Basically, it’s Anaheim Disneyland, except slightly different and definitely more European. The lands and the layout were pretty much all the same (with the exception of Toon Town, which was non-existent): Main Street at the front, Castle leading into Fantasyland at the back, Adventure land and Frontier land to the left of Main Street, and The Land of Tomorrow or “Discoveryland” as they call it to the right of Main street.
The layout of each land was slightly different, because of the different space and quantity of rides, but all the rides belonging in each land pretty much remained the same…except for It’s a Small World which was in the corner between Fantasyland and Discoveryland instead of being at the back of fantasyland in Anaheim Disneyland.
PHANTOM MANOR
Californian Counterpart: Haunted Mansion
Massive Manor on top of a hill, with a proper garden queuing system. This ‘Haunted Mansion’-like ride is slightly different in story-line and design. The story was basically a bride who’s groom mysteriously disappears before the wedding due to a phantom menace. Other phantoms haunt the house, and have a party, while the dismal bride sulks around the house waiting for her groom to return, but he never does. The ride, like Haunted Mansion, goes through the house but starts with a grand staircase (where you get on to the ride) in the back ground, and ends in the underground with the ghosts in their graves and the underworld.
SPACE MOUNTAIN: MISSION II
Californian Counterpart: Space Mountain
Better than Space Mountain. It’s Faster. It’s got flips, cork screw turns, loops. And it starts off with shooting you up out of a canon. AMAZING!
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN/BLUE LAGOON
Californian Counterpart: Pirates of the Caribbean/Blue Bayou
Basically exactly the same as the one in Anaheim, except no Captain Jack Sparrow ad-ons and the music wasn’t prominently played(it only played in the Burning City room). The ride even goes through the ‘Blue Bayou’ restaurant at the start…except they call theirs “Blue Lagoon”.
INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF PERIL
Californian Counterpart: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Completely different experience than the Anaheim one. For one thing, it’s completely outdoors—it’s made to look like a rail car on scaffolding. It’s also more of a roller coaster than a sort of movie magic experience. It’s got 1 loop, and tons of drops, twists and turns.
BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN
Californian Counterpart: Thunder Mountain
Also Completely different for its Californian counterpart, this ride starts off on mainland, drops you into a darkened underground(and underwater) tunnel and pops you up on your own private rollercoaster island. No joke, this rollercoaster is on its own island surrounded by an entire lake (think Tom Sawyer’s Island, except you can’t boat across to the island and ‘explore’ because it’s entirely made up on rollercoaster tracks). There is however a little river boat cruise that goes around this island and the surrounding mainland, so the underground railroad tunnel has to be deep enough so that the boat can pass over it. Pretty cool huh? The rollercoaster on the island itself is fast and has a great view of Phantom Manor while you’re on it.
BUZZ LIGHT YEAR LASER BLAST
Californian Counterpart: Buzz Light Year Astro Blasters
Basically exactly the same except Buzz and everyone else is shouting commands in French.
STAR TOURS
Californian Counterpart: Star Tours—The Classic version
Same cuing system and design, and the same storyline as the old star Tours (none of this beginning middle and end storyline mix and match silliness). I know that this old storyline is outdated to the Californian folk, but for me being so far away from home, it’s like a blast from the past of how Star Tours used to be in the good old days…before it got outdated. What especially tickled my fancy was understanding what Rex says on the journey(partially from rote memorization of the storyline and partially from using what French words I know to translate what he was saying).
For example….French Rex calls “R2DR”, “air-do-day-do” which is how R2D2 is pronounced in French. They pronounce the letter R as ‘air’, which makes it very fun to say R2D2 in French for some reason. Anyway….
We got a park hopper, so we got to go into both Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios, which is exactly like California Adventure. It’s themed more as a ‘back lot hollywood’ than anything else(it doesn’t have a frontier sort of area, so no Grizzly River Run).
The “Lands” Consisted of:
- Studio 1-The entrance to the park with all the shops, and themed Hollywood restaurants, etc.
- Production Courtyard—Has a few attractions, all having to do with Studio/filming things….Stitch Live!(which I can only assume is like Turtle Talk with Crush), the Playhouse Disney show, Studio Tram Tour (which is more like taking the tram tour at Universal Studios), and some Armageddon show. The main thing in this land was the Tower of Terror, which looked exactly the same is it’s counterpart from the outside, so we didn’t bother with it.
- Backlot—Had Rock n roller coaster, and a “Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show Spectacular” which was a movie magic car stunt show that featured some pretty cool car stunts, car stunt filming movie magic and an appearance by Lightening McQueen from “Cars”.
- Toon Studios—Had Crush’s Coaster(which seemed more like a rollercoaster spinning version of the little mermaid ride), and TOY STORY PLAYLAND which consisted of 3 rides inspired by Toy Story the movie—Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop, RC Racer, and Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin.
In Walt Disney Studios(Cal Adv.), there was only really one ride to compare to:
ROCK N’ ROLLAR COASTER
Californian Counterpart: California Screaming
I think I like this one way better than California Screaming, even though it did scare me at the beginning(IMMIDIATE gigantic Loop RIGHT after taking off—scared me to death, I wasn’t prepared for it that soon). This ride is all indoors and is fast pace, with a laser light show to Aerosmith music….think Space Mountain Anaheim when they turned it into ROCKIN’ Space Mountain.
The cuing system and story were also a whole lot more fun than California Screaming (which just appears to be a Mickey mouse sea side roller coaster, nothing more). The premise in the cuing system is that you’re in a recording studio tour, viewing Aerosmith working on a new song for the Disney roller coaster. (There’s even a 2-3 min little holographic bit where Aerosmith—mostly Steven Tyler—talks to you about how awesome the ride is). 
Those are the majority of rides. Disneyland Paris/Walt Disney Studios did have some usual rides/attractions like Tower of Terror, It’s a small world, a majority of the little kid fairytale rides, Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, Adventure Isle, The Robinson treehouse, The Captain EO show, Autotopia, and the Railway system going through each land..but we didn’t bother stopping to do most of those that looked pretty much the same as the ones in California.
The rides/attractions that Disneyland Paris didn’t have an equivalent of, which are major ones for me in California, are: Grizzly River Run, Soaring over California, Mickey’s Farris Wheel, Splash Mountain, Innoventions, Matterhorn, Jungle Cruise, and The New Orleans Square area. Everything else there was at least some attempt at an Anaheim recreation or replica.
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