Another highs and lows...

[Tink75]

Back very late last night due to slight flight delay.

We had an amazing trip and like others, were blown away by the parks, the Disneyland Park in particular is beautiful - colourful and clean. It literally looks sparkling!

We hardly had any lows so I'll start with those to end on our highs!

Biggest low was our meal at Auberge - we've eaten here many times and never had such poor food. The food just wasn't fresh, seemed like it had been lying around for hours. Our prawns were hard and chewy, my chicken was rubbery and difficult to cut and my parents' veal had veg swimming in oil. We ate it as we didn't feel it was bad enough to return but for a really expensive meal we left disappointed. Not sure I'd do it again now. Probably our last time. It was useful for seeing the Princesses without huge queues however! We met Cinderella, Aurora, Merida and Princess Minnie as well as Suzy and Perla. DD2 loved seeing Merida as she's one of her favourites.

AP booking into DLH. Despite sending an email explaining we would be adding onto my parents' rooms - and receiving a reply that they had noted the numbers and would try and give us adjoining rooms. Our rooms hadn't been assigned correctly - we had been assigned two rooms with king size beds! In addition, they weren't connecting. They also wouldn't give us FPs for the full 5 days, despite my parents having theirs! They gave 2 days then told me I'd have to return for the next day. After visiting an additional twice for these I did eventually get a CM who could see sense and assigned us the remaining ones, but it shouldn't have taken 3 visits to sort.

The amount of time it took to check in was too long. We queued around 20 minutes and then it took an age to sort out the paperwork, partly due to the issues above. It took almost one hour to check in with the queuing which is too long. They need to simplify all the paperwork as it's getting worse!

Plaza Gardens breakfast - the fact those visiting using an AP pretty much can't get a reservation isn't good at all. It's totally full with those on meal plans and I think that's unfair. I was told they keep seats back for those only able to book at 3 days out but this wasn't the case last week at all. My parents ended up letting us go in their place (bless them) and so having experienced it, I'd say the breakfast offerings were nice, I felt the character interaction was very rushed - very little fun to be had! Much preferred Inventions. Don't think I'd rush back.

That's most of the niggles really - they weren't that bad and we didn't let them bother us or affect our trip.

Highs - lots really and many firsts for us despite visiting many times before.

Despite my worries that it would be very busy, the wait times were very good all week. We rarely queued more than 20-30 mins for something and found we didn't always use our hotel FPs so carried them forward a few days.

Our biggest high was our meal at Chez Remy - fabulous food, theming and waiting staff. We all said this was our favourite meal all week and will definitely revisit. My steak fillet was cooked to perfection. Really amazing and not rushed at all. 5 Star!

Alice and Mad Hatter - we queued a long time to meet these two and it was so worth it. They were so funny and really made the meet special. That's what I love about Paris - as has been said before, you do wait a long time, but the interaction is so good, it's worth it.

Our DLH room - while not connecting (we were across the corridors), they were so near reception (we were the first rooms by the 'Princess for a day' boutique) and the entrance to the park so it took no time to get into the park. This was a huge bonus and the only reason I'd pay extra for the DLH now as I'm not sure it's worth it really!

CMs - we found them polite and happy. They interacted with my children especially when they were in costume. Lovely!

The parade - I know it's had some negative reviews, but we enjoyed it and again, as my children were dressed in costume and kerbside, the interaction was amazing. My DD1 was Mary Poppins one day and Mary and Bert were fantastic with her! Many others came over too. DD2 was Alice that day and she too got lots of attention. It was magical.

The amount of characters out and about was brilliant - we covered the girls' canvas bags and almost filled an autograph book. We did do 3 character meals however so that helped. But there were plenty of characters about. More than I've seen in recent years.

Panoramagique - we finally did this and while it's quick - wow what a view! Worth it for the photos!

Buffalo Bills - first time for this too (we booked once before but had to cancel as DD2 was ill). Fab show and enjoyed the food. We had category 2 and great views. We got 3 drinks and ice cream with our apple pudding as I think someone recently said they didn't in cat 2. It was a really good night and we'd do it again sometime.

ETA - Inventions was also great. Fab food and brilliant characters - we've never had a bad meal here and I'd always book it if budget allows. Well worth it in our opinion. We had fantastic interaction with Eeyore - despite him not being a face character he was brilliant!

There were many more highs and great times but I'll leave it there as this is getting very long.

Anyone going this year, I'm sure you'll love it as much as we did.

[Bouncing Tigger]

I love reading highs and lows. Your time there sounds fab and makes me want to go, particularly with you saying how vibrant it looks and low wait times. Then I look at a week in Spain, theme park, water park and it's the same price, grrr, I want to do both lol.

[sammykitten]

another great set of highs there Tink, you May half-termers are really getting me excited about going soon .

[Tink75]

Originally Posted by Popsickle

I love reading highs and lows. Your time there sounds fab and makes me want to go, particularly with you saying how vibrant it looks and low wait times. Then I look at a week in Spain, theme park, water park and it's the same price, grrr, I want to do both lol.

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Thank you. We love DLP as it's been our 'home' Disney for well over 10 years. I've honestly never seen it looking so lovely and the staff were fabulous (they often get bad press). So pleased we were able to go and experience the 25th. I also didn't say how much we all loved the new night time show - Illuminations. While it's not a tear jerker like Dreams was, it's visually stunning and one not to miss. Hope you get there some day - I know what you mean about the prices - it is a week in Spain, and it's expensive when there but you can eat more cheaply etc.

[Tink75]

Originally Posted by sammykitten

another great set of highs there Tink, you May half-termers are really getting me excited about going soon .

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Not long now sammy! You're in for such a treat ❤️. The girls haven't stopped talking about it!

[bobothebear]

Adding AP people to our room was a complete nightmare at Santa Fe as well. Clearly my email never got to them!
I checked us in at about 9.30am but had to come back later to get our room key.

So around 4.30pm we returned and I asked to add my wife and 2nd son to our room.
The CM had no idea so had to ask a colleague to do it. This took bloody ages as they both did something on the PC for me to eventually pay 2.97 Euro. And the queue that built up behind me was huuuuuuge!
Now as I booked around 15 months ago when Breakfast was included I now had to sort it for my Wife and Son as only had 2 sets of vouchers.
So then had to go to Information Desk and try and book that. I thought this would be simple but NO! She offered me 7am or 9.30am. I asked when I can go with the voucher and she said anytime I want and I asked why can't I just do the same for the other 2 but that was not allowed. It was utterly idiotic so I told her to stick it.

In the end we used 4 vouchers on day 1. Day 2 we got Starbucks Croissants and food from the Esso which was lovely eating in bed. And then Day 3 the wifes brother had some spare vouchers as he'd skipped breakfast so it turned out alright in the end.

I agree Inventions was excellent as had our very first meal in there which was great and so much worth the money to have queueless Character Meets.

[Tink75]

Originally Posted by bobothebear

Adding AP people to our room was a complete nightmare at Santa Fe as well. Clearly my email never got to them!
I checked us in at about 9.30am but had to come back later to get our room key.

So around 4.30pm we returned and I asked to add my wife and 2nd son to our room.
The CM had no idea so had to ask a colleague to do it. This took bloody ages as they both did something on the PC for me to eventually pay 2.97 Euro. And the queue that built up behind me was huuuuuuge!
Now as I booked around 15 months ago when Breakfast was included I now had to sort it for my Wife and Son as only had 2 sets of vouchers.
So then had to go to Information Desk and try and book that. I thought this would be simple but NO! She offered me 7am or 9.30am. I asked when I can go with the voucher and she said anytime I want and I asked why can't I just do the same for the other 2 but that was not allowed. It was utterly idiotic so I told her to stick it.

In the end we used 4 vouchers on day 1. Day 2 we got Starbucks Croissants and food from the Esso which was lovely eating in bed. And then Day 3 the wifes brother had some spare vouchers as he'd skipped breakfast so it turned out alright in the end.

I agree Inventions was excellent as had our very first meal in there which was great and so much worth the money to have queueless Character Meets.

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Your experience is similar to mine regarding APs. We've booked this way a few times over the years but tbh this is the first time I've felt that it was 'looked down on' 😢. Why should my parents get 5 days of FP but we could only get 2 days at a time, despite paying the 5 days of taxes (27 euros)? I even said that we'd never had this before but the CM checking us in insisted this was how it was done! Then the Plaza Gardens breakfast debacle wasn't great either. You have no chance if you don't prebook and you can't do that without a room reservation! Never mind, despite all that, we had an amazing trip - we were so lucky with the weather - just got into the taxi last night and the heavens opened and by the looks of it, it's been very wet today too! Yes, it was hot, but I'd rather have that than rain.

[bobothebear]

Totally agree, beyond that little blip everything else was amazing. We got to CDG dead on 4pm and the heavens opened so was a great sign it was time to go home.
Our AP expired on the Friday we came home and not sure when we are gonna go back so will see how things evolve with meals etc.

[SuziQz]

The queues at DLH reception were ridiculous at times. We received all our vouchers and tickets on the train but still had to wait while lots of others were given theirs which took forever to explain as there are so many, all with different variations.

We were ground floor pool side, so easy to get back in from the exit side of the park. Glad we tried it as it was probably our last visit but don't think I could justify the cost again (unless we won the lottery and paid for castle club) especially as breakfast is no longer included. We'd booked pre October so did get breakfast and were surprised as how busy breakfast was but assume lots of people take up the premium dining plan.

My main disappointment with plaza gardens was that piglet and eyeore weren't signing autographs. We've had them from them before. They clearly need to do something for AP bookings, it's just not right that you can't get a reservation.

I agree chez remy was definitely a highlight. We all enjoyed our meals and our waitress was lovely. Only thing they could do to make it better would be if Remy himself was there.

ToT became on of my DS favourite rides. The CM's were brilliant and we all agreed it was better that the WDW one. More drops = more fun

[bobothebear]

Our extended family who went to Plaza also said Eeyore wouldn't sign autographs.

He did the same with me at Inventions and showed me his paws but was slightly odd as just me, him and CM were waiting for my Son and wife to return from toilet then he just pointed at the pen and did it for us We'd bought a new long Mickey pen which may have helped matters as sure the stubby one we previously used may have made it too hard.