adr2.8i
Back from the magic....and now hooked!
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2009
Just returned from a magical trip full of memorable moments and memories that will last forever.
I thought I would share a few of my thoughts from our trip. loads of highs and just a few little lows.
Highs.
Gorgeous weather. Blue skies all week. A tad nippy first thing and when the sun went down but overall not too cold at all.
Loads of shows and parades! the parades were amazing! and it our first time ever watching a show at disney. buffalo bills was a bit hit with all the family. mickey and the magician was outstanding. and even the frozen sing a long was enjoyable.
Ice skating outside the HNY in the dark surrounded by Xmas lights and big xmas tree! my kids loved it!
Never met so many characters before! there were loads!
All in all we met tigger, pooh , eeyore, mickey twice, goofy, pluto, genie, marie, scrooge mcduck, alice in wonderland, the queen of hearts, mad hatter, balloo, jafar, captain hook, smee, chip and dale, jack skellington, woody, jessie, gepeto, belle, snow white, aurora, prince charming, cinderella, suzy and perla, thumper, santa claus..... i think thats all of them??
highlight of the characters was tigger in cafe mickey. he had my kids in stitches. and my son even got tigger to "DAB" for him
apparently "dabbing" is the "in" thing with the cool kids!
jack skellington was pretty cool too mind.
mickey and the magician show - absolutely spellbindingly good!
Auberge - didnt think i would like the food or the experience but did it for a treat for the daughter and i must say it was fantastic. the food was lovely and the princess' spent so much time and attention with my daughter it was worth the price!
inventions - we almost didnt book it but im so glad we did! tremendous food and the character interaction was fantastic! i managed to get a window table for 6.30pm so as we were eating we were able to look down main street and watch Dreams! bloody marvelous. Pluto was very naughty during the buffet though and kept sitting on our table pinching food!
I thought the park looked bloody amazing if im honest. it looks cleaner and brighter than it did 3 years ago during our last visit. you can see they have improved it and spruced it up and are continuing to do so. and the christmas lights and decorations and the huge christmas tree were very impressive i must say. and it snowed on us as we walked down main street during EMH. kids loved that.
Pause gourmand - a nice teatime treat which we used every day and was really handy. we had 4 hot chocs and 4 doughnuts every afternoon which came to around 85 euros over the 4 days so saved me a few pounds!
Lows.
some of the queues for the character meet and greets were ridiculous. mickey & minnie in the studios for example. there was no EMH for the studios and we were told they were very popular so get there early and go straight to them. so we arrive around 9.30am already a big queue but they are letting people in so thought it wouldnt be too bad. Nope, how wrong was i! got into the queue only to be told by a CM that the wait is already 2 hours from our spot. we tried again the next morning but was another 2 hour wait.
the santa queue. first 2 days we were told that there was a 75 min wait by a CM who said get into the park for 9am and come straight here as its so popular. so our 3rd day we did just that. Got to the park for 9am, took 20 mins to get ino the park, not a good start, but legged it to santa. Got in the queue and no word of a lie there were only around a dozen people in front of us. Great we thought. got chatting to a CM and he said santa doesnt start until 10am but you should only have a wait of 20 mins after 10am. Great, no problem. Just shy of 12pm and we finally got to meet santa :-( the trouble is that theres 2 queues for santa. one is for disabled guests who are allocated a time slot to meet santa who turn up and are almost immediatey taken into santa, and the other queue is for non disabled guests who basically have to stand and wait in the cold with irritable and bored kids. Now i have no axe to grind with any disabled person, my dad is disabled, and i totally understand and accept that they should get preferential treatment but for 45 mins we did not move a single inch in that queue. there was no alternating of the queues, let one disabled guest in and then one from the non disabled guest queue. our queue only went down when there wasnt anyone in the disabled queue. it was rather frustrating if im honest and it kicked off big time behind us between a few families and a few CM's.
why not get 2 santas, one for disabled guests and one for non disabled? or even alternate the queues a bit? or move the meet mickey for the christmas period and have a few santas in there and people can queue in the warm and dry at least?
Whilst the pause gourmand was great, the number of places to use your vouchers was very limited, and the ones you did find, were so under staffed it was laughable really. toad hall for example. one staff member on the till and one staff member picking all the orders. there was a huge queue and people walked out in frustration. and then at 4.45pm a lady came out and said the restaurant was closing!
and the queue for caseys corner, well, they were queuing up outside on main street, so id give that place a miss if i was you!
Ratatouille breaking down. spent wednesday in the studios and it was down most of the day. and when it did open around 4pm there was a 150 min wait, so we didnt get to do it. popped in on thursday and it was down again. the CM at the ride said its always breaking down.
crushes coaster and slinky both failed on wednesday as well which was also disappointing.
smoking and selfie sticks. banned apparently. signs up and tannoy messages saying they are prohibited. everywhere you went, smoking and selfie sticks. the selfie sticks i dont mind,but smoking really peeves me, especially in a childrens theme park. nobody does a single thing to stop it
And then to finish your holiday you have the usual debacle at the station for the eurostar. our 4th time using the eurostar and its still a shambles the french end. check in is too small, and with no waiting area to relax in,so you sit on a cold hard floor (unlike ashford where the waiting area is huge and relaxing and with kiosks for food and drink) the desk is too near the lifts and the escalator and the disney express luggage area. so you have people trying to get their luggage and trying to check in at the same time and its just too small an area for it. Doesnt look like its gonna change soon!
anyway we had a truly maleficent break (see what i did there?) and it was definatley our best ever disney trip. reading back im making the trip sound worse than it was it seems, but honestly, it was magical and the park looks the best we have ever seen it, even with the continuing refurbishments. (well apart from the area around star tours, that looks bleak at the moment if im honest)
id love to be able to afford to visit at christmas again, it really is so beautiful when lit up at night. id highly recommend the christmas period for a visit if anyone is thinking about it.
I thought I would share a few of my thoughts from our trip. loads of highs and just a few little lows.
Highs.
Gorgeous weather. Blue skies all week. A tad nippy first thing and when the sun went down but overall not too cold at all.
Loads of shows and parades! the parades were amazing! and it our first time ever watching a show at disney. buffalo bills was a bit hit with all the family. mickey and the magician was outstanding. and even the frozen sing a long was enjoyable.
Ice skating outside the HNY in the dark surrounded by Xmas lights and big xmas tree! my kids loved it!
Never met so many characters before! there were loads!
All in all we met tigger, pooh , eeyore, mickey twice, goofy, pluto, genie, marie, scrooge mcduck, alice in wonderland, the queen of hearts, mad hatter, balloo, jafar, captain hook, smee, chip and dale, jack skellington, woody, jessie, gepeto, belle, snow white, aurora, prince charming, cinderella, suzy and perla, thumper, santa claus..... i think thats all of them??
highlight of the characters was tigger in cafe mickey. he had my kids in stitches. and my son even got tigger to "DAB" for him
apparently "dabbing" is the "in" thing with the cool kids!jack skellington was pretty cool too mind.
mickey and the magician show - absolutely spellbindingly good!
Auberge - didnt think i would like the food or the experience but did it for a treat for the daughter and i must say it was fantastic. the food was lovely and the princess' spent so much time and attention with my daughter it was worth the price!
inventions - we almost didnt book it but im so glad we did! tremendous food and the character interaction was fantastic! i managed to get a window table for 6.30pm so as we were eating we were able to look down main street and watch Dreams! bloody marvelous. Pluto was very naughty during the buffet though and kept sitting on our table pinching food!
I thought the park looked bloody amazing if im honest. it looks cleaner and brighter than it did 3 years ago during our last visit. you can see they have improved it and spruced it up and are continuing to do so. and the christmas lights and decorations and the huge christmas tree were very impressive i must say. and it snowed on us as we walked down main street during EMH. kids loved that.
Pause gourmand - a nice teatime treat which we used every day and was really handy. we had 4 hot chocs and 4 doughnuts every afternoon which came to around 85 euros over the 4 days so saved me a few pounds!
Lows.
some of the queues for the character meet and greets were ridiculous. mickey & minnie in the studios for example. there was no EMH for the studios and we were told they were very popular so get there early and go straight to them. so we arrive around 9.30am already a big queue but they are letting people in so thought it wouldnt be too bad. Nope, how wrong was i! got into the queue only to be told by a CM that the wait is already 2 hours from our spot. we tried again the next morning but was another 2 hour wait.
the santa queue. first 2 days we were told that there was a 75 min wait by a CM who said get into the park for 9am and come straight here as its so popular. so our 3rd day we did just that. Got to the park for 9am, took 20 mins to get ino the park, not a good start, but legged it to santa. Got in the queue and no word of a lie there were only around a dozen people in front of us. Great we thought. got chatting to a CM and he said santa doesnt start until 10am but you should only have a wait of 20 mins after 10am. Great, no problem. Just shy of 12pm and we finally got to meet santa :-( the trouble is that theres 2 queues for santa. one is for disabled guests who are allocated a time slot to meet santa who turn up and are almost immediatey taken into santa, and the other queue is for non disabled guests who basically have to stand and wait in the cold with irritable and bored kids. Now i have no axe to grind with any disabled person, my dad is disabled, and i totally understand and accept that they should get preferential treatment but for 45 mins we did not move a single inch in that queue. there was no alternating of the queues, let one disabled guest in and then one from the non disabled guest queue. our queue only went down when there wasnt anyone in the disabled queue. it was rather frustrating if im honest and it kicked off big time behind us between a few families and a few CM's.
why not get 2 santas, one for disabled guests and one for non disabled? or even alternate the queues a bit? or move the meet mickey for the christmas period and have a few santas in there and people can queue in the warm and dry at least?
Whilst the pause gourmand was great, the number of places to use your vouchers was very limited, and the ones you did find, were so under staffed it was laughable really. toad hall for example. one staff member on the till and one staff member picking all the orders. there was a huge queue and people walked out in frustration. and then at 4.45pm a lady came out and said the restaurant was closing!
and the queue for caseys corner, well, they were queuing up outside on main street, so id give that place a miss if i was you!
Ratatouille breaking down. spent wednesday in the studios and it was down most of the day. and when it did open around 4pm there was a 150 min wait, so we didnt get to do it. popped in on thursday and it was down again. the CM at the ride said its always breaking down.
crushes coaster and slinky both failed on wednesday as well which was also disappointing.
smoking and selfie sticks. banned apparently. signs up and tannoy messages saying they are prohibited. everywhere you went, smoking and selfie sticks. the selfie sticks i dont mind,but smoking really peeves me, especially in a childrens theme park. nobody does a single thing to stop it
And then to finish your holiday you have the usual debacle at the station for the eurostar. our 4th time using the eurostar and its still a shambles the french end. check in is too small, and with no waiting area to relax in,so you sit on a cold hard floor (unlike ashford where the waiting area is huge and relaxing and with kiosks for food and drink) the desk is too near the lifts and the escalator and the disney express luggage area. so you have people trying to get their luggage and trying to check in at the same time and its just too small an area for it. Doesnt look like its gonna change soon!
anyway we had a truly maleficent break (see what i did there?) and it was definatley our best ever disney trip. reading back im making the trip sound worse than it was it seems, but honestly, it was magical and the park looks the best we have ever seen it, even with the continuing refurbishments. (well apart from the area around star tours, that looks bleak at the moment if im honest)
id love to be able to afford to visit at christmas again, it really is so beautiful when lit up at night. id highly recommend the christmas period for a visit if anyone is thinking about it.
Last edited:
we are off next week and I cannot wait 
I loved it the year we went for Christmas, would love to go again one year. Shame you didn't get to ride Ratatouille but you know what that means ..... you HAVE to book to go back again! 
, we also did cafe mikey and probably passed you a hundred times lol. We didn't bother with the character ques though as we've be so many times before we have seen most of them.
