We are back! Halloween trip! 30.Oct - 2.Nov

[marcus.ka]

We are back. We had a great time although the park was very very crowded! Halloween night was a big dissapointment. I saw videos from the last three years and this year was crap. The fireworks was a part from Wishes with POTC OST. The so called "parade" was laughable. No Disney at all! Many fans on other boards are very frustrated!
But it was great to see so many guests in there costumes and it was also great to ride POTC, BTM or PM deep at night!
We had a great trip but we will never go again if there are school holidays or bank holidays in France! BTM and Buzz had a waitingtime of 100 minutes and more! All hotels were booked out! We were in the NPBC and after 8am you had to wait up to 15 minutes to get a table for breakfast! The entrance of the park was so crowded that we could not get into Saloon Mickey!

I will write a trip report and give you some pcitures soon!

 

[marcus.ka]

OK and here is the first picture! It was taken in the Halloween night!



Buy the way: We had real great weather! Monday and Wednesday blue sky and sunshine the whole day!

 

[Cyrano]

Welcome home Look forward to your trippie and photos

 

[Bexx]

Love the photo - BTM looks wonderful!! Glad you had a great time despite the crowds

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Hi Marcus

I wonder if you saw us!!!

I agree about the crowds....it must have been a French school holiday as I know it wasn't an English half term (but it was a Welsh and Irish)

The party night was far too crowded, which could be due to them only having one party night instead of twoas last year. It actually took us an hour to get into the party, and by then the wait times were already long, and we only managed to ride Phantom Manor, Pirates and Big Thunder. I thought the characters were less prominent and we couldn't even get close to see the parade and watched the fireworks through the trees. Although I loved the POTC soundtrack, I think last years light show on the balloons was so much better. There was also a lot more interaction with characters eg. pumpkinmen and the pink witches last year. On the positive side, there were more people in costume and the weather was a lot warmer than the following 3 nights (thank goodness!!)

I will do a sort of trip report and post some psotos ASAP (have tonsillitis at the mo so feel like a bag of c**p)

 

[marcus.ka]

Hi Marcus
The party night was far too crowded, which could be due to them only having one party night instead of twoas last year. It actually took us an hour to get into the party, and by then the wait times were already long, and we only managed to ride Phantom Manor, Pirates and Big Thunder. I thought the characters were less prominent and we couldn't even get close to see the parade and watched the fireworks through the trees. Although I loved the POTC soundtrack, I think last years light show on the balloons was so much better. There was also a lot more interaction with characters eg. pumpkinmen and the pink witches last year. On the positive side, there were more people in costume and the weather was a lot warmer than the following 3 nights (thank goodness!!)

I can agree 100%!
The weather was warm if you compare it with the following nights! There were to many people in the park! I think there were a lot of guests without a ticket for the Halloween night, because there was no check!
As this was our first Halloween night I can not compare with the other nights. I can only say what I saw on video about the other years and I think the other years were much more fun!
We will not go again in the last October week because there is Frensh schoool holidays and a bank holiday! (1st November!)

 

[Ware Bears]

I'm sorry if the party was a disappointment Marcus but I hope you enjoyed your trip overall. Your photo of my beloved BTM is absolutely fantastic. I look forward to your full trippie.

Sarah, sorry the party wasn't as food as last year's. Hope you soon feel better

 

[toony]

Sad to hear that. Hope you anyhow had some magical moments. Looking forward to read and see more!

 

[ghasfura]

its like that on xmas day as well. Hope we can see more piccies soon

 

[Briarmom]

I agree with you. The party was sooo crowded. In fact Oct 30 and 31 were so busy the park was hard to enjoy at all. Fastpasses for Peter Pan were out by 11 am on the 30th. My kids were so tired from the crowds (so were dh and I) that despite a great nap in the evening before the party, we left after a few hours.
I thought the party was a waste of money, but at least we got to be at DLRP over Halloween instead of Egypt.

 

[Ware Bears]

Hope you enjoyed your trip overall.

I thought the party was a waste of money,

A shame for all of you who went but it does make me feel better. We are going 22nd - 26th (half-term week) next year and I was sorry that we would miss the party. I won't mind now.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

I wouldn't say that the party was a waste of money though...despite the large numbers of people, the atmosphere was brilliant, and I can't think of a better way to spend halloween night, certainly nothing in this country comes close!

 

[marcus.ka]

In fact Oct 30 and 31 were so busy the park was hard to enjoy at all.

That's true. But the Halloween night wasn't a waste of money but I would not go again during school holidays and/or bank holidays!

 

[Eclipsepearl]

We also were disappointed. We could barely move, it was so crowded.

The problem was not only was it during a school break here in France but unlike a lot of the other vacation periods, this break is exactly the same thoughout France. Some of our vacations are staggered. (Listen to me, I've only been French since 2002 and here I am saying "our" but my kids are in French public school). We're not in Paris so if we ever go again (dh isn't keen) we will do it when it's a "staggered" vacation. France is split into three zones.

For those of you outside France, the Xmas break is very late, the 23rd going till Jan. 8th. I'm on Firefox so I can't cut and paste but if you Google "Vacances Scolaire", you'll get several charts which don't take 19 years of french to figure out. Then perhaps you can find a period to visit where the kids aren't out at all, or at least not in the Paris region.

The Buzz ride had a wait of 90 minutes when checked in the afternoon but I took my oldest after dinner and at 8pm, we waltzed on in 15 minutes. The park was open later so we took advantage.

Some of your tips did make the trip easier. We made reservations and did the Admiralty floor at NBC.

Thanks!
Sharon in Alsace

 

[Sarah Sarill]

Sharon.

Thanks for the Christmas School info. we arriive in the 21st and based on last years visitor numbers (very busy), we had planned a day shopping and doing sea world on the 22nd.

Are you now saying that the locals probably wont be going into DLPR and that we will be safe to go to the parks on the 22nd ?

It would be great if we could.