Highs and Lows 8th - 11th July

[Rosie]

We got back last night after a three night/four day stay @ Hotel New York. It was me, my DD and two of her friends celebrating the end of their GCSEs and we had a fun time
Highs
Eurostar - great as usual. Ebbsfleet is 40 minutes away from home for me so it is such and easy journey. Quick, comfortable and stress free.
Hotel New York - perfect location, great room (7th floor lake view) with a kettle and coffee maker. Comfortable beds, everything worked, it was clean and the CMs were cheerful and polite.
Weather - rained on us once in four days so much better than I expected!
Planting in the resort - beautiful flowers, lovely plants all around the resort. It looked gorgeous and Adventureland in particular feels so well established now at 20 years old.
Fantillusion - wonderful!
Dreams - AMAZING!!
Food - all really good and value for money. We ate in Plaza Gardens, Fuente Del Oro, Lucky Nugget and Inventions plus various snacks. I’m happy to answer specific questions on any/all of these.
Happy faces everywhere - must have been because of the lovely girls I was with smiling and chatting with everyone.
Lows
Smoking! Have to put it in, I know its in everyone’s Lows but CMs really must get a grip on this. Only one CM was willing to tackle guests smoking (we must have asked quite a few every day).
Lack of training for Cms on some issues. I had a couple of things go wrong and had to deal with a number of Cms to get issues resolved. Some were great others just clearly had not been briefed at all on what to do.
Lack of consistency with ride breakdowns. There were quite a few and when it happened on Crush we were given a fast pass for later to go in via the exit. Apparently the Cms on the parachute drop ride had never heard of this and refused to accept that such a system existed! We weren’t that bothered but I think there should be a policy across the resort.
Fastpass systems not operating on very busy days - really in Summer all FP systems should be running but this wasn’t the case. Rock and Roller Coaster FP was down all day yesterday and it was very busy in the Studios. Combined with ride breakdowns and the huge waits for Tram Tour it was a bit frustrating.

Highs massively outweighed the lows and I am desperate to get back and see Dreams again soon!
　
　
　
　

 

[Carrie_Cat]

Hello

Welcome back, sounds like you had a great trip in the main

If I could be cheeky I wouldn't mind a few words in the restaurant reviews as they are always very appreciated and I know that Lucky Nugget has again changed it' menu but I haven't had time to go and get a new one

 

[Rosie]

Hello

Welcome back, sounds like you had a great trip in the main

If I could be cheeky I wouldn't mind a few words in the restaurant reviews as they are always very appreciated and I know that Lucky Nugget has again changed it' menu but I haven't had time to go and get a new one

Its not cheeky to ask at all and I will happily post something tonight

 

[kizzabel]

welcome back sounds like a fab trip, you did very well with the weather, would also love to hear more about the restaurants

 

[MazdaUK]

Just pondering my meal bookings so would loove your comments - we love Walts but I don't like the "special" menu for advance seating and I'm worried it might be really busy, so should try something else Did it look mobbed to you?

 

[Rosie]

Just pondering my meal bookings so would loove your comments - we love Walts but I don't like the "special" menu for advance seating and I'm worried it might be really busy, so should try something else Did it look mobbed to you?

Not sure if I've understood exactly what you mean MazdaUK but I didn't go to Walts this trip and sorry but I didn't notice how busy it was.
I didn't like the look of the Dreams menus either but I hadn't realised you had to go for the special menu to make a reservation.
They had the usual full menu displayed outside Walts if thats any help at all

 

[DLPdaft]

thanks for all the restaurant reviews Rosie - we really wanted to try the Lucky Nugget last month but it was closed all the time we were there.

 

[Ware Bears]

Welcome back, what a lovely treat for the end of GCSEs.

Not sure if I've understood exactly what you mean MazdaUK but I didn't go to Walts this trip and sorry but I didn't notice how busy it was.
I didn't like the look of the Dreams menus either but I hadn't realised you had to go for the special menu to make a reservation.
They had the usual full menu displayed outside Walts if thats any help at all

You only have to eat from the special menu at Walt's if you want to stand in the reserved area to watch Dreams, otherwise you can still choose from the full menu.

What I think MazdaUK means is was it really crowded watching Dreams along with everyone else, not in the reserved area? Is that right, MazdaUK?

 

[Rosie]

Well we only watched Dreams the once on a sunday night. It was busy but as we were all tall enough to see over many peoples heads we found it ok.
We watched Fantillusion from the path in front of the Dreams projection hut (great view as this was one of the "change" locations for the characters) and then moved to a more central viewpoint directly in front of the castle but close to the top of Main Street for Dreams. It was difficult to see the roped off areas as we arrived ten minutes before Fantillusion and everywhere was full of people.
I would say it depends on how many opportunities you have to see Dreams whether the special viewing area is worth it and whether your group can deal with the crowds. For us it was not necessary.
I hope that answers some questions

 

[Carrie_Cat]

Its not cheeky to ask at all and I will happily post something tonight

Thank you Rosie Enjoyed reading them.

 

[Ms Poppins]

Welcome back, glad you had a great time

I agree it's annoying when things break down. Seems strange they have different rules And I must comment re the tram tour - you'd think the queues would go quickly there, given the capacity of the ride. But for some reason it takes absolutely ages for them to load. We noticed that they also took people from different parts of the queue, then forgetting which end was which! Lots of frustrated people there. It's something we only do now if we've done everything else.

Sounds like a perfect trip to celebrate the end of exams