Miss_Lumiere
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2005
- Messages
- 377
Little bit of background...
Halloween DLP trip with a friend, who up until our New Year trip last year had never been to DLP, whereas I had visited three times before, ten years previously. After our New Year trip we booked Halloween
. It’s a time of year I’ve always wanted to visit. We were there Monday 27th-Friday 31st October.
I’ll start with a couple of lows...
Lows
The Stars in their Cars meet and greet in the Studios was just ridiculous. When we visited at New Year we managed to meet about 16 characters from the parade, this was because they came out in small groups and you joined the line behind the character you wanted to meet. The new system makes no sense.
The characters come out, start at a certain point and very slowly move around the circle. This means you usually end up meeting a character you would not necessarily choose to meet, our worse no one at all in the allotted time. This also causes more people to try to push in. I had a particularly nasty experience with one lady guest. She stood next to me with her two children at the front and husband behind. At one point she went off to do something, during this time her husband took her space at the front. When she returned she tried to physically push me further down the line so both her, her husband, and her two children (who were not bothered in the slightest by the characters) could all stand at the front. She got really angry and grabbed my arm several times, but I didn’t move and in the end she had to stand behind. Pushing happened a lot at the Villains Meet and Greet in the main park too. Parents would literally try and push their children under your legs to get in front of you or tap you on the shoulder to move you out the way!
The Princess Pavilion – surely there is a better way for this to work? Every day there was at least a 120 minute wait, plus every time we did this everyone around us wanted to meet Belle (including myself), so why not give popular characters their own meet and greet? I felt more sorry for parents of young children who had to try to keep them occupied with no promise of the princess they actually wanted to meet at the end of the looong wait.
The Santa Fe breakfast – we made sure we got there early so didn’t have to queue. However the croissants were so dry we smuggled our own in the second day – we must have been the only guests who have ever smuggled food INTO breakfast!
Highs
For us DLP is all about meeting characters and we had some fab character interaction. I have an amazing video of dancing with Goofy at the Goofy Bonbons Meet and Greet.
Breakfast at Cafe Mickey - We ended up doing this twice and both times it was amazing. We got to meet and have photos with all the characters too.
Meeting lovely people that made our trip even better - On our first Cafe Mickey breakfast we happened to sit next to a boy called Matthew and his dad. We were a bit worried with our position as we were in the conservatory bit, on a table close to the internal window, so characters would not actually be able to get to us. However, we needn’t have worried, Matthew’s dad made sure we didn’t miss out, we also made sure we took it in turns to take family photos for each other which was great.
We also met a lovely family at the Stars in their Cars meet and greet. The mum and I held our ground when someone was trying to push into the line. We both shared our frustrations that we had been stood in the cold for an hour and a half and her daughter just wanted to meet Jessie, whereas my friend and I just wanted Tigger (who was working his way round to us). Suddenly they called time on the meet and greet, and Tigger began to head back to the cars. This lovely lady, her little princess and husband managed to get Tigger’s attention, and get him to come back over so that we got our photo! We were really grateful – I just hope they managed to get Jessie’s autograph in the end!
The Halloween Parade – it was lovely. I loved all the costumes, and still have the music in my head!
Descent of the Stairs – I didn’t know this existed until reading about it on the boards, but we made sure we were at the Disney hotel by 4pm, and managed to meet Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Dum and Dee. Very successful!
Meeting the Villains – We managed to meet Maleficent, Jafar, Hook, The Evil Queen, Gaston and Cruella.
Ratatouille ride – I loved the Honey I Shrunk the Audience ride DLP used to have, so was disappointed when I went at New Year and discovered it had gone. This definitely fills the gap and more! It was amazing! We used our Fastpass, which saved us the two hour queue time. Plus the ride broke down right at the end so we got Fastpasses to ride again!
Animagique – I’ve seen this show more times than I care to admit, but I still love it!
The weather – one cold day, but the rest of the time I just needed a couple of layers and no coat. Plus the photos in the sunshine always look nicer.
I might do a TR and post photos if I can work out how!
Halloween DLP trip with a friend, who up until our New Year trip last year had never been to DLP, whereas I had visited three times before, ten years previously. After our New Year trip we booked Halloween
. It’s a time of year I’ve always wanted to visit. We were there Monday 27th-Friday 31st October.I’ll start with a couple of lows...
Lows
The Stars in their Cars meet and greet in the Studios was just ridiculous. When we visited at New Year we managed to meet about 16 characters from the parade, this was because they came out in small groups and you joined the line behind the character you wanted to meet. The new system makes no sense.
The characters come out, start at a certain point and very slowly move around the circle. This means you usually end up meeting a character you would not necessarily choose to meet, our worse no one at all in the allotted time. This also causes more people to try to push in. I had a particularly nasty experience with one lady guest. She stood next to me with her two children at the front and husband behind. At one point she went off to do something, during this time her husband took her space at the front. When she returned she tried to physically push me further down the line so both her, her husband, and her two children (who were not bothered in the slightest by the characters) could all stand at the front. She got really angry and grabbed my arm several times, but I didn’t move and in the end she had to stand behind. Pushing happened a lot at the Villains Meet and Greet in the main park too. Parents would literally try and push their children under your legs to get in front of you or tap you on the shoulder to move you out the way! The Princess Pavilion – surely there is a better way for this to work? Every day there was at least a 120 minute wait, plus every time we did this everyone around us wanted to meet Belle (including myself), so why not give popular characters their own meet and greet? I felt more sorry for parents of young children who had to try to keep them occupied with no promise of the princess they actually wanted to meet at the end of the looong wait.
The Santa Fe breakfast – we made sure we got there early so didn’t have to queue. However the croissants were so dry we smuggled our own in the second day – we must have been the only guests who have ever smuggled food INTO breakfast!
Highs
For us DLP is all about meeting characters and we had some fab character interaction. I have an amazing video of dancing with Goofy at the Goofy Bonbons Meet and Greet.
Breakfast at Cafe Mickey - We ended up doing this twice and both times it was amazing. We got to meet and have photos with all the characters too.
Meeting lovely people that made our trip even better - On our first Cafe Mickey breakfast we happened to sit next to a boy called Matthew and his dad. We were a bit worried with our position as we were in the conservatory bit, on a table close to the internal window, so characters would not actually be able to get to us. However, we needn’t have worried, Matthew’s dad made sure we didn’t miss out, we also made sure we took it in turns to take family photos for each other which was great.
We also met a lovely family at the Stars in their Cars meet and greet. The mum and I held our ground when someone was trying to push into the line. We both shared our frustrations that we had been stood in the cold for an hour and a half and her daughter just wanted to meet Jessie, whereas my friend and I just wanted Tigger (who was working his way round to us). Suddenly they called time on the meet and greet, and Tigger began to head back to the cars. This lovely lady, her little princess and husband managed to get Tigger’s attention, and get him to come back over so that we got our photo! We were really grateful – I just hope they managed to get Jessie’s autograph in the end!
The Halloween Parade – it was lovely. I loved all the costumes, and still have the music in my head!
Descent of the Stairs – I didn’t know this existed until reading about it on the boards, but we made sure we were at the Disney hotel by 4pm, and managed to meet Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Dum and Dee. Very successful!
Meeting the Villains – We managed to meet Maleficent, Jafar, Hook, The Evil Queen, Gaston and Cruella.
Ratatouille ride – I loved the Honey I Shrunk the Audience ride DLP used to have, so was disappointed when I went at New Year and discovered it had gone. This definitely fills the gap and more! It was amazing! We used our Fastpass, which saved us the two hour queue time. Plus the ride broke down right at the end so we got Fastpasses to ride again!
Animagique – I’ve seen this show more times than I care to admit, but I still love it!
The weather – one cold day, but the rest of the time I just needed a couple of layers and no coat. Plus the photos in the sunshine always look nicer.
I might do a TR and post photos if I can work out how!
