I pretty much spent most of January sick. UGGGHHHH. WHY?! I went to the doctor for antibiotics last week and I think I’m finally on the mend. Just in time for February.

Anyway, I think everyone knows I’m a huge Disney fan. 🙂 Visiting each of the 5 Disney resorts across the globe is on my bucket list and so far I’ve made it to 3 of the 5 (Walt Disney World in 2011, Tokyo Disneyland in 2012 and Disneyland all the time). After our Mediterranean cruise last year, Rob & I flew to Paris and checked off Disneyland Paris. !!! WOOHOO.

We spent 2.5 days at the resort, which was the perfect amount of time. I really wanted to stay at the Disneyland Hotel since it’s located at the entrance to the park but it was ridiculously expensive. So we opted for Sequoia Lodge. It’s a charming hotel that’s inspired by American national parks and I loved it because it reminded me of the Wilderness Lodge, which is where we stayed at Walt Disney World. It made a great home base for us!

The hotel exterior.

We booked a Golden Forest Club room which entitled us to a continental breakfast in the mornings and snacks in the afternoon. Guests visit the Golden Forest Lounge for these perks.

You never know who you’ll see at breakfast!

We loved coming back from a day at parks and hanging out here with snacks and coffee or soda.

It’s an easy 10-15 minute walk from Sequoia Lodge through Disney Village (basically Downtown Disney) over to the entrance to the parks.

There are two theme parks within the Paris resort — Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios Park.

First off, I’m going to cover the latter park. Of all ten Disney theme parks I’ve visited, this is sadly my absolute least favorite. We only devoted a half day here.

Upon entering the park, you come across the partners statue. <3

Walking right you’ll find the animation area. We admired the Sorceror’s Hat for a few minutes but we were on our way to get in line for…

Crush’s Coaster! It’s a spinning roller coaster ride inside a turtle shell that takes you on a journey to the Great Barrier Reef. AMAZING! We made this our first priority because it’s the best ride in the park and the line gets long immediately when the park opens. I wanted to ride a second time but the line was too ridiculous (120+ minutes!).

From there we visited Toy Story Playland where everything is built to look oversized and make you feel as if you’ve shrunk to toy size.

It’s super adorable.

We were going to ride RC Racer but I totally chickened out. LOL. It propels you forward and backward and I just wasn’t feeling it. Outside of RC Racer, the other two rides in the land are low capacity carnival style rides (Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop and Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin).

Continuing around the park counter-clockwise this awesome sign directed us to the Production Courtyard & Backlot.

We skipped the Studio Tram Tour and Tower of Terror since they’re both the same rides that are found stateside — Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World and California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort respectively.

Beautiful streetscape.

By this point in the day we’d only been in the park for 2 hours and had pretty much walked its entirety.

After a ride on Rock n Roller Coaster (again, the same ride that’s also found at Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World), we decided to check out a show. “Moteurs… Action! Stunt Show Spectacular” sounded intriguing but the times were inconvenient.

We opted for Cinemagique which combines a movie featuring classic clips with a live performance. It was entertaining enough. If a little outdated (Martin Short uses a super old school Nokia cell phone).

And with that, we were done with the park. It kills me to say it but Walt Disney Studios Park feels like it was haphazardly thrown together (I’m sure it was). The lack of quality is evident. There just aren’t enough unique rides and attractions to warrant a full day. And there’s no true cohesive theme. This park needs an overhaul. STAT. Preferably one of the California Adventure magnitude.

Next up, I’ll cover Disneyland Paris. Which is far and away a superior park. With my absolute favorite castle. 🙂