When you arrive at the parks, Disney's crack security staff will ask you to open any purses or backpacks so they can feign a check for contraband. On multiple occasions, they didn't even check my backpack, which was dangling from our youngest's stroller. I had stuffed a fleece jacket in there and could have hidden another child under it with virtually no chance of being detected.
If you're some kind of terrorist, ignore this post: I'm setting you up to get busted by the Mouse Patrol.
Otherwise, take this into consideration if you think about taking food etc. into the parks.
Sunday 3 June 2007
Where's your bracelet tough guy?
Another benefit of staying at a Disney hotel is that there are certain days that the park stays open later only for these guests. Since the park wasn't particularly crowded during our stay and because our kids are young, these last 2 hours from 19:00-21:00 on Wednesday didn't make much of a difference for us. I'm assuming that when the park is really crowded these extended hours could be a big benefit.
If you stay at a Disney hotel, ask them what day has the extension. At 17:00 on that day you'll get in a quick line at the park for bracelets for everyone in your party. We noticed that they weren't tightly controlling distribution. I think it would be easy to get a couple of extra bracelets if you needed them.
If you stay at a Disney hotel, ask them what day has the extension. At 17:00 on that day you'll get in a quick line at the park for bracelets for everyone in your party. We noticed that they weren't tightly controlling distribution. I think it would be easy to get a couple of extra bracelets if you needed them.
Saturday 2 June 2007
My wife the (Disney) supercomputer
My wife planned this trip exceptionally well. During college, she worked at Disney World for a summer. The chip they implanted in her melon still works like a charm, if at a subconcious level. Without her (or with me in charge), we would have probably waited 4 days just to ride the first attraction.
5 cheers (from Sandra, Robert, Emily, Sophia and me) for my wife B!
5 cheers (from Sandra, Robert, Emily, Sophia and me) for my wife B!
Things we didn't do so well...
This post will describe things I wish we'd done differently. Another post describes the good decisions we made.
It's a bummer that we...
didn't take more food with us.
Food around the park is expensive and not all that great (in our experience). We were dead tired at night and would have eaten even simple food if we'd taken it.
didn't buy an adapter for our cooler.
My wife bought a cooler that plugs into the car lighter and acts like a refrigerator. If we'd bought the wall plug, we would have had a fridge in our room.
wasted an hour taking a picture with Minnie at the entrance of Disney Studios
We should have said "no" immediately when our daughter wanted to take a picture. I don't think she would have cared much and we wouldn't have wasted so much time.
waited 45 minutes to Ride Big Thunder Mountain
When we could have used Fast Pass and waited 10 minutes like we did on subsequent rides on this attraction.
didn't have much lower expectations of our hotel
the Sante Fe really annoyed me. It didn't seem to bother the rest of the family that much though.
It's a bummer that we...
didn't take more food with us.
Food around the park is expensive and not all that great (in our experience). We were dead tired at night and would have eaten even simple food if we'd taken it.
didn't buy an adapter for our cooler.
My wife bought a cooler that plugs into the car lighter and acts like a refrigerator. If we'd bought the wall plug, we would have had a fridge in our room.
wasted an hour taking a picture with Minnie at the entrance of Disney Studios
We should have said "no" immediately when our daughter wanted to take a picture. I don't think she would have cared much and we wouldn't have wasted so much time.
waited 45 minutes to Ride Big Thunder Mountain
When we could have used Fast Pass and waited 10 minutes like we did on subsequent rides on this attraction.
didn't have much lower expectations of our hotel
the Sante Fe really annoyed me. It didn't seem to bother the rest of the family that much though.
Things we did well...
In this post I'll try to highlight things we did that improved our trip. In another, I'll list things we could have done better.
I'm glad we...
stayed at a Disney Hotel
Even though I thought the Sante Fe was a dump, we were close to the parks and had a very convenient shuttle. We didn't use our van the whole week.
used the Fast Pass System
As I described in a separate post, using this system well can make a huge difference in your Eurodisney experience.
saw the shows
They're pretty good and much, much longer than most of the rides.
didn't let a little rain slow us down.
The rain ended up working in our favor, keeping it cool and keeping plenty of folks at home or the hotel
took a laptop
I took tons of digital photos and needed someplace to upload pictures. BTW, the Sante Fe had no internet connection except some really bad kiosks.
drove
The drive from Heidelberg to Paris is relaxing and beautiful, passing through one of Germany's wine regions and Champagne on the French side. We hardly heard a peep from the kids thanks to their exhaustion and the entertainment system in the van.
I'm glad we...
stayed at a Disney Hotel
Even though I thought the Sante Fe was a dump, we were close to the parks and had a very convenient shuttle. We didn't use our van the whole week.
used the Fast Pass System
As I described in a separate post, using this system well can make a huge difference in your Eurodisney experience.
saw the shows
They're pretty good and much, much longer than most of the rides.
didn't let a little rain slow us down.
The rain ended up working in our favor, keeping it cool and keeping plenty of folks at home or the hotel
took a laptop
I took tons of digital photos and needed someplace to upload pictures. BTW, the Sante Fe had no internet connection except some really bad kiosks.
drove
The drive from Heidelberg to Paris is relaxing and beautiful, passing through one of Germany's wine regions and Champagne on the French side. We hardly heard a peep from the kids thanks to their exhaustion and the entertainment system in the van.
Friday 1 June 2007
Eating in The Magic Kingdom...
This post is essentially a partially-informed rant about the absurd cost and questionable quality of food we encountered on our trip. Feel free to skip it if you don't like negativity.
Eating at Disneyland Paris proved to be tricky for us. Since there were six of us, this was one area where we tried to economize. In our experience, there are two types of eateries at Disney: 1) rediculously overpriced garbage 2) outragiously overpriced "other" places.
Now we all expect to pay an "amusement tax" when we eat at a place like Disneyland. What I didn't expect from Disney was to pay an absurd quantity of money for the type of food prison riots are made of. On our first day, we had hamburgers for lunch at a place called "Au Chalet de la Marionnette". The meat on the kids' hamburgers was literally the size of a silver dollar. The buns were soggy and the fries were a grease-laden disaster. I probably wouldn't have thought twice about paying twice the market rate for food if it had been decent. No such luck.
Near the entrance of the park, we found a nice sitedown type joint that charged about 20 Euros per child, 50 Euros per adult. That's would have put the total for us at around $270 for a single (probably average) meal. Puh-lease... While this is obviously a luxury, the point is that the options we found at the park seemed extreme.
If you don't want to eat inside the parks, you can go to Disney Village across the "street", which has a few chain restaurants including Rainforest Café and Planet Hollywood. A plate of pasta at Rainforest was going for over 20 Euros. I'm guessing that a meal for the six of us would have run about 150 Euros. While some of you are probably saying "Quit whining! You're on vacation!", I still think it's abusive. Just one man's (strong) opinion.
We ended up having lunch the other days at McDonald's in Disney Village (it's kind of hidden -- turn right just before Rainforest). At least you know what you're getting. For dinner, we had sandwiches from the Exxon (Esso) station next to our hotel. They were actually pretty good.
I realize I sound like a cheap old fart, but if I had to do it again I would take plenty of food with us. As an amusing aside, we saw many people shoveling bread and sandwich meat into plastic containers at breakfast. We then saw these same people eating lunch on the cheap inside the park! Not such a bad idea! Here's to sticking it to "The Mouse".
In the spirit of ending on a positive note, the last day we ate at Cowboy Cookout Barbecue in Frontierland. It was decent food at a price you would expect from an amusement park (about 50 Euros for the six of us). There was also a live bluegrass band.
Eating at Disneyland Paris proved to be tricky for us. Since there were six of us, this was one area where we tried to economize. In our experience, there are two types of eateries at Disney: 1) rediculously overpriced garbage 2) outragiously overpriced "other" places.
Now we all expect to pay an "amusement tax" when we eat at a place like Disneyland. What I didn't expect from Disney was to pay an absurd quantity of money for the type of food prison riots are made of. On our first day, we had hamburgers for lunch at a place called "Au Chalet de la Marionnette". The meat on the kids' hamburgers was literally the size of a silver dollar. The buns were soggy and the fries were a grease-laden disaster. I probably wouldn't have thought twice about paying twice the market rate for food if it had been decent. No such luck.
Near the entrance of the park, we found a nice sitedown type joint that charged about 20 Euros per child, 50 Euros per adult. That's would have put the total for us at around $270 for a single (probably average) meal. Puh-lease... While this is obviously a luxury, the point is that the options we found at the park seemed extreme.
If you don't want to eat inside the parks, you can go to Disney Village across the "street", which has a few chain restaurants including Rainforest Café and Planet Hollywood. A plate of pasta at Rainforest was going for over 20 Euros. I'm guessing that a meal for the six of us would have run about 150 Euros. While some of you are probably saying "Quit whining! You're on vacation!", I still think it's abusive. Just one man's (strong) opinion.
We ended up having lunch the other days at McDonald's in Disney Village (it's kind of hidden -- turn right just before Rainforest). At least you know what you're getting. For dinner, we had sandwiches from the Exxon (Esso) station next to our hotel. They were actually pretty good.
I realize I sound like a cheap old fart, but if I had to do it again I would take plenty of food with us. As an amusing aside, we saw many people shoveling bread and sandwich meat into plastic containers at breakfast. We then saw these same people eating lunch on the cheap inside the park! Not such a bad idea! Here's to sticking it to "The Mouse".
In the spirit of ending on a positive note, the last day we ate at Cowboy Cookout Barbecue in Frontierland. It was decent food at a price you would expect from an amusement park (about 50 Euros for the six of us). There was also a live bluegrass band.
Most disappointing rides
Here's another (subjective) list of rides that for a variety of reasons didn't impress me much. The upshot is that if you don't have much time, you might consider other rides before these.
Buzz Lightyear
This interactive ride is surprisingly low tech on the inside. It looked cool on the video but turned out to be a bit of a yawner in my opinion.
Art of Disney Animation
This supposed "behind the scenes" attraction was really, really weak in my opinion. A shame given the typically long lines. We happened upon a fairly short line so, not knowing any better, entered. A good part of the show was spoken in French (although translation into various languages was available on headsets).
Spinning "Up and Down" rides, e.g., Dumbo
These rides essentially go round and round, allowing you to go up and down a bit as you "orbit". I must admit that my daughter loved the "Aladdin" variant. Low throughput is my biggest complaint with these rides. As very few people fit on it each time, we saw some of the longest lines at the park for these rides. The lines also seemed to move the slowest, all for a minute and a half or so of mediocre"thrills".
Buzz Lightyear
This interactive ride is surprisingly low tech on the inside. It looked cool on the video but turned out to be a bit of a yawner in my opinion.
Art of Disney Animation
This supposed "behind the scenes" attraction was really, really weak in my opinion. A shame given the typically long lines. We happened upon a fairly short line so, not knowing any better, entered. A good part of the show was spoken in French (although translation into various languages was available on headsets).
Spinning "Up and Down" rides, e.g., Dumbo
These rides essentially go round and round, allowing you to go up and down a bit as you "orbit". I must admit that my daughter loved the "Aladdin" variant. Low throughput is my biggest complaint with these rides. As very few people fit on it each time, we saw some of the longest lines at the park for these rides. The lines also seemed to move the slowest, all for a minute and a half or so of mediocre"thrills".
Aladdin Ride
Dumbo ride.
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