Paris VS Orlando

[Fibe]

I have been to Orlando pre kids and DLP last year with kids 4 and 2 years old.
DLP much easier for little ones cos there isnt a lot there! We went for 4 nights. As a price comparison though we spent an absolute fortune on food, accommodation and transport. Much more than we would pay in Orlando. We are going to Orlando in May and although I have concerns for plane journeys with a 3 year old Im sure that we are gonna have a fabbo time.

We were surprised at the lack of friendliness and in some cases downright rudeness of the staff and characters at DLP. The characters more or less run to you in Florida in Paris they run away!

I stopped Snow White for a photo with my girls in Paris and she shooed us away telling us to go wait in this massive massive queue to be photographed with various princesses. How rude? How long does it take to stop for a photo. So she left me with 2 very upset little girls.

We even found Mickey mouse not as huggy!

[florifan]

[QUOTE=Fibe]IWe are going to Orlando in May and although I have concerns for plane journeys with a 3 year old Im sure that we are gonna have a fabbo time.

we first did Florida with a 2 yr old, we were dreading it as she is very hyper, needen't of worried she fell asleep as we were taxi-ing onto the runway and woke up as we landed in orlando! Result

Don't ask about the return journey though

[Guest]

So Sorry you find my brief little comment offensive Leanne but like you say every holiday turns up all sorts. My limited experiences of France were disastrous and when they started those ferry strikes in peak summer a while back that was it for me... if it wasn't for their cheese and wines I could comfortably live the rest of my life without any contact bar a flight path or two.
I think Spain might have been a better bet to locate Euro Disney but its just an opinion.

[ariel2006]

WDW is essentially the best place on earth but if you cant afford to go there for a while and need a Disney fix DLP is definately worth a visit. We were worried going there at New Years after being in WDW in July but we loved it and some of the rides (Small World, Space and Thunder Mountain and Haunted Mansion to name a few) are actually better and the theming in the park is generally more intricate and clever. You have just got to try not to compare the two which can be hard.

[Heather1957]

Out of curiosity what language is used in Disney Japan and Hong Kong?

The reason I ask is that while Disney was built in Paris it was Euro Disney and is there for the benefit of ALL Europeans. That being the case why should the language used there be French?

When it first opened some youngsters I knew went over for work (clean looking, no piercings tattoos etc) Has this stopped now? I would have thought the CM's should come from all over Europe.

As I said previously, Disney is a package and includes the happy, smiling, polite CM's we make the 'magic' come alive.

I have been to Disney Orlando 4 times and LA twice and have NEVER met a rude CM.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Heather1957

As I said previously, Disney is a package and includes the happy, smiling, polite CM's we make the 'magic' come alive.

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I think ultimately Disney is there to make money - it just so happens that in the case of Paris vs USA the cultural difference in cutomer service makes the difference.

[carys]

Originally Posted by mcknigma

I think ultimately Disney is there to make money - it just so happens that in the case of Paris vs USA the cultural difference in cutomer service makes the difference.

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We definately noticed this especially at the breakfast buffets ! We were sadly dissappointed and i would also add that we found it very expensive and would rather have put the cash towards Florida.

[Steve.S]

I have not been to DLP but two of our friends have both married with kids,they said it was over priced,cold and that Paris is very expensive to go out with a family and eat,although it is a good bit cheaper to get there i would go for Orlando every time.

[SimonB]

We nearly booked to go there last year.

Looked at the cost and thought for what it would cost for a weekend break, we would rather save a bit more and have a 2 week family holiday.

[BONZO]

We had some concerns about DLP prior to going recently but this is our summary: -

Highs

Proximity of parks to onsite hotels - we stayed in the Newport Bay Club and it was a very pleasant walk to the parks and Disney Village.

Parks weren't nearly as busy as we'd thought they would be - we didn't queue for much at all, we picked and chose our rides fairly carefully!

FastPass system - It was great being able to hold fastpasses for more than one ride at a time. In DLP you can hold fastpasses for all the FP rides at the same time (although they are only valid for 30 mins).

Food - every meal we had was excellent. They weren't cheap but very high quality. Our best overall was at Cafe Mickey with 8 characters in attendance!

Travelling by Eurostar - this was really good for us. 15 mins walk to our local station, 30 mins into Waterloo, then 3 hours on Eurostar and we were right in the magic! Very smooth!

Walt Disney Studios - we'd read that this was a very disappointing park, but we loved it!

Weather - Fantastic! Shorts and T-shirts all the way.

Lows

There were only a couple of proper lows, the rest were more niggles than anything (will list those separately).

The scrums to get to the characters - this was a nightmare! Our 2 DDs had autograph books and wanted photos with the characters, but there were no queues, just a mad push and scrum.

Smokers around the parks - this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but you did tend to find yourself walking through clouds of smoke at regular intervals. We were told by a CM in Disney Village that the smoking regulations would be changing soon.


Minor niggles

No pool towels at the hotel - you had to pay 2 euros to borrow a towel each time you went to the pool.

No salty popcorn on sale - it's all sugared! (Although we did find it in the cinema eventually)

No food court in hotel, it wasn't easy to grab a coffee to take back to the room.

Some attractions (also shown at WDW) were in English, dubbed into French, and then we listened in English in the headphones - LOL!

Rock n Roller Coaster - our favourite ride in WDW is also in DLP, but the pre show is really disappointing! A 20 second glimpse of the band with a model of a roller coaster track. We love the WDW version!