{the disney dream} walt disney studios

Walt Disney Studios is the 'other park' at Disneyland in Paris. While the main Disneyland Park is packed with all the magical parades, character themed rides, and lots for little ones; Walt Disney Studios is a little more grown up and is also a smaller park. It's not totally grown up by any stretch of the imagination... there is a whole section for Toy Story, and rides themed from Aladdin, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille and Cars as well, but it just has a slightly more mature feel in whats on offer.

There are some fantastic live shows which are definitely worth popping into. Our children, actually scrap that, all of us really enjoyed the Disney Jr Live show, with all the songs and characters we know from watching Disney Jr (although it maybe could do with updating a little as it didn't reflect the current lineup on that channel at all.) The children fell asleep just as we were planning to head into the Cinemagic show, which I was really disappointed about as I know from previous Disney visits that its really lovely.

Rich got a little bit of his thrill-seeker kicks in Walt Disney Studios too, where you can ride the infamous Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. And I also managed to convince him that he'd really like the Rock'n'Rollercoaster, despite him protesting that he wasn't that fussed about leaving me with the kids to just go on some roller coaster. He soon changed his tune once he'd been on it and came off the ride with a smile on his face very similar to the cheesy ones we'd seen on the children's faces when they met Mickey and Minnie.

A definite highlight for us all was the Stars and Cars show which happens for a couple of hours each day, in which a selection of the characters come out in cars, do a little dance around and then come and meet the waiting crowd to take photos and sign autographs. This is a great way to meet quite a few characters at once without the children getting bored with queuing, and we found it really fun. We also met Woody at Walt Disney Studios, as well as having some face time with Mickey Mouse himself all over again... it's kind of his party after all, and he's definitely a family favourite for us.

 ^ she was ever so slightly excited about meeting Mickey Mouse the second time around

^ while the little man posed sweetly, the little miss wanted to tickle Mickey's nose

 ^ ...which resulted in some very cheeky smiles

^ and this was his "I am Mickey's friend face" photo (he asked me to take it)

You can read an overview of our Disneyland holiday here, and all about the Disneyland Park here.