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[title]My memories of childhood trips to Disneyland® are mostly of firework spectacles and meeting all the colourful animation characters in real life. I wasn’t tall enough (or brave enough) to try the thrill rides like the bigger boys. But now I’m bigger than those bigger boys, and Disneyland Paris really knows how to get the adrenaline pumping.
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™
Part creepy, part stomach-churning, this ride scares even the hardiest thrillseekers. The detail is astonishing, from the cobweb-ridden foyer to the sinister bellhops making sure you’re strapped in tight. The story goes that this was Hollywood’s glitziest hotel in the golden era of moviemaking, before something strange happened. Well, it happened again. To us. We relived that mysterious night with a 13-storey drop in a free-falling elevator cart, and it scared the pants off us. Twice!
Space Mountain: Mission 2
As soon as we arrived at the Disneyland Park we ran straight to Discoveryland to try Space Mountain: Mission 2. It didn’t disappoint. Three loops, staggering speed, all in near-darkness and surrounded by exploding asteroids – it packs a punch. The ride began by firing us towards the moon out of a cannon before we dropped into total blackness, navigating twists, turns, inversions and near-misses, all accompanied by an epic soundtrack.
Indiana Jones™ and the Temple of Peril
After we’d landed safely back on earth we headed for Adventureland and the Indiana Jones™ and the Temple of Peril rollercoaster. It has a compact layout but it’s a real hair-raiser: tight turns, sudden drops and a high-speed loop through the ruins of an ancient temple. I reckon it’d scare Indy himself, and there aren’t even any snakes.
Big Thunder Mountain *
After a quick sit down to recover, we were Frontierland bound. I remember being terrified of this ride as a kid, and 20 years later it was still a thrill machine, spiralling through the red rocks of the American south-west.
* Closed from November 2015.
Crush’s Coaster®
The next day we set out to tackle the big thrills of the Walt Disney Studios® park. Really, how stirring could a ‘Finding Nemo’-themed ride be, we thought. Very, it turned out. All seemed calm at first, as we met Nemo and Squirt in our turtleshell car. But then we got caught up in the East Australian Current and started spinning wildly through quick drops and tight turns, all in the dark. We staggered away, giddy.
RC Racer
From Crush’s Coaster we headed up to Toy Story Playland to try RC Racer. As soon as the remote-control car started revving up and down the half pipe of track we knew why it was labelled ‘Big thrills’. Brilliantly detailed, with each climb the car made up the orange track it felt like we’d fly off the end. We didn’t, of course – Andy obviously has excellent driving skills.
Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith
Once playtime was over we couldn’t leave without a final big thrill, so we headed back to Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster, which had rocked us senseless on our first morning. Each train on this indoor coaster is fitted with 120 onboard speakers, so Aerosmith’s blasting riffs are with you for the entire ride. We twisted upside-down three times as we zoomed through the set of a music video. But the biggest thrill was the ride’s launch: 0 to 57 mph in 2.8 seconds. Phwooar.
© Disney/Pixar