First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

[nathan detroit]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

The stench of poo was the strongest close to the DLP hotel.

That hotel obviously must attract a less than pleasant class of people!

[nathan detroit]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

My comment was aimed at the voiceactors that were chosen for the voiceovers. I opened this trip report making it clear that I've only been to the West Coast parks - sorry, but going my entire life hearing the real American Mickey Mouse and then hearing French Mickey instead is jarring for me. I had really hoped I would love the voices for Tower of Terror and Phantom Manor, but I did not. Crush's voice was-oh, let's not go there. These are my opinions and feelings.

[/IMG]

I agree but have always assumed that these voices are provided by the original French actors or at least people who sound like them. French visitors to WDW and DLR probably feel the same way.

However I catagorically will state that I HATE the French Mickey and Goofy voices!

[TreoFred]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

My comment was aimed at the voiceactors that were chosen for the voiceovers. I opened this trip report making it clear that I've only been to the West Coast parks - sorry, but going my entire life hearing the real American Mickey Mouse and then hearing French Mickey instead is jarring for me. I had really hoped I would love the voices for Tower of Terror and Phantom Manor, but I did not. Crush's voice was-oh, let's not go there. These are my opinions and feelings.

I understand it but it is also a brain thing. Our brain loves continuity and if it expects a certain voice (or a certain language), it has a hard time moving over to something else. Voice acting is also a tough gig and in some cases it can IMPROVE the experience If you hear both at roughly the same time and you get a chance to pick (because your brain hasn't made it an expectation through repetition), the results may surprise you.

For instance, I like Alain Chabat better than Mike Myers as the voice for Shrek. Weird, hey?

Phantom Manor DLP: when I first visited it, I had only been to Haunted Mansion West Coast once. It didn't disturb me... but I experienced the initial DLP script in English by Vincent Price Then it went to the French script and I didn't like it. But I eventually got used to it and my brain switched over because I was always getting it. Then I moved to California... and the Haunted Mansion spieled was immediately good and familiar (even though it is a different narrator). But in the end of 1990s/early 2000s, they added a Spanish safety spiel which I hate but only because of how the tone of that ghost compares to the regular one overseeing my doombuggie . And I STILL haven't gotten over it (and a few other ones!). And this is not a "foreign park"

...and I have no problem with Spanish, it's closer to me than English in fact

...and I love the Japanese on Small World (and I wish they would bring back the totally broken French safety spiel at the end of the ride from late 1990s!)

Our brains do not like surprises

[Disney_Dad]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

I've been to DLP every year since 2000. I haven't generall noticed any bad smells, except for one visit at Christmas in 2006. There was an awful stench of sewage in the west side of Fantasyland and it lasted for the whole three days we were at DLP. Really made you wretch.

[pineapplewhipaddict]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.




















The new Peter Pan show. I really like the look of Hook and Smee!


The theming around and inside Pirates of the Caribbean was fantastic...






Soooo cute!


The last batch of pics will come soon...

[lcasa]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

You'll all worrying me. I haven't been to DLP in 7 years - and it was lovely then - also it was winter so the cool weather may have kept the smells away. I'm a DL CA AP holder and was expecting the same level of care for DLP as we have in Anaheim. I'm taking my son and nephew for their first trips after telling them how wonderful it all is. Now I'm wondering if we should skip it! Captain Hook's ship is a big draw, since I remember the one in Anaheim from when I was little and my nephew is a huge Pan fan.

btw - Rock N Roller Coaster in WDW had the same headache effect on me as you report for SM- couldn't find a good place to keep my head and it was being beaten from side to side.

As for character voices - nearly 20 years ago I went to a seminar where they announced that there was a new character voice department that was supposed to guarantee that all voices sounded similar the world over - and they illustrated the need for it with some deep-voiced Donald from France. I sure hope that's not gone away too.

[Dagobert]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

You'll all worrying me. I haven't been to DLP in 7 years - and it was lovely then - also it was winter so the cool weather may have kept the smells away. I'm a DL CA AP holder and was expecting the same level of care for DLP as we have in Anaheim. I'm taking my son and nephew for their first trips after telling them how wonderful it all is. Now I'm wondering if we should skip it! Captain Hook's ship is a big draw, since I remember the one in Anaheim from when I was little and my nephew is a huge Pan fan.

btw - Rock N Roller Coaster in WDW had the same headache effect on me as you report for SM- couldn't find a good place to keep my head and it was being beaten from side to side.

As for character voices - nearly 20 years ago I went to a seminar where they announced that there was a new character voice department that was supposed to guarantee that all voices sounded similar the world over - and they illustrated the need for it with some deep-voiced Donald from France. I sure hope that's not gone away too.

When do you plan to go to DLRP?

You liked the park in 2004? In my opinion during 2000 in 2006 the parks were in a very bad condition and I think they are in a better shape today. Currently there is a lot of refurbishment going on in DLP. Next year the park is going to celebrate its 20th birthday and I think DLP will look very nice.

One warning: The Disney hotels in Paris are not that good like the ones found in the US. The quality of the hotels went downhill, but at the moment Disney is refurbing some of them as well.

[pineapplewhipaddict]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.





















This concludes my photos for this trip report. Thank you so very much for all of your comments!

[TimmyTimmyTimmy]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

Ew! That thing needs a refurb!

[Dagobert]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

I would only refurb the concrete body of the fountain, but not the Cinderella statue itself. These kind of materials look that way after many years.

[PhilippeP]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

The stench in AdventureLand is indeed the result of the lowering of the water level ... (clearly seen in the POTC area picture)
The Cinderrella Statue has recently been refurbished ( last year in fact)...


SM is indeed a rough ride ... but I just came back from WDW and I found their SM even rougher ... and this without any inversion !

[TimmyTimmyTimmy]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

I would only refurb the concrete body of the fountain, but not the Cinderella statue itself. These kind of materials look that way after many years.

Yes of course

---------- Post added 07-07-2011 at 02:09 AM ----------

The stench in AdventureLand is indeed the result of the lowering of the water level ... (clearly seen in the POTC area picture)
The Cinderrella Statue has recently been refurbished ( last year in fact)...


SM is indeed a rough ride ... but I just came back from WDW and I found their SM even rougher ... and this without any inversion !

[SpectroMan]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

Sounds like I was very fortunate to have visited DLP in 1993 before anything went wrong. Space Mountain had not yet opened, so I can't comment. (Malin: Was the original De la Terre version any smoother or was it always the same track layout etc?)
I never smelled anything foul at the Park, then again it was a freezing, wet February.
I remember being spellbound by the highly detailed design everywhere; I'm a bit scared to return now after reading what's happened

[TimmyTimmyTimmy]

[indianajack]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

Living in the Middle East, DLP is the closest park to me, but reading the reviews on Micechat the past few years convinced me to visit TDR as my closest "home" park, which I did in February. Next summer I'll go back to California for July and August for my favorite park DL. I'll never bother visiting DLP unless I'm in Paris for a conference or until they greatly improve the parks. There's a ton of work that would need to be done at DLP before I would consider spending all the money on a visit, when I can fly to Tokyo instead.

[TimmyTimmyTimmy]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

Living in the Middle East, DLP is the closest park to me, but reading the reviews on Micechat the past few years convinced me to visit TDR as my closest "home" park, which I did in February. Next summer I'll go back to California for July and August for my favorite park DL. I'll never bother visiting DLP unless I'm in Paris for a conference or until they greatly improve the parks. There's a ton of work that would need to be done at DLP before I would consider spending all the money on a visit, when I can fly to Tokyo instead.

[iluvHKDL]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

They are replacing Captain Hook's Pirate Ship, as reported on the Disney and More blog, so that will soon be fixed.

Why would you write this: "While I mostly disliked hearing French voices throughout the park for certain characters..." Well, what do you expect in France?

If you make it to Hong Kong Disneyland you'll find that they mostly speak Chinese.

No, in Hong Kong its 50% English 50% Chinese

[DisneyMickey]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

Glad to see all the pictures of the work being done to help turn the park around. To me, it looks like the harsh weather in Paris is so extreme that it makes it hard to keep the park maintained well. However, it seems they don't do enough cosmetic refurbishments on a regular basis to keep the park shining.

DL in CA seems like it does exterior cosmetic refreshments every five years, but in CA I guess the only thing they have to worry about is the sun fading and dulling paint whereas in Paris the intense rain, wind, snow, and drought of sun has worse effects on the detailed buildings. Hopefully they will continue to take better care of this great park.

[Magic Lamp]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

^^ That's about right. The weather over there does a lot of damage but Euro Disney SCA doesn't have the necessary resources to refurb everything in the park on a regular basis so we have to tolerate moments when the park looks rather drab. Fortunately, when they finally get the financial backing they do their very best to keep make the refurb worth it - just look at the new parade route and Fantasyland pavement.

[CASurfer65]

Re: First time at other parks besides Anaheim's...my musings.

A very interesting thread, and one that addresses some of what I proposed in my own thread about the differences between the parks....the goods....the bads....the similarities....the differences. (Oops...not sure how I missed this sizable thread).

I just got back from Paris and thought it was great. I didn't pick up any stenches in the park the day I was there (and to be fair, I've smelled similar aromas in Anaheim at times; so maybe it just happens at times).

I thought the CMs were great and presented very well.... and attractively.

Nothing really stood out to me as being a "What's up with that?" or "Wow...they need to fix that!"

It looked pretty good to me, and I loved the lay out of the park.

I did notice Captain Hook's ship and while it was still largely behind a wall, I saw the chipping and deterioration when we walked around the back of it. Was it allowed to get to that stage of disrepair before they started rehabbing it? Just curious because I figured it just looked like that because they were working on it and must have been sc away at the paint, etc. I can certainly see how guests would find it disconcerting if the ship had been allowed to get to that point.

Other than that though I thought things looked good. (I was just there a week ago.) I thought their queues were super in many respects, and the costumes of the CMs were very detailed in many areas.

As to Space Mountain....it wasn't as smooth as Space in Anaheim, but it also does more with the inversions. It's all over the place in a similar amount of space and time as Anaheim it seems...with much longer trains.

Overall, I really enjoyed seeing Disneyland Paris.