Highs & Lows 6.4.14 - 10.4.14

[squiggly2902]

Highs
Queues - these were manageable with the exception of PP and Meet Rapunzel.
Character interaction - this was fab, lots of character meets and organised queuing is so much better than the scrums, managed to meet a few character's we've never met before, Baloo, Woody and The Genie.
Weather - sunny and warm, ideal when spending full days in the parks.
Adagio Aparthotel - recently refurbished room, clean, lots of space. We had a room for 6/7 and were surprised with 2 bathrooms and an upstairs bedroom.
Spring Promenade - wonderful in the sun, fantastic atmosphere with the dancers and interaction with characters, even our usually moody 14 year old was smiling and singing along!
Cast Members - really friendly and helpful with my 85 year old mother in law.
It's a small world celebrations - I'd forgotten it was the 50th birthday yesterday so we got a nice surprise when entering the park to find it all set up for a celebration sing-a-long. Loved seeing all the different groups with their flags waving in front of the castle.

Lows
I've only a couple of lows;
Restaurant Reservations - I booked Café Mickey 3 weeks ago by telephone as I'd promised my 6 year old she could go again to fill up her autograph book. I called in to city hall to double check the reservation time, the booking couldn't be found and Café Mickey was completely fully booked for our whole stay. The cast members were very apologetic and gave us a free fastpass for a ride of our choice and luckily there were quite a few random meets around the park so this kept her happy.
Pep 50 shuttle bus from Adagio - this only starts at 8.50 so if you have an annual pass and want to be in the park for EMH you have to get the RER. Val D'Europe doesn't open until 8am so to get to the station you need to go around which is a 15 min walk. One way cost us just under 10E for the 6 of us, so this was an unexpected expense.

 

[Christieand]

Shame about the reservation but at least the new character meet situation helped a little bit. The Spring Celebration sounds lovely!

 

[drinkpinkhorse]

Sorry to hijack your post. I have just booked the adagio aparthotel for our stay in May and have a few questions. Is there clothes washing facilities on site? How far is it from shopping centre. How frequent are the shuttle buses and what time is the last one. I just want to make sure we made the right decision with our accommodation. Any other information on the hotel would be much appreciated.

Glad to here you had a good time. Shame about cafe mickey..

 

[barrington]

Hi

Just read your highs and lows and noticed you met rapunzel, is that an organised meet please ?

 

[tennisfan]

Welcome back looks like you enjoyed most of your trip

 

[squiggly2902]

Sorry to hijack your post. I have just booked the adagio aparthotel for our stay in May and have a few questions. Is there clothes washing facilities on site? How far is it from shopping centre. How frequent are the shuttle buses and what time is the last one. I just want to make sure we made the right decision with our accommodation. Any other information on the hotel would be much appreciated. Glad to here you had a good time. Shame about cafe mickey..

There is a laundry room but I didn't use it so no idea about cost etc.
The buses run hourly (sometimes half hourly) the last one back from park is at 11.30 - we tried to get on the 10.30 one back after dreams but it was a nightmare with the wheelchair and so we went for the train instead.
The shopping centre is right next door and you enter at the terrace end where the restaurants are I'd recommend Hippopotamus restaurant we had a 2 course meal with steak for £17.90 each £7.50 kids and service was great. Auchan supermarket is a 5-10 min walk through the centre. I'd definitely stay there again.

 

[squiggly2902]

Hi Just read your highs and lows and noticed you met rapunzel, is that an organised meet please ?

Yes Rapunzel has an organised meet at the top of Liberty arcade, the queue starts around park opening and can get v long ( she's there a few times a day - times in the park programme).

 

[DLPdaft]

Yes Rapunzel has an organised meet at the top of Liberty arcade, the queue starts around park opening and can get v long ( she's there a few times a day - times in the park programme).

she's doing meets 3 times a day at the moment - when we left the park yesterday at around 12.15 for her 12.30 meet the queue was already out of the rope area and snaked all around the fence behind the Dreams production hut!

 

[cherrymarzipan]

Great to read your highs and not too many lows. The Spring Festival and character interaction sound great. Lovely to be there for the IASW birthday too.

Exactly the same thing happened to us at Cafe Mickey once. I had reserved by telephone from home some weeks previously. I argued and asked for the manager and eventually, having giving my forename, my booking was discovered with an amazingly misspelt surname!

Did you try walking to/from the Adagio? We have and it is no more than a 30 minute walk at most to the park. Worth knowing to take advantage of EMH and often quicker on the way back too factoring in the walk to the station and then an uncertain time waiting for a bus.

 

[squiggly2902]

Great to read your highs and not too many lows. The Spring Festival and character interaction sound great. Lovely to be there for the IASW birthday too.

Exactly the same thing happened to us at Cafe Mickey once. I had reserved by telephone from home some weeks previously. I argued and asked for the manager and eventually, having giving my forename, my booking was discovered with an amazingly misspelt surname!

I spoke to a manager and we went all through the booking system and couldn't find the booking at all, I can only suppose that I have been booked in for a completely different week.

Did you try walking to/from the Adagio? We have and it is no more than a 30 minute walk at most to the park. Worth knowing to take advantage of EMH and often quicker on the way back too factoring in the walk to the station and then an uncertain time waiting for a bus.

Both DH and myself were up to walking it, could see TOT in the distance but the girls weren't having any of it!