From: tad@Ingres.COM (Tom Drynda) Date: 17 Jun 93 15:15:16 GMT Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney Subject: Finally, the EuroDisney Report (Long - 1350 lines)
EuroDisney Report =================
Hi there. This is a fairly detailed report of our recent
trip to EuroDisney including a short excursion to Paris.
The report is in three parts :
Part One is a description in chronological order without
detailed descriptions of attractions (unless appropriate). I've also included any problems we found with travel, etc. here.
Part Two contains the descriptions of the rides, restaurants, and
shops we visited separated into their separate lands.
Part Three contains miscellaneuos items and I've detailed
a few extra topics which I felt needed extra explanation such as new rides under construction and guide books. A number of people email'd me specific questions which I endeavoured to answer as fully as possible. As well as answering these people directly where possible and applicable, I've included these in Part Three of the report.
We arranged the trip through the Air-Miles scheme. This
scheme only operates in the UK (I believe) and is a system whereby you collect Air-Mile vouchers from various purchases and use them as part or full payment against filghts and accomodation.
We bought a number of guide books specifically about
EuroDisney (The Official one, and two 'Unofficial' ones). The most useful one without a doubt was Bob Sehlinger's Unofficial Guide.
Our trip started on Monday May 31st 1993.
Part One ========
Day 1
Flight
We decided to take the early (0730) flight out of London
Heathrow with British Airways. The whole flight was uneventful and we landed at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport ahead of schedule thanks to a following wind.
Coach
The EuroDisney shuttle coach seemed to be the most
sensible way to get from the airport to the resort as it stopped right outside our hotel. Problem was, we didn't know where to catch it from. The directions in Sehlinger's guide are very vague and incomplete. We asked at a tourist information booth in the Airport and they gave us accurate directions. We also bought our tickets at the tourist booth for FF75 each one-way which is FF10 more than mentioned in Sehlinger's guide.
The shuttle runs either every 30 minutes or every 45
minutes alternating every day. On Mon, Wed, Thu, Sat the shuttles run at 30 minute intervals starting at 0730. On the other days, the shuttles start at 0745. This is from memory, I could be slightly wrong.
When we got to the shuttle-bus stop, we saw a queue of
about 40 people already waiting. Aparently the previous bus hadn't turned up, but the next one was due in about 10 minutes, so we took our place at the end of the queue and waited. And waited.
The bus-stop at CdG airport is not a very pleasant area
at all. It is very inconvenient and is not really designed to be a bus stop. It's difficult to describe. From the terminal you have to cross a fairly quiet service road to get to it and when you are on the right side of the road the vertical supports holding up the rest of the airport make queuing difficult and uncomfortable. Of course, it may have been better if the shuttles were running on time.
So, finally, after nearly an hour's wait, two coaches
turned up. We were just about the last people to board the first coach. Boarding took absolutely ages. These people could do with some training from Disney on how to move people around (that goes for most of non-Disney France that we visited actually).
You could consider catching the RER train to the
EuroDisney resort. The nearest hotels to the RER station are The Hotel New York, and The Disneyland Hotel. They are within 4-5 min's walking distance but I wouldn't fancy doing that with a bunch of heavy luggage on a hot day. The Sequoia Lodge (where we stayed) is about 8-10 mins walk from the station, and The Newport Bay Hotel would add another 5 minutes to that. Other hotels are much further from the RER station. I was not aware of any shuttle bus to the hotels specifically for passengers arriving via RER.
Hotel
After just under an an hour's coach ride from the
airport, we arrived at our hotel - The Sequoia Lodge.
The Sequioa Lodge is an enormous hotel (by my standards)
built (as the brochure says) in the style of the grand hotels found in American national parks. Basically it's a seven storey redwood and stone building with a green copper roof.
There was a small pre-check-in desk just outside the
hotel which we had to register with before officially checking in at the front desk. Here they give you a small plan of the resort area showing you the location of the hotels, station, etc. and an A3 newspaper-style guide to the hotel, events, opening times, etc..
Checking in turned out to be a real problem. We queued
and waited … and waited .. and waited. We couldn't really see what the problem was. It seemed to take ages to get people checked in. Finally our turn came and we began to realise what the problem was. The staff behind the desk were undergoing training and were having a great deal of hassle getting around the computer check-in system. We asked if we could get a room upgrade since we were members of the Magic Kingdon Club and this caused further problems. Fortunately a supervisor was near to hand and helped solve our problems.
We left the check-in desk only to realise that not only
did we not know where our room was but that there was also no-one to help with our luggage. This could be a bit of a bummer if you are travelling alone or you're travelling with people who are not fully mobile.
When we got to our top-floor room we were pleasantly
surprised to find that it offered a superb view of the lake (Lac Buena Vista), Festival Disney (more about this later) and the park in the distance. We could even see the castle ! Unfortunately, we ended up in a smoking room despite having requested a non-smoking room originally. By this time we were too exhausted to complain, but once the windows had been open a few minutes, the room was pleasant and fresh.
The room itself was clean and tidy. The beds were wooden
and very high (my feet only just touched the ground and I'm 6ft). There is an enormous and solid rocking chair in the room as well as the usual gear (table, chair, chest of drawers with TV on top, bedside table, etc.
The beds were very comfortable to sleep in, but after a
standard Disney day I could've slept on broken glass !
After unpacking a little, and resting a little, we
pondered on what to do next. We had thought that since it was now just about 1pm and the park would be closing at 7pm, it would not be worth actually going in to the park itself and we would just have a relaxing wander around the general area to get a feel for it and see what else there was to offer.
Festival Disney
We exited our hotel and headed for the lake through the
gardens of the hotel. The Sequoia Lodge gardens are well laid out and peaceful. Mainly conifers and large rocks. Interestingly enough, all of the tall/mature trees (and there are a significant number of those throughout the resort) are supported by at least 3 steel cables. This is because the mature trees have been transplanted here directly and therefore their roots have not managed to get enough hold on the soil to fully support the tree. I wonder how long it will take until they can support themselves ? It's also interesting to note that there are places where the trees have obviously 'failed to thrive' and are starting to die or have already been removed. I didn't notice many of those however.
We started to walk around the lake. The lake itself is
quite large and quite obviously man-made. With our backs to our hotel, to the left of the lake you could see the marvellous Newport Bay Hotel with it's miniature lighthouse. The Newport Bay Hotel looks very ellegant and from it's looks alone I wouldn't mind staying there next time. To the right of the lake is the ugliest hotel - the Hotel New York. Blech. Monstrous outside. Fairly monstrous inside - sepecially that nasty "Mets" logo on the floor down one of the passages leading away fromn the lobby.
The lake is actually quite pleasant. Some details to look
out for are the maintenance panels on the street-lights and at the Hotel New York end of the lake there are some Dumbo heads spouting water into the lake. We passed the Hotel New York on the way to the rest of the resort and noticed that the ice rink outside was drained (well, it was approaching mid summer) and in fairly bad condition - crumbling around the outside and the map of New York which would be under the ice area was very tatty.
Festival Disney
We passed the Hotel New York, and approached Festival
Disney. This area is marked by the enormous silver and red vertical columns apparently supporting nothing but a bunch of wires. These wires are actually supporting small lights, but during the day they're obviously not switched on. At night, they look quite good, but the pattern they form is only obvious from close-up. The enormous columns contain mainly small kiosks and/or speakers which emit music constantly while Festival Disney is open (0830 to 0200).
I imagine the idea of Festival Disney is to evoke a party
atmosphere in the way Pleasure Island does at Disney World. It doesn't quite work out that way though. The architecture does nothing to help this atmosphere and just emphasises the cold wide open space.
Festival Disney consists of a number of nightclubs,
restaurants, shops, kiosks, and Buffalo Bills Wild West Show (more about that later !).
The shops are your average Disney stores slightly themed
but with nothing spectacular inside. I saw nothing there that I wanted and couldn't get cheaper at my local Disney Store.
Just before the exit to Festival Disney (the DisneyLand
end), to the left there is a large building which contains Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Just in front of this building is a small corral area where we saw people riding horses around. To the right is the fifties style cafe called Annette's Diner. This place had some fifties/sixties cars parked outside. There was one fifties (?) french car - a Renault I think - that was totally ugly and out of place in terms of style and elegance (it had none). We didn't have time to try out this place. It was probably very expensive.
While at the Buffalo Bill building, we ordered two
tickets for the late show for the following day. With our Magic Kingdom Club Gold Card, we qualified for an incredible 20% discount on the total cost of the tickets.
On exiting Festival Disney, we passed the RER Station on
our right. This is in the final stages of completion (or maybe that's just the way it looked). It's a clear glass and steel structure with nothing really interesting about it.
Next we passed through a small arch into the gardens of
the DisneyLand Hotel (Fantasia Gardens) and the entrance to the park. It's here that you'll find your first Hidden Mickey created by the circular ponds. The Fantasia Gardens are very nicely arranged and very pleasant to look at and walk through. There are a number of peaceful areas here where you may want to rest tired feet.
The DisneyLand Hotel is wonderful to look at and even
better inside (more about that later). It has a marvelous clock tower - the clock being the biggest Mickey Mouse watch I have ever seen ! Make sure you see the weather vanes too. We passed under the hotel on our way to the entrance to the park to get our 3-day passes.
Bank Holiday
We did not intend to enter the park today because we were
under the impression that the park was only open from 0900 to 1900 until the middle of June. We were VERY pleasantly surprised to find that this Monday was a Bank Holiday in France (as well as England) and as a result, the park stayed open untl 2300 ! This had the added advantage that the Main Street Electric Parade would run and Fireworks would finish the evening. Normally those two events are only performed at weekends or when the park is open late.
We purchased three-day passes at FF508 each including our
10% discount for being members of the Magic Kingdom Club. There are 1, 2, and 3 day, and a one-year passes available. The one- year pass costs FF990. I really really wanted the one-year pass but we were on a budget. Bummer. I'm not sure of the prices for the other passes, but I've included some phone-numbers at the end of this report that should be able to give you an up-to-date price as well as a host of other information.
The Park
We entered the Park about 1400, ignoring Sehlinger's guide
(to our peril) and just followed our noses around the park. Of course we ended up exhausting ourselves !
Rather than give the details of all the rides we visited
here, you can read about them below.
There was some excellent live entertainment in
Adventureland, quite close to the main entrance which itself was beautiful. The entertainment consisted of a band of four African musicians playing drums and bells with incredible rythmns and volume. There was some incredibly embarrassing audience participation which I really couldn't do justice to here … you just had to be there ! Of course it was only embarrassing for the participants !
The parade at 1600 was very enjoyable. Follow Sehlinger's
instructions on where to watch this from (close to Small World).
We chose to have our evening meal at the Blue Lagoon
restaurant. This is the restaurant you pass when riding the Pirates of the Carribean. The food was excellent. The fruit cocktail we drank (obviously non-alcoholic) really hit the spot. We couldn't face dessert - just couldn't fit it in anywhere ! The meal was pricey, but with our fabulous Magic Kingdom Club Gold Card we qualified for a 10% discount.
The Main Street Electric Parade took place at 2015. It
was … well … the Main Street Electrical Parade.
The fireworks at 2255 just about concluded our evening
and we wandered back to our hotel for a beer and a well deserved rest (by this time we'd been awake about 20 hrs).
Day 2
Sehlinger's Guide Saved Us Agony !
We got out early this morning in order to take advantage
of Sehlinger's guide. We decided to follow the Two-Day Touring Plan A and it did us proud !
We took with us an expensive take-away continental
breakfast from the hotel (two bread rolls, a croissant, some jam, some butter, and a small carton of orange juiice).
Without going in to too many details, Sehlinger's guide
got us through half the park and attractions with MINIMAL (i.e. less than 10-15 minutes) standing in line. We finished the first half of the touring plan by 1115 !
This was great. We decided just to wander slowly about
the park watching everybody else get irate and take in some of the details that really make Disney more than just a fun-ride park. We've never had much of an opportunity to do this at a Disney park before and we really appreciated it this time !
We decided to eat lunch at the Explorer's Club. In all of
the guides it says this is a table-service restaurant. In Sehlinger's guide it mentioned that due to lack of interest there was a chance that it may be turned in to a fast food place. When we got there, it was a fast-food place and it was virtually empty. We ordered our adequate food and sat in a very nice place by a waterfall. It was nice and relaxing, but the atmosphere was totally non-existant. I would advise avoiding this place. It's only really good point was the fact that it was almost deserted. Of course, that may have been due to the fact that we ate there at about 1430 - well past the rush.
Buffalo Bill
We continued wandering about the park, enjoying it
immensely until it closed at 1900. We then made our way towards Buffalo Bill's Show. You don't get allocated seats until you enter the building just before the show. I'd advise anyone going to see this to start queing fairly early as the earlier you get your seats, the closer to the action you are.
The tables aren't really tables as in a normal
restaurant, but just a bench that can hold about ten people with a long table in front of you over which you see into the arena. The tables all overlook the arena and so everyone has a good view.
We were just about second in the queue, behind a large
family. We got in and were issued with our 'table number' and our cowboy hats.
The 'table numbers' are coded by colour letter and
number. The lower the number, the closer you are to the action. The letter defines the sector in your team area in which you will sit, and the colour defines the team you will support during the show. The team colours are representative of American ranches.
After being issued with that hats, we passed through to
the extremely large bar having our photo taken officially on the way. The bar is truly enormous, but fills up quickly. Order a beer as soon as you get there. You could order a beer in their souvenier beer glass which is in the shape of a cowboy boot. I did this (sucker for unique souveniers). You can also order cocktails here.
If you want to order wine with your meal, you have to go
to a smaller bar that you pass on the way in before you get to the main bar.
Pre-show entertainment and cowboy training takes place
before the arena is loaded. The entertainment we had was the band currently appearing at Billy Bob's Country and Western Nightclub (which is in Festival Disney). They played a number of country and western songs and took us through "How a cowboy cheers" (lifting your "chapeau" off your head, waving it in the air and shouting YAAAAHOOOOOOOOOO at the top of your voice) and a host of other fun-type things. This is good fun and really set us up for the show.
The loading of the stadium takes place a colour at a
time. The colours are green, red, yellow, and blue. Our colour (green) was the last to load. This is where our problem started. The family in front of us had ordered tickets for all of the adult members but not for the three children under three years old. This is fine according to the rules, but when they came to take their place at the table, the children all took up an adult place each including cutlery etc.. This meant that we had to be re-seated out of our prime seats ! The head waitress in our area asked to see that families tickets, but the family claimed to have "lost" the children's ones. Yeah sure. Oh well, we took it calmly, hoped they'd choke on their food and/or get dirt kicked up in their faces from the horses hooves and took our re-seated seats right up at the highest point in the arena. As it turned out, we did have an excellent view and weren't too far from the action. We did however sit at a very boring table with people who either didn't understand the languages (French, and English) or just were too boring to join in the fun and games. It was just the two of us wearing and waving our hats and whooping it up on a table of about 12. We didn't care. We had a great time.
I don't really want to spoil the fun of Buffalo Bill's
Wild West Show, but just let me say the food was very good, the beer was as much as you could drink (whenever the staff came 'round to your table with their pitchers) and the entertainment was funny, exciting, and in short it was one of the best evening's out I've had in a very long time. Do not miss this. DO NOT MISS THIS ON ANY ACCOUNT !
I have never seen the Hoop De Doo Review, so I'm not sure
if it bears any resemblance to this show.
Day 3
Paris
After that late evening at Buffalo Bill's, we decided not
to get up to early. This was the day we decided to go into Paris.
We read through a few guide books and it seemed easy
enough. Just to be sure we went to the Maison Tourisme in Fantasy Disney. Here we were told which ticket to get (Formula1) and a map of the metro and train lines.
Travelling in to Paris took about 50 minutes. We decided
to go to the west of Paris first and head East visiting the Eiffel Tour first, followed by the Louvre, Pont Neuf and Notre- Dame, the Pompidou Centre, the Bastille, and finally back to EuroDisney.
Eiffel Tower
Our plans were scuppered by the fact that it took us
about two hours to get into the Eiffel Tower ! Only one ticket booth was open and only one lift was working. Apparently, they are modifying the ticketing operation at the moment. I suppose we could've taken the stairs up to the top but that's not for the faint-hearted or lazy ! I was glad we opted for the lift once I saw how many stairs there were to climb ! The view from the top was amazing and enabled us to get our bearings a bit better.
Mistake in Sehlinger's guide
There is a mistake in Sehlinger's guide which you should
know about if you intend to travel to the Eiffel Tower. The guide says to take the RER A-Line to Porte Maillot. As far as we could make out from the maps, Porte Maillot doesn't exist on the RER A-Line and it would be a damned awkward way to get to the Eiffel Tower if it did ! Far easier to take the RER A-Line to Ch. de Gaulle-Etoille, and change there into the metro line 6 (green) and head south to Bir Hakeim. Exit the station at the end where a sign mentions the Eiffel Tower, and keeping the river to your left walk for about 10 minutes until you come across the Eiffel Tower You can't exactly miss it !
Because of the time it took to get up and down the tower,
we decided to cut out the Pompidou Centre, and the Bastille and leave them for another day.
The Louvre
The Louvre was another place we spent a long time in. You
really need a couple of days to see it all. We ended up just looking at the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and whatever else took our fancy until our feet could stand it no more. The Louvre is a very impressive place and the renovation is not yet complete.
Notre-Dame
A welcome sight after a hard days walking. A very
impressive place. We approached Notre-Dame early evening, but it was still light enough to see the architectural detail and enjoy the stained glass windows inside.
Cost of Travel
We purchased the "Formule 1" travel tickets at the
Chessy-Marne le Vallee (EuroDisney) station. These tickets enable you to travel anywhere within Paris and out to EuroDisney without paying any extra. If I remember correctly, they cost FF85 each (Sehlinger's guide says they cost FF75 each) for adults.
Day 4 - Our last day .. <sob>
We spent the morning following Sehlinger's Two-Day Plan A
and again finished early and happy. This was the time to start checking out all of the places we hadn't eaten at in a bit more detail. We also wanted to take a longer look at Main Street and check out some of those names in the upstairs windows. More detail on those below.
Walt's
One restaurant we had been meaning to check out since the
first day (actually since first reading about it) was Walt's on Main Street. This is described as having Disney Memorabilia around the walls, etc.. OK, being serious Disneyphiles, we just had to take a look around.
We talked to the woman at the front desk and asked her
about reservations. She said that they were not required and you should turn up when you wanted to eat. We then asked if we could just have a look around. She said we could and we entered.
The restaurant is L shaped with the entrance being on the
corner. One side of the restaurant runs along main street and the other along a side-street. There are two floors in the restaurant (ground and upstairs). The ground-floor rooms are just elegant rooms surrounded by Disney memorabilia. The upstairs rooms have separate themes linked to the different lands. Some rooms have separate tables catering for couples or families. Other rooms have just a single banqueting table clearly catering for large parties (conference guests, VIP's, etc..).
When you enter the restaurant the whole feel of the place
seems to be that of a luxury appartment or hotel (or maybe even restaurant !) in Paris at the turn of the century.
The entrance lobby is quite interesting, containing hand
carved wooden furniture and nice stained glass. To the left is what I'd imagine is the Maitre d's desk which is interesting in itself. It has one of those spring-loaded message-passing systems. For the technical persons among you, this is the system where you plonk the message in a box, yank a handle, and the box containing the message whangs up through the ceiling to the upstairs desk and vice-versa. The message-whanging system is very ornate in heavy scrolled brass.
Incidentally, for Disneyphiles only, the address of the
restaurant his the same address of the workshops in Glendale, California (1401 Flower Street). Flower Street is a side turning off Main Street. According to the official guide book, the logo with the initials W.D. appearing on the gas lamps, some furniture, and windows was designed for the balcony of Walt's appartment in Disneyland.
Ahead of you are the lift and the stairs. The lift is
what really gives the impression of a turn-of-the-century Paris interior. It is constructed (or appears to be constructed) in ornate black cast iron scroll work with multi-coloured stained-glass windows. The lift is fully functional but we didn't use it.
The upstairs rooms are themed, as mentioned before, to
coincide with the various lands in the park. The rooms have to be seen to be believed. I will not describe them fully here as I wouldn't be able to do them justice. However, they are as follows :
- A gothic style room represents Fantasyland.
- An Edwardian style library represents Frontierland and
is supposed to be a library in a western mansion. A
number of indian/cowboy-on-a-horse sculptures can be seen to enforce this.
- One corner of a large room is draped as though in a
fine Arabian tent and is clearly supposed to represent
Adventureland.
- Our favourite room (and probably the most detailed) was
Captain Nemo's room. See this. I cannot describe it.
This represents Discoveryland.
You get quite a good view of Main Street from upstairs at
Walt's.
We tried to check out all of the other restaurants but
didn't have time. Descriptions of the ones we saw are in Part Two.
We also had a good long look at Main Street to try to
take in the detail in the upstairs windows, etc. An impossible task to do completely. There were so many familiar names in the windows that it would've taken precious time and expensive filem to phtograph them all. Let's just say that ALL the names were there with appropriate descriptions of their 'jobs'. We took some time to listen to the strange noises that came out of some of these windows too - particularly the dentists in the Town Square.
Disneyland Hotel
Finally we left the park. Sad. Before making our way
home, we wandered through the Disneyland Hotel. Now this is how I expected our hotel to be. Loads of staff to cater for your every need ! The entrance lobby is elegant, spacious, and well kept. Walk up the stairs to the Main Street Lounge for a great relaxing view of Main Street (unfortunately, the area closest to the windows was closed off). The Inventions Restaurant looks superb, and the shops seem better stocked. This is where we want to stay next time. Damned pricey though.
Coach
It was time to head back to the hotel, pick up our
luggage, and catch the coach to the airport. The coach was reasonably on time (less than 5 minutes late). The journey back to the airport was uneventful.
Flight Home
The flight home was smooth, but we landed with a heck of
a bump. Back to reality in more ways than one.
Conclusion
EuroDisney has had it's bad press. It is certainly over
priced by a LONG way ! If you are staying on site and have no transport then you are basically forced to eat and drink at the resort. They've got you cornered. Having said that, I'd go back at the drop of a hat. The park is excellent, and we found the cast helpful and friendly.
We are not fluent French speakers, but language was
certainly not a problem. We found that if you tried to speak in French to a cast member, they would assume you were French and rattle off at ten to the dozen in French ! We got wise, and gave up our attempts at advanced linguistics. Paris, of course, is exactly the opposite in that respect.
There is a lot of construction still going on and we
counted three new rides scheduled to be opened this summer (more on that in Part Three). The EuroDisney project is planned until 2017 and probably later. The park will be changing and growing from year to year.
In my opinion, EuroDisney is a success, and will continue
to be quality entertainment for the forseeable future.
Part Two ========
Main Street, USA
Attractions
Main Street Station
Nothing special, but nice detail in the
EuroDisney Railroad logos.
EuroDisneyland Railroad
Very leisurely journey around the park.
Unfortunately crossing a number of
service roads and places where
construction is going on thus diminishing
some Disney magic for the sensitive
people in your party. Some interesting
views of behind-the-scenes Disney and
construction for the Disneyphiles in your
party.
Horse-Drawn Streetcar, and Main Street Vehicles
Leisurely journies up and down Man St..
Discovery Arcade and Liberty Arcade
Back entrance to shops and restaurants in
Main St.. Very pleasant turn of the
century style interiors with gas lamps
and lots of interesting displays of
inventions and curios of both American
and French (but mainly American) origin.
Main Street Motors
Nice old cars which you can apparently
actually buy (if you have your AmEx Gold
Card with you presumably). A number of
auto-oriented Disney/Mickey memorabilia
for sale.
Restaurants
The Ice Cream Co.
Didn't get a chance to try this place.
The Coffee Grinder
Didn't get a chance to try this place.
Market House Deli
Didn't get a chance to try this place.
Walt's - an American Restaurant
W O W ! ! !
Cable Car Bake Shop
Didn't get a chance to try this place.
Cookie Kitchen
Basic Cookie shop selling incredibly
over-priced cookies (FF9 each - that
makes it over a pound sterling for a
single biscuit !)
Casey's Corner
Didn't get a chance to try this place.
The Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlour
Didn't get a chance to try this place.
Victoria's Home-Style Cooking
Didn't get a chance to try this place.
While standing outside this place, you
should check out the noises apparently
emanating from an upstairs window !
Plaza Gardens Restaurant
Very nicely detailed and clean.
Apparently good food, but we didn't get a
chance to try it out.
Shops
Plaza West and East Boutiques
Basic Disney Merchandise.
The Storybook Store
Mainly childrens books. Also videos and
stationery items. Don't forget to look up
when you go into this shop - you're in
for a treat !
Ribbons and Bows Hat Shop
Hat shop. Also sells Mickey-ears and they
can sew your name into them too.
Town Square Photography/Silhouette Artist
Where to get all your photographic needs.
The silhouette artists were never busy.
Boardwalk Candy Palace
Interesting displays. Loads of stuff to
make the kids (and the adults) sick.
Emporium
Didn't get a chance to try this place.
Harmony Barber Shop
Didn't get a chance to try this place,
but no sign of any singing when we passed
by.
Disney Clothiers, Ltd.
Didn't get a chance to try this place.
Harrington's Fine China and Porcelains
Mainly figurines and usual Disney
merchandise.
Disnyana Collectibles
Some collectibles, but never much more
than you could get in a good Disney
Store. The only original collectibles I
saw were some ED badges each with one of
the lands on and some 1992 commemorative
items (I guess they made too many ?).
Disney & Co./Glass Fantasies
Usual small glass-blown items and
engravings.
Newsstand
Didn't get a chance to try this place.
Frontierland
Attractions
Rustler Roundup Shootin' Gallery
Fun shootin' ! Don't know if it's exactly
the same as in other Disney parks. It was
a fun relaxing thing to do when we'd
finished Sehlinger's tour and were in
"Explore Mode". All human exclamations
are in English.
Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing
The place to pick up the River Boat
(paddle boat). The commentary is mainly
in French with occasional English
translations. The commentary doesn't mix
too well with the taped English sections
which I think are probably generic to the
riverboat cruises in all parks.
Phantom Manor
A favourite of mine and it didn't let me
down. The cast really get into the
pre-show part early on in the day when
not busy (thankyou Sehlinger) and they do
a really good job of spooking the kids.
Later on in the day they are just
concerned with getting people through as
quickly as possible.
Hang back when you exit the 'lift' to
check the detail in the changing
pictures, etc..
All comentary is in French. All songs are
in English. Leslie Neilson still lives as
one of the Grim Grinning Ghosts.
At the end of the ride when you pass by
the mirrors, a ghoul peers over the top
of your buggy with its arms around the
buggy. I think that may be different to
the others. My memory of the American
parks is vague, but I seem to recall you
seeing yourself sitting next to another
ghoul, or see yourselves 'replaced' by
two ghouls.
Apart from that - it's very very similar
to the rides in the American parks. The
surrounding area has grave stones with
epitaphs in both French and English.
Interestingly enough, when the ride
stops, the message "... spooks have got
into the machinery..." is played in both
languages. Safety I suppose.
Grand Canyon Diorama
Yawn.
You pass through this on the Euro-
Disneyland Railroad.
Big Thunder Mountain
Yeeeehar ! This is probably the best ride
in the land (next to Star Tours) in my
opinion. It's mainly similar to the other
BTM's, but has a lot more black-out areas
than I remember in the others.
River Rogue Keelboats
Slow ride around the 'river'. The guides on
this ride are multilingual and will speak
in French, English, German and probably
others depending on the majority in the
boat.
Indian Canoes
A fairly interesting ride. You get to see
ducks and swans and all sorts. Not to
mention the Indian camps. Best of all,
you get to acually do the work (with your
team). The cast seemed to love this ride
and spent a lot of time just horsing
around and entertaining us. Commentary is
as in the River Rogue Keelboats.
Cottonwood Creek Ranch/Critter Corral
Here's a good place to relax out of the
way of the crowds. They have a number of
basic farm animals here which you can
peruse at your leisure. Right next to the
Frontierland Depot where we (and
Sehlinger) reccomend you catch the train
from rather than Main St. Station.
Frontierland Depot
THE place in the park to catch the train
from. Put it this way. We caught the
train here and were second in a queue of
about ten people. Compare this to when we
passed the Main St. Station. Well the
queue there was trailing down into the
town square. We just couldn't believe how
many people were willing to wast the best
part of an hour waiting for the train.
Heck ! I don't even do that on my way
home from work !
Restaurants
The Lucky Nugget Saloon
Great entertainment in the style of an
old western saloon. There is some
audience participation and the food is
substantial. The show is bi-lingual. Some
parts are in other languages too.
The Last Chance Cafe
Didn't get a chance to try this one.
Silver Spur Steakhouse
Didn't get a chance to try this one.
Fuente del Oro Restaurante
Didn't get a chance to try this one.
Cowboy Cookout Barbeque
There is live entertainment here in the
form of a Country and Western band who
play a number of times a day. It's a
fast-food restaurant and you can sit
inside the cavernous barn or outside. The
band played outside while we were there.
Shops
Thunder Mesa Mercantile Building
Tobias Norton & Sons Frontier Trading
Bonanza Outfitters
Eureka Mining Supplieas and Assay Office
Most of the above sell cowboy style
items. None were really unique.
Pueblo Trading Post
Sells mainly Whinnie the Pooh items.
Quite a few things I hadn't seen in our
local Disney Stores.
Woodcarvers Workshop
They sell your name in wood and other
small carvings.
Adventureland
Attractions Adventure Isle You really can get lost in the maze of twisty little passages - all alike ! There's also a rope bridge, a barrel bridge, and not a lot else. Fun though. Set the kids loose here and go and relax. La Cabane des Robinson This is basically the same as in the other parks. Be aware, however, of the excellent views of the park and the castle you can get from various places in the tree. Signs are either in French, or French and English. Pirates of the Caribbean Cool. We rode this countless times (about 8 actually). Rarely having to queue more than 30 mins.. Usually queuing less than 15 mins.. An excellent ride - better than at any of the other parks. The animatronics are smooth and very life- like. There is a significant difference between this ride and the ride in other parks too. It seems longer and more detailed. The walk down to the boats (normally the queue !) is interesting and switches and turns enough to confuse the heck out of you. All the songs are in English (American) and all the dialogue between the pirates is in French. All of the signs are also in French. Just before you disembark, the skull and cross-bones above your head speaks in several different languages telling you to "stay in your boats me hearties" etc. Restaurants Explorers Club One of the guides we read (not Sehlinger) said that this was a really romantic and quiet table service restaurant. Sehlinger said that this was the case at the time of publishing, but that it may shortly be turned into a fast-food place. When we got there it was a fast food place. Fairly empty. Small portions. Pricey. A bit of a disappointment really if it weren't for the pleasant water-fall setting. Blue Lagoon Restaurant A really nice place to eat in a quiet romantic setting. Reminded me of the Moroccan restaurant in Epcot. The Pirates of the Caribbean boats float by as you enjoy your meal under a deep blue 'sky' and in tropical surroundings. Service was excellent, food was good. Aux Epices Enchantees Restaurant We didn't try this one, but it looked good - mud style huts and plenty of out-door dining areas. Check out the interior of the restaurant. Cafe de la Brousse Didn't have time to see this one. Captain Hooks Galley Didn't have time to see this one. Shops Adventureland Bazar A nice place to wander around. Pricey gifts. Fascinating interiors. Lots to see. La Giraffe Curieuse A pretty dull shop with a giraffe's head poking through the interior. La Reine des Serpents Les Tresors de Scheherazade North African style gifts. L'Echoppe d'Aladdin Aladdin merchandise. Strange since Aladdin hasn't been released in Europe at the time of writing. Le Chant des Tam-Tams Average shop. Trader Sam's Jungle Boutique Average shop. Le Coffre du Capitaine Sells loads of pirate gear.
Fantasyland
Attractions Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant Excellent castle. We weren't sure whether some of those tiles on the roof constituted Hidden Mickeys. There is a story inside which is well worth seeing if only for the tapestries and stained glass windows. La Taniere du Dragon No other Disney park has this. It's worth seeing if only for the reactions of the kids watching it. This is basically the Dragin's lair. The dragon sleeps peacefully next to his pool with the occasional snort of smoke. Then his tail twitches, more smoke and he begins to awake... then you realise his chain is broken ! Loved it. Le Theatre du Chateau Small shows are performed here. We saw Mikey's Magic Book. Basically the Snow White story. The Magic book is enormous and as each stage of the story unfolds, so do the pages of the book with pop-up scenery. Blanche-Neighe et leas sept Nains Snow white's ride. Very fast. Too fast. Over in a jiffy. Shame. Les Voyages de Pinocchio Pinnocchio's ride. Very fast. Too fast. Over in a jiffy. Shame. Le Carrousel de Lancelot An enormous carousel. We didn't try this one. Excalibur Sword in the stone. It's a Small World Small World. Seen it too many times. After exiting the ride, try to avoid the extra show afterwards which is something to do with French television or telecomm's. Tedious. Fantasyland Station A fairly normal station. Nothing outstanding. It's above the Fantasy Festival Stage. Fantasy Festival Stage Song and dance shows performed here. Songs seem to be mainly in French, the rest are in English. We saw an excellent show here and it's a good place to meet Mickey and the whoever else is in the show (Donald, Cowboy-Goofy, Donald, Pluto were some we saw) before the show because the crowds seemed to be generally light. Alice's Curious Labyrinth A hedge maze. The hedge is filled with tiny blue lights. The maze has become fairly badly damaged over time. Some of the surprises did not work (The Queen of Hearts did not spring out and shout "Off with her head" too well) and much of the mechanics behind these surprises is totally visible due to the hedge wearing thin. An attraction for the younger ones really. This is also the place where the "jumping water fountains" are - where the water appears to jump from place to place. Good to watch and relax. Mad Hatter's Tea Cups This was a first for me. I enjoyed it but wouldn't fight to go on it again. This ride is covered by a large circus-tent style roof unlike in the other parks. Dumbo the Flying Elephant Didn't get time to try this one. Looks pretty much the same as the Dumbo rides in other parks. Peter Pan's Flight Same as usual. I suspect the galleons in which you ride may have been different, but memory fails me as to exactly where. Restaurants Au Chalet de la Marionnette Restaurant Pinocchio's restaurant. Pleasant interior. Note the Figaro character leaning agains the "Exit" sign inside at one of the entrance's/exit's. This is fairly significant to serious Disneyphile's ! Auberge de Cendrillon A table service restaurant. We didn't try this one, but had a good look around. Spacious and apparently very high quality. In the courtyard you can see the wishing well and Cinderella's coach. The courtyard here is an excellent quiet place to sit and relax a while (so long as nobody is eating there and the restaurant is not busy). You can look over the wishing well and onto the rear of Le Theatre du Chateau and watch Mickey in his Fantasia outfit and other characters come out of the dressing room just before apopearing on stage there. Give him a shout and he'll wave at you (well, he did for us !). Pizzeria Bella Notte Marvellously detailed interior containing one Hidden Mickey. Order a Mickey Mouse Pizza just for the hell of it. Don't forget to look at the tray liner - it's quite funny. Have a look at the outside of the restaurant - specifically the mina entrance. Is it level ? Fantasia Gelati Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. While the ice creams are very nice, they are over priced at FF20 (approx 2.50 pouinds sterling). March Hare Refreshments Sells drinks and Un-birthday cakes which are slightly larger than cup-cakes and look as sweet and sickly as heck ! The Old Mill This was undergoing some sort of refit when we were there. Basically a windmill with 'buckets' at the rear in which you can ride. Also sells french bread sandwiches ("Sub's" to the Americans I believe). Toad Hall Restaurant Another excellent interior matched with a superb exterior. Check out the wall paper among other things inside. Outside, notice the detail in the chimneys and the weather vanes. Sells fish and chips. Shops Merlin l'Enchanteur A fascinating shop to browse through. You can get through to the Dragon's lair from here. La Boutique du Chateau The Christmas shop. La Confiserie des Trois Fees The sweet shop. Notice the three good fairies behind the counter. How do they do that ?! La Chaumiere des Sept Nains Sells mainly Seven Dwarf merchandise, and some jewelery. La Bottega di Gepetto Lot's of nice cuckoo clocks, puppets and hand carved toys around the shelves of the shop but you can't buy these, and there's not much else to buy there really. Le Brave Petit Tailleur Didn't get time to see this one. Sir Mickey's Nice giant vegetable patch outside this shop. La Menagerie du Royaume Furry animals and medieval style characters. La Petit maison des Jouets Information and currency exchange.
Discoveryland
Attractions Le Visionarium Circle-Vision 360. A new film made especially for EuroDisneyland. The preshow is conducted in French, but there are running subtitles in other languages. The film is hosted by an android and in the 360 theatre you can listen to the show through headphones in four different languages (English, Italian, German, and something else). The film is quite entertaining. Videopolis Large indoor stage showing Beuty and the Beast in French. The show is filmed live and replayed on large multi-screen video monitors either side of the stage with some video effects to enhance the production. The production is totally in French, but we recognised the songs. There is a fast- food restaurant in here (Cafe Hyperion) as well. You can order your food and take it with you to your table to watch the show. At the main entrance to the Videopolis you can see the giant Hyperion air-ship. Nice detail. Orbitron A carousel-type ride where you can "pilot your own rocket ship" (i.e. make it go up and down). We didn;t try this one. Autopia Yawn. We didn't try this one. Star Tours Yeehar ! If you've seen Star Tours before then you're not in for much of a surprise ... except for C3P0 speaking in French ! R2D2 was mulitlingual. The entrance to the ride was a little shabby. It felt like you were just walking in to a warehouse. Reality did not get suspended for quite a while into the pre-show. The other androids alternate between French and English. The trevelog narration also alternates between French and English. The video you are shown just before you enter your Starspeeder 3000 is all in French. You can see where they've spliced in the French announcer - quite awkward really. The whole of the StarTours ride is conducted in French. I still didn't get to see the giant microscope. CineMagique Captaine EO. Avoid (in my opinion). Restaurants Cafe des Visionnaires Didn't get to see this one, though apparently you can get excellent views of the parades an Fantasyland. Cafe Hyperion A fast food restarant inside the Videopolis. Shops Constellations Interesting interior. Sells Star Wars figures etc.. Star Traders Has a big 'radar' dish on the top. The roof of this was still being worked on while we were there. We got a good view of the construction as we passed by in the EuroDisneyland Train.
Part Three ==========
Rides Under Contruction
We saw at least three rides being constructed, two of
which were going to be opened in the summer of 1993 :
Temple du Terror - Looks like a really hot roller-coaster ride. Never seen anything like this at the other Disney parks before. Looks like it's based around a ruined Aztec Temple. Perhaps based around Jungle Book ?
Bonanza - Just saw the sign saying Bonanza opening 1993. No ideas at all what this one's about, but saw plenty of evidence of heavy earth-moving, and construction from the EuroDisneyland Train.
Unnamed - Something in discovery land. Couldn't really see much of this one. No notices anywhere.
Miscellaneous
I'll try to scan in the following items and deposit them
in alt.binaries.pictures.misc if I have time. Please don't email me for these scans unless you really really REALLY can't get them from there or anywhere else - I found it difficult enough to find time to type in this report ! Hopefully, some kind soul may transfer them to an archive site eventually.
- Passport Card
- Resort Map
- Figaro Picture with Exit Sign.
- Picture of the Castle
Guide Books
In England there are (at the time of this report) at
least six books claiming to give you the low-down on the resort. I found that only two were really required, and if I had to make the choice between those it would be Sehlinger's Unofficial Guide. Sehlinger's guide proved worth it's weight in gold if only for the touring plans and other travel advice.
EuroDisney Resort - Paris - The Guide Harmsworth Magazines ISBN 0-85144-671-X The Official Guide. Useful but may be slightly out of date. Plenty of useful phone numbers and travel details. I'd reccomend this book for information purposes.
The Unofficial Guide to Eurodisneyland Bob Sehlinger Prentice Hall Travel ISBN 0-671-84759-7
The best guide by far. Save your legs and buy this. I don't have shares in the company and I'm not profiting from this in any way but I wish I did !
Questions Answered … Probably !
Brooks Haderlie (brh54@cas.org) asked :
- What language(s) is used on the signs, in the reading
material, etc.?
Mainly French. "Sortie" instead of "Exit" for example. There are surprisingly few signs that need translation. Menu's outside restaurants are in French and English. All other reading material (guide booklets, etc..) is available in many many languages. - Do they have videos in the gift shops in German, French, Spanish, Italian, etc.? Yes.
Lori McDowell (mcdowell@hope.cit.hope.edu) asked :
- I'd really like to hear a detailled account of what
Phantom Manor (Haunted Mansion) is like at EuroDisney.
I've described the main differences above.
Someone asked :
- How does one get there from Paris?
The EuroDisney guide books (see above) describe
this far better than I could. It is very very easy.
Jesse asked :
- What castle is there ?
Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant. Sleeping
Beuty's Castle. It's wonderful.
Robert R. Kessler (kessler@cons.cs.utah.edu) asked :
- We'll be staying at the Sequoia Lodge … general
information required.
Bob, I hope the above report has been useful to you. We actually stayed at the Sequoia Lodge (not the Hotel New York as I mentioned in a post to internet asking if anyone had questions about ED). You WILL enjoy your stay ! That's an order !
©1993 Tom Drynda. _ _ (_)_(_) Tom Drynda - tad@ingres.com | Ingres (UK) Ltd., ' ~~` DisneyWorld [Y] | 15-19 Britten Street, (._.) DisneyLand [Y] ()_() | London, SW3 3TY
(_) EuroDisney [Y] (_) | England.
`—' Tokyo DisneyLand [N] | +44-71-416 7770 ext 411