Just back - Highs/Lows

[Kath2003]

Just back from a great trip to Disneyland Paris! Third trip for me, second time in "high season" (i.e. summer).

Highs

• Tower of Terror - absolutely amazing! So glad they duplicated this from MGM in Orlando.
• Crush's Coaster - waaaay better than I was anticipating, great fun!
• We had some excellent meals - particularly the buffets
• Well themed - particularly the hotels
• Space Mountain - sooo much better than its US counterpart
• Big Thunder Mountain - again, so much better than the Orlando version
• Fireworks - fantastic, as always
• Great to spend time with friends

Lows

• Smoking - all the time, everywhere (queues, buildings, buses etc.). CMs ignored it.
• Queue-jumping - all the time, everywhere. CMs ignored it.
• No chance for photos with the characters as we did not have children in our party (CMs ignored us; parents continually pushed their children in front).
• Cost of DRINKS. Thankfully we stocked up outside the park because €3 for a 500ml bottle of water is disgraceful The food in the parks was dismal; Disney Village much better.
• Wait times - I've been in peak season before to both DLP and WDW and expected long wait times. However all the new DLP attractions seem to have been deliberately designed to be slow-loading (RC Racer, Crush etc.). No Fast Pass for these.
• Transport to/from the airport - expensive and time consuming. The VEA shuttles were awful - state travel time of 45 minutes but took almost 2 hours (an hour before we left Disney!!!).

Overall it was a really great experience and we all had a great time.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Glad you had a good time overall.
We recently returned from our 1st Disneyland Paris holiday having been to Florida many times.
The rides and parks in general compare very well, we found it very busy this August too.

I was surprised at the amount of smoking, though I did hear about it before we went, don't know why they are so desperate to have a smoke at the theme parks?

We found some of the dining okay within the parks, especially Toad Hall, like you say though the cost is ridiculous.

Did you like the village? We found it dull and dreary to be honest.

 

[queendisney]

Just back from a great trip to Disneyland Paris! Third trip for me, second time in "high season" (i.e. summer).

Highs

• Tower of Terror - absolutely amazing! So glad they duplicated this from MGM in Orlando.
• Crush's Coaster - waaaay better than I was anticipating, great fun!
• We had some excellent meals - particularly the buffets
• Well themed - particularly the hotels
• Space Mountain - sooo much better than its US counterpart
• Big Thunder Mountain - again, so much better than the Orlando version
• Fireworks - fantastic, as always
• Great to spend time with friends

Lows

• Smoking - all the time, everywhere (queues, buildings, buses etc.). CMs ignored it.
• Queue-jumping - all the time, everywhere. CMs ignored it.
• No chance for photos with the characters as we did not have children in our party (CMs ignored us; parents continually pushed their children in front).
• Cost of DRINKS. Thankfully we stocked up outside the park because €3 for a 500ml bottle of water is disgraceful The food in the parks was dismal; Disney Village much better.
• Wait times - I've been in peak season before to both DLP and WDW and expected long wait times. However all the new DLP attractions seem to have been deliberately designed to be slow-loading (RC Racer, Crush etc.). No Fast Pass for these.
• Transport to/from the airport - expensive and time consuming. The VEA shuttles were awful - state travel time of 45 minutes but took almost 2 hours (an hour before we left Disney!!!).

Overall it was a really great experience and we all had a great time.

Yes I think that Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain are way better as well and agree with everything else you say.

I think they really should do something about the smoking, the lack of keeping to the desinated area's is so disrespectful and the CM's WILL NOT do anything about it, they just shrug and say 'it is Europe!' We were standing behind somebody in queue for Peter Pan and he just constantly smoked. And as for the queue jumping, well again, nothing is ever done about it. Its sad because its getting or has, a bad name for these such reasons and it needn't have. The cost of everything is just one of those things that its always been known for and you know its going to cost so I can sort of but that to one side. Its just the sheer rudeness that I can't.

Glad you had a good time overall.

 

[Kath2003]

We found some of the dining okay within the parks, especially Toad Hall, like you say though the cost is ridiculous.

In all fairness, we only ate in the theme park once - the one inside Studio 1 - "large" fries and a pizza for the two of us. After that we went to Annette's (great!) and Earl of Sandwich (even better!).

Did you like the village? We found it dull and dreary to be honest.

We didn't spend a lot of time in it, other than to eat. We are not "souvenier" people.

 

[Ware Bears]

Welcome back glad you had a great time.

I'm jealous you ate in EoS - it opened the day after we came home on our last trip and now my mouth is watering!

 

[markpsych]

Queue-jumping - all the time, everywhere. CMs ignored it.

During our 6 day visit a few weeks ago, I only experienced queue jumping twice.

Once on Space Mountain, a single guy who just purposely made his way from the rear of the queue to the front like his life depended on it. Quite comical to watch really!

Second, at Big Thunder Mountain, a group of about 20 young people who crashed the fast pass queue. I was quite impressed with the CM's tbh....they were quite an intimidating group, but the CM's insisted they walk all the way back out before loading commenced again

 

[JohnnySharp2]

In all fairness, we only ate in the theme park once - the one inside Studio 1 - "large" fries and a pizza for the two of us. After that we went to Annette's (great!) and Earl of Sandwich (even better!).



We didn't spend a lot of time in it, other than to eat. We are not "souvenier" people.

We liked Earl Of Sandwich too, a new place that brightened things up a bit.

 

[Kath2003]

During our 6 day visit a few weeks ago, I only experienced queue jumping twice.

Once on Space Mountain, a single guy who just purposely made his way from the rear of the queue to the front like his life depended on it. Quite comical to watch really!

Second, at Big Thunder Mountain, a group of about 20 young people who crashed the fast pass queue. I was quite impressed with the CM's tbh....they were quite an intimidating group, but the CM's insisted they walk all the way back out before loading commenced again

We experienced it everywhere - rides, shops, dining, toilets...We just smiled and continued to wait our turn

 

[LoodlesNoodles]

Just back from a great trip to Disneyland Paris! Third trip for me, second time in "high season" (i.e. summer).

Highs

• Tower of Terror - absolutely amazing! So glad they duplicated this from MGM in Orlando.
• Crush's Coaster - waaaay better than I was anticipating, great fun!
• We had some excellent meals - particularly the buffets
• Well themed - particularly the hotels
• Space Mountain - sooo much better than its US counterpart
• Big Thunder Mountain - again, so much better than the Orlando version
• Fireworks - fantastic, as always
• Great to spend time with friends

Lows

• Smoking - all the time, everywhere (queues, buildings, buses etc.). CMs ignored it.
• Queue-jumping - all the time, everywhere. CMs ignored it.
• No chance for photos with the characters as we did not have children in our party (CMs ignored us; parents continually pushed their children in front).
• Cost of DRINKS. Thankfully we stocked up outside the park because €3 for a 500ml bottle of water is disgraceful The food in the parks was dismal; Disney Village much better.
• Wait times - I've been in peak season before to both DLP and WDW and expected long wait times. However all the new DLP attractions seem to have been deliberately designed to be slow-loading (RC Racer, Crush etc.). No Fast Pass for these.
• Transport to/from the airport - expensive and time consuming. The VEA shuttles were awful - state travel time of 45 minutes but took almost 2 hours (an hour before we left Disney!!!).

Overall it was a really great experience and we all had a great time.

Glad you had a great time, though I agree with the deliberate slow loaders, why did they not think to put in fast pass for these rides??
And the smoking, urgh! I've been with a smoker too and because he was outside constantly as soon as we'd leave an attraction he'd light up.

Characters you have to really plan it. Generally queued meets you can get some good interaction. I met Snow White this time around and she stood there talking to me about my Minnie Mouse ears and she was really lovely even though I'm sure I seemed like a crazy person!
Also, character meals.
But inside the studios? Urgh. I managed to meet Daisy because she saw that I had been waiting patiently and was letting kids in front of me go. And she pulled me up gave me the biggest hug and did a few poses. But that does not seem to be the norm. CM really need to organise these way more.

I know the cost is high to go there and because of that I expect excellent customer service. Which is not always guaranteed at DLP.

 

[Kath2003]

Glad you had a great time, though I agree with the deliberate slow loaders, why did they not think to put in fast pass for these rides??

That won't help. It's the capacity of the ride that matters (i.e. the number of "passengers" that can be processed per hour). ToT is an incredibly popular ride, but because it can carry lots of people per hour, the wait really gets excessive. Things like Dumbo have a low capacity (because you've got to load the ride, run the ride, unload the ride etc.) so the wait times are almost always long. With the newer DLP rides, they don't seem to have realised this - all of the Toy Story rides are a similar format to Dumbo - i.e. everyone on, ride, everyone off, start all over again. Crush is "continuous" loading but the cars only hold 4 people so it slows the process down (compared with say Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, where the train may take an additional 30 seconds to load but carries 20+ people).

 

[Pooh's Bear]

Lows

Smoking - all the time, everywhere (queues, buildings, buses etc.). CMs ignored it.

Queue-jumping - all the time, everywhere. CMs ignored it.

No chance for photos with the characters as we did not have children in our party (CMs ignored us; parents continually pushed their children in front).

These were my main bug bears too, to be honest. My other is that the shuttle buses were always packed and large families with many children allowed those same very small children a whole seat to themselves, rather than put them on their lap so that obviously very tired adults who were standing could sit down, or put them in their buggies which were blocking everywhere!!

The queue jumping drove me to distraction, as well as people shoving right up close against me, as if personal space is of no importance!

Mind you, a few ignorant people can't spoil the whole experience and I'm glad you still had a good time!

 

[jothp]

Glad you had a great time overall. We have been lucky and not seen much queue jumping in organised queues but the character scrums can be a real nightmare

 

[Michael623]

Did you fly into CDG because the TGV literally takes 9 minutes from door to door?

 

[Lizboo]

We hated the smoking too. JUST AWFUL!

I was the first in line to meet Cinderella and Prince Charming (no kids here either) and some parents tried to push their kids in front...I let the first one go and then I walked over and stood there until the kids gotten taken out of the picture. DH snapped the shot, I thanked the characters and left.

I waited in line just like the parents did. I have just as just as much of a right as they do. If you want to be ahead of me, get here before me.