Highs and lows 07/04/2014 - 11/04/2014

[pascalstongue]

Hi all. We have just returned from a four night stay at DLRP. Travelling were me, DH, DD (4) and DS(3).

Here are our Highs and Lows

Highs

Budget-tastic trip!
We normally travel direct via Eurostar and stay on site. This was a cheap and cheerful trip which we booked via The Sun holidays. We travelled by ferry from Dover and spent four nights at Le Chene Gris. I was a bot worried as to what our accommodation would be like, but it was fantastic. The site is 20 minutes drive from DLRP. The trip cost us just over £100 for all of us including the ferry crossing. However we did have to pay 21 Euros each way on the toll road.

Annual passes.
We bought the cheap passes with 35 euros child's pass from Promoparcs just before they stopped selling them. We had no issues exchanging our vouchers in the parks. We were asked for our passports as anticipated but not asked for French ID as was recently raised as an issue on these boards. The 20% discount on Merchandise with my Dream annual pass made shopping seem very reasonable!

Queue times.
The only thing we queued longer than 20 minutes for was for Rapunzel ( which was 1 1/2 hour wait) we did avoid Princess Pavillion which had an hour posted wait whenever we passed.

Cafe Mickey
Had dinner here for the first time. The food was great and the character interaction was fab.

New spring show (sorry I can't remember what it is called)
Really nice show, especially in the sunshine. The flowers and topiaries around the park were really beautiful.

Weather
Fantastic to be in the park with the sunshine! When we have been previously it has been either snowing or raining and always freezing cold!

Characters
Whilst we didn't see any characters randomly around the park that weren't advertised we still met quite a lot of characters and had great interaction with them. Rapunzel, DD's favourite was fabulous.

Dreams
My first time seeing Dreams and I loved it!

Lows

Counter service restaurants
I'm sure someone at Disney has done the maths on this but I can't understand why they have so few restaurants open, or why they can't at least advertise what is open and when. There were always loads of people, including us, trying locked doors at the restaurants. Then when we did find somewhere open they were rammed. In Chalet de Marionette we waited for 45 minutes from entering the queue to getting our food. Not acceptable when you have hungry, bored children!

Ride breakdowns
DD had just got over her fear of roller coasters and was on her third ride on BTM when we got stuck at the top of the mountain. We spent a good half hour up there before we got brought back down. DD was scared and crying and although the two CM's who were up there with us until we were brought down were nice with her I felt it would have been nice to have offered something other than a fast pass for BTM again. Even just a sticker or a lollipop would have been appreciated. I personally didn't mind it and it was interesting to see inside the mountain on our walk back down.
Nothing else broke down whilst we were on it, but so many of the rides were shut down temporarily over the five days.

 

[DLPdaft]

we were there at that time too !

chalet au marionette was a nightmare wasn't it - cable car bakeshop was our saviour this trip.

Apart from Flying Carpets on Friday and the advertised closures, I didn't see anything else closed? What did I miss?

 

[Ware Bears]

Welcome back, good to see lots of highs.

What a shame your DD got upset when BTM broke down, hope she managed to ride it again after that to allay her fears.

 

[pascalstongue]

we were there at that time too ! chalet au marionette was a nightmare wasn't it - cable car bakeshop was our saviour this trip. Apart from Flying Carpets on Friday and the advertised closures, I didn't see anything else closed? What did I miss?

Buzz Lightyear was closed twice for a short while, BTM again and Snow White. They were only closed for a short time I think.

 

[pascalstongue]

Welcome back, good to see lots of highs. What a shame your DD got upset when BTM broke down, hope she managed to ride it again after that to allay her fears.

Yes, she got over it fairly quickly and used our fast passes the next day. She probably would have gone on it 100 times if she could. It was nice that the CM's all remembered her name the next day, they were so nice. :-D

 

[Ware Bears]

It was nice that the CM's all remembered her name the next day, they were so nice. :-D

 

[ILOVEDLP]

Great to read your highs and not to many lows
We felt the same with our dream APs bargains every where lol.
Pleased to read your little girl got over being stuck on BTM.
Years ago we got stuck on POTC just before you get heaved up.
We where stuck for about half an hour only one other family on the boat the cm got into the water waders and all pushed the boat over to the side and we had to walk the plank he put there very exciting my ds really enjoyed it what little boy doesn't want to walk the plank !!
We got a POTC pin for our trouble shame they don't do this anymore

 

[cherrymarzipan]

Lovely to read your highs and glad there were few lows. It sounds a brilliant trip and yet more praise for the Springtime Festival.

Glad you daughter got over her BTM adventure. I've always secretly wanted to break down mid-ride somewhere and have a back-stage exit but in all the years we have been visiting it has never happened to us! Can see it could be very scary for a child though.

 

[kizzabel]

Welcome back
Thanks for sharing