Jonjo
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2008
Here are our traditional highs and lows from our DLP trip between Saturday 30 May to Friday 5 June.
This was a mixed trip combing the last 2 days of Swing into Spring and the first week of the Frozen Summer Fun seasons.
Our original plan was to stay in the ibis in Val d’Europe for the weekend before moving to the Sequoia Lodge on the Monday morning, but all these plans fell apart when I received a last minute invitation to the VIP / Press preview of the Frozen Summer Fun season. – I think one of the original bloggers / podcasters they invited could not make it so I was invited to attend as Corporate Communication knew I was in the resort that weekend anyway.
HIGHS - [Frozen Summer Fun - Press event]
Great attending the VIP launch of the Frozen Summer Fun season – the Frozen Sing Along show is great and after show Party was fun where Duffy and I met some VIP’s, other bloggers and Disney executive. Many cocktails were being handed out and everyone was having a fun time, but I think most people were wanting to have their photo taken with Duffy bear than talk shop. It’s quite difficult to have a serious conversation with Disney executives about the DLP recapitalisation, the on-going CIMA legal action against the AMF and the increased TWDC ownership of the resort when holding a Duffy in one hand and a cocktail in the other.
Great meal in the Silver Spur Steakhouse after the VIP party with the rest of the fan press with a few Disney characters popping by our table to say hi.
Special VIP area for us to see Dreams!
Chatting with all the other fan press guys in the Hotel New York bar into to the weeeeee small hours of the morning.
[Rest of the trip]
HIGHS
Great fun at the Mother’s Day Sunday Brunch at Inventions– met some very rare characters and met some people on Twitter I have been following for a while, so it was great to put some faces and real names to twitter nick-names.
We did the taster menu at the California Grill one evening - 5 courses spread over 8 dishes, it was a lovely meal and we got to meet the chief afterwards to thank him.
One afternoon we had dinner in Walt’s with a window table so we got to watch the parade pass by below.
Swing into Spring - I enjoyed this. It's nice to see the hub full of dancers and the Castle Stage being used for a show. But Goofy really should not run around with garden shears it's dangerous! (Haver booked again to go early next May to experiance Swing into Spring again before it goes on hiatus during the 25th anniversary celebrations in 2017).
Hot!, it was sooooo hot last week! Up to 33c far too hot for us! So plenty of drinks and ice creams were needed to keep us cool
The Sequoia Lodge hotel is great, and highly recommend booking the Golden Forest rooms for the GF Lounge!
Quite a few people were following our adventures around the park with Duffy and ShellieMay on Facebook and Twitter and came up to us say hi which was nice. It’s always great to know that people do actually read my blog and FB and twitter posts and we met many other fans from all around Europe.
Shopping - I bought far too many nice things, and saw quite a few more to buy on my next trip.
I had a great time at BBWWS but Sharon did not – see Lows for that one…..
Doing 12 rides / atractions in under 2 hours 30 mins one evening after the parade when everyone left the park at 6pm.
Frozen Sing Along - It's great to see The Chaparral Theater back in use. It's a good sing along show that will appeal to all the fans of the movie.
Arendelle has been transfer to the Cottonwood Creek Ranch quite well. When I first heard it was going there I thought it would not work, but the shop, concession stand, photo location point and themeing works very well in the area. It was nice to see this area brought back into life.
LOWS
Not being able to bring Sharon into the VIP / Press stuff, it was quite hard saying goodbye at the entrance rope and knowing she was not allowed in, but she did some retail therapy to cheer herself up during my absence.
The Walt Disney Travel Company messed up my booking! I booked a Lake View Room at the Sequoia Lodge but they had requested a Lake Side room. The Sequoia Lodge hotel was full on check-in and they could not move us, but the CM at the Golden Forest check bent over backwards to try to get us a lake view room later in the week. We were offered a suite for one night and she even offered to move us back to the Hotel New York, and when a lake view room became availble she let us know. But we were settled in our room by then, had unpacked and were only sleeping in it – so they gave us two VIP FastPass tickets which came in very handy for the rest of our stay.
BBWWS – I had great fun, my meal turned up with everyone elses who was watching the show and I received plenty of re-fills of beer too. But Sharon had ordered the vegetarian option for a change. Her meal arrived just as the show was ending, and she eat her dessert in the empty arena. The manager came over to apologise and the next day a bottle of champagne appeared in our room as an apology.
SMOKING – Yes the age old problem of smoking raised its ugly head. We were in the queue corral of Stitch Live! in WDS and two guests light up cigarettes outside the queuing area blowing their cigarette smoke into the corral area. I politely asked them to step away from the queue area but they refused. I was worried as there was a Spanish family in the queuing area standing next to us whose daughter was in a wheelchair and on oxygen. So Sharon went over to the CMs at the entrance of the show and explained the situation – and they refused to do anything. The CMs attitude as that as they were smoking outside the queue area and so it was not their problem. So we logged an official complaint at WDS Guest Services, the CM there told us guests can smoke anywhere in the park except inside buildings or queuing areas.
But the thing was two days earlier I saw the same thing happen near the Tea Cups ride in Fantasyland and two CMs descend upon the smoker, gave him a map and told him to go over to the smoking area. It’s like there are two rules in place which is confusing for guests, smokers, and CM’s alike.
BTM - It had a lot of break downs last week. Some days I think it ran for about 1 hour before it was closed for the day. We witnessed quite a few evacuations of the ride. Which was quite alarming after reading about the tragic accident in Alton Towers.
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Over all it was a fun trip, but we won’t be going back during the summer season again. The resort was just too busy for us so we will be sticking to the off seasons in future when all the rides are walk-ons and the weather is colder.
If you’re a blogger, have a twitter account or run a podcast - you might receive an invitation to a fan press event one day. It's totally random who they select to attend these events and this time I noticed that some very big name podcasters were not invited, but a few small Twitter guys and girls were. - So keep tweeting along and you might end up on the other side of that VIP white rope one day.
This was a mixed trip combing the last 2 days of Swing into Spring and the first week of the Frozen Summer Fun seasons.
Our original plan was to stay in the ibis in Val d’Europe for the weekend before moving to the Sequoia Lodge on the Monday morning, but all these plans fell apart when I received a last minute invitation to the VIP / Press preview of the Frozen Summer Fun season. – I think one of the original bloggers / podcasters they invited could not make it so I was invited to attend as Corporate Communication knew I was in the resort that weekend anyway.
HIGHS - [Frozen Summer Fun - Press event]
Great attending the VIP launch of the Frozen Summer Fun season – the Frozen Sing Along show is great and after show Party was fun where Duffy and I met some VIP’s, other bloggers and Disney executive. Many cocktails were being handed out and everyone was having a fun time, but I think most people were wanting to have their photo taken with Duffy bear than talk shop. It’s quite difficult to have a serious conversation with Disney executives about the DLP recapitalisation, the on-going CIMA legal action against the AMF and the increased TWDC ownership of the resort when holding a Duffy in one hand and a cocktail in the other.
Great meal in the Silver Spur Steakhouse after the VIP party with the rest of the fan press with a few Disney characters popping by our table to say hi.
Special VIP area for us to see Dreams!
Chatting with all the other fan press guys in the Hotel New York bar into to the weeeeee small hours of the morning.
[Rest of the trip]
HIGHS
Great fun at the Mother’s Day Sunday Brunch at Inventions– met some very rare characters and met some people on Twitter I have been following for a while, so it was great to put some faces and real names to twitter nick-names.
We did the taster menu at the California Grill one evening - 5 courses spread over 8 dishes, it was a lovely meal and we got to meet the chief afterwards to thank him.
One afternoon we had dinner in Walt’s with a window table so we got to watch the parade pass by below.
Swing into Spring - I enjoyed this. It's nice to see the hub full of dancers and the Castle Stage being used for a show. But Goofy really should not run around with garden shears it's dangerous! (Haver booked again to go early next May to experiance Swing into Spring again before it goes on hiatus during the 25th anniversary celebrations in 2017).
Hot!, it was sooooo hot last week! Up to 33c far too hot for us! So plenty of drinks and ice creams were needed to keep us cool
The Sequoia Lodge hotel is great, and highly recommend booking the Golden Forest rooms for the GF Lounge!
Quite a few people were following our adventures around the park with Duffy and ShellieMay on Facebook and Twitter and came up to us say hi which was nice. It’s always great to know that people do actually read my blog and FB and twitter posts and we met many other fans from all around Europe.
Shopping - I bought far too many nice things, and saw quite a few more to buy on my next trip.
I had a great time at BBWWS but Sharon did not – see Lows for that one…..
Doing 12 rides / atractions in under 2 hours 30 mins one evening after the parade when everyone left the park at 6pm.
Frozen Sing Along - It's great to see The Chaparral Theater back in use. It's a good sing along show that will appeal to all the fans of the movie.
Arendelle has been transfer to the Cottonwood Creek Ranch quite well. When I first heard it was going there I thought it would not work, but the shop, concession stand, photo location point and themeing works very well in the area. It was nice to see this area brought back into life.
LOWS
Not being able to bring Sharon into the VIP / Press stuff, it was quite hard saying goodbye at the entrance rope and knowing she was not allowed in, but she did some retail therapy to cheer herself up during my absence.
The Walt Disney Travel Company messed up my booking! I booked a Lake View Room at the Sequoia Lodge but they had requested a Lake Side room. The Sequoia Lodge hotel was full on check-in and they could not move us, but the CM at the Golden Forest check bent over backwards to try to get us a lake view room later in the week. We were offered a suite for one night and she even offered to move us back to the Hotel New York, and when a lake view room became availble she let us know. But we were settled in our room by then, had unpacked and were only sleeping in it – so they gave us two VIP FastPass tickets which came in very handy for the rest of our stay.
BBWWS – I had great fun, my meal turned up with everyone elses who was watching the show and I received plenty of re-fills of beer too. But Sharon had ordered the vegetarian option for a change. Her meal arrived just as the show was ending, and she eat her dessert in the empty arena. The manager came over to apologise and the next day a bottle of champagne appeared in our room as an apology.
SMOKING – Yes the age old problem of smoking raised its ugly head. We were in the queue corral of Stitch Live! in WDS and two guests light up cigarettes outside the queuing area blowing their cigarette smoke into the corral area. I politely asked them to step away from the queue area but they refused. I was worried as there was a Spanish family in the queuing area standing next to us whose daughter was in a wheelchair and on oxygen. So Sharon went over to the CMs at the entrance of the show and explained the situation – and they refused to do anything. The CMs attitude as that as they were smoking outside the queue area and so it was not their problem. So we logged an official complaint at WDS Guest Services, the CM there told us guests can smoke anywhere in the park except inside buildings or queuing areas.
But the thing was two days earlier I saw the same thing happen near the Tea Cups ride in Fantasyland and two CMs descend upon the smoker, gave him a map and told him to go over to the smoking area. It’s like there are two rules in place which is confusing for guests, smokers, and CM’s alike.
BTM - It had a lot of break downs last week. Some days I think it ran for about 1 hour before it was closed for the day. We witnessed quite a few evacuations of the ride. Which was quite alarming after reading about the tragic accident in Alton Towers.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Over all it was a fun trip, but we won’t be going back during the summer season again. The resort was just too busy for us so we will be sticking to the off seasons in future when all the rides are walk-ons and the weather is colder.
If you’re a blogger, have a twitter account or run a podcast - you might receive an invitation to a fan press event one day. It's totally random who they select to attend these events and this time I noticed that some very big name podcasters were not invited, but a few small Twitter guys and girls were. - So keep tweeting along and you might end up on the other side of that VIP white rope one day.
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but the champagne was a nice way to make up for it
