back from the magic - Hotel new york

[isabelleB]

Hello everyone,

back from 4 days : the first night spent at the explorer hotel ( my kids always have a blast using the kids facilities and the pool - and they are 11 & 9 years old!)
The other nights spent in the Hotel New York in a two bedrooms suite, we were travelling with my sister and little baby of 8 months.

Well This week it's School holidays for many EU countries, so we were expecting crowds . Attractions still doable but sometimes long waits.
What we did not expect was the amount of attractions closed :

- Pirates, it's a small world, the studios train, armagedon, disneyland railroad fantasyland entire fairytale part,..... many restaurants were closed as well. Well the park was really crowded and long stupid lines for food.

It's not yet school holidays for French kids, but we do not understand why they do no refurb during a low season.....
Very dissapointed!
Isabelle

[isabelleB]

We had a dinner at the Parkside dinner at HNY , the buffet was delicious , very good place !
Café mickey was nice, as usual , very expensive for so so food, but well worth the character experience.

The pool at HNY is very nice, we really enjoyed our stay, there was a lot of noise in the rooms , like air conditioning or warming system I do not know.

Full bkft very nice as well, only pancakes and mickey waffles are missing!

Our worst experience was starbucks... Oh my god, the guy who served us was awful, he got our orders wrong ( and we do speak french!!!!!) , was impolite with every customers and not helpful at all. I realised my order was wrong in HNY, and did not return. I had to trash my expensive coffee , was not good at all.

[Isila]

And any good things you'd like to share?

I understand how you feel about closures, last year we experienced this also. I hope it's not so crowded as we go in March!

[Lisa_C]

Originally Posted by Isila

And any good things you'd like to share?

I understand how you feel about closures, last year we experienced this also. I hope it's not so crowded as we go in March!

There are still a lot of rides closed then Isila, enough for us to cancel a trip Never seen so many refurbs in one chunk

[Isila]

we're not canceling the trip. we'll have fun after all, but it is disappointing
after all.

[DLPdaft]

Originally Posted by Lisa_C

There are still a lot of rides closed then Isila, enough for us to cancel a trip Never seen so many refurbs in one chunk

Unfortunately i have ~ march 2011! its a real shame DLP dont publish their refurb schedule more in advance. jan ~ march is traditionally refurb season at Dlp I guess the base price is supposed to reflect this?

[isabelleB]

They should really do their refurb season in January.
Feb - March is school holidays !!!!! French are having their 2 weeks winter break spread throughout feb until end of March .

Pirates will be closed until mid March, but most of the other refurb should be done for mid March.

For my good tips :

- Well the extra hours are well worth it! for Fantasyland & Discoveryland. Worth to get up early , tour both , grap a few fastpass and head back to your hotel for breakfast then come back.

- The single rider line was a good option for toy story playland

- for Disney bkft : even if you are assigned an hour, you really can go at your best convenience.

- I always take my kids nintendo DS , that way they are pleased to wait in line, hahahaha

- This year I bought a dream annual passeport, and it was great to have all the reductions

- the sea life aquarium is very nice ( 5 min from the parks, they even run a shuttle from the hotels). They have a fun playground for the kids. Small comparing to other like seaworld, but lots of fun . Theu have an outlet shopping and a great mall there as well.

- eating in disneyvillage for lunch is great, not crowded at all.( planet hollywood , rainforest café, café mickey, all fun!)

- long queues for the characters in the park, best to interact in café mickey, in your hotel . The Cook - out barbecue in disneyland park is great for characters interaction, not too expensive and food is great .

- as for every theme park, go early if you want to do a lot

- We went at our own peace, having visited multiple times in the past. It's nice as well to experience all the other activities

- next time, I will go when it's a bit warmer , hahahaha

[lilacgems23]

Originally Posted by isabelleB

They should really do their refurb season in January.
Feb - March is school holidays !!!!! French are having their 2 weeks winter break spread throughout feb until end of March .

Pirates will be closed until mid March, but most of the other refurb should be done for mid March.

For my good tips :

- Well the extra hours are well worth it! for Fantasyland & Discoveryland. Worth to get up early , tour both , grap a few fastpass and head back to your hotel for breakfast then come back.

- The single rider line was a good option for toy story playland

- for Disney bkft : even if you are assigned an hour, you really can go at your best convenience.

- I always take my kids nintendo DS , that way they are pleased to wait in line, hahahaha

- This year I bought a dream annual passeport, and it was great to have all the reductions

- the sea life aquarium is very nice ( 5 min from the parks, they even run a shuttle from the hotels). They have a fun playground for the kids. Small comparing to other like seaworld, but lots of fun . Theu have an outlet shopping and a great mall there as well.

- eating in disneyvillage for lunch is great, not crowded at all.( planet hollywood , rainforest café, café mickey, all fun!)

- long queues for the characters in the park, best to interact in café mickey, in your hotel . The Cook - out barbecue in disneyland park is great for characters interaction, not too expensive and food is great .

- as for every theme park, go early if you want to do a lot

- We went at our own peace, having visited multiple times in the past. It's nice as well to experience all the other activities

- next time, I will go when it's a bit warmer , hahahaha

They no longer have character meals at the cowboy cookout.

This is going to be our first time going in Feb but Ive noticed we are going when 2 out of the 3 regions are off for their school holidays so am expecting it to be very busy.

The only closures my girls would not cope with is Buzz and IASW

[isabelleB]

Oh no :-( Too bad they stopped the character lunch , it was a really nice place

Do you know if they will launch a new charcater lunch? Maybe Lucky nugget as it was done in the past?

[isabelleB]

well at least other countries will be back to school , I think it should not be too bad for you!

[Carrie_Cat]

Originally Posted by isabelleB

Oh no :-( Too bad they stopped the character lunch , it was a really nice place

Do you know if they will launch a new charcater lunch? Maybe Lucky nugget as it was done in the past?

Last November and nothing else is planned for a replacement character meal

[queenie353]

Hi Isabelleb


We are going in march with an eight month old. Do u have any tips for travelling with baby. What rides did the baby go on?
Thanks

[lilacgems23]

Originally Posted by queenie353

Hi Isabelleb


We are going in march with an eight month old. Do u have any tips for travelling with baby. What rides did the baby go on?
Thanks

Our daughters first trip was when she was 7 months old. We took her on IASW, Peter Pan and Buzz but then on the last day we weren't allowed to take her on Buzz or Peter Pan as the age limit is 1. In the studios all we could take her on was Tram Tours.

I advise to make sure you take enough baby wipes, nappys and baby food if you feed these to your baby as they are very expensive in the park if you run out. The baby food too was all fruit for that age in the park which we wasn't keen on giving but had to once. Although we found the buffets useful as they had things you could mash up for them with your fork like lasagne, mash potatoes etc

[isabelleB]

They allowed us to go on all fantasyland rides, we didn't try something else lol

You can use as well the baby swap, have one adult holds the baby when the other is riding, and then you all swap, your other kids go to experience the ride twice!

We found the experience easy : all restaurants are willing to warn your baby bottles / food

Baby chair, baby beds are available in the hotels are well, all toilets have a baby change place.

We basically walked a lot at our own peace and did shopping! The older kids were fine with that having visited a lot in the past.

[sky13]

That is a lot of closures for expected crowds! I agree with DLPdaft - it would be nice if DLP publishes their refurb schedule a bit more in advance so that we could keep that in mind when choosing when to go!