DLP First Time Trip Report

[Animaniac93-98]

Just arrived from a four night stay at Sequoia Lodge, the first time visiting Disneyland Paris after seeing both American parks. Full trip report to be posted sharing comparisons and telling stories like how I almost got killed in the shower, had a fantastic meal at Walt's with good company and had the World's saddest fanboi squee moment there too.

For those looking for short summaries:

- DLP is much better than MK in terms of theme, night-time show and parade, attractions and dining options. Maintinance not as good as DLR, sadly.

- Stuidos has a better attraction mix, but worse theming than DHS. Excited for its future though

- New 20th book is great. Expensive, but still good

- Sequoia is better than any Moderate WDW can muster and would stay there again. Glad I chose it over the badly aging Newport

 

[olinecoach61]

Can't wait for the full report!

 

[Animaniac93-98]

More notes:

- The process of dining is different from WDW in that there are clearly not 45 minute set counts that are tried to be met for every table. A meal can take an hour and a half easily, as the French pace your courses and don't try to shove you out the door. Booking meals was also much easier. Remember day-of bookings at WDW? Still possible at DLP and food quality at table service and buffets is superior to WDW too.

- Shopping was lackluster outside of Harringtons and Merlins. Pretty much the same stuff sold 100 times over. Some logo merch was available, but I ended up not buying any due to the cost of the book (still worth it!)

- Discoverland kills MK's Tomorrowland in cohesive theme, quality of attractions and overall look. Too bad Le Visionarium no longer exists. The deabte over MK's and DL's Space? Pointless when Paris is considered. I went on it 4 times and consider it possibly the best ride in the park.

- It rained pretty much the whole week I was in Paris. Not good for outdoor touring, but I came prepared.

- Was good to see Star Tours 1.0 one last time (or two)

- Peeling paint was by far the worst maintinance issue, followed by burnt out light bulbs and some on ride effects. I know some structures were given work prior to the 20th, but more need it. In and out. Metal railings were the worst offenders. The following were broken as far as I could tell:

- Smoke for SM's cannon. Odd when Brit Stacy is shown with it on the "Top 10" video
- No Organist and one broken couple in PM's ballroom
- No mirror effect at the end
- No sword fighting Pirates! The biggest disapointment of the whole trip for me.
- One Queen of Hearts broken, no spinning Dodo and no smoke for the Catapillar in the maze
- No music on RnRC. That should be closed until fixed.
- Catastrophe Canyon was missing the fire and cascading water elements. Not sure if Reign of Fire (really? That movie gets a scene?) was missing anything.

Fantasyland and the Castle were fabulous. All comparable rides were better (except Small World) and the Castle just made me happy beyond belief as a fan of Sleeping Beauty who got to see a "proper" castle built for it.

Indiana Jones is the most pointless ride in Disneyland Park. At least the wait was only 5 min. All waits were 20 min or less for the 4 days, sans Crush at 50 and Pan at 35-45.

Crush was great and thanks to EMH I didn't have to wait long. Best Finding Nemo attraction of them all.

I actually thought TSPL was cute. I went nuts over the Brio benches (so many memories...), but it needs a major attraction to properly anchor the land. Surprised TSMM has not been announced yet for this park.

Cinemagique is the best attraction in the Studios. I can see why it won the TEA award. I knew little going in and was delighted by what I saw. REALLY wish DHS had it.

I know it gets mixed reactions, but Animagique was fun for me. Wish it was longer to survey more movies.

Armageddon was...something? OK I guess. Made me happy to see The Black Hole in the pre-show video reel (that's not the "saddest fanboi squee" moment, but a good runner-up ).

Nautilus was a hightlight for me due to its quality, my love for the IP and my longing for 20K to return to WDW in some form. Would take a copy of this, but it wouldn't work as well without the whole Discoveryland concept. Hyperion was cool too (love that clock with it inside Videopolis.)

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Many restaurants were closed. I guess to save money? Was very problematic in the Studios as only two places were open (the buffet and Studio 1 location) with long queues for each. The outdoor vendors didn't even have hot dogs. Spent a good hour looking for something and just settled for snacks.

I did eat at Plaza Gradens which had a great buffet (wide selection and good quality) and a live Dixeland band playing in the centre! A gorgeous interior too. Much nicer than Crystal Palace and no characters for those who can do without them.

It was freezing during Dreams, but it was worth it. Fantastic tech and much more impressive than any WDW night show. Low level pyro was not an issue as from the centre of the hub, the space filled by the effects still has a dramatic effect.

Gotta love how the "5 minutes until the parade" announcements are made in 6 (7?) different languages. But not in Icelandic?

 

[RonAnnArbor]

This is a good trip report as far as observations go....I go one once a year in the fall and its pretty much the same.
Some of the effects you note as not working haven't worked for years.
I agree that Armageddon is, um, "something"....imagine what it was like in there when they didn't have Tower of Terror nor the entire Toy Story area...Cinemagique and Animagique are superb.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

So death by shower...

The head is supposed to stay in place when you put it in the slot at the front, obviously. I quickly discovered that it would not really do so, no matter what you did, so I had to be careful with it and make sure it fit just right. I was washing my hair when I thought it would stay only to find it come crashing on my head. Ouch! Nothing terrible, but not something I needed either. You also really had to raise your feet to climb out, which I thought would be difficult for short people.

Almost as painful was having these two morons in front of me in Cinemagique who spent 12 minutes taking nothing but "selfies" with two cameras and the flash on and in my face the whole time. Wannabe shutterbugs were plentiful, especially on Pirates. Despite being told in both English and French not too, one couple kept doing it the whole time. In fact, I think it may have been the same people! That or it was just my imagination. At least people obyed the rules on PM. During Animagique, one person tried to take flash photos and was quickly stopped. Good for the CMs for enforcing rules there.

 

[RandomPrincess]

I can't wait to read more! I'm dying to go one day.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

imagine what it was like in there when they didn't have Tower of Terror nor the entire Toy Story area...

I can't speak for then, but I spent nearly a full day at the park (6 hours +) and did not do everything. Here's what I did:

Tower of Terror (x2)
Rock n Roller Coaster
Cinemagique
Animagique
Studio Tram Tour
Armageddon
Stitch Live! (better than SGE for sure)

Scheduling shows was a bit of trick. The following morning I did RC Racer, Crush and Parachute Drop, the last of which was pointless outside of seeing Ratatouille construction (sorry, no pics).

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Walt's was a meal I knew I had to do, even before going. I got a table easily and had a great time, outside of the brates in the lobby and one baby who insisted at the beginning to bang cutlery on the table and suck on the knives (um...earth to Mom?). Anyway, it stopped and I have the three course meal with drink.

Salad was chicken Ceasar with eggs, Sirloin was main course and creme brulee was desert with 20th Anniversary chocolate coin. Tasted very good. I was seated next to a couple who had been to 4 of the Disney resorts and like me was their first time to DLP. Comparing notes was fun (yes I know I need to go to Tokyo! Maybe next year...or five) as was seeing the Parade from me window seat. The whole restaurant looked amazing. Puts something like Tony's to shame.

The place is decorated with many concept renderings for the park and other Disney projects. One of which was for The Happiest Millionaire (the scene where Mr. Biddle finds "Lucy", one of his gators, under the bathtub). When I saw this, I flipped and probably made what I dubbed in the original post the "saddest fanboi squee" face ever...but I don't care. I ADORE that movie (I even ordered the original program off ebay and bought the LP just for the book of lyrics that came with it) and love when it's referenced in Disney parks or specials.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Smoking was the major vice of guests, but that's Europe for you. Saw maybe 10 wheelchairs over the course of 4 days, and all of which clearly looked like they needed it, just from personal observation. Can't imagine there's much GAC abuse there. Strollers were thankfully not the double wide monsters found in the US.

I took a survey at the entrance of Disneyland Park one day where I was questions about motivations for travel to the resort, the 20th anniversary, which attractions drew me there and which would cause me not to come if I knew they were closed.

I loved how everything was within walking distance of the hotel, like DLR and USO. Much prefer that to bussing everywhere.

The breakfast in the hotel was OK. You should go before 8am to avoid the larger crowds.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

The best morning of the trip was not for EMH, but when I was able to visit Storybookland and have the whole place to myself. It was just me and the cast as I was the first to visit there and the place was totally quiet save for the ambient music. Very nice experience and I enjoyed both attractions for their mix of Disney titles which I though was superiror to DL. How can you top Night on Bald Mountain and the Cave of Wonders?

Later I got to ride on Casey Jr. again up front right as the Euro Disneyland railroad was running parallel to our train. A great, spontenious "effect" that was one of those real Disney "magic" moments, and not the fake make a ADR style booking time to greet the Princesses kind of magic.

 

[Bolna]

Great observations!

And unless the winter has taken a horrible toll on things, I can tell you the park you saw looked so much better than in 2011. I was there in 2011 and 2012 and it was a huge difference. I just wish they would be able to finally catch up with the maintenance and have the park shiny and sparkling again as it was in the early 90s!