GastoninMD
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 31, 2015
We are Disney World Florida obsessives but wanted to give some perspective on our trip to Disneyland France this week.
We completed this week our trip to Disneyland Paris - which we tacked on to our wonderful Adventures by Disney Knights & Lights (London & Paris) tour. We had both our kids (under 12) with us, and stayed at the Disneyland Hotel in the VIP section. The VIP package included unlimited fastpass for the FP attractions - which might have been cool if the FP attractions had generally been open (they are not - will explain in a bit).
The Disneyland hotel was lovely - and we were treated very well. Breakfast is included, and despite some renovations to the exterior and the closing of the California Grille - I thought the hotel exuded a nice charm more intimate than the Grand Floridian Florida. Its pricey - but its right next to the two parks (10 second walk) and I thought worth it if you are only going to be here once or rarely.
As for the parks, well - the most important thing to stress is that the parks have significant potential, with some real highlights, and are the subject of massive investment & construction right now. That said, they are clearly woefully, and sometimes comically, mismanaged with excessive closures of kiosks and food locations, often apparently "don't give a crap" staff (there are exceptions to this), and significant deterioration of physical plant and rides. I wont take issue with the high food prices - gate prices are actually low here during the week and its an amusement park.
The highlights/positives:
(1) In two words, DISNEY DREAMS. The castle laser and fireworks show, which is presented at park close (11:00 during my several days), is wondrous. Its sort of a combination of the Magic Kingdom Florida castle laser show and then the following fireworks - but better. It doesn't feature the beautiful song Wishes - but its an extravaganza not to be missed. and unique to the Paris park. A+
(2) Parade - its brief, and not dissimilar from the parades at the US parks, but we enjoyed it.
(3) Pirates of Carribean - wow, a much longer version of the Florida ride and solid entertainment.
(4) The castle - beautiful and unique.
(5) Cleanliness - I have seen the complaints about the parks being filthy but they appeared clean to me.
The lowlights:
(1) Construction - to be honest, the parks are not worth visiting until Spring 2017. The main park's main rides are almost all closed. Closures included Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain RR, Star Tours, Peter Pan. RC Racers was closed at WDS. The parks are a giant construction zone right now - Frontier Town is essentially closed. And you can imagine what this does to crowding at open rides - nightmares!!
(2) Staff - some were quite pleasant and greeting, but most are apathetic if not disgruntled. Def a MAJOR issue.
(3) Wear and Tear - some of it is shocking. I noticed paint peeling off several rides for example. You'd never see this in FL.
(4) Food lines - out of control, with numerous eateries and kiosks randomly closed.
(5) Rides break all the time - trust me. Went on Buzz Lightyear three time. Each time ride stopped several times. Same with HH.
All and all, nice hotel, parks will be imprived next year. Wait to then!!
(2)
We completed this week our trip to Disneyland Paris - which we tacked on to our wonderful Adventures by Disney Knights & Lights (London & Paris) tour. We had both our kids (under 12) with us, and stayed at the Disneyland Hotel in the VIP section. The VIP package included unlimited fastpass for the FP attractions - which might have been cool if the FP attractions had generally been open (they are not - will explain in a bit).
The Disneyland hotel was lovely - and we were treated very well. Breakfast is included, and despite some renovations to the exterior and the closing of the California Grille - I thought the hotel exuded a nice charm more intimate than the Grand Floridian Florida. Its pricey - but its right next to the two parks (10 second walk) and I thought worth it if you are only going to be here once or rarely.
As for the parks, well - the most important thing to stress is that the parks have significant potential, with some real highlights, and are the subject of massive investment & construction right now. That said, they are clearly woefully, and sometimes comically, mismanaged with excessive closures of kiosks and food locations, often apparently "don't give a crap" staff (there are exceptions to this), and significant deterioration of physical plant and rides. I wont take issue with the high food prices - gate prices are actually low here during the week and its an amusement park.
The highlights/positives:
(1) In two words, DISNEY DREAMS. The castle laser and fireworks show, which is presented at park close (11:00 during my several days), is wondrous. Its sort of a combination of the Magic Kingdom Florida castle laser show and then the following fireworks - but better. It doesn't feature the beautiful song Wishes - but its an extravaganza not to be missed. and unique to the Paris park. A+
(2) Parade - its brief, and not dissimilar from the parades at the US parks, but we enjoyed it.
(3) Pirates of Carribean - wow, a much longer version of the Florida ride and solid entertainment.
(4) The castle - beautiful and unique.
(5) Cleanliness - I have seen the complaints about the parks being filthy but they appeared clean to me.
The lowlights:
(1) Construction - to be honest, the parks are not worth visiting until Spring 2017. The main park's main rides are almost all closed. Closures included Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain RR, Star Tours, Peter Pan. RC Racers was closed at WDS. The parks are a giant construction zone right now - Frontier Town is essentially closed. And you can imagine what this does to crowding at open rides - nightmares!!
(2) Staff - some were quite pleasant and greeting, but most are apathetic if not disgruntled. Def a MAJOR issue.
(3) Wear and Tear - some of it is shocking. I noticed paint peeling off several rides for example. You'd never see this in FL.
(4) Food lines - out of control, with numerous eateries and kiosks randomly closed.
(5) Rides break all the time - trust me. Went on Buzz Lightyear three time. Each time ride stopped several times. Same with HH.
All and all, nice hotel, parks will be imprived next year. Wait to then!!
(2)