Disneyland Paris - Disney Adventure World
Marne la Vallée·France·Europe
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Visit
Breakdown
Introduction
We visited Disney Adventure World during our 3-day trip to the Disneyland Paris resort from August 21st to August 23rd, spending a total of 13 hours inside Adventure World throughout the three days. We came to the park knowing its reputation as one of the "lesser" Disney parks, often being labeled the "worst" Disney park by many previous visitors.
Well, imagine our surprise when we not only loved the time we spent at the park, but we actually walked away thinking this is the best park at the Paris resort. Naturally, we will be making plenty of comparisons to Disneyland Park in this review, making it perfectly clear just how Adventure World managed to blow away our expectations.
Well, imagine our surprise when we not only loved the time we spent at the park, but we actually walked away thinking this is the best park at the Paris resort. Naturally, we will be making plenty of comparisons to Disneyland Park in this review, making it perfectly clear just how Adventure World managed to blow away our expectations.
Disneyland Paris - Disney Adventure World Review
Best Coaster
7
Avengers Assemble: Flight Force is the best coaster at Adventure World, not that it has much competition, as it is the only thrill coaster in the park. It's very interesting that the resort now sports two major launched thrill coasters from Vekoma, both being fully enclosed and both being space-themed.
Avengers is a very good Vekoma launch coaster that, on paper, has its competition in Hyperspace Mountain beat on both length and speed. It certainly has the most powerful launch, yet something just isn't quite as good as Hyperspace Mountain. Do not get us wrong - a coaster of this size that unwinds entirely indoors is a great experience, but in many ways, it feels like a slightly lesser version of its counterpart.
The main downside here is that it still features the old Vekoma trains, meaning the seats are a lot less comfortable and some headbanging does occur during the ride. This may be slightly amplified by the fact that Avengers is the more intense ride, with a more powerful launch and whippy inversions occurring so close to each other.
Still, it's great that you can experience two genuinely good launched thrill coasters at the resort.
Avengers is a very good Vekoma launch coaster that, on paper, has its competition in Hyperspace Mountain beat on both length and speed. It certainly has the most powerful launch, yet something just isn't quite as good as Hyperspace Mountain. Do not get us wrong - a coaster of this size that unwinds entirely indoors is a great experience, but in many ways, it feels like a slightly lesser version of its counterpart.
The main downside here is that it still features the old Vekoma trains, meaning the seats are a lot less comfortable and some headbanging does occur during the ride. This may be slightly amplified by the fact that Avengers is the more intense ride, with a more powerful launch and whippy inversions occurring so close to each other.
Still, it's great that you can experience two genuinely good launched thrill coasters at the resort.
Coaster Depth
4.5
As we'd come to expect from a Disney park, the coaster lineup is not what Adventure World is really about - even less so, in fact, than its neighboring park.
RC Racer is a terrible fit for a Disney park and probably scores lower here than it would have at a small regional park. Even though the Toy Story theming is very clever and cute, the capacity is simply horrible and the ride duration is abysmal. Standing in line for an hour for what feels like 30 seconds of ride time just isn't great at all.
Crush's Coaster is another major (almost) fully enclosed coaster that has been at the park for almost 20 years at the time of this review. This may very well be a completely different experience in the future, but these are our thoughts on the original version we got to experience:
Is it slightly janky? Yes.Does it have a few moments that can rival a Vekoma slap? Oh, yes*.But is it also just a damn charming coaster in the dark? Absolutely.
*If you know, you know.
Crush's Coaster actually does a lot of heavy lifting here, and for a coaster about to go down for a major refurbishment, it was very enjoyable.
RC Racer is a terrible fit for a Disney park and probably scores lower here than it would have at a small regional park. Even though the Toy Story theming is very clever and cute, the capacity is simply horrible and the ride duration is abysmal. Standing in line for an hour for what feels like 30 seconds of ride time just isn't great at all.
Crush's Coaster is another major (almost) fully enclosed coaster that has been at the park for almost 20 years at the time of this review. This may very well be a completely different experience in the future, but these are our thoughts on the original version we got to experience:
Is it slightly janky? Yes.Does it have a few moments that can rival a Vekoma slap? Oh, yes*.But is it also just a damn charming coaster in the dark? Absolutely.
*If you know, you know.
Crush's Coaster actually does a lot of heavy lifting here, and for a coaster about to go down for a major refurbishment, it was very enjoyable.
Water Rides
0.5
It is always hard for us to rate a park without any proper water rides. At times, we do consider whether it is fair to leave an otherwise incredible park with this big of a minus in its overall score. However, each time, we also acknowledge that we have to stand by our principles - in our minds, a theme park is not a complete park without at least one true water ride.
Adventure World has no excuse not to have one, which is also why they are now building one! With the opening of the Lion King land, the addition of an Intamin log flume will be a very welcome sight, and the perfect addition to the park.
For now, though, it scores a 0.5. Why not 0.0? We got a bit wet on Frozen Ever After. Consider it a token of good fortune for the future.
Adventure World has no excuse not to have one, which is also why they are now building one! With the opening of the Lion King land, the addition of an Intamin log flume will be a very welcome sight, and the perfect addition to the park.
For now, though, it scores a 0.5. Why not 0.0? We got a bit wet on Frozen Ever After. Consider it a token of good fortune for the future.
Flatrides And Darkrides
10
You cannot talk about Disney without talking about their approach to dark rides, world-class theming, immersion, and overall experience. Adventure World is no different, boasting not one, not two, but three absolute world-class dark rides that rank at the very top of our worldwide ranking.
Tower of Terror needs no introduction. It's a Disney staple and an absolute riot of an accelerated drop and launch tower. It serves as a dark ride with world-class theming and remains one of the most thrilling attractions at the resort.
Frozen Ever After: The brand-new ride during our visit, this Intamin boat ride strikes the perfect balance between world-class theming, whimsical songs, and immersion. Just watching the state-of-the-art animatronics move around is a form of escapism in itself. Add in all the music and the decently thrilling drops, and you have what we consider the crowning jewel of dark rides at the Disneyland Paris resort.
Ratatouille: We dreaded the 80-to-100-minute queue for two days before finally biting the bullet, and we regret nothing. This 2014 trackless car ride combines digital and practical elements to throw you into the world of Ratatouille, and it does it in absolutely spectacular fashion. We could not stop nerding out over how well-executed their trackless setup was, with six cars gliding around corners in perfect synchronization. Even the screen-based sections were far beyond anything we had seen before.
Add a high-quality interactive shooter like Spider-Man W.E.B. Adventure, and there is no world in which we do not give this a 10/10.
The only reason we are not breaking the scale and going to 11 is the lack of thrilling flats, and flat rides in general.
Tower of Terror needs no introduction. It's a Disney staple and an absolute riot of an accelerated drop and launch tower. It serves as a dark ride with world-class theming and remains one of the most thrilling attractions at the resort.
Frozen Ever After: The brand-new ride during our visit, this Intamin boat ride strikes the perfect balance between world-class theming, whimsical songs, and immersion. Just watching the state-of-the-art animatronics move around is a form of escapism in itself. Add in all the music and the decently thrilling drops, and you have what we consider the crowning jewel of dark rides at the Disneyland Paris resort.
Ratatouille: We dreaded the 80-to-100-minute queue for two days before finally biting the bullet, and we regret nothing. This 2014 trackless car ride combines digital and practical elements to throw you into the world of Ratatouille, and it does it in absolutely spectacular fashion. We could not stop nerding out over how well-executed their trackless setup was, with six cars gliding around corners in perfect synchronization. Even the screen-based sections were far beyond anything we had seen before.
Add a high-quality interactive shooter like Spider-Man W.E.B. Adventure, and there is no world in which we do not give this a 10/10.
The only reason we are not breaking the scale and going to 11 is the lack of thrilling flats, and flat rides in general.
Park Appearance
11Video
Unsurprisingly, Adventure World also completely knocks it out of the park when it comes to appearance, though it is interesting how different the two parks actually feel. Where Disneyland Park has a more lived-in and magical feel, Adventure World is much more modern and exciting, and we really loved the overall vibe.
The park looks incredible, and we were especially impressed by the numerous character appearances that happened throughout the day. From the Disney Princess Cavalcade and Elsa showing up mid-queue for Frozen Ever After, to the spontaneous shows at Avengers Campus, there truly was always something to look at and look forward to while traversing the park.
It is going to sound cliché, but Disney very much manages to pull you out of your mundane everyday life and bring you into a different world - one where attention is paid to every little detail, all coming together to create something much bigger than the sum of its parts.
The park looks incredible, and we were especially impressed by the numerous character appearances that happened throughout the day. From the Disney Princess Cavalcade and Elsa showing up mid-queue for Frozen Ever After, to the spontaneous shows at Avengers Campus, there truly was always something to look at and look forward to while traversing the park.
It is going to sound cliché, but Disney very much manages to pull you out of your mundane everyday life and bring you into a different world - one where attention is paid to every little detail, all coming together to create something much bigger than the sum of its parts.
Park Practicality
8
We'll make this one short. The park itself is practical and very easy to navigate with a simple layout surrounding the lake. However, the fact that a company of this size is unable to provide a decent app experience is beyond us. The app (despite having solid features) is very unresponsive and slow to use, suffering from stuttering, delayed response times, and an overall bad UX.
Secondly, we encountered incorrect queue times too many times to count, with the posted times almost always being 20 to 40% lower than the actual wait time, which is highly frustrating. We would much rather have the times be overestimated, turning a long wait into a positive experience when you arrive at the station 10 or 20 minutes sooner than expected.
Secondly, we encountered incorrect queue times too many times to count, with the posted times almost always being 20 to 40% lower than the actual wait time, which is highly frustrating. We would much rather have the times be overestimated, turning a long wait into a positive experience when you arrive at the station 10 or 20 minutes sooner than expected.
Food
9.5
Disney and food (and snacks) often go hand in hand, and Adventure World definitely delivers. On day one, we had a fantastic chimichurri burger themed to Toy Story, followed by a turkey meatball and salmon dish paired with mash and gravy on day two.
The burger definitely stood out as one of the best we've ever had at a theme park, and the Scandinavian-inspired dishes (in Arendelle) were a fresh and welcome addition to the usual theme park fast food.
The food itself was high quality, but the score earns further points for the amazing theming and service. Every restaurant was unique and themed to the IP it represented, with distinct menu items at each location making the hunt for food a truly interesting experience. We have never spent so much time exploring menus looking for interesting choices throughout a park before!
The burger definitely stood out as one of the best we've ever had at a theme park, and the Scandinavian-inspired dishes (in Arendelle) were a fresh and welcome addition to the usual theme park fast food.
The food itself was high quality, but the score earns further points for the amazing theming and service. Every restaurant was unique and themed to the IP it represented, with distinct menu items at each location making the hunt for food a truly interesting experience. We have never spent so much time exploring menus looking for interesting choices throughout a park before!
Snacks And Drinks
9.5
We will try not to repeat everything we just said about the food, but most of our praise remains the same when it comes to snacks - and perhaps even more so. Each location almost always had a unique dessert, be it a white chocolate shortbread with a berry center, a tutti frutti ice cream in a pepper cookie bowl (a very delicious bowl, we might add), or a Toy Story-themed eclair. All of these were absolutely delicious, by the way.
Furthermore, the park offered the usual, more generic items such as crepes, vast amounts of candy, and standard ice cream parlors scattered around. We tried one of the crepes, which was decent, but nothing to write home about.
Landing on a score of 9.5, therefore, comes from the previously mentioned theming, but also from the incredible variety of snacks available throughout the entire park.
Furthermore, the park offered the usual, more generic items such as crepes, vast amounts of candy, and standard ice cream parlors scattered around. We tried one of the crepes, which was decent, but nothing to write home about.
Landing on a score of 9.5, therefore, comes from the previously mentioned theming, but also from the incredible variety of snacks available throughout the entire park.
Ride Operations
11
We can make this one very short. Disney and the crews operating each and every single ride did it to near perfection. Despite average queues of well over an hour on the bigger attractions we saw nothing but exemplar queue handling, speedy dispatches, major staffing and general maximizing of ride capacity throughout. Disney expects crowds and they do absolutely everything in their power to handle it.
We also noticed just how many wheelchair users and otherwise impaired riders were in the queues for many of the rides. It seems that Disney goes out of its way to make sure as many people can ride as possible, and we considered this to be a major positive.
The entire staff was, of course, very professional and friendly, and it is to no one's surprise that the park scores the absolute maximum points available in this category.
We also noticed just how many wheelchair users and otherwise impaired riders were in the queues for many of the rides. It seems that Disney goes out of its way to make sure as many people can ride as possible, and we considered this to be a major positive.
The entire staff was, of course, very professional and friendly, and it is to no one's surprise that the park scores the absolute maximum points available in this category.
Park Management
11
Rounding off our 13 hours in Adventure World, we can only conclude that the park runs like clockwork. There were no facility closures, no odd policies, no staggered openings, and immaculate service. Add in a merch lineup that is quite obviously unrivaled by most other European theme parks, and this becomes one of the easiest 11s we can give to a park that ends up landing at the very top of our overall rankings.
As we said in the introduction, it is hard not to compare it to the primary park. Adventure World has for decades been seen as the lesser of the two (even going as far as being called the worst Disney park in the world), but as our scores show, Adventure World is equal to, if not better than, Disneyland Park in most categories.
The park just felt more alive, more cohesive, and better managed, overall providing a more complete experience. We would love to come back to this park any day and hope that, with the future investments already underway, Adventure World can shake off its previous reputation - because this park truly deserves to be praised.
As we said in the introduction, it is hard not to compare it to the primary park. Adventure World has for decades been seen as the lesser of the two (even going as far as being called the worst Disney park in the world), but as our scores show, Adventure World is equal to, if not better than, Disneyland Park in most categories.
The park just felt more alive, more cohesive, and better managed, overall providing a more complete experience. We would love to come back to this park any day and hope that, with the future investments already underway, Adventure World can shake off its previous reputation - because this park truly deserves to be praised.
Roller Coasters (3)
Main Coasters (3)
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Year
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Optional Coasters (0)
No other coasters found.
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