crmscotland
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2005
We got back last Friday from a fantastic 4 days at DLP.
In thinking of my highs & lows l've tried to be objective & not see everything through my Mickey shaped rose tinted glasses, not easy coming from someone who saw several hidden Mickeys in the clouds on our return journey to the airport early last Friday evening - maybe it was the lingering effects of the glowtini at HNY bar.
Here goes:
Highs
Being back at DLP - this is a high high, simply being back at DLP was wonderful, we had a fantastic time. Looking back on it now it's like a dream. I can't wait to go back.
I thought the parks, especially the main Disneyland Park looked great.
HNY - really liked it from the moment we arrived, loved the
the details in the theming in the lobby, restaurants & our room which was no. 4225 in the Midtown section, 4th floor, from our window we could see the castle in the distance. Check-in & baggage delivery was quick. The left luggage service on our last day was great too.
We had breakfast in both Parkside Diner & Manhattan Restaurant - got seated quickly, good choice of foods, incl hot selection, same in both.
Halloween Decorations - l thought the decorations looked great. Really enjoyed the calvacade too.
Dreams - absolutely loved it, first time l had seen it, had heard how great it was, had watched a bit of video of it, but seeing it in reality was fantastic
Parades - thought the main park parade & WDS Stars n Cars parade were great.
Low crowd levels - queues varied from 5 to 20 mins, POTC was a walk on one of the times
Weather - better than expected, it rained one afternoon, but mostly the weather was nice, even had my sunglasses on a few times
Restaurant Food - had lovely meals in Walt's, Plaza Gardens & Annette's. Have posted reviews with photos for all 3 in the restaurant thread. Have rated Inventions as an in between rather than a high - see below.
Our personalised paving stone at Fantasia Gardens still being there & looking good 12 years after we bought it in October 2001
RS Transports - great service. Beauvais-DLP 90 euros each way shared shuttle price, shared minibus with a family of 3 on arrival, just us on the return trip. Will definitely use them again next trip (we've used them 4 times so far & always found them reliable).
Inbetween
Inventions Restaurant - we've dined there on 2 previous trips & it was great, but this trip l felt the buffet was more limited, even with the lovely location at DLH & the good character interaction at 53.50 per adult/child over 12 & 29.50 euros for child under 12 l felt it wasn't worth it. 2 days later we had lunch at Plaza Gardens, l thought the buffet there was better & it was half the price. It's an Inbetween rather than a low due to the beautiful setting, characters & the fact we were seated at a window table with a view of the park. I would go back to Inventions again if l knew the buffet was as nice as on previous trips.
Lows
In the overall scheme of things these didn't affect our trip too much
Restaurant Closures - l know in low season DLP cannot be expected to keep all the restaurants open every day, but it would be helpful if the programme insert included a list of opening days/times for the restaurants. Also it would be good to have this information available on the DLP website in the same way ride closures are posted. Both Blockbuster Cafe in WDS & Casey's Corner in Main St. we're closed when we went along to them. Another day Buzz Lightyear Pizza Planet was closed, but had been open earlier in the week. I should have went along to City Hall to find out what was open, first day l forgot, the day l remembered there was a long queue.
Problem with Photopass - we added photos from rides, hotel character meets etc to the photopass card we got on our first day. On our second last day we went on POTC & duly handed over the photopass card at the attraction shop, later that evening, since it was our last evening l went to get our photopass photos printed, but the photo from POTC wasn't on the card & even though l knew the no. of our photo they couldn't trace it on the system at the HNY shop.
Fortunately next morning when l went back to the POTC shop they were able to trace it, but if l had left getting the photos printed to my last day/not had time to get back over to POTC we wouldn't have our photo from this ride.
So make sure you get the CM to check that your photo has been added to your photopass card.
Authorising Shareholders Discount - more often than not this seemed to cause a hold-up as the CM had to phone to get a supervisor/more senior CM to authorise the discount, even for smaller transactions, at one shop it held up the queue for a few minutes until authorising CM appeared. Working in accounting/audit l understand about controls & all that to protect revenues, but there are ways to do this without this authorising of every transaction small or large.
In thinking of my highs & lows l've tried to be objective & not see everything through my Mickey shaped rose tinted glasses, not easy coming from someone who saw several hidden Mickeys in the clouds on our return journey to the airport early last Friday evening - maybe it was the lingering effects of the glowtini at HNY bar.
Here goes:
Highs
Being back at DLP - this is a high high, simply being back at DLP was wonderful, we had a fantastic time. Looking back on it now it's like a dream. I can't wait to go back.
I thought the parks, especially the main Disneyland Park looked great.
HNY - really liked it from the moment we arrived, loved the
the details in the theming in the lobby, restaurants & our room which was no. 4225 in the Midtown section, 4th floor, from our window we could see the castle in the distance. Check-in & baggage delivery was quick. The left luggage service on our last day was great too.
We had breakfast in both Parkside Diner & Manhattan Restaurant - got seated quickly, good choice of foods, incl hot selection, same in both.
Halloween Decorations - l thought the decorations looked great. Really enjoyed the calvacade too.
Dreams - absolutely loved it, first time l had seen it, had heard how great it was, had watched a bit of video of it, but seeing it in reality was fantastic
Parades - thought the main park parade & WDS Stars n Cars parade were great.
Low crowd levels - queues varied from 5 to 20 mins, POTC was a walk on one of the times
Weather - better than expected, it rained one afternoon, but mostly the weather was nice, even had my sunglasses on a few times
Restaurant Food - had lovely meals in Walt's, Plaza Gardens & Annette's. Have posted reviews with photos for all 3 in the restaurant thread. Have rated Inventions as an in between rather than a high - see below.
Our personalised paving stone at Fantasia Gardens still being there & looking good 12 years after we bought it in October 2001
RS Transports - great service. Beauvais-DLP 90 euros each way shared shuttle price, shared minibus with a family of 3 on arrival, just us on the return trip. Will definitely use them again next trip (we've used them 4 times so far & always found them reliable).
Inbetween
Inventions Restaurant - we've dined there on 2 previous trips & it was great, but this trip l felt the buffet was more limited, even with the lovely location at DLH & the good character interaction at 53.50 per adult/child over 12 & 29.50 euros for child under 12 l felt it wasn't worth it. 2 days later we had lunch at Plaza Gardens, l thought the buffet there was better & it was half the price. It's an Inbetween rather than a low due to the beautiful setting, characters & the fact we were seated at a window table with a view of the park. I would go back to Inventions again if l knew the buffet was as nice as on previous trips.
Lows
In the overall scheme of things these didn't affect our trip too much
Restaurant Closures - l know in low season DLP cannot be expected to keep all the restaurants open every day, but it would be helpful if the programme insert included a list of opening days/times for the restaurants. Also it would be good to have this information available on the DLP website in the same way ride closures are posted. Both Blockbuster Cafe in WDS & Casey's Corner in Main St. we're closed when we went along to them. Another day Buzz Lightyear Pizza Planet was closed, but had been open earlier in the week. I should have went along to City Hall to find out what was open, first day l forgot, the day l remembered there was a long queue.
Problem with Photopass - we added photos from rides, hotel character meets etc to the photopass card we got on our first day. On our second last day we went on POTC & duly handed over the photopass card at the attraction shop, later that evening, since it was our last evening l went to get our photopass photos printed, but the photo from POTC wasn't on the card & even though l knew the no. of our photo they couldn't trace it on the system at the HNY shop.
Fortunately next morning when l went back to the POTC shop they were able to trace it, but if l had left getting the photos printed to my last day/not had time to get back over to POTC we wouldn't have our photo from this ride.
So make sure you get the CM to check that your photo has been added to your photopass card.
Authorising Shareholders Discount - more often than not this seemed to cause a hold-up as the CM had to phone to get a supervisor/more senior CM to authorise the discount, even for smaller transactions, at one shop it held up the queue for a few minutes until authorising CM appeared. Working in accounting/audit l understand about controls & all that to protect revenues, but there are ways to do this without this authorising of every transaction small or large.
I'm very envious of you having one!
)
There was a small table with 2 chairs as well as the desk you can just about see next to the bed in the first photo. Size wise the room was fine for the 4 of us. 
that is definitely more of an annoyance. I had really hoped it would be improved with the introduction of the photo card! Did they ask for ID still?
