Tower of Terror

The Final Countdown

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History of the Theme Park Dreamworld

In 1974, John Longhurst bought 85 hectares of land to put his dream of building a theme park into practice. With a few attractions, Dreamworld opened to the public on December 15, 1981. A year later, the first expansion led to the world’s longest steel double loop rollercoaster, the Thunderbolt. With time, the park more and more expanded. In 1989 the park was sold to Bruce Jenkins’ Dreamco, yet due to Dreamco’s financial trouble in 1990, Ernst & Young, Receivers and Managers were appointed by the Mortgagee, IOOF Friendly Society, to take control. In 1994, Dreamworld successfully ended its liquidation. In 1995 the Park was sold to Singaporean Businessman and investor Mr Kua Phek Long. One of his first investments then put Dreamworld on everybody’s lips, as the fastest and tallest coaster was coming to the Gold Coast in 1997: the Tower of Terror. Two years later, Dreamworld was acquired by the Macquarie Leisure Trust, now Ardent Leisure Group.

Tour of the park

Sky Voyager

If you walk through the Disney-esque Entrance building, you find yourself directly in front of the Dreamworld globe. On both sides of the plaza, you can find buildings with typical Australian architecture, yet also a very futuristic looking building, which is home to Australia’s first flying theatre: Sky Voyager.

The large-scale motion simulator by Brogent Technologies features a very impressive flight along several famous Australian landscapes. We take off at the Gold Coast, have a look at the Wallaman Falls, follow the Tully River, fly over the Lancelin Sand Dunes, have a look at the Twelve Apostels from the seaside and experience a firework at the Sydney Harbour – the scenes are all loosely connected, yet the transition is always fluent, which gives you an overall coherent experience. Overall, Sky Voyager is one of the best Flying Theatre, I’ve experiences so far.

Buzzsaw

Right next to it, the roller coaster Buzzsaw was set at a very prominent position right at the edge of the park and very close to the entrance of Dreamworld. The ride itself was a Maurer Skyloop XT150, as you can still find them at several theme parks along the globe. It was the third SkyLoop, I’ve tried and yet I was still not very impressed with it. The extreme hangtime at a height of 46m, the descending heartline roll and the rush towards the ground creates a great experience, which is best when only experienced once. Buzzsaw was by no means a popular ride, so it isn’t a surprise that Dreamworld closed the ride for good after just 10 years of operation at the end of August 2021.

Giant Drop

Passing along the future site of the Steel Taipan roller coaster and former site of the Thunder River Rapids Ride, which had to be closed after a fatal accident where a boat was flipped on the ride’s lift, we now have a look on one of the main attractions at Dreamland: The Giant Drop.

For a very long time, there was no drop tower being taller than the Giant Drop and up to this date it is still in the top three just behind Lex Luthor’s Drop of Doom (122m, 2012) at Six Flags Magic Mountain and Zoomanjaro: Drop of Doom (126m, 2014) at Six Flags Great Adventure. All rides were attached to the support structure of a roller coaster made by Intamin. Yet, the Giant Drop was first and with a drop height of 115m it is not particularly lower.

Just one year after the inauguration of the world’s fastest and tallest coaster Tower of Terror, the 119m tall Dreamworld Tower received its second and final attraction when two drop lanes were installed to both sides of the roller coaster’s track. To maximise the ride’s capacity, both lanes feature a gondola for eight people each.

After leaving the heavily themed queue, we soon take place in the gondola to the front. After checking the restraints, we soon start our journey to the top of the tower. During our ascent, a vehicle from the Tower of Terror coaster gets the tower into vibration whilst shooting towards us. With a great view onto the surroundings, we then spend some time at the top before the Giant Drop. The hook releases the car, and we drop towards the ground accelerating to a max speed of 135 km/h before we hit the brakes and the awesome ride comes to an end.

Rocky Hollow Log Ride and the Dreamworld Corroboree

Past the now closed log flume Rocky Hollow Log Ride, which was not operating on my day of visit, we now enter Dreamworld Corroboree. This area is home to the Vintage Car Adventure ride, as well as a bunch of animal enclosures. Here, we can have a look to native Australian animals like dingoes, koalas, and kangaroos. Interestingly, the park is famous for its koala breeding programme. It is rather amusing to see how many Asian travel groups are guided into this part of the park only to take some pictures of them holding a koala.

ABC Rids World

Through the toddler area ABC Kids World, where the small trackless dark ride Big Red Car featuring the Australian children’s music group The Wiggles is located, we now make our way towards the first installation of the family launch coaster by Intamin is located.

Mick Doohan’s Motocoaster

Similar to the Motorbike Coaster by Vekoma, Mick Doohan’s Motocoaster features a seating position which resembles the one on a 500cc racing bike. In comparison, the train design is slightly more complex, which makes the boarding a bit harder. Here, you have to climb onto your seat first, move your upper body under the harness, pull the front part of the bike towards you (which also locks your legs in place) and then the harness will be automatically moved into position. As only the bike’s side panel fixes your legs from any sideways movement, a rough surface keeps it from moving in any other direction, which makes the ride a rather uncomfortable one. But you could ride in a sidecar, which features a more traditional ride experience located in the back two rows of a train. Due to its lower high restriction, these are a great way to experience the ride with your kids.

After boarding is completed and everything is clear, the ride immediately starts with its launch. After reaching the ride’s top speed of 72 kph, we now enter an ascending wide curve which leads us to the highest point of the ride reaching 7m. A wide curve to the left gets us a bit closer to the ground and soon we race over a small bunny-hop. After another 270° curve close to the ground, we change direction and climb a bit upwards in a helix. This is then followed by a wide curve to the left, which features a small dip in the middle. We then make our way towards the front of the ride in a bunch of alternating curves. After a short hop, we then hit the brakes. A short turnover then leads up to the station’s exit position.

Mick Doohan’s Motocoaster could be a great ride if the bikes would be slightly more comfortable. The fast-paced layout loses a bit of momentum towards the end of the ride, yet it has a ton of great curves which makes up for that, so that in an overall rating the ride features an okay experience.

The Claw and Tailspin

The Claw on the other hand is a superb ride. The monstrous looking pendulum ride by Intamin features a very high acceleration which in return led to a very fast-paced experience with tons of airtime and a lot of pressure. This Gyro Swing is brilliant!

Right next to The Claw, we can find the entrance to Tailspin – a ride where the riders can actively control how intense they want their experience to be. As a daredevil myself, I like to have tons of rollovers on a Gerstlauer Sky Fly – something, which was very easy to achieve back in the past, when the first models came up. Tailspin on the other hand is a rather new model and a rollover therefore isn’t as easy to initiate, yet still manageable; once you did the first one and hold your wings in position it is easy to do a lot more in a row.

HotWheels Sidewinder

Past the closed Disk’o Coaster Shockwave, we now make our way to Dreamworld’s large Looping Coaster: HotWheels Sidewinder. The ride was recently redeveloped to the Gold Coaster and got a surfing theme – a very fitting move if you ask me.

The Arrow Coaster previously known as the Big Dipper at Milton Points Luna Park in Sydney moved to Dreamworld at the end of the 2001 season. As the ride was tailored to fit into a very specific footprint at Luna Park, which is why the station is located high above the ground, a new entrance and exit path had to be designed to bring the guest to and from the ride. Unfortunately, Dreamland has chosen to install a large spiralling ramp, which takes ages to climb. Once at the top, we cross a small bridge and wait until the previous guests have left the station and the doors open for boarding.

The ride starts with a small dip out of the station. In a left-hand turn, we rapidly approach the ride’s lift hill. Arrived at a height of 40m, we immediately take another small dip and a turnaround, before we drop down. With full throttle, we now race into a large turn, which takes us high above the ground. After another drop, we then take a long turn to the left before we make our way into the waterpark Whitewater World. Here we rush through a long left-hand curve close to the ground before we initiate the first inversion of the ride: a sidewinder. Here, we first turn to the left while rotating around our axis before we plunge down towards the ground in a half loop. This is followed by a full vertical loop. Soon after, we take a large hill, race over a long straight into a turnaround and come to a stop in the ride’s station.

The HotWheels Sidewinder is a very nice coaster, which reminds me a bit of a mine train. The ride has a very fun pacing, albeit the layout is a bit off due to its main elements being placed at the end of the ride. Therefore, the HotWheels Sidewinder is more about speed and acceleration than it is about inversions and honestly, I liked that a lot. Surplus, the ride has a great smoothness to it, which makes it a good ride for tons of re-rides.

DreamWorks Experience

The DreamWorks Experience is a large themed area with dedicated areas for three of the studio’s most popular films: Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar and Shrek! While Shrek’s Faire Faire away is home to many of the park’s children rides, the two other areas all feature one of Dreamworld’s mayor attractions. Unfortunately, the suspended family coaster Escape from Madagascar in the Madagaskar Madness area was down for maintenance.

Pandamonium

Next to the Skadoosh Bumper Cars, you can find in Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness the Zamperla Air Race Pandamonium. The popular ride comes in two experiences: soft-style and hard-style. While the soft-style cycle just rocks a bit sideways without going upside down, the hard-style run cycle is pure madness! I have been on quite a lot of these rides before, but Pandamonium is way faster than most of them and features far more rollovers. I had a blast!

Tiger Island

We now could get to the next ride via the adjacent souvenir shop, but we chose to have a look onto Tiger Island before. This large area is home to two animal enclosures, as well as a large area used for the Tiger presentation. You can also take a picture with you and a tiger over here.

Tower of Terror II

When I planned my Australian road trip, I had no clue that Tower of Terror II will close. Once the announcement was made by the park, I was very happy that the final day of operation would be during our planned trip to the Gold Coast, so that I did not even have to reschedule the entire trip to ride Intamin’s first opened launch coaster for the first and last time.

When the Tower of Terror opened in 1997, it was the tallest and fastest ride on earth. Together with Superman: Escape from Krypton at Six Flags Magic Mountain, the ride held the speed record till Dodonpa at Fuji-Q Highland opened to the public in 2001 and the height record until Top Thrill Dragster opened at Cedar Point back in 2003. In 2010, the Tower of Terror received an overhaul consisting of a new theme and new trains. It was time to Face Gravity, Face First on the Tower of Terror II.

After passing through the ride’s iconic skull entrance and the futuristic queue, I boarded the ride for the first time on November 2nd, one day before the ride’s closure. Unfortunately, the ride was down for most of the day of our visit. I returned for the last day of operation for several re-rides, as well as one of the last rides being held on that day. It was an amazing experience to walk through the skull and listen to Europe’s Final Countdown while doing so.  Overall, the excitement of the enthusiasts to catch the final Escape Pod was contagious.

The ride itself was an exciting experience. Once the vehicle was cleared, the lights of the boarding area are turned down and a countdown sets in. The light effect in the tunnel starts to go faster and faster and all the sudden the vehicle starts accelerating. For the next seven seconds, we accelerate to the max speed before we start to climb the tower. Now in a vertical position, the car loses more and more of its momentum while we are experiencing some of the finest airtime on a coaster. For several seconds, we now face gravity before plunging down again. We then race back into the tunnel, where we are smoothly reducing our speed and come to a halt in the station. After disembarking the ride, we then walk through a small corridor and take a lift ride into the shop.

Tower of Terror II was a great coaster! The ride was all about the launch, which was perfectly set in place by the lightning effects and noise in the tunnel. It just felt super-fast for a very long time. Once on the tower, the ride surprised everyone by its long-during airtime and the views towards the ground. I was glad, that I had the chance to experience such an iconic coaster on its last days of operation. I just wish, I could do it again.

Pictures Dreamworld

Conclusion Dreamworld

Dreamworld is a very nice theme park with a very solid ride collection. You can easily spend a full day at the park and the adjacent water park Whitewater World. Nevertheless, inform yourself in advance which rides will be closed on the day of your visit, as unfortunately the park’s line-up was reduced quite a bit during the past few years and closed attraction might not give you the best impression of the theme park. Having new attractions in the pipeline, I just hope that the current strategy of the Ardent Leisure Group will pay off.

 

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Dreamworld / Hell Yeah, Schnabelteah Day 15 to 19

Rémy’s totally crazy adventure in Paris

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Walt Disney Studios Park

I make no secret of the fact that I always liked the Walt Disney Studios Park more than the amusement park next door. After all, the park appeals to a much more adult audience, and moreover it offers a wonderful leitmotif with the theme of movies. Now it is unfortunate that movie parks all over Europe usually do not act as such and at best only attract attention with cartoon characters, but here in Paris this would be much more difficult. Of course there are some exceptions, but most of them are not theme parks or are located in Italy. Nevertheless the Walt Disney Studios Park manages to create a homage to the film and thus manages to entertain you wonderfully.

Although my last visit was almost five years ago and not much had changed in that time, it seemed to me that the park had doubled in size. On the one hand, this is due to the well-known extensions, like the Toy Story themed area, which was still under construction at that time, and the small themed area around the Pixar film Ratatouille, but also because nothing was closed this time.

Due to Rémy and his family, the Walt Disney Studios Park is admittedly much more frequented, so that not much remains of the once countless rides on the Rock n Roller Coaster, as well as visits to the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Provided you don’t want to miss any of the other sights in this park. The word sight fits much better than just the word attraction, after all it is not only the rides, as in most other amusement parks in Europe, but especially the shows that you should not miss, at least as a first-time visitor. And it can’t hurt as an already knowledgeable park visitor to watch one or the other show again to refresh his own image.

Moteurs… Action! Stunt Show Spectacular

While I was less satisfied with the stunt show with the much too long name Moteurs… Action! Stunt Show Spectacular at the last visit, it could entertain me much better now. Although the in-between scene with Lightning McQueen and the bad guy with the “very” secret weapon as an odd gap-filler is not much more exciting than Herbie.  On the other hand, the other stunts were more than enjoyable, especially since they were not underlaid with the usual embarrassing story like in most other parks.

Studios Tram Tour

The Studios Tram Tour next door may not be a real show, but what happens during the first stopover is really worth seeing and interesting at the same time. Already at the entrance to the Disaster Canyon one notices the huge pumps that transport the required amount of water. What follows now is first and foremost very impressive, at least from a technical point of view, because the cars are shaken a little to and fro over movable floor plates, a hell of a lot of fire breaks out, which is then extinguished with significantly more water. This is certainly not a cheap pleasure, but unfortunately it is the only highlight of the tour, because after that we go all the way back past the props of rather unknown films. On the way to the other turning point you drive along the set of Reign of Fire and are entertained again with a little fire. If the film had been successful, the scene would certainly have been much more impressive, since it is better known. This is followed by the way back to the station.

The Studio Tram Tour is clearly too short as a studio tour of the Walt Disney Studios Park. Unfortunately, the film sets and props you pass by are mostly not worth mentioning and only Catastrophe Canyon is convincing. Fortunately the actual tour seems to be much longer than the now demolished original of the Hollywood Studios in Orlando.

Viewed from a distance, the tour offers another gimmick, because the backdrop including the Hollywood lettering looks impressively large. In fact, the structure consists of several smaller individual fragments, which only create the necessary depth due to the spatial separation from each other.

Armageddon – les effets speciaux

Armageddon – les effets speciaux is just as tricky, because what would a blockbuster movie be without its special effects? In principle probably too boring for most cinema-goers, which is why here you get to know a little about the history of its creation, until you then interactively participate in the pre-show or enjoy it as others do. Another film with one of the main actors of the film later, yes this show is very long, you finally get into the main show. A few insignificant effects later, finally a lot of fire shoots out of the middle of the room and the visitors can leave the show warmed up.

Cinémagique

After the homage to the special effects, we go straight to the homage to the film par excellence, namely Cinémagique, where the enemy of every cinema-goer suddenly finds himself in the film, crossing one genre after another. The film sequences shown in the process generate a rather long list of references and will certainly look very familiar to many visitors. The interplay between theatre and cinema also enhances the show and makes the simple story all the more entertaining.

Animagique

The black light show Animagique in the studio next door could actually be just as entertainingm if the show would at least focus on the Disney classics. Instead, a very child-friendly show, starring Donald Duck, is offered, which, thanks to the catchy melodies, the constant clapping of the audience and the necessary dark lighting, is more likely to put you to sleep than entertain you. A characteristic I have so far only ascribed to Europa Park, but there the shows are usually rather bad than good, Animagique admittedly has at least a few interesting scenes and an interesting concept. By the way, even more annoying than the song of the same name at the end of the show is the sound effects just before the show, which is why you should enter the building just before the show.

The Art of Disney Animation

At The Art of Disney Animation you get to know a little bit about the steps of creating an animated film. After a small preshow, in which a successful cut together of the different Disney and Pixar films is shown, you get into the main show where Mushu, the dragon from the Mulan films, takes the leading role. Through headphones you can now listen to the show in your own language, which results in Otto as the dubbing voice in the German version, or the best Frikandel joke ever in Dutch. Although this show always has the insipid aftertaste of a promotional event, at least the trailer of the current film of the Disney Animation Studios is always shown, I like the show very much.

Stitch live!

Stitch live! is similar, even though this type of interactive show outside the Dungeons by Merlin Entertainment is far too rare in Europe. Even though the show is designed for children, it provides the right amount of flat humour, especially for older viewers. The joy you feel when a person of the innocent group you have brought along is the victim of the show, before they take you instead, is just as satisfying as the proper portion of shame when only the staff makes a fool of themselves. It’s just a pity that Movie Magic hasn’t been available at Movie Park Germany for several years now.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster avec Aerosmith

Friends of good music and good roller coasters will find what they are looking for in the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster avec Aerosmith as the laser and music supported ride through the tangle of tracks within the sound stages of halls 8 and 9 is more than successful. After visiting the Tour de Force Records, you will be welcomed by the US rock band Aerosmith, after which you will wait a few minutes parallel to the launch track until you can finally get into the limousine.

Depending on the train, the experience on this roller coaster is always different. For each train, not only the lighting effects change throughout the ride, but also the associated soundtrack. Provided there is no emergency stop because someone thinks it’s great to record a shaky video of the ride with a selfiestick. Then you have a wonderful sound for the first seconds before you stand on the same spot for minutes and finally the ride takes place without sound and synchronised light show. I also didn’t find it funny when my life went in slow motion for a short moment, as a camera flew only a few centimetres past my head during the roll overs on in on the Vampire roller coaster in Walibi Belgium. Sure, it was a headchopper par excellence, but one you can do without, as well as the shaky onrides of various self-horny social media victims.

The Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is and will remain an all-round successful roller coaster, which I still have trouble to let go of my list of favourites. However, the ride is very much dependent on its music, because despite the more comfortable trains, the indoor ride loses its fun as soon as it doesn’t sound, while the outdoor ride Xpress from the Dutch amusement park Walibi Holland always shows itself as a solid roller coaster and in the meantime, combined with the additional title Platform 13, additional effects can be seen as soon as you enter the queue.

Tower of Terror

The Hollywood Tower Hotel is undoubtedly the most famous Disney hotel, at least among amusement park enthusiasts and those who want to become one. Although the story of the Tower of Terror is told every time as an episode of the Twilight Zone in the hotel’s own library, many connoisseurs of the hotel are unaware that “Disney’s Tower of Terror” is also an entertaining film about the events of the evening in question.

After leaving the library, you will find yourself in the engine room, where the three service lifts are located, as the actual guest lift has understandably been out of service since that night. Once in the lift, the events of that time seem to be repeated. From the starting position the guest carrier moves backwards and is coupled with the lift technology. Once set in motion, the lift rises a few metres and stops in front of a mirror that makes you disappear. One floor down, you meet the passengers of the lift accident of yesteryear, they disappear, the corridor becomes dark and shortly afterwards you see them crash again before you crash yourself. Although you should know it, this rather small drop is always very surprising.  Much quicker than before, you now climb up to get some fresh air and enjoy the view before you hit the ground again. The same play continues a little bit more powerfully, before it goes up again to the top for the final fall.

The Tower of Terror is certainly the most elaborate vertical dark ride of our time, especially since it is not a pure freefall tower compared to the ABC Rides Towers of the Dungeons or meanwhile also other Merlin Entertainment attractions, but still offers the same forces. The ride itself is outstanding, even if the last drop always falls out of the pattern. Only the storyline with the Twilight Zone is annoying during repeat rides.

Crush’s Coaster

Comparably annoying is the waiting time on Crush’s Coaster, which is now a little slower due to the addition of a single rider line without any real benefit. Here you should ask yourself before the ride, if you’re riding alone, if you want to spend most of the waiting time in the fresh air or inside the always very warm and stuffy hall. Although the idea of a single rider line on a spinning coaster is not wrong, it shows that almost all people willing to ride are mostly two or four persons and therefore the single rider line moves forward very slowly, while you are always moving in the normal queue. Of course there is an exception, namely in the English amusement park Alton Towers in the rain, because for some strange reason the cars are loaded with only three people.

The ride is similar to a ride of the spinning racer during the evening hours, only that with this ride the rotation is already released after the lift and the track has been extended by a few meters. On this section, before the already known layout, you leave the building after a small lift for a short time in order to do a small darkride part in the interior. Although the ride is quite good it is not worth waiting more than an hour for it, especially since the Walt Disney Studios Park now offers a lot more.

Toy Story Playland

For example the Toy Story Playland with its music express Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin that offers an even more duller driving programme than the Flipper VolPaiute from the Spanish amusement park Port Aventura that is known to do its rounds in maintenance mode, the not very nice to look at Parachute Tower Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop, and the Intamin Half Pipe RC Racer.

RC Racer

Although there are not too many similarities, the RC Racer can at best be described as an oversized boat swing with a terrible capacity. Although there weren’t really many people in the queue, one waits here for half an eternity, hardly imagining what it would look like in the main season with a full waiting area. And yet the ride offers nothing exciting at all, because as soon as it has started to be a little bit of fun, it ends again. Well, this is similar to Halve Maen from the Dutch amusement park Efteling, but that ride is at least an oversized boat swing of enormous capacity.

Ratatouille L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Remy

While the Toy Story Playland is not particularly conspicuous for its rides, the area that has been available since last year is all the more attractive because we are in Paris, the city of love and above all of rats. Even if Paris is not the cleanest city, it is mainly about the rat Rémy and his family, known from the Pixar movie Ratatouille. Although it sounds like rat and patootie, it is a more than successful animated film and with Ratatouille L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Remy it has been given a worthy dark ride.

Due to time constraints we always used the Single Rider Line, because if we had to wait beyond the 75 minutes in the normal queue, we probably could have made only one single ride. On the other hand, the rows of seats for three people each have created ideal conditions for single riders, because even if this waiting area would be full, you would never be able to wait here for more than 20 minutes.

The ride

The station is located on the roofs of Paris and we are allowed to play rats. But before I act as a critic, in the sense of Anton Ego, there is a summary of the trip. After the cars have left their starting position, it seems as if they are driving around randomly. Shortly after that, however, they all drive along a narrower corridor. On the roof of the Gusteau’s, Rémy is pondering the current evening menu in his own restaurant and, oh, what a miracle, it will probably be ratatouille – a simple peasant dish served to critic Anton Ego just before the restaurant had to close.

Rémy crashes through the skylight and we slide along happily. A short tour through the kitchen of the restaurant follows, where the young cook Linguini, who actually should be a chef, helps us to escape unrecognised. The path now leads us through the pantry of the restaurant where Emile, Rémy’s brother, once again fills his stomach with grapes. Linguini is also able to successfully cover up the renewed route through the kitchen, before we are discovered in the restaurant’s dining room by Chef Skinner. Although Linguini helps us to escape quickly, Maître Skinner is always on our heels, but before he can grab us by the hand he prefers to reach into a mouse trap. We finally get to the kitchen of the restaurant La Ratatouille, which is the model for the restaurant Chez Rémy. After a small champagne shower we reach the other rats, whereupon we arrive at the final stop of our journey.

Conclusion Ratatouille L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy

Despite the admittedly very loose adaptation of the film, Ratatouille L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy is an extremely successful dark ride, where even after the tenth ride you would always find new details. The dynamic of the ride is as exciting as the picture, which is very sharp from all sides and which, depending on the position in front of the screens, always looks different and therefore reveals new details. Just as interesting is the point in time when you see a scene, because this way you see either a little prelude or a little postlude. It is also a significant difference if you are sitting in the first or second row of each car, because the perception of the individual scenes can differ enormously, only in the scene with the champagne cork it is an advantage if you sit in the front row, because this effect is very surprising.

So you shouldn’t miss Rémy’s totally crazy adventure, and it’s also the reason why you should definitely spend your visit to Disneyland Resort Paris in the Walt Disney Studios Park, because nowhere else in Europe you will be as well entertained on a dark ride as here.

Pictures Walt Disney Studios Park

Conclusion Walt Disney Studios Park

The Walt Disney Studios Park can convince a little bit more than the park already did because of its new perspective, mainly created by Rémy and his family. It would be nice to see if the park will be extended in the next years, so a visit to San Fransokyo in the near future would be an event I would be looking forward to years before.

 

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Walt Disney Studios Park

Rocking and Rolling in the Studios of Paris

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Walt Disney Studios Park

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

We started our expedition through the Walt Disney Studios Park with some music, which was rock to be exact. Until now, our group only knew the route of the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster from the Flemish Walibi Holland; but what is happening in the Studios 8+9 of the Walt Disney Studios Park tops the Dutch outdoor ride by far. The layout, the launch, simply everything looks perfect when you are in a dark hall with great rock music by the band Aerosmith as well as terrific effects.

In the course of the day, we managed to test four different trains of the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, which means that we had four different experiences. This turned out to be quite difficult in the beginning, because we got the same train about 20 times in a row. But since the urge always pulls you into this concept roller coaster or better said concert roller coaster – which couldn’t be better from the overall experience – this was not reprehensible, because what Vekoma has designed here is more or less perfect!

Tower of Terror

Now it was time to leave the dimension and enter the Twilight Zone. The Hollywood Tower Hotel was waiting for us, as well as its friendly staff. Especially the cleaning staff did their best to let everything gather dust. Once you have entered the Tower of Terror, you soon realize that the conventional lifts are no longer sufficient to take you to your room. So you have to cross the library of the hotel and take one of the service lifts in the engine room.

Once you have found your place in the lift, it starts to move backwards. The story is told on several levels and the (freefall) effects are sometimes very frightening. The ride has a lot of airtime, unfortunately the last drop is a bit disappointing. All in all the ride is quite successful, even if one would have wished for a different storyline, especially for Europe, because nobody here is familiar with the Twilight Zone.

Crush’s Coaster

Australia is far away on the globe, but not at Disney. Therefore, in the studios you can quickly take a ride on the back of a turtle. Crush’s Coaster is the name of the ride from the Munich roller coaster manufacturer Maurer-Söhne. The ride is just like Crush appears in the movie: Simply ingenious! The only weak point of the coaster is the much too low capacity. On the first day we had to spend 70 minutes of waiting time on this roller coaster, on the following (not so sunny) days the average waiting time was 45 minutes. It is recommended to start the ride backwards, as this way the lift is much more surprising. The following ride should be familiar to everyone who has ever ridden an SC-2000 like the Spinning Racer at a fair at night, with the small but significant difference that the spin is not locked for that long.

Cars Quatre Roues Rallye

Right next door is the Cars Quatre Roues Rallye. The capacity is not really the problem here, only the absolutely lousy handling makes sure that the queuing time can quickly increase. The ride on the Zamperla Demolition Derby itself is quite amusing and nice for in between. It also looks quite appealing from the outside.

Les Tapis Volants – Flying Carpets Over Agrabah

The flying carpets Les Tapis Volants – Flying Carpets Over Agrabah can also be found in this area. One of the few fast pass attractions in the park, which suggests that this ride is very popular. If you catch a good time, you can do a lap without having to wait for the fast-pass. By the way, the ride is definitely worthwhile.

Armageddon

What would a studio park be without shows? Probably not much. So the time had come to test them bit by bit. We started with the special effects show Armageddon. A far too long, partly stupid preshow with film scenes, which I didn’t expect in such a park, introduces the upcoming room. There you can see yourself on a space station, which is damaged by an asteroid. A lot of fire makes the people feel a little warmer, the other effects are not really worth mentioning in contrast to Port Aventura’s Templo del Fuego.

Moteurs… Action! Stunt Show Spectacular

One of the more popular shows at Walt Disney Studios Park is of course the stunt show with the very long name Moteurs… Action! Stunt Show Spectacular. The scenery in which this show takes place is wonderful to watch, but the show itself is not as exciting. In the beginning there is a wonderful atmosphere, but somehow everything that makes this show spectacular was missing.

The Art of Disney Animation

The Art of Disney Animation is not to be missed. First of all you are shown a film that captures the magic of Disney by showing scenes from different Disney films and language versions. In the second show you are accompanied by the dragon Mushu, known from the film Mulan, where the story of how a cartoon character was created is explained. It is also advisable to follow this event in Dutch, thanks to the joke with the Frikandel.

Cinémagique

If you can’t get enough of the comfortable cinema seats, you should watch the half-hour film in the Cinémagique. I don’t want to give too much away, but one should take the mobile phone warning in cinemas seriously. Apart from that, the film is based on the Movie Switch principle, although it comes across much better here than at the show in Movie-Park Germany (which is by no means hard to do).

Stitch live

If you like interactivity and also like the devilishly evil experiment 626, you will love Stitch live. Whether active participation in the show changes the course of events I may doubt, in this respect I preferred the Movie Magic Show from the Bottrop Filmpark, as it was simply legendary for its flat humour and comical actions of the actors.

Thanks to the unfavourable times, we always missed the black light show Animagique. This will be tackled during the next visit, as well as the studio tour, which was closed at the time of the visit. Also, the Toy Story Land, which was still under construction at the time, needs to be examined more closely.

Pictures Walt Disney Studios Park

 

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Walt Disney Studios Park