Originally Posted By dagobert After a three year hiatus, we decided to return to DLP in March. We have already booked a non-Disney hotel in Val D'Europe for five nights. The Disney hotels are fully booked and the only offer I got on the phone was a Suite in the Disneyland Hotel for 11000 Euros. That's a bit over my budget ;-). We have planned to visit Paris on one day, since we have already been three times to Paris itself, and three days for DLP. Since we didn't get a room in a Disney hotel, we will get an Annual Passport to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours.
Originally Posted By u k fan Cool, if we can fix it do you want to try and meet up? We're staying at the Newport Bay Club from March 27th - 30th!!!
Originally Posted By rockcow1 Yay! Have fun! My family will be going in June for the first time! We are very excited!
Originally Posted By dagobert >>>Yay! Have fun! My family will be going in June for the first time! We are very excited!<<< Thank you. I'm sure we will have fun, although I'm also a bit sceptical this year. I just hope that the parks will not look very run down. But I hope for the best.
Originally Posted By dagobert Yesterday we retirned from a wonderful vacation at DLRP. I will post a trip report during the next days. @ Ukfan, it was nice to finally meet you!!
Originally Posted By u k fan dagobert you too! I'll try and get a trip report up in a few days as well!!!
Originally Posted By leemac <<Yesterday we retirned from a wonderful vacation at DLRP. >> Glad to hear it - I gather that the unseasonably cold weather meant this Easter's attendance was much lower than anticipated - a lot of folks cancelled their trips to avoid the single digit weather. Brrrr!
Originally Posted By dagobert >>>Glad to hear it - I gather that the unseasonably cold weather meant this Easter's attendance was much lower than anticipated - a lot of folks cancelled their trips to avoid the single digit weather. Brrrr!<<< That's bad. When we booked, the DLP hotels were full and we didn't get room at one of the Disney hotels. I guess that's the reason why RnRC was usually a walk on.
Originally Posted By dagobert Some thoughts about the last vacation: The parks looked better than expected and maintenance was on a good level. Of course not everything was perfect, but compared to recent years, the parks were in a better shape. However RnRC was a disappointment. We rode it five times, but only once the on-board audio worked. I don't know if Disney does that on purpose, but many attractions had technical difficulties and opened an hour later. That happened on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Very annoying. The CMs were very friendly, but not that over friendly like in Orlando, which I don't like so much. It's also annoying that Disney opens only a few restaurants and so queues can be very long. So Fast Food at Disney means Slow Service. The merchandise is still bad, I only got two pins, a magnet and the 20th Anniversary Book for 50 Euros. But the book is really great. TSPL looks cheap, but I have to admit that we enjoyed riding RC Racer. I was surprised to see so many Germans and Austrians in the parks.
Originally Posted By leemac <<20th Anniversary Book for 50 Euros>> The book is half price now? Wasn't it 100 euros originally?
Originally Posted By leemac <<I don't know if Disney does that on purpose, but many attractions had technical difficulties and opened an hour later. That happened on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Very annoying>> On purpose. If attendance is tracking below when it was forecast then they will open attractions later to save on operating costs - including CM labour.
Originally Posted By dagobert Okay, we guessed that. Buzz and Peter Pan always opened later during the Extra Magic Hours. The same with Star Tours, during regular opening hours.
Originally Posted By dagobert I don't know how much the book originally was, but I think it is worth the €50. It's a beautiful coffee table look. I wonder if it is so easy to cancel a trip to DLP?
Originally Posted By leemac <<The book is half price now? Wasn't it 100 euros originally?>> It was only 50 euros. I must have always bought them in twos! I really don't like the design at all but at least they have finally put out their own book. It has some neat images even if the overall design is way too busy. The writing is a little clunky too.
Originally Posted By dagobert >>>It was only 50 euros. I must have always bought them in twos! I really don't like the design at all but at least they have finally put out their own book. It has some neat images even if the overall design is way too busy. The writing is a little clunky too.<<< I haven't started to read it, but the pictures are indeed neat. However From Sketch To Reality is still th best book about DLP, unfortunately it only covers the first park.
Originally Posted By dagobert I'm going to start my trip report. I will post some photos later this week on my blog. Introduction After a three year hiatus we decided to return to Disneyland Paris for the Easter Holidays. We stayed for six nights with four days at DLP and one day in Paris. Since we booked the trip on short notice, we didn't get a room in one of the Disney Hotels and so we booked a room in the hotel Relais Spa Chessy in Val D'Europe, the Disney planned community. First Day - March 24th Like in recent visits, we drove to Paris and usually it takes around eight to nine hours with breaks. We left around 7am and some hours of driving later, we finally arrived at the hotel at 4pm. Check in was quick and soon we unpacked our stuff and refreshed a bit. Afterwards we were on our way to the RER station, the commuter train that connects Paris with DLP. It was only a three minutes train ride and it stopped right in the center of the DLP resort. Our first stop was at the guest relation to purchase our Fantasy Annual Pass for €159. The lines were short and soon we were inside the park. It was great to be back and to see Main Street in its normal look, because all the 20th birthday decorations have gone. We headed straight to POTC which was a walk on. The ride had just reopened after several weeks of refurbishments and I have to say that it looked great. Luckily Disney didn't add Jack Sparrow to the ride. I guess that's the only good thing about DLP's financial situation. It's the last remaining POTC attraction in its original design. After POTC we were getting hungry and so walked to Disney Village. The walking distances between the two parks and DV are a big advantage of DLP. Even the Santa Fe Hotel is only 20 minutes by foot from the parks. We tried the new Earl of Sandwich and it was a good choice. The next stop was at King Ludwig's Castle due to the Happy Hour, buy one beer get one free, for a wonderful German beer. Before we returned to the Disneyland Park, the park was open until 10pm on the weekend while Walt Disney Studios Park closed every day at 6pm, we enjoyed a cocktail at Billy Bob's Country Saloon and checked out the newly opened World of Disney Store, which turned out to be very beautiful. Back in the Disneyland Park we headed to Frontierland to ride the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness. DLP's BTM is located on an island in the Rivers of the Far West and in my opinion it is a lot better than its counterpart in Florida, the only other BTM I've ever been on. Then it was time for Disney Dreams, the new show that was created for DLP's 20th Anniversary. We loved it, it was really beautiful. The show uses projections on the castle, fountains and fireworks. Well done Disney!!! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of it, but there are many videos out there on the internet. The show started at 10pm and lasted for about 20 minutes. Afterwards the park closed and we went back to DV for one last beer at the Sports Bar before we took the train back to Val D'Europe. The hotel was only five minutes by foot away from the station. It was the best option for not staying in a Disney hotel. Our room was fine and clean, it was quiet, but unfortunately the hotel didn't offer any German or English TV Channels, but that was okay with us, since we were so tired each evening that we never turned it on. The hotel offered free wi-fi and so we could use the iPad. Breakfast was also offered for an extra fee, I think it was 15 Euros per person, but we always went to Starbucks. That's it for the first day.
Originally Posted By dagobert Day 2 - March 25th Since our hotel was in Val D'Europe, it was just a short walk to the Auchan supermarket. So we started the day with buying some groceries there, because in Europe shops are closed on Sundays and so we couldn't do that on Sunday after we arrived. Unfortunately that meant, that we had to skip the Extra Magic Hours. After we bought our stuff, we were on our way to DLP. When we arrived, WDSP was just opening and so got in line to ride Crush's Coaster, because during the day lines got pretty long. However the ride had some technical difficulties and so we did Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Roller Coaster instead. Afterwards it was time for coffee at Disney's Blockbuster Cafe. Like every Disney resort, DLP also served Nescafe until last year, but now they offer Segafredo, however it's just slightly better. Before we walked to the Disneyland Park, we rode ToT again, checked out TSPL, which looked really cheap, and had an early lunch with Fries and beer at the En Coulisse Restaurant inside Studio 1. Back in the main park we did some rides like the Indiana Jones coaster, BTMRR, Space Mountain and POTC. At the Cowboy Cookout BBQ we relaxed a bit with a cold glass of beer. Then we just walked around the park until our Fastpass Ticket for BTMRR was valid. Dinner was at the Hakuna Matata Restaurant and afterwards we enjoyed another beer at King Ludwig's Castle in DV. DLP closed at 8pm and so we didn't return to the park, but did some shopping at DV before we were on our way back to our hotel.
Originally Posted By u k fan Thanks for the trip report. I think I'll try and get mine up tomorrow. I actually enjoyed TSPL more that I thought I would from what others have said. I thought it had a lot of neat touches in terms of theming. Anyway I'll say more in my report!!!
