Sequoia (light) Snow in March

sjc100 · 23 Mar 18, 12:32 PM

I’m not going to review in the normal style, firstly because everyone else does such good ones that I can’t keep up but also because I can’t be bothered to do all the photo filtering at the moment!

Dates: 19-22 March
Staying at: Sequoia Lodge
Participants: Me (31), my Wife (29), my daughter (nearly 3)

The Hotel
We had been twice before in recent times (had both been in the early days when we were kids) and stayed at the Santa Fey in 2012 as a couple and Cheyenne in 2016 when our daughter was just turned 1. Sequoia is a more noticeable step up than I’d imagined to be honest – yes, the rooms are still the basic two beds and a bathroom but everything is just that little bit nicer. It is actually quite hard to put your finger on exactly why! I’m not sure we would go anywhere else now unless either the redone HNY or any potential new build in WDS offers something more without becoming DLH level pricing. I’d seen pictures and reviews of SL looking tired and “ridden hard” before we went which made me slightly worried, but I thought the whole place (especially with a light dusting of snow!) looked fantastic.

Disneyland Park
You don’t need me to tell you that the place is magical, and the extra effort that they have put in to make it look nicer is noticeable. The place really does sparkle and despite what I am about to say there still isn’t any place else in the continent that comes close. However, I think for the first time I really noticed that there wasn’t anything really new in there in terms of rides. For kids, that’s fine (and let’s face it, the kid experience is still front and centre). As an adult, I did find that a couple of times I felt as though I was going through the motions and retreading old ground. As a caveat it definitely didn’t help that BTM and PM were both being refurbished, but would I be wrong in thinking that there hasn’t been a new “big” ride since Buzz Lightyear in 2006? That’s quite a long time…
Going back to the sparkle point, Fantasyland and Frontier Land in particular look better than they have ever done. But am I the only one that thinks that Discoveryland looks so dated now? And not in a deliberate way. That is the area that needs some real investment, it not only looks incredibly 90s but with the half-≈≈≈≈≈ Star Wars update to SM (which I know is changing back soon) it has almost become WDS level of mishmash. Buzz, SM, ST and Autopia just don’t go together anymore (if they ever did), plus you have Café Hyperion which increasingly seems to be becoming a white elephant.

Walt Disney Studios
It was quite good to visit here knowing what could/will be. As an adult, I enjoy the rides here more but it has always been a frustration that you know what it could be with a bit more foresight and planning. Outside the Pixar area it is an absolute mess theme wise in my opinion. God I’d love to jump into a time machine and skip forward 6 years. The sad thing is, this currently detracts from some really excellent rides. If I’d have gone 2 months ago, I’d have probably walked about moaning about all this. As it was, going round and imagining what backlot would look like and what would be where the Studios Tour was actually made me quite excited.

Food
Most of the meals were spot on. I’m not big on the Rainforest café, but we went there for the other two on the first evening and had a decent meal in what is an admittedly unique setting. Captain Jacks was expensive, but when you sit next to the river, meet Jack and have a stunning meal (we went off the Premium menu for the first time anywhere) you are less inclined to complain. I didn’t come out feeling like we’d been fleeced. We had two buffets, one at PG and one at SL – SL was very noticeably better, but both did the job. By and large, I was very impressed with both the table services and the buffets. Disney Village does need a bit of a sort out though lookswise, which is sounds like it may well get quite soon.
What I am never impressed with is the counter service outside of the Earl and McDonalds (which both do a job if you want a cheap meal). I honestly think that being charged nearly 50 euros for 2 adult meals and a kids meal and being served up a substandard mess is too far – I get that you have to suspend the value of money to an extent in Disneyland, but I think that certain places (the burger places especially) downright rip you off and it isn’t good enough.

Shows
Both the 25th anniversary parade and the Illuminations are a step up from their already exceptional predecessors. People have reviewed both of those in far more detail that I can, but I genuinely had a couple of shivers at the Illuminations which is unlike me, as did I at the Galactic celebration which we were lucky enough to see. Only using the ToT occasionally for stuff like that is a big waste in my opinion. On the flip side, I was slightly underwhelmed by the day Star Wars show, but maybe that was because I saw that after the Galactic celebration. Mickey presents was a nice touch – probably a better nod to the 25th anniversary than the other stuff but not quite as memorable.
In WDS for small kids, Stitch Live I was very underwhelmed by. However, she loved Art of Animation and I actually thought that the Disney Junior Show was pretty damn exceptional – the biggest surprise of the trip for me. The Motor Show was decent enough, but again it feels like a show that has been running for a long time without many changes and I won’t be sad to see it changed.
For the first time, we also saw the Wild West Show. I honestly thought this was brilliant and good value for money – the show was great, the food was great and if you haven’t been then I strongly recommend you see it, especially as it might well be affected by the oncoming shake up.

Character meets
It might just be that I look for it more with a 3 year old, but it feels like there are lots more of these dotted around the park which can only be a good thing. The breakfast at Plaza Gardens is totally worth it in my opinion – for a relatively small upgrade price, meeting 6 characters in an hour is amazing. We got Mickey, Scrooge, Daisy, Piglett, Eeyore and Tigger, so it isn’t like you are being fobbed off with B-list characters. Even if you only want to meet Mickey, this seems a much better way of doing it than queuing for an hour later in the day to me. Princess Pavilion is insane as usual, we queued at the start of EMH for Aurora and had to wait maybe 25-30 minutes but by the time we were out it was already up to 120 minutes. I feel like there has to be a better way of doing this, but I certainly don’t have any solutions! Elsewhere, there were all sorts of characters randomly dotted around the parks and it just felt like there were very noticeably more – as mentioned, maybe that’s just because I was looking for it a bit more.
The only issue I did have was that my daughter, like many other young girls I’d imagine, has two favourite films – Beauty and the Beast and Frozen. Yet there is no meet and greet for either (or so I thought). Until Frozen land arrives, there is no ride, no restaurant and no real way of meet and greets for either BatB or Frozen (other than of course seeing the parade and Illuminations which is great, but isn’t quite the same). Frozen seems to get heavy representation in the Xmas 6 weeks but little else, and even when we asked about Belle we were told that she is only in the Pavilion 2 or 3 times a month and isn’t even guaranteed at the Princess lunch “because she’s so popular”. Odd.
But then, on the last day, we quite literally tripped over Belle outside Casey Jr. Turns out that despite 3 or 4 CMs telling us over the week that the only time we would see her would be in the parade, she is there for a bit most days. We queued for just 5 minutes to see her. I just find that whole situation very strange, but we got what we wanted, didn’t have to queue for hours or pay £200 for a lunch so you won’t hear me complaining!

Overall, it was a great trip – if I’ve been a bit negative above, it’s only because I didn’t want it to be a “and this was great, and this was great, and” review! The weather was bitterly cold, but by and large it didn’t detract from the experience and in fact a light dusting of snow on a couple of days added to it. Despite my gripes about seeing the same things 3 times in 6 years (I know, poor me), seeing everything fresh through my daughter’s eyes really is special. It may well be our last trip for a while unless we decide to do our first Xmas trip – WDW has been on our bucket list for years, and with DLP due to be a very different beast in 6 or 7 years time now seem the perfect time to have a break from it for a little while and commit to 3 or 4 years hard saving…

MrsSilverStar · 23 Mar 18, 03:51 PM

Sounds like you had a great time, I like the short summary...much easier to read than the waffling I did in mine

I was impressed with the character meets too, and seeing DS's reactions just made the whole trip for me.

Can't wait to go again once all the new changes have been made.

23 Mar 18, 12:32 PM	#1
	23 Mar 18, 12:32 PM sjc100 Gone all Goofy
sjc100 Gone all Goofy Join Date: Jan 18 Location: Essex, England	Sequoia (light) Snow in March I’m not going to review in the normal style, firstly because everyone else does such good ones that I can’t keep up but also because I can’t be bothered to do all the photo filtering at the moment! Dates: 19-22 March Staying at: Sequoia Lodge Participants: Me (31), my Wife (29), my daughter (nearly 3) The Hotel We had been twice before in recent times (had both been in the early days when we were kids) and stayed at the Santa Fey in 2012 as a couple and Cheyenne in 2016 when our daughter was just turned 1. Sequoia is a more noticeable step up than I’d imagined to be honest – yes, the rooms are still the basic two beds and a bathroom but everything is just that little bit nicer. It is actually quite hard to put your finger on exactly why! I’m not sure we would go anywhere else now unless either the redone HNY or any potential new build in WDS offers something more without becoming DLH level pricing. I’d seen pictures and reviews of SL looking tired and “ridden hard” before we went which made me slightly worried, but I thought the whole place (especially with a light dusting of snow!) looked fantastic. Disneyland Park You don’t need me to tell you that the place is magical, and the extra effort that they have put in to make it look nicer is noticeable. The place really does sparkle and despite what I am about to say there still isn’t any place else in the continent that comes close. However, I think for the first time I really noticed that there wasn’t anything really new in there in terms of rides. For kids, that’s fine (and let’s face it, the kid experience is still front and centre). As an adult, I did find that a couple of times I felt as though I was going through the motions and retreading old ground. As a caveat it definitely didn’t help that BTM and PM were both being refurbished, but would I be wrong in thinking that there hasn’t been a new “big” ride since Buzz Lightyear in 2006? That’s quite a long time… Going back to the sparkle point, Fantasyland and Frontier Land in particular look better than they have ever done. But am I the only one that thinks that Discoveryland looks so dated now? And not in a deliberate way. That is the area that needs some real investment, it not only looks incredibly 90s but with the half-≈≈≈≈≈ Star Wars update to SM (which I know is changing back soon) it has almost become WDS level of mishmash. Buzz, SM, ST and Autopia just don’t go together anymore (if they ever did), plus you have Café Hyperion which increasingly seems to be becoming a white elephant. Walt Disney Studios It was quite good to visit here knowing what could/will be. As an adult, I enjoy the rides here more but it has always been a frustration that you know what it could be with a bit more foresight and planning. Outside the Pixar area it is an absolute mess theme wise in my opinion. God I’d love to jump into a time machine and skip forward 6 years. The sad thing is, this currently detracts from some really excellent rides. If I’d have gone 2 months ago, I’d have probably walked about moaning about all this. As it was, going round and imagining what backlot would look like and what would be where the Studios Tour was actually made me quite excited. Food Most of the meals were spot on. I’m not big on the Rainforest café, but we went there for the other two on the first evening and had a decent meal in what is an admittedly unique setting. Captain Jacks was expensive, but when you sit next to the river, meet Jack and have a stunning meal (we went off the Premium menu for the first time anywhere) you are less inclined to complain. I didn’t come out feeling like we’d been fleeced. We had two buffets, one at PG and one at SL – SL was very noticeably better, but both did the job. By and large, I was very impressed with both the table services and the buffets. Disney Village does need a bit of a sort out though lookswise, which is sounds like it may well get quite soon. What I am never impressed with is the counter service outside of the Earl and McDonalds (which both do a job if you want a cheap meal). I honestly think that being charged nearly 50 euros for 2 adult meals and a kids meal and being served up a substandard mess is too far – I get that you have to suspend the value of money to an extent in Disneyland, but I think that certain places (the burger places especially) downright rip you off and it isn’t good enough. Shows Both the 25th anniversary parade and the Illuminations are a step up from their already exceptional predecessors. People have reviewed both of those in far more detail that I can, but I genuinely had a couple of shivers at the Illuminations which is unlike me, as did I at the Galactic celebration which we were lucky enough to see. Only using the ToT occasionally for stuff like that is a big waste in my opinion. On the flip side, I was slightly underwhelmed by the day Star Wars show, but maybe that was because I saw that after the Galactic celebration. Mickey presents was a nice touch – probably a better nod to the 25th anniversary than the other stuff but not quite as memorable. In WDS for small kids, Stitch Live I was very underwhelmed by. However, she loved Art of Animation and I actually thought that the Disney Junior Show was pretty damn exceptional – the biggest surprise of the trip for me. The Motor Show was decent enough, but again it feels like a show that has been running for a long time without many changes and I won’t be sad to see it changed. For the first time, we also saw the Wild West Show. I honestly thought this was brilliant and good value for money – the show was great, the food was great and if you haven’t been then I strongly recommend you see it, especially as it might well be affected by the oncoming shake up. Character meets It might just be that I look for it more with a 3 year old, but it feels like there are lots more of these dotted around the park which can only be a good thing. The breakfast at Plaza Gardens is totally worth it in my opinion – for a relatively small upgrade price, meeting 6 characters in an hour is amazing. We got Mickey, Scrooge, Daisy, Piglett, Eeyore and Tigger, so it isn’t like you are being fobbed off with B-list characters. Even if you only want to meet Mickey, this seems a much better way of doing it than queuing for an hour later in the day to me. Princess Pavilion is insane as usual, we queued at the start of EMH for Aurora and had to wait maybe 25-30 minutes but by the time we were out it was already up to 120 minutes. I feel like there has to be a better way of doing this, but I certainly don’t have any solutions! Elsewhere, there were all sorts of characters randomly dotted around the parks and it just felt like there were very noticeably more – as mentioned, maybe that’s just because I was looking for it a bit more. The only issue I did have was that my daughter, like many other young girls I’d imagine, has two favourite films – Beauty and the Beast and Frozen. Yet there is no meet and greet for either (or so I thought). Until Frozen land arrives, there is no ride, no restaurant and no real way of meet and greets for either BatB or Frozen (other than of course seeing the parade and Illuminations which is great, but isn’t quite the same). Frozen seems to get heavy representation in the Xmas 6 weeks but little else, and even when we asked about Belle we were told that she is only in the Pavilion 2 or 3 times a month and isn’t even guaranteed at the Princess lunch “because she’s so popular”. Odd. But then, on the last day, we quite literally tripped over Belle outside Casey Jr. Turns out that despite 3 or 4 CMs telling us over the week that the only time we would see her would be in the parade, she is there for a bit most days. We queued for just 5 minutes to see her. I just find that whole situation very strange, but we got what we wanted, didn’t have to queue for hours or pay £200 for a lunch so you won’t hear me complaining! Overall, it was a great trip – if I’ve been a bit negative above, it’s only because I didn’t want it to be a “and this was great, and this was great, and” review! The weather was bitterly cold, but by and large it didn’t detract from the experience and in fact a light dusting of snow on a couple of days added to it. Despite my gripes about seeing the same things 3 times in 6 years (I know, poor me), seeing everything fresh through my daughter’s eyes really is special. It may well be our last trip for a while unless we decide to do our first Xmas trip – WDW has been on our bucket list for years, and with DLP due to be a very different beast in 6 or 7 years time now seem the perfect time to have a break from it for a little while and commit to 3 or 4 years hard saving… Edited at 12:45 PM.