Not long back, highs, lows, observations - DLP Performing Arts Trip

[Alllovedisney]

Highs and lows - Disneyland Paris Performing Arts Trip

We travelled back on Tuesday last week following our 9th trip to DLP. This time however was a trip with a difference; our girls were all dancing with their dance school on the Videopolis Stage.

Highs

Cheyenne: we have now stayed at four DLP onsite hotels, and this one, in our view, was head and shoulders above the other moderate, the Santa Fe. The theming, the layout, the space was all great.

There seemed to be more breakfast choice and having a Starbucks on site was a plus too. Don’t get me wrong, DLH is clearly my favourite if money was no object and DCR is fab is you are self catering but if you don’t particularly want to drive and are on a budget, Cheyenne is ace!

Shuttles: I was very impressed how quick and easy these were although I can guess after the fireworks they may be manic.

Weather: (Low too) It was hot even when it rained on the Saturday morning/lunchtime.

Vapiano: Great food, good prices and quick. Although we did eat about 4pm and would expect it to be different feel at peak hours. We did pop our head in after the studios had closed one day, and it was rammed. We ended up in Mcds - see lows!

Rainforest Cafe: Their menu seems to have considerably shrunk which I like! Again, it was quiet but it was about 3.30pm.

Lion King Show: Wow! Great addition to the park.

I only hope it lasts longer than the Frozen one did. We were sat towards the front on the first side section as you go in. I was worried we may have a limited view but we could see fine. Because of the rain and less desire to go on rides, we queued for this for about 30 mins and we were in the last maybe 50/60 people to get in. Before we were let in, we noted that they had started to queue for the show an hour later.

Philarmagic: Lovely 5/10 mins in the cool. But, the theatre size seemed disproportionality large (we went on the Sunday which seemed very busy elsewhere (40 mins for IASW anyone?! ) but this was less than a fifth full. Also, seems a bit out of place where it is. But great new attraction.

Phantom Manor: It seemed to be closed for so long during our AP year that it was great to get back to it. Also gives another attraction on that left hand side of the park, which can seem a bit sparse.

Eurotunnel Fully Flex: We use this every time and whilst more expensive, the ability to change times/days is brilliant. The use of the lounge too with great sandwich/snack options is fab pit stop for the family. Nice loos and Starbucks coffee! Can highly recommend.

Dancing: Proud mum alert, but they were great. They have worked so so hard and everything was perfect; their hair, costumes, the routines, their smiles. Our girls are aged 5,7,10 and 12 - we hope they have made memories to last a lifetime. It was a 20 minute dance and I don’t know how they remembered it all but they did! It was lovely for them to enjoy parts of the parks with their friends too (also lows!).

(Not allowed to walk through parks in their costumes, so here they are after the performance - please note the four different hair styles required - it was a scary dance so not meant to be smooth like but a back combed galore! And the one below is from their dress rehearsal back home (no stage face paint nor hair!).

Lows

Breakfast: Queue to get in the restaurant. Queue to be seated. Queue to get your food. But we had a 7.30 slot so the only queue we had was for the food. The later times had to wait for tables to be cleared hence the other queues.

Weather: The rain was a bit irritating on the Saturday. And the heat in the Monday along with over 30k steps made it a bit too hot!

McDs: This is the much sought after quick and easy option for many parents, I’m sure. However, this place seems to get worse and worse. We had cash that I wanted to spend rather than using the card, so I queued at the counters - for half an hour! There was only 3 people in front of me(and two of those were together and ordering just one meal each). I then had to queue at a different til for another 15 minutes to collect the plain cheeseburger for one of the Happy Meals, which turned out to be a egg muffin without cheese as they no longer serve cheeseburgers in Happy Meals. Nightmare!

Sharing our holiday: We are quite selfish when we go on holiday. In our view, it’s cost us a percentage of our take home pay so we want to enjoy it. We do go away with family on breaks but mostly we like us six! More so my DH than me, but I don’t feel like I’m missing out by not sharing with others. We also had a slow experience at Drayton Manor one year with my siblings, their partners, kids and my parents (every five mins someone different needs the loo/snack/drink/photo!) and we vowed never again!

However, as we were there with 52 other dance families, we were bound to bump into others. On the Sat afternoon, we bumped into DD7’s BFF and family in the queue for RC Racer, so she got to ride that with her without it putting us out. And on the Sat eve, it was fine; we were back at hotel for early night (early start to get all four dressed, make up done and the dreaded hair by 7.30! ) so we were happy to give Dd12 and Dd10 a bit of freedom to walk down to the Starbucks in Cheyenne from our room in Doc Holliday with a couple of their school friends (actually one is Dd10’s boyfriend since Nursery! ). We followed down about half an hour later with the small two and sat in the bar. A few other families joined us and it was nice and relaxed. The kids played and chatted.

However after the show on the Sunday, DD12 received lots of notifications of other dancers all going off together to do rides. We were apprehensive allowing her to go off on her own in the parks so we said no. That then bothered me the rest of the day and night; I felt like I was smothering her. After all, she probably knew those parks better than the rest of them. She also has a lot of responsibility at home - she has to get a train to school and it’s about a 25 min journey. It’s not like she isn’t trusted...

So, on the Sunday, we allowed her to go off with one friend, later joined by two others, for a couple of hours. I still feel now like ruined her once in a lifetime trip by not letting her go off after the dance performance. She says not, but she is a sensitive girl and won’t want to upset me. Allowing her to go off, did cause some friction between me and DH (he wasn’t keen at all) and then to top his day off, we bumped in DD10 two best friends from school and their families (also on the same trip) and she was desperate to ride something with the so we queued for Casey Junior (totally underrated) and then Pirates.

I’ve just read that bit back and it’s probably no interest to anyone. But I needed to get it down to help me work through it I think!

Observations

Character meets: I have watched with interest of the changes in DLP over the years particularly since 2017. Some characters meet slots are longer, but they could do with being even longer again.

For example, I don’t understand why a park open from 8.30 (albeit EMH) until 11pm has the main meets between 10-4 and then more unusual characters (not that unusual but not the Fab Five - as an example, Peter Pan or Aladdin) are there only from 11.30 - 12.30 and 1.00 - 2.00. If the parks were fully of meets, then I could understand it but they aren’t.

Snacks for Illuminations: I am one of those mums who has a rucksack of snacks. If I had to buy snacks from the booths each time the kids were peckish/thirsty, that would be the difference of being able to financially justify the trip or not. However, by the time we get to Illuminations on our last night, we had cash left so decided we’d treat them to something. We started making our way round from Fantasyland toward Discoveryland just over an hour before the show. The Fantasyland booths were all closed and of the two in Discoveryland that were open, the one with food, told us we couldn’t join the queue as they were closing (which confused me as Discoveryland is fully open until the park closes!) and the other only sold drinks.

We found a great spot on the bridge in between Discoveryland and The Hub and whilst I ferried the kids to the loo, we tried to find some other snacks. The bakery inside was closed. The queue for the bakery outside, crossed all the way to the other side of Main Street. The only other booth sold Champagne and Toffee Apples. (The old one in the hub was only selling drinks!)

I had(for me) a stroke of genius and went into the shop next door to Buzz where I managed to get popcorn, candy floss, chocolate and drinks.

But why aren’t more of the booths open later?

Future Plans

That’s us done for now with DLP for a while. I think until a few more attractions open up, we’ve loved it, lived it, eaten it, rode it, watched it and cried at it, so time to start saving for WDW again.

[novocastrian]

we did a similar trip woith dance school @4 years ago, im guessing the same company as sounds very similar and was at Videpolis. again about a 15 min dance & was a bit strange that the school performed one a time , audience goiing in/out rather than all the schools in one big show, if that makes sense

we let the kids aged >10 upwards go round together, about 5 of them, but we sort of followed them from a distance

was a great trip but logistically not that easy from NE England, was oct 1/2 term so busy & expensive

[Gill H]

Just checking - you know that you can go to breakfast outside your slot time?

We always go queue up before 7am so we are straight in.

The only difference is, people with a 7am slot get priority. But often there are not many before 7am, whereas by 7.15 it can be crazy.

[Jules32]

Aww how lovely our girls dance school was supposed to be doing this next year but the school have pulled them out as not enough people want to do it so were hoping to try again for the following year.
We love DLP so this was a dream come true for us so gutted not to be doing it

your girls look great though and looks like they enjoyed it.

[novocastrian]

^^

think they require a minimum on stage

we only just made it with 15 actually making it, loads signed up but 1/2 term was expensive for travel, a lot us flew from scotland in the end who actually made it there

[Lisa123wm]

Sounds like a great trip 😊
We’re going back very soon and looking forward to it.
Like you, we’ve been many times (this will be 12th trip, 11th for the kids), but haven’t been for 6 years.
I love that it’s so familiar, but looking forward to this trip more as it’s been so long 🙂

[Chicken Bark]

We did a similar trip last year with my DD Dance school. It was our first time to DLP and I’m not sure we made the most of it due to time out for rehearsals, dance show and a meal out with the other 70 in our group.
I know it’s something my DD will never forget though. She is older (16) so we were happy for her and DD2 (14) to go off with their friends but we also wanted family time. Holidays are expensive!
We generally found service was really slow and food very expensive!
I’m sure your girls will always remember dancing at DLP.

[cumbrian lakes]

We are doing this on Thursday with my granddaughters dance school. There is 30 dancing. We are staying at the Cheyenne.

Barbara