Another Trip to DLP? Go on, then! Feb12-16 Day 5

[clochette]

Many apologies for the delay in posting this final day, but we have had quite a turbulent time since we came back from Paris, culminating in the death of my father in June, so I have been too busy and too upset to think about posting but things are getting back to normal now, so here it is.

Read Day 4 here; https://DIBB.in/13143598

We were up at 7 this morning so we had time to a bit of last minute packing and Elinor had time to do her make up! If it weren't for her beauty routine, we could all get up a good half hour later. We had a quick cuppa and were dropping off our luggage by 7.55. I used to pay to have the luggage taken to the railway station but that was when it was only €11 per room and not the extortionate amount they charge now, so we would have to come back later to pick it up.

[APP]https://www.thedibb.co.uk/postImages/85872/b08100c4f2a417.jpg[/APP

Photos before entering the park

They had already started letting people into the park by the time we got there, so we headed up Main Street and after a few more photos in front of the castle we were waiting by the rope into Fantasyland by 8.20. We (or rather I) had decided that we would like to meet a princess this morning just so that DSis could see the inside of the Princess Pavilion really, but only if it wasn't Cinderella, as DD and I had met her last time. If it was Cinderella, we would head for Peter Pan instead. A lady next to us asked one of the CMs who it was and was told it was Snow White and Aurora, so she took her little girl away because they had already met both of them. Her DD (about 3) wasn't too impressed but her Mum said it wasn't fair to everybody else, which I thought was very noble of her. I would still want to meet them and if everybody else had to wait another 5 minutes, then tough! She is obviously a nicer person than me.

You can never havetoo many photos of the castle!

We did a very brisk walk (some may class it as a jog!) to the Princess Pavilion and were the third group in to meet Snow White who was lovely and had quite a chat with us. We were in two minds as to whether it was DD1's friend who is currently working at DLP as Snow White. We have only seen photos of her and when they are dressed as a character, they all look the same - which is the whole point of course! We debated whether or not to ask but decided that it wouldn't be fair as she wouldn't/shouldn't tell us anyway. Turns out it wasn't her as she hadn't been in the Princess Pavilion that day.

Admiring Elinor's ears

Family portrait

We were out before 8.40 and the wait was already at 45 minutes. I do wish they would issue FP for the character meets like they do in WDW.I know you can still be waiting for half an hour or so but it has to be better than the 2 hours plus that the wait can get to for the Princess Pavilion. We wandered over to Peter Pan next but it wasn't working due to technical issues so we tried for Pinocchio but that wasn't open until 10 in spite of it being advertised as being open during EMH. Instead we went for a ride on the Carousel as there was no wait and then joined the queue for Dumbo at about 8.50. The wait was posted as 10 minutes, but we weren't off until 9.15 so it was a bit longer than that. While we were in the queue for Dumbo, we noticed that they sent away all the people who were patiently (for the most part) waiting for Peter Pan to open, which didn't bode well.

DSis really wanted to meet Donald Duck so we went back to Main Street and joined his rather long queue. It didn't actually take as long as I thought it would as it was just after 9.20 when we got there, and we were walking over to Star Tours just as they were announcing the park opening at 10. The wait seemed longer than it actually was because the little girl in front of us cried for the whole time. She clearly didn't want to meet him and point blank refused to have her photo taken with him. She was getting quite hysterical bless her. Unlike the little girl, I do like meeting Donald; he is very mischievous. He wouldn't let us go until we had kissed him on his beak.

Meeting Donald

Star Tours had a 10 minute wait so we joined the queue, though we had been intending to get a FP. I do like the waiting area for Star Tours now, particularly some of the things the characters say. I must confess to a little giggle over the line "Madam your bear will have to enter in a separate line. Oh, that's your husband, apologies." We got a different journey this time and Darth Vader made an appearance at the beginning, which was a nice surprise. We were off by 10.30 and the wait had gone up to 55 minutes, so definitely worth heading there first if you don't have EMH. We made a visit to the loo (I seem to be saying that rather a lot I must be getting old!) and then got a FP for Buzz for 12-12.30. We were heading over for our daily dose of IASW next, when I noticed DSis was no longer with us! She had seen Winnie the Pooh making his way to his Meet and Greet spot and had dashed after him to get a quick photo. I did suggest waiting to meet him properly but there were already lots of people waiting so we didn't bother. The wait for IASW was posted as 10 minutes but they opened the second line just as we got there so we walked straight onto a boat.

We hadn't been in Alice's Curious Labyrinth yet and it had been closed last time DSis was here, so we went there next. We had to queue to get in, which I have never had to do in February before, but it was only for a couple of minutes I expected it to be really crowded inside but it wasn't at all, so they were obviously doing a good job of crowd control. Speaking of which, we noticed when we went past the Princess Pavilion that the wait was up to 75 minutes and the CMs were doing their best to put people off joining the queue - with very little success, I might add!

Alice's Curious Labyrinth and views of Fantasyland from the Queen of Hearts' castle

We had a good old mooch round the maze and then went to see what the wait time was for Peter Pan. It was still posted at 35 minutes but there was absolutely no way it was only 35 minutes as the queue went all the way round the outside of the ride and under the bridge/walkway to Adventureland. I reckon you would have been waiting for at least 2 hours. I think they actually gave up shortly after we walked past and told people not to wait as they couldn't get it to work as we had a sudden influx of people surge past us, many of them muttering things not suitable to be posted on a family friendly forum!

We were heading over to PoC when Aladdin and Jasmine wandered past us, so we had to get a quick photo of them, or rather Aladdin, for one of DD's friends as she has a bit of a thing for him - apparently!

I then got distracted by the queue for Peter Pan and Wendy as it looked quite short, maybe 10 or 15 minutes. We have never met Peter Pan so I decided we would wait to meet them. We got in line at 11.35 and they didn't start their meet until 11.45 so I knew we would be waiting a while but we were in the sun so I didn't mind. We are our smarties and people watched for a while until DSis started getting twitchy. I suggested she and DD went on Pirates while I waited as they weren't that bothered about meeting them, but they decided they would wait. There was a little boy dressed as Peter Pan and Captain Hook walked past on his way back from his meet and saw him. He did a classic double take and went right up to him in a rather threatening way. Luckily, the boy (about 4 or 5) wasn't frightened and got his little dagger out and started to fight with him. It was very funny. In the end, Hook's handlers had to rescue him as the little boy was really going for it.

There was a little girl just in front of us in the queue who had found the most enormous leaf on the floor while she was waiting. Her mum kept telling her to put it down but she insisted she wanted to keep it. When she got to the front, she gave it to Peter Pan. He was really lovely and made a big fuss of her for giving him a present and put it in his belt to keep for always - which lasted until she had gone and then it went in the bin! He did wait until she was out of sight though. We finally got to the front of the queue and had a quick chat and a photo and then went on our way to our Buzz FP.

I noticed on our way to Buzz that PP still wasn't working though that didn't seem to deter the people waiting - I'm sure some of them were the same people who had been waiting when we went last nearly an hour before. The standby line for Buzz was 45 minutes but we were on and off in about 15 minutes, so not too bad. I didn't make a note of our scores, but I think it's pretty safe to say that they weren't particularly impressive and that Elinor won again. In fact, I think DSis beat me as well, which is the ultimate embarrassment. Clearly, my gun can't have been working properly.

We were off by 12.40 and went back to Frontierland (we seemed to do a lot of criss crossing of the park today) to see what the wait time was like for BTM. It was 40 minutes which I didn't think I was bad but as DSis won't do BTM and Elinor wasn't that bothered, we didn't wait. Instead we finally got our ride on the river as the Molly Brown was just coming in to dock as we were deciding what to do next. DSis had never been on before so she really enjoyed her ride and, in the sun, it was a very pleasant trip indeed - in fact it was almost warm! It was quite depressing to see all the scaffolding around Phantom Manor; I really missed it this trip as it is one of my favourite rides.

Views from the Molly Brown. How sad does Haunted Mansion look?

We wanted a final ride on Pirates so we went back to see what the wait time was. On the way past the Peter Pan meet and greet we saw a family with the children dressed as Peter Pan, Wendy and John but they were a long way back in the queue and there was only another 10 minutes of the meet and greet left. I do hope they got to meet Peter. Does anybody know what they do in cases like this? Do they close the queue area at a certain time and meet everybody who is waiting, regardless of how long it takes, or do they just leave at the specified time?

The wait for Pirates was 30 minutes, which Elinor whinged about but I thought it was pretty good for the time of day so we waited. Yet again, our ride photo was ruined by the people in front waving their arms in the air. In fact, you couldn't even see Elinor - it just looked like DSis and I weren't talking to each other and had left a gap between us!

We were off the ride just before 2 and went on search of food at Fuente del Oro. However, it was really, really busy so we decided to wait a while and do some shopping instead. I got some earrings which I tend to do every trip as I have a habit of losing them and Elinor bought a Tinkerbell decoration - again something she does on every trip. I think she has 9 or 10 now. Elinor was also tempted by an Ana dress and cape which had been massively reduced but common sense prevailed in the end. As I pointed out to her, as a fashion conscious 15-year-old, she wouldn't be seen dead in it once we got home!

We were on our way to lunch when I noticed that Pinocchio only had a 20 minute queue, which was the shortest it had been all week, so I insisted on going on. Elinor wasn't too pleased partly because she was absolutely starving by now, but also because she is genuinely scared by this ride. Being the wicked mother that I am, I just told her to shut her eyes and stop moaning! Very bizarrely, there was a CM riding with the family in front of us. He just appeared as they were getting in their carriage and got in with them. Maybe he knew them. We were off the ride by just after 3, so we had only waited about 15 minutes.

We finally made it to Fuente del Oro, only to find that it was still really busy. However, we were so hungry by now and this is one of our favourite counter service places, so we decided to wait. That was at 3.10. At 3.35, we finally got our food. France really hasn't grasped the concept of fast food. Some of it was the CMs fault as there were clearly a number of new staff members who had to keep asking questions (not a problem) but there is no excuse for the chatting and ignoring people who are waiting to order. Then there was a shift change and they changed all the tills over. However, most of the delay was caused by people waiting until they got to the front of the queue and then having a conversation with the rest of their group about who wanted what! Seriously? You have been standing there for 20 minutes with a massive menu board in front of you and you wait until now? Let's face it there's not a lot of choice - how long can it take to decide between menu 1,2 or 3? (I may have been feeling a little hangry at this point.) We do like the food here though. I think it's really tasty. However, I was obviously so wound up by the wait that I didn't make a note of what we had.

We had finished our late lunch by 4 and had a final look at the shops before heading back to the hotel to collect our bags. Although Elinor and I had 2 bags I had only intended having one on the way back. So our second bag was a hold all that could be folded up and put into our case with wheels. Unfortunately, we had bought too much stuff for that so I ended up having to carry it whilst Elinor got the easy job of wheeling the other one. When will I learn that one suitcase is never enough! We called in EoS to get sandwiches for the train and then popped into Starbucks as it was only 5.15. Is it just me, or is there a funny smell in there? I noticed it last time we were there too but kind of shrugged it off. Luckily, we had our coffee to go as I don't think I could have stayed in there.

Final silly pose of the holiday

We got to the station at 5.45 and I couldn't believe how busy it was. I then realised that it was because the 17.04 direct Eurostar was delayed. As it was Friday, there were also lots of people travelling home for the weekend. Marne la Vallee really can't cope with so many people and tempers were getting quite frayed. Elinor was desperate to charge her phone and luckily, we managed to find a space in the corner at a table that had charging points. There was a French lady sitting at the table who was very chatty - in fact she was downright nosy! She started off by talking to DSis but she doesn't speak French, though she managed enough to let Madame know that I do. The lady wanted to know how much we had paid for our tickets, how frequent the trains were, how much were they from Paris, how far in advance you could buy them (Am I wearing a Eurostar uniform?) what was included in the price, then she was on the phone to her DH trying to organize a trip to London. Next she started on hotels in London - the best place to stay, how much was a reasonable price per night etc. I had to plead ignorance on that one so then she started asking about DLP and how much we had paid per night and how much the tickets were, could we use different hotel pools etc. Now I don't mind being helpful but I couldn't help feeling that she was starting to get a bit personal and when she wanted to Skype me so I could go and stay in her apartment in Paris, it became downright weird! I thanked her, told her I don't have Skype (true) and decided it was time for our train! In spite of Elinor's protests that her phone wasn't fully charged we left the lady looking for another victim and headed for the relative safety of the angry Eurostar mob. It may have been a genuine offer from a very friendly, lovely person, but it was one of the weirdest encounters I have ever had!

The delayed Eurostar finally arrived and the crowds died down somewhat. (It was an hour and three quarters late!) We then had a mad rush to our platform as it was the same one the Eurostar had been using so they didn't announce it until about 2 minutes before our train was due. Just before we had come away, I'd had an email from DLP saying that the train style may be changed for operational reasons and our seat numbers may change. The email said there would be lots of TGV staff around to ask on the day but I hadn't been able to find anyone (I think they were hiding from the angry Eurostar passengers) so we just got on the train and hoped for the best. Our seats were there but there were we several people who couldn't seem to find their seats as they didn't seem to exist but everyone got sorted without too many arguments in the end.

Last time we went to DLP, our train was late and we missed our connection at Lille but this time everything went very smoothly. Although we weren't first off the train, we walk quite quickly so we were first through Passport Control and just had nice time to make use of the facilities before heading into the platform and straight onto our train - so different from last year! We got to London after an uneventful journey to find the remnants of the delayed Eurostar going through Passport Control at St Pancras. There were some very tired children and grumpy parents at that point! I know they probably plan these things in advance but I don’t think it was the best day for Eurostar to be conducting customer satisfaction surveys; I think some of the staff were told exactly what people thought! They didn't ask me, which was a shame, as we had a very positive experience.

Due to our delays the previous year, I had left us plenty of time at St Pancras. Our train home wasn't until 10.10 so we had about 50 minutes to wait - I don't like to be rushed! We had time to get a Starbucks and then we headed to the platform to find out train was already in and ready for boarding so we settled in for the last leg of our journey - again very different from last year's trip when Leicester had been playing Arsenal and the train was packed with very rowdy football fans. We finally made it home at about 11.15, where we just fell into bed!

Steps 23 364
9.45 miles
Final thoughts and future plans
As always, we had a wonderful time at DLP. We always used to travel on the direct train, but it is so much more expensive and the indirect route is so easy, that I think I would choose it in preference to the direct train, particularly as it leaves London earlier. I know you have the long wait in Lille on the way out, but now we have discovered the shopping centre, that really isn’t a problem. I also much prefer doing passport control in Lille; DLP is an absolute nightmare as it is always so busy and the waiting area is woefully inadequate!

We really enjoyed our mini trip to Paris, though it would have been better if we hadn’t got soaked – lol! It was so easy to get there from DLP and we managed to find our way round on the Metro really easily. In fact, I was so impressed with how easy it was, I would consider going to Disney via Paris, which isn’t something I ever thought I would say! I know it would be more difficult with suitcases, but there are so many more trains to Paris. Not that we have another trip planned, unfortunately, as we are going to WDW next year (yay!) so I need to save the pennies for that. I am thinking about investing in annual passes for DLP, though, so may well be asking lots of questions about that in the future.

As always, thanks for reading along and commenting. See you real soon!

[Animagus]

Sorry to hear of your loss. Everybody needs time to accept and adjust to such a sadness in their life. Hopefully, reminiscing over your DLP trip will help a little.
It looks like you had a busy last day. Some great character meets too. I've read quite a lot of negative things about the meet n greets in DLP, mostly that they take so long and the lines move very slowly but you look like you had fun!

It's always nice to have another trip to look forward to. Happy planning and thanks for sharing.

[clochette]

Thanks for your thoughts.

Yes, the Meet and Greets at DLP can be quite slow, but the interaction is superb - well worth the wait in my opinion. I just wish you could FP them but I think that's what they are trialling with lineberty (is that what it's called?) in the Studios, though from what I have heard, it's not very reliable.

Thanks for reading.

[DevonPumpkin]

Sorry to hear you've had such a difficult time recently, it's good you've got another trip to look forward to, although I expect it feels a long way away at the moment!

I've loved reading this report, and so many great photos! Those will be some very happy memories I'm sure. I've been reading everyone's trip reports for a while but finally got the courage to make an account and start replying to some, it'll soon be time to start my own report!

[clochette]

Welcome to the Dibb! I'm glad you enjoyed the report. I really enjoy writing them, though they can be quite time consuming.

I've never been to DLP when it's been decorated for Christmas, so I am very jealous! I'm sure you will have a wonderful time - just don't forget to pack lots of layers!

Looking forward to reading your report.