Visiting Disneyland Paris Part Three

If you are just now checking out my blog posts on Disneyland Paris welcome & let me encourage you to check the bottom of this post for links to Parts One and Two. I left off part two discussing Fantasyland so now it’s time to move on to Discoveryland which is the other area of the park that is open for early entry. Discoveryland is very similar to Tomorrowland in the States since its home to Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, Orbitron, Star Tours, Captain EO, Les Mysteres du Nautilus (Captain Nemo’s submarine that you can walk through), Space Mountain: Mission 2, and Autopia.

I love this picture of Space Mountain: Mission 2 because it really shows how empty the park is for early entry!

All of these attractions are extremely similar in either the name, or design to attractions at both the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World. The only attractions in Discoveryland that I ended up riding were the Buzz Lightyear ride and Space Mountain. During early entry I certainly could have ridden more but I also wanted to use that time to do some shopping and just explore and even though it would have been cool to say I had been on every ride I do not have any regrets about that. There is a really great shop right next to the Buzz Lightyear ride where I found some good souvenirs to purchase. I got an adorable Eiffel Tower pin for one of my friends which was red with white polka dots and had mickey ears at the top. Imagine if Minnie Mouse decorated the Eiffel Tower and thats pretty much what the pin looked like. I loved that it combined an iconic part of Paris with Disney which was something that I was looking for in my souvenirs.

Fun photo opportunity!

Around nine forty am we left Disneyland Park and headed towards the Walt Disney Studios Park which was set to open at 10:0am. I previously worked at Walt Disney World and made a friend while working there who lives in Spain. She was so sweet to come and meet up with my Grandpa and me during our time at Disney and we planned to meet her at the entrance to Walt Disney Studios when they opened. I did not purchase an international cell phone plan so other than using wifi in the lobby of the hotels I had no way of contacting my friend which made me a bit nervous in case we couldn’t find each other. It ended up working out perfectly as we had no problem finding each other! We entered the park and I didn’t have to pick up another programme since both parks and inside the same one.

Inside of the programme with show and character locations and times

Map of Walt Disney Studios Park

The Walt Disney Studios Park is pretty small and altogether not an incredibly impressive park but it does have some pretty great gems inside. Once you pass through the entrance gates you walk into a courtyard area with a Fantasia themed fountain. There is also a really great store in the courtyard area so be sure to stop in to look at what it has to offer. Beyond the courtyard is a large building that has the look of a soundstage. You must walk through this building in order to get to the rest of the park. Inside it has places to eat and shops all with a Hollywood theme. Once you get outside of the soundstage you reach the Partners statue of Walt and Mickey something that I am use to seeing in front of the castle.

The first area of the park that we headed to was Toy Story Playland which was absolutely adorable. They have a Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop which is great for children and really cute. They also have the Slinky Dog ZigZag Spin in which cars go up and down in a circle inside of the dogs slinky. I did not ride either of those two attractions due to time but they both looked really fun for younger ages. The main attraction for this land which I think can appeal to all ages is the RC Racer ride. You get inside RC which goes on a u shaped track so you go pretty high and pretty fast. This is an attraction that would be awesome to have fast pass for as it was the longest time we waited for any ride throughout the whole trip.

Next we headed to Toon Studio which is home to the newest attraction at Disneyland Paris the Ratatouille ride. Throughout my trip the only attraction that opened up its FastPass distribution was Ratatouille but they gave out very few which I was sad about because I wanted one to keep. The wait time was around an hour but we opted for the single rider line and walked right on. This attraction was my favorite for this park and was a blast. You put on 3d glasses prior to getting inside your rat which takes you through the streets of Paris and inside of a restaurant where you are discovered and shooed away since you are a rat. This is an attraction that must make your to do list while you are visiting Walt Disney Studios Park. When you exit the attraction you walk along a glass window that looks into Bistrot Chez Remy which is themed after Rataouille. The restaurant shrinks you down to the size of a rat by making everything larger than you and it is just as adorable as it is fun. The menu is extremely limited and the food is average but I would recommend eating there for the atmosphere alone.

The glass window that looks into Bistrot Chez Remy

Following our lunch at Bistrot Chez Remy we decided to explore some more of Toon Studio and got in the single rider line for Crush’s Coaster. This roller coaster is inspired by the Finding Nemo movie which is why you sit inside a turtle shell and follow Crush on the EAC (East Australian Current). Your shell rotates throughout the roller coaster that is both indoors and outdoors. It made me a bit dizzy but it was really fun and I’m glad I rode it. It did breakdown while we were waiting in line but it did not take too long before it started working again. Even though we had a bit of a wait the single rider line was still the better option. Please not that if you want to ride Crush’s Coaster as a group you will want to make sure to be at Walt Disney Studios Park right when it opens and go straight to the ride. Right next to Crush’s Coaster is a miniature attraction based on the Cars movie which is geared towards very small children.