Disneyland Paris

                                                                  Disneyland Paris

When I recently had the opportunity to visit Disneyland Paris Resort, I jumped at the chance to go after being interested in going to Disney's most controversial resort for years. Disneyland Paris, upon opening, overbuilt their hotels most of which were half-filled. This led to an immense loss of money. It did not help at the time that France was in a recession. Disneyland Paris had little funding for years, so some attractions were done cheaply as was their second park, which is considered Disney's worst park. I was only able to visit for one day, so I did both Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios park in a short period. 
My family started off our day at the Studios park as we wanted to go on Crush's Turtle Coaster and Ratatouille: The Adventure, arguably the resort's most popular attractions. When the park opened, we immediately made our way over to Crush. My family and I were surprised to see many of the other guests sprinting to the attraction. This was something we had never seen at the American parks. Crush's Coaster ended up being one of my favorite rides of the day. It was like The Seas with Nemo and Friends at EPCOT and Laff Track at Hersheypark. It was relatively tame, but offered some thrilling moments. It is definitely a great ride for teens and tweens. I rode Ratatouille after that. It is the resort's newest ride and land. This land transports you into a beautiful recreation of Paris after being in a drab, concrete-filled "studio". I was slightly disappointed in the ride itself after setting high expectations for myself, being that Ratatouille is my favorite Pixar movie. The ride catered more to young kids, so it was more toned down then I wanted it to be. The land also featured a restaurant, Bistro Chez Remy. My family ate here for dinner. It offers a unique atmosphere as your are shrunk down to the size of a rat. The entrees at the restaurant were average, but the highlight of the meal was their specialty side dish, ratatouille. That alone was worth the visit. It is a must do for any Ratatouille or Pixar fan. We also visited Toy Story Land in the park. It was cute, but it only boasted basic carnival rides. We originally also planned on going on Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster, but Rockin' Roller Coaster experienced technical difficulties all day, so we never got to ride it and we never got around to going to Tower of Terror. After this park we went over to Disneyland Park, which is in my opinion the best Disney Park in the world. 
Disney Paris's Magic Kingdom features the best collection of roller coasters in any of their parks, along with easily the best lands of all the parks due to their incredible theming and ride collections. (Main Street U.S.A, Frontierland, Adventureland, Fantasyland, and Discoveryland.) Their castle, more fairy tale like then the others featured a dragon in the castle dungeons, which the other parks lack, putting this over the edge to be the best Disney castle. Also some of their rides are better then other versions notably, Space Mountain, currently called Hyperspace Mountain due to a Star Wars overlay, is the most intense Disney coaster in the world and one of the most enjoyable roller coasters in any theme park due to its theming and intensity. It might be to much for a tween, but a teen would certainly love it. Their Big Thunder Mountain is also better then its American counterparts as it is longer and faster due to its location in the middle of the Rivers of America. Most of the rides in this park are not unique per say, but they offer unique takes on classic attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion (called Phantom Manor in France.) Phantom Manor story is different compared to the U.S. parks. This one resembles Great Expectations as it is about a bride whose groom disappeared on their wedding day and begins to be terrorized by a phantom. I think it is superior then the other versions. My only complaint is that it broke down for long periods frequently. Pirates of the Caribbean is also different as its story is backwards compared to Disneyland's in California. They recently updated the ride to include characters from the film series. The highlight being Barbossa at the end of the ride who turns into a skeleton. While some moments are great, the town scenes are shortened compared to Disneyland's. This ride is significantly better from Disney World's disappointing version it cannot beat Disneyland's. Most of the other rides are similar to Disneyland's, the only exception being the ending to Snow White's Scary Adventure which features Snow White and the Prince waving you goodbye. I only mention this as the prince in the ride bears a strong resemblance to David Hasselhoff, mostly due to the wig which is almost exactly like his hair. This park is definitely my favorite out of all the Disney parks I've been too (8 to be exact) as it has the best overall lands, castle, Haunted Mansion, and roller coasters. While this park is excellent. It's sister park is not. While it features a few good attractions, it's overall roster and overall ugliness, the park being mostly concrete, makes it one of their worst only above Hollywood Studios which I strongly dislike. There is a lot of room for improvement there. But, overall the experience was fun. My only other complaints being the frequent ride breakdowns and many guests trying to cut the line forcefully. This is the perfect resort for teens and tweens as it features many thrilling rides while still having fun classics like Pirates of the Caribbean. My overall rating is 4 stars out of 5.