BabyAriel
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2011
- Messages
- 474
Returned last night from our first offsite trip and in true board tradition thought I'd share our highs and lows! There was me, DH and our 2 princesses (7 & 4) and we stayed at the Campanile in Bussy St Georges. This visit was tagged onto the end of a week's holiday in Brittany.
HIGHS:
- Getting our Fantasy APs! Pretty quick service at the AP Bureau (on a Saturday afternoon) and we loved flashing our cards to get discounts
- Dreams! We stood near the entrance to Frontierland and had a good view despite only turning up half an hour before it started.
- Magic on Parade. Much better than I expected and again got a front row spot by Bella Notte just a few minutes before it began
Disappointed Pluto isn't in it though!
- 20th Anniversary Train. The music is so catchy, we were all singing along after the second time! And the character meets afterwards were quite organised with CMs taking charge and telling people to move back and let the character choose the next person to come forward which was great as there were some extremely pushy parents as usual.
- Making it to EMH for the first time! Got loads of rides done especially on Sunday when it was VERY wet!!!
- Driving to/from the parks. So easy and quiet when arriving for EMH and when leaving, even after Dreams! Legoland and Peppa Pig World take note!!!
- Finally meeting Ariel woohooooo!!! After a trip to the Studios and 6 Princess Pavilion visits (dodging Ariel twice - it is so gutting when you see who the other princess is afterwards), not to mention our attempts on previous trips, I was on the verge of giving up but on the 7th PP visit we got to see her! I cried as she's DD2's favourite!!! The CMs at the PP were amazing. If you mention who you have already seen they do their best to send you to a different one and in the end we met Snow White, Belle, Aurora, Tiana twice, Cinderella and Ariel in the PP and Jasmine and Mulan in the Studios.
- Videopolis. Nice respite from the parks. We popped in twice to eat our lunch and it was really peaceful.
- Hotel Campanile. Okay I really missed staying onsite but this was a bargain at £177 for 3 nights in August for 4 of us including parking and breakfast...and effectively lunch as we made up sandwiches and grabbed a couple of croissants to take with us
The room was clean and very quiet and we could even see the top part of the Eiffel Tower from our window. Breakfast was so calm compared to the Cheyenne.
- DH and DD1 walking onto Casey Junior after it had presumably broken down and we were in the right place at the right time when it reopened. Must have been at about 11am?
Now for the LOWS:
- Smoking. I know it's a hot topic but this was the first time I'd noticed it. And it wasn't just the French either. Why anyone would smoke near their own children baffles me, let alone in a theme park FULL of other people's children. On numerous occasions DD1 was waving her hand in front of her face going 'eugh Mummy, it's disgusting'!!! I saw one CM telling someone not to smoke near the Dale meet.
- Queue jumping. Not that much on rides but in bag check and even at Plaza Gardens!
- Wasps. Didn't notice them on our previous summer trip though we were later in the summer this time.
- Seeing litter floating in the water of IASW
- Children climbing over the fence onto the grass to view Dreams.
- Character scrums in the Studios. This was just horrendous and we gave up meeting The Evil Queen (Snow White's Stepmother) after 10 minutes of other children pushing in. She didn't help matters as she kept turning her back on the group so everyone would rush around to the other side, then she would turn back. Evil
She was a fantastic character though and was there with Gaston (who DH said was brilliant too) and Cruella. The princess meets were better as the CM had everyone lined up and we got to meet Jasmine with Aladdin and then Mulan in the space of about 15 minutes. Also Woody and Jessie.
- Casey's Corner - SO PAINFULLY SLOW!!!
Other things!
People are still unaware of how the ticket reservation system works for the Princess Pavilion! And that only one person needs to queue with the whole group's park tickets! DH would queue up whilst we went on IASW or just had a wander around the park (so it would have been MUCH more difficult had I been on my own with the girls). But so many people turned up at the entrance asking how to get to see a princess. We actually decided not to use one of our tickets (as we'd seen all the available princesses except Rapunzel who we met on our last trip) so I gave it away which felt great.
I also overheard a family talking about Fastpass, wondering how much it cost! They were surprised when I set them straight
Overall another fantastic trip and now the girls are getting older we found it easier to burn the candle at both ends as it were, meaning we could do Dreams and EMH. Shattered today though!!!
HIGHS:
- Getting our Fantasy APs! Pretty quick service at the AP Bureau (on a Saturday afternoon) and we loved flashing our cards to get discounts
- Dreams! We stood near the entrance to Frontierland and had a good view despite only turning up half an hour before it started.
- Magic on Parade. Much better than I expected and again got a front row spot by Bella Notte just a few minutes before it began
Disappointed Pluto isn't in it though!- 20th Anniversary Train. The music is so catchy, we were all singing along after the second time! And the character meets afterwards were quite organised with CMs taking charge and telling people to move back and let the character choose the next person to come forward which was great as there were some extremely pushy parents as usual.
- Making it to EMH for the first time! Got loads of rides done especially on Sunday when it was VERY wet!!!
- Driving to/from the parks. So easy and quiet when arriving for EMH and when leaving, even after Dreams! Legoland and Peppa Pig World take note!!!
- Finally meeting Ariel woohooooo!!! After a trip to the Studios and 6 Princess Pavilion visits (dodging Ariel twice - it is so gutting when you see who the other princess is afterwards), not to mention our attempts on previous trips, I was on the verge of giving up but on the 7th PP visit we got to see her! I cried as she's DD2's favourite!!! The CMs at the PP were amazing. If you mention who you have already seen they do their best to send you to a different one and in the end we met Snow White, Belle, Aurora, Tiana twice, Cinderella and Ariel in the PP and Jasmine and Mulan in the Studios.
- Videopolis. Nice respite from the parks. We popped in twice to eat our lunch and it was really peaceful.
- Hotel Campanile. Okay I really missed staying onsite but this was a bargain at £177 for 3 nights in August for 4 of us including parking and breakfast...and effectively lunch as we made up sandwiches and grabbed a couple of croissants to take with us
The room was clean and very quiet and we could even see the top part of the Eiffel Tower from our window. Breakfast was so calm compared to the Cheyenne.- DH and DD1 walking onto Casey Junior after it had presumably broken down and we were in the right place at the right time when it reopened. Must have been at about 11am?
Now for the LOWS:
- Smoking. I know it's a hot topic but this was the first time I'd noticed it. And it wasn't just the French either. Why anyone would smoke near their own children baffles me, let alone in a theme park FULL of other people's children. On numerous occasions DD1 was waving her hand in front of her face going 'eugh Mummy, it's disgusting'!!! I saw one CM telling someone not to smoke near the Dale meet.
- Queue jumping. Not that much on rides but in bag check and even at Plaza Gardens!
- Wasps. Didn't notice them on our previous summer trip though we were later in the summer this time.
- Seeing litter floating in the water of IASW
- Children climbing over the fence onto the grass to view Dreams.
- Character scrums in the Studios. This was just horrendous and we gave up meeting The Evil Queen (Snow White's Stepmother) after 10 minutes of other children pushing in. She didn't help matters as she kept turning her back on the group so everyone would rush around to the other side, then she would turn back. Evil
She was a fantastic character though and was there with Gaston (who DH said was brilliant too) and Cruella. The princess meets were better as the CM had everyone lined up and we got to meet Jasmine with Aladdin and then Mulan in the space of about 15 minutes. Also Woody and Jessie.- Casey's Corner - SO PAINFULLY SLOW!!!
Other things!
People are still unaware of how the ticket reservation system works for the Princess Pavilion! And that only one person needs to queue with the whole group's park tickets! DH would queue up whilst we went on IASW or just had a wander around the park (so it would have been MUCH more difficult had I been on my own with the girls). But so many people turned up at the entrance asking how to get to see a princess. We actually decided not to use one of our tickets (as we'd seen all the available princesses except Rapunzel who we met on our last trip) so I gave it away which felt great.
I also overheard a family talking about Fastpass, wondering how much it cost! They were surprised when I set them straight
Overall another fantastic trip and now the girls are getting older we found it easier to burn the candle at both ends as it were, meaning we could do Dreams and EMH. Shattered today though!!!
