irish disney fan
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2011
- Messages
- 33
hi, iv really enjoyed reading everyone's highs and lows. we stayed a week and i didn't keep notes so wouldn't be great at remembering details for a trip report, but here's some of the main highs and lows. this was our third trip and i have to say there were very few lows, so il start with these and get them out of the way
lows
lows are basically the same as others-we came across quite a few very rude people during our trip-main cases being getting on the shuttle buses- people nearly climbing over buggy to get on...and waiting to see characters... my kids found it really hard to understand how people that came along after them and pushed in front of them got photos and autographs while they were left standing and in the case of the studios on our last day still left standing with no photo or autograph while Jessie was led away after being one of the first waiting for her. people would actually shove their kids in front of them..
now some characters were great and only called over the waiting ones, had to laugh at the faces of the pusher-ins as they were ignored and even shoved forcefully away by mr. smee at one meet.. i really feel for the characters being mobbed like this, its not safe for anyone..
another small low was dd being measured and let on single rider q for parachutes once and then waiting 15 minutes the next day to be told she was too small for single rider at she was about to ride.. fair enough rules are rules but as i said to cms she shouldnt have been let ion the first time after being measured if this was the case... this resulted in one very upset little girl watching her brothers going on.. (main q was nearly an hour at this stage). i dont really understand if the child is tall enough to ride in main q what difference it makes in single rider as long as child is comfortable not sitting with parents..
now onto highs!!
big high was explorers- loved it! would return here anyday.. stayed in cheyenne twice but this really tops it, liked bigger rooms with separate bunk bed room, hotel in one building not separate blocks, breakfast while fairly basic continental wasn't such an ordeal as you are led to your table first-big plus with kids rather than trying to look for table with trays of food,etc. also had fresh fruit and pancakes and waffles..
biggest plus was the pool, kids loved it-we swam 5 out of 7 days, the slides were great. i honestly think they had as much fun here as in the parks and it really added to the whole experience. great opening hours from 8am until 11pm, and good soft play area too-bigger than i had expected. i honestly couldn't find any fault with hotel, it was spotless and room cleaned daily so you really cant believe all the reviews you read..
weather
also much better than expected-had forecast rain all week when in fact we only had two evenings and one morning/afternoon of rain-but when it rained it rained heavy
luckily we didn't get caught out in any of it although overcast a lot of times, it was also fairly warm and kids wore crop pants, t-shirts until late every night only adding a hoodie at times so really wasn't cold so to speak.
characters
although the scrums were a low the meet and greet characters were great, the kids were way more into characters this trip and it was our first time with an autograph so we spent a lot of time character hunting.. we met peter pan three different occasions beside chalet de marionette-this was a big high, hes now my 4 yr old dd's "hero" in her own words..
she got great attention for being tinkerbell and we just HAD to watch the parade as peter pan told her to.. thankfully he spotted her the three times in parade and called out tinkerbell to her, her expression was magical.....
another great tip was wearing the tinkerbell dress as fastpass for peterpan ride-worked every time and she loved the attention from cm's.. great as we never needed fast pass tickets for this and q was always long.
princess pavillion was also great, we queued three times for this and luckily got a different princess every time, ariel, belle and aurora. for those of you thinking the queues are too long, i thought the same and didnt think shed have the patience to wait but she did no problem, we got the q at 45 mins twice and 60 another time and the timing really is fairly accurate, but it really does pass quickly and her and her brother loved looking at the different windows on the way. plus she made friends twice with other little irls and this passed the time.. the princesses really made her feel special, especially aurora who said did you fly all the way from neverland tinkerbell? and said she'd tell peter pan to watch out for her in the parade, she was so chuffed with this
the pictures taken by photographer were lovely and of course i ended up buying them... even though you are able to take as many as you want yourself.
i found that little girls in costume got so much attention from cms and in the parade so well worth it, mine loved being called princess or tinkerbell.
the princess for a day was also great- i know it is sooo expensive but she loved it and i said by the time we go to dlp again she may be past the princess stage so i let her enjoy it this time. the make up even lasted two days and into the third-she refused to wash it off until going to the pool
cowboy cookout had a great selection of characters- we saw tigger, eeyore, minnie, pluto, friar tuck, donald, goofy, woody and daisy, they need to do something about the set up though as all characters started on one side of room rather than spread them out and it was quite busy so ids were getting impatient waiting for them to come over. food was fine-nothing special but lots of food..
dreams
of course this was fab, really enjoyed it-watched twice, once near ap office and second time near adventure land entrance, waited early first time but didn't bother the second night as we sat for ages for people to come along at last minute and stand in front of us so we had to stand too along with others who had been sitting for ages
. would be great if everyone just stayed sitting as they did further along from us...
rides
loved that we could all ride thunder mountain together for first time, 4 yr old now loved it as well as loving tot and crush
change from small world and tea cups! also rc racer another first for me and boys
restaurants
annettes was great for food at lunch time as was eos in evening-yum.. very quick service in both and delicious fresh food, good portions..hakuna matata was also delicious but unfortunately closed when we tried to return 2 other days..the parks are best avoided for lunch between 1 and 2- its sooo busy! we were also disappointed with a lot of restaurant closures, such a poor selection after the parade is over, silly really with parks open til 11. videopolis was another new cs for us, great to relax in front of the cartoons and food was actually nice and fresh, unlike when we got it to takeaway before dreams one nite, it was fairly cold but edible!!
steakhouse Sunday brunch also nice food but not so good for characters-only has four and quite spaced out but enjoyed the food and loved the desserts. best to go early as we went at 12.30 and it was nice and quiet, was getting a lot busier by time we left at two.
dream ap
these were well worth buying, got the free child offer with ce and they were great value, we saved so much on meals and merchandise, felt real important flashing the cards no trouble exchanging these, very efficient-seen straight away and all dealt with in 10 mins.
sorry that was so long... all in all had a great time, will we return again? we definitely will, but not for another few years I'd say and probably not in June again.. was quite surprised at the queses, a lot busier than expected as it was out of school holidays -didn't ride orbitron or autopia at all as queues nearly an hour or more every time we checked, and they didn't want to q that long for them!! i think we were spoilt with low crowd levels in early October, especially with mnsshp, where everything was a walk on and could ride the likes of dumbo a few times in a row without getting off..
lows
lows are basically the same as others-we came across quite a few very rude people during our trip-main cases being getting on the shuttle buses- people nearly climbing over buggy to get on...and waiting to see characters... my kids found it really hard to understand how people that came along after them and pushed in front of them got photos and autographs while they were left standing and in the case of the studios on our last day still left standing with no photo or autograph while Jessie was led away after being one of the first waiting for her. people would actually shove their kids in front of them..
now some characters were great and only called over the waiting ones, had to laugh at the faces of the pusher-ins as they were ignored and even shoved forcefully away by mr. smee at one meet.. i really feel for the characters being mobbed like this, its not safe for anyone..
another small low was dd being measured and let on single rider q for parachutes once and then waiting 15 minutes the next day to be told she was too small for single rider at she was about to ride.. fair enough rules are rules but as i said to cms she shouldnt have been let ion the first time after being measured if this was the case... this resulted in one very upset little girl watching her brothers going on.. (main q was nearly an hour at this stage). i dont really understand if the child is tall enough to ride in main q what difference it makes in single rider as long as child is comfortable not sitting with parents..
now onto highs!!
big high was explorers- loved it! would return here anyday.. stayed in cheyenne twice but this really tops it, liked bigger rooms with separate bunk bed room, hotel in one building not separate blocks, breakfast while fairly basic continental wasn't such an ordeal as you are led to your table first-big plus with kids rather than trying to look for table with trays of food,etc. also had fresh fruit and pancakes and waffles..
biggest plus was the pool, kids loved it-we swam 5 out of 7 days, the slides were great. i honestly think they had as much fun here as in the parks and it really added to the whole experience. great opening hours from 8am until 11pm, and good soft play area too-bigger than i had expected. i honestly couldn't find any fault with hotel, it was spotless and room cleaned daily so you really cant believe all the reviews you read..
weather
also much better than expected-had forecast rain all week when in fact we only had two evenings and one morning/afternoon of rain-but when it rained it rained heavy
luckily we didn't get caught out in any of it although overcast a lot of times, it was also fairly warm and kids wore crop pants, t-shirts until late every night only adding a hoodie at times so really wasn't cold so to speak.characters
although the scrums were a low the meet and greet characters were great, the kids were way more into characters this trip and it was our first time with an autograph so we spent a lot of time character hunting.. we met peter pan three different occasions beside chalet de marionette-this was a big high, hes now my 4 yr old dd's "hero" in her own words..
she got great attention for being tinkerbell and we just HAD to watch the parade as peter pan told her to.. thankfully he spotted her the three times in parade and called out tinkerbell to her, her expression was magical.....another great tip was wearing the tinkerbell dress as fastpass for peterpan ride-worked every time and she loved the attention from cm's.. great as we never needed fast pass tickets for this and q was always long.
princess pavillion was also great, we queued three times for this and luckily got a different princess every time, ariel, belle and aurora. for those of you thinking the queues are too long, i thought the same and didnt think shed have the patience to wait but she did no problem, we got the q at 45 mins twice and 60 another time and the timing really is fairly accurate, but it really does pass quickly and her and her brother loved looking at the different windows on the way. plus she made friends twice with other little irls and this passed the time.. the princesses really made her feel special, especially aurora who said did you fly all the way from neverland tinkerbell? and said she'd tell peter pan to watch out for her in the parade, she was so chuffed with this
the pictures taken by photographer were lovely and of course i ended up buying them... even though you are able to take as many as you want yourself.i found that little girls in costume got so much attention from cms and in the parade so well worth it, mine loved being called princess or tinkerbell.
the princess for a day was also great- i know it is sooo expensive but she loved it and i said by the time we go to dlp again she may be past the princess stage so i let her enjoy it this time. the make up even lasted two days and into the third-she refused to wash it off until going to the pool
cowboy cookout had a great selection of characters- we saw tigger, eeyore, minnie, pluto, friar tuck, donald, goofy, woody and daisy, they need to do something about the set up though as all characters started on one side of room rather than spread them out and it was quite busy so ids were getting impatient waiting for them to come over. food was fine-nothing special but lots of food..
dreams
of course this was fab, really enjoyed it-watched twice, once near ap office and second time near adventure land entrance, waited early first time but didn't bother the second night as we sat for ages for people to come along at last minute and stand in front of us so we had to stand too along with others who had been sitting for ages
. would be great if everyone just stayed sitting as they did further along from us...rides
loved that we could all ride thunder mountain together for first time, 4 yr old now loved it as well as loving tot and crush
change from small world and tea cups! also rc racer another first for me and boysrestaurants
annettes was great for food at lunch time as was eos in evening-yum.. very quick service in both and delicious fresh food, good portions..hakuna matata was also delicious but unfortunately closed when we tried to return 2 other days..
the parks are best avoided for lunch between 1 and 2- its sooo busy! we were also disappointed with a lot of restaurant closures, such a poor selection after the parade is over, silly really with parks open til 11. videopolis was another new cs for us, great to relax in front of the cartoons and food was actually nice and fresh, unlike when we got it to takeaway before dreams one nite, it was fairly cold but edible!!steakhouse Sunday brunch also nice food but not so good for characters-only has four and quite spaced out but enjoyed the food and loved the desserts. best to go early as we went at 12.30 and it was nice and quiet, was getting a lot busier by time we left at two.
dream ap
these were well worth buying, got the free child offer with ce and they were great value, we saved so much on meals and merchandise, felt real important flashing the cards
no trouble exchanging these, very efficient-seen straight away and all dealt with in 10 mins.sorry that was so long... all in all had a great time, will we return again? we definitely will, but not for another few years I'd say and probably not in June again.. was quite surprised at the queses, a lot busier than expected as it was out of school holidays -didn't ride orbitron or autopia at all as queues nearly an hour or more every time we checked, and they didn't want to q that long for them!! i think we were spoilt with low crowd levels in early October, especially with mnsshp, where everything was a walk on and could ride the likes of dumbo a few times in a row without getting off
..
glad you had a great time. We've stayed at the Explorers a few times and always enjoyed it there. 
