Back - Highs and Lows

[Vala]

I hope that still counts as highs and lows, my boyfriend says he's seen trip reports shorter than this.

Highs

Stars N Cars parade.

I decided to chance it and stay in the autograph area although last time things got pretty manic. Was very much worth it.

I had brought some pictures to get signed and Gaston was totally over the moon. He didn’t speak much English (and my French is abysmal if I can’t concentrate, and boy did he make me lose concentration ), but we got along pretty well. In the end he told me he “really liked me” and even kissed me!
Emile from Ratatouille almost had to be physically removed because he wanted to see pictures and more pictures.

Meeting Remy and Emile.

For Emile, see above.
Remy was extremely happy that I was wearing one of his shirts, and when the CM with him pointed out I had a new pin too that they hadn't seen yet he was totally over the moon. After the 7th kiss I figured I better leave the scene before I got torn apart my too many kids pulling on my clothes.

Character Brunch at Inventions on Sundays.

A lot more full now than in March, but the food is delicious and I definitely got the best character interaction the whole trip there.

I was sitting next to another Chip and Dale fan and they spent ages with us, dancing and hugging and Dale even got Mickey and Minnie so I got a picture with all of them.
Lilo sat with me and checked out my pin book and so freaked on poor Stitch when she saw a pin of him smooching up to Arielle.

Meeting King Louie.

The poor soul was totally ignored at the Jamming Jungle Meet and Greet by most guests because he wasn’t signing. I had done a drawing to get signed by Baloo, but had made one for Louie too because I didn’t want him to feel left out. He was so happy, he decided to take me for a dance.

Characters out on Town Square and Main Street.

First time in several visits I’ve actually seen out characters there. Got autographs from Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, Sheriff of Nottingham and Friar Tuck easily. Eeyore and Frollo were also around, but I had to rush for a reservation at Auberge. On Monday evening I saw Belle and Snow White out there signing.

Tarzan show.

Wow. Definitely not what I expected – I was more expecting Aladdin musical style show – but I loved it.

Met some really nice CMs this time.

I had the same CM looking after me both times in the Auberge and he was so endlessly sweet and helpful. Also a CM in a store gave me an ornament as a gift when I could name the character on it.

Some CMs were actually making an effort to control the scrums.

For Stitch one of them saw me standing there for a while with kids pushing in all the time, and then he told Stitch to come over to me and see his “special friend” because I was so patient.
Also Jack Sparrow’s handler specifically told him to please take one last photo with me because I had been waiting so long and people just kept pushing in.

Crowds

I was expecting the worst seeing it was Bastille Day Weekend, but the crowds were nowhere as bad as in March.


Lows

Rude people.

And there I thought March was bad.

Some mom called me a name I can’t repeat on a family forum in what seemed to be her native language because I didn’t move away from Friar Tuck quickly enough when her daughter was already running up to him. They were gone quite quickly when I replied to her in her own language. Obviously she thought she was safe because I had spoken English and she thought I didn't understand.

After Remy was so nice to me I came back to the hotel that day to find out that someone had done several squiggles with their pen on my shirt. Definitely looks like it was done on purpose – doodles don’t usually happen when you accidentally brush against someone! With all that tugging and pulling going on I guess I didn’t realize this was happening.

When I was waiting to meet Stitch several parents told their kids to squeeze in front of me because I was “just an adult”. One mom even told her daughter to kick me in the hollow of my knee to make me move!

Sunday I was keeping a really nice family company for the parade. They had 2 boys, 4 and 5, and had been sitting on the curb for a while. They saw my camera and we agreed it was fine that I was standing behind the kids. In comes a maybe 10 or 12 year old girl. She was taller than me, but I am pretty Pooh sized. She says “excuse me” and we move so she can squeeze through, thinking she just wants to cross the street. She squeezes through, but stays on the curb and stands in front of the boys! I asked her what she thought she was doing – no reply. The mom of the boys told her to move. No reaction. I told her to move. She replies: “I just want to go over the street.” Well, then go and don’t park your butt in front of kids who are half your size! She finally went back to the other end of the crowd after the family’s father had returned and she realized he wouldn’t let go either. In the end the three of us pretty much walled the boys in so this wouldn’t happen again, and the next person who genuinely wanted to cross the street had to look for another place.

Special mention: inconsiderate people.

The Tarzan show. When I saw the ropes it was clear to me that there would be some aerial action and I specifically set my camera not to use flash. Because you know, people doing artistic stuff in scary heights + camera flashlight goes off in the wrong moment = potentially life threatening for the artists. Still flashes were going off everywhere. It’s a complete mystery to me why there wasn’t even a request “no flash photography!”

Bad parenting.

When did parenting get out of fashion? Friday night when waiting for Fantillusion a kid spit at me repeatedly. I asked him to stop. He didn’t. I asked the parents to do something. “I don’t understand.” I ended up having to move to a different spot.

Friday when waiting for the parade a kid started jumping up and down the curb, trying to do some spectacular landings. With the parade maybe 15 meters away that is. Two CMs asked him to stop. He took it up again as soon as they were around the corner. In the end he landed wrong. Understandably he started wailing. Would the parents go and move him, look after whatever he had injured (I couldn’t see if something serious happened)? No, they wanted to watch the parade apparently and didn’t care that their son was crying for over ten minutes, irritating other kids around and seriously distracting people.

Kids were running up to characters everywhere. In Auberge it was at least a dozen kids the first day. And parents were actively encouraging this. I understand a kid getting excited “OMG Mickey!” and running. But parents telling them to follow the characters because “they will spend some more time with you then”? Not cool.

Disney Dining Reservation hotline.

And calling this “low” is an understatement, that’s in the epic fail category.

I made three reservations on the phone to take advantage of the Fast Pass Offer for AP holders. Later I cancelled one of those and switched to another restaurant, and in a third call I made a fourth one.

Exactly one of those reservations was in the system. It was the one I had changed, but it was in the system with the old dates!
I am not sure what I am expected to do there. I had them spell my name back to me and asked them to look up the first three reservations when I called again, and they still tell me it is not in the system.

Café Mickey.

Horribly disappointed. First they kept telling me: “you have no reservation.” We have gone to Café Mickey four times since March, and the only time they had a reservation was when we had booked the breakfast through Hotel Cheyenne with our travel booking. The other three times it had also disappeared. So yeah, this wasn’t new and I actually had a list of all three misspellings they had done before with me. No dice.

They only let me in after they realized I was only one person (and the tone “oh, it’s only you?” was very, very “OMG you sad person!” like) and no, I wasn’t going to move anywhere. I was seated, but service was atrocious. Last time the wait staff was hovering over me all the time trying to get me out fast, but this time I was completely ignored. I was in there three hours in the end! The only reason I didn't complain about that was because it was pouring outside and hey, at least I was in a dry place.

Unfortunately the characters did the same as staff did and ignored me. After Tigger, Pluto, Eeyore and Chip and Dale all walked past me – Mickey was the only one to come and stop – I politely asked for the character manager. I mean, I was waving and smiling and had camera and autograph book out, plus some pictures I wanted signed. What more should it need? Adults want to meet characters too.

The character manager came over, I explained to her what happened and she actually had the guts to ask me: “Is this a problem?” Umm… yes, it is. A pretty big one actually. She then turned around and left without a word!

The situation was somewhat solved by Goofy who had apparently witnessed it. It did appear to me he must have noticed that I was almost at my breaking point, kept me company for a while ushering all kids off and signed a really nice inscription on my autograph too. He even got back Chip and Dale for me. Unfortunately Eeyore and Pluto had already disappeared.

I tried to complain at City Hall, but they told me they are not responsible for Café Mickey. So if someone has a contact e-mail where to address this issue, please let me know. I will try the main Disney e-mail too, but seeing I still have no response from my March e-mail I doubt I will get anywhere there.

The new “organised” meet and greets.

I am seriously beginning to think that whoever decides on the set up for these is mortally allergic to organised lines.

The Jamming Jungle line worked just fine and quite fast and it never took more than 15 minutes. The African drummers were a nice touch, although that stand was set up way too close to the line for my taste. I had a headache after spending 20 minutes in that area.

Aladdin? The CMs somewhat tried to organise a line going around a taped line on the ground. Problem was people kept pushing in and nobody stopped them.

Alice? One big free for all.
Worst thing happened on Monday morning, when they had actually set it up quite nicely. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum were standing next to the red chair, line going in one side, you sat down on the chair between them, line going out the other side. Moved fast, quickly, everyone happy – besides their handler. For some reason she decided it wasn’t working, grabbed Dee and moved him in front of the tea table. Now there was a scrum around Dee and those people again were pushing in the still existing line for Dum. The bruises I got from the tea table are pretty impressive.

Treatment of adults when wanting to see characters.

I’ve mentioned the being ignored at character meals thing already. But also when I was at the “Meet the Disney Stars” thing I was twice physically pushed back when I was just standing there patiently waiting in some distance and kids were pushing in who had just run up to the character in question. I wasn’t even close to crowding the character (there were still three or more kids in front of me) and I took a lot of care not to get too close to any kids. Makes you feel really, really loved.

Inconsistency in character behaviour.

I do absolutely understand that signing autographs can be somewhat difficult with the costumes. Case in point Stitch and his claws. But as far as I know this is part of the character training. So if Stitch can’t sign yet maybe he needs some more training. I was completely dumbstruck when Stitch (who has always signed for me without a problem) suddenly started signalling he couldn’t sign because of his claws. Some kids were really confused too. Same happened again with the Incredibles and Hook. Signed one day but not the other.

Language problem.

It wasn’t that bad with the CMs this time, or maybe I met the right people for a change. But I was quite surprised when meeting Alice and it turned out she only spoke French. That may be me, but shouldn’t face characters at least have some basic knowledge in a second language?

Maintenance.

I have tried a couple of restrooms all over the park, all flooded and that was not due to the rain.

Half melted ice cream almost everywhere on Friday, attracted a lot of wasps and other critters that I wasn’t even sure about. At least I know now that I am not allergic to wasp stings.

Also thanks to the partially heavy rain some surfaces were quite dangerous. I guess at least the puddles made the wholes in the ground easier to see. I was quite floored that comte des fees (sorry, I never remember the French name... they'll always be the Storybook Land boats to me ) was running in when it was pouring. That's the first ride Disneyland Anaheim closes because of slippery surfaces, and they don't have this moving thing when you get in the boats.

The not so nice CMs.

For once a character had a handler and I asked if he’d take a picture for me. No reaction. So I asked again, this time in French. CM snapped at me “I heard you the first time.” Umm… any indication you did would have been nice, would not have been the first time someone hadn’t understood English.

The Café Mickey story I have mentioned above.

Then I was walking past the Armageddon entrance suddenly someone tapped on my shoulder and when I turned around pulled on my pin lanyard. Turned out it was a CM who was curious about my pins. Again I may be mistaken, but I am pretty sure that was not the proper etiquette.

Also I was refused more than one pin trade with a comment “oh I can’t trade you that, this pin belongs to me.” I am sometimes wearing a keeper lanyard too, but I don’t mix it with my trading pins.

Early Morning Entry

4 rides open. Enough said I think.

 

[DLPdaft]

Wow Vala, I think your boyfriend could be right - but it was good to read all your highs and lows.

Its concerning that there are so many lows around your experiences in Cafe Mickey and with CMs around the parks - I would certainly contact Disney about those.

To be honest I've always found the seating staff/initial greeting staff at Cafe Mickey to be the least welcoming of all the restaurant staff at DLP, do they train them that way? But haven't had any real problems with my reservations there, nor with the wait staff or the characters.
At Cafe Mickey they can't even use the excuse that they're busy so can't deal with everyone quickly - as they are always busy in the evenings.

 

[dlpSteve]

I agree with the bad parenting - seems some people let their kids do whatever they want. When queuing for IASW last September we saw a family try to get their daughter to leave after having been on. She lay on the floor next to where people get off and threw a huge tantrum. The parents just smirked and said "she gets like this, there's nothing we can do for 5 minutes until she calms down". I was utterly shocked - how about teaching her the right way to act and if that fails, pick her up and get her out of the way. The CM had to tell them she was a safety risk before they dragged her off.

I think some people live on a different planet at times, just a pity it's he same planet I'm on!

Glad you liked The Tarzan Encounter - it's always been my favourite show and in my top 5 attractions on the resort.

 

[Vala]

Wow Vala, I think your boyfriend could be right - but it was good to read all your highs and lows.

I tend to ramble.

Its concerning that there are so many lows around your experiences in Cafe Mickey and with CMs around the parks - I would certainly contact Disney about those.

Honestly speaking, I am not sure if I can be bothered. Despite 2 reminders I have yet to receive any sort of reply to my complaints letter from March which was dealing with very similiar problems, mainly the rude CMs (and it was even worse then) plus one serious allergy issue.

As my boyfriend put it when I called him after it turned out the second reservation had disappeared: "Maybe they have decided not to feed the foreigners anymore. That's the easiest way to drive them out of the park."
And unfortunately that's the vibe I am getting from the majority of CMs and visitors there: "Disneyland Paris is only for the French, and best French families with kids. You are not French, you have no kids - what is your business here?"

That feeling has been lingering for a while and it gets stronger after every visit. I never felt really welcome in Disneyland Paris, but this time it got really bad.
Maybe it's just time to give up the quarterly trips to Paris and save the money for an annual Florida trip. Don't get me wrong, I did have some nice moments on the weekend too. But if I add up the totals I am getting a lot more nice moments for less money in the US parks, and in the rare cases I ever had complaints there those were actually dealt with right away.

To be honest I've always found the seating staff/initial greeting staff at Cafe Mickey to be the least welcoming of all the restaurant staff at DLP, do they train them that way? But haven't had any real problems with my reservations there, nor with the wait staff or the characters.
At Cafe Mickey they can't even use the excuse that they're busy so can't deal with everyone quickly - as they are always busy in the evenings.

I didn't really want to go back after the last trip already. But boyfriend wanted to meet Prince John like I said in my other post, and I figure Café Mickey was my best bet. Unfortunately not even that happened. *sighs*

Just because it was so busy and that was the impression I got last time I thought they'd actually do something about my complaints just to get rid of me. So much for that idea.

 

[Michael623]

Early Morning Entry

4 rides open. Enough said I think.

I couldn't understand this either. Plus the rides that aren't open during Early Morning Entry don't start distributing fastpasses until the full park opens. Does that make any sense? These two factors makes the Early morning seem like sort of a waste.

 

[DLPdaft]

As my boyfriend put it when I called him after it turned out the second reservation had disappeared: "Maybe they have decided not to feed the foreigners anymore. That's the easiest way to drive them out of the park."
And unfortunately that's the vibe I am getting from the majority of CMs and visitors there: "Disneyland Paris is only for the French, and best French families with kids. You are not French, you have no kids - what is your business here?"

That feeling has been lingering for a while and it gets stronger after every visit. I never felt really welcome in Disneyland Paris, but this time it got really bad.

I think thats really sad that your DLP experiences this year have made you feel this way, and I really think you should let DLP know why you feel like this. Do you have the CEO's address? I can let you have it if you pm me. Disney parks shouldn't just be for kids, or for only those nationals of the park you're visiting.

 

[kizzabel]

I agree on the bad parenting.
My DD (5) is quite sensitive and gets whiney/whingey when she isnt getting her own way but Id have to be on my last breath to give in. Shes definately got a very good life and is lucky to be brought to DLP etc but when I see greedy or unappreciative behaviour creeping in I knock it on its head. I cant abide spoiltness. I know kids get tired and peed off but bad behaviour cant be excused or ignored. I would have taken her aside, had a talk with her and if to no avail she would have been disciplined.
And definately not encouraged a la kick an adult in the hollow of her knee to get ahead in a que. I am disgusted. Why do people feel the need to drag their kids up into being arrogant, pushy and nasty.
And the spitting!?!?! I would be mortified if DD or DS did that. And they would be grounded!!

Sounds like a fairly enjoyable trip all the same. Thanks for sharing :

 

[Vala]

I couldn't understand this either. Plus the rides that aren't open during Early Morning Entry don't start distributing fastpasses until the full park opens. Does that make any sense? These two factors makes the Early morning seem like sort of a waste.

It is sort of a waste, yes. From what I saw a lot of people seemed to use the Early Mornings to queue up early to meet Mickey or the Princesses, or get in a good position for the stampede to Big Thunder Mountain.

I agree with the bad parenting - seems some people let their kids do whatever they want. When queuing for IASW last September we saw a family try to get their daughter to leave after having been on. She lay on the floor next to where people get off and threw a huge tantrum. The parents just smirked and said "she gets like this, there's nothing we can do for 5 minutes until she calms down". I was utterly shocked - how about teaching her the right way to act and if that fails, pick her up and get her out of the way. The CM had to tell them she was a safety risk before they dragged her off.

Stuff like that always makes me want to apologize to my parents - but then again they say I never behaved that bad. Probably because I was fully aware that my father would have removed me from the park and if necessary we would have gone straight home.

I think some people live on a different planet at times, just a pity it's he same planet I'm on!

Can I borrow that quote? I think I can put this to good use in the future.

Glad you liked The Tarzan Encounter - it's always been my favourite show and in my top 5 attractions on the resort.

I only read the good reviews here and how happy everyone was that the show was back. I didn't investigate further on purpose, and I think it was a good decision that I went in unspoilered.

 

[DLPdaft]

Stuff like that always makes me want to apologize to my parents - but then again they say I never behaved that bad. Probably because I was fully aware that my father would have removed me from the park and if necessary we would have gone straight home.

My DD has been threatened with turning round and going back to the hotel before now at DLP - it soon stops her in mid-moan .

 

[Vala]

My DD has been threatened with turning round and going back to the hotel before now at DLP - it soon stops her in mid-moan .

It's nice to see that some parents still apply the good old rules.

I've sent you a PM by the way, thank you for the offer.

Sounds like a fairly enjoyable trip all the same. Thanks for sharing :

Yeah, it wasn't as bad as it may sound to some. The lows seem to outweigh the highs mainly because of the Café Mickey part, but that one really got to me. I'm generally a perosn who always gives a second chance and often even a third one. To get a "reward" like that for trying again...

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Thanks for the report, as a Florida regular but DLRP newcomer (first time next month).
Some of the things you say about general rudeness do appear to be a common complaint, whilst you can come across that anywhere it is a worrying trend.

My wife is a teacher here in the UK, to be honest some of the behaviour from the pupils you wouldn't believe, I just think it's a general thing everywhere these days for some youngsters to be brought up not respecting their elders.

The EMH I can't get my head around either, especially as the proper opening time is 10am, I can't understand why so few attractions are open.

To be honest we aren't really bothered about the parades or character greets within the park - son is autistic and non verbal - I have encountered some aspects of rudeness whether from the general public or the occasional CM whilst in Florida also. Some towards our son. We are extremely protective about him, which is perfectly understandable, you do kind of get visions of people running all over the place in a mad frenzy - if they stay out of my way we will get along just fine.

 

[Vala]

Thanks for the report, as a Florida regular but DLRP newcomer (first time next month).
Some of the things you say about general rudeness do appear to be a common complaint, whilst you can come across that anywhere it is a worrying trend.

Yes, that is exactly the problem. It's not the rudeness, you can see that everywhere. But there seem to be more and more complaints when you read up online, and I can definitely tell that I have more problems with each new visit myself.

I am not meaning to say the American parks are perfect. But I have never had so many ... let's be nice and call them "encounters" during the same time frame in the US parks. I'm normally there at least 2 weeks, and usually I can count the issues like "people cutting in line and ignoring "the end of the line is that way!"" on purpose or a CM being rude on the fingers of one hand. For Paris that's sometimes the daily level.

Sometimes it seems like visitors unlearn all manners when they see Mickey's ears somewhere.
Your comparison of "people running all over the place in a mad frenzy" isn't that far off when it's about characters. I'm not sure if I kept the video because the small camera was running out of space. But I did take a general crowd videos of when this "Meet the Disney Stars" train arrived. "Stampede" would be the first one coming to my mind.

 

[thehails]

the last few times we have been to Paris I have given up trying to meet and greet the characters in the parks as I hate seeing the confusion on my children's faces when children and adults just shove them out of the way to get in front of them to meet the characters, i refuse to encourage my children to take part in the scrum which appears to be the only way you get to have your picture taken, we just pay now to have character meals, expensive yes but for us the reward of seeing the children's smiles is well worth it.

I have to agree with previous posters while the Florida parks aren't perfect by any means, its just so nice there that you line up and get to meet the characters without the pushing and shoving.

I am looking forward to going to Paris again, but a little apprehensive as its the first time we have been back since going to Florida, and I'm trying very hard not to compare the two.

To the original poster thanks for the review - we are eating at Inventions this time for the first time and really looking forward to it.

 

[Ware Bears]

Welcome back glad to see you still had lots of highs.

So sorry you were made to feel you 'shouldn't have been there' - such a shame as adults without children as just as entitled. As for the bad parenting - we were only talking about this at work today (I work in a school) and the general consensus is that it's definitely getting worse!! Such a shame as there are still so many lovely parents who bring their children up the right way.

Any photos?

 

[Vala]

the last few times we have been to Paris I have given up trying to meet and greet the characters in the parks as I hate seeing the confusion on my children's faces when children and adults just shove them out of the way to get in front of them to meet the characters, i refuse to encourage my children to take part in the scrum which appears to be the only way you get to have your picture taken, we just pay now to have character meals, expensive yes but for us the reward of seeing the children's smiles is well worth it.

That's what we usually do too, but somehow we always see the same characters there. There's only so and so many times I want to see Mickey during a weekend. He was even at Auberge de Cendrillion on Monday.

I am looking forward to going to Paris again, but a little apprehensive as its the first time we have been back since going to Florida, and I'm trying very hard not to compare the two.

That's one thing I keep trying to tell me as well. Paris is the quick local solution to get my Disney fix, but you can't compare it to Florida or even California.

A friend of mine came with us in March for a couple of days. It was her first trip (she only knew the US parks) and she hated it so much that she has vowed to never go back. According to her it's "Just an ordinary amusement park, and not even a good one." She doesn't do thrill rides, so most of the attractions one would recommend are not for her.

The saddest thing is I could even see where she was coming from. Those little touches of Disney magic that she was used to from the US parks everywhere just were not there during our trip. It was my birthday trip. We pointed that out when booking, then again at registration - they even asked if we were celebrating something - and nothing. I didn't expect a huge fanfare or something like that. But then you read that others got balloons and upgrades and whatever, and they asked me, and nothing happens... that was pretty weird. They didn't even tell me "happy birthday" when I mentioned it at check in.

In California my friends paid for a character meal as a late birthday treat one year, so I was wearing the button and everything, and the fuzz everyone made about me was unbelievable although I even pointed out "hey guys, it's not my actual birthday."

To the original poster thanks for the review - we are eating at Inventions this time for the first time and really looking forward to it.

You're in for a real treat. I took lots of photos of the buffet and will try to post them tomorrow, had a really long day at work today.

Any photos?

About 3 GB worth - tried my hands on the fireworks for the first time.

I had a long day at work today, but I hope to get some shots up before the weekend.

 

[thehails]

You're in for a real treat. I took lots of photos of the buffet and will try to post them tomorrow, had a really long day at work today.

Looking forward to seeing your pictures

 

[Princess Jayne]

The saddest thing is I could even see where she was coming from. Those little touches of Disney magic that she was used to from the US parks everywhere just were not there during our trip. It was my birthday trip. We pointed that out when booking, then again at registration - they even asked if we were celebrating something - and nothing. I didn't expect a huge fanfare or something like that. But then you read that others got balloons and upgrades and whatever, and they asked me, and nothing happens... that was pretty weird. They didn't even tell me "happy birthday" when I mentioned it at check in.

In California my friends paid for a character meal as a late birthday treat one year, so I was wearing the button and everything, and the fuzz everyone made about me was unbelievable although I even pointed out "hey guys, it's not my actual birthday."

I had the same experience on my birthday at DLP. I got the badge but literally nothing else. In cafe mickey they did the birthday cake thing and when the dancing was happening we were pulled up to dance on the platform-y thing in the middle but when I went to the Florida park with my friend for her birthday - every food place we went to gave her free food, every drinks place gave her free drinks and every CM we went passed at least said happy birthday. The characters made a massive fuss over her and she was the first to be picked for the pirate tutorial and woody's roundup thing (and it was her 21st so its not like she was a litte kid!).

 

[tinkertaylor05]

It's nice to read your summary both good and bad.

Bad parenting get's us all down I think, it's extra hard to explain to your own child why someone's parents act in a certain way too!

I can see your point about EMH I think if I was an adult or even teenage group I'd probably stay in bed We only use them to get the fantasyland and buzz rides out of the way and then we don't have to queue later.

It's nice for me to get to hear about some of the newer stuff so thanks for sharing and I hope you still got plenty of Disney magic just being there x

 

[Ware Bears]

I do see where you're coming from with the inconsistencies and I understand why this upsets many. My DH had told the hotel it was both our wedding anniversary and my birthday, we were allocated park view rooms and there was a lady putting some flowers in my room when we arrived. Whether this was because of him mentioning it or perhaps we would have been this lucky anyway. Others report being surprised with birthday cards, bottles of wine, plushes, upgrades etc but I never expected any of this and it doesn't bother me that we didn't get it either. I was over the moon with our room allocation but to be honest for me it was exciting enough to be at Disney on my actual birthday.

On my birthday I wore the birthday badge that came with my DDs birthday card, it was only a small one but I got a lot of CMs wishing me Bonne Anniversaire and quite a few gave me kisses!! Perhaps this is because I am older than you and so they felt 'safe' or again maybe I was just lucky. I deliberately didn't wear the badge to my birthday dinner at Inventions as we hadn't ordered a cake (too many yummy desserts) and I didn't want it to look as though I was expecting something for nothing.

Anyhow Vala, really looking forward to your photos but no rush, I'm not exactly the fastest trip report writer!

 

[Vala]

Still working on my photos, but here's two teaser shots for you all.