Just back - 3-8 June!

[Brummig]

We're back too!
Highs - just love the whole thing really but:
- seeing ds face as he sang along to Animagique (he's a bit confused that 'Under the Sea' is in French though)
-Dreams was fabulous - we got a great view of it as we arrived in the car park at 11.30 pm on Thursday night! In fact, I think if you stood on the bank by the Cheyenne/ Esso garage you would have a fab view!! On Friday night we stood outside the van and enjoyed the show with a glass of wine (ds fast asleep inside)
- I got a huge hug from Eeyore in Cafe Mickey!
- Tarzen show - brilliant - make sure you see it!

We managed to avoid most of the showers - hee hee.

Not really a low - just confusing, and a bit frustrating. They have changed the disabled access system. In a lot of cases, eg Star Wars, Indiana Jones this worked really well, however on Buzz and BTM it was chaos! They now seem to take people down in groups every 10 mins or so - not in itself a problem - but at BTM this meant loads of people congregating in the exit area (where 2 paths split), blocking it. The idea is you are given a card with a cowboys name, and then a different cast member will come an call that name and your group goes, however times people hadn't heard the shout, lost tickets, there was total confusion between this system and baby swap, then people get worried/ cross because they have been waiting a longer than expected, the cast members change every 15 minutes so no-one knows how long anyone has actually been there, there's just a mob round the cast member, then you add in people taking photos, waiting for friends! For us it was much better when you saw the CM at the gate who gave you a ticket or time to come back! On most rides however it worked great, and we are very grateful to have use of the system.

We met some very friendly and helpful staff, who were great with ds. He said a very polite, and (for him) detailed thank you to a CM as we left.
Watching him interact with characters at Cafe Mickey was worth everything!

 

[grad06]

We're back too!
Highs - just love the whole thing really but:
- seeing ds face as he sang along to Animagique (he's a bit confused that 'Under the Sea' is in French though)
-Dreams was fabulous - we got a great view of it as we arrived in the car park at 11.30 pm on Thursday night! In fact, I think if you stood on the bank by the Cheyenne/ Esso garage you would have a fab view!! On Friday night we stood outside the van and enjoyed the show with a glass of wine (ds fast asleep inside)
- I got a huge hug from Eeyore in Cafe Mickey!
- Tarzen show - brilliant - make sure you see it!

We managed to avoid most of the showers - hee hee.

Not really a low - just confusing, and a bit frustrating. They have changed the disabled access system. In a lot of cases, eg Star Wars, Indiana Jones this worked really well, however on Buzz and BTM it was chaos! They now seem to take people down in groups every 10 mins or so - not in itself a problem - but at BTM this meant loads of people congregating in the exit area (where 2 paths split), blocking it. The idea is you are given a card with a cowboys name, and then a different cast member will come an call that name and your group goes, however times people hadn't heard the shout, lost tickets, there was total confusion between this system and baby swap, then people get worried/ cross because they have been waiting a longer than expected, the cast members change every 15 minutes so no-one knows how long anyone has actually been there, there's just a mob round the cast member, then you add in people taking photos, waiting for friends! For us it was much better when you saw the CM at the gate who gave you a ticket or time to come back! On most rides however it worked great, and we are very grateful to have use of the system.

We met some very friendly and helpful staff, who were great with ds. He said a very polite, and (for him) detailed thank you to a CM as we left.
Watching him interact with characters at Cafe Mickey was worth everything!

Sounds like you had a fab time.
Having a glass of wine while watching dreams sounds just perfect.

Looking forward to your full trip report.

 

[jothp]

Glad you had a great time. Oooh you upgraded - sorry to hear you weren't very happy though. I wonder if we saw you at all.

 

[DLPDreams]

Thanks for all the comments/replies .

DLPAddict - there did seem more characters in the studios but we didn't spend much time there. They were still within the allotted timing on the programme though - not ad-hoc meets. Yes, sometimes it is luck I agree but...

I asked at City Hall on our second (or third?) day about characters and was told it was just what was on the programme . The timings were quite odd as they overlapped one another quite a bit and all finished by pretty much mid afternoon . Nothing like I've seen before on previous trips.

On the whole, the place was pretty busy (almost as much as our August trip at times) but there were obviously much less staff as, as far as DLRP is concerned it is low season, coupled with closed restaurants and rides open at funny times, didn't help with the queues etc elsewhere.

I think this is why we experienced issues in the DLH - there just weren't the staff to deal with the things that needed doing - the hotel was pretty full. Perhaps this is also why there weren't the characters about as much. Surely though DLRP knew that it was going to be busy - they had been telling people for months so why they didn't do something about it I don't know! But then like I said in another post, we've been high season (Aug) and low season end Sept/early October and this wasn't like either of those.

Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed the trip and wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else but it just didn't have the magic of previous trips - it did have magical moments, but not as many.

Things like having to wait 45 minutes for a table I booked 6 weeks ago in Walts didn't make magic for me! And DLH messing up our reservation so I ended up having to speak to Reception 4 times over 4 days and spend best part of almost 1.5 hours of my holiday sorting it out didn't help either .

Still, I've started sorting out the photos and there are some gorgeous ones of my girls and you can see from their little faces that they loved it - that is magic enough for me . Oh and DD1's face when she realised we were staying in the Pink Palace again was priceless!

Jothp - I don't think we saw you - I was looking out for a family with 3 little girls! Glad you got the turndown service OK - first night we didn't get one at all (cue little girl who was very disappointed as remembered it from previous visits ) and then one night they left 2 coins on one bed (ours) and none on the girls' bed (it was clear it was their bed due to nightwear & toys) . Very odd and not what you'd expect really....

 

[RoseBug]

Welcome back! I can't believe you upgraded to DLH, you have no willpower!

Sounds like a lovely trip overall, very sorry it wasn't as magical though. I am worried about this for August, as even though Feb was very cold, it was more magical because it was Rosebug's birthday and I don't think she will get anywhere near the character interaction etc. in August!

Can't wait to read your TR, and see some photos hopefully! (Stick them in an album and email me them! LOL!)