Magne-le-Hongre, France

September 16 & 17

Tuesday was crummy weather again so I stayed in and relaxed.  Wednesday however started off OK and so I went to the Walt Disney Studios.  About an hour into it the weather turned bad again but at least it didn’t rain.

I was a little concerned about the operating hours, 10 – 7 thinking that was a rip off, but I had easily completed everything in about five hours and that’s with a break for a meal.  I had a good time, although the park is quite small, smaller than the version in Florida and I thought that one was small, oh well.  So, here are my observations for you Disney fans.

The park is small.  The Tower of Terror looks very different than in the US, it looks like a new Hotel.  The pre-show is similar but once you’re in the car thingy, it just rolls back a few feet and into the elevator shaft.  The good part was pretty good, several drops and bits of weightlessness, I was satisfied.  The Back Lot tour was pretty lame, just the catastrophe canyon and some other time fillers.  The Motures, Action, Stunt Spectacular was pretty good.  I haven’t seen the version in the US yet so I don’t have anything to compare it with.  It was enjoyable though.

There was a show called Cinemagique with Martin Short where he’s in the audience making a nuisance of himself and gets zapped into the movie.  It was silly but the seats were comfortable and it was an OK way to spend a half hour or so.  Rockin Roller Coaster with Aerosmith was there and was on par with the US version, great.  There was a special effects attraction themed on the movie Armageddon that was pretty lame, it reminded me of a really old and lame attraction at Disney World called Mission to the Moon, later redesigned as Mission to Mars, also lame.

So that was my day at the Studios.  My last six days here in Europe were a bit of a waste, Disneyland park was good, but the other days were wasted.  I wish I had planned better and made some trips into and around Paris, but I just stayed in and relaxed.  Perhaps I needed it though, two months on the road, I am pretty wiped out.

Well, I fly home tomorrow and I have mixed feelings about that.  I’ll post once more after I’m home with my final thoughts which ought to be a real page turner.

---