CaptainCook
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 7, 2009
We arrived at DLP on July 10th around 4 p.m. and spent that evening, all day yesterday and a couple of hours this morning in the parks. I thought I'd share a few thoughts while we wait for our flight.
For reference - we are Florida park regulars (every few years) and spent a couple of days at Disneyland in California last year, and have 2 kids ages 12 and 10 in our party.
On this trip we checked into Sequoia Lodge. It was fine, lots of space and good proximity to the parks. But to be honest, we were in the parks from open to close. We never checked out the hotel amenities or even saw the pool. Quite different from our Florida trips where we like to take midday breaks by the pool and really enjoy the resorts!
We started our park time at Disney Studios. We rode Crush's Coaster, which surprised us with its intensity, and spent some time in the Toy Story play land area. We followed that up with a dinner reservation at Chez Remy which we really enjoyed. We had a half board package so it was nice to have the meals included. I don't think the value is there to pay out of pocket for it (almost 200€ for the 4 of us) but then again, Disney prices are what they are.
The park was closed by the time we finished dinner and we were escorted out. No problem there, as we didn't really take strongly to Disney Studios. I would say Hollywood Studios is our least favourite Florida park so this came as no surprise. We aren't big on the movies, nor on the big thrill rides. However, Disneyland was still open, so we decided to head there for a bit.
Disneyland did not disappoint. It was utterly charming and beautiful, helped along I'm sure by the touch ups this year for the big anniversary. It was almost like Disney World on steroids - like they built the park in Florida, decided what could be done better, and made those improvements in Paris. The theming in Adventureland was amazing. BTMR is much longer in Paris. IASW is nicer - cleaner - less mouldy around the edges - and it includes Canada, as it should! The pirate playground area is awesome. POTC was closed for refurb while we were there but with the playground area, we hardly missed it.
We stayed til park close but the kids were tired so we didn't stick around for the fireworks. We started our second day at Disneyland for extra magic hours, then ran over to DS (easy enough to do) when it opened at 10 to ride Ratatouille (standby - 35 minutes) and see the stage show about Mickey and magic, which was worthwhile. The dialogue was a mixture of French and English so it could be understood by a majority. Then back to Disneyland for the rest of the day. We had a late lunch reservation at Agrabah Cafe which was excellent and different. We stayed until park close again, and this time watched the fireworks from a great vantage point in the hub. The show was great - combining fireworks, lasers, projections, fountains - again, like the best parts of all the other Disney shows we have seen.
There are downsides to the park, to be sure. The smoking wasn't terrible, but it was noticeable. And, we waited in a line of no more than 10 people for an hour for a crepe - it was ridiculous - one woman was running the entire operation, including making the food, cash, and no cash register - figuring the math out on a calculator! It was baffling how inept the food stalls were at processing large numbers of people. Many food stalls closed early so options were limited and we had to take what we could find.
Our flight is boarding now so I will cut this short. In summary, we had a great time, are very glad to have added this to our trip itinerary while in France, and would recommend a visit to other Disney parks fans.
For reference - we are Florida park regulars (every few years) and spent a couple of days at Disneyland in California last year, and have 2 kids ages 12 and 10 in our party.
On this trip we checked into Sequoia Lodge. It was fine, lots of space and good proximity to the parks. But to be honest, we were in the parks from open to close. We never checked out the hotel amenities or even saw the pool. Quite different from our Florida trips where we like to take midday breaks by the pool and really enjoy the resorts!
We started our park time at Disney Studios. We rode Crush's Coaster, which surprised us with its intensity, and spent some time in the Toy Story play land area. We followed that up with a dinner reservation at Chez Remy which we really enjoyed. We had a half board package so it was nice to have the meals included. I don't think the value is there to pay out of pocket for it (almost 200€ for the 4 of us) but then again, Disney prices are what they are.
The park was closed by the time we finished dinner and we were escorted out. No problem there, as we didn't really take strongly to Disney Studios. I would say Hollywood Studios is our least favourite Florida park so this came as no surprise. We aren't big on the movies, nor on the big thrill rides. However, Disneyland was still open, so we decided to head there for a bit.
Disneyland did not disappoint. It was utterly charming and beautiful, helped along I'm sure by the touch ups this year for the big anniversary. It was almost like Disney World on steroids - like they built the park in Florida, decided what could be done better, and made those improvements in Paris. The theming in Adventureland was amazing. BTMR is much longer in Paris. IASW is nicer - cleaner - less mouldy around the edges - and it includes Canada, as it should! The pirate playground area is awesome. POTC was closed for refurb while we were there but with the playground area, we hardly missed it.
We stayed til park close but the kids were tired so we didn't stick around for the fireworks. We started our second day at Disneyland for extra magic hours, then ran over to DS (easy enough to do) when it opened at 10 to ride Ratatouille (standby - 35 minutes) and see the stage show about Mickey and magic, which was worthwhile. The dialogue was a mixture of French and English so it could be understood by a majority. Then back to Disneyland for the rest of the day. We had a late lunch reservation at Agrabah Cafe which was excellent and different. We stayed until park close again, and this time watched the fireworks from a great vantage point in the hub. The show was great - combining fireworks, lasers, projections, fountains - again, like the best parts of all the other Disney shows we have seen.
There are downsides to the park, to be sure. The smoking wasn't terrible, but it was noticeable. And, we waited in a line of no more than 10 people for an hour for a crepe - it was ridiculous - one woman was running the entire operation, including making the food, cash, and no cash register - figuring the math out on a calculator! It was baffling how inept the food stalls were at processing large numbers of people. Many food stalls closed early so options were limited and we had to take what we could find.
Our flight is boarding now so I will cut this short. In summary, we had a great time, are very glad to have added this to our trip itinerary while in France, and would recommend a visit to other Disney parks fans.
