Disneyland Paris 2012 Trip Report: Part 7
Thanks for joining us for the final installment of the Disneyland Paris 2012 trip report! Before we get started, if you’re just joining us and have a few hours to kill, you might want to read the previous installments. If you don’t care about the text and just want to see the photo highlights from the trip, I’ve fully updated my Disneyland Paris photo gallery. It has several shots that didn’t find their way into this trip report, so definitely check it out regardless of whether you’ve read the report.
Despite sharing dozens of photos from Disney Dreams!, I haven’t yet shared my opinion of the show. It rocked. As far as nighttime castle shows go, it is my new second-favorite, coming in second to only the “Remember… Dreams Come True” fireworks at Disneyland. It’s tough to top “Remember…” because it’s actually tied to attractions rather than films (and I’m a Disney theme park fan first and foremost) and because of the creative way some of the bursts are tied to the soundtrack. Objectively, Disney Dreams is probably “better.”
I made the mistake of watching a video of Disney Dreams the night it premiered, as it was supposed to be a show with a limited run, and I assumed we wouldn’t get to Disneyland Paris anytime soon. So I sort of knew what to expect going into the show–although it has elements of World of Color, fireworks, and the Cinderella Castle shows previously at Walt Disney World, so I doubt it would have really “wowed” me if I were seeing it with fresh eyes. Plus, I pretty much forgot the plot between seeing the video and seeing it in person.
The plot is fairly forgettable. Even as I write this now, I am having to look it up on Wikipedia (a veritable source of information for all trip reports!) to make sure I’m not missing anything. Basically, Peter Pan’s shadow gets away from him and finds its way into montage clips from various other Disney animated films. The plot is a bit flimsy, but I personally appreciated that the effort was made to tie the show together with this thread, even though it is on the weak side. One of my biggest disappointments about World of Color is that it’s just montages without anything to connect them. Once Peter Pan gets his shadow back, the Second Star to the Right (the star at the top of Disneyland Paris’ Castle) has its magic back, and starts shooting out lasers at guests. Or just projecting them towards the ground.
Another thing I really appreciated was the appearances by the less-common (for these montage shows and attractions) films like Hunchback of Notre Dame and Ratatouille. These two were likely included for obvious reasons, but it was still a nice change of pace from what you’d expect to see.
The music numbers were all top notch and the projections were stunning. The way Sleeping Beauty Castle was used as a canvas worked really well, and the various scenes really played up the dimensions of that canvas well. The other elements such as the fireworks, fountains, and lasers all worked together wonderfully to bring the show to life, really making it an engaging multi-faceted visual experience instead of just fireworks. While I love grand fireworks above Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World, fireworks alone don’t do a whole lot for me. Fireworks with a great soundtrack are a totally different story, but for me it’s usually more about the soundtrack than it is the bursts. In this regard, I view shows like Disney Dreams as the natural evolution of the Disney nighttime spectacular.
Something tells me I might be sort of alone in this sentiment. The new Walt Disney World castle projection show, Celebrate the Magic, seems to have received a relatively tepid response and not much buzz from fans, yet it’s basically “Disney Dreams-lite.” If you don’t like that show, chances are that you won’t like Disney Dreams. Even though Disney Dreams is a significant improvement on Celebrate the Magic, it is similar from the perspective of technology and storytelling means utilized. Personally, I love Celebrate the Magic. I’d actually consider it superior to the New Fantasyland attractions that opened in 2012!
To me, comparatively speaking, fireworks are just very one dimensional. There are now these great means of having a nighttime spectacular that can be just as grandiose as fireworks, but that are unique to Disney and have better emotional means of telling the story. Now, I still love fireworks that shake the ground just as much as the next guy, I just think that anyone with enough money can put on an excellent fireworks show (I saw a far superior show in Kentucky called “Thunder Over Louisville,” and I’m pretty sure Kentucky doesn’t even have electricity or the internal combustion engine–hence the fixation on horseracing–yet), but it takes real creative vision to execute a show like Disney Dreams that juggles so many balls at the same time.
In other words, two thumbs up for Disney Dreams!
Moving on…and there wasn’t really much more to that night! I really don’t know why I didn’t include the rest of this night with the last trip report. Oh well.
The next morning, I decided not to wake up so early on the off chance there was a sunrise. By “decided,” I mean that my body gave out on me and I didn’t wake up before the sunrise. When I did wake up, I opened the window (almost out of habit by this point as it seemed a sunrise was unlikely), and saw a GLORIOUS sunrise taking shape out the window. I hadn’t showered or in any way gotten ready, but I grabbed my camera bag and ran from our room to Disneyland to try to capture some good photos. Wearing my sweatpants and with chaotic hair, I probably looked a bit like Nick Nolte after a night on the town. It’s also probably a good thing that I sleep in sweatpants instead of in the nude…or there might be a shot of me similar to Nolte’s!
Luckily, I pride myself in my ability to run around theme parks (as you’ll read in our Tokyo report!), so I was able to make the journey in no time–stopping only a couple of times for photos as “proof” just in case the sunrise disappeared.
After doing all of that running, I arrived at the Disneyland Paris only to find that, in fact, the sunrise had disappeared behind the clouds. I would have been difficult to capture anyway, but I was still incredibly bummed that I had missed out on some prime photo time. I vowed right then to never again sleep while on vacation!
Since I’m fairly sure I smelled worse than Nick Nolte, I decided to head back and shower. I quickly got ready and headed out to a completely overcast sky. I had about a 30 minute head start on Sarah, so I decided to spend the time wandering Main Street, grabbing some photos of the details. Here are some of those:
Phantom Manor time following that. For those keeping score at home, I believe this was like the 35th time we did this attraction on the trip. So, yeah, you could probably do Disneyland Paris in fewer days than we did if you didn’t “need” to see Phantom Manor 35 times. But really, can anyone quantify how many times they need to see Phantom Manor? It’s best to just play it on the safe side and do it 35 times per trip.
Then, back to see the Dragon. Seeing him was probably the attraction we did second most on the trip. Basically any trip past the Castle necessitated a visit into his lair to make sure he was still chained down. Europe, you’re welcome for acting as your dragon patrol!
Our next stop was going to be ‘it’s a small world,’ but on the way there, we saw that Pizzeria Bella Notte was open for lunch. It hadn’t been opened at least one other day of our trip, so I wanted to stop inside for some photos. Just like so many of the counter service restaurants at Disneyland Paris, the inside was gorgeous. The menu didn’t look half bad, so we decided to eat there. At only 14 Euro for a complete meal, it wasn’t a huge risk if we didn’t like the place.
We were pleasantly surprised by the meal! Not only were the portions large, but the food was actually good! It was like Pizza Planet, except with better Pizza. Given our Pizza Planet Review, I know this may not seem like glowing praise, but trust me, we were excited to have another good meal. Although it would be our last meal at Disneyland Paris, it gave us hope. On future visits, we’ll probably do less Earl of Sandwich and more in-park counter service dining. Earl is still the #1 restaurant of the Disneyland Paris leg of the trip, but I’d rather do a unique C+ restaurant than an B/B- restaurant that we have in the US.
The best thing about the meal was definitely the Tiramisu, which was shockingly good for a counter service restaurant…but still disappointing when compared to the rest of France. Ironic, because we found that snacks and desserts (including French desserts) at Tokyo Disney Resort were AMAZING, but desserts in the rest of Japan were not. Maybe Disneyland Paris should bring in a chef from Tokyo Disney Resort to help improve its French desserts (that…or one from 20 minutes down the road).
As a baseline, I’d say the dessert was about as good as something from Sunshine Seasons. Since this is our favorite Walt Disney World counter service restaurant, I’d consider that fairly high praise. Overall, when you throw ambiance and everything into the mix, I’d give Pizzeria Bella Notte a solid 8/10.
After this, it was back to ‘it’s a small world’ before doing some wandering for our final hour or so in the park.
I really like the photo above. It’s different from my norm, but I think it’s fairly creative. Part of the reason why I like it may be because I spent a lot of time manually focusing to get the shot right–all as people inside the window gave me odd looks, likely assuming I was taking photos of them eating–so I may feel “obligated” to like it given the trouble!
If we wandered long enough, we’d pretty much always find ourselves boarding Phanton Manor! This marked approximately our 78th time doing the ride…
This next series of photos is sort of out of order, but I’m including them here now for lack of a better location. Since I posted my Sony RX-100 review, which promised sample Disney theme park photos at some point in the future, I’ve received numerous questions regarding how I like using it in the park. Since that review is now almost a year old, and the camera has been on numerous trips, I figured it might be time to address that.
The photos between the next two chunks of text were all taken with the RX-100. I chose these photos because they all demonstrate the capabilities of the RX-100 in the situation that is normally the most difficult for a point and shoot: dark rides/the dark. They were also all shot by Sarah in Aperture-Priority mode at f/1.8. (Sarah isn’t keen on manual settings, so the significance of this is that these are the type of results that can be expected without much in the way of adjusting settings.)
Overall, I really like the RX-100. I rarely am the one who uses it (except for food photos) but I am constantly impressed by the photos Sarah captures with it using semi-automatic settings. A lot of people say that gear doesn’t make a difference, and that it’s all about knowledge, but I don’t agree with this. I do agree with the underlying mentality that gear doesn’t make a good photo (whenever writes “nice photo, you must have a great camera” in response to my photos, I have to fight back the urge to respond, “nice writing, you must have a great keyboard!”), but there are some situations where good photos are impossible to capture without the right gear.
Dark rides and the dark in general are one such situation. Without a fast lens and good high ISO capabilities, good dark ride photos are impossible, no matter how talented the photography. To a lesser extent, night photos are the same way. Without a tripod and/or solid ISO performance, night photos will just look bad.
When it comes to both of these things, I have never used a point and shoot camera that performs as well as the Sony RX-100, and for that reason, I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t want to carry around a DSLR. It provides near-DSLR quality and will allow you to capture photos you simply can’t with a lesser point and shoot. It’s no substitute for knowledge of photography or a creative eye, but as far as point and shoot tech goes, it’s second to none.
With that said, it costs $650 and I can’t recall the last time I saw a sale on it (although Amazon now does have a bundle for $648 that includes some decent accessories for “free”). I assume Sony has a pricing policy (a la Apple) regarding the camera, and $650 for a point and shoot is EXPENSIVE.
To put that number in perspective, it’s more expensive than an entry level DSLR and a couple of basic lenses, which together would all enable you to capture better photos than you can with the RX-100. Of course, the DSLR can’t fit in your pocket, which is really what you’re paying for with the RX-100. So, while I still highly recommend the Sony RX-100 after using it and seeing its results for almost a year, that recommendation only goes for people who really want a camera that can fit in their pocket.
Then, the greatest moment of our trip occurred: I bought the cowboy hat with Goofy riding it. Those who follow our fun might know that I’m a novelty hat enthusiast. I often wear ridiculous Disney hats to the parks, and although I wouldn’t go as so far as to say I have a reputation for it (it might sound cool at first, but “the creep who wears the crazy hats” probably isn’t the best nickname), it’s something I’ve been known to do.
I really liked this hat because I had seen tons of adult guests wearing it (which alone made me crack up–definitely didn’t fit the French stereotype), but had never seen it outside the parks. I figured I would save it for a future trip, and unleash it on the world then. Unfortunately, my bag to Japan didn’t have enough room, but I’ll eventually find an appropriate time to wear it. Perhaps a vow renewal outside the American Adventure in Epcot? Sounds pretty perfect to me!
Our final attraction of the trip would be Le Passage Enchanté d’Aladdin, as we had noticed on the way out that we somehow hadn’t done it. I’m glad we spotted it at the last minute, because it as a great little diversion. A lot like the Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-through at Disneyland (well, except this was Aladdin).
We headed to the Emporium from there, and bought some gifts for family.
And then…SARAH GOT ARRESTED! Much like a mediocre blockbuster movie (well, except in the important ways…such as insane profitability), we are throwing in a last minute twist at the end to open the door for a sequel! Will Tom travel back to Paris with hilarious hi-jinks along the way? Will Sarah meet a band of lovable misfits in jail and work with them to escape…with hilarious hi-jinks along the way? Will Yossarian the Cat and Walter E. Dogsney star in the ultimate buddy/talking animal flick as they infiltrate the force and try to save their mom…with hilarious hi-jinks along the way? Guess you’ll have to wait for the sequel to find out! 😉
I guess the question worth answering at the end of this is whether it’s worth your time to visit Disneyland Paris if you’re a Walt Disney World or Disneyland visitor living in the United States?
Without knowing anyone’s personal circumstances, I’m going to answer “yes, in most cases.” We most frequently get questions of this nature from people who visit Walt Disney World once per year and ask if it’s worth skipping a Walt Disney World trip and taking the time to visit another place. From the perspective of time (and not money), there’s not doubt that it is. It’s not the parks that really seal the deal on that answer, but the rest of what’s out there in Europe. France is a beautiful country, and I’d hazard a guess that most people visiting Disneyland Paris will at least spend some time in Paris (and possibly other parts of France). You could spend an entire year in France and not run out of amazing things to see and do, but I think if this is likely to be your one visit to Europe in your life, taking the time to visit Disneyland Paris, Paris, and another country in Europe would be a good idea.
If it’s a matter of money, the question is more difficult for me to answer. The parks alone probably aren’t worth saving for a few years (skipping other vacations along the way) to do, but again, a trip to Europe is worth doing once in life. With that said, if you’re eyeing Disneyland Paris/Europe for a once in a lifetime international trip, I’d suggest looking to Tokyo Disney Resort/Japan instead. That’s especially true if your primary concern is the parks, as the ones in Tokyo are the best in the world (although I’d also give the nod to Japan over Europe, in general, but that’s a personal preference). If you plan on doing both Tokyo Disney Resort and Disneyland Resort Paris, do Paris first. After Tokyo, it’s difficult to see the other parks the same way.
The question that a few of you have asked is how I’d rank the parks. We have yet to visit Hong Kong Disneyland, so with that in mind, my rankings are:
- Tokyo DisneySea
- Tokyo Disneyland
- Disneyland
- Disneyland Paris
- Disney California Adventure
- Magic Kingdom
- Epcot
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom
- Typhoon Lagoon (water park)
- Blizzard Beach (water park)
- Walt Disney Studios Park
The tough ones here are really 5-9. It’s sort of difficult to put Disney California Adventure above my favorite parks as a child (Magic Kingdom and Epcot), but I’m giving DCA the slight edge for an upward trajectory, whereas the Magic Kingdom and Epcot were both better–in my opinion–in the mid-1990s. Animal Kingdom is a park I’ve come to appreciate more and more, and with a little maintenance and a couple of attractions, it could be the #1 Walt Disney World park.
With regard to the parks that matter for this report, I’m confident in my ranking of Disneyland Paris and The Walt Disney Studios Park. The former scores a lot of points for its ornate and beautiful details, and is to me a place you can get lost exploring. As I’ve stated throughout this report, if you’re the type who just bounces from attraction to attraction, I doubt you’ll get the same enjoyment out of Disneyland Paris. It loses some of these points for substandard maintenance (although I’m told it has improved substantially in the last couple of years) and awful dining. If it received the TLC that Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland receive, it would be #3 on this list–maybe even #2.
By contrast, the Walt Disney Studios Park is so bad that I’ve placed it after the Walt Disney World water parks, as I truly believe that as a theme park, it does a worse job than both of these (vastly underrated) parks. It has an okay collection of attractions, and that slate will further improve when the trackless Ratatouille Kitchen Calamity opens, but a theme park is more than a collection of attractions to me. As a theme park, this place is so fundamentally flawed that I’m not sure any amount of placemaking can make it work. Although in fairness, I was shocked to see the transformation from Sunshine Plaza to Buena Vista Street in Disney California Adventure. So maybe the potential for a beautiful Hollywood Boulevard leading from the park entrance to Partners is possible.
I realize with these rankings, parks only tell part of the story, and on a resort-wide level, Disneyland Resort Paris would be last on my rankings. It does well by having a nice layout and several resort-hotels to explore, but it just fails to trump the monorails of Tokyo Disney Resort and Walt Disney World (and the latter’s numerous resorts and other experiences), and the overall package of Disneyland. It’s also difficult to give the hotels much weight at Disneyland Paris because besides exploring them, there isn’t a lot of draw to them in terms of dining or entertainment. It’s still a very good resort experience. When coupled with a trip to other places in Europe, it’s a pretty amazing place to visit. It’s also important to realize these are the subjective thoughts of two guests. While I do my best to stay as unbiased as possible, and I think Disneyland Paris is an excellent place to visit, if you’ve read the comments throughout this report, you’ve probably seen a number of Europeans who far prefer Walt Disney World. I wonder how much of that is based on actual quality, and how much is just a visit to Florida being a better fit for a 2-week holiday…
I think I’ve included a fairly significant amount of trip planning information throughout this report and in our Disneyland Paris Trip Planning Guide, so I won’t further fixate on this. If there are additional questions you have, please feel free to post them below in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer them!
If you enjoyed our Disneyland Paris trip report, please help spread the word! We would be most appreciative if you’d share it with your friends or on your favorite social media network. We really appreciate your comments, questions, and when you share the reports with others. This trip report has been enjoyed by a lot of people in a surprising number of countries, and that’s almost entirely because readers have helped spread the word. So a huge, sincere thanks for that. We owe a lot to you readers out there!
Alright, that wraps up our Disneyland Paris Trip Report. Thanks for reading and See Ya Real Soon!
Your Thoughts…
What did you think of the final installment and our overall rankings and suggestions regarding Disneyland Paris? Share your thoughts on this, any questions you might have, or just say “hello” in the comments! We read and appreciate all of your comments!
Hi Tom,
I know this is an old post now but I am from the UK and pretty much a local at Disneyland Paris. I thought I had seen it all until I read you’re trip report and am so excited to visit again this December to try out all of the extra things you recommended! Have never stayed in Sequioa lodge and am now very excited to finally try it! I have just returned from the most amazing two week Walt Disney World trip and had I not found your blog it wouldn’t have been half as amazing as it was so I would like to thank you for helping me make mine and my fiancée’s (he took your advice and proposed at one of your top WDW spots) trip the best it could have ever been and hopefully continue to do so in the future.
Just got back from a week in Paris and Disneyland.
Design of the park is great. Love the castle.
However, upkeep is terrible. Because it “can’t be enforced”, smoking is allowed throughout the park. The entire place is strewn with cigarette butts. Unlike other Disney properties, the sweepers do nothing but gang up and stroll around the park – when they aren’t busy using their phones.
Much of the park is in disrepair. There are countless areas in need of paint and patching. Most planters are filled with dead plants.
The staff is just downright rude – except for the immigrant workers.
Stayed at the Sequoia. It had all the charm of a Hotel 6. After a 12 hour flight, and a 1 hour bus ride, had to lug our luggage the entire length of 3 corridors – no bell boy, no cart. However, did save on the tip! Surprisingly, our room didn’t smell of cigarette smoke. Apparently, the hotel can enforce a no smoking rule.
The breakfast staff was downright surly.
All in all, although the “design” was great, I put Disneyland Paris at the bottom of my list, having visited the original Disneyland, California Adventure, Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea.
Walt Disney Studios Park doesn’t even count. “Ratatouille” – what a mind-fart!
I love that first shot of the starburst over the castle. Beautifully unreal, a fantasy painting, until you see the audience, and then it actually took my breath away!
Thanks Tom for your trip report on Disneyland Paris! My husband and I are doing the 7 night Norwegian Fjord cruise on the Magic next June, and were originally considering visiting London afterwards until we realized Disneyland Paris was not too far! The park looks absolutely beautiful, and we are definitely considering it! It would only be for 2-3 days and I think that would be plenty! I’ve also taken in the Planning Guide and have found it very helpful-so thank you!!!
Your photos are beautiful as always as well!
Thanks for the detailed report on Disneyland Paris. We are taking our 10 year old son (he’ll be 12 by then) to Europe in summer 2015. I expect the crowds will be much larger than during your trip, but we’ll perhaps stay extra days to make sure we fit everything in. I read every instalment & expect that I’ll refer back to them again a few times before I go. I too love the details and so look forward to seeing them. We have taken our son to DLR in California quite a few times, as we had an annual pass last year (we live in BC Canada so made 4 trips on our annual pass of 5-7 days each), plus we’d taken him in 2011 before the unveiling of the new DCA, which we love now! But by the time we get to Paris he’ll have had an almost 2 year break from the parks, so I expect he’ll love it too, even though the attractions are much more important to him than the details. Anyway, I love your photos, they are beautiful and really help get me even more excited to go and see it for myself. And I enjoy the “dorky” photos too. Right up my alley! Thanks so much for all the great info & insight. Keep up the good work.
I love reading your reports, I took a school group from n.ireland to Disneyland paris last june and it was an amazing trip, yes the weather can leave a lot to be desired but the lack of crowds enabled us to get round the parks as a group and we loved crushes coaster. It definitely is not a stressful park and they are a lot smaller than in the U.S. but I liked the fact I could move around not bump into anyone and felt peaceful wandering along.
Glad you had a great experience–thanks for sharing! 🙂
I really, truly adore your Disney travel reports! I read the Tokyo report before this one, and neither failed to please! I enjoy your absolutely fantastic pictures (you have one heck of an eye!) and I will most certainly be exploring your work and this site much more in the future. Please don’t stop entertaining people with your wonderful work! 🙂
Great report, so interesting and funny to read at the same time! I’m sorry to hear about your Walt’s and Blue Lagoon experience: to me those are by far the best restaurants of all the Disney parks I’ve visited (well, only WDW and Paris), except from Kona Cafe (the only Resort restaurant I ate, maybe that’s why). However, something that was shocking to me was that WDW Dining Plan Table ticket only includes 1 Entreé + 1 dessert while DisneyParis Table vouchers include 2 main dishes + 1 dessert, so that increases even more the price/quality ratio.
I read them all, even though I’m not sure if I’ll ever get to DLP, having already visited Paris once in my life and I live in the US. I feel like I completely understand the “fine wine” thing you were saying just by reading and looking at the photos. Part of that too is how low the crowds were in the photos. Maybe it wasn’t “tranquil” while you were there, but that’s what it looks like. Peaceful, and easy to absorb the details. I can’t get over the pink sky with that beautiful pink castle. That is incredible. Really looks like something out of a Disney movie!
I live in the UK and I’ve been to Disneyland Paris 3 times. I’ve never been to any other Disney park but would love to do them all some day. Great trip report!
Wow! I am shocked by you ranking! Im from the UK and the general feeling when you talk about disneyland paris over here, it that doesnt even come close to the US parks, and that the french just cant do disney magic. The staff dont have the same “disney” attitude to customer service and the magic touches arent there. It is very interesting to hear you view it so differently from the other side, im visiting WDW this nov, but maybe i will view DLP in a new light on my next visit.
Eh, I think it depends upon your focus. I really love the details and artisan-ship of Disney theme parks. Many people don’t really care about those things–there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, and if those things don’t matter to you, you probably won’t like Disneyland Paris as much as I did.
I have loved your report on Paris thank you. We are planning a may 2014 trip and you have helped a lot. Beautiful pictures too!
I’m from Melbourne Australia 🙂
We went to Disneyland Paris today as kind of a spur of the moment side trip while in Paris. All though we only did a fee rides I did like the park. I have only been to Disney world so obviously I thought the park was pretty small. It was nice though. I really liked pirates of the caribbean, phantom manor, and space mountain. Big thunder was closed which was kind of a bummer. I have only read a few of te Disney Paris blogs so I will have to go back to see if you ate at that Blue lagoon restaurant whcib looks pretty good. It was also a sunny day so I was able to he sole good photos. All in all it was definitely interesting and cool to see .
Don’t get too excited about Blue Lagoon. I cover it in one of the earlier installments of this trip report…
Those pictures with the RX 100 picture were amazing! I thought really long and hard about getting it for my husband (DSLRs are just too bulky and hard to take with us with the kids too), but given it costs more than a month of daycare for the little one, I opted for the Nikon P510 (given that the normal $350 price tag was down $189 on clearance at Target recently). Hoping that the price would drop, because I would grab the RX in a heartbeat if the price was slightly more reasonable!
Great blog and with all of the teasers that you slipped it, I can’t wait for Tokyo Disney now!
Until other manufacturers catch up or Sony releases a replacement, I don’t see that price going anywhere. There’s just no incentive to drop it on a product that (I’ve heard) was incredibly expensive to develop and (right now) has no direct competitors.
It’s a steep price, but I’ve been impressed by it!
Awesome pics, great trip report and nice Disney Tokyo tease. Can’t wait to see the pictures from that trip and read more about those parks.
Oh my, so much eye candy on this page! That sunrise, those Dreams photos,… Stunning work, as always! Thanks so much for this trip report, it’s been delightful to read and look through it.
Thanks for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed the report.
You should really visit HKDL now. It’s expansion is complete and looks amazing and the park feels more complete now. This may be biased but, land-for-land design wise, I like it better than TDL (although TDL has better attraction quality).
I agree with what you said about TDR. Make sure you see it after you’ve seen most because it will change your perspective on the others. Unfortunately, its to late for me 🙂
Great installment by the way. Your trip reports are really well done and I’ve used your disneyland vacation planning guide to plan my first trip there in December.
Looking forward to your TDR TR.
Hong Kong was originally supposed to be part of our Tokyo itinerary, but I had received word that Mystic Point was slightly behind schedule, so we made the call early on to scratch it from the plans. Then, of course, it ended up opening ahead of schedule.
We’ll probably do HKDL over Thanksgiving this year, or at some point next year.
“To put that number in perspective, it’s more expensive than an entry level point and shoot and a couple of basic lenses, which together would all enable you to capture better photos than you can with the RX-100″
I think you meant to write ” more expensive than an entry level dslr…”
Anyhow awesome end to a tremendous trip report. I can’t abide California adventure being rated higher than magic kingdom though- that just seems wrong! (In fairness, I have been nowhere except wdw)
Perhaps wdw parks are getting a bit repetitive and the parks you have been to less are therefore becoming more appealing?
Thanks, that was a typo. Fixed now.
Well, I put both Disneyland parks high up there and we visit them just as much as we visit Disneyland just as much as Walt Disney World now. Maintenance and show quality are really important to me. I feel Disneyland does an excellent job of both, whereas parts of Walt Disney World are in poor shape.
Any plans on visiting Hong Kong Disneyland?
Great installment, as always. I think it was predictable you would rank Disney Sea as number one. It is by far the best Disney theme Park. However, I was surprised you have Tokyo Disneyland higher than the Disneyland Park in Paris. I agree Walt Disney Studios Paris as the last one. I hope Ratatouille helps that park a little bit. It really needs an extreme makeover.
I am looking forward to reading your Tokyo report.
There are a lot of reasons Tokyo Disneyland is #2, most of which are better saved for that trip report. Approached solely from the perspective of design, Disneyland Paris would be #2. It’s a beautiful and brilliantly designed park.
Tokyo Disneyland surpasses it in terms of maintenance, dining, and individual attraction quality. Tokyo Disneyland is *not* a perfect park, and in many ways is a menu-list look at the best of Disneyland and Walt Disney World, but thanks to the Oriental Land Company, Tokyo Disneyland is better than either of its US counterparts, and it’s Paris counterpart.
If Paris keeps its momentum going from the 20th, I could see it being #2 by the 25th anniversary.
Thank you for your reply. I get your ranking better now 🙂