Two Germans Dine Disney in Europe ... FINISHED!

[annichan]

Hi everybody,

welcome to whoever may read this!

While there is not much to look at here yet, this is eventually going to become a dining report of five days' dining at Disneyland Paris, complete with a few pictures.

... oh yeah, and since I don't really know where else to put them, I will probably also, if slightly unconnectedly, throw in reports and pictures of 11 days' dining on the Disney Magic during our 2011 Mediterranean cruise.
Yes, I know, this is technically not supposed to be here - but unless a moderator actually (and, if I may say so, quite heartlessly ) stops me, I will throw it in anyway. It all happened in Europe, after all.

A couple of pictures to get into the swing of things ...


So anyway - this is the first time I have ever posted here on the DLP Trip Reports Forum. (And yes, I KNOW that a dining report is technically not a trip report. All of you who write "real" trip reports, I am very much in awe of you . It is simply too much work for me, so I decided a while ago to stick to them food reports.)

Therefore, I would like to briefly introduce myself before I start "telling strangers what I ate", as my loving husband puts it:

I am 37 and work in a book publishing house, while the man of my life (who shall affectionately - if not creatively - be known in this report as DH) is 34 and a software consultant. We do not have kids (but pamper our cats silly instead), and we are big fans of travelling and of the Disney parks.

On two prior trips to Walt Disney World and a Disney cruise, we enjoyed ourselves immensely, and I wrote about our dining experiences here (WDW 2009)and here (WDW and DCL 2010).

Anyway, unlike in 2009 and 2010, we were not able to make it to Disney World this year, so we stayed in good old Europe instead. This did not mean that we stayed away from Disney, though:
In May / June we enjoyed an absolutely wonderful cruise on the Disney Magic in the Mediterranean, and in September we had the great fortune to be spending five long and really rather leisurely days at Disneyland Paris during the most glorious summer weather to be seen all year.

Oh, and to further explain my thread title, we are known in these Disboards dining report circles as the Two Germans because - well, because we're German and I started naming my threads after that fact. Wasn't one of my most creative days, I know, I know .


So, these are the meals I shall be reporting on:

Part 1: Disneyland Paris
Day 1: Salon Mickey
Day 1, continued: Everything but the Blue Lagoon
Day 1, continued: Blue Lagoon Restaurant
Day 2: Everything but dinner
Day 2, continued: Yacht Club Restaurant
Day 3: Walt's - An American Restaurant, and Earl Of Sandwich
Day 4: Quick service dining
Day 4, continued: Manhattan Restaurant
Day 5: Agrabah Cafe, and a short mention of Cafe Mickey

Part 2: Dining on a Disney cruise in the Mediterranean
Day 1: with Let The Magic Begin Dinner
Day 2: with Palo Dinner
Day 3: with Parrot Cay Island Dinner
Day 4: with Lumiéres French Dinner
Day 5: with Animator's Palate Show Dinner
Day 6: with Master Chef Dinner
Day 7: with Villains Dinner
Day 8: with Pirates IN the Caribbean Dinner
Day 9: with Captain's Gala Dinner
Day 10: with Flavors of the Mediterranean Dinner
Day 11: with Palo Brunch
Day 11: continued with Till We Meet Again Dinner, and the final breakfast on Day 12

 

[Rienchen]

Yay, first one.

I'm German too and will be taking my mum to WDW next year, will have to think of a good thread title for my dining reports without stealing your '2 Germans' ;-)

 

[Cumbley]

Looking forward to reading! Food reports are my favourite! Can you do Day 5 first, we leave on Thursday and have Cafe Mickey booked for a birthday on Friday

I'd also like to read with envy your cruise info, we were booked on 13th August trip but had to cancel as the girls had chickenpox

Cheryl

 

[annichan]

Yay, first one.

I'm German too and will be taking my mum to WDW next year, will have to think of a good thread title for my dining reports without stealing your '2 Germans' ;-)

Welcome Rienchen!

From your screen name, I already kind of figured you might be German as well. Hmm, difficult one on the thread title ... "Two More Germans"? "Other Germans"? "There's-More-Of-Us-Here-On-The-DIS-Than-Just-Those-Silly-Two-Germans"?

 

[annichan]

Looking forward to reading! Food reports are my favourite! Can you do Day 5 first, we leave on Thursday and have Cafe Mickey booked for a birthday on Friday

I'd also like to read with envy your cruise info, we were booked on 13th August trip but had to cancel as the girls had chickenpox

Cheryl

Hi Cheryl, thanks for reading along! What meal do you have planned at Cafe Mickey? I'm only good for breakfast info ...

And I'm so sorry to hear that you had to cancel your cruise - I would have been devastated!
But it certainly wouldn't have done the sick kids any good. I truly hope you had insurance and didn't have too many costs for the cancelled trip. And do you have another cruise planned? I do hope DCL will be back in Europe eventually!

 

[Cumbley]

Hi Cheryl, thanks for reading along! What meal do you have planned at Cafe Mickey? I'm only good for breakfast info ...

And I'm so sorry to hear that you had to cancel your cruise - I would have been devastated!
But it certainly wouldn't have done the sick kids any good. I truly hope you had insurance and didn't have too many costs for the cancelled trip. And do you have another cruise planned? I do hope DCL will be back in Europe eventually!

We're there Friday evening so not to worry! Reviews seem to be very mixed to be honest so we'll just have to wait and see! We were gutted about the cruise, but there are rumours of Greece cruises for 2013 so maybe then

Cheryl

 

[Flossbolna]

Hi Annichan, thanks for the link in your dining review! I am here and am very much looking forward to reading about all your dining adventures!!

Welcome Rienchen!

From your screen name, I already kind of figured you might be German as well. Hmm, difficult one on the thread title ... "Two More Germans"? "Other Germans"? "There's-More-Of-Us-Here-On-The-DIS-Than-Just-Those-Silly-Two-Germans"?

Ahem, I think my dining reviews ought to be the original "two Germans" dining reviews, even though they did not have that in the title....

 

[tinks_1989]

looking forward to some pictures x

 

[annichan]

We're there Friday evening so not to worry! Reviews seem to be very mixed to be honest so we'll just have to wait and see! We were gutted about the cruise, but there are rumours of Greece cruises for 2013 so maybe then

Cheryl

I know, I've heard that rumour about Eastern Mediterranean cruises in 2013 - that would be so wonderful! We could pretty much do a back-to-back instead of the one cruise we have planned from Port Canaveral, and not pay more because the airfare would be so much cheaper ...

Hi Annichan, thanks for the link in your dining review! I am here and am very much looking forward to reading about all your dining adventures!!

Ahem, I think my dining reviews ought to be the original "two Germans" dining reviews, even though they did not have that in the title....

Hi Flossbolna, great to have you here! I know, I know, you were here long before me .
But then again, you weren't creative enough to come up with this dazzlingly witty title, were you?

looking forward to some pictures x

Coming up in a couple' hours! (if only two measly Salon Mickey pictures ... )

 

[PrincessCharlie]

Yay! Just finished your WDW dining report, and can't wait for the next one. Hopefully it will help me decide where to eat!

Hope you'll put in a bit about your cruise, it sounds really interesting!

 

[annichan]

Hope you'll put in a bit about your cruise, it sounds really interesting!

Oh I will, for sure! Most probably not all of it, though, as that would make the Disney Cruise Line part of this report much longer than the Disneyland part ...

 

[annichan]

Our Disneyland Paris adventure began on a Monday morning in late September, when we boarded a plane to Paris at an ungodly early hour.

Subsequently, in bright sunshine, we set foot on DLP property before ten in the morning, which was quite an achievement for having come from another country that same day .
Quite unsurprisingly, our room was not yet ready, so we ventured straight to the parks – or rather, to Salon Mickey for our first ever visit.

I had purchased DLP shares a few months before and was now happy to be knocking on that door and brandishing my Shareholders Club card.

I don't know if there are those among you you have not heard of Salon Mickey, but I will give a brief explanation just in case:
One of the perks of being a Disneyland Paris shareholder holding at least 20 stocks, is the free use of the cozy little shareholders' lounge right at the entrance to Disneyland Park (on the very right hand side, if you stand in front of Disneyland Hotel). It is beautifully decorated in what seems to me to resemble a 19th century gentlemen's club (not that I have ever known a 19th century gentleman, so forgive me if I am misunderstanding Disney’s décor intentions ), and the only way to get in there is to knock at the door and wait to be admitted.

You then hand over your shareholders' card and your park admission ticket (just for the duration of your stay at Salon Mickey, of course), help yourself to some complimentary refreshments, and have a seat in the lounge, so happy to be here that you actually look a bit dumb (example directly below).
Alternatively, you are too deeply engrossed in planning the day ahead that you do not even notice your surroundings (example a bit further below).

You are allowed to visit 5 times every month (don't I wish I could manage that!), and at each visit you may have up to two pastries per person (apart from the very yummy plain croissants, everything is pretty sweet and rich, so after the first day we never took more than one each), as well as help yourself to a bottle of water and/or a little canister of orange juice each.

There is seating room for about 10 people in there, but we never saw the room full. At the most full we ever saw it, we shared the room with one family of four and one older lady.

It is a wonderful place to unwind and feel totally special and magical, as if the whole of Disneyland was intended to be for yourself only. (You cannot clearly see the people hurrying by outside because of the curtains, but you know that they are there – and that they do not get to sit down in a beautiful quiet lounge with complimentary pastries, so you get to feel pretty special ).

So anyway, I can't really say how much money we saved for breakfast by coming here, but I am sure it would have been about ten euros or so, given the stiff prices at DLP (for three pastries, two 0.3l bottles of water and two packs of orange juice).

Coming up next: Lunch at the Blue Lagoon Restaurant …

 

[annichan]

Sticking to the correct order of events, I would have had to tell you about our lunch at The Blue Lagoon now - but I just realized that I haven't uploaded all the photos I need for that, so I will be really daring and science-fiction-y here, step outside of the natural flow of time, and first tell you what happened after our lunch.

We did have some more food that day, but for some reason I never photographed any of it. (No, actually I know why that was – I had only planned to report on our table service meals and it has only just occurred to me now that I could at least mention what else we had to keep us strong during those long park touring days .)

So anyway, sometime around 4 p.m. we headed back to the hotel to finally check into our room and get settled in, and on the way there, we passed what was to become The Place We Could Never Walk Past Without Buying A Milkshake, also known as Annette's Diner.

We had had a wonderful meal there during our last visit (some six years ago), and I had utterly fallen in love with their strawberry milkshakes.
I'm not sure what has happened to the place since, but it was completely deserted whenever we passed there . That kind of put us off having a meal there – but then again, we had all our meals planned in advance so we probably wouldn't have gotten around to it anyway.
We did not find the outdoor seating area all too inviting either (bleak concrete, blaring music) so we decided to get our shakes at the takdeout window (which also meant they were about two euros apiece cheaper than if we had wanted to drink them in the adjacent seating area. Oh well).

Anyway, I had a strawberry milkshake and was infinitely pleased to find out that it was still heavenly, same as last time! Not too sweet, wonderfully creamy, perfect.
Meanwhile, DH had a coffee flavoured shake and also liked it very much.



Back at the hotel, we finally got to see our room, which I had emailed in advance for, to make sure that it was a recently renovated one.
Food purists please skip ahead, as I just feel the urge to share some pictures of that wonderful, pretty little room:

A bright and friendly corner room …

… with a wonderfully comfy king size bed … (No other bed though, so this room is definitely only good for two people!)

… and a lake view, even though it is a bit hidden behind the trees!

The view out the other window (if you managed to squint past the trees) was of the lake and the nearby Newport Bay Club (their lobby would have been much closer to this room than our own!).

Very well-themed lamp above the bed …

… cute Bambi picture …

… and even cuter wallpaper detail.


Needless to say, we loved this room!


After we had finished unpacking (I'm like that, whenever I get to a new place I need to unpack asap to make me feel more at home there), we returned to Disneyland Park, this time by way of the Earl Of Sandwich:

Again, I didn't photograph any of the food, but it was nevertheless great! I never tried any of the sandwiches but DH speaks very highly of them, and I always had the freshest, tastiest of salads. Really very good.
This time, we both had the Chicken Caesar Salad (with lots of chicken – a bit too much of it for my taste even, actually -, mixed salad and lettuce, Parmesan cheese, croutons and Caesar dressing). I absolutely recommend that one!
As I do the little cans of 1664 beer we enjoyed with it . The price hurt a little (4 euros for a little can), but their alcohol content made sure I didn't usually ever feel like I needed a second one .


Oh, and I have one more photo for the day:
When we had finally returned from our second leg of today's park touring, we didn't make it to our room but collapsed in the rather comfy chairs on one of the Sequoia Lodge's two verandahs on the way.
As it turned out, the Redwood Bar and Lounge was only a short walk from here, and they gave you a little tablet so you could carry whatever you ordered outside and have it on the verandah.

A Yellowstone, one of the hotel's signature cocktails (I think), enjoyed at sunset on a Disney hotel verandah. The perfect ending to a busy day.
For the cocktail afficionados among you, this contained Bosford Gin, Malibu Rum, fresh lemon juice, cranberry juice and Monin violet syrup. Very nice!

(Incidentally, on these very boards I had picked up the idea of sampling "cocktails around the lake" – a wonderful idea by another Diser. I fully intended to do the same during this trip, but alas, I never got round to it and never had any more cocktails after this one. Sad, really.)

Oh, and as you can see in the background, DH was having a beer instead (what can I say? We're Germans after all ) – half a litre of draught Carlsberg.


Coming up next: The Blue Lagoon (second try!) ...

 

[PrincessCharlie]

Oooo, that room looks lovely. I didn't know they were renovating, so thanks for the tip!

I also didn't know what salon Mickey was all about, so Thanks for that too. Seriously considering buying shares now.

Waiting for the next review!

 

[marcus.ka]

Great report. I can't wait to read more.

But why, why, why didn't you eat a sandwich at EOS??

I would walk from Nuremberg to Paris just to have one. Or I would swim to Orlando just to have one of the best sandwiches in the whole world.
Going to EOS and having a salad is like going to DLP or WDW and not going to the parks.

By the way: The renovated SL room looks very nice.

 

[Ware Bears]

... oh yeah, and since I don't really know where else to put them, I will probably also, if slightly unconnectedly, throw in reports and pictures of 11 days' dining on the Disney Magic during our 2011 Mediterranean cruise.
Yes, I know, this is technically not supposed to be here - but unless a moderator actually (and, if I may say so, quite heartlessly ) stops me, I will throw it in anyway. It all happened in Europe, after all.

What ..... and deprive us of 11 days of Magic photos? I hope not.

Looking forward to more.

 

[lojo]

I'm late, I'm late.... how did that happen.... well I'm here now. Loving the extra non-dining review bits too, it's almost like a, ahem, trip report.

Looking forward to hearing about all of your restaurant choices too - two of which we have booked for Xmas, and two others which are possible contenders.

 

[tinks_1989]

another update soon please x

 

[annichan]

Hi everyone,

so sorry but I don't think I'll manage any updates this week

I've caught a horrible cold, and sitting at the computer seems like much too much work at the moment (let alone write ... or think ...)

Back to bed and I'll get back to you all when I'm better!

 

[lojo]

You poor thing - not sure whether to suggest Glühwein or Jägertee, I've found both quite soothing when under the weather - perhaps I just anaethetised myself with alcohol and didn't know any better.

Hope you feel better soon - no pressure...