Highs, Lows, and some unexpected things...

[michellekcm]

We were there July 1 - 4, me, DH, DD (age 3 1/2), and my sister was there for the first day only.

Highs

• The look on my daughter's face as she saw things - we did WDW last year when she was 2 1/2, but she just "got it" so much more this time. She LOVED Peter Pan!
• The Pregnancy Access Card / Disability Card. We didn't use it much, but being able to take my daughter in twice to see the Princessess was worth it. I could not have stood for 75 minutes plus to do that in my current pregnant state
• Dreams - brilliant. And my daughter loved it too - she even recognised some of the music before I did!
• Lunch with the princesses - worth it just to see my daughter enjoy it so much
• Walt's - we asked for a table overlooking the parade, but they had none left. When we got to the room we saw one window table just being vacated, so asked if we could have that table instead. The waitress was wonderful and let us change.
• Seeing the parade from Walt's. This was our first time seeing the parade, and my daughter was so thrilled. "Mama, we're so lucky, we found Mary Poppins!" LOL
• The parades at both the Studios and the Park. Lots of characters that my daughter recognised and was excited to see
• The number of characters at the Cowboy Cookout lunch - we saw Woody, Jessie, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Tigger, Eeyore...and there may have been one more (can't remember right now)

Lows

• Cafe Mickey - the food was pretty ordinary, and there were only 4 characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Tigger). Compared to Cafe Mickey at WDW it was a great let-down. I must say, Goofy was wonderful though!
• Smoking. Oh my gosh. Coming from Australia, I never realised how much more acceptable smoking is in Europe. I had noticed it the previous week in London, but was blown away by it at Disneyland. Particularly pregnant women and those with young children. Being pregnant, I spent a bit of time waiting for the rest of the family to go on rides, and people seemed to think that any bench was fair game to sit down at and smoke. I guess I also am used to other Disney parks where the CMs move smokers on. No CM even blinked an eye here.
• The toilets. Oh my gosh. Firstly, the smells. Although that could just be me being more sensitive to smells at this stage of my pregnancy. But the other thing was that there seemed to be a huge inability for people to flush toilets. I went in at least 8 different times where the previous occupant hadn't flushed. Ugh.
• Crowd control - parades and characters. Some were better than others, but some were just awful. Too much pushing and shoving at character meets for me and my daughter. Also, some of the CM minders at the character meals weren't great. E.g. at the Cowboy Cookout Woody did the table before ours, the table after ours, and the table opposite ours, but missed our table. When we asked the CM to get him back she said he had to go to all the tables. We were quite annoyed, as he had spent about 15 minutes just prior to the table before ours having photos and signing autographs for people who just came up to him and weren't at any of the nearby tables. She did eventually get him back when we got loud, but we didn't like having to do that. On the other hand, Minnie at Cowboy Cookout was great - very carefully, but obviously, ignored anyone not at a table and only dealt with the tables.

Unexpected - these were just things that were neither highs nor lows, but just things I hadn't expected to see

• Chip and Dale are called Tic and Tac.
• There were more rides than I expected that were deemed not suitable for pregnant women. Some of them I couldn't see why I couldn't ride them, but since I'm a rule follower by nature I didn't
• Machine guns at the station - getting off the Eurostar having army (I assume) on the platform with machine guns, and then seeing them a few days later on the concourse too

 

[Carrie_Cat]

You've got some great highs there and your dd had some great magic moments

and I agree with your lows but they are difficult to change sadly as cultural differences are what they are plus CM's don't like intervening as they are afraid of guests reactions

Re the unexpected I think they have to cover themselves concerning pregnant women and they are thinking if something has to stop abruptly or you have to climb down a ladder to evacuate etc could you do it without harm

The army are there because of the terrorist threats and the level is high enough nearly permanently to merit their presence in railway stations, airports and in heavy tourist areas - sadly we have become used to them and I don't notice them now.

 

[Bexx]

Sounds like you had a great time. It's lovely that your DD enjoyed it so much.

 

[zavandor]

Chip and Dale are called Tic and Tac.

In Italy they are called Cip and Ciop.

 

[Jonjo]

Sounds like you had a nice trip.

With regards to the Police with Machine guns at the station, I see them all the time in London at train stations and airports and don't think anything of it any more.

 

[michellekcm]

Thanks everyone - we really had a wonderful trip.

 

[Ms Poppins]

Sounds like a lovely trip and your dd being more aware makes it so much more special

We were lucky with a parade view in Walts too - such a nice place.

Glad you had a nice time, thanks for posting

 

[kizzabel]

sounds like a great trip. lots of fab interaction with characters and pixie dust.
totally agree re the toilets and crowds scrumming.
i hate when characters overlook tables, we had a similar thing in Cafe Mickey on our last trip.

 

[kizzabel]

sounds like a great trip. lots of fab interaction with characters and pixie dust.
totally agree re the toilets and crowds scrumming.
i hate when characters overlook tables, we had a similar thing in Cafe Mickey on our last trip.

 

[I_Heart_MK]

Yay sounds like a great trip! I think we must've been lucky with the toilets as I've never noticed them being particularly bad (and I'm very fussy about that lol!), but then again we always go off peak. The pregnancy card sounds great. We're going back to Walts next trip, I hope we can coincide with the parade!

xxx

 

[RobynPrincess]

We were there on the 2nd and were stood chatting to a pregnant lady in the toilets about how little rides there were that she could go on. I think she was Australian, it wasn't you was it?! It was me and my mum in law, I think we talked about her not even being able to go on dumbo....

I have NEVER seen smoking anywhere like DLP, I actually had a sore throat and we were only there 1 day.

 

[michellekcm]

We were there on the 2nd and were stood chatting to a pregnant lady in the toilets about how little rides there were that she could go on. I think she was Australian, it wasn't you was it?! It was me and my mum in law, I think we talked about her not even being able to go on dumbo....

And you had a birthday badge on right? Yes - that was me

 

[RobynPrincess]

And you had a birthday badge on right? Yes - that was me

Omg it really IS a small world! Yes that was me, it was my birthday

 

[tennisfan]

Glad you enjoyed your trip