Returned from DLP on Friday - Highs and Lows

[annichan]

Hello everybody,

we just returned from a wonderful 4-night trip to Disneyland Paris, and as seems to be the custom here on this board, I would like to share the highs and lows of our trips with you.


Let's start with the LOWS :

- The breakfast at Sequoia Lodge. We found that really dismal. Cheap-looking, limp and not very tasty food (except for the croissants, those were great), watered-down juice, no drinking water and the coffee was so disgusting we thought something must be rotting in the coffee machine. All in all, yuk. We went there the first day and never returned again afterwards.

- Food prices at DLP, both for counter service and table service. We had known about that beforehand, but whew - we were still shocked at how much money we ended up spending on food and drink.

- The fact that so many attractions were closed. I know it is to be expected in low season, and we had at least known about Phantom Manor sad1, Cinemagique, the Swiss Family Treehouse and Indiana Jones before we left, as it was posted in the Programme. I was really sad to see that the Dragon's Cave under the Castle and the first floor of the Castle were also closed - that hadn't been mentioned anywhere, and I had really been looking forward to seeing the dragon again.

- The amount of flash photography on Pirtates of the Caribbean. It seemed that whenever we went on the ride, people were flashing away all around us so I felt half-blinded for most of the ride. (I mean really, what do these photos show afterwards anyway? Don't they just ruin the magic somewhat?). Sadly, it was even worse when we had lunch at the Blue Lagoon and had the first table at the waterfront, where the boats start drifting by. I had a flash directly in my face for what felt like every ten seconds. My eyes were hurting, the meal wasn't enjoyable at all, plus I really don't like the thought of being in lots of strangers' photos, probably with my mouth open or chewing and looking really dumb. If we ever dine at Blue Lagoon again, we will make sure to request a table well AWAY from the water!


But now for the HIGHS :

- The wonderful weather. Sunshine throughout, and temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius. Never in our wildest dreams had we hoped for such weather in the last week of September!

- The extremely nice and friendly cast members, whom we did not find to be any less friendly and helpful than those in Florida.

- Our freshly renovated hotel room at the Sequioa Lodge - a corner room with windows on two sides, a wonderful comfy bed and an all-new cute Bambi wall décor.

- The Fastpass attractions: we got the impression that hardly anybody uses Fastpass at DLP, as those were always easy to get and the FP lines were short.

- The really funny Stitch Live!, where my husband was exposed as having escaped from space prison.

- And last but not least, I am SO glad that I became a shareholder before this trip. With what we saved on table service meals and souvenirs, combined with what the five little breakfasts at Salon Mickey would have cost us if we had had to pay for these items, we saved about a hundred euros. And Salon Mickey is such a great place to be, a wonderful experience!


Anyway, now I am back to waiting for my 2012 Disney cruise to roll around, but I will never forget this wonderful little holiday!

 

[smallpig]

Sounds like a great trip - and really lucky with the weather!

- The amount of flash photography on Pirtates of the Caribbean. It seemed that whenever we went on the ride, people were flashing away all around us so I felt half-blinded for most of the ride. (I mean really, what do these photos show afterwards anyway? Don't they just ruin the magic somewhat?). Sadly, it was even worse when we had lunch at the Blue Lagoon and had the first table at the waterfront, where the boats start drifting by. I had a flash directly in my face for what felt like every ten seconds. My eyes were hurting, the meal wasn't enjoyable at all, plus I really don't like the thought of being in lots of strangers' photos, probably with my mouth open or chewing and looking really dumb. If we ever dine at Blue Lagoon again, we will make sure to request a table well AWAY from the water!

Got go agree with you on this one - really annoying for other guests and pics won't look great anyway! Whenever I take pics in a public place I'm really careful to turn the flash off - mostly because one of my best friends is epileptic and a random flash could be really dangerous, so I always worry about other people having the same problem! But also because it's annoying to everyone else!

I did take some pics on rides on our last trip when they broke down (seemed to happen a lot!)- but always with the flash off!

Will keep that in mind if we go to Blue Lagoon - definitely don't want me stuffing my face to appear in someone else's photo album (or TR!)

 

[Ware Bears]

Welcome back glad you had a great time.

 

[tennisfan]

Welcome back

 

[emanlu]

Welcome back - glad you had a good time with great weather. Can I be nosey and ask what floor you were on in SL? I normally ask them to put us on the top floor as it is nice and quiet but would like a refurbed room this time if possible - just wondering what level they have got to.

 

[kizzabel]

Welcome home did your husband make it home or was he returned to space prison?! gotta love Stitch!

Sounds like a fab trip. Our last trip we couldnt get near the FP machines, it was chock a block!!

 

[tinkerbells mum]

glad you enjoyed Salon Mickey i'm in the process of becoming a Shareholder and i can't wait to "knock on the door" in Feb!!

 

[annichan]

Welcome back - glad you had a good time with great weather. Can I be nosey and ask what floor you were on in SL? I normally ask them to put us on the top floor as it is nice and quiet but would like a refurbed room this time if possible - just wondering what level they have got to.

We were in the South Wing, on the same floor as the lobby, in room 2130 which is a great corner room with what I'm pretty sure is a king size bed. There is still one floor below that (the one where the restaurants are on) so we weren't on the very ground floor which I was glad about, I don't really like being all the way down there.

Welcome home did your husband make it home or was he returned to space prison?! gotta love Stitch!

It was so funny, I thought Stitch would only involve my husband once - but he mentioned him like five times during the show, always making fun of how DH pronounces his name (what can I say - our German accent sure sounds funny to foreigners sometimes! ) and whatever happened during the show, he kept putting the blame on DH

glad you enjoyed Salon Mickey i'm in the process of becoming a Shareholder and i can't wait to "knock on the door" in Feb!!

It is so great in there! A wonderfully quiet place to regroup, yummy croissants, very nice CM's ... I loved knocking on that door every morning!

 

[tinks_1989]

I was really sad to see that the Dragon's Cave under the Castle and the first floor of the Castle were also closed - that hadn't been mentioned anywhere, and I had really been looking forward to seeing the dragon again.

- The amount of flash photography on Pirtates of the Caribbean. It seemed that whenever we went on the ride, people were flashing away all around us so I felt half-blinded for most of the ride. (I mean really, what do these photos show afterwards anyway? Don't they just ruin the magic somewhat?). Sadly, it was even worse when we had lunch at the Blue Lagoon and had the first table at the waterfront, where the boats start drifting by. I had a flash directly in my face for what felt like every ten seconds. My eyes were hurting, the meal wasn't enjoyable at all, plus I really don't like the thought of being in lots of strangers' photos, probably with my mouth open or chewing and looking really dumb. If we ever dine at Blue Lagoon again, we will make sure to request a table well AWAY from the water!

I culdnt agree more with you on these two I hadn't read any where about the dragon being closed as this was going to be our test for Elsie to see if she was scared of the noises in the dark and I really like this extra touch to the park.

And photography on rides is so annoying I also dont understand why people want pictures of strangers eating how weird lol

 

[emanlu]

We were in the South Wing, on the same floor as the lobby, in room 2130 which is a great corner room with what I'm pretty sure is a king size bed. There is still one floor below that (the one where the restaurants are on) so we weren't on the very ground floor which I was glad about, I don't really like being all the way down there.

Thanks for that - we have been on that bottom floor once before and it was grim - the room was so dark because of the shrubs and trees growing outside that we had to keep the light on all the time. Will be sending a wee email to them this afternoon with a request for a nice room on it.