Tanooki
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 18, 2009
As I'm waiting for my plane (airports can be soooo boring!) after our first trip to DLP, here's a few observations that come to mind:
- This was a short getaway celebrating our 25th anniversary that we planned kind of spur-of-the-moment since hubby had to go to France for a work convention. We decided to get there early and have a short anniversary trip to DLP. We arrived on Friday afternoon, checked in (at the Santa Fe hotel) and went to the park (DL) right away. We spent the day at the Studios on Saturday and went back to DL on Sunday.
- Loved both parks, they were amazing
- The castle is stunning (and there's a dragon!), you can go up for a tour with Sleeping Beauty's story (book pages) and have a great view point from the outside, or you can go down and try to wake the dragon
- Absolutely loved Hyperspace Mountain, it was simply amazing!
- I also loved Crush Coaster (can you tell I love coasters?
) but it's a shame there are no fastpass there. We waited in a line that originally said 70 minutes (you gotta do what you gotta do when you're there for only 2.5 days!) but the ride went down so we made it in about 120 minutes 
It was worth it but I was glad it was only the 2 of us without kids!
- People smoke EVERYWHERE!
- There is no a/c!!! People don't seem to mind that much but it was very warm (28-30C so about 85F) and it would've been nice to get some cool air in the stores or in the buses. Maybe they only crank the a/c up during the "real" summer months?
- Every hotel is within walking distance to the parks (they are next to each other) so if you don't feel like waiting for the shuttle, you can easily walk back in about 15 minutes or less (Santa Fe is the farthest).
- If you want to eat in the restaurants, make RESERVATIONS! I called a few weeks ahead and it was very easy to get what I wanted when I wanted it. We saw many people turned back or having to wait a long time to get seated.
- The Santa Fe hotel is a great value hotel. Reminded us of the WDW value hotels we know. Nothing fancy but definitely ok. No pools though, which would be a deal breaker with the kids, but it was fine for us.
- You need to remember that some things are different here, like the personal space definition (pretty much inexistant for many European), the concept of "queue" (they don't really line up unless there's a very narrow corridor, they just gather around the door/entry/counter), and the waiters will not come to you unless you flag them down, they don't "bother" you during your meal.
- No tipping!
If you have questions, I'll be glad to answer them.
We had a great time and would like to come back with the kids some day.
If only airfare wasn't that expensive...
- This was a short getaway celebrating our 25th anniversary that we planned kind of spur-of-the-moment since hubby had to go to France for a work convention. We decided to get there early and have a short anniversary trip to DLP. We arrived on Friday afternoon, checked in (at the Santa Fe hotel) and went to the park (DL) right away. We spent the day at the Studios on Saturday and went back to DL on Sunday.
- Loved both parks, they were amazing
- The castle is stunning (and there's a dragon!), you can go up for a tour with Sleeping Beauty's story (book pages) and have a great view point from the outside, or you can go down and try to wake the dragon
- Absolutely loved Hyperspace Mountain, it was simply amazing!
- I also loved Crush Coaster (can you tell I love coasters?
) but it's a shame there are no fastpass there. We waited in a line that originally said 70 minutes (you gotta do what you gotta do when you're there for only 2.5 days!) but the ride went down so we made it in about 120 minutes It was worth it but I was glad it was only the 2 of us without kids!- People smoke EVERYWHERE!
- There is no a/c!!! People don't seem to mind that much but it was very warm (28-30C so about 85F) and it would've been nice to get some cool air in the stores or in the buses. Maybe they only crank the a/c up during the "real" summer months?
- Every hotel is within walking distance to the parks (they are next to each other) so if you don't feel like waiting for the shuttle, you can easily walk back in about 15 minutes or less (Santa Fe is the farthest).
- If you want to eat in the restaurants, make RESERVATIONS! I called a few weeks ahead and it was very easy to get what I wanted when I wanted it. We saw many people turned back or having to wait a long time to get seated.
- The Santa Fe hotel is a great value hotel. Reminded us of the WDW value hotels we know. Nothing fancy but definitely ok. No pools though, which would be a deal breaker with the kids, but it was fine for us.
- You need to remember that some things are different here, like the personal space definition (pretty much inexistant for many European), the concept of "queue" (they don't really line up unless there's a very narrow corridor, they just gather around the door/entry/counter), and the waiters will not come to you unless you flag them down, they don't "bother" you during your meal.
- No tipping!
If you have questions, I'll be glad to answer them.
We had a great time and would like to come back with the kids some day.
If only airfare wasn't that expensive...
