Perdie
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2005
- Messages
- 338
My husband and I are avid Disney parks fans, and before we moved to the UK last year, we had APs for Disneyland and had been to WDW on my husbands 30th birthday, and he worked there during the college program and beyond (he is AZDisneyDan on these boards).
So we now have APs for DLP and this is our third time being here, but our first real trip during the infamous summer crowds. We knew it would be crowded so we stayed for 5 nights, 6 days in order to not feel rushed. We are both well aware of the many cultural differences between Americans and Europeans, but as I felt frustrated and annoyed with many people in the parks I started to put a list together in my head of all the differences so that when anyone goes to DLP they can avoid the shock, know things will be different and maybe they can enjoy themselves just a little bit more we still had a fabulous time and I would take a busy day at any Disney park any day of the week than sitting at home writing this! So here goes:
What to expect at DLP:
The park is visually stunning, probably one of the best looking parks, but the guests do not take care of it, as many rides have graffiti on the walls (i.e. Peter Pan, & Big Thunder are two examples of the queues having graffiti-even the new Crushs Coaster which opened less than a month ago had some writing on the walls) (we thought for the 15th Anniversary all of this would have been fixed)
Cast members do not clean up trash in the queues throughout the day, so you will find overfilled garbage cans everywhere
Smokers fill the air throughout the parks, in line and everywhere else without a care in the world for who it affects. I felt like I was in a smoky outside bar 85% of the time
Most guests feel that the line is just a guideline and not something to actually follow-you get many kids walking around you and trying to get ahead of you like its normal (they make the queues very wide and so no one follows the single file rule)
If they do follow the single file rule, they stand on top of you, to the point where they are physically touching you. Personal space does not exist at DLP!
Shops on Main Street are not all open before the park opens or even as soon as the park opens! The emporium was not open even though hundreds of people were streaming into the park before opening! (and extra magic hours were happening)
If you want ice cream at the end of the night-forget it! Get in the Main Street ice cream shop before park closing time because as soon as the park closes, so does the ice cream shop-they do not stay open like the Emporium or other shops on Main Street
We were there for the very first morning extra magic hours so I am hoping they are just working out the kinks but we stood at a rope outside the security gates (before you even enter the main area by the Disneyland Hotel) until after 8 AM-almost 10 after-and EMH were supposed to be from 8-10. So about one hundred people were waiting and getting upset and when they did let us through, it was one by one to check passes and do security checks (in my opinion they could have been doing all this prior to park opening and had us waiting at the area where they actually take your tickets since any Disneyland Hotel guest would have had an advantage by already being inside the security checkpoint area, while all of the other Hotel Guests were forced to wait outside, even after the park was supposed to be open.
They start letting all guests in around 9 AM during EMH (the park opens at 10) and while they have ropes set up in front of Fantasyland and Discoveryland, in order to only let in people from the hotels, we noticed they were very inconsistent, one cast member stood there and people just walked in, no checking at all so you can imagine that the 4 rides open during EMH got lines very quickly-we rode Buzz Lightyear once but as soon as 9AM hit-there was a line. There seemed to be a connection with the lines getting super long and non-hotel guests being let into the park! (also if you walk through the Dragons Lair below the castle, there is no one checking so anyone can get into Fantasyland.
Nighttime EMH hours have similar issues, as no cast members seem to check wristbands (we were only asked about half the time)
The crowds are huge during summertime and unfortunately the people dont have a ton of options, since Disney doesnt start fireworks or nighttime parades (Fantillusion) until July 14th, even though they start extending hours on July 7th. So you have all the extra crowds, but only so many places where they can be this leads to long lines all night! (Nighttime parades and fireworks spreads out the crowds easing certain areas)
Park hours are now extended until 11 each night BUT when we first arrived, the park was open until 9 PM here is what we discovered about food: Fast food places such as burger and pizza shops closed at 7, but cast members stopped letting people in around 6:15 or so. For Europeans, I think they eat lunch around 2-3, snack on hot dogs and ice cream and popcorn until the park closes at 9 and then everyone is dumped into the Disney Village (so you better have ressies) to eat after 9 for those of us who did not realize this and got hungry between 6-7, found it quite difficult to eat dinner-unless we wanted the expensive sit down steak house or Walts, our only other options were basically hot dogs. We did manage to be the last ones to get into Bella Notte to have pizza before they stopped letting people in at 6:40. But with the parks open until 11, now most fast dining is open until 10. (although try getting a snack around 10-good luck!)
Guests either do not realize or do not care that taking flash photos in dark rides is very distracting and annoying to other guests-an no one enforces anyone to not take photos-so Phantom Manor and Pirates always have constant flashing going on
On Pirates, they fill each row completely, unlike Disneyland and WDW, if you have a party of 2, you will not be by yourself in the tight little row-they will put two strangers on top of you
This list does not mean I had a bad time, in fact we had a wonderful time with some frustrating moments, but we were pixie dust-ed many times-in fact the best night was Sunday night, the parks were open until 11 but a downpour of rain caused many to leave. And after doing the whole park basically in the hours between 9-11 (except Buzz) as walk-ons, we ended the night by going on Pirates right at 11-we were the only ones there-5 boats surrounded as and were empty-it was surreal and creepy at the same time. But we felt like the park was ours, riding by ourselves, and no one around flashing their cameras .
Afterwards, we went to the shop attached to Pirates expecting it to be closed or for the Cast Members to kick us out-they did neither-we bought all our pirate gear for the cruise and had a really great conversation with a Pirate Cast member We felt the magic that night-and all the other stuff just melted away ..
So take this list as you wish-its just some warnings about behavior and cultural differences, not meant to offend anyone-just some observations we noticed. Have fun if you are going-I know well be going again soon!!!
So we now have APs for DLP and this is our third time being here, but our first real trip during the infamous summer crowds. We knew it would be crowded so we stayed for 5 nights, 6 days in order to not feel rushed. We are both well aware of the many cultural differences between Americans and Europeans, but as I felt frustrated and annoyed with many people in the parks I started to put a list together in my head of all the differences so that when anyone goes to DLP they can avoid the shock, know things will be different and maybe they can enjoy themselves just a little bit more we still had a fabulous time and I would take a busy day at any Disney park any day of the week than sitting at home writing this! So here goes:
What to expect at DLP:
The park is visually stunning, probably one of the best looking parks, but the guests do not take care of it, as many rides have graffiti on the walls (i.e. Peter Pan, & Big Thunder are two examples of the queues having graffiti-even the new Crushs Coaster which opened less than a month ago had some writing on the walls) (we thought for the 15th Anniversary all of this would have been fixed)
Cast members do not clean up trash in the queues throughout the day, so you will find overfilled garbage cans everywhere
Smokers fill the air throughout the parks, in line and everywhere else without a care in the world for who it affects. I felt like I was in a smoky outside bar 85% of the time
Most guests feel that the line is just a guideline and not something to actually follow-you get many kids walking around you and trying to get ahead of you like its normal (they make the queues very wide and so no one follows the single file rule)
If they do follow the single file rule, they stand on top of you, to the point where they are physically touching you. Personal space does not exist at DLP!
Shops on Main Street are not all open before the park opens or even as soon as the park opens! The emporium was not open even though hundreds of people were streaming into the park before opening! (and extra magic hours were happening)
If you want ice cream at the end of the night-forget it! Get in the Main Street ice cream shop before park closing time because as soon as the park closes, so does the ice cream shop-they do not stay open like the Emporium or other shops on Main Street
We were there for the very first morning extra magic hours so I am hoping they are just working out the kinks but we stood at a rope outside the security gates (before you even enter the main area by the Disneyland Hotel) until after 8 AM-almost 10 after-and EMH were supposed to be from 8-10. So about one hundred people were waiting and getting upset and when they did let us through, it was one by one to check passes and do security checks (in my opinion they could have been doing all this prior to park opening and had us waiting at the area where they actually take your tickets since any Disneyland Hotel guest would have had an advantage by already being inside the security checkpoint area, while all of the other Hotel Guests were forced to wait outside, even after the park was supposed to be open.
They start letting all guests in around 9 AM during EMH (the park opens at 10) and while they have ropes set up in front of Fantasyland and Discoveryland, in order to only let in people from the hotels, we noticed they were very inconsistent, one cast member stood there and people just walked in, no checking at all so you can imagine that the 4 rides open during EMH got lines very quickly-we rode Buzz Lightyear once but as soon as 9AM hit-there was a line. There seemed to be a connection with the lines getting super long and non-hotel guests being let into the park! (also if you walk through the Dragons Lair below the castle, there is no one checking so anyone can get into Fantasyland.
Nighttime EMH hours have similar issues, as no cast members seem to check wristbands (we were only asked about half the time)
The crowds are huge during summertime and unfortunately the people dont have a ton of options, since Disney doesnt start fireworks or nighttime parades (Fantillusion) until July 14th, even though they start extending hours on July 7th. So you have all the extra crowds, but only so many places where they can be this leads to long lines all night! (Nighttime parades and fireworks spreads out the crowds easing certain areas)
Park hours are now extended until 11 each night BUT when we first arrived, the park was open until 9 PM here is what we discovered about food: Fast food places such as burger and pizza shops closed at 7, but cast members stopped letting people in around 6:15 or so. For Europeans, I think they eat lunch around 2-3, snack on hot dogs and ice cream and popcorn until the park closes at 9 and then everyone is dumped into the Disney Village (so you better have ressies) to eat after 9 for those of us who did not realize this and got hungry between 6-7, found it quite difficult to eat dinner-unless we wanted the expensive sit down steak house or Walts, our only other options were basically hot dogs. We did manage to be the last ones to get into Bella Notte to have pizza before they stopped letting people in at 6:40. But with the parks open until 11, now most fast dining is open until 10. (although try getting a snack around 10-good luck!)
Guests either do not realize or do not care that taking flash photos in dark rides is very distracting and annoying to other guests-an no one enforces anyone to not take photos-so Phantom Manor and Pirates always have constant flashing going on
On Pirates, they fill each row completely, unlike Disneyland and WDW, if you have a party of 2, you will not be by yourself in the tight little row-they will put two strangers on top of you
This list does not mean I had a bad time, in fact we had a wonderful time with some frustrating moments, but we were pixie dust-ed many times-in fact the best night was Sunday night, the parks were open until 11 but a downpour of rain caused many to leave. And after doing the whole park basically in the hours between 9-11 (except Buzz) as walk-ons, we ended the night by going on Pirates right at 11-we were the only ones there-5 boats surrounded as and were empty-it was surreal and creepy at the same time. But we felt like the park was ours, riding by ourselves, and no one around flashing their cameras .
Afterwards, we went to the shop attached to Pirates expecting it to be closed or for the Cast Members to kick us out-they did neither-we bought all our pirate gear for the cruise and had a really great conversation with a Pirate Cast member We felt the magic that night-and all the other stuff just melted away ..
So take this list as you wish-its just some warnings about behavior and cultural differences, not meant to offend anyone-just some observations we noticed. Have fun if you are going-I know well be going again soon!!!
argh, a few times my son almost got a cigarette burn !
