early, I believe, this being summer), so it was back to Disneyland. By now we were a little bit tired so the plan was to take things easy, ride the train, have dinner and see the night parade and the fireworks.


The park was less crowded, but still managed to look busy




Sigh, what about that train?



Valeria loved her train ride; the highlight of it was when we went by a field with a lot of bunnies!! Could not get a photo of them. You can check Valerias reaction, though.




It was quite late when we returned to Main Street so visited a couples of shops, ate at Caseys and waited for the parade.

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

We took a position on Main Street that, although maybe not the best for photos, allowed us (and specially Valeria) to have a good view of the parade (which, by the way, started very late). Unfortunately, we had nearby some very rude guests, who did not respect our place in the sidewalk (we had to be extra careful with our daughter) and had this annoying mania of throwing their camera in front of my face and pushing us, just in order to take some photos


So, let me just present a few of the photos I was able to take that night, between trying to not being toppled over and not inconvenience other guests myself.

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

Very soon it was time for the fireworks (sorry, no photos) and time to take the train back to our hotel in Paris where, fortunately, the airline had already delivered our luggage

A last look to the Village...

 

[Luis Rodriguez]

All in all, it was a nice visit. DLP is a beautiful place (although I'm not very keen on the Studios). Unfortunately we had little time for visit it (a couple of days would be ideal) and it was the height of summer (crowds, heat, crowds again). Would I visit it again? Sure!! I would try to avoid another summer, though.


Thanks to all my visitors for your kind comments, and I will leave you with a last castle photo. Bye!!