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Magic Meets Adventure is where Disney meets Universal! This is your one stop shop for all things Disney and Universal Theme Parks. As park enthusiasts, Tim and Ayren share their ideas, rankings, travel tips, history, and more to help create an everyday escape into the incredible worlds of magic and adventure!
Episode 5 - Ayren Trip Recap
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Ayre: [00:00:00] Welcome, soar into tower. We are ready for takeoff. I enjoyed this interview a lot more. If I had got a cup of coffee, please stand clear of the doors. Looks like you've lost power. There's the wildest ride in the wilderness
wall comes this happy place. Welcome.
Time: Welcome everybody. Back to episode number five of the Magic Meets Adventure Show. I'm Tim and I bring the magic.
Ayre: And I'm Aaron and I bring the
Time: adventure and we have another exciting trip recap for you guys today, go back and check the last one. As we talked a little bit about my journey down to Walt Disney world, once again, for the 50 billionth time, but we have a overseas adventure for this one because Aaron and his lovely wife got the chance to visit the most romantical, most majestic, most.
Exquisite theme park. Um, all of those adjectives are true. Exactly. Uh [00:01:00] that disney has and that is disneyland Paris. Yeah,
Ayre: it was man. This was a really really fun trip. We didn't go for Disneyland We were just kind of doing a two week European trip. So we spent some time in Paris. We spent some time in Italy but Very early in our planning like almost as soon as we nailed down that we were going to Paris we realized Well, we can't get that close to an international park and not go.
So, uh, yeah, it was a decision that we made, decided to tack it onto the tail end of our parish portion of the trip, parish, Paris portion of the trip. And, uh, it was a great decision.
Time: Yeah, it seems like it. I mean, that's a park. I think a lot of us, um. Have wanted to visit. Uh, when I say us, I mean me. Uh, me has wanted to visit.
That's proper English, it's great. But that being said, there's a lot that I think a lot of us don't know about this park. I mean, we know Disneyland, we know Walt Disney World. And so, from your [00:02:00] experience as someone who's gone to both, how would you Kind of compare this park or this resort rather to those two Yeah, I would
Ayre: definitely compare the resort more so to Disneyland and that's primarily just because of the size Yeah, it doesn't necessarily feel it's it definitely doesn't feel like a bubble when you're there.
I'll talk about that a little bit In just a few minutes here. But yeah, it was cool. Um, In a lot of ways, it felt like any other sort of, uh, almost local park that you'd go to. Um, like it, you know, in some ways it almost, and I don't mean this necessarily as a bad thing. I mean, if you know the history of this park, then you know that they've had their fair shares of ups and downs, but.
Um, I think that it was, uh, it felt like someone else's attempt at making a Disney park. That's probably the best description that I could give of it. It's still great. Um, like, there's these moments that [00:03:00] are just kind of like These moments when you feel out of place, you're like, what's happened. I actually remember you, uh, in a video on your YouTube channel, you talked about when you went to Disneyland for the first time and you're like, this is weird.
Cause I know I'm in a new place, but it still feels kind of familiar. Like that much is very much true. Um, or that part is very much true. Like for example, Walking down Main Street in Disneyland Paris. Like, you feel like you're on Main Street, right? But, uh, I guess I'll just go ahead and get into it now.
There's just certain things that are distinct differences. So for example, Europeans, everywhere, they smoke like crazy. Like, they have cigarettes everywhere you go. And so That I didn't know. The idea of having, like, Disneyland Paris trying to be European and not trying to like eliminate their culture and all that other stuff.
They allow parkings and they're smoking in their park. So being in the magic kingdom and like waiting in line and getting a huge face of cigarette smoke is like, Oh, okay, this is different. Like it's, it is what it is, but it, yeah. So that was, that was pretty jarring. Yeah,
Time: that's definitely interesting. [00:04:00] I mean, especially because the last couple years they've like scaled back from like smoking sections within the park.
Yeah. To only outside the park to now it's like almost gone essentially. So that's, I didn't even know that. Yeah. I mean, I've watched a few videos here and there, uh, from, you know, YouTubers like Justin Scarred and a few of those on their, their Disneyland Paris trips. There's a lot
Ayre: there. There is yeah, there is I think the thing that I really appreciated about it and that I liked was that I didn't feel Stressed to try to hit everything.
So that's cool. Again. This was like in the middle of a two week vacation, right? So by the time like you think about it, we've been in paris for a week And then we go to Disneyland Paris, which by the way is not in Paris I don't know if people listening know that or not But you have to take a train about an hour and a half two hours outside of Paris in order to get to where Disneyland Paris is And then even that's okay.
I'm sorry I'm [00:05:00] kind of thinking about this and going through it as I'm like reimagining the trip But like you get to the the end of the line for the train is Disneyland Paris So that's cool. You walk out And like to your right is the park's entrance to the left is where you go and wait for your shuttle to take you to your resort.
Um, but the weird thing is, is like that part is all public property. So again, with the thing of like, this is kind of jarring takes you out of it. So, like, for example, when we were in Paris proper and we went to the Louvre. Huge tourist attraction so outside of the Louvre There are people with like these like Eiffel Tower replicas and like these roses and seven They're like trying to sell stuff to you on the street Well, yeah, as soon as you get off of the train and walk out of the train station like you're like, oh cool I'm at Disney and the next thing you know, there's like panhandlers.
They're trying to like sell you Copies of the Eiffel Tower or because to them it's just another tourist attraction in Paris Um, and because it's a public train station Disney doesn't have the same type [00:06:00] of like domain to be able to be like, hey, you can't be here or whatever. So Super super fascinating.
Um, what was your original question? I'm so sorry. No,
Time: you're good like Uh, kind of to tack on to that, like, is your, the best way to describe it, cause I think I kind of understand what that is, is like for those who have been to Disneyland, when you step outside the entrance, right, and past all the security and all that stuff, like those people that, at the end of the night, that sell like all the light stuff?
Pretty much, yeah. Is that kind of how it is?
Ayre: It's pretty similar to that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Time: Cause I think that would kind of give a picture for some of those who have been to Disneyland, cause that's, that's pretty Pretty
Ayre: unique, right? Yeah, it's comparable.
Time: I would say so you mentioned resorts, right? Which is I mean each park has at least a resort Where did you
Ayre: guys stay so okay?
It's interesting that you say that so the way that it's set up is the Disneyland Hotel in Paris is like the entrance to Disneyland Paris, which I find super cool. It is really [00:07:00] cool I'm really bummed that it was still in the middle of their refurb But they just started showing video and pictures of what the inside of it looks like it's beautiful insane But yeah, so really So when you you get off the train or you leave the train station you go to your left And there's the bus that takes you to or you can walk through Uh, I actually forgot the name of it, but it's like their version of downtown disney There's like this little small strip that you can walk through that takes you back to Uh the resorts and they're all like you can see All of the resorts from one of the resorts if that makes sense like they're all pretty close to each other.
Well, that's Yeah, they're all walking distance. So like we did some resort hopping. We didn't do a ton because again, we were just tired but Um, we did some resort hopping and it's all just like by walking. Um, like you can get from one to the other Uh, we stayed at the Newport bay Um, was the name of the, the resort that we chose, uh, which is kind of comparable to like the beach club here, but it's, if the, my [00:08:00] opinion, it felt as if the beach club was a value resort.
Huh? Yeah. So kind of an overlap of those two where you're like, okay, like the lobby was really nice and the lobby reminded me a lot of beach club. Once you get to your room, it feels similar to kind of a value resort. Okay. Um, which to be fair, I think it was. I think it was considered a moderate there, but it was like ridiculously cheaper than booking a moderate here in the States.
Yeah, really? Yeah, it was, it was way cheaper. Another thing that's probably good if you are planning a trip to Disneyland Paris to know is, if you buy a night at a Disneyland resort, that includes your park ticket.
So any day that you're checked into your hotel, it can even be the day that you check out, you automatically have a ticket included. So we showed up the morning of, uh, let's say we got there on a Thursday morning. , our room wasn't ready yet, but we were able to go straight to the parks as soon as we got there.
On the last day. [00:09:00] Um, so like our Sunday when we left, , there was a piece of merch that I wanted to get. It was the Avenger Spirit Jersey that I have. Yeah, I wanted that but they only sold it in Disney studios park so the good news was Like if that would have been the case here or like let's say at walt disney world Because I didn't have a park ticket.
I couldn't go in and go to that store, but because my resort days overlapped with that last day Like even though we were checking out I was able to check out of the hotel and then go walk into the park Grab that piece of merch that I wanted and then leave again. So that was really cool. Um, I do I think also because I feel like for anyone who's traveling internationally to this park I do feel like it's best served if you tack it on with a trip to Paris proper Yeah, it's personal recommendation.
And so I think that this whole I think even Disney thinks that way I think that's the reason why they decided to include your park ticket with the Resort reservation.
Time: Yeah, I mean to be fair that I think that makes a [00:10:00] ton of sense
Ayre: Yeah, so and it makes planning I mean super simple honestly, um, and they do a lot of the same stuff They'll hold on to your bags for you while you're in the park, you know, either before or after checkout And stuff like that.
So yeah, I mean on that part it was it was really convenient and that was something that I really enjoyed Yeah,
Time: that's super cool. So for those who've never been there are two parks, right? You have disneyland paris itself and then you have walt disney studios Yeah, for those who've never been or don't really know like comparisons
Ayre: yeah. So, uh, as you mentioned, there's two parks and, uh, Disneyland Paris is, I mean it's Disneyland, right? That's, that's what they're shooting for. There's a main street, there's a castle. Uh, their castle is really cool. Uh, one of the things that I like a lot about the castles that you can actually walk through it.
Um, so, you know, you go underneath the castle, they have the dragon that's down there, which is really cool. Uh, it felt a little smaller in person. The dragon. Really? Yeah. Then like in the videos, it looks huge. Um, it's still [00:11:00] big. Don't get me wrong, but I think it was okay. Another thing, the cave that it's in, it's like pitch black.
So your eyes trying to adjust, like it took me a minute to realize it wasn't until the dragon started moving that I realized it was like right next to me. It actually kind of freaked me out a little bit because my eyes were having such a hard time trying to adjust in there. , but then you leave out or you, you can take a staircase.
Up from the dungeon and then you go into the castle And it's really cool because there's a lot of different shops in there that sell like disney merch Uh, but then you can go up to like the second level and there are stained glass windows telling the story of sleeping beauty
that's really cool. Uh, you can take a much slower pace at this park than you can in most other places.
So there was one point where we just found this little balcony, on the back of the castle that overlooked, fantasy land. And you could just, I mean, we sat there and just people watched for a few minutes and didn't feel rushed or anything, which was really
Time: cool. Yeah. That's super cool. Yeah. So speaking of castles, let's let's kind of go over to that.
Mm hmm [00:12:00] now that you've seen three Yeah, which
Ayre: is your favorite? Uh still walt disney world. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Um Yeah, that one's still still my favorite by far. Uh, disneyland paris might be number two personally, Nothing against disneyland. I do I disneyland's castle besides it being smaller um Man, if there was anything that would give Disneyland Paris an edge, it is the fact that you can walk through it.
Like, I think that's awesome.
Time: Yeah, do you guys get a chance to see the nighttime spectacular that's there? I think it's called illuminations. I could
Ayre: be wrong. Uh, yes, we did actually. We watched it twice. Yeah, we saw it twice. think? It was solid. It was really good. Not quite happily ever after.
I would say better than Enchant Enchantment, personally. Yeah. Yeah, I liked it a lot. It still has a lot of that nostalgia factor. I feel that, , happily ever after has, , but we did like it enough that we went back to watch it a second time. Yeah. So we saw it the first [00:13:00] day we went, we were in, , Disneyland Paris the entire day, watched it to in the night and then on our studios park day, uh, we went back over to Disneyland to watch it again that night and we're really glad we did. Yeah. Yeah.
Time: Yeah, that's awesome. So, obviously, with Disneyland Paris being a very similar park to the rest of them, you have your Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, but even those are different.
Ayre: Yes. Like Oh yeah, dude, they're very different. Um, they're very different and I can appreciate the differences. Uh But yeah, very different. So, Okay, a couple of different things. So, first of all, their Tomorrowland, all kind of themed to the Jules Verne sort of steampunk sort of style of things. It was good, but it had a bit of an identity crisis.
Uh oh. Space Mountain, for example, okay? Space Mountain, uh,[00:14:00]
man. Okay, I'm trying to figure out the best way to describe this. It's still Space Mountain. Okay, but it's got like this steampunk overlay, like just the way the show building is built. And then it's hyperspace mountain inside of the ride. So you're like, Oh, cool, we're going to space mountain. And then you're like, Oh, cool.
There's all this like steampunk decor. And then you go in and you're like, there's a TIE fighter. And so you're like, I don't really know what I just experienced. Like, it just felt like an amalgamation of all these different things. Uh, the ride itself was really good. Um, there's some corkscrews in there.
There, it feels pretty similar to like a rock and rollercoaster here. I would say, um, probably not as intense as rock and rollercoaster. Like it's still pretty mild. Um, but yeah, it was fun, but it was, it was really different. And so that same idea, uh, that kind of identity crisis kind of. Carries itself through that land Because you still like then you get off of that and then [00:15:00] there's like the Nautilus which you can walk through which by the way I'm gonna go ahead and say it now the walkthrough attractions.
Not my jam. Not they are not my jam. Womp womp womp indeed Yeah, dude. Okay. So there's the Nautilus which is a walkthrough and then in fantasy land. There's The like the Alice in Wonderland like hedge maze thing, dude Put me on the people mover. Like, dude, the hedge maze.
Time: You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen.
The
Ayre: hedge maze was the most infuriating thing I've ever done in my life. It's just five minutes, it never ends, and there's like nothing in it. It's just, hey, you want to look at the side of a bush? Cool. But yeah, anyway, the Nautilus was more interesting. But it was smaller than I anticipated. Um, it's a pretty quick thing.
Like you just kind of walk in real quick, see what it's got. And then you, you peace out. But anyway, the reason why I brought this up is so you leave space mountain, uh, you go ahead and you could do your walk through the Nautilus and then it's like, Oh, [00:16:00] all this steampunk stuff where there's an Autopia right there.
And it's like. It's just kind of jarring. You know, it doesn't feel super cohesive. Um, I wish they would have gone like hardcore into the steampunk thing. Like, just kind of leave it that way. I love hyperspace mountain. I think this one actually would have done better if it had like a normal layout is like a normal, um, space mountain.
Time: Yeah, even has a different story than the two ones that we have in the
Ayre: States. Yeah But it is cool. Like especially at night. It's beautiful. It's really cool. First ride We went on when we got there was I have to look up the name Uh, Buzz Lightyear, Laser Blast, they all have different names, so I never know which one is which, uh, but yeah, Buzz Lightyear, Laser Blast, that was a ton of fun, very, very comparable to the ones here, um, they're basically exact carbon copies, uh, disorienting to see Buzz Lightyear speaking French, that was, yeah, that was a little, uh, that was interesting, it was just funny.
You don't sound like Tim Allen, what are we doing here? Yeah, um, [00:17:00] yeah, I mean, we're kind of popcorn and all over the place, but, I'll go ahead and hit on that too. So obviously the next thing I would say that's going to catch your attention first is The use of french throughout the parks Which I love, um, and I actually think they did it really well.
So most rides are a combination of french and english. A lot of them, if there are multiple characters, for example, have, , they'll do both where like, for example, me and you having a dialogue right now, like imagine I'm speaking English, but you're speaking French. That's kind of the way that they pull a lot of those off in the way that the scripts are written for the rides there.
Uh, it makes it really easy to follow along. If you know one of the two languages, because they contextualize. And, um, so for example, if you were to ask me, how was your time at Disneyland Paris, but let's say you asked that in French, I would probably answer in English, Oh, my time in Disneyland Paris was great.
And so like if you're listening on the outside you understand enough of the context to kind of piece those together [00:18:00] That's great. Yeah, but there's just certain characters that it feels weird for like Jack Sparrow, for example, who he speak in French You're like, okay, this is this is interesting But I think they did a really good a really good job of balancing some of those attributes out.
I will say. While we're still on on Disneyland Paris, and I'll go ahead and get into parks, you know, or the studios here in a little bit, but
Most rides I know I said that Space Mountain kind of has an identity crisis But most rides that are over there and over here, especially the classics in Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris I think I like their version more Yeah, for most of them, like I said, space mountain jury's still out. Like I went back and wrote space mountain again.
Cause I'm like, I don't know what to think about you yet. I was having a little bit of a tough time, but their big thunder mountain is goaded dude. That's what I've heard. It's so good. It's really long. Like it almost feels [00:19:00] twice as long. It's really dark. There's some spots where you go.
under the river, which is really, really cool. And it's, I mean, I think it's more intense too. It just feels a little bit faster, a little bit whippier. , and then Phantom Manor, dude, I love Phantom Manor. Be sure to keep an eye out on their Instagram account. I have the best photo we took from our two weeks in Europe came from Phantom Manor when my wife knocked on the door, and was greeted by a cast member.
It was hilarious. But yeah, they're, pirates. I think I prefer their, I definitely prefer their pirates over Disney world, but that's because it's very similar to Disneyland's. , but even like just the layout and everything of it, I, I don't know. I liked it a lot. Yeah, so it was really cool Um, I think the last probably big thing of note is this park does not get as busy as the u.
s parks do our longest wait was for big thunder mountain 40 minutes. Yeah I'm, sorry. What that was the longest wait time we had for anything was 40 minutes for big thunder mountain I think it was posted at like 50 that's 55 and yeah, we got through the line at [00:20:00] 40 Um, but I mean there was literally I mean i'm trying to think buzz light year.
We I mean, we got off and got right back on, , Phantom Manor. I think we did the same thing. Yeah, it's just, they, the crowds aren't there. They're there during the day. Like they'll come out at night. The park is virtually empty. Like you can do as much as you want to in the parks at night. And, and that's a lot of fun.
Time: Yeah, that's pretty cool. One thing I will say is this, that I really. Like and find very interesting is whether it's haunted mansion or phantom manor or just the haunted house themed attractions at disney They're all in a different Land. Mm hmm Which is
Ayre: kind of crazy. Yeah, I think if it's really well like the whole Thunder Mesa vibe in This is the way that it's kind of tied in with Big Thunder Mountain.
I think it fits in really really well That's cool. Yeah with their frontier land. So that's really cool Probably my least favorite attraction in this park was Okay, I'm not gonna count the ones like the storybook boats like that was [00:21:00] Also dumb. It would have fallen into that bad walkthrough category if it was a walkthrough, but you're on a boat instead But it's just as bad The Indiana Jones coaster.
Oh would never do it again. I just felt like someone tried to break my back the entire time I was on it. It's not a comfortable ride at all. It might be I've done a lot of coasters It's probably the most uncomfortable coaster ever been on. I've been on somewhere I'm like, hey that hurt but I would do it again this one.
Nah Did it once glad I did it Um, and it's just short, like it's only, I think, a little over a minute long. So it's just not worth the chiropractor bills.
Time: Yeah, noted.
Ayre: Yeah, but I mean, if you go check it out, I mean, it's worth, uh, you should do it to say you did it. But you probably won't want to do it again.
I'll just put it that way. If you have
Time: a bad back, would highly not recommend.
Ayre: Yeah, highly wouldn't recommend.
Time: Got it. Do [00:22:00] you guys eat anywhere special or try anything new? Uh oh. Tim.
Ayre: Tim.
Time: Should we get into this rant now or should we hold this off?
Ayre: Disneyland Paris had the worst food I've ever had in my life ever.
period. It was so bad. Um, and at first, like if we would have just gone to Disneyland Paris, I'd have been like, okay, this is just a Parisian thing. We ate so much good food in Paris that I realized, Oh no, this is a Disney problem. And it's really bad. Uh, the good thing is, is that it's all really cheap. Um, the one thing that we had that we did really like was they had this deal where you could get a Nutella crepe and a coffee for like four bucks or four euros.
That's crazy. So we mowed through those bad boys. Well, once we realized that was the only decent thing to eat there, we, it was like the only thing we ate. Uh, but man, I went to Casey's Corner while I was there. [00:23:00] Garbage. Like, just bad. And I'm like, dude, how do you mess up a hot dog? Uh, they had these stuffed Mickey beignets.
Garbage just so bad. Um, and I know like I've mentioned a lot of quick service stuff, but we went to some table service restaurants as well. And so, um, hold on, I'm going to look this up really quick. It's called Disney Village and so it's kind of this, uh, imagine if Disney Springs was the, uh, It was like CityWalk, Universal CityWalk. Like, it's all kinda right outside of the park. Uh, it's small, like small walkway. You gotta go through it to get back to your resort. But yeah, so it's just kind of a small shopping district.
They have the World of Disney there and everything. The reason why I bring this up is because that's where a lot of the restaurants are. A lot of your like sit down restaurants and stuff that are outside of the park. Gotcha. Um, I'm gonna give you quick like rapid fire. Here's Aaron's tips to food. Go for it.
First, don't eat the food. Uh, not really. Sorry, okay. Most of the food on property is really bad. I know I've already said that. At first I thought it was [00:24:00] just like quick service stuff like okay Just don't eat cheap and then you'll do better, but that's not necessarily the case. We went to the marvel hotel Uh, which by the way, super dope.
Yeah, uh, it is there. I believe it's their only deluxe resort that they have um It is beautiful. Like we, we spent some time walk through it. I mean, it's all original artwork from Marvel artists, artists throughout it. Um, every little detail of that place has Marvel in it. There's a little, um, display case that has like different Iron Man suits in it.
That's like really, really cool. Um, but they have the, Uh, it's like the New York City bar or something like that in there. And that's their like restaurant that's inside of the place. So we went there and we're like, let's grab drinks and let's grab some food from here. And, uh, dude, I got this like Aaron Cheney, which like you're in Paris, it should be bomb.
And we got some wings and I'm in like wings. We ordered wings because at this point we had already been disappointed so much by the food that we're like, this feels like [00:25:00] a safe bet. No, dude, like it was all just so I'm like, how do you mess up wings? Did it just taste bad? It was really bad. Yeah. I don't, I don't know what it was, but like we almost didn't finish like our food.
Like it was, it was that bad. The drinks were good. If you're going to go there, I highly recommend, I mean, the bar is really cool. It's worth going to check out, uh, go spend your time there. But yeah, so it's, it's not just those, but it's also the, the. The resort restaurants at least the ones we went to that weren't that good Disney village has solid options.
So there is an earl of sandwich there , if you go to walt disney world, I think they have one at disneyland too. They do now they do now. Okay Yeah, so if you're familiar with earl of sandwich, uh, I mean it's solid it's really really good and I have to go every time Uh, this was actually my first time going.
I had never been to one in the States, but I went to the one in Disneyland, Paris, it was really, really good. And then there was a steakhouse that we went to.
It's just called the steakhouse. [00:26:00] Yeah. So there's a steakhouse that we went to. It's just called the steakhouse. That's the name of it. Uh, we were able to get dining reservations for it So we went and checked it out As far as the full meal that we had this was the best full meal that we had Like as far as like sit down restaurants and stuff.
I ordered the steak my wife ordered the ribs The ribs were great. Like if you need a meal highly recommend it get the ribs
Time: just eating that
Ayre: all day Got it. Honestly, like it wouldn't be a bad choice, but the The steak while the flavor was good. It was just a really fatty piece of meat. But yeah, so I would say pack your own snacks a Food was not great. I was a little disappointed by that, but it wasn't enough to sour the trip Like it was still a great trip. We loved the parks. It was cool kind of exploring all these different aspects of things But yeah,
Time: so there's one elephant in the room.
We've not talked about which is the other park. Mm hmm Which is to some, I'm not saying this because [00:27:00] it's my opinion, I'm just saying some, is arguably the worst park that Disney has. Your thoughts?
Ayre: Okay, it may be the worst park that Disney has, but it's not a bad park. Okay. I will say that. Um, it's really small.
It's tiny. It takes, you know, I mean, probably three or four hours, like calling it a half day. Park might be generous. It's really small. Um, but it was a lot of fun. Like, I really, really enjoyed it, especially the attractions that were there. Oh, oh my gosh. Yeah, I just remember something.
So we went in. And the first ride, the ride that we rope dropped in that park was the Crush Coaster because that's the one that typically gets the largest, the longest waits us rope dropping it. I think we waited about 35 40 minutes to do it. A shockingly thrilling ride. Yeah. Yeah. Like we overheard a lot of people saying like, Hey, just so you know, this isn't like really a kiddie coaster, which is kind of the perspective that you get [00:28:00] from it.
But you have to remember this ride was like the precursor to Cosmic Rewind. And it goes from mild to wild really quick. But it was a lot of fun. I liked it. Um, we debated whether or not we were going to ride it again. We opted not to. and I think that was mostly because of the weight. Which again, wasn't that bad.
That one, the weight did creep up a little bit on it. It just has a really low ride capacity. but it was one of those rides too, that like when we got done, we were like, okay, cool, yeah, we did it. That's that's fine. Um, I think if it would have dropped down to maybe 20 30 minutes we probably would have done it again, but Um, it was a lot of fun.
It was uh, it was surprising We were not expecting to like we walked in pretty tired Hopped on that and when we got off we're like, all right, let's do it The day's here , so we went from Crush's Coaster over to, I think the next one that we did was, uh, Web Slingers. Um, I really enjoyed that ride. I know you got to do it when you went to Disneyland.
Dude, you think, Midway Mania breaks your arms. Dude, oh my gosh. I was in so much pain when I [00:29:00] got off of this ride. But it was so worth it. Like, I wanted to do it again and again. I won for our cars, which probably helped and went a long way. But if you haven't, if you haven't had a chance to do that ride yet, , dude, the, the technology is just wild.
Like very impressive. I'm shocked at how well it worked. Yeah. I will say this ride felt very universal to me. Um, I think the queue, um, it feels like if, if. If Universal tried to make Midway Mania, that's what it felt like.
Um, That actually makes sense. But the ride technology is super, super cool. Your arms will be sore when you get off, but it's worth it, man. It's a lot of fun. It's really, really impressive. I know some people were like a little underwhelmed by it when it came out. Um, dude, it is what it is. It's a, it's a, like, interactive, uh, screen based attraction, but it's Fun for the whole family.
Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of fun. Tom Holland speaking French, that one really threw me off.
Time: He actually was speaking French? No, it was, well, [00:30:00]
Ayre: that's the thing that was weird. It was like it was a dub over, but then they had like, subtitles. This is the first ride, this is the only ride we went on where it was all in French, and they were like, English subtitles.
Which was interesting.
Time: Well, that makes sense given that it's using primarily screens. Yeah. That's different.
Ayre: Mhmm. Oh, then we went to, yeah. So at this point we're in avengers campus. We did, um, Oh gosh, I can't remember the name of the coaster, but it's basically, what was it?
Flight force. I think flight force. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Avengers flight force, uh, which was cool. It was interesting. It was interesting to see what could happen with a rock and rollercoaster overlay, um, with them needing to change that out soon. My biggest issue with this ride was the head restraints were really uncomfortable.
Uh, so my neck hurt really bad coming off of it. Um, and so. My wife didn't want to do it again because it hurt her neck, but before we left, I was like, Hey, let me go try that one more time. Because genuinely what I thought was like, Oh, it was just the way I was sitting. Like, [00:31:00] let's say, for example, I had my head forward.
I was like, well, maybe if I put my head back, it'll be better. I did it and I was still like just in some pain when I came off, but it was really cool. The projections were really cool. , I think they did a decent job of like integrating the Avengers stuff in there.
So, yeah, I was a fan. I like the ride. I was uncomfortable, but I like the ride itself. Um, I actually think it had a lot of promise in, I mean, I think it'd be an easy fix when the time comes here. I'd like to see them do a little bit more with it, but, um, yeah, yeah.
Time: What do you think of avengers campus because that's the first time you've experienced yeah avengers campus.
Yeah Uh,
Ayre: it was small. Um, I think Because I had heard from like all of my friends in california kind of how underwhelmed they were by the one there I had pretty low expectations Um, but I thought it was cool. I mean it gives you it gives you everything you need. I mean it had the pimp test kitchen there Uh spider man was there they don't have the animatronic Uh, the what is a stunt stunt animatronic thing, but there was a like a live actor kind of, you know Jumping [00:32:00] across the buildings and stuff.
Yeah, I mean it was cool if it felt empty Um, it feels like if they ever decide to expand on it, it'll be it could be it has a lot of potential But yeah, it was it was cool. It was a nice little touch I mean, here's the thing the park has so little right now that to knock any of it feels slightly unfair to me and like I said, it just There's something about this park that doesn't feel like it feels like someone's attempt to do Disney. And so for that, it's okay.
Time: So I know there was a tower of terror. Is that still tower of terror or did it transfer over to
Ayre: mission? No, it is still tower of terror. And in my opinion, it is the best tower of terror In the world. I haven't done all of them, but, but it is solid dude. So first of all, I'm not going to give any spoilers for anybody.
If you want to go and try to look them out, you can. And the reason why is because there was something in the ride that, uh, I didn't know about that caught me off guard. that I love. If you want me to tell you about it off camera, I
Time: will. I don't want to cause there's still a [00:33:00] chance I may go. Okay. Uh,
Ayre: but for then, but I will say this, it is a slightly different ride system than what we have here in the States.
Slightly different. Um, meaning that the ride layout is different. Um, yeah, yeah. I'll just say that, uh, as far as the story goes. 10 out of 10 dude, it's so good Uh, so it's it's pretty comparable to what we have a tower of terror in walt disney world however The difference is is that now the little girl who you see standing with the doll in the you know with the the Shot when everybody disappears.
Yeah Yeah, so here she's like trying to bring you with her so in between floors She's like follow me and like all these like really creepy like her projections keep coming up. It was spooky I'm not gonna lie. It was actually pretty creepy, but that extra creep factor like was super dope I ain't
Time: going to bed after
Ayre: that Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah It was This was [00:34:00] the one ride I wanted to ride again that I didn't have a chance to get on again and I was Like really sad dang that day.
Then I went back in to try to go grab my uh, Spirit jersey. I was like, oh man I wonder if I can slip on there real quick and I just couldn't we had to catch our train so we didn't have time but um, dude 10 out of 10 highly recommend especially like if you enjoy Slightly creepier stuff like this is not I mean, it's not Halloween horror nights, right?
It's still Disney. Um, so yeah, you're not going to have nightmares, but it's just creepy enough that you're like, man, this is that extra little thing that. I wish Walt Disney World had,
Time: yeah, that's pretty cool. Is there anything else at that park that kind of either stood out to you or something that you're like, I hope this kind of kind of changes a little bit.
Cause I know there's the cars area towards the back and then there's also the toy story play place. Yeah.
Ayre: So toy story was really cool. Uh, they have more attractions than ours does, but it's way smaller. Like everything is pretty on top of itself. Uh, RC [00:35:00] racer, surprisingly thrilling. Super, super short ride, but surprisingly thrilling.
Um, just me being the Toy Story fan that I am. It was, it made my heart so happy. Like to be able to ride in RC is like insane to me. Um, yeah, the cars thing is basically the back lot tour. It just got an overlay of cars, um, which is pretty interesting. I'm going to say this, this isn't a spoiler, but I mean, it can be, but it's not one that I think is significant enough, but there's a spot.
If you remember, like the old backlot tour where like the truck would set on fire and then like the water would come and put it out, I remember that. Yeah, so that scene still exists, but now it's with cars characters. So the truck that set on fire is like. A living creature and then his back half just like burst in the flames and he's like, Oh no, what are we going to do?
I'm like, yo, this is a little morbid, like the fact that [00:36:00] he's supposed to be like a real living, breathing thing. I'm just like, this is a little dark, but, um, it was still really, really cool. I actually didn't know that that was going to happen. Um, and so I enjoyed it because I did the backlight tour way back in the day.
I just don't remember anything about it. Um, yeah. All that stuff was really cool. Uh, they've got Arendelle and they have, um, galaxy's edge coming soon. This park will benefit greatly from both of those things. Yeah. Like I said, it's just such a, I mean, honestly, even once they add those two, it might bump it up to a half day park.
, but I think it's going to infuse a lot into it. The crown jewel of Walt Disney studios park is A stage show called Mickey and the Magician. Dude. This show was fantastic. It was so good. It's another one of those cases where Disney, where Disney, where Mickey, he interacts with a bunch of[00:37:00] Different characters from throughout the disneyverse.
It's almost kind of kind of similar to like a phantasmic sort of just more of a smaller scale stage show, but dude, it's just it's all the nostalgia all the feels. It was interesting because in this the one character who speaks French all the time is Mickey. Um, but dude, it's so cute. And just the way that it's done, it's just done really, really well.
Uh, the crowd, there was a, there was dude. Okay. My wife, she sobbed like a baby. Um, first of all, like when Mickey ends the show, he goes, mercy, boo, cool. Like just thanks everybody. And like, dude, she, Bald like a baby. She's like, I don't know what it is She's like mickey speaking french and saying thank you like just made me super emotional.
But what got to me was um, man, there was a young lady who was sitting in the front row who uh was impacted by special needs and she Like the show was for her. She was in the front row She's like woohoo and like cheering Mickey on the whole [00:38:00] time like clapping and like it's it's one of those shows like it's an indoor Show so like obviously they tell everybody Hey like don't use flash photography and try to keep your noise down to a minimum and all this other stuff and Dude, the entire theater I felt just had their eyes on this girl and just like how in it she was and like when the show ended she stood up and gave the standing ovation and it was just like I don't know.
It was the most magical part of it for me. I would say, yeah, I would say studios park doesn't feel as magical as a typical Disney park, but, um, Mickey and the magician was. Like honestly if they brought it to parks over here, I would yeah, it'd be a huge win Because it's it's not just the best show. We went to over there, but it's probably the best show We've been to general for me.
Yeah, it's up there. It's up there. Probably my number three behind Yeah behind phantasmic and happily ever after I would go I would go with Mickey and the magician yeah,
Time: so if you had to pick a favorite ride [00:39:00] or I mean, obviously, I'm sure that would be Vicki and the Magician would be your thing for studios.
For the attraction, yeah. Or just in general, like your favorite ride or show or at each park, what would you, what would you go
Ayre: with? Uh, so for Studios Park, I actually think I actually think I would go with, uh, Tower of Terror. That would be my, that would be my number one. Like, that's the one where I'm like, I don't know when or if I'm ever going to get back to Disneyland Paris, but I gotta find a way to get back on that Tower of Terror.
Uh, for Disneyland, I think, I think the most memorable for me was Phantom Manor. It was just really well done. Um, yeah, I, I dug that one a lot. It was really cool. Um,
Time: yeah. Yeah. So last question before we kind of wrap up. Yeah. When thinking of, so now you've visited eight Disney parks, right? And first episode as our introduction, we kind of gave our ranking of those as well as the, uh, two universal parks we've been to.
Where [00:40:00] does Walt Disney Studios and Disneyland Paris fit? You can go either the entire park list or you can go just the Disney list. Uh, yeah. Kind of up to you. Where do they where do they kind of fit into your your ranking here?
Ayre: I gotta be honest man, and this is gonna sound bad But I mean they're gonna be towards the back of the list for me But they had their moments.
Mm hmm Let me put it this way even though there wasn't a ton to do. So both of our park days we ended up going back because again, this is mid vacation. We went back to our hotel and took like three, four hour naps. Um, and still had like plenty of time to do everything. Okay. So these parks are pretty small.
Um, but when I asked my wife, we came back And, uh, so the way our trip worked out, we ended up having, uh, four days in Florence, which like of everywhere we went for Florence personally, wasn't our favorite. It was great, but we were like, yeah, we probably like, [00:41:00] we, we booked that fourth day because we thought there'd be a ton of do there and there is, but we were just, yeah, whatever.
And so I asked her, I was like, Hey, if you could take that day, that fourth day in Florence,
it anywhere else. Where, where would you put it? And she's like, I would have given us another Disney day. Um, yeah, there's just something about the park that even though it's small, even though there's not a ton there, even though it's not as magical as some of our U. S. parks, there's something about it where you're like, I just want to hang around.
Like, I just want to kind of stroll and people watching. I don't know if that's just the slower pace or what it is. It's certainly not the food, but oh, coffee, coffee's great. I will say that you get a cappuccino from any of those stands. They're all fantastic But yeah, it's it's weird. I would put it at the bottom of the list of like it's not they weren't my favorite parks But they were still good parks that I mean if I lived in Paris, I would Go fairly often [00:42:00] Gotcha.
Yeah Yeah, that's a
Time: good time. Yeah, would you like? You could leave anybody if someone's like kind of getting interested in potentially going um, maybe it's this year because of the Games for the olympics come in. Oh, yeah.
Ayre: Oh probably don't go during the olympics
Time: probably not Um, but if you had like one thing to kind of recommend or a tip that you kind of learned What would you what
Ayre: would you give?
Definitely do it um . I, okay, here we go. This is if I had to give one, one key thing, uh, it's a Disney.
Okay. You've been to Disney before all that stuff. Uh, I would say embrace the culture. That's what makes this park so unique is the European the French the Parisian culture, okay yeah, it's just those little things like find a Parisian cast member and just sit and talk with them for a while or just like Embrace the pace of how [00:43:00] just less aggressive it is It's different.
And so just spend your time Strolling trying to find all those differences
so those would be my advice. Take your time, enjoy the culture. And uh, if you get food, hold your breath.
Time: Good. Awesome. Well, that kind of wraps up, uh, both our trip recaps, but I mean. There will be plenty more because obviously we have some exciting stuff coming. Yep. We're gonna be at islands of adventure together very soon.
Yeah and epcot very soon that way i'm so hyped Super excited great days. Um ahead and just to be back in orlando for us both is gonna be awesome. It'd be great Um that being said though Uh, if you are interested, uh, or have any questions or anything, uh, let us know, , on our Instagram page at magicbeatsadventure, follow us there, if you have any questions or anything you want us to answer, whether it's for this [00:44:00] episode, or last episode, or any episodes prior, you can do that there, uh, and go ahead and hit some likes on some of those other things.
Speaking of liking, if you enjoyed this episode, of the show. Go ahead and give us a rating on wherever you are watching this. Five stars are wonderful, but, uh, we would love just your feedback on how we can make this show better just like Disneyland Paris continue to get better and better and better.
It's only going to get better with time. Exactly. Anyways, I'm Tim, and I bring the
Ayre: magic.
And I'm Aaron, and I bring the adventure. And we will see you guys next time. Bye. And so our journey comes to an end. Guess that wraps things up.
Time: You guys did alright. Carefully raise your
Ayre: left bar and exit the vehicle. Oh, and don't forget to retrieve your stolen belongings. We hope that you've enjoyed your visit with us.
And that you will come back soon.
Time: See you real soon! Bye everybody! We really love [00:45:00] you! Bye! Be careful getting
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