Danauk
<font color=green>I would be sitting on the patio
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2003
- Messages
- 14,597
I just got home this morning from a wonderful trip to DLP. After reading various forums for the past few days I had actually started to be apprehensive about this trip. There has been so many negative postings recently that it had me worried, and it actually made me change a few plans. I had not been to DLP for 5 years and I love Disney parks, but I know now I should not have been worried as we had a wonderful trip.
I should maybe preface this by saying that DH and I have a background in technical theatre so we notice the small stuff and we are always looking out for the technical details in theme parks. So having said that we do probably tend to be more critical when it comes to places representing themselves as a 'show'.
Before leaving I read many posts about the state of the parks. Whilst there were maintenance points that needed addressing, to me they were things that could go unnoticed. My SIL who has not been to DLP for 15 years didn't notice as I specifically asked her later. We saw several areas of Main Street and Discoveryland that were being painted and many gardeners tending to plants and re planting pieces of Alice's maze.
The parks were busy but manageable. We used fast pass, and a first for myself and DH, used baby swap. It was good to see that the CM's asked to see the other adult and child before issuing us with the baby swap ticket.
Another first for us this trip was making character interactions a priority. I had debated back and forth between Cafe Mickey and Inventions. And whilst I initially booked Cafe Mickey due to the Inventions price, I changed reservations to Inventions about a week before we went due to recent reviews of Cafe Mickey. I am glad I made that choice as we had a wonderful meal and excellent character interaction, so much better than the mad scrum for characters that we also encountered in the parks. Although, to be fair to the characters and handlers in the parks they did try to make some order at these interactions. The handlers would explain often, in several languages, that the characters chose the children by working around in an arch shape. The characters would also point to 4 or 5 children in turn to indicate who was next, if a child was pushed forward by a parent the handler would ask them to step back. The problems arose when a child happened to walk up towards the end of the arch and would be picked before someone at the other side who had been waiting longer. I do think a line system would solve this.
A big negative for me was smoking in the park. We visit theme parks in the UK a lot and I have never noticed it as bad as at DLP. Maybe it is more culturally accepted in mainland Europe? We saw lots of people walking around smoking, ended up behind people smoking in queue lines (inc the 60 minute wait for Crush!), and behind people whilst sat for 2 hours waiting for Dreams to start (we wanted a great spot in front of the castle.)
All in all we had a great time. DH and I have spent may days in the various Disney parks, whilst SIL and nephew are new to Disney and we all had a fab trip. To end on maybe a controversial note, my 5 year old nephew actually preferred the Walt Disney Studios park to the Disneyland Park! He said it had better rides and he loved the stunt show and characters he saw.
I am so glad we bought Dream AP's this trip and I am really looking forward to my next trip in 2 months time with my parents for Halloween.
I should maybe preface this by saying that DH and I have a background in technical theatre so we notice the small stuff and we are always looking out for the technical details in theme parks. So having said that we do probably tend to be more critical when it comes to places representing themselves as a 'show'.
Before leaving I read many posts about the state of the parks. Whilst there were maintenance points that needed addressing, to me they were things that could go unnoticed. My SIL who has not been to DLP for 15 years didn't notice as I specifically asked her later. We saw several areas of Main Street and Discoveryland that were being painted and many gardeners tending to plants and re planting pieces of Alice's maze.
The parks were busy but manageable. We used fast pass, and a first for myself and DH, used baby swap. It was good to see that the CM's asked to see the other adult and child before issuing us with the baby swap ticket.
Another first for us this trip was making character interactions a priority. I had debated back and forth between Cafe Mickey and Inventions. And whilst I initially booked Cafe Mickey due to the Inventions price, I changed reservations to Inventions about a week before we went due to recent reviews of Cafe Mickey. I am glad I made that choice as we had a wonderful meal and excellent character interaction, so much better than the mad scrum for characters that we also encountered in the parks. Although, to be fair to the characters and handlers in the parks they did try to make some order at these interactions. The handlers would explain often, in several languages, that the characters chose the children by working around in an arch shape. The characters would also point to 4 or 5 children in turn to indicate who was next, if a child was pushed forward by a parent the handler would ask them to step back. The problems arose when a child happened to walk up towards the end of the arch and would be picked before someone at the other side who had been waiting longer. I do think a line system would solve this.
A big negative for me was smoking in the park. We visit theme parks in the UK a lot and I have never noticed it as bad as at DLP. Maybe it is more culturally accepted in mainland Europe? We saw lots of people walking around smoking, ended up behind people smoking in queue lines (inc the 60 minute wait for Crush!), and behind people whilst sat for 2 hours waiting for Dreams to start (we wanted a great spot in front of the castle.)
All in all we had a great time. DH and I have spent may days in the various Disney parks, whilst SIL and nephew are new to Disney and we all had a fab trip. To end on maybe a controversial note, my 5 year old nephew actually preferred the Walt Disney Studios park to the Disneyland Park! He said it had better rides and he loved the stunt show and characters he saw.
I am so glad we bought Dream AP's this trip and I am really looking forward to my next trip in 2 months time with my parents for Halloween.
.
