We're back! Highs & Lows

[loladelorean]

Hi everyone! We are back after the best DLP trip ever - my dad loved it even more than we hoped he would, we laughed ourselves silly and had a magical old time.
Not much to complain about, and lots to be happy about, so here are the highs and lows:
Lows

• 
  Where are all the characters? As a group of adults, we don't really look for characters but we noticed the lack of them in the parks this year. The organised meet and greets were mobbed, it must be hard for kids to get time with characters at all.
  Sloooow service Namely at The Gibson Girl waiting forever for coffees, and a bit at Walts and Cafe Mickey. Waiting staff were nice but we think its maybe a lack of an efficient "restaurant" approach - having spent years working in good busy restaurants my sister and I were frustrated and wanted to take over!
  Unexpected closures The tram tour was shut for the duration of our stay, and lots of other rides and restaurants were shut intermittently. 3 times we got near the front of queues to be sent back out because a ride was down. Can't be helped but a bit annoying.

Highs!

• 
  iPhone App I worked out a cheap data bundle deal with Orange beforehand so it wouldnt cost too much to use the app, and it worked brilliantly. Checking ride queue times, show times and announcements was so easy and updated by the minute, saved loads of time and helped us make the most of our days.
  Cast members Absolutely no rudeness, they were all lovely, fun and added to the magic. In particular, I'd mention the waiting staff in Blue Lagoon. (I'll elaborate in trip report).
  Happy guests! Saw very little of the usual rudeness and bad behaviour from other guests - in fact, we saw loads of lovely families and friends having a great time. People-watching made everything more magical for us.
  Weather We might be the only people saying this given the schizophrenic weather and bursts of heavy rain, but we were delighted that it was sunny most of the time, and the rain actually added to our fun. We got utterly soaked on BTM but I can honestly say I've never laughed so much.
  Lack of crowds I'd been bracing myself for the worst, but the crowd levels were pretty low. The longest we waited for anything all week was 15 minutes, and most of the time we were walking straight on to the thrill rides. VIP Fastpass was amazing too on the Tuesday!
  Sequoia Lodge We got VIP breakfast passes, water and coins in the room and a birthday card for my dad. We all loved the hotel theme, the room was big enough for all 4 of us and very comfy, and breakfast was great too. My dad upgraded to a hot breakfast each day for 3E90.
  FOOD! We ate A LOT. I noticed a thread title on here called "Do you eat 3 meals a day at DLP" - well, we ate about 5. Every single meal we had was fantastic, which is a first. My favourite, as ever, was Blue Lagoon. Ate in some new (for us) counter service places - Toad Hall, Chalet au Marionette and Earl of Sandwich, and loved all those too.
  Dreams There are no words for how amazing Dreams is. I hadn't watched it online beforehand, and I'm so glad I didn't. I've seen Fantasmic and other shows in Florida, but this is better. I'm really proud of DLP for creating something so truly magical. We watched it 3 times from different angles, and I cried every time.

Phew, I could keep going, there are loads more highs - and those lows aren't really lows at all. A full trip report and restaurant reviews are forthcoming!

 

[ROBEAR84]

I'm glad we weren't the only ones to notice the lack of characters. For the opposite reason to you we stay away from the organised meet and greets as our children are young (3 and 5) so it's nigh on impossible to queue for upwards of an hour so we really rely on the scrums and DDs patience paying off when the characters notice her waiting! I'm so glad we didn't bother buying autograph books this time!

I'd almost forgotten about the unexpected closures! I found the Studio Tram Tour the most annoying as it just said 'temporarily paused' or something like that as if it was going to start soon so we kept checking but it never did!

We almost walked on to PoC one day for something to happen which led to it being stopped for ages. We had to leave in the end as it was our last chance to watch the parade so don't know what had happened. Just saw all the CMs running down the tunnel!

We never did Pinochio/Snow White/Autopia as they opened lunchtime/later and were busy later on. I thought it was a shame they closed some things early especially as most of Fantasyland was closed after 9:30.

Cafe Mickey was sooooo slow!!! we were lucky we got any park time at all afterwards and with the downpours we only got one go on PoC and a 20 min supermarket sweep style shop! Buzz was showing 20mins but the queue was out of the barriers!

We also got VIP breakfast passes which was great as on Wednesday we decided we could take no more so slept in til 9:30!

I didn't realise you could upgrade to hot breakfast though!! Probably would have for DH otherwise. I thought I saw a waitress pass with a hot breakfast but thought I was imagining it due to lack of sleep!!

Glad you had a great time too! I probably would have minded the rain if we didn't have the little ones with us. I rather enjoyed sploshing through the freezing puddles in my flip flops as it soothed my achey feet!!

 

[DLPdaft]

best trip ever? wow thats an accolade and a half from your family Lola, you all have such a great time every time you go !

I'm desperately longing to read your TR (no pressure ) and if you could let me know where you were standing to watch Dreams?

 

[loladelorean]

best trip ever? wow thats an accolade and a half from your family Lola, you all have such a great time every time you go !

I'm desperately longing to read your TR (no pressure ) and if you could let me know where you were standing to watch Dreams?

I know, but it really was the best trip ever, I think because we had Dad there. But also, we just loved everything about the 20th Anniversary and Dreams made it perfect. Trip report coming very soon, I'll get at least the first day done this weekend
The first night we stood just at the back of Central Plaza, in the centre, not far from Main St. Although it was quite far back it was a great view and we were totally blown away. On the 2nd night we stood to the right of Central Plaza, a good bit further forward, where the popcorn cart is. And the 3rd time we were right at the front, just to the left....while it was still great, the view was a bit distorted by being so close and to one side. I'd recommend being as central as possible and not right at the very front. But because you're looking up, you can see it from everywhere. We turned up 5-10 mins before each time and had no problem getting space.

 

[DLPdaft]

fabulous, thank you so much for that .

 

[bonhoga]

Wow sounds like an amazing trip......glad to hear the SL was good! How did you get the VIP breakfast passes and what did they entail? Also [sorry for asking so many q's ] what are the hot items you can order as 3E 90 sounds very reasonable
What time did you go to Blue Lagoon? Did you have a water side table? Sorry tell me to wait for the trippie

Anyway sounds like a great trip

Kaye

 

[Cyrano]

Would love to hear more about the deal with Orange and what apps you used in DLP

 

[tennisfan]

Welcome back, so pleased you had a great trip

 

[Ms Poppins]

Welcome back

So many highs!! The trip sounds fantastic! I might try the app next time, seems like a great idea.

Glad you loved Dreams too

Trip report pretty, pretty please

 

[sammie1884]

Ooooh sounds like you had a fab time! I am a bit nervous about the weather as I do not have a clue what to pack now! Wonder if they do an app for blackberry (prob not )

 

[Ware Bears]

Welcome back! glad you had a great time, especially seeing as your Dad came this time.

FOOD! We ate A LOT. I noticed a thread title on here called "Do you eat 3 meals a day at DLP" - well, we ate about 5.

and I bet you're all really slim too!

 

[aimyourarrowshigh]

Where are all the characters? As a group of adults, we don't really look for characters but we noticed the lack of them in the parks this year. The organised meet and greets were mobbed, it must be hard for kids to get time with characters at all.

I'm glad we weren't the only ones to notice the lack of characters. For the opposite reason to you we stay away from the organised meet and greets as our children are young (3 and 5) so it's nigh on impossible to queue for upwards of an hour so we really rely on the scrums and DDs patience paying off when the characters notice her waiting! I'm so glad we didn't bother buying autograph books this time!

I find the best place to meet Minnie & Mickey is in the hotels.

 

[owensdad]

What is the VIP breakfast pass? we are off to SL in 2 weeks and am not looking forward to a breakfast scrum really as our little boy is severely disabled and in a specialised wheelchair so breakfast is not the easiest thing for us!

 

[ROBEAR84]

What is the VIP breakfast pass? we are off to SL in 2 weeks and am not looking forward to a breakfast scrum really as our little boy is severely disabled and in a specialised wheelchair so breakfast is not the easiest thing for us!

It just means you can go down to breakfast whenever you like rather than having to get your time slots in advance.

Have you emailed guest communications? Probably worth doing to see if there's anything that can be done to make things easier for you.

 

[gracieclaire]

hi so glad you had a lovely time iv got an iphone and am on orange, could you tell me more about the deal you had with orange please

 

[Johnny_boy]

hi so glad you had a lovely time iv got an iphone and am on orange, could you tell me more about the deal you had with orange please

Me too! I've had a look at both the PAYG and Contract deals and I can't believe they will charge £3/day for the 30Mb but just let you run up as big a bill as you can by opting you out of the EU cap if you go over it. Well actually I can!

The highs seem to outweigh the lows in your trip which is always good

looking forward to the TR.

 

[loladelorean]

Would love to hear more about the deal with Orange and what apps you used in DLP

hi so glad you had a lovely time iv got an iphone and am on orange, could you tell me more about the deal you had with orange please

Me too! I've had a look at both the PAYG and Contract deals and I can't believe they will charge £3/day for the 30Mb but just let you run up as big a bill as you can by opting you out of the EU cap if you go over it. Well actually I can!

The highs seem to outweigh the lows in your trip which is always good

looking forward to the TR.

Well, that Orange deal Johnny Boy describes is the one I got that I thought was pretty good, maybe it isn't? But I was more than happy to pay £3 a day and know it wouldn't go over that. I used the Disneyland Paris app constantly, I also checked emails and facebook, and popped on the Dis a couple of times to give weather and crowd updates
The Disneyland Paris app worked brilliantly, I had read reviews saying you don't always get a good enough signal but I never had any issues. Just up to each person to decide if £3 a day is a price worth paying for access to that and other internet facilities you might use.

 

[loladelorean]

Wow sounds like an amazing trip......glad to hear the SL was good! How did you get the VIP breakfast passes and what did they entail? Also [sorry for asking so many q's ] what are the hot items you can order as 3E 90 sounds very reasonable
What time did you go to Blue Lagoon? Did you have a water side table? Sorry tell me to wait for the trippie

Anyway sounds like a great trip

Kaye

What is the VIP breakfast pass? we are off to SL in 2 weeks and am not looking forward to a breakfast scrum really as our little boy is severely disabled and in a specialised wheelchair so breakfast is not the easiest thing for us!

We had sent an email a few days before arriving to say it was my dad's birthday during the trip, which is why we got VIP breakfast passes. It means you can eat at any time but also that you can go straight to the front of the queue to get seated for breakfast no scrums, it was all very civilised. If you write to the hotel beforehand explaining your son's needs and say that you are a bit worried about breakfast I'm sure they will do what they can to accomodate your family

For 3E90 you got 3 sausages, some bacon and salad. I think it was 7E90 for a full cooked breakfast. we just asked the waitress who seated us each day for the sausage and bacon option and she brought it over with the receipt within a few minutes. These hot options are advertised outside the restaurants.

As for Blue Lagoon, we went at 8pm and we didn't get a waterside table, but hadn't asked for one. Walts, Blue Lagoon and Cafe Mickey were all turning away people who hadn't booked even though we didn't think the parks were that busy, so definitely pre book your meals

 

[Magic Seeker]

So looking forward to your trip report - I love reading them. I remember reading the one you did about a trip with your sister, and there is the same age difference between you and your sister as there is between my two daughters. I hope they grow up to be good friends and visit Disney together when they're older. I figure if I get them hooked while they're young it will be inevitable!

When you say you should pre-book restaurants, do you mean before you go? Can you ring up to do that? Or do you book it through the hotel on your arrival? Must be horrible to get turned away if you've got your heart set on a certain place!

 

[loladelorean]

So looking forward to your trip report - I love reading them. I remember reading the one you did about a trip with your sister, and there is the same age difference between you and your sister as there is between my two daughters. I hope they grow up to be good friends and visit Disney together when they're older. I figure if I get them hooked while they're young it will be inevitable!

When you say you should pre-book restaurants, do you mean before you go? Can you ring up to do that? Or do you book it through the hotel on your arrival? Must be horrible to get turned away if you've got your heart set on a certain place!

We got talking to a few families this week who were there with young kids and lots of mums thought it was lovely that we were still all there together and hoped their kids would still want to go at our age I'm sure yours will!
We booked all our restaurants by phone beforehand, although I daresay we could have done it at the concierge on arrival. People did seem disappointed to get turned away, so I wouldn't risk it. We had a brief wait (5-10 mins) at each restaurant despite the fact that we had booked. This is standard, and one of the examples of a bad approach to table service that I'd swoop in and sort out if they made me restaurant manager for a day