adcadc
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2014
- Messages
- 142
Hi everyone!
I just got back last night from our trip to DLP. We went from Sunday to the Wednesday. I went with my friend and it was her first ever trip to any disney park so it was extra special for that reason.
Highs -
- First have to say we had some huge pixie dust! We stayed at NPB as I love it there and have stayed there during all of my visits in the past starting from when I first ever visited with my family over ten years ago (except for one stay in the DLH some time back). I adore this hotel, especially at Christmas time. I emailed in advance just to explain that I loved the hotel and was a regular visitor to there, also mentioning it was my friend's first ever visit combined with it being her birthday during the trip. I didn't expect anything at all, maybe a sweet, small gesture such as some water in the room or something. However upon checking in I was notified that there was a surprise for us which turned out to be... We'd been given the honeymoon suite!!!
I really couldn't believe it, neither could my friend. What a lovely way for her to start her first ever trip to Disney!
It was an absolutely beautiful room, at least double the size of a normal room, with a lounge area containing a sofa, three armchairs and two desks. It also had a beautiful view of the lake (with about 4/5 double windows to see it from at different angles). The bathroom was also lovely, was very spacious with two sinks and mirrors and with a lovely big bath. They also put chocolate coins on our pillows every day, gave us bottled water, a rose, bathroom sets in a little basket (again every day) and Disney shortbread every day! It was so lovely and made the room even more magical! Ontop of all these we was even given vip fastpasses due to use being placed in this room which I can say for sure made the trip a million times more easier + as a result much more enjoyable. The hotel itself as always was also a massive high for me anyway, as I said I love this hotel and it was decorated beautifully + the staff were all very welcoming.
- So next high would definitely be the vip fastpasses, they allowed us to go onto any fastpass ride multiple times at any point, which left us not needing to plan our day around a fastpass return time etc. Two of the biggest draws of this was literally walking onto the new Ratatouille ride multiple times (felt a little bad walking past the 60+ minutes long line to do so) and reducing the long wait for BTM to go onto a very short fastpass queue for it. So the vip fast passes were incredibly loved by us, we would've been happy enough with the room, but the fastpasses on top just made everything even better.
- Also important to mention here that riding the new Ratatouille ride was definitely a high! Really enjoyed it, was very immersive and exciting.
- I always find myself saying this but going at Christmas time was just beautiful, it is without a doubt my favourite time to visit, the parks just look gorgeous and the christmas magic + lights etc just make everything so much more magical and exciting. So just being able to visit during this time is definitely a high.
- Just visiting the parks with someone who had no idea what to expect from first walking into the parks to going on rides/watching shows or parades etc was a really great experience. My friend had literally only seen a picture of the castle before, somehow she'd never been tempted to look at any other pictures/videos, and had no clue what to expect on any of the rides whatsoever. So this was a massive high of the trip as it was enjoyable seeing her react to the various surprises a first timer can discover at the parks.
- The characters out in EMH were also very enjoyable, we managed to meet mickey (for some reason minnie only seemed to be out with him on the first morning? So we missed her) and also Pluto and Goofy. (Was there any others meant to be out during EMH? Was sure I'd read that chip & dale were supposed to be near Casey's or something but I couldn't see them. Anyway seeing as I've always been someone who takes advantage of EMH this was a wonderful addition to the parks for me.
- Food at the new Ratatouille restaurant was lovely. The steak + chips were especially nice, as was the dessert (I had the tiramisu). Also another point - We had a 5pm reservation and had finished sometime after 6 when the park was closed. Because of this, us and some other diners were escorted to the park exit when we were done so that we didn't run away in the now closed park. I didn't know they did this and it was interesting to see the park after close!
- Dreams! Was lovely again, I enjoyed the new frozen scenes a lot and got major goosebumps throughout!
- Getting to ride snow white was a high as we haven't been able to ride this for absolutely years. It has somehow managed to be closed for our last few trips, I think my last memory of it actually being open was years back when I was very young and found it absolutely terrifying
So getting to ride it was exciting, still definitely prefer peter pan though!
- Weather - The weather was actually quite wonderful! We only experienced rain a couple of times and it was never for more than 10-20 minutes and was never more than a little drizzle. It wasn't even as cold as I'd expected, sometimes I found myself not even needing my coat.
- The Pause Gourmande vouchers (hopefully I've wrote that correctly) were also great, I believe these were only introduced this year and they really are a welcome addition! It's nice being able to get a hot drink and something sweet halfway through the days.
There are probably more highs but I think these were the major highlights. Overall the trip was really lovely and most of it was a high to be honest!
Not sure if this is really a high or a low but on our fourth ride of Ratatouille we broke down and eventually were evacuated, I know for some people this ruins the magic but I actually found it quite interesting being able to walk through all of the ride sets to exit! Although it was a bit claustrophobic as while waiting for the cast members to come and help us the girl next to me was leaning quite a lot on the bar which was pushing it into me quite hard! Although I suppose they can't really have the bars pop up automatically as everyone might run off.
Onto the lows -
- I know it can't really be helped but the queues for the princesses were far too long really. Merida + Rapunzel were both at least an hour/1hr 30. And of course we all know how long the Anna and Elsa queues are. It's a shame as we would've liked to meet them but I just can't imagine wasting half of my day in a queue! I went to Disney World recently and just couldn't help myself comparing how the character meets are handled in Paris to in Florida. In florida I somehow managed to meet at least 10-15 characters, and many of these were because we'd managed to secure a fastpass for them. We never waited longer than 15 minutes for a meet! However in Paris everything seems much slower and kinda feels like they are lacking in the organisation department when it comes to character meets (compared to the american system anyway). Also the strange thing was that the queues didn't even look massively long, for example Merida's queue wasn't very big at all, but the cast member told me from the back of the queue it was an estimated 1hr30 wait? I couldn't really understand this as there wasn't even many people in the queue, maybe the characters just take a long time with each guest - which is a good thing I suppose.
- This is purely my fault for not learning French yet, so I do feel bad for making it a low but some of the poor English of cast members was a little awkward at times. For the most part everyone was wonderful at speaking English and we had no problem talking to cast members, however on our first night we ate in Blue Lagoon and our server literally could not speak a word of english. I was asking if I could buy a main on the menu using my half-board voucher at face value and she just couldn't understand a word I was saying, and would keep speaking french in response. After about 15 minutes of trying with no luck I had to gesture and ask if she could bring over another cast member to help us instead. Which she did and the second server was incredibly helpful, I just couldn't understand why she didn't go and ask a colleague as soon as she could tell we couldn't speak french/ wasn't getting anywhere with the conversation?!
- Another semi low for Blue Lagoon was the food. It was presented beautifully but seemed extortionate for what we were paying. I had the fillet of beef and it was around 36.99 euros. I was shocked by this, luckily I only had to pay about 4 euros as the half-board covered most of it but it just really did not seem worth the price I paid. The meat wasn't very big and I was given literally about 4-5 chips!
- Rides breaking down was also a bit of a constant occurrence, BTM broke down at least once on every day of our trip, Ratatouille was broken down for about an hour on one of the mornings too. And many other rides were broken down for long periods of time throughout the trip.
- Something often said was the smoking in the parks, I felt as though I probably would've inhaled more smoke on this trip than I would have if I'd spent an evening in a smokers area of a nightclub. I don't know if I just haven't noticed before but this trip felt like there were more smokers than ever, honestly at least 1 out of every 5 or so people were smoking and it was really difficult to escape! I was also shocked as on one day I even witnessed a pregnant woman exiting a toilet smoking
- The staff are kind of both a high and a low for me. Half of them were lovely and always smiling, looking happy and seemingly eager to help. Although the other half seemed quite rude and had sour looks on their faces. I don't know if it's because I've only recently been to Disney world where everyone is happy to the extreme level, but it seemed really noticeable on this trip in the case of some cast members.
Anyway I think that seems to be everything! Sorry for the long post. This is actually my first high's and low's that I've ever done on here so have probably gone overboard a little bit
I may do a trip report also if I can find the time and motivation. In a strange twist of events I'm actually going back for another trip in just over two weeks so I'll actually have two trips to post about by the end of the year
But anyway, all in all we had a lovely trip!
I just got back last night from our trip to DLP. We went from Sunday to the Wednesday. I went with my friend and it was her first ever trip to any disney park so it was extra special for that reason.
Highs -
- First have to say we had some huge pixie dust! We stayed at NPB as I love it there and have stayed there during all of my visits in the past starting from when I first ever visited with my family over ten years ago (except for one stay in the DLH some time back). I adore this hotel, especially at Christmas time. I emailed in advance just to explain that I loved the hotel and was a regular visitor to there, also mentioning it was my friend's first ever visit combined with it being her birthday during the trip. I didn't expect anything at all, maybe a sweet, small gesture such as some water in the room or something. However upon checking in I was notified that there was a surprise for us which turned out to be... We'd been given the honeymoon suite!!!
I really couldn't believe it, neither could my friend. What a lovely way for her to start her first ever trip to Disney!
It was an absolutely beautiful room, at least double the size of a normal room, with a lounge area containing a sofa, three armchairs and two desks. It also had a beautiful view of the lake (with about 4/5 double windows to see it from at different angles). The bathroom was also lovely, was very spacious with two sinks and mirrors and with a lovely big bath. They also put chocolate coins on our pillows every day, gave us bottled water, a rose, bathroom sets in a little basket (again every day) and Disney shortbread every day! It was so lovely and made the room even more magical! Ontop of all these we was even given vip fastpasses due to use being placed in this room which I can say for sure made the trip a million times more easier + as a result much more enjoyable. The hotel itself as always was also a massive high for me anyway, as I said I love this hotel and it was decorated beautifully + the staff were all very welcoming.- So next high would definitely be the vip fastpasses, they allowed us to go onto any fastpass ride multiple times at any point, which left us not needing to plan our day around a fastpass return time etc. Two of the biggest draws of this was literally walking onto the new Ratatouille ride multiple times (felt a little bad walking past the 60+ minutes long line to do so) and reducing the long wait for BTM to go onto a very short fastpass queue for it. So the vip fast passes were incredibly loved by us, we would've been happy enough with the room, but the fastpasses on top just made everything even better.
- Also important to mention here that riding the new Ratatouille ride was definitely a high! Really enjoyed it, was very immersive and exciting.
- I always find myself saying this but going at Christmas time was just beautiful, it is without a doubt my favourite time to visit, the parks just look gorgeous and the christmas magic + lights etc just make everything so much more magical and exciting. So just being able to visit during this time is definitely a high.
- Just visiting the parks with someone who had no idea what to expect from first walking into the parks to going on rides/watching shows or parades etc was a really great experience. My friend had literally only seen a picture of the castle before, somehow she'd never been tempted to look at any other pictures/videos, and had no clue what to expect on any of the rides whatsoever. So this was a massive high of the trip as it was enjoyable seeing her react to the various surprises a first timer can discover at the parks.
- The characters out in EMH were also very enjoyable, we managed to meet mickey (for some reason minnie only seemed to be out with him on the first morning? So we missed her) and also Pluto and Goofy. (Was there any others meant to be out during EMH? Was sure I'd read that chip & dale were supposed to be near Casey's or something but I couldn't see them. Anyway seeing as I've always been someone who takes advantage of EMH this was a wonderful addition to the parks for me.
- Food at the new Ratatouille restaurant was lovely. The steak + chips were especially nice, as was the dessert (I had the tiramisu). Also another point - We had a 5pm reservation and had finished sometime after 6 when the park was closed. Because of this, us and some other diners were escorted to the park exit when we were done so that we didn't run away in the now closed park. I didn't know they did this and it was interesting to see the park after close!
- Dreams! Was lovely again, I enjoyed the new frozen scenes a lot and got major goosebumps throughout!
- Getting to ride snow white was a high as we haven't been able to ride this for absolutely years. It has somehow managed to be closed for our last few trips, I think my last memory of it actually being open was years back when I was very young and found it absolutely terrifying
So getting to ride it was exciting, still definitely prefer peter pan though!- Weather - The weather was actually quite wonderful! We only experienced rain a couple of times and it was never for more than 10-20 minutes and was never more than a little drizzle. It wasn't even as cold as I'd expected, sometimes I found myself not even needing my coat.
- The Pause Gourmande vouchers (hopefully I've wrote that correctly) were also great, I believe these were only introduced this year and they really are a welcome addition! It's nice being able to get a hot drink and something sweet halfway through the days.
There are probably more highs but I think these were the major highlights. Overall the trip was really lovely and most of it was a high to be honest!
Not sure if this is really a high or a low but on our fourth ride of Ratatouille we broke down and eventually were evacuated, I know for some people this ruins the magic but I actually found it quite interesting being able to walk through all of the ride sets to exit! Although it was a bit claustrophobic as while waiting for the cast members to come and help us the girl next to me was leaning quite a lot on the bar which was pushing it into me quite hard! Although I suppose they can't really have the bars pop up automatically as everyone might run off.
Onto the lows -
- I know it can't really be helped but the queues for the princesses were far too long really. Merida + Rapunzel were both at least an hour/1hr 30. And of course we all know how long the Anna and Elsa queues are. It's a shame as we would've liked to meet them but I just can't imagine wasting half of my day in a queue! I went to Disney World recently and just couldn't help myself comparing how the character meets are handled in Paris to in Florida. In florida I somehow managed to meet at least 10-15 characters, and many of these were because we'd managed to secure a fastpass for them. We never waited longer than 15 minutes for a meet! However in Paris everything seems much slower and kinda feels like they are lacking in the organisation department when it comes to character meets (compared to the american system anyway). Also the strange thing was that the queues didn't even look massively long, for example Merida's queue wasn't very big at all, but the cast member told me from the back of the queue it was an estimated 1hr30 wait? I couldn't really understand this as there wasn't even many people in the queue, maybe the characters just take a long time with each guest - which is a good thing I suppose.
- This is purely my fault for not learning French yet, so I do feel bad for making it a low but some of the poor English of cast members was a little awkward at times. For the most part everyone was wonderful at speaking English and we had no problem talking to cast members, however on our first night we ate in Blue Lagoon and our server literally could not speak a word of english. I was asking if I could buy a main on the menu using my half-board voucher at face value and she just couldn't understand a word I was saying, and would keep speaking french in response. After about 15 minutes of trying with no luck I had to gesture and ask if she could bring over another cast member to help us instead. Which she did and the second server was incredibly helpful, I just couldn't understand why she didn't go and ask a colleague as soon as she could tell we couldn't speak french/ wasn't getting anywhere with the conversation?!
- Another semi low for Blue Lagoon was the food. It was presented beautifully but seemed extortionate for what we were paying. I had the fillet of beef and it was around 36.99 euros. I was shocked by this, luckily I only had to pay about 4 euros as the half-board covered most of it but it just really did not seem worth the price I paid. The meat wasn't very big and I was given literally about 4-5 chips!
- Rides breaking down was also a bit of a constant occurrence, BTM broke down at least once on every day of our trip, Ratatouille was broken down for about an hour on one of the mornings too. And many other rides were broken down for long periods of time throughout the trip.
- Something often said was the smoking in the parks, I felt as though I probably would've inhaled more smoke on this trip than I would have if I'd spent an evening in a smokers area of a nightclub. I don't know if I just haven't noticed before but this trip felt like there were more smokers than ever, honestly at least 1 out of every 5 or so people were smoking and it was really difficult to escape! I was also shocked as on one day I even witnessed a pregnant woman exiting a toilet smoking
- The staff are kind of both a high and a low for me. Half of them were lovely and always smiling, looking happy and seemingly eager to help. Although the other half seemed quite rude and had sour looks on their faces. I don't know if it's because I've only recently been to Disney world where everyone is happy to the extreme level, but it seemed really noticeable on this trip in the case of some cast members.
Anyway I think that seems to be everything! Sorry for the long post. This is actually my first high's and low's that I've ever done on here so have probably gone overboard a little bit
I may do a trip report also if I can find the time and motivation. In a strange twist of events I'm actually going back for another trip in just over two weeks so I'll actually have two trips to post about by the end of the year
But anyway, all in all we had a lovely trip!
