This is such a change for the Studios Park, to find an attraction that has a story and theme that matches the standards we have come to expect from Disney. Our short wait in the boiler room is quickly over and we enter our elevator. The cast member maintains the perfect manner and manages to keep in character as she instructs us in multiple languages to take our seats and fasten our safety belts. The ride of course is everything I expected from Disney, excellent.

I have been on the Tower of Terror in Walt Disney World many times and have sampled the various ride profiles they have used. I was concerned that the different ride mechanism (the missing 5th dimension) would affect the ride, but it does not, in fact it makes for a smother overall impression and it is not missed. The effects are great and the drops themselves as thrilling as ever. The ride profile used really means you do not know what is coming next and we did get a good few rides up and down the elevator shaft before the ride was over. It is really good that Disney did not open this attraction with the original 'one drop' profile that started in WDW, instead giving it the more thrilling multiple drops sequence.

This is the kind of attraction that needs to be built in the Studios, I only hope that the management can see the impact of a quality ride like this on park attendance and continue to develop it in the same way. After our tower ride it was clear that there was little else we wanted to do in the Studios so we got our hand stamped as we left the park and walked across the esplanade to Disneyland.

As we had already used our park hopper tickets I assumed we would need a hand stamp and enter Disneyland via the re-entry turnstiles. As we walked around to the entrance I asked one of the cast members where the re-entry gate was. To my surprise the cast member waved us to a normal gate where we used our park hopper tickets and were not asked to show our hand stamps.

We walked through the tunnels under the Main Street Station and entered Town Square. The park seemed to be quiet and to my surprise there was no line at all for the Disneyland Railroad, so that would be our first attraction. It was a 10-minute wait for the train to arrive and the queue did build up a little behind us. When the train arrived it was virtually empty and we had the pick of the seats, getting a whole section to ourselves. We rode the train through the Grand Canyon Diorama, through Frontierland and Fantasyland. We got off at Discoveryland to that we could get Fast Pass tickets for Space Mountain : Mission 2. Unfortunately the Fast Pass tickets were being issued for the time that we had agreed to meet the rest of the group for lunch, so instead we collected Fast Pass tickets for Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast.

As it was getting near to our lunchtime meeting we headed over to Casey's Corner where we had arranged to meet the rest of the party. As usual the fast food locations in the park were getting very busy and also as usual Disney seem unable to cope with demand. The lines in Casey's Corner were not that long, maybe 4-5 people in each line, but the service was very slow. They only serve a very limited menu in Casey's Corner, basically hot dogs, fries and drinks, but it took over 20 minutes to get served. I suppose this is one of the things that Disney will never get right in Paris and we just have to accept 'slow' fast food'!

After lunch we headed back to Discoveryland as it was now possible to collect another Fast Pass. I do like the fact that your Fast Pass ticket tells you when you can collect another, even before you have used the one you are holding. So we now had two Fast Passes in hand ready to be used one after the other in an hour's time.

While we waited for our Fast Passes to become available we walked round to Fantasyland and joined the queue for it's a Small World. The queue was quite long, but the attraction was running at full capacity with 3 boats loading at the same time so we only had to wait for 10 minutes. I have to say that the attraction was looking stunning in the sunlight, the outside has clearly been recently painted and the colours looked deep and fresh just as I remembered them 16 years ago when the park opened. We quickly reached the front of the constantly moving line and boarded our boat, these also appear to have been refurbished or even replaced.

I'm pleased to say that the inside of the attraction was just as impressive as the outside. The sets were fresh and clean and the costumes looked stunning, it was a real treat to see the attraction looking so good, well-done Disney. As we exited the ride our Fast Passes for the Discoveryland attractions were now valid so our first port of call would be Space Mountain.

For some reason the Fast Pass return queue at Space Mountain is always a mess, there is no real place to line up to present your Fast Pass so people congregate at the entrance. What this means is that there can be a horde of people who have Fast Passes that are not yet valid and they simply block the entrance for everyone else. After pushing our way through the crowd we climbed the stairs and entered the attraction. The Fast Pass line leads you through the inside of the building, above and around you the trains whiz past in the dark. We quickly reached the loading platform and waited to board.

So far the attraction did not look very different from the original version of the ride, there are new signs and the trains have either been replaced or at least painted. We boarded our train and I was very soon disappointed to hear that the onboard soundtrack was not working properly. There seemed to be some sort of sound playing but it was very quiet and could not be heard through the entire ride. As for the changes to the inside of the attraction, these too were disappointing and in my eyes not as good as the original with one exception. Towards the end of the ride the train enters a tunnel that has a red spiral light display and it is quite stunning and disorienting, I loved it.

We quickly left the disappointing Space Mountain 2 and joined the Fast Pass queue for Buzz Lightyear. I was really interested to see how they had managed to fit this attraction into what was the Circle Vision Theatre that previously housed Visionarium attraction (Timekeeper in the US). I can only assume that they must have also included or added some backstage areas to increase the space available. The queue for the attraction is quite narrow and claustrophobic with little to keep you entertained other than large simple artwork on the walls. Eventually we joined up with the standby line and we all then passed the excellent Buzz Lightyear Anamatronic figure, which was as impressive as ever. We boarded our ride vehicle and picked up our guns which use the cable type connection rather than the captive guns found on similar rides.

While the style and artwork in the ride matched that of the WDW version it was certainly not as long or as immersive. The sets were smaller and not as deep, and the targets at times seemed very close, it is obvious that the space restrictions have affected the design of the ride. It is still a fun and entertaining attraction and to be honest you don't spend a great deal of time taking in the details of each show scene as you are busy trying to score as many points as you can. There are obvious elements missing from the Paris attraction, specifically those parts that were kept from the original attraction layout in WDW - the domed projection rooms and the revolving light tunnel effect. In Paris I would rate this ride as a 'C' ticket as opposed to the WDW, which to me is a 'D' ticket.

It was now approaching 4pm and the 15th Anniversary Parade was just about to start. It was already very busy on the parade route but we managed to find a spot near Casey's Corner where we could get a reasonable view. As usual with parades in Disneyland Paris the music was as annoying as ever compounded by the fact that this parade like many others stops and enters a show mode for a while at various locations. I'm sure this keeps the kids entertained but I would much prefer the parade to go past without stopping with a varied soundtrack. Instead we get the same music repeated far too many times and frankly it becomes boring. The floats were quite attractive and there appeared to be quite a lot of walking characters but it is not as good as previous parades or those I have enjoyed in the US parks.

After the parade it was time for a little shopping and this was a pleasant surprise. Rather than the generic resort merchandise that has been on sale in the park for many years there are now lots of attraction and land specific items. I particularly liked the various versions of plush toys that could be purchased. My friend found it very hard to choose which version of Minnie Mouse to buy, at one point we found versions of Minnie each dressed as a different Disney Princess. The shops were also very busy and that is a good sign for all the Disney shareholders.

After our shopping spree we walked back to the hub and then into Frontierland to ride Phantom Manor (Haunted Mansion). There was only a short line of people outside the Manor and we quickly entered the foyer and waited for our elevator. This attraction does not appear to have been updated for a while, it was looking tired and for some reason there appeared to be no soundtrack playing in any of the ride vehicles. There also appeared to be problems with some of the effects in the ride, the Ballroom scene having quite a few issues with the Pepper's Ghost effect.

Once we left the attraction our next stop was to be Pirates of the Caribbean which is quite a long walk across Frontierland and through Adventureland. Unfortunately when we reached the attraction the wait time was shown as 30 minutes but the actual queue appeared to be much worse. At Disneyland Paris there is a huge internal queue at Pirates and although I have been to the park many times I have never seen people queuing outside the show building. Today though there was a long line outside, which appeared to be moving very slowly. Even though we wanted to ride the attraction we gave it a miss and instead we walked back to the hub and visited the Dragon that lives beneath the Castle.

Earlier in the day I had made a reservation for us at Walt's Restaurant on Main Street. This is a full service restaurant and is one of the best in the park. It is advertised as "Walt's -- An American Restaurant" and as such it does serve what could be described as a French take on American cuisine. The restaurant is on the first floor of quite a large section of Main Street and consists of a number of small intimate rooms each themed to a land in the park. We were seated in the Fantasyland room and it was quite beautiful. The room decorated in rich dark wallpaper and fabrics with lots of dark wood and plush seating. The room is also packed with paintings, models and photographs of Fantasyland attractions and buildings.

Dinner is offered here from an Al a Carte menu or from a selection of Fixed Price menus. We all selected the €27 ($40) fixed price menu which would give us a starter (Entree) and main course. The majority of us selected a Chicken Caesar Salad for the starter and a mix of Sirloin Steak or Gourmet Burger for the main course. The starters arrived very quickly and everyone really enjoyed them. All the Main Courses arrived at the same time but for some reason my order had been made incorrectly and instead of the steak that I had ordered (confirmed by the waitress) a burger meal arrived. The waitress apologized and said a new meal would be here soon. It did take around 10 minutes for my steak to arrive by which time my friends had eaten most of their meals. It was not a big problem overall and the quality of the food served and the rest of the service was excellent. I would really recommend Walt's if you are looking for a full service meal.

It was now nearing 8:30pm and the park would be closing at 9pm, so we headed back to Casey's Corner to meet up with the kids and the rest of the group. Everyone seemed to have had a wonderful time; and we had been blessed by the dry sunny weather.

I was not really sure what I was expecting to find at the resort after a gap of nearly 5 years, but I was pleasantly surprised. The new rides are, on the whole, a great addition to both parks, and the refreshed attractions are a credit to the maintenance teams. It was great to visit the parks again and to get my Disney fix!