Just Back: The Good, the Bad...and the Ugly

[rickhasco]

Just back from a long weekend break for what was our 3rd visit to DLP. Things certainly have changed in the 20 years since our first visit.

The Good:
Dreams show-simply breathtaking
Walt's Restaurant-top notch dining
Cheyenne Hotel-basic but clean & good value for an on-site hotel
Ride Queues-very manageable for a weekend
Food Court Dining-delicious food
Parades-a guaranteed highlight of any trip
Cinemagique-simply the best Disney attraction...ever (and a great cameo performance from the bunny rabbit)
Lovely river walkway from Hotel to Park-never used the shuttle buses once
It's A Small World ride closed-enough said
Rainforest Cafe-excellent meal

The Bad:

MGM Studios-very soulless & you would struggle to notice you're in a Disney park
Fraying at the edges-noticed many signs of the park showing its age: worn out flooring,areas in need of some TLC etc
Attention to detail-Weeds left to grow at Indiana Jones ride entrance + throughout Studio Tram Tour & C3PO's right eye not working on StarTours !
3 hour delay on outbound flight
Food Court prices-just too expensive
Lack of manners from some park guests-some things never change
Some FastPass kiosks closed-why advertise them as FP ?
Armageddon-surely a candidate for worst Disney ride ever
Merchandise prices-Other half paid 45 Euros for an Eeyore which I'd expect to pay £20 max for locally in a Disney Store
Lazy/ignorant guests not stacking their dirty trays in the racks at breakfast...grrr

The Ugly
Smoking-it's less of a habit and more of a National Sport on the continent it seems. Witnessed too many instances of parents smoking next to their young children. Sick of the smell within 5 minutes of arrival. Come on Disney, create some smoking zones & leave the rest of the parks in a better state for the majority who don't appreciate passive smoking.

 

[cherrymarzipan]

Welcome back and glad you enjoyed Dreams so much and your stay at the Cheyenne. Hope you won't be waiting another 20 years to re-visit!

 

[tennisfan]

Welcome back. Many of the bad things you have listed are slowly being addressed. Indiana Jones is going to have a complete overhaul.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts

 

[cap'njack.]

We too have brought up the smoking issue at DLP, our exact response was 'we are not policemen, we have no powers to stop people from smoking wherever they choose'. Shame because it can really spoil your experience, especially if you are unfortunate enough to be stood next to people smoking in the queue lines.

 

[AustinTink]

We were just about to start planning our first Disneyland Paris trip. Then I came to the Dis and this was the first thread I opened. The smoking thing is enough to make me stop planning the trip entirely. I didn't know you could smoke all through the parks. The last time we were in Paris the smoking nearly choked us all. My whole family is allergic to cigarette smoke. I might have to rethink this.

 

[crmscotland]

We were just about to start planning our first Disneyland Paris trip. Then I came to the Dis and this was the first thread I opened. The smoking thing is enough to make me stop planning the trip entirely. I didn't know you could smoke all through the parks. The last time we were in Paris the smoking nearly choked us all. My whole family is allergic to cigarette smoke. I might have to rethink this.

My son is asthmatic & l hate the smell of or breathing in cigarette smoke. On previous trips to DLP we haven 't really been bothered by it, but perhaps it has got worse if CMs aren't able to enforce smoking in designated areas only. If we had been bothered by it it certainly would have been a factor in putting us off returning. I'm off to DLP on our trip today, l'll let you know how l find it.

 

[crmscotland]

We were just about to start planning our first Disneyland Paris trip. Then I came to the Dis and this was the first thread I opened. The smoking thing is enough to make me stop planning the trip entirely. I didn't know you could smoke all through the parks. The last time we were in Paris the smoking nearly choked us all. My whole family is allergic to cigarette smoke. I might have to rethink this.

We've been at DLP the last 4 days (still here - using HNY wifi) & l can honestly say we haven't been bothered by people smoking, maybe we were lucky, but we never encountered anyone smoking in line in the queues for rides. Yes, there were some people smoking, l noticed them mainly in Disney village on our first evening, but we weren't affected by it.

 

[moorhunhe]

The park has smoking zones
But I doubt they are being used well.
I've also never came across them, so I don't think they are very well noticeable, but they are there, I just don't know where, haha.

I believe at some point they were also on the maps?

I must be the only one not to care if someone smoke's next to me.
But I can understand that people can't handle it.

Though, it's an outside place, I highly doubt they can forbid it 100 %, but the CM's should get a more powerfull voice for when people are smoking in lines.
You are too crammed onto each other, and you just don't do it in lines where you can hardly breath anyways because some lines are packed.

If you can't be without a siggy for at least 60 minutes, then it's quite bad (no offense).

I have the feeling though, that I see less and less smokers around the park, comparing to trips years ago.
Maybe I just don't mind them anymore because it doesn't bother me, or maybe it is getting less and less, haha.

 

[Lisa_C]

Depends on when you are there I suspect....high season this year was a nightmare. Non smokers where outnumbered 2-1! Lower crowds equals less smoking noticed. I've been when I've been not noticed it much but our previous trip was dreadful. We're there next weekend and while the crowds will be a little lower, I'm not expecting an influx of clean air anytime soon.....

 

[aj2703]

The Ugly
Smoking-it's less of a habit and more of a National Sport on the continent it seems. Witnessed too many instances of parents smoking next to their young children. Sick of the smell within 5 minutes of arrival. Come on Disney, create some smoking zones & leave the rest of the parks in a better state for the majority who don't appreciate passive smoking.

Totally agree with that one. Even though I am an ex smoker myself..

 

[lilacgems23]

Totally agree with that one. Even though I am an ex smoker myself..

I don't understand it , I am a non smoker and have a sensitive smell to smoke but we have been 9 times and have never noticed an issue with people smoking like some have.

 

[lilacgems23]

Depends on when you are there I suspect....high season this year was a nightmare. Non smokers where outnumbered 2-1! Lower crowds equals less smoking noticed. I've been when I've been not noticed it much but our previous trip was dreadful. We're there next weekend and while the crowds will be a little lower, I'm not expecting an influx of clean air anytime soon.....

We went middle of July once so I guess high season and have been at xmas and never noticed it.

 

[Lisa_C]

We went middle of July once so I guess high season and have been at xmas and never noticed it.

We did five days near the end of July for our year anniversary, and eight days mid August....two totally different trips even though they were only two weeks apart! The former we had no problems, the latter? Good grief is all I can say :-/
Will be interesting to see what its like next week as we're doing another 8 days and again over Christmas.....

 

[Jonjo]

I don't understand it , I am a non smoker and have a sensitive smell to smoke but we have been 9 times and have never noticed an issue with people smoking like some have.

We went for a week in March and the parks were very quite during the week and we hardly noticed any smokers. But on the weekend it was a totally different matter, lots of smokers everywhere who had all disappeared again on the Monday morning.