An observation

[sydneymj]

Originally Posted by Tigrou

It is refreshing to know that not everyone walks around DLP with rose-tinted glasses. When I dared comment about the obvious lack of preventative or ongoing maintenance on another forum I had people tell me that I was wrong, the whole park has recently been completely refurbished and is absolutely perfect in every way!

For many years we often said that DLP had the best infrastructure of the 3 'Magic Kingdoms' we've seen (WDW, DL and DLP) but on our recent visit we felt it was dirty and neglected in many areas. With his 'estates management' head on, time and again my DH saw places where at one time it would have simply needed repainting but because that hasn't been done, now it would need more work to refurbish. He also spotted quite a few trip and fall hazards with broken paving slabs. And lots of places where the ground surface had been dug up, apparently on several occasions, but just patched up with concrete or tarmac rather than matching the original themed surfaces.

The overall state of the park certainly tarnished the usual Disney magic.

It is also good to know we're not the only ones who think that Walt wouldn't be happy about it. As we walked around, that's something we said to one another - what would Walt think? Particularly our experience in Phantom Manor - that wasn't a maintenance issue but a CM dressed in railroad engineer's costume working the area where you exit the doom buggies. Walt must be turning in his grave! (If he had one, of course - we all know he's cryogenically frozen in the Magic Kingdom ... )

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Just recently returned form DLP as was also very surprised to see a CM dressed in railroad engineer's costume within Phantom Manor, just would not happen in WDW.

My biggest gripe of all in DLP is the the smoking of cigarettes in the park for a non smoker it is very unpleasant to smell.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by sydneymj

Just recently returned form DLP as was also very surprised to see a CM dressed in railroad engineer's costume within Phantom Manor, just would not happen in WDW.

My biggest gripe of all in DLP is the the smoking of cigarettes in the park for a non smoker it is very unpleasant to smell.

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We saw the CM on Wed 22 May 13. So unless you were there the same day, it wasn't a one-off occurrence. It really stood out to us because one of the often-quoted stories about Walt is that he didn't like CMs being out of character for the area they were in. What would he have thought of one being in the wrong costume for a ride?

I agree about the smoking. So many people were smoking with complete disregard to it supposedly being in designated areas only yet we only once saw a CM challenge someone, as he was about to join the queue for Phantom Manor. For me the worst time was while watching Dreams one night. I kept moving to try and avoid groups of smokers but without much success. Only realised just how badly it affected me when we were walking back to the hotel afterwards. My asthma is generally well controlled but my lungs certainly objected to the smoke abuse that night!

[Gill H]

CMs are supposed to be dressed according to their area. We were told this on our guided tour. You could have mentioned this to City Hall as it is definitely not supposed to happen.

As for the smoking, by French law no-one except the police can stop you. CMs can and do ask people to use the designated areas, but too often they are ignored or threatened by guests - Brits as much as anyone. (I was called all sorts of names by a British woman because I dared to ask her elderly mother not to smoke near my friend's sleeping toddler!)

It's no worse than anywhere in the UK - last Saturday I saw plenty of smokers in Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

[Jen78]

Yeah we were at a farm at the weekend that clearly was signposted where smoking areas were but people just smoked anywhere.

I have accepted they will never get rid of smoking etc at disney..the only thing that annoyed me last time I went was a bloke who moved away from his own kids to smoke right next to mine!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Tigrou

For many years we often said that DLP had the best infrastructure of the 3 'Magic Kingdoms' we've seen (WDW, DL and DLP) but on our recent visit we felt it was dirty and neglected in many areas. With his 'estates management' head on, time and again my DH saw places where at one time it would have simply needed repainting but because that hasn't been done, now it would need more work to refurbish. He also spotted quite a few trip and fall hazards with broken paving slabs. And lots of places where the ground surface had been dug up, apparently on several occasions, but just patched up with concrete or tarmac rather than matching the original themed surfaces.

See more...

Yes I noticed those damaged paving areas and scab patches too.

One other thing that made me wonder whether Disney were cutting back on the DLP budget was another observation about the shows they put on:

There seemed to be less cars in the Stars in Cars parade this year as there was last year?

In the Moteurs Action stunt show, last year the red hero car did a jump in reverse (its the car that is setup facing backwards). This year they didn't do that particular stunt. I was trying to remember some of the other stunts too: i'm sure they used to have a guy falling from the window and also jetski stunts (that are still apparent on the final cut video they show you). It was still a great show, but I wondered why they'd taken them out. At first I thought it was maybe a safety thing - maybe they'd had an accident? But then having seen the slightly neglected maintenance in the parks, I wondered if Disney had cut back the park's overall budget; making savings in all areas of the park.

Just a theory anyway.

[kk20]

The lightning mcqueen bit seemed to take the place of the jumps (from what i remember from years gone by)

Smoking wasnt too bad when i was there, in fact i was expecting it to be worse)

[DIBBadmin]

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