Disneyland Paris February 2010

[Dagobert]

Disneyland Paris 10th – 15th February 2010

Last Monday we returned from our recent trip to Disneyland Paris. It was our fourth trip and we enjoyed our time there, although it was not as perfect and magical as the last times.

I want to start our trip report with the hotel: Disney's Sequoia Lodge

After staying three times in the Santa Fe hotel, we decided to try the Sequoia Lodge, because we wanted to stay on site. What a bad decision. The Sequoia Lodge is really a very beautiful hotel, but our room was not. At first we wanted to book a Montana room, but we thought that the money is not worth to stay in the main building, so we took a standard room which is located in one of the lodges. Nevertheless when we checked in we got a Montana room in the main building and we were pleased to get a better room.

Although our room was (somewhat) clean, it was not as nice as the refurbished rooms at the Santa Fe we had during our previous trips. The TV wasn’t working very well and our wardrobe with the TV was also a little bit broken. Maybe our expectations were just too high, but we really thought that the quality of the room would be better and maybe the other rooms in the SL are better. The nicest room in a Disney hotel we had, was the one in WDW’s Pop Century Resort and this is a value and not a moderate hotel, like SL.

We didn’t try the pool, because it wasn’t open in the morning and in the evening when we returned from the parks, we were too tired. Instead we had some drinks at the Redwood Bar, which is very cosy with the open fire place.

The breakfast was also okay, but not very different to the Santa Fe breakfast. I think SL offered more cereals, fresh fruits and the restaurants are nicer.

So next time we will stay off site, because the Disney hotels and the Extra Magic Hours are really not worth the money. Maybe we will choose one of the Vienna International hotels, because we have already stayed in one in Prague and it was a lot better than the SL for less money.

Here are some pics of the hotel and the breakfast:





































More later.

[Dagobert]

This and that:

The Castmembers:

In general most of the CMs were friendly and polite, but we have also encountered unfriendly persons, for example the manager of Walt’s who brought us to our table. He asked us if we speak French or English. So we told him, that we only speak English. Nevertheless he talked the whole time in French with us, although he was able to speak English, because he also talked to other guests in English. Not very nice.

I know it was off season, so there are not many international guests, but many CMs at the counter service restaurants had problems with English and spoke only French. That wasn’t such a big problem, because they used cards with food pictures to show them what you want to order.

The Merchandise:

Euro Disney SCA (the operating company) is always complaining that people don’t spend enough money in the parks. It is not really possible with this bad selection of merchandise to spend more money. In each shop the offer the same stuff. The Mickey’s Magical Party merchandise didn’t appeal to us and if you are not a girl (Princess products everywhere) it’s really hard to find some nice merchandise. The selection of pins was also very small and attraction pins are rare. At least I got a few.

So here is what we bought:











More to come.

[Dagobert]

The Food:

Claudia, my girlfriend, is vegan which means she doesn’t eat any animal products (not meat, fish, dairy or eggs). So we tried to contact the Disney Dietitian Service, a service that was very helpful in September 2008, but this time they didn’t even answer our emails. Last time they told us that we should tell them where we want to eat and they will contact the restaurants so that they can prepare something special. But not this time. They told us that the only meals Claudia could have are vegetables in oil. Great! However we thought that they can help us in the restaurants, like they did in WDW. No they did not and most of the restaurant managers just wanted to get rid of us. Nevertheless the fast food was okay and Agrabah Café, our favourite restaurant in DLP, serves really good food.

Park Maintenance and Attractions:

I would say that the attractions were in a very good condition, especially Phantom Manor. Did it get a refurbishment during the last year, because we have seen effects we haven’t seen in 2008? DLRP has some problems with the floors, especially in front of DV and in WDS Front Lot, where many tiles are missing, I think they broke because of the cold weather and haven’t been replaced until now. In general the parks were very clean and we haven’t seen any overloaded dust bins, like in recent years.
Some buildings really need some refurbishment, but I hope when the weather is warmer these things get repaired. Disney Studio 1 is still under scaffolding. During our stay the castle bridge and a building on Main Street got a refurbishment.

Some attractions like Autopia or the Studio Tram Tour were closed all days, except Sunday, because of the cold weather.

What also annoyed us, were the different opening hours of the attractions. Some opened at 10 and others at 11 o’clock. Some closed at 6pm or at 7pm and others at 8 or 9pm.

Extra Magic Hours:

We had them every day in the morning and we tried to make full use of the EMHs. We were a little bit disappointed by them, because only SM:MII, Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan, Le Carousell de Lancelot, the Tea Cups and Dumbo were open every day. That’s also a reason why it doesn’t matter to us that we will not stay in a Disney hotel anymore. However we used them every day and enjoyed the opened attractions. I think they didn’z open more, because it was off season and so there weren’t so many guests in the park.


I will post our arrival day and some pictures later.

[jml338]

Dear Dagobert,

thank you very much for your report. Since I moved to the US, I am always happy to see and hear about Disneyland Paris.

I am sorry the Hotel experience was not that good. I stayed in Sequoia Lodge once before and I promised myself that I would never do it again because of the very bland and unappealing rooms. The main floor is gorgeous but does not reflect the rest of the hotel. If you can afford it, I strongly recommend the New York.

The merchandise have been a problem almost everywhere in Disney Parks. In Paris, they use to have different items in almost every shops depending on the theme. I used to spend a fortune there. Alas, there is nothing special anymore: it is the same everywhere. Check the shop in the Disneyland Hotel though because, sometimes, they have great stuff (although quite expensive).

I am sorry about the lack of help for your girlfriend. I am not really surprised though because Paris has been cutting corners everywhere they can.

Thank you again for your great pictures.

[Hathaway Browne]

Nice TR! Sorry to hear about the problems with food. I find it awkward at times at the Resort and I'm not vegan! So I can only imagine how tricky it is.

Nice photos of the Sequoia Lodge. Does look like a nice hotel - I've always wanted to stay there - although seeing your description I think I'll stick with Radisson at Golf Disneyland.

[Dagobert]

Thanks a lot for your replies.

So here is our arrival day:

Day 1 – Arrival

We started our journey to DLRP at 6:30am and we drove from Salzburg via Munich, Stuttgart and Strasbourg to DLRP. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t very nice, it snowed a lot in Germany. So after a long 10 hours drive we arrived around 5pm at the Sequoia Lodge. We checked in and after we dropped our luggage off in our room, we went to the Disney Village, where we checked out the merchandise. Many people on the forum were disappointed with the merchandise, so I was not really surprised by the bad selection.

At first we had a drink at the Sports Bar and afterwards we had dinner at the Rainforest Café. We have only been once at a RFC in Chicago and it was okay then, but nothing special. However, we had a very pleasant experience in the RFC this time - our waitress did everything to make sure that Claudia gets a nice vegan meal, she checked several time with the kitchen. The result was a really tasty stir-fry over rice. I had the Veggie Burger, which was also very good. The quality of the food was better than in Chicago. So I think next time we will eat there again.

After dinner we had another beer at the Sports Bar and then we went back to the hotel, where we had to check out the Redwood Bar and Lounge. We loved this bar, because as I’ve already said before, it is such a cosy place with the open fire place. After a last beer we went to bed early, because we were tired.

Photos will follow shortly.

[Dagobert]

So here are the photos:

















If I have time I will post our first day in the parks in the evening.

[Dagobert]

Day 2 – First Day in the Parks

After getting up we had breakfast at 7am. We chose the earliest breakfast time, because it was always quiet and relaxing before all the families with their little ones arrived. Breakfast was served in both restaurants, the Hunter’s Grill and the Beaver Creek Tavern. We are not big fans of the Nescafe products so we always had tea and on the way to the parks we stopped at Starbucks to get a real cup of coffee (Starbucks also carries soy milk, so that made Claudia happy).

After breakfast we headed to the park to make full use of the EMHs. Our first ride was Buzz Lightyears’s Laser Blast followed by Space Mountain. Since there weren’t more attractions open we walked to Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan and the Tea Cups. Around 9am we left DLP for Starbucks. After a cup of fresh coffee and a Soy Latte we headed to the Studios, because we wanted to ride Crush’s Coaster. There we got in line and after some minutes a CM told us that the ride wouldn’t open because of technical problems. So we decided to ride the Tower of Terror and the Rock’n’Rollercoaster instead. The CM’s at the ToT are so great, they are so creepy. RnRC was in a very good condition, the sound worked always very well and there was always a lot of fog in the attraction.

We returned to DLP to make some restaurant reservations at the City Hall. We also asked about Claudia’s special diet, but unfortunately no CM could help us. All advice they could offer was that we should directly ask at the restaurants for a special meal, and that the chefs would prepare something special. But they were not willing (or able) to contact the restaurants for us ahead of time, which would have been convenient – many foods in DLRP are pre-cooked, so if there is chicken stock in the rice, then probably the chef would have no time to cook extra rice for us in a short amount of time. At this point I really missed the guest service of WDW. So after riding it’s a small world we decided to have an early lunch at the Hakuna Matata restaurant, where we ordered fries, the vegetable rice and the green salad.

After lunch we strolled around Adventureland to ride PotC, one of our favourite attractions, and Indiana Jones. Most of the time PotC was a walk on attraction.

At 3:30 pm we had a reservation at Agrabah Café. We have already eaten there in 2008 and so we knew that there are many salads suitable for Claudia. The food was really good and we enjoyed our time there.

Before we left the park, it closed at 7pm, we rode Big Thunder Mountain and strolled through the shops, but the merchandise selection wasn’t better than outside in the DV.

King Ludwig’s Castle still had the happy hour. You get two beers for the price of one. Many people had the same idea so it wasn’t always easy to get a table.
For dinner we went to the Sports Bar. I had a Four Cheese Pizza and Claudia had Nachos with Salsa and French Fries.

Afterwards I bought some pins and we went back to the hotel, where we had a last drink before we went to bed.

[Dagobert]

Here are some pictures of our first day in the parks:





























More to come!

[Dagobert]

Early Lunch in the Hakuna Matata Restaurant:








Early dinner at the Agrabah Cafe: Buffet Service










King Ludwig's Castle:


Sports Bar:








More tomorow!

[PhilippeP]

Shops in DLP are currently reorganising, they would again (almost) only sell themed merchandise.Outside shop extensions should also dissapear in te reorganisation...

[GUYNYC]

the Park looks absolutely beautiful in the snow, thanks for the photos. I've never seen a Disney Park with real snow before. Beautiful.

Curious to know if Le Pays des Contes de Fees (Storybook Land) was open during your visit?

[Dagobert]

the Park looks absolutely beautiful in the snow, thanks for the photos. I've never seen a Disney Park with real snow before. Beautiful.

Curious to know if Le Pays des Contes de Fees (Storybook Land) was open during your visit?

The park is really beautiful in snow.

No, both rides, Casey Jr. and Les Pays des Contes de Fees, were closed.

[DLPfan1992]

The parks are empty!

[Dagobert]

The parks are empty!

I have taken many pictures during the Extra Magic Hours (8.00am to 10.00am), that's the reason why the park looks so empty. Afterwards the parks had a lot of visitors despite the cold weather. I didn't expect so many on Thursday and Friday.

On Saturday and Sunday both parks were very crowded.