Disneyland Regular, does Disneyland Paris

[fairycat]

The old, Our Whiskey and Wine St Patty's day PTR.

The Cast;
Fairycat - a bit too Disney obssessed, Disneyland Anaheim regular

Kyron Sr/aka Zor/aka DH - Not Disney obssessed, rather cool to the whole thing, but is starting to enjoy Disney more, thanks to being dragged to the parks regularly.

Kyron Jr/aka Pumpkin Butt/aka the Baby - an 18 month old, who has been to Disneyland a staggering 30+ times in his little life. He loves the characters, but Princesses bore him, loves Buzz!

Thanks to a business trip we will be setting across the ocean to visit England, Ireland, Paris and the Parisian mouse. We will arrive the evening of the 16 March and staying till 19 March at Disneyland, at the Santa Fe. I am excited even though I think Santa Fe design is some of the ugliest in the world We are also vegetarians who hate Tex-mex

Since it is a Disneyland trip on St. Patrick's Day we will be tipping our hats to both Ireland and France, I hope to tip back some Irish Whiskey and Good French Red Wine to really get in touch with the cultures but with a 18 month old it might be tough

 

[Kittina]

Sounds fab! We will be there the same time as you and drinking plenty of whiskey and wine (no children yet!)

Enjoy yourselves !

 

[Isila]

Sounds really fun!!!! have a great time
we'll be there on 16th, our last evening at DLP.

 

[kizzabel]

Id recommend Midleton or Jameson for the Irish Whiskey

Hope you have a great St Paddys Day in DLP, you'll get to enjoy the fireworks!! Mucho jealous as all i'll get to enjoy is one of my annual nights out!! (Paddys Day and St Stephens Day)... I'll swop your night in DLP for my night in a lovely rural Irish pub?!?!?!!

 

[fairycat]

Kizzabel- Trust me normally I would swap you my boring St Patty's day for one in an Irish pub!!!!! We go to a pub in Hollywood, or go see a show.

We are thinking of a trip to the Jameson Distillery while in Dublin so that just might be our Whiskey of choice Though honestly I am more of a Wine, Cider or Beer gal myself, I might break tradition and go with a shot of whiskey

Isila- Thanks and hope you have fun! I hope our flight gets us there in time to hit the parks on the 16th otherwise we will just be checking out the sites around the hotels.

Kittirina- Thanks


I also wanted to say I just added the Disneyland Paris (ok and Disneyland Anaheim too ) wait time Apps to my phone. I have needlessly checked times a few times recently on my brand new phone, I swear I didn't get the phone just for the Disney apps!

 

[Mum to Belle]

Have a fab trip!

 

[fairycat]

It has been a week since we first left for Europe and so far we have been to Dublin, and now we will be flying out of Bristol today to finally head to Disneyland!!!!!!! We are super excited about this part of the trip. I should be packing the rest of the bags but instead I am here

I also admit I wish I could do one of the one day challenges, but our trip just isn't set up for that. But we did go to Disneyland Anaheim one last time before flying out last week

 

[Kazzabelle]

Have a wonderful time on all of your adventures.

 

[fairycat]

We are home and recooping, and trying to get the baby to wake up at a reasonable time now

I plan on renaming my trip report, after visiting I learned real quick, how much this board helped me, and also how much things are different for a Disneyland regular. I think for a WDW regular they will jive right in, but so much was so different for a Disneyland regular! I hope to be some help to those very few of us, who venture to Paris!!!

 

[DLPdaft]

sounds interesting fairycat .

 

[fairycat]

Day One was actually, not day one for us. We actually flew from LAX to Heathrow, waited a few hours and then were off to Dublin, we spent 3 days in Dublin (so not enough time!), then headed to Bristol for 3 days for my husband to work, then from Bristol we flew to Paris. We arrived around 7:30pm, and got on the train, which was super easy. We got on the direct train and by around 8pm we were at the train station, then quickly we were looking at Disney Village!

We were booked at the Santa Fe so we headed to the bus line, which was right next to the train station, we were prepared from the boards there might be pushing, and there was. I felt bad for the people trying to get off the bus. We did make it on the bus with our luggage and were off. We had a quick ride to the hotel in the dark, and then all of the sudden NEON lights! We arrived at Santa Fe.

Let me be honest this wasn't my first pick hotel, but the price was good, so we went with it. We got into the hotel and I felt "Ho, hum" about the whole thing. I was trying to keep my excitement up, but I wasn't feeling the whole place at all. We got checked in and were ready for food. Issue one, the buffet didn't look good for a vegetarian and this late at night it looked sad, so we headed to the bar. We had to fight tons of people to get a seat to eat ok pizza, and chips and salsa. At least the wine was good

We went to our room, and my face fell, I didn't like the room, it was small, the beds were small and it felt like a cheap motel. I am sure some people like the theme and style, but I was again just not feeling it at all. I was becoming sad. I was extra worried since the lil one sleeps with us in the bed on trips, since he hates foriegn cots. We had issues, with him sleeping bad in Dublin on a small bed, so I was nervous that we would have issues again. Finally we decided that we were going to switch hotels. I know some people had warned me about the Santa Fe, and I should have listened. I think if a budget at WDW is ok with you it might be fine, but not for me this trip.

So they worked things ok, and we got a king bed at the Newport, the night manager drove us over and wow what a change! This was much better. The lobby was quieter, the room was nicer, and we were very happy to have a bigger bed. I will say that like so many Disney hotels, it wasn't quite up to the price, but it was much nicer then the Santa Fe.

That was the the end of crazy day one!!

 

[sweetlovin']

I'm a WDW vet and I am headed to DLP next week. After reading Hydroguy's guide to DL for WDW vets (on DL sub forum) without even experiencing it, I bet you are correct about DLP being closer to WDW's regulars. I will be able to tell you better April 8th when I come home

I am staying at NPB in the family room, so I hope the lobby is as quiet as you experienced that night!!

I can't wait to read about the rest of your trip

 

[fairycat]

I will say the lobby was not quiet in the mornings at all But it was so different then at Santa Fe. It was more organized, verses the chaos at Santa Fe.

As a WDW vet you will see lots of similarities, wide spaces open spaces, buses, lots of walking, some of the shows and lay out felt similar, but there were lots of differences too, like the easy park switching, closer hotels, no monorail and other things will feel very foriegn to you. I think you will have lots of fun!

 

[davewasbaloo]

I look forward to reading more. As a DL (300+ times)/WDW (5 weeks total)/DLP (getting ready for trip 56) vet, I love hearing the different perspectives.

Overall I prefer DLP to WDW, but DL is the king. Each has their merits. But DLP has the worst quality hotels of them all sadly.

Can't wait to hear more.

Your kid sounds a little like ours. First trip to DLP before they were 12 weeks old, the youngest is 5 and has been to DLP about 12 times, had her first haircut done in WDW - staying at AKL savannah view, and enjoyed DL very much when we stayed at the Grand. What can I say, we warped our kids.

But yes, the Santa Fe is poor, and for folks on a budget, there are much better hotels off site, with less pushing on the buses to boot.

 

[KatyTheFairyPrincess]

Just out of interest how much did they make you pay extra for the upgrade (sorry, I know that sounds horrible crude), we're booked to stay at the Santa Fe and prepared for it to just be a place to put our heads down at night and thats it. But I'd be interested to know how easy the switch was and how much they charged you once you were there?

Hope I don't seem too nosey

 

[fairycat]

I hate to say it, but I doubt any of the Disney hotels are really up to the quality of what they cost. I love The Grand Californian but the location is the best part, I would rather not pay that much for a room at that level. I really wish we could have done the Disney hotel at Paris, but that is a whole lot of money!!!!! I also wish we could do DS's first hair cut at WDW, but we don't have a trip planned yet

For the upgrade, they took what we paid per night and charged us the difference between what we paid and the new room. We paid in dollars and did the difference in Euro, but it probably was the same. I think it was 394 Euro to swap for 3 nights. It was a lot but worth it to us. But we could have done less to swap to another hotel, but we wanted a King bed, and that was the lowest option they had for king bed option.

I am still working on the pictures and the details, but I will finish this!! We are leaving town again on Thursday for San Francisco, but I will be back

 

[JohnnySharp2]

I hate to say it, but I doubt any of the Disney hotels are really up to the quality of what they cost. I love The Grand Californian but the location is the best part, I would rather not pay that much for a room at that level. I really wish we could have done the Disney hotel at Paris, but that is a whole lot of money!!!!!

You find that with Disney hotels anywhere, we stayed in a 1 bedroomed villa at Boardwalk Villas at WDW in August 2006. The room was shabby, certainly not deluxe standard.

Some cost more because of the location, the advantage of DLRP hotels is you can walk easily from most of them to the 2 parks.

You need luck sometimes, in just catching hotels when they have been renovated.