This is the Walt Disney Studios theme park, or at least the main building at the
entrance. You pass through this building to reach the rest of the park, and I find it
the most visually interesting part of the place. It's a vast hangar-like structure
made out to look like a kind of fantasy Hollywood at night, with restaurants and Disney
shops. Nothing particularly unique about this, of course—faux cityscapes
are routine in amusement parks and similar centers these days—but it's rare in
Europe, and a pleasing diversion.
As for the rest of the park, which is modeled in the Universal City Studios style
as a supposedly working movie studio that is really nothing of the kind, there is a
“studio tram” that takes you past a number of fixed sights and tries to
convince you that you are really touring a studio; an indoor roller-coaster promoting
the group Aerosmith for the teeny-boppers; and a number of other attractives
that emphasize interesting visual experiences, such as a glow-in-the-dark
stage show (well
done, although the ultraviolet lighting is not maintained as well as it should be),
an “in the picture” trompe-l'oeil show (also well done), a
nice outdoor stunt-car show, and so on.
I'd like to say that this newer park is worth the admission price, which is the same
as that of the Magic Kingdom, but I can't. There are fewer attractions, they aren't as
interesting, and lines are long even when the crowds are light. The Rendez-vous des
Stars cafeteria-style restaurant is nice, though—one of the few that hasn't
yet reverted to pizza, and usually not very crowded.
Don't fall for the two-in-one ticket deal that Disney is pushing: with this arrangement,
you get all-day admission to Walt Disney Studios, followed by admission to the Magic
Kingdom after 5 PM. This is a trap for the unwary, because Walt Disney Studios won't
keep you occupied for an entire day, and it's impossible to see all of the Magic Kingdom
in one evening. The main purpose of this ticket deal is to offload crowds into Walt
Disney Studios during the day, but it is not cost-effective for guests. (It would be
if the parks were reversed in the ticket arrangement, but then that would obviously
aggravate traffic problems for Disney at all, since the Magic Kingdom already attracts
most of the crowds and has the biggest problems with capacity.) I recommend that
you spend at least one full day, and preferably at least
two days, in the Magic Kingdom; and then, if budget permits, you might want to spend
a day at Walt Disney Studios.
Walt Disney Studios is the second theme park to be built at the resort. The original
plans call for a variety of parks, similar to the philosophy for Walt Disney World
in Florida, and these parks are gradually being built one by one. Disney had some
rather draconian financial arrangements in the beginning, which, coupled with the
cluelessness of Europeans who took forever to discover what Disney was all about,
made for some hard times initially. Now that the resort is doing much better, the
plans for expansion and development are being pursued.
