HappyPanda
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2012
- Messages
- 1,422
We (Me, SIL, DD-6 and DN-3) are back from a truly amazing 5 night trip to DLP. Here are my customary High & Lows.
Highs
Crowds – or lack thereof! I can’t believe how quiet it was, we were prepared for it to be really busy so were pleasantly surprised.
Weather – aside from one day of rain, the weather was unseasonably warm and really pleasant.
Character queues – it was so much nicer not experiencing scrums for most of the characters. It made meeting characters a joy rather than something to stress about. We did experience one scrum though which was created by a CM when meeting tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum. Everyone was queuing nicely and then the CM shouted that there wasn’t a queue for this meet & greet and that the characters would be picked at random? Cue mass pushing and shoving! I really can’t understand why she did that, but luckily we were already at the front so were next to be chosen.
Disabled Access Pass – My SIL has severe limited vision, so for this trip we got her the Disabled Access Pass, it really was invaluable and allowed her to go on a lot of rides she wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Everything about obtaining and using this card was so hassle-free, it really made her life so much easier and allowed her to fully enjoy her trip.
Princess Pavilion CMs – We had two visits to the Princess Pavilion and each time the CMs manning the disabled access queue were brilliant. They let us choose which princess we wanted to meet each time and really got the girls feeling very excited.
Parade – Having my 3yo niece with us on this trip helped me to see the parade in a new light. Hearing her screaming her favourite characters’ names was like a teenager screaming for One Direction. We had some great interaction as well and DD couldn’t wait to go to school to tell all her friends that Anna from Frozen AND Rapunzel blew her kisses.
Gaston – Whilst we had some great character interaction, Gaston really deserves a mention of his own, he was FANTASTIC! When it was our turn to meet him DN got quite scared and started to crying so he turns to her and says ‘I understand you’re upset, after all you’ll never meet a man as good looking as me again’. Then when a woman tried to push in and get her book signed before DD had had her photo taken, he banished her to the back of the queue as a punishment. I wish all face characters could be so ‘in character’ as he was.
Rainforest Cafe – We love this place, the food is always good and very reasonable. In fact the girls love it so much we ate there three times!
Santa Fe – The room we were allocated was perfect, Block 30 room 15 – this is the first block you come to after crossing the road next to the luggage room so really close for the bus stop, it’s also on the second row of blocks you come to after crossing the bridge on the walk home, so again ideally located. The room itself was still in a great state with no real signs of wear and tear and the beds were a lot more comfortable than I remembered. Given that we only paid 220euros for 5 nights including park tickets, I really couldn’t find fault with the hotel at all.
Other Guests - We experienced no issues with other guests this trip at all, no smoking, no pushing, no queue jumping! Instead we met lots of other nice, kind and friendly people. Especially while waiting for the parade and on the Eurostar.
Lows
My own stupidity - We didn’t end up going to the Wild West Show as I booked the tickets for Monday 17th but put it on my planner as Tuesday 18th but didn’t notice until Tuesday morning I would have happily shelled out for more tickets to be able to go on Tuesday but they were completely sold out on the 6.30 show and there was no way DD and DN would have stayed up for the 9.30 one.
Stomach Bug- DN was struck down with an awful stomach bug which meant that her and my SIL spent one of the days of our trip confound to the hotel room. Luckily it passed in about 36 hours and they were able to enjoy the rest of the stay.
Cafe Mickey – We ate here on our first night, it started off badly when we waited 25 minutes for a table after they confirmed our reservation. It turns out they had already marked us off as being seated, it’s only when I kept going out to enquire how much longer it would be that they worked it out. We were seated in the conservatory area, which I’d normally request to not be sat in, however, given the amount of time we’d waited for this one I couldn’t bear to have to wait again for another table. Once seated it was about another 20 minutes until someone came to take our order. SIL & I both ordered the chicken pasta with a garlic bread pizza – we asked for this to be brought out with the main courses, but they ignored this and brought it out as a starter. We only met two characters in the 75 minutes we were there, Tigger & Eeyore – Mickey & Pluto were also about but never made it to our table.
Highs
Crowds – or lack thereof! I can’t believe how quiet it was, we were prepared for it to be really busy so were pleasantly surprised.
Weather – aside from one day of rain, the weather was unseasonably warm and really pleasant.
Character queues – it was so much nicer not experiencing scrums for most of the characters. It made meeting characters a joy rather than something to stress about. We did experience one scrum though which was created by a CM when meeting tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum. Everyone was queuing nicely and then the CM shouted that there wasn’t a queue for this meet & greet and that the characters would be picked at random? Cue mass pushing and shoving! I really can’t understand why she did that, but luckily we were already at the front so were next to be chosen.
Disabled Access Pass – My SIL has severe limited vision, so for this trip we got her the Disabled Access Pass, it really was invaluable and allowed her to go on a lot of rides she wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Everything about obtaining and using this card was so hassle-free, it really made her life so much easier and allowed her to fully enjoy her trip.
Princess Pavilion CMs – We had two visits to the Princess Pavilion and each time the CMs manning the disabled access queue were brilliant. They let us choose which princess we wanted to meet each time and really got the girls feeling very excited.
Parade – Having my 3yo niece with us on this trip helped me to see the parade in a new light. Hearing her screaming her favourite characters’ names was like a teenager screaming for One Direction. We had some great interaction as well and DD couldn’t wait to go to school to tell all her friends that Anna from Frozen AND Rapunzel blew her kisses.
Gaston – Whilst we had some great character interaction, Gaston really deserves a mention of his own, he was FANTASTIC! When it was our turn to meet him DN got quite scared and started to crying so he turns to her and says ‘I understand you’re upset, after all you’ll never meet a man as good looking as me again’. Then when a woman tried to push in and get her book signed before DD had had her photo taken, he banished her to the back of the queue as a punishment. I wish all face characters could be so ‘in character’ as he was.
Rainforest Cafe – We love this place, the food is always good and very reasonable. In fact the girls love it so much we ate there three times!
Santa Fe – The room we were allocated was perfect, Block 30 room 15 – this is the first block you come to after crossing the road next to the luggage room so really close for the bus stop, it’s also on the second row of blocks you come to after crossing the bridge on the walk home, so again ideally located. The room itself was still in a great state with no real signs of wear and tear and the beds were a lot more comfortable than I remembered. Given that we only paid 220euros for 5 nights including park tickets, I really couldn’t find fault with the hotel at all.
Other Guests - We experienced no issues with other guests this trip at all, no smoking, no pushing, no queue jumping! Instead we met lots of other nice, kind and friendly people. Especially while waiting for the parade and on the Eurostar.
Lows
My own stupidity - We didn’t end up going to the Wild West Show as I booked the tickets for Monday 17th but put it on my planner as Tuesday 18th but didn’t notice until Tuesday morning I would have happily shelled out for more tickets to be able to go on Tuesday but they were completely sold out on the 6.30 show and there was no way DD and DN would have stayed up for the 9.30 one.
Stomach Bug- DN was struck down with an awful stomach bug which meant that her and my SIL spent one of the days of our trip confound to the hotel room. Luckily it passed in about 36 hours and they were able to enjoy the rest of the stay.
Cafe Mickey – We ate here on our first night, it started off badly when we waited 25 minutes for a table after they confirmed our reservation. It turns out they had already marked us off as being seated, it’s only when I kept going out to enquire how much longer it would be that they worked it out. We were seated in the conservatory area, which I’d normally request to not be sat in, however, given the amount of time we’d waited for this one I couldn’t bear to have to wait again for another table. Once seated it was about another 20 minutes until someone came to take our order. SIL & I both ordered the chicken pasta with a garlic bread pizza – we asked for this to be brought out with the main courses, but they ignored this and brought it out as a starter. We only met two characters in the 75 minutes we were there, Tigger & Eeyore – Mickey & Pluto were also about but never made it to our table.
Glad to see many highs!
