Disney in the French quarter - completed, WITH NEW PHOTOS AT THE END! About This Page:

[chezp]

Introduction – planning to go to Paris



Date: Tuesday 23 September - Saturday 27 September 2003

Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (30) and DH Mark (38)

Resort: Disneyland Paris Resort, Newport Bay Club hotel, concierge with a lake view - their equivalent of the Yacht and Beach Club

Celebration: We needed another dose of Disney before our return to Florida next year, it's a free trip and it's DH's first trip at DLP!



As many of you will know, we spent a wonderful 19 nights at the Beach Club over Christmas 2002 and New Year 2002/2003. We immediately made plans to return in Spring 2004, knowing we had to use up our newly purchased DVC points by August of that year and finally we settled on a May trip, but… that seemed a long way off in the early part of 2003 – more than a year away to be precise.



At around the same time, I was trying to decide how to use up the vouchers I’d got from shopping with one particular supermarket chain. We’ve got a credit card with them and I always buy my petrol there, as well as getting our food shopping there. As my return trip to work is 80 miles a day, I buy a lot of petrol and we spend a lot of money on the credit card, getting points every time we do – so the points quickly mount up. They’re then converted to money off vouchers, which you can use instore or save up to use on other things, such as holidays. I discovered this two years ago, when I worked out I could get £15 off my weekly food shop or if I used them towards a holiday, they then became worth four times as much, £60. Ever since then, we’ve saved up the vouchers for holidays.



By February 2003, I had £840 worth of vouchers and was working out how to spend them on a trip to Oslo in Norway. The trip would cost around £600, so I looked at adding on Stockholm in Sweden – that took it to over £1000 and we didn’t really want to pay extra for a holiday, having just returned from WDW and having seen the size of the credit card bill from that particular month…! So either I’d be wasting vouchers or paying more money or I could look for another destination. While browsing through the holiday brochures, I noticed the offer included the one for Disneyland Paris (DLP), so I started mentally pricing things up. I could get a holiday (including passes to the park for the duration of the trip and breakfast everyday) for the two of us for around £750 at the Newport Bay Club (DLP’s equivalent of the Beach Club) travelling on the Eurostar train from Ashford (half an hour’s drive from where we live) right to the theme park itself – just a two hour trip. Even better, if we went for a week in September, we’d get four nights for the price of three. Then, when I looked at the small print, I realised that for £860 (c. $1350), we could also afford an upgrade to concierge level with a lake view. Well that was it – sold! The holiday was all booked less than a month later and we were on our way back to Disney, meaning we wouldn’t have to wait until 2004 to experience some Disney magic!



Next - starting out with low expectations

[chezp]

Background – or starting out with low expectations



So that’s our plans for the trip – now a little background. I spent a day at DLP in 1996 with my then boyfriend, as we were staying with a friend of mine, who was studying in Paris and I wanted to go and see what the new park (it had only opened a couple of years earlier) was all about. By this time, I’d been to Florida three times with my family – the most recent visit to WDW being only two months earlier, so I guess you could say I’d started to get the Disney bug. The problem was my expectations. If you asked me to do a word association game and gave me Disney as a word, sooner or later I’d have come up with the words “hot” and “sunny”. Well not at Disneyland Paris that day. It was freezing – I never knew the north of France could be that cold! The wind was absolutely biting and that was my abiding memory of the day – not a good start.



DH however had never been to DLP, but instead of thinking “he’ll have a great time, he didn’t have the bad experience I did”, I was worrying about whether he’d enjoy it as well. The problem you see, is DLP is in France. Now this is a problem because the French are not DH’s favourite people. In fact, they are probably his least favourite people. I guess Americans can now relate more to this, after recent events over Iraq and the French reluctance to get involved there, but the British as a race have had never liked the French for many centuries and it’s a pretty mutual thing. We’ve fought numerous wars over the years and today, we’re both still very proud nations. It doesn’t help that the French as a nation believe everyone should speak French and the British as a nation believe everyone should speak English. I’m over generalising here, but you get the idea.



DH is certainly a typical Brit, in the nicest possible way. He does not speak French and believes they should all speak English. On the other hand, I speak French, German, Spanish and Italian (admittedly not very well!) and don’t think we should expect others to speak our language. However, I guess he does have a point when it comes to DLP – it is, as he says, an American ideal and an American company and therefore you expect it to operate the same as you would in WDW. That’s fine in theory, but before we went I’d heard so many horror stories from trip reports on other boards that I had the impression that this wasn’t in fact how it worked.



The two main complaints I heard (and this is probably to do with the French, rather than DLP itself) were:

People smoke everywhere in the park and ignore any no-smoking signs(we have noticed smoking a lot more popular in continental Europe than it is in the UK or America) People do not stand in queues for food or characters – there is no concept of queuing and people just barge in at the last minute.



Both of these things are things which intensely irritate DH (and myself, although I often stay quiet for an easy life). I’d also heard that the CM’s aren’t as friendly as they are in WDW, there’s the obvious problem of the weather not being as “hot” and “sunny” and there isn’t apparently very much to do in the new Studios theme park. Add all these together and you can see why perhaps I wasn’t looking forward to our DLP trip, as much as I was looking forward to our 2004 WDW trip.



The other problem was finding information – there isn’t a lot on the Internet about DLP. I did pick up a very good guidebook early on, called “A Brit’s guide to Disneyland Paris”, which was full of useful tips and our travel agent sent us a guidebook with our tickets about a fortnight before we travelled, but someone needs to come up with an equivalent site to Deb Wills’ one, but made for DLP. There is just nowhere to find details of menus, there are very few restaurant reviews and I couldn’t even find opening times for many of the restaurants, so I didn't know if they served just dinner or lunch as well. Therefore, I will admit I felt very ill-equipped going into this holiday.



Four days before we left, I did finally find a good site – DLP guidebook which had some useful information on, such as what would be down for rehab while we were there. I discovered there’d be three attractions would be closed while we were at DLP – Indiana Jones (as that’s a roller coaster and we don’t do those, that wasn’t a problem) Autopia (Tomorrowland's Indy Speedway from WDW – again not something we’d ever go on), but the third one was a blow – for me at least! It’s A Small World would be down for rehab while we were there. I think this discovery made DH’s night, as he can’t stand this ride – but it’s so Disney I feel we’ve got to go on it every time we’re at Disney. Well, not this time at least. It could've been a lot worse – the Auto Stunt Show was scheduled for rehab the day after we were due to leave and if we’d missed that, I’d have been really disappointed.



A few last minute panics, like waiting until the last minute to get extra memory cards for our digital camera, losing (and then fortunately finding!) the power pack for the digital camera and torrential rain the night before we were due to leave, and finally departure day arrived….

[simbarel]

Cool! I've been waiting for this TR b/c unlike your DH I love the French (I am part French) and I loved Paris when I was there two years ago. You've got me hanging though..I know you had low expectations...can't wait to see how it turned out!


PS...80 miles on the way home??? [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[CRCrazy]

Keep going!!

Very interesting to read the before comments - can't wait to see how the reality compares!

You do write excellent trip reports - glad we don't have to wait until May for another fix!

[goofy4goofy]

Oh, I can't wait for the rest of the report!!!! I hope there are pictures too!!! (hint, hint)

Kelly

[poohsgirl]

Cheryl, glad to see you posting your trip report so quickly!

I have to tell you, I love all of the british touches to your report! Petrol and fortnight, I find it so endearing! I had the pleasure of visiting England in 1990 and had a great time. I found the English to be so charming! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I understand your DH's views of the french and hope that this holiday proves to pleasantly surprise you both!

[chezp]

Saturday 27 September – part two: a return trip to the bottom of the sea – twenty years on…



Then I spotted the fire engine that runs up Main Street, a new vehicle I hadn't been in before. I asked if it went up to the Castle (in English, as I couldn't remember the word castle from my days of studying French, although typically it did come to me later!) and in return, I got a stream of French. From what I could decipher, he wasn't going to the Castle, so we walked off and then other people started boarding it. To be fair, one of the other passengers pointed at us and told the driver we wanted to go on it, but I just shrugged. I was somehow less bothered all of a sudden.



When we got to the hub, we found an addition to the giant pumpkin, pumpkin men working on it, complete with hard hats!





The view up to the pumpkin and the castle



Workmen arrive on top of the pumpkin!



We checked the noticeboard to see if Nautilus was open and there was nothing listed by it, but when I asked, it was open, so that's where we headed next.



On the way there, we stopped to make reservations for lunch at the Plaza Gardens at the end of Main Street, an eat as much as you can buffet. As the food on the train had been lousy on the way out to Disneyland Paris and we didn't expect it to be any better on the way back, we figured we needed to each well before we left. The only options they could give us for lunch, when we asked for 1:15 p.m. was either 1 p.m. on 1:30 p.m. Another difference to WDW, where the sittings are in 10 minutes segments.



I have literally been waiting to go back on Nautilus for most of my life and that is no exaggeration. I went on it in 1981, when my family first visited WDW and I loved it. It really was my favourite ride and when we went back, my parents asked me what I wanted to go on the most and I said straightaway “20,000 Leagues under the sea”. When we got there, it was closed for rehab and when we went back in 1996, it had closed permanently.



Because I saw this as a child, I didn't necessarily have great expectations for this attraction, but it was a lot more fun than I'd imagined. It's a walk-through exhibit, giving you the chance to look at Captain Nemo’s submarine, but it's set out very well and the theming is excellent. Unlike the WDW attraction (from what DH and I could remember of it) this one doesn't move at all, it's stationery. Interestingly enough, you don't actually go into the submarine itself. You can see it lying on the “seabed”, but when you actually work it out, the whole exhibit is under the pavement you walk on, not under the lagoon at all. It's a very clever illusion.



I liked the giant squid which appears to be attacking the submarine, it was a bit corny, but fun all the same. The photos I took in there with the digital camera came out excellently, considering how dark it was. The strobe light setting really gives you amazing shots in the darkness.







The treasure room



Captain Nemo's bedroom



The map room



The diving room



Nemo's face appears in the middle, but I couldn't quite catch it right!



The giant squid attacks



... continued...

[poohsgirl]

<font color="purple">Cheryl can't wait to see those Nautilus pics! I just posted something here Garage Post that may help you. </font>

[dsnytina]

Cheryl:
Excellent job! Thank you for taking me away!
Tina <font color="blue"> </font>

[statelady01]

Hope you are able to add some pictures in! Thanks for another wonderful installment!

[chezp]

Final thoughts

I think you have to go to Disneyland Paris in the right frame of mind. If you go, expecting it to be as good as WDW, you’ll come away disappointed – let’s be honest, no other Disney park can really compare, as no other Disney park offers so much. If you go, expecting something different and wanting to enjoy the differences, then you’ll enjoy your stay. Maybe that was the problem I had with my 1996 DLP visit – I did expect it to be a French version of WDW, but I was a lot younger then! I think because my expectations were different this time, I enjoyed my stay at DLP a lot more.

So what about the two major problems I expected to find in DLP?

1) People smoke everywhere in the park and ignore the non-smoking signs (we have noticed smoking a lot more popular in continental Europe than it is in the UK or America)

This wasn’t too much of a problem. We did have the odd occasion where we got smoke blown in our face, while waiting in queues mainly, but people were a lot more polite than I thought they’d be.

2) People do not stand in queues for food or characters – there is no concept of queuing and people just barge in at the last minute.

This was a problem, particularly waiting for characters. There was no order whatsoever to it and it did lead to some unpleasant experiences, especially with Prince John. The management of Disneyland Paris need to start dealing with this problem, as it’s really not unacceptable for guests to have shout at people who barge into the queues. The CM’s need to be keeping a closer eye on things and ensuring it doesn’t happen, as they do in WDW. Certainly though, we didn’t have any problems while queuing for food or attractions.

The bad parts

We did encounter a language barrier on occasions and I think it’s fair to say some of the French CM’s really weren’t bilingual and couldn’t get by in English. That’s fine if you’re operating a ride, but not when you’re serving in a restaurant. I think with some of them, my French was better than their English and that’s saying something!

The crowds did get quite aggressive with the characters and waiting for the parades in a way I’ve fortunately never experienced in America. As a result, I really would hate to be at DLP at peak times, as I think some people could probably be quite nasty. In fact, from what we saw on the Saturday, I wouldn’t like to go at all when the park’s remotely busy, as it didn’t seem to cope very well at all.

It was also frustrating to see so many things closed in the Disneyland Paris. I appreciate it’s off season, but there is a line between saving money and upsetting your visitors and I felt that, at times, Disney did cross that line. Shutting food outlets as well as attractions with no warnings is not the way to treat your customers. I wouldn’t have minded so much if they’d handed out some information at the park entrance, explaining what was closed, but it became a regular occurrence that we’d spot somewhere to eat on the park map, go there and find it closed. Very annoying!

The hotel:

We definitely did the right thing, paying for the room upgrade and the lake view. It didn’t cost very much and it’s something we’d never be able to afford in our wildest dreams at WDW! Having said that, I’m glad we didn’t pay a lot for it, as we didn’t get that much out of the room upgrade, apart from free towels for the swimming pool! Hardly worth it really….

The décor was very nice, but it did look in need of a rehab and the whole place was starting to get tired – something we’ve certainly never experienced at WDW. It just felt as though some money needed to be spent on the place to upgrade it, which was a shame. I loved the way breakfast was included with the cost of your room and I really wish WDW would do this as well, as it makes so much sense.

Being only 10 – 15 minutes walk from the gates of both parks was wonderful and I did think on many occasions that I wished it was possible to do this at WDW. Of course, cunningly you had to walk through the shopping and entertainment district and that did get a bit wearing, especially as we were both convinced there must be a more direct route. Let’s face it – you want the direct route back to your hotel after a hard day out in the parks!

Food

We had some excellent meals at DLP and that’s what I’d expect, knowing how much the French love their food. Although we thought the fixed price menus would be a great deal, we ended up eating a la carte, as quite often we were stuffed by the time we got to dessert and were only forcing ourselves to eat it because it was paid for! I just wish there were more Internet resources which focused on the food, as we really didn’t have a clue where we wanted to eat when we arrived. We were lucky though and from looking at the menus at the various restaurants, we made some great choices. What I would like to see is more information on the Internet about the restaurants and their menus, so that you can plan more. At least having been once, if we go again, we know some good restaurants to return to.

The good parts

I hope I haven’t sounded too negative during this trip report, as there were a lot of good things at Disneyland Paris, particularly in the Studios. I’m delighted to know the Stunt Show is coming to Florida and we really enjoyed Cinemagique and Animagique, both great additions to the Disney repertoire. There were some good variations on a theme, such as Phantom Manor and BTMRR (although that was a little too rough for me) and the idea of the Disneyland Hotel at the entrance to the park really can’t be beaten. It’s a shame they didn’t do this at WDW. And the theming seemed so much more impressive at DLP – I love the way they did Tomorrowland in particular. We came away feeling that the Imagineers probably learnt from the previous parks and applied what they’d learnt here to ensure the theming was as good as it possibly could be.

They’ve also had a lot of fun with Hallowe’en – we couldn’t believe how many decorations there were around the Disneyland Park. It added another dimension to the park and I think it’s a real shame that WDW doesn’t do something along these lines. It was great fun, coming in everyday and wondering what had been added in overnight.

The original park now has a lot to commend it and there’s a lot more than when I first visited in 1996, but the Studios do need more adding in. There are rumours that Tower of Terror will be introduced there shortly and that would be a start, but in all honesty, they probably need to add four or five more attractions (even some small scale ones) to make sure people can spend a full day or more than a day there. Mind you, when you think how many attractions MK started out with in the 1970’s and how many there are now, I’m sure the Studios will come into its own – it may just take a few years.

The weather was fantastic – we couldn’t have hoped for better for the time of year we went and it did make a real difference.

Of course, another bonus for us is how simple it is to get to Disneyland Paris – only a couple of hours from door to door for us and it’s a reasonable cost on the train as well, which is an added bonus. It’s a lot better than the nine hour flight we have to endure to get to WDW!

Would we go back?

Yes, we would. This answer did surprise us, as we certainly enjoyed Disneyland Paris a lot more than we thought we would. It’s a great way of getting some Disney magic, but of course it can never compare with WDW, especially as Epcot’s our favourite park. You never know, you may see a DLP trip report from us again in the future – we’ll have to see, but we certainly wouldn’t discount the possibility!

[tikibird]

Excellent report Cheryl!!

I really appreciated hearing all about DLP (on my dream list of future travel destinations) and your comparisons of it to WDW. After reading your report, I really must start planning for when a trip abroad can happen!

Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us, and I'm really looking forward to hearing about your trip to DL coming up!

[Wendyismyname]

Cheryl,

great job!! I've copied and pasted and I think I'll print it out and put in my special Trip Report book!! Excellent!

Wendy

[poohsgirl]

[ QUOTE ]
The crowds did get quite aggressive with the characters and waiting for the parades in a way I’ve fortunately never experienced in America. As a result, I really would hate to be at DLP at peak times, as I think some people could probably be quite nasty.

[/ QUOTE ]

<font color="purple"> Kind of sounds like the people in NYC subways, EVERYDAY!!!

Cheryl, I'm glad DLP exceeded your expectations, however low they may have been. I'm sure glad, though, that WDW is still #1 in your !
I hope you can fix the glitch with the pics soon! </font>

[ProChristo]

<font color="purple"> What an excellent wrap up! Sorry your trip home was less than delightful, but in all an excellent account of what must have been such a fun trip. DLP is now on my travel "wish list". Thanks for taking the time to write this up for us. </font>