DLP first timer's experience

B3rlingirl

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 12, 2018
I finally got the time to report back from my recent trip to DLP!

That visit was my very first one to DLP despite the fact that it is way easier to reach and also a way cheaper trip for me than to the "real" DL in California. But my family and I just didn't think DLP was worth it and just saved a little longer to afford DL. Since starting my research last spring for our last summer trip to DL I got a little obsessed with Disneyparks and found like minded people her on the DIS board... Long story short I just didn't want to wait till the end of the year to go to DL and squeezed in a short DLP trip (4 park days) just to try it out. I tried to get the cheapest possible hotel rate and flight rates sometime in august or september, so I ended up with the dates: Aug.18th to Aug 21st. I booked the first flight to Paris CDG and the last one out to maximise our park time... ( who needs sleep on a disney vacation?)

I wanted to write down some of the things I think are noteworthy I experienced in DLP as a first timer with only DL knowledge... I hope that it might help some others...Of course my opinions are pretty subjective...

Transport from CDG
I wanted the fasted way of transport and after checking some alternatives it also wasn't that much more expensive if at all. So I booked the TGV. The only problem I encountered was getting the physical tickets. I booked online but the booking page didn't let me print them or do e-tickets ( something which was broadly advertised actually) so I had to go to the ticket machine at the TGV station at CDG. You need your booking number and credit card along the pin code of the card in order to print them... (Silly me.. I mixed up my numbers and was close to tears after my second try of the pin code didn't work... but I luckily got it right on my final try and we got our tickets...) but apart from that it was really easy ( you can change the language of the ticket machine so you understand what you are supposed to do). We only had carry one luggage so it wasn't a problem for us, but there really isn't much space to store normal luggage in the TGV. I really don't know how this works if you go on a big vacation with the TGV... (There is way more space for luggage available in the German ICEs..)


Check-in/check-out
To maximise our park time and to save some steps I booked the Disney express luggage service. It worked perfectly. We arrived at about 10 am and didn't have to wait at all. We got our MagicPasses and gave them our bags and off to Disneyland Parc we went... We retrieved our bags and checked into our hotel just about midnight (again with no wait). On our departure day we simply brought our bags back to the luggage room ( a little wait of about 1-2 min this time) and asked at the reception about check out but were told we didn't have to do anything so off again we went to enjoy the parks... I am always a little anxious about traveling because I always fear to miss a train or flight. So I went to retrieve our bags at the station about an hour before our train was scheduled. I was a bit shocked about how crowded the area in front of the Express counter was and thought that was the reason the hotel said to retrieve the bags at least 40 min prior to the train departure... but no.. this was only the queue for the Eurostar check in ( I think) so I just had to squeeze myself through to the counter and got the bags without any problems or much of a wait.


Hotel
I wanted to stay onsite because it has always been a dream of mine to stay in a Disney hotel (and it just isn't worth it to me in DL) and because I tried for a "cheap" trip I stayed at the Santa Fe. I really liked it! I definitely felt the disney bubble and really enjoyed it! ( I probably won't stay off site at DLP if I don't have a very good reason for it) I had some trouble finding our room at first because I somehow was confused abut the floor numbers and thought they would count them like in America for example( yes Germans and French count them alike but after being awake for 19 hours one might get confused nonetheless)... but after some up and down rides with the elevator we found our room. We got a room with a great view overlooking the river towards the Hotel cheyenne. When I booked and got the choice between river side and central I hoped river side would mean a shorter walk to the parks and it did and it was very quiet as well.
Because we booked a little late I could't get a half-board offer but got a 200€ gift card instead (which was actually a better deal for us in the end) I can't say anything about breakfast at the hotel. But I was very happy that we got one hot drink a day per person for free with our magicPasses, which was great because my mom needs some coffee in the morning to function and that way we didn't loose to much time and didn't have to spend any money. We were lucky enough to have the coffee machine right in our building so we didn't have to walk far and I brought some french rolls from home for breakfast, so we were able to have a very cheap and quick breakfast in our room.


Entertainment
Jungle book Jive:
I love the jungle book jive! It was pretty easy to get good spots with minimal wait (at least if you wanna watch the stages from the middle of the hub because there is some shuffeling around when the floats arrive in the begging so you can secure your desired spot with a little of luck... the curb spots were all taken pretty early though... My favourite spot was between the two left stages facing towards the castle. (mainly donald+Daiys and chip on that stage.. but also goofy, dale and mickey and minnie visited that stage and some drummers and dancers). I watched the show 4 times from 3 different locations and liked that one best because I love donald and chip'n Dale. If you wanna watch the show you should be somewhere on the hub or around it and not on mainstreet.. (the floats only drive by there and all the action is on the stages at the hub and on the street around them...But there really isn't that "one" perfect spot for everyone so you might wanna try different spots to be able to see more different things.

Rhythms of the pride land:
Great show... but we had to wait almost 2h for it... one hour prior to the show the official queue area opens but well before that a long queue forms in front of it (without any guidelines) it even reached past the FP entrance from BTM and this caused quite some chaos in that area as people wanted to get in the queue for the Meet and greet with jessy or go to the frontierland playground. There was no CM managing the queue at all... this isn't really though through in my opinion... I liked the show but I probably wouldn't wanna wait 2h for it again... (oh, and no food in the theatre)

Disney Illuminations:
I also loved the Disney Illumination show! I was actually really amazed by it. I didn't really had high or any expectations but it was simply amazing! It isn't a real fireworks show because it only has low fireworks around the castle. For me it was a great mix between a fireworks show and WOC... and I can't decide if F! or Disney Illuminations is my favourite night time show at the moment... ( I liked it more than WOC because I couldn't really enjoy my WOC viewings because my feet hurt so much from standing around for such a long time...) I can't compare it to a real fireworks show because it really isn't a real fireworks show but it is a great night time show nonetheless... I wouldn't be sad if something similar would come to DL for the non-firework nights instead of Micke's Mix Magic... You should definitely try to find a spot where you can see most of the castle. Especially the lower part because that's where the main focus of the projections is... A great plus is that you are allowed to sit on the ground as long as you want or dare to risk...

But the show has one a big problem in my opinion... there really isn't any "traffic control" by CMs and no walkways across the hub or any easy way out of the crowd if you wanna leave early and are in the middle of it. If you are somewhere in adventureland or frontierland you can probably take the covered walkway back to the entrance but I didn't check on that. I tried to leave frontierland through the regular entrance and was met by a completely filled hub. I really thought there would be some kind of a walk way ( if only for safety reasons) but after squeezing myself past 1-2 rows of people I gave up. It was really packed and during the show I saw one security CM shoving his way through the crowds followed by a family (might have ben some kind of "emergency") and shortly after another family tried to escape the packed space but they really had to fight and push everyone relentlessly to the sides in order to move...
It got even worse after the "fireworks final"... they turned on the lights (but the illumitanion show still wasn't over yet) so one part of the crowd stayed in place to watch the end, another part tried to exit through the frontiereland exit located behind me (the covered walkway I guess) and others tried to leave through mainstreet so pushed their way forward. I was shoved around quite a bit (which luckily wans't a big deal for me..) but right in front of me a little kid was squeezed between her/his mothers legs and no one payed attention and gave any room. It was luck that it wasn't pushed to the ground...a couple of steps away (I let myself go with the flow towards the hub) a girl looked pretty claustrophobic surrounded by all the crowds. At least she was a little covered by her friend and a stroller in front of her.. But that situation was really dangerous in my opinion and I was really shocked of the lack of traffic control... In DL things can get quite chaotic as well after F! and the fireworks before the 2nd F! show if people doesn't follow the order by the CM but they do try their best and it works pretty good in general in my experience but not at DLP! So stay away from the hub if you wanna exit the parks between 10:30 pm and 11:30 pm ( for a 11pm showing of illumination) if the park is crowded during the day...might be better during the offseason... and try to be on the hub and not close to the frontierland entrance while viewing....
Traffic control during the day during the jungle jive and the parade is pretty good though...not much different than at DL...


Attractions
I really liked them! They are just as great as the ones in DL... I was especially amazed by HSM! I think that one is my new favourite coaster for now. I expected something similar to Space mountain in DL so I was totally surprised by the DLP version of HSM. I didn't really liked crush coaster though. It was a good ride but not worth the hype in my opinion. The ride doesn't really justify the wait in my opinion. But I also don't understand why anyone would wait 2h for BTM ( I love BTM but would never wait 2h for it in a queue)...I really liked riding the tower of terror again, but I think I prefer the GOG version in DL ( it is a bit less scary in my opinion...). Phantom manor was great as well. With pretty much al of my favourite elements from the HM in DL... It was really nice to have a different story but still a similar ride experience...


Food
After doing the research for the trip I didn't expect much of the food. But I was pleasantly surprised! I really liked the food I ordered! Yes, they lack some snack options but the QS food I choose was pretty good. (fish and chips at toads, Lions favourite feast at Hakuna matata ( my favourite actually) and the Fajitas at the Fuente del Oro ( though the rice was a bit to spicy for my liking... the churros made up for it though... not as great as the real ones at DL but better than no churros....)
But queueing takes for ever for food...no matter if it is a QS or a food cart... if there are a couple of people waiting in front of you be ready to wait... it took me over 20 min to get popcorn from a cart with just about 5 families ahead of me...

Language
I honestly had some problems communicating with some CMs... (yes, english isn't my first language but I don't usually have trouble with listening comprehension ( I watch englisch movies, and listen to audio books) and my pronunciation shouldn't be to bad either...)

I wanted to ride with the horse drawn street car from the hub to the park entrance, but the CM told me it would be only one way transportation from the park entrance to the hub and sent me back there to board the car. I asked about the stop of another street car at the hub and if I could ride that one to the entrance ( I thought it might be that the horses shouldn't pull a full car back and forth in DLP maybe) but she said no...just one way from the entrance to the hub... So we walked back to the entrance and boarded there with no problems. As we arrived at the hub some passengers were allowed to stay seated and ride back to the entrance. When I kept watching the horse drawn street car another couple (looked asian so probably not french speaking either) wanted to board and was denied as well and pointed to the park entrance. A couple of minutes later though, another couple was allowed to board the street car to ride back to the entrance without much of a conversation... So either the CM simply didn't like us (unlikely hopefully) or there was some problem with the english language. Even though the CM explicitly asked which language she could talk to us, I didn't had the feeling she was really fluent in english... but if that's the case, I don't understand why there aren't standard sentences for the CM to explain the procedure in easy words... By the way a couple of minutes later another streetcar arrived and others boarded the car without any problems at the hub to get back to the entrance...also the double decker driving later that day took pessangers from the hub to the entrance...

Another time we wanted to order QS lunch at the hakuna matata... and we tried to order menue 4 twice for me and my mother. But the CM misunderstood me and thought I wanted to order it 5 times... and even when I tried to explain to him that I wanted just 2 meals, he insisted I said I wanted to get 5 meals and he didn't understand why we wouldn't want to order 5 meals... It took us a couple of minutes to clear the situation up. Actually another CM ( the one handing out the food from the next counter) passing by helped us and explained to his colleague the mistake in french (not before having a great laugh about him though). All 3 of us (my mother, the colleague and me) tried to explain the situation to the poor CM but I don't think the CM understood what we meant, but in the end he let us order just our 2 meals...( weird and kind of fun experience actually because even if I said I wanted 5 meals if I change my mind and just want to order 2 it shouldn't be a problem before paying for it...).

Another time we tried to pay something from a food cart with a credit card (visa). We asked if it was possible and the CM said "yes". so my mom put the card into the reader and the CM just repeated the word "code" (at least that was what it sounded like) over and over again. We weren't quite sure what to do because the card reader was on top of the counter and was hardly readable for small persons, so we asked if we should enter the pin code from the credit card ( we payed with the visa card earlier that trip at a food card without code or signature) but the CM just repeated "code, code, code" actually not really all that friendly anymore... so my mom put in the code but it didn't work...then the CM told us it wouldn't work because it wasn't a debit card like we should have known beforehand. We did asked the CM, so that encounter was a little weird...we actually didn't try it again with our credit card after that...

Also not all announcements were made in french and english, so we missed out on some announcements in in the queue area. Again I don't understand why there aren't more pre-made announcements. Announcements made "live" are often hard to understand no matter the language so why not make the live of CM (and guests) easier and record them ahead of time so they just have to choose the right one..


All in all I really loved DLP and really enjoyed the trip and look forward to come back to DLP!
It is not a complete replacement of a DL trip for me (yet?) because the snack and food selection is something I love about DL, but it is great for a short trip to experience Disney magic.

wow, that one got quite long, longer than I expected. I tried to be brief but I guess it got a little out of hand...even though I probably still forgot some stuff, but I guess I got the things most important to me...
 
I think that the Walt Disney Company taking over has already improved the selections of snacks. Now that we almost always have some kind of festival going on, that comes with speciality snacks.
But yeah, the queues at some food places... I really don't get it.

Great to hear you had a good time and a place to get a quick Disney fix inbetween the big trips. :)
 
Hii @B3rlingirl and thanks for your detailed trip report!

Regarding the horse-drawn street car, I would confirm you can ride it from Town Square to the Castle, or the opposite. Cast members are trained to warn guest this is a one-way, part of the confusion is that sometimes the guest chose to walk rather than ride.

It's unfortunate that some cast members you have been speaking with did were not able to interact in english. Being a native French speaker, this is not a problem I encounter a lot, however I am always confused when I see cast members trying to find their words in english only to confess a few minutes later that they don't really know about english, nor do they seem interested into learning. Huh, why?
 
Hii @B3rlingirl and thanks for your detailed trip report!

Regarding the horse-drawn street car, I would confirm you can ride it from Town Square to the Castle, or the opposite. Cast members are trained to warn guest this is a one-way, part of the confusion is that sometimes the guest chose to walk rather than ride.

It's unfortunate that some cast members you have been speaking with did were not able to interact in english. Being a native French speaker, this is not a problem I encounter a lot, however I am always confused when I see cast members trying to find their words in english only to confess a few minutes later that they don't really know about english, nor do they seem interested into learning. Huh, why?
Most of the interactions with CMs worked very well! Those I mentioned were really an exception... I think Disney could do a better job in helping those CM...
Especially on rides... at POTC for example quite a few did flash pictures... why not have a scull of whatever like in DL tell them not to or at least have some announcements ready...

But I am confident that will get better... they kind of have to improve I guess if they wanna attract more people from outside France which should be the goal...
 


Most of the interactions with CMs worked very well! Those I mentioned were really an exception... I think Disney could do a better job in helping those CM...
Especially on rides... at POTC for example quite a few did flash pictures... why not have a scull of whatever like in DL tell them not to or at least have some announcements ready...

But I am confident that will get better... they kind of have to improve I guess if they wanna attract more people from outside France which should be the goal...

You are correct the flash pictures can be an issue, especially for people with disabilities triggered by light.

They sometimes announce it on the POTC line but not always. I agree I prefer the spiel at DLR, clear and loud.
 
We were there Aug 20.-22.

I finally got the time to report back from my recent trip to DLP!

...so I ended up with the dates: Aug.18th to Aug 21st.

Rhythms of the pride land:
Great show... but we had to wait almost 2h for it... one hour prior to the show the official queue area opens but well before that a long queue forms in front of it (without any guidelines) it even reached past the FP entrance from BTM and this caused quite some chaos in that area as people wanted to get in the queue for the Meet and greet with jessy or go to the frontierland playground. There was no CM managing the queue at all... this isn't really though through in my opinion... I liked the show but I probably wouldn't wanna wait 2h for it again... (oh, and no food in the theatre)

I agree with the way the queue was handled. It was fine once we understood the show time that we were queuing for, but it would have been much better had there been just one CM managing the end of the queue, and helping guests understand that, so they could make informed decision as they entered the line.


Disney Illuminations:

But the show has one a big problem in my opinion... there really isn't any "traffic control" by CMs and no walkways across the hub or any easy way out of the crowd if you wanna leave early and are in the middle of it. If you are somewhere in adventureland or frontierland you can probably take the covered walkway back to the entrance but I didn't check on that. I tried to leave frontierland through the regular entrance and was met by a completely filled hub. I really thought there would be some kind of a walk way ( if only for safety reasons) but after squeezing myself past 1-2 rows of people I gave up. It was really packed and during the show I saw one security CM shoving his way through the crowds followed by a family (might have ben some kind of "emergency") and shortly after another family tried to escape the packed space but they really had to fight and push everyone relentlessly to the sides in order to move...
So stay away from the hub if you wanna exit the parks between 10:30 pm and 11:30 pm ( for a 11pm showing of illumination) if the park is crowded during the day...might be better during the offseason... and try to be on the hub and not close to the frontierland entrance while viewing....
Traffic control during the day during the jungle jive and the parade is pretty good though...not much different than at DL...

On Aug 20 we rode BTM after 10 PM ("only" a 35 min wait), and we were exiting through the hub just after 11 PM, right after the show started. We learned the next day that there is a walkway between Frontierland and Main Street that avoids the hub entirely that is accessed from the Frontierland side by going under the "Thunder Mesa" sign. It made for a quick walk to Casey's after we learned about it. We wished we had known about it and had tried to use it when we were exiting on Aug 20.

We also liked the "arcade" behind the shops on both side of Mains Street, as it makes for a easy passage parallel to Main Street without walking on it, which is a good option at the end of the night or during a parade, etc.
 
We learned the next day that there is a walkway between Frontierland and Main Street that avoids the hub entirely that is accessed from the Frontierland side by going under the "Thunder Mesa" sign.

Loved that path! The imagineers were thinking it would be raining too much in Paris, and guests would need covered pathways.

It used to go all the way up to Fantasyland, it's sad that now, there is a designated smoking area and a photolocation that blocks it between Adventureland and Fantasyland.
 



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