DLP: Disney refuel - August 2021

[Tea]

Just had to , very reluctantly, pull the plug on our October Orlando trip so I'll content myself with writing a short trippy of our one day sojourn to DLP.

Thursday, 26 August 2021 (photos in next post)

We drove to Disney village from our campsite. Arrived about 8.25 as the boys were getting Covid tests for our flight home. We got a little lost and ended up going through the staff entrance, or so it appeared, to Disney Village. When I explained about Covid tests, they got security to bring us through to the test centre. Everyone was very nice.
It was so exciting to see the Disney Stores. Even hearing the music in the village was a bit

As we were coming out of the test centre back to the bus/train etc area, there were streams of people coming against us- likely hotel guests for early entry.

Tests done, and DH circling around outside in the camper van, we headed back out and in the "main" Disney parks entrance. Parking was a whopping €45 (€30 for cars) and it allows you to camp in the car park overnight (with no running water or electricity hook up, this wasn't appealing)

The travellators weren't working but we didn't give a hoot. We got into the park about 9.45 (park opening for non hotel guests was 9.30).
They checked our covid passes and our tickets to make sure we were "booked in" for that specific day. (You need date specific tickets or to reserve the date)
You have to wear masks if you're over 6. Dd (9) was asked by a CM to put hers on at one stage when she'd taken it off.
All shops and rides open. Some of the shows were open too with social distancing, but SD wasn't really a thing elsewhere in the park.

Mickey, Minnie and Co were on the balcony above Main street station waving down Main street.

There were loads of Main street vehicles driving about (and tooting their horn, and going at a fair clip too

It was absolutely MAGICAL to be on Main street, seeing the characters, hearing the music, seeing the castle up ahead, having a whole Disney day before us. I was quite emotional to be honest, to be finally back on Disney property (we are usually WDW visitors, never been to DLP before), and to actually be "on hols" as well given the last 18 months of travel restrictions.

The Castle was under wraps for the 30 Anniversary (thanks Gill H) and looked funny. There was a LOT of refurb going on around the park- inside the castle, in Discovery Land, in Fantasy Land...
(Incidentally, lots of "refurb" in Paris too for the 2024 Olympics)

First stop, tradition, IASW. The ticking clock outside the ride alerted us to the ride. I had been going towards where IASW is in MK and had to open the App for directions!

The park was busy but not heaving. The headliners were about 30-45 minutes all day. We did a bit of shopping for pins. Think the excitement was all a bit much for me and I ended up spending €90! Easy to do- everyone wanted a pin, and my youngest (9) wanted Minnie ears.

We went to Indiana Jones after that and rode twice. Then we went to BTMR. This is a really super version- the dark parts make it a much more thrilling ride than the MK version. We loved it (except DH who has a "thrill limit" at the approx 1.02 cm height limit rides and was not impressed at the difference)

Next we went to go to Pirates but it went tech, so we went to Phantom Manor. I sat this one out, which I was gutted by but my son didn't want to go, so I had to stay with him. I know it is meant to be better than MK, but the others comforted me saying that it was largely the same.

Then we headed back to Adventureland to the DLP equivalent of Tortuga Tavern (lots of tables, rarely open, under cover) for our sandwiches.
We went back to Pirates after than- there are a few more drops than I remember on MK one which was a fun surprise!
We wandered around the caverns/ passages then... a nice diversion for the younger ones.

I found the park layout confusing, probably as I am not familiar with it compared to the Orlando parks, but also the fact that the Casey Jr train and the Fairy storybook boat ride is hidden away, is a bit tricky, for example., and we ended up criss crossing the park quite a bit- over 30k steps in the day Negated all the brie anyway so no harm!

Then we went to DiscoveryLand. The lads all went on Buzz. The queue was quite long for that one- longer than advertised. Then on to Star Tours for the boys- they said it was not as good as Orlando as it was hard to follow it in French.

Then on to HyperSpace Mountain- WOWSERS. This is a great ride. Loyal as I am to old Disney classics like SM, this is a super ride, loved the fast start, like on Hulk. Super ride.

Between that, Indiana Jones and BTMR there are some really good coaster type rides in the park to suit thrill seekers. My older ones are often a little bored in MK due to the "kiddiness" of the rides, albeit we all adore the attention to detail in the theming.

We tried to ride HSM a 2nd time but it went tech. It was tech for quite a while.
In the meantime we went back to Fantasyland to cover off some of the other rides.
There was a 10 min wait for the Princess visit so youngest DD (9) and I went in. The CM at the entrance said that there were no princesses in residence only Prune.
I didn't know what that was and was fascinated so we queued to see what that actually was - Google wasnt throwing anything up in English or French.
Turns out I misheard her- it wasn't Prune, it was "Thróne" ("throon") which she had obviously said in French as she didnt know the English word.

I actually don't think that there were any character meets at all as such. We did see Tigger bouncing about and Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee at the teacups behind gates. There were other "selfie spots" set up where there were characters but you had to take a selfie with them behind you, if that makes sense, rather than the usual "hug"

We did tea cups then- love those. Alice's Labyrinth (slightly odd, although given it's Alice and the Bong, probably the point), Peter Pan, fairy boat ride (lame! the best bit was getting stuck at the Snow White bit and laughing at the HI HO! as we heard it for the 40th time).

We queued for a long time at the very disorganised Old Mill for Mickey Waffles - €5 each with Nutella. The queue was very long and there were about 7 staff inside all running about like headless chickens.

Then I did what I often do -I got FOMO. It was about 6.30 or so and I thought- we CAN cover the rest of the rides in the park, and leave before Park Close. ...
This drives the others mad.

So we did Pinocchio and Snow White, which are basically Winnie the Pooh in MK, and both very similar (I mistakenly thought the latter was going to be 7DMT) - the kids were NOT impressed and started getting a bit moany.

They wanted to ride Hyperspace Mountain again. We went back over to the ride and just as we got there it went tech. We decided to head for the shops. Main Street was insane- there were people flooding out of the park (fair enough) and so many people in the shops, it was like they were giving the stuff away for free! It was cheek to jowl in there. We used Liberty Arcade, which runs parallel to Main Street and was mercifully empty, to escape some of the bedlam. This also meant the non- spendthrift members of the party could sit down in quiet.
They had some lovely merchandise. I got 2 of my sons a Stitch hoody and I got my daughter a stitch sequin jumper, as well as a Pascal teddy.

There were a couple of floats that went down Main street (not together, just single floats about 15 mins apart) with the Princesses on one, and Frozen characters on another. I guess this is a sub for parades so that crowds don't gather together (ironic given the shops situation!)

I kept an eye on the app to see if Hyperspace Mountain would come back online but either it didn't or the app didn't update properly. (App wasn't that great to be honest. It was hard to filter attractions and see where stuff was on the map- the "Directions" feature was handy though). Either way, after the shops it was close to 9 and we headed out.
The Princesses were on the balcony on MS Station as we left and my DD showed her Pascal teddy and Rapunzel was delighted - as was my DD. It was a lovely character interaction, given that one can't really have character interactions.

We went to Vapianos in the Village for food. Food was pretty good, but beware the drinks- i only glanced at the menu and didn't realise the 330ml soft drinks were a whopping €4 a bottle


All in all a great day. we got loads done, walked 33k steps, and it was absolutely wonderful to be back in the magic.

[Tea]

[Hollyhobbit]

Really enjoyed reading your mini trippy sounds like you all had a fab time.
We love DLP and should have gone last summer whilst camping in France . We moved it to this year but still didn’t get to go . Roll on next summer.

[Custancia]

Thank you for taking the time to write this. Sounds like a fabulous Disney fix, and great photos!

[Buggles94]

Thanks so much for sharing your day at DLP - sounds wonderful! I got emotional reading your post the other day about being back in the magic and it's lovely to see this full update We are now considering booking for October half term but am nervous re all the admin and testing! Having read this though I feel it would definitely be worth it

[KarenG]

So lovely! Thank you for sharing xx

[dismamx2]

What a great day

[Denise78]

Sounds like a great day x