Sgt. Tibs at DLP 05/04/09 - 10/04/09

[Sgt. Tibs]

Ok so here's my first real TR. hope you like it.

i'll state from the off that overall i had an amazing week, and i felt 'the magic' on more than one occasion (mainly provided by a place or a character), but there were a few negatives.

the main problem is obviously the cost. i'm not sure how much longer disney can keep up their pricing, but as someone pointed out offering discounts to brits on their hotel and ticket packages is not gonna cut it. i will state though that i never truly felt fleeced, over charged yes but never to the point where i couldn't justify it.

overall we spent £3500 on everything, that's 3 adults and 1 child staying at the sequoia lodge for 5 nights, eating a fast food lunch every day and three nights and eating at a restaurant two nights. we bought snacks and drinks when we wanted and didn't picnic or stock up on breakfast foods. we also spent a lot on merchandise, including an inordinate amount on pins! anyway, we only go once every two years so we enjoyed ourselves to the max and didn't scrimp at all.

now by no means can i afford this but it's worth credit card bill and i guess i have answered my own question as disney know people will pay beyond their means just to be there. in a way are they abusing people's love of walt and his magic?

moving on, CM's:

i would say 50% were very friendly, helpful people that truly enjoyed their jobs and went out of their way to ensure you were having a great time. the other half just seemed like people trying to get through their day. now i know what it's like to work in customer service, it's hard, but the disinterested CM's i came across just killed the buzz. i didn't encounter one properly rude CM but a lot of the service i received just felt forced.
now i am british and as a continent i know europe's customer service is way behind the US in terms of friendlyness but you would expect disney being a so proudly amercian company would try to ensure their european staff upheld these standards.

the hotel was awesome, i love that log cabin feel, but it felt a little beat up as did some of the park actually. i'm not sure how often the other parks get paint jobs etc but there were some obvious areas in DLRP that needed attention. do they do maintenance in the day in the US parks? cos they were painting the metal fences around the plaza in the open in the daytime. i thought they did all maintenance at night?

entertainment:

once upon a dream parade = good but old, time for a new one?

mickey's magical party = too HSMish and not a patch on Candleabration.

minnies character train = good but old

stars and cars = my first parade in WDS so a nice addition for me.

the park closing at 8 every night was a downer and no evening entertainment left a real hole in the day for me.

ok, i'll be back tomorrow with LOADS of pics and detailed accounts of my days in the parks :-)



- apologies for not putting 'photo heavy' in the original title by the way, there wasn't any then!

[PretzelSouls]

Nice TR!

[Sgt. Tibs]

ok so last sunday we got there late and there was no time to get to the park so we walked down to the lake and round to disney village for a browse and a McDonalds. the mickey picasso in the disney gallery is now my most wanted thing in the world!











monday was an early start for extra magic hours but not before a lovely 7:30 breakfast in hunters grill. all the staff were very friendly in the restaurant but if you ate after 8 it just turned in to a free for all, quite unorganised. there were two lines outside, one said 'on time' which i assumed was meant for people who had turned up for their alloted time slot and the other said 'all other times' which i again assumed was meant for people that had missed their slot but would take a chance on getting in. now here was the problem, the 'all other times' line was being served as fast, if not faster than the 'on time' line. if this is the practice then what is the need for two lines?



some photos of the hotel bar and lounge









so we hit the park, it started off damp but turned in to a gorgeous day









here is the requisite ride times board :-)





we hit buzz first, and walked straight on, good times.
then on to space mountain. it still wrecks me every time. i love how disney realises the importance of at least one hardcore ride.







time for a stroll and some castle pics









time flew while we were enjoying the almost empty park so we decided to move over to the edge of fantasyland for the adventureland rope drop at ten for Pirates :-)

extra magic hours rule!







so the CM drops the rope and every ones runs round the corner only to be met by another rope and CM's telling us there is a problem and they don't know how long it'll be til it opens, gutted.





so as second best we head over to indy, which was a lot better than i remember from 2 years ago and i totally forgot about the inversion!









45 euros for a hat but i had to get one.



ok onto frontierland for some haunt.. i mean phantom manor and BTM.







and then a spot of lunch at caseys corner



ok i'm gonna take a break, this is more work than i anticipated, respect to all you TR posters out there :-)

[luke7059]

Great pictures! I agree with your comments about the CMs too, the ones that are friendly and helpful are so great, really happy to help, but the apathetic ones just seem like they don't want to be anywhere near the park.

[Sgt. Tibs]

so we finished eating and waited for minnie's character train













and stuck around for mickeys magical party, none of us were very impressed, even the youngster amoung us, but i guess it was adequate just not 'magical' :-)





it was so riveting i took pictures of the flowers!



so we moved throught the castle...











...and on to small world, which seemed busy, but was only a 10 minute wait



















and then on the way to pirates we spotted some characters having fun.





and finally pirates which i rode 6 times altogether last week. easily the best ride ever!



















here are some experimental shots of the blue lagoon, not very accomplished :-)





oh some more pirates shots, we rode it a lot :-) it's hard not to though when you can walk on. lines in general were short all week, i think the longest was 20 mins for tower of terror and peter pan.









that's it for monday i think, all those pirates shots were from the whole week by the way, i could have got all those in one go! i was lucky one time because we were backed up by the treasure haul for about 10 mins one time :-)

[Sgt. Tibs]

ok, tuesday we hit WDS,



















i love these banners...





and the el cap of course





first up was ToT, my first ever time, and it was pretty good, i would prefer one big drop though rather than lots of little ones.









next up was crush's coaster which i didn't have much anticipation for but which was awesome! it totally renewed my enjoyment of the film too.













after crush's i did another ride for the first time, the aerosmith coaster, and again was surprised, it could almost challenge space mountain as the best coaster in the resort.

then we took in the HSM parade, and although i'm not a fan of the franchise the performers were all really good and deserved a lot more applause than they got!





also enjoyed the very good themeing of the Cars area





then we headed back to the lodge for an afternoon rest and on the way spotted a couple of things i'm not sure i liked

1) not sure i like this awesome picture of walt being obscured by merchandise...



and 2) surely this should be cleaned ASAP? i saw this on tuesday and it was still there friday morning.

[mister_peterman]

Great report so far! It's making me really want to get back there. Must make time around the middle of the year to get there for a few days.

And I totally agree with you about the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster. Absolutely love that ride!

[Sgt. Tibs]

oh yeah, tuesday morning we had breakfast at cafe mickey and met the mouse himself, i went slightly quivery :-)

we also got time with prince john, goofy, chip and dale, and got physically abused by friar tuck who was in a very rambunctious mood :-)

back to the evening we headed back to the park..





through my favourite spot in the park...



to eat at the silver spur steakhouse. all in all it comes down to the CM's again, the place was amazing the food delicious and the service....bleh.

there is only one veggie option on the menu and when our veggie companion requested it they were told it was not available, and that the menus were being changed the next day (i'd love to know if this happened, it was the cheese ravioli if anyone checks :-) it took a trip to the kitchen to get the chef to 'specially make one'. from then on it felt like the waiter hated us. still, we had a good time and here are some pics.







requisite bathroom shots :-)











then we hit pinocchio, peter pan and pirates before park closing.

















wednesday on the way!

[mister_peterman]

How was breakfast at Cafe Mickey's? I had a lovely birthday dinner there... which was very expensive but was a great evening... might have to try breakfast.

[PhantomBoy]

I like pinncho ride lol

[Malin]

once upon a dream parade = good but old, time for a new one?

That parade is only two years old

[Sgt. Tibs]

yeah cafe mickeys was good, basically a disney hotel breakfast with the cooked options included as part of the price, oh yeah nutella donuts aswell, awesome!

ok wednesday,
spent the morning in discovery land doing buzz again, top score of 382200! ok i admit it the ride stopped :-)
and then SM again followed by star tours and some cartoons in videopolis. seeing steamboat willie on a big screen was sweet. in the cartman sense :-)
we also saw a bit of stitch's new 'dj' thing outside star tours which was ok but not great.







plaza gardens under wraps. this was the biggest project going on in the park while we were there but some walls are coming soon for all those wall fans out there :-)



































after the awesomeness of stitch we headed over to fantasyland for storybook land but were met by this



it was closed on thursday too but luckily we caught it on friday :-)

after this setback we decided to do fantsayland to frontierland on the train and then a trip on the molly brown, it was at this point my camera died.







later after a retool and refresh we headed back in to the park for the parade. solid entertainment as usual but surely a new one is due right? how long do parades usually last at DLP?
the main thing of note was the absense of the beast?!









we then hopped from our vantage point on to the first train to fantasyland for the quick walk to some more pirates...





we then scooted over to WDS for stars and cars which i enjoyed and have a video of, which i will probably post later.

oh yeah, here are some more walls, this time in adventureland, and various other things.





amazing ceiling in the emporium







mickey waving goodbye to us at the end of the day, lovely touch :-)

[Sgt. Tibs]

parades last longer than 2 years usually then? wasn't sure.

luckily wednesday was our only wet day with the exception of the first part of tuesday morning. the rest of the time was lovely.

ok thursday up next!

[PhantomBoy]

May i ask what is going on inside the green walls does anyone know?

[DLRP_bopazot]

Originally Posted by PhantomBoy

May i ask what is going on inside the green walls does anyone know?

A New scene for a Show or Working on the Floor .