High & Lows 12-15 Sept

[iHEARTflorida]

Highs & Lows

Just returned from a 3 night stay in Disney, Wed 12th – Sat 15th. First Timers with 2 full days in the park, Dad and 2 grown teens, have done WDW and Disneyland, Anaheim previously. We chose to drive to DLRP, taking the ferry from Dover to Calais. Stayed at the Explorers Hotel.

Ferry – was nice and easy arrived early for both journeys, and got on earlier ferry’s - no charge. We with through P&O, old ferries need revamping, but fine for short journey.

Drive – to Disney was easy, not very well signposted but we had directions.
Explorers Hotel - was fine, kids orientated hotel. Bit old and again could do with a revamp. Drove into the parks each day, free parking through the hotel.

Tickets – never paid a penny, got free tickets through Sky, Expedia and P&O. Easy to exchange each morning, ID needed though

I’d recommend if the parks are opening at 10am, get there at 9-9:30 if driving. No queue to get into the car park, or the park. Leaving Disney on the Saturday morning we were driving past the ticket booths for parking, car were at a standstill, queues as far as the eye could see, at around 9:50am.

Also if you like buying the ride photos, they’re currently offering at 5photopass card. It’s a prepay card €35 for 5 photos, not sure how many days it’s valid for, I presume around a week if not longer. We only found out on the last day, good value though.

Highs

Crush’s Coaster –not what I was expecting, nice little thrill ride, if only it had fastpass.

Tower of Terror – first time ever riding for us, loved it dunno why we havn’t done it before.

Dreams – loved the fireworks, watched them both nights

The Parades – we saw all three, Disney Magic being the best. Stars n Car was too short, and the 25th Anni one was nice.

Characters – they were out and about everywhere

Thunder Mountain – Longer, better....loved it!

Indiana Jones – good ride, could have been a little longer.

Gibson Girl – We got 3 scoops of Ben & Jerry’s and the girl didn’t half fill our cup up, definitely got our monies worth

Coupons – The nice little coupons, we occasionally got at the end of transactions, we got 10% off merchandise in Walt Studios, and a free cup of coffee in Disneyland.

Lows

CM’s – need to learn how to smile. Experienced a rude CM at Disney Village, wasn’t very polite at all, spoke down to us, when we were just trying to take a picture

Smoking - What’s up with smoking in the parks, I don’t care if your French it’s a family destination, and no smoking allowed, only in designated areas.
Lucky Nugget – We had lunch here, we ordered 2 Angus burgers, and a chicken burger. And got 1 Angus, 1 chicken and a child’s meal. We told the waitress it was wrong, she took it away only to come back with the manager, and we had to explain it all to her, and the receipt clearly showed what we had order. They made nonsense about nothing. Also LN had no atmosphere, what-so-ever a bit of background music or dancers on the stage something.

Characters’ Attendants – don’t exist. Where are the orderly queues, the characters just get mobbed by a crowd of people, and I doubt the kids get much time to interact with the characters, quick autograph and photo. There is 1 attendant to every 4-6 characters, standing the background doing nothing.

Line Cutters – Only noticed on space mountain, teenage boys each time and nothing does anything to stop them, there was a few boys that came through the emergency exit to get on the ride, the CM’s were aware about it but did nothing. But never with all the theme parks I’ve been to, have I ever seen line cutting.

Other Guests – When queuing do people, not know anything about personal space. It seems to be a European thing, I also experience it in Italy too, in America never had an issue.

20th Anni Cards – They had run out, sold out, were getting anymore crazy.
Photo Albums – Usually buy a Disney photo album at every trip, but the Paris ones all said “Photo Album” on the spine, ruining them and no year on them either!

Reading this back, it does sound like I have moaned a lot, but we did really enjoy our time at Disney! Would we ever return back again....maybe in quite a few years times, when there’s newer attractions, or if I really need a Disney Fix, but the guests and atmosphere of the park was just a bit of a turn off. But Disney have got a huge piece of land there, they could expand another 1 or 2 parks probably more and make it more the size of WDW.

 

[small2006]

My husband and I have also been to WDW twice and earlier this year we visited Anaheim for the first time. Awesome, breathtaking park! Our favourite by far! After our last visit to DLP we wrote to customer services expressing our disappointment at the rude cast members, smoking and queue jumping. This was their response.

Furthermore, I was sorry to read your comments pertaining to the amount of smoking that you found at Disneyland Paris and sympathise with your concerns. Please know that we have adopted a pro-active stance in our long-term plans to minimise smoking at the Resort. I would like to inform you that since April 2006, we have banned smoking in all restaurants on-site. As a family friendly destination we felt as though it was a necessary step to take even before it was imposed by French law. In addition, cigarettes are not on sale in either Disneyland® Park or Walt Disney Studios® Park and why we actively discourage smoking in closed queue lines. In open queue lines, we cannot prevent smoking, but Cast Members and signs do encourage Guests not to smoke, for the overall benefit of those around them. In addition to this, we do have designated smoking areas which are indicated in the Guide of the Parks. However, in accordance with French law we are unable to prohibit Guests from smoking outside these areas. Nevertheless, I am sorry if you were inconvenienced by this legislation and rest assured that your feelings have been passed on.

We understand that meeting and having pictures taken with the Disney Characters is the dream of many Guests, adults and children. Therefore, at various times of the day, characters can be found in locations throughout the Theme Parks. Information regarding the exact times and locations of each character Meet ‘n’ Greet is printed in the Entertainment Programme. Additional information can also be obtained from the Cast Members at both City Hall and Studio Services.


Furthermore, many of the characters like to wander free around specified areas thus enabling them to see more Guests and to show the Guests that they, just like our smaller visitors, are all part of a family who live and roam around the parks. Just like in Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland® Resort in California, we are moving towards more character greeting locations with queue lines. However after research, it has proved that Guests still wish to see characters wandering freely around the parks, as residents of our magical kingdoms. It is certainly regrettable that you did not find this organisation to be suitable. Please know that it is never the goal of Disneyland® Paris to provide any experience that is felt to be inferior or disappointing in any way. Great care is given to the planning of all aspects of the Resort in order to try and create an environment where the fantasy that is Disney can be experienced.

As such, activities such as queue-jumping and pushing are definitely not tolerated by Disneyland Paris. With courtesy in mind, these Guests will usually be reminded of the need for respect of others and not given any priority over patient Guests. As such, there are always Cast Members escorting the characters and they are at your disposition, should you need their assistance. Please rest assured that your remarks have been passed on to the Quality Manager of our Entertainment department.



We're going back in December and we've been promised a proper Disney welcome this time! We shall see!

 

[TCO]

Funnily enough we were the same about photo albums

We wanted to get the blue leather one similar to one we got at WDW but the writing on the spine looked really cheap

 

[Ware Bears]

Reading this back, it does sound like I have moaned a lot, but we did really enjoy our time at Disney!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and I'm glad you had a good time overall.

So I take it you'll be riding ToT on your next WDW trip now?

 

[iHEARTflorida]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and I'm glad you had a good time overall.

So I take it you'll be riding ToT on your next WDW trip now?

definitely, if we ever get back to Orlando, its been 4 yrs since our last trip to WDW.

Also forget to mention DDad & DBro, both managed to scoff down Annette's Maxi Incredible Burger with 600g of burger, and get the free milkshake!