Hi everyone,
I asked a few questions awhile back about DLP - especially trying to choose between Auberge de Cendrillon and Blue Lagoon restaurants.
I debated posting our experience at DLP - unfortunately we did not have the best experience there. We did have a good ending to the day so if anyone doesn't want to hear the negative, you can skip down to my description of dinner.
This was our first trip to Paris. We stayed in Paris for 2 weeks (October) and had an absolutely wonderful time. We went with a good attitude and good manners and really loved our stay. We did not experience anti-American attitudes.
Our day at DLP however, left a lot to be desired. We needed to use a locker when we arrived but found them all without keys - no signs informing us what to do nor any info. that I could find on the park map. I remembered at some point previously in Disneyland, CA, due to security they no longer were using the lockers, so I thought the same might be true at DLP.
So, we asked several workers if there was any provision for our items. They did not seem to know. Finally someone pointed us toward Guest Services outside the park. So, we had to get handstamped to re-enter. Anyhow, we get in line at Guest Services and have to wait a bit even though there were two windows operating. Finally, we are next in line for assistance. Then, right when the person in front of us is leaving and we are ready to step up to the window, a cast member walks up with a family she is helping and cuts right in front of us, going up to the window right in front of us. She didn't excuse herself, give any explaination for cutting us off and in fact, didn't even acknowledge us at all. I was quite shocked. I've been to WDW and Disneyland many times over the last 30+ years and never had a cast member treat a guest that way. And there was no way she didn't realize there was a line of people she cut in front of. We felt like her guests were considered more important than us.
When we finally were able to get to the window, the girl there told us we had been directed to the wrong place, the little room where we could leave our items was next door. I know this all was not a language problem, it was a lack of training that several workers did not know where to send us in the first place, then one sent us to the wrong place. The rudeness of a cast member cutting us off though, was really disturbing.
When we got back into the park, we went to City Hall to see if we could make dinner reservations for the day. We mentioned what we had experienced and there were just blank, embarrassed looks from the two cast members standing there. No apology for our experience. In fact, no comment at all. I had to just change the subject and move on to our request for dinner reservations. That, they were able to help us with. Again, this would have been handled totally differently in the stateside parks.
I wish to emphasize that we did not feel this was a "french attitude" situation as several of the cast members all along this chain of events seemed to be from mixed countries. We felt it must be the way the whole park is run at DLP and the real lack of training in customer service. We were actually warned by some other Americans that the service at DLP is quite lacking by the disney standards we are use to in the states. Being disney lovers, we didn't believe them until we had this experience ourselves. I'm sure there are others who managed to have great times at DLP, unfortunately, I will not go there again. I would much prefer to spend my money at WDW and be treated well.
We stopped at the corner restaurant on Main St. (Casey's corner in US parks) for a hot dog and coke. Only two staff working and the lines were out the door. By now, this was 11:30 am - I'd hate to see what the place looked like at noon rush hour unless they were hiding some workers they were going to put out there at the last minute. After waiting for quite awhile and seeing several families in front of us leave after getting tired of waiting so long, I talking to a cleaning lady there and she talked to the manager and they eventually sent out another worker. Why couldn't they have figured this out by being observant instead of waiting for a guest to comment on the situation?
Each ride we went by had long waits. I began to feel like just leaving the park. We found it extremely helpful to get all our FastPasses right away as later we noticed they were all gone for some attractions. (Thanks to reading this site for that information.) We were quite surprised how busy the park was on a Thursday in mid October. Maybe the Halloween activities had something to do with that? After gathering all our fast passes for the big rides, we finally got on a fast-loading ride - Small World. Then we did the teacups.
We felt the thrill rides were more intense at DLP than their counterparts in the states. Space Mountain certainly was. Also, it was quite dark (which I like). I remember Space Mt. in California was that dark when the ride first opened, then for some reason (safety?) they lightened it up inside. Alot of people wished they hadn't since you can now see the coaster while waiting in line for it. It was much better in the pitch black.
We also thought Big Thunder was a bit more intense. I wonder if others who've been to the states parks noticed this too or if was just our impression?
I was quite disappointed to find that the dragon under the castle was closed for refurbishment. So was Alice's Maze and Storybook Canal rides. At least the 'big' attractions were open. Phantom Manor was quite well done and it was interesting to note the differences from the Haunted Mansions in the states. We also did Peter Pan and Pirates.
On to dinner. I had really debated Auberge vs. Blue Lagoon. I tended toward Auberge. However, the park schedule decided it for us. Auberge closed early that day whereas BL was open through dinner.
We were very pleasantly surprised with our dinner at BL. I knew the setting would be great, but I doubted the food. Especially how they would handle the seafood, since I don't care for all kinds of seafood.
I love the Blue Bayou restaurant in California Disneyland but to be honest, I've had some meals there that were not very good. Our disney experience is that usually the restaurants at the resorts are better than the restaurants in the parks. (I should have remembered this was France - food fanatics.
We had asked for non-smoking and water side if possible. There were several open tables for waterside but they would not seat us there???? After seating us near a tree, we started noticing ALOT of cigarette smoke. Turns out that our side of the 'tree' was non-smoking and the other side started the smokers. We mentioned it to our waitress and although she didn't seem to be very concerned, at least she told the manager. We were happy to find the manager quite nice, she moved us to a (surprise) water table well into the non-smoking section. (We wondered why we couldn't have been seated there in the first place?)
Our waiter at our new table was a very accomodating, sweet french boy who told us he is applying to transfer to WDW in Florida if they will accept him. He certainly has the good customer service that we've experienced in WDW. I hope he gets his wish.
The meal was excellent. My sister and I each chose a different set menu meal. We were both happy with our food. Mine started with an appetizer of scallops along with shrimp wontons with a ginger sauce - this came in a bamboo steamer. It was really delicious. My main dish was swordfish with coriander rice and some kind of sauce. Also really excellent. The dessert was a mango tart with vanilla bourbon ice cream. Again, excellent. We had a relaxing, lovely dinner.
The only down side would have been if we were in a hurry, which we were not. The meal took about two hours! We could only see two servers (Dejavu from the lunch counter earlier in the day.)and even though the restaurant was not being completely used, it was obvious they had too many tables for each waiter. However, we were done for the day and tired so we were happy to sit and relax. Our poor waiter was charming in apologizing for how long it was taking but we assured him it was alright with us. We got in about 6 pm and got done about the time the park was closing at 8pm.
As we were leaving, there was a large corporate group waiting to go into the park for an after hour gathering. We thought we were not going to be able to get out to the storage area, the cast members would not let us through. Then a manager came over and personally guided us through the crowd, although he seemed pretty stressed out. Again, it seemed bad planning. We couldn't have been the only people leaving the park who had left items at the storage room - and here was this huge, tight crowd to try and get through to get to our items.
Well, all in all, even though the castle is just beautiful inside and out, the rides well done and our meal turned out excellent, I will not be recommending DLP to friends nor returning there. Maybe we are too use to the great treatment, the "disney spirit" we find in most disney workers in the states - it's too bad it doesn't seem to translate in the DLP park.
I realize from the many trip reports from others that many have had great visits to DLP. I just wish I could say the same. I also would like to believe it was just an 'off' day. But although one or two workers having an off day is understandable, we unfortunately have come away with a very strong feeling that this is more common at DLP and we do not have a desire to return there. (And I would never have thought I would ever say that about any disney park.)
Well, I don't know if it was a good thing to post our experience at DLP. I'm sure many have a great time there.
I would like to thank those at this site (esp. the regulars) who answered my questions about the restaurants and gave helpful advice. And yes, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Blue Lagoon restaurant - all you BL fans were absolutely correct about how great it is!
Thanks for the assistance,
Rhonna
I asked a few questions awhile back about DLP - especially trying to choose between Auberge de Cendrillon and Blue Lagoon restaurants.
I debated posting our experience at DLP - unfortunately we did not have the best experience there. We did have a good ending to the day so if anyone doesn't want to hear the negative, you can skip down to my description of dinner.
This was our first trip to Paris. We stayed in Paris for 2 weeks (October) and had an absolutely wonderful time. We went with a good attitude and good manners and really loved our stay. We did not experience anti-American attitudes.
Our day at DLP however, left a lot to be desired. We needed to use a locker when we arrived but found them all without keys - no signs informing us what to do nor any info. that I could find on the park map. I remembered at some point previously in Disneyland, CA, due to security they no longer were using the lockers, so I thought the same might be true at DLP.
So, we asked several workers if there was any provision for our items. They did not seem to know. Finally someone pointed us toward Guest Services outside the park. So, we had to get handstamped to re-enter. Anyhow, we get in line at Guest Services and have to wait a bit even though there were two windows operating. Finally, we are next in line for assistance. Then, right when the person in front of us is leaving and we are ready to step up to the window, a cast member walks up with a family she is helping and cuts right in front of us, going up to the window right in front of us. She didn't excuse herself, give any explaination for cutting us off and in fact, didn't even acknowledge us at all. I was quite shocked. I've been to WDW and Disneyland many times over the last 30+ years and never had a cast member treat a guest that way. And there was no way she didn't realize there was a line of people she cut in front of. We felt like her guests were considered more important than us.
When we finally were able to get to the window, the girl there told us we had been directed to the wrong place, the little room where we could leave our items was next door. I know this all was not a language problem, it was a lack of training that several workers did not know where to send us in the first place, then one sent us to the wrong place. The rudeness of a cast member cutting us off though, was really disturbing.
When we got back into the park, we went to City Hall to see if we could make dinner reservations for the day. We mentioned what we had experienced and there were just blank, embarrassed looks from the two cast members standing there. No apology for our experience. In fact, no comment at all. I had to just change the subject and move on to our request for dinner reservations. That, they were able to help us with. Again, this would have been handled totally differently in the stateside parks.
I wish to emphasize that we did not feel this was a "french attitude" situation as several of the cast members all along this chain of events seemed to be from mixed countries. We felt it must be the way the whole park is run at DLP and the real lack of training in customer service. We were actually warned by some other Americans that the service at DLP is quite lacking by the disney standards we are use to in the states. Being disney lovers, we didn't believe them until we had this experience ourselves. I'm sure there are others who managed to have great times at DLP, unfortunately, I will not go there again. I would much prefer to spend my money at WDW and be treated well.
We stopped at the corner restaurant on Main St. (Casey's corner in US parks) for a hot dog and coke. Only two staff working and the lines were out the door. By now, this was 11:30 am - I'd hate to see what the place looked like at noon rush hour unless they were hiding some workers they were going to put out there at the last minute. After waiting for quite awhile and seeing several families in front of us leave after getting tired of waiting so long, I talking to a cleaning lady there and she talked to the manager and they eventually sent out another worker. Why couldn't they have figured this out by being observant instead of waiting for a guest to comment on the situation?
Each ride we went by had long waits. I began to feel like just leaving the park. We found it extremely helpful to get all our FastPasses right away as later we noticed they were all gone for some attractions. (Thanks to reading this site for that information.) We were quite surprised how busy the park was on a Thursday in mid October. Maybe the Halloween activities had something to do with that? After gathering all our fast passes for the big rides, we finally got on a fast-loading ride - Small World. Then we did the teacups.
We felt the thrill rides were more intense at DLP than their counterparts in the states. Space Mountain certainly was. Also, it was quite dark (which I like). I remember Space Mt. in California was that dark when the ride first opened, then for some reason (safety?) they lightened it up inside. Alot of people wished they hadn't since you can now see the coaster while waiting in line for it. It was much better in the pitch black.
We also thought Big Thunder was a bit more intense. I wonder if others who've been to the states parks noticed this too or if was just our impression?
I was quite disappointed to find that the dragon under the castle was closed for refurbishment. So was Alice's Maze and Storybook Canal rides. At least the 'big' attractions were open. Phantom Manor was quite well done and it was interesting to note the differences from the Haunted Mansions in the states. We also did Peter Pan and Pirates.
On to dinner. I had really debated Auberge vs. Blue Lagoon. I tended toward Auberge. However, the park schedule decided it for us. Auberge closed early that day whereas BL was open through dinner.
We were very pleasantly surprised with our dinner at BL. I knew the setting would be great, but I doubted the food. Especially how they would handle the seafood, since I don't care for all kinds of seafood.
I love the Blue Bayou restaurant in California Disneyland but to be honest, I've had some meals there that were not very good. Our disney experience is that usually the restaurants at the resorts are better than the restaurants in the parks. (I should have remembered this was France - food fanatics.
We had asked for non-smoking and water side if possible. There were several open tables for waterside but they would not seat us there???? After seating us near a tree, we started noticing ALOT of cigarette smoke. Turns out that our side of the 'tree' was non-smoking and the other side started the smokers. We mentioned it to our waitress and although she didn't seem to be very concerned, at least she told the manager. We were happy to find the manager quite nice, she moved us to a (surprise) water table well into the non-smoking section. (We wondered why we couldn't have been seated there in the first place?)
Our waiter at our new table was a very accomodating, sweet french boy who told us he is applying to transfer to WDW in Florida if they will accept him. He certainly has the good customer service that we've experienced in WDW. I hope he gets his wish.
The meal was excellent. My sister and I each chose a different set menu meal. We were both happy with our food. Mine started with an appetizer of scallops along with shrimp wontons with a ginger sauce - this came in a bamboo steamer. It was really delicious. My main dish was swordfish with coriander rice and some kind of sauce. Also really excellent. The dessert was a mango tart with vanilla bourbon ice cream. Again, excellent. We had a relaxing, lovely dinner.
The only down side would have been if we were in a hurry, which we were not. The meal took about two hours! We could only see two servers (Dejavu from the lunch counter earlier in the day.)and even though the restaurant was not being completely used, it was obvious they had too many tables for each waiter. However, we were done for the day and tired so we were happy to sit and relax. Our poor waiter was charming in apologizing for how long it was taking but we assured him it was alright with us. We got in about 6 pm and got done about the time the park was closing at 8pm.
As we were leaving, there was a large corporate group waiting to go into the park for an after hour gathering. We thought we were not going to be able to get out to the storage area, the cast members would not let us through. Then a manager came over and personally guided us through the crowd, although he seemed pretty stressed out. Again, it seemed bad planning. We couldn't have been the only people leaving the park who had left items at the storage room - and here was this huge, tight crowd to try and get through to get to our items.
Well, all in all, even though the castle is just beautiful inside and out, the rides well done and our meal turned out excellent, I will not be recommending DLP to friends nor returning there. Maybe we are too use to the great treatment, the "disney spirit" we find in most disney workers in the states - it's too bad it doesn't seem to translate in the DLP park.
I realize from the many trip reports from others that many have had great visits to DLP. I just wish I could say the same. I also would like to believe it was just an 'off' day. But although one or two workers having an off day is understandable, we unfortunately have come away with a very strong feeling that this is more common at DLP and we do not have a desire to return there. (And I would never have thought I would ever say that about any disney park.)
Well, I don't know if it was a good thing to post our experience at DLP. I'm sure many have a great time there.
I would like to thank those at this site (esp. the regulars) who answered my questions about the restaurants and gave helpful advice. And yes, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Blue Lagoon restaurant - all you BL fans were absolutely correct about how great it is!
Thanks for the assistance,
Rhonna