It has been over a year since we were last able to post and a lot has happened.
Now, going back to theme parks, there was no way that I was going to let Lexie pick a nice relaxing beach or Caribbean getaway for our honeymoon. In fact, I had initially proposed a European itinerary with 7 theme parks (which was quickly shot down might I add). After a day of me moping around and deciding which parks I had to cut, I had finally nailed down the 4 parks we would be going to: Disneyland Paris, Phantasialand, Holiday Park, and Europa Park.
After a few unbelievable days in the City of Lights, we hopped on a RER A Train and made the 40-minute trek out to Disneyland Paris.
We had one full day to experience everything that this Disney property had to offer, which happens to be two different parks: Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park. The first part of the trip report will focus on Walt Disney Studios. This park is home to the European versions of familiar attractions such as Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
Based on the experience of a few fellow enthusiasts, our first stop was to Crush’s Coaster, a family spinning coaster based on the chill bro of a turtle in Finding Nemo. We were greeted by a “Temporarily Closed” sign, so we continued along the main path towards a familiar toy hero.
This Toy Story Playland has been around since 2010 and is easily the best themed area of the park. We immediately headed for the Intamin launched shuttle coaster in RC Racer.
After a painless 15-minute wait, we were on our first coaster of the trip. It is excellent in the sense that it is not too thrilling, but also not sleep-inducing.
From RC Racer, we made our way back through the land.
Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop is another attraction within Toy Story Playland, but we had bigger and better attractions to get to first.
Prior to our visit, I had been reading a lot about attractions being closed for renovations or repairs and Ratatouille was one of them. Luckily for us, we saw that the attraction was indeed open and welcoming guests.
Without a shadow of a doubt, Ratatouille was the best attraction in the Walt Disney Studios park and easily the best dark ride we experienced on our honeymoon. It featured excellent media, clever scenic, and a variety of other action elements. I can only imagine that the Epcot version will be even more enjoyable with the advancements in trackless technology since this ride opened.
This is the only picture inside the attraction that I was able to get, which shows the trackless vehicles themed as mice, simple yet effective.
At this point, the park app notified us that Crush’s Coaster had resumed operation. We quickly headed back to the attraction to get in line.
The line was about a 40-minute wait. No matter how you cut it, this is a low-capacity attraction, so the line moves at a much slower pace. Lex and I noticed that the queue offered some sort of gaming experience through a dedicated Wifi network. We attempted to connect a few times but we could not get it to work.
Overall, it was another fun, family attraction that was not too thrilling, yet not too intense for the younger audience. It has a few nice dark ride scenes followed by a familiar, but enjoyable, spinning coaster section.
It was a little before noon at this point and Lex was getting hungry. We were a bit surprised at the lack of dining options in the park, so we decided to do a quick service meal from Restaurant en Coulisse.
Needless to say, it wasn’t one of our most enjoyable meals of the trip. If we had more time in the parks, we would have elected to try Bistrot Chez Remy. Unfortunately, time was not on our side on this trip.
We finished eating and decided to check in at the Hollywood Tower Hotel.
There was a 25-minute wait posted, so we happily jumped in line.
The exterior felt a bit more simplistic in comparison to both of the US versions.
The interior, however, was right on par. The ride experience itself was more akin to the California version. It doesn’t really matter where Tower of Terror is located, it is always one of my favorite attractions.
Next up was Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. We were greeted by another “Temporarily Closed” sign, but we decided to wait it out. As a guest, I feel safe in assuming that Disney Parks are properly staffed with competent maintenance teams. If a major attraction closes, they are actively working on fixing the issue. Unsurprisingly, the ride opened after about a 20-minute delay. This version of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is a clone of the one located in Florida.
We were getting close to 1:30PM and we knew we wanted to spend the majority of our day at the Disneyland Park. We opted to make a loop around the park and capture as many pictures and videos as would could.
If we were to revisit this park, we would want to make time for the shows and tram tour. These attractions were just too large of time commitments for us this trip, but I’m sure they are quality experiences.
The Studio Tram Tour only had about a 15-minute wait, but we opted to skip in order to have more time at the Disneyland park. I wonder how similar this tram tour is to the now-defunct backlout tour that was in Hollywood Studios. From what others have told me, it is similar, but a bit shorter.
The rest of the Walt Disney Studios park features a few other recognizable movies and characters.
I’ll end the report on this teaser for part 2 of the honeymoon trip reports.
Overall, we had fun at Walt Disney Studios Park, but it is not a full-day park nor is it a destination park. If we ever revisit this park, it will be because we are planning a trip to visit Paris. If Lex and I did everything we wanted to, we MAYBE would have filled up 3/4 of the day. Out of the attractions we were able to experience, we felt that Ratatouille was the star of the show. It was the only ride we would have wanted to go on more then once.
The lack of dining options was also definitely an issue. Out of the 5 dining options listed at the park, only 3 were open. As you can see from the picture of our meal, it was nothing to write home about.
My final comment is that the park just feels small. I would bet that we could have completed a full loop around the park in 15 minutes. From a quick search, it is about 1/3 the size of Magic Kingdom. I bet that figure includes the large footprint of the Studio Tram Tour, so in reality it is even smaller. For those that find California Adventure less compelling then Disneyland, this park will elicit a similar feeling.
I am a huge travel and roller coaster enthusiast. I have ridden 504 unique coasters across the world and do not plan on stopping anytime soon. I graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and am now working with a creative firm in Orlando, Florida. 
