cmpeter
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2003
My dh and I just returned from a two week trip to Amsterdam and France to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We spent four days at DLP as part of our trip. We are Disneyland California veterans having grown up in California and previously lived in So Cal and were annual pass holders. We have been to WDW once. I love, love, love going to the parks.
On Monday, July 6th we took the train from Amsterdam to DLP. I was a little worried about luggage and we had to switch trains in Brussels. But, everything went perfectly. I loved the trains...super comfy and quiet and we had no problems getting our three bags, my large tote bag and dh's backpack into the area above our seats. We arrived at DLP at 6:00 pm and headed straight to the hotel (HNY).
We were originally planning on walking to the hotel from the train station, but got a little turned around and ended up at the shuttle stop. Quick wait for a crowded shuttle, but the HNY stop was the first. There was only one other group in front of us for check in. Check in was great...very helpful and friendly cast member checked us in. She took a bit of time to walk us through the park map, explain EMH and the rides open, ask if we needed dinner reservations, book our breakfast time, etc.
We were in room 3250…would have had a great view of the lake if we were higher, could see some of the balloon. I was impressed with the size of the room. The room was clean, but a bit worn down. You can see why it’s on the refurb list. Although the shower was really narrow and the shower curtain drove me batty since it would try and cling to you when you turned around. It’s a high step up to get into the shower/tub too. I had planned on using the hotel hair dryer, but it was pretty useless…cord is super short and you have to constantly press the on button to use it. The safe in the room was super small, no way to fit a laptop in there. We ended up locking our valuables into one of our suitcases and using a cable lock to tie it to a chair. We did really like how close the hotel was to the parks…took us about 5-10 minutes to walk to the front gates.
Day one - Monday the 6th of July.
On our arrival day we had an 8:30 pm dinner reservation at Blue Lagoon. I loved seeing the DLH as we walked into the parks, what a beautiful building. Super excited when we hit main street…had a very similar vibe to DL CA. Loved the theme of Blue Lagoon…definitely more of a pirate vibe vs. the bayou feel at Blue Bayou in CA. The whole restaurant felt more immersive vs. Blue Bayou. At BB you feel very immersed if you have a waterside table, but here the whole area was well themed. Our waitress there was fabulous…super friendly and great service. We both felt like we had an excellent meal there and being able to order a bottle of wine with dinner was cool too.
After dinner we went on Pirates with no wait. Really liked the drops and was expecting to get super wet (we were in the front row), but stayed dry. Then we walked over and did Phantom and Indiana (both with 5-10 minute waits). Phantom was awesome, what a cool looking building, especially from the outside when the sun was going down. We were excited about Indiana as we are big coaster fans. But, I found it a bit painful (head banging) and missed the theme of the CA version. By now it was about 10:30 and we decided to head back to the hotel. We thought about staying for Dreams, but I wanted to stake out a better spot than what we could get then.
Day Two – Tuesday the 7th of July.
We were up super early for our 7:00 am breakfast slot. Got down there at 7:08 and they hadn’t started letting people in yet. Not many other families eating at that time. Nice to have hot options, but glad it was a free breakfast as it was just OK, not something I would have wanted to pay separately for. I liken it to the breakfast at the BWPPI near DL CA for those that have been there.
Arrived at the front gates 7:50 for the EMH opening. Surprised there were so few other folks there, guess EMH isn’t as popular at DLP vs. the states?. We rode all 7 EMH rides with two rounds on Buzz by 10:00 am. Then did IASW and Indiana again. Liked all the differences on IASW vs. the DL CA version…especially the American football and Hollywood representation. Then we did some shopping and got lunch at Planet Hollywood. Food was just OK, although that was my expectation based on eating there in the states.
Headed back to the hotel for a rest. Some drizzle, lightning and thunder as we arrived. Had a nice nap and returned to the parks around 3:00. Spent the next four hours on rides and then had dinner at Walt’s.
Very cool restaurant. Had the same sort of vibe as Club 33 at DL CA. I ordered steak and didn't trust what I had been told about French beef...I ordered medium well and should have gone with medium. But, that was totally my fault. The waiter gave me a little push back (in a cute and friendly way) when I said I wanted it medium, I should have listened to him. Service was great though.
After dinner we mailed some postcards home. Really appreciated that the Story Book shop knows and sells the exact amount of postage for just about any country. Thought that was a great service.
We headed over to ride Buzz again. I had beaten my husband on our first two rides (which never happens)! He was thinking that all the wine we had with dinner would work in his favor.
. Waited in the FP line about 20 minutes only to be told the ride was broken and it would be another 10-15 minutes. Based on how the cast members were acting, we felt that was an optimistic guess and bailed.
We were going to grab some dessert but it was really getting chilly. We decided to walk back to the hotel to get warmer clothes. On the way it started raining pretty hard. We made it back and decided to call it a night.
Day Three – Wednesday the 8th of July.
Today was our day for Studios. We did the hotel breakfast at 8:15 and then stopped at Starbucks so DH could get a latte. He ordered his regular (he's a bit of a Starbucks junkie), which is a tall non-fat with three shots. The gal misunderstood him and rang him up for three lattes. Neither of us were paying close attention until I saw it was €12. She was able to refund and ring him up correctly. But then the barista ended up still making three one shot lattes. He managed to drink two and we swore to be more clear and attentive (yeah, we won't be too successful there.)
Got to the Studios gate at 8:45. More folks queued than I would have expected. Mad dash for Crush at 9:30. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes once the line opened. Super cute ride. Then we pulled a Rat fast pass for 12:45.
Walked over to RC Racer. Wow, that whole area is very well done. We loved RC, just wish it was slightly longer. After we rode TOT (my fav) and Rock n Roll (hubby's fav). We also did the Armageddon experience (eh, not our fave), Moteurs Action (surprised how much we liked it) CineMagic (loved this!) and Stitch Live. Really cute and they picked on my husband during the show.
We ate lunch at that place you pass as you enter the Studios. Had issues with our order and ended up with three meals. The cashier didn't know how to correct it and the line behind us was long and slow so we just kept the extra meal. After lunch we rode Rat, TOT and RnR.
We had a 7:00 pm reservation at Remy's. Super cute theming. But, it was loud, messy and chaotic. We had trouble finding something we wanted to order, wish they offered a'la carte options. Waiter seemed put out, service was slow and food just ok. I personally wouldn't return here.
After dinner we rode Rat three more times right in a row and at 8:50 we raced over to RnR and rode it just before they closed.
At 9:00 we headed over to DL and did Phantom and BTM (really is a great ride). Then we headed to the castle to stake a spot for Dreams. We got a spot on the inside curb near the handicapped seating in the middle. We thought it was a great spot. And, boy loved Dreams. What an excellent show. Easily the best Disney show we have seen. After, walking in the large crowd of people, I thought how truly wonderful it was to be in this huge crowd where everyone was happy. What a great experience.
Day Four – Thursday the 9th of July.
We planned to sleep in and give our feet a rest today. We head to Paris tomorrow. We were both shocked when we woke up and found it was 11:00 am. Neither of us can remember sleeping in that late since college.
Ended up skipping breakfast and heading to Earls for lunch. Had another issue ordering...I asked for the #13 (BLT) and the order gal rang up a #20 (BBQ Chicken salad). Oh well, DH split his sandwich with me and we shared the salad. Food was yummy and we have not eaten at Earl’s in the states.
We went back to the hotel and gathered up our dirty laundry and walked over to the Cheyenne to wash our clothes. We were in Amsterdam for four days before DLP, so we had a fair amount of wash. Spent a couple hours sitting outside on the porch reading and playing a game while the laundry finished. Lovely walk too and from the two hotels.
By now it was almost 6:00 pm. We walked over to the DL Hotel for a drink and snack in the bar. Met another family from the states and had a nice chat. Waiter and bartender were fantastic. DH ordered a scratch margarita, which they were not familiar with. They looked it up and conferred with DH a couple times and got it just right…he ended up ordering a second round.
After drinks we headed back to Studios to ride RC Racer again, 15 minute wait. We thought about trying Crush once more but even single rider was 30 minutes. So, we went back to RnR, which had a 5 minute wait and rode that two more times. It really is my husband’s favorite ride (he’s a huge Aerosmith fan).
Dinner was another round of drinks at the Hotel NY bar and a Croque New York. We turned in early that night as we needed to catch at 10:00 am train to Paris the next day.
Overall, we were both really impressed with DLP. With the exception of Remy (which wasn't bad, just wasn't awesome) everything has exceeded our expectations. Cast members were friendly and helpful. I saw many go out of their way to engage and provide excellent service. We found the parks clean and only experienced the one ride breakdown. No problems with smokers, we barely noticed them and didn't see any in the queue lines. No issues with folks jumping the line in the queues. We loved all the unique rides and being able to go on a number of old favorites. Given the opportunity to be back in this area, I would definitely visit again.
I had also purchased one of the VIP Fastpasses on ebay. I knew that we would want to ride most of the FP rides multiple times and was worried about crowds. There were posts on Trip Advisor suggesting/recommending them and even which seller to buy from. I bought mine back in April. Then a couple weeks before our trip another thread was started on Trip Advisor advising folks not to buy them on ebay and reporting that Disney was clamping down and starting to confiscate them. I was well out of the refund period with ebay/PayPal. We had no issues using ours at all and never had more than a glance and smile from the cast members when we presented it. However, given some of the other reports of confiscation, I wouldn’t personally purchase one again.
On Monday, July 6th we took the train from Amsterdam to DLP. I was a little worried about luggage and we had to switch trains in Brussels. But, everything went perfectly. I loved the trains...super comfy and quiet and we had no problems getting our three bags, my large tote bag and dh's backpack into the area above our seats. We arrived at DLP at 6:00 pm and headed straight to the hotel (HNY).
We were originally planning on walking to the hotel from the train station, but got a little turned around and ended up at the shuttle stop. Quick wait for a crowded shuttle, but the HNY stop was the first. There was only one other group in front of us for check in. Check in was great...very helpful and friendly cast member checked us in. She took a bit of time to walk us through the park map, explain EMH and the rides open, ask if we needed dinner reservations, book our breakfast time, etc.
We were in room 3250…would have had a great view of the lake if we were higher, could see some of the balloon. I was impressed with the size of the room. The room was clean, but a bit worn down. You can see why it’s on the refurb list. Although the shower was really narrow and the shower curtain drove me batty since it would try and cling to you when you turned around. It’s a high step up to get into the shower/tub too. I had planned on using the hotel hair dryer, but it was pretty useless…cord is super short and you have to constantly press the on button to use it. The safe in the room was super small, no way to fit a laptop in there. We ended up locking our valuables into one of our suitcases and using a cable lock to tie it to a chair. We did really like how close the hotel was to the parks…took us about 5-10 minutes to walk to the front gates.
Day one - Monday the 6th of July.
On our arrival day we had an 8:30 pm dinner reservation at Blue Lagoon. I loved seeing the DLH as we walked into the parks, what a beautiful building. Super excited when we hit main street…had a very similar vibe to DL CA. Loved the theme of Blue Lagoon…definitely more of a pirate vibe vs. the bayou feel at Blue Bayou in CA. The whole restaurant felt more immersive vs. Blue Bayou. At BB you feel very immersed if you have a waterside table, but here the whole area was well themed. Our waitress there was fabulous…super friendly and great service. We both felt like we had an excellent meal there and being able to order a bottle of wine with dinner was cool too.
After dinner we went on Pirates with no wait. Really liked the drops and was expecting to get super wet (we were in the front row), but stayed dry. Then we walked over and did Phantom and Indiana (both with 5-10 minute waits). Phantom was awesome, what a cool looking building, especially from the outside when the sun was going down. We were excited about Indiana as we are big coaster fans. But, I found it a bit painful (head banging) and missed the theme of the CA version. By now it was about 10:30 and we decided to head back to the hotel. We thought about staying for Dreams, but I wanted to stake out a better spot than what we could get then.
Day Two – Tuesday the 7th of July.
We were up super early for our 7:00 am breakfast slot. Got down there at 7:08 and they hadn’t started letting people in yet. Not many other families eating at that time. Nice to have hot options, but glad it was a free breakfast as it was just OK, not something I would have wanted to pay separately for. I liken it to the breakfast at the BWPPI near DL CA for those that have been there.
Arrived at the front gates 7:50 for the EMH opening. Surprised there were so few other folks there, guess EMH isn’t as popular at DLP vs. the states?. We rode all 7 EMH rides with two rounds on Buzz by 10:00 am. Then did IASW and Indiana again. Liked all the differences on IASW vs. the DL CA version…especially the American football and Hollywood representation. Then we did some shopping and got lunch at Planet Hollywood. Food was just OK, although that was my expectation based on eating there in the states.
Headed back to the hotel for a rest. Some drizzle, lightning and thunder as we arrived. Had a nice nap and returned to the parks around 3:00. Spent the next four hours on rides and then had dinner at Walt’s.
Very cool restaurant. Had the same sort of vibe as Club 33 at DL CA. I ordered steak and didn't trust what I had been told about French beef...I ordered medium well and should have gone with medium. But, that was totally my fault. The waiter gave me a little push back (in a cute and friendly way) when I said I wanted it medium, I should have listened to him. Service was great though.
After dinner we mailed some postcards home. Really appreciated that the Story Book shop knows and sells the exact amount of postage for just about any country. Thought that was a great service.
We headed over to ride Buzz again. I had beaten my husband on our first two rides (which never happens)! He was thinking that all the wine we had with dinner would work in his favor.
. Waited in the FP line about 20 minutes only to be told the ride was broken and it would be another 10-15 minutes. Based on how the cast members were acting, we felt that was an optimistic guess and bailed.We were going to grab some dessert but it was really getting chilly. We decided to walk back to the hotel to get warmer clothes. On the way it started raining pretty hard. We made it back and decided to call it a night.
Day Three – Wednesday the 8th of July.
Today was our day for Studios. We did the hotel breakfast at 8:15 and then stopped at Starbucks so DH could get a latte. He ordered his regular (he's a bit of a Starbucks junkie), which is a tall non-fat with three shots. The gal misunderstood him and rang him up for three lattes. Neither of us were paying close attention until I saw it was €12. She was able to refund and ring him up correctly. But then the barista ended up still making three one shot lattes. He managed to drink two and we swore to be more clear and attentive (yeah, we won't be too successful there.)
Got to the Studios gate at 8:45. More folks queued than I would have expected. Mad dash for Crush at 9:30. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes once the line opened. Super cute ride. Then we pulled a Rat fast pass for 12:45.
Walked over to RC Racer. Wow, that whole area is very well done. We loved RC, just wish it was slightly longer. After we rode TOT (my fav) and Rock n Roll (hubby's fav). We also did the Armageddon experience (eh, not our fave), Moteurs Action (surprised how much we liked it) CineMagic (loved this!) and Stitch Live. Really cute and they picked on my husband during the show.
We ate lunch at that place you pass as you enter the Studios. Had issues with our order and ended up with three meals. The cashier didn't know how to correct it and the line behind us was long and slow so we just kept the extra meal. After lunch we rode Rat, TOT and RnR.
We had a 7:00 pm reservation at Remy's. Super cute theming. But, it was loud, messy and chaotic. We had trouble finding something we wanted to order, wish they offered a'la carte options. Waiter seemed put out, service was slow and food just ok. I personally wouldn't return here.
After dinner we rode Rat three more times right in a row and at 8:50 we raced over to RnR and rode it just before they closed.
At 9:00 we headed over to DL and did Phantom and BTM (really is a great ride). Then we headed to the castle to stake a spot for Dreams. We got a spot on the inside curb near the handicapped seating in the middle. We thought it was a great spot. And, boy loved Dreams. What an excellent show. Easily the best Disney show we have seen. After, walking in the large crowd of people, I thought how truly wonderful it was to be in this huge crowd where everyone was happy. What a great experience.
Day Four – Thursday the 9th of July.
We planned to sleep in and give our feet a rest today. We head to Paris tomorrow. We were both shocked when we woke up and found it was 11:00 am. Neither of us can remember sleeping in that late since college.
Ended up skipping breakfast and heading to Earls for lunch. Had another issue ordering...I asked for the #13 (BLT) and the order gal rang up a #20 (BBQ Chicken salad). Oh well, DH split his sandwich with me and we shared the salad. Food was yummy and we have not eaten at Earl’s in the states.
We went back to the hotel and gathered up our dirty laundry and walked over to the Cheyenne to wash our clothes. We were in Amsterdam for four days before DLP, so we had a fair amount of wash. Spent a couple hours sitting outside on the porch reading and playing a game while the laundry finished. Lovely walk too and from the two hotels.
By now it was almost 6:00 pm. We walked over to the DL Hotel for a drink and snack in the bar. Met another family from the states and had a nice chat. Waiter and bartender were fantastic. DH ordered a scratch margarita, which they were not familiar with. They looked it up and conferred with DH a couple times and got it just right…he ended up ordering a second round.
After drinks we headed back to Studios to ride RC Racer again, 15 minute wait. We thought about trying Crush once more but even single rider was 30 minutes. So, we went back to RnR, which had a 5 minute wait and rode that two more times. It really is my husband’s favorite ride (he’s a huge Aerosmith fan).
Dinner was another round of drinks at the Hotel NY bar and a Croque New York. We turned in early that night as we needed to catch at 10:00 am train to Paris the next day.
Overall, we were both really impressed with DLP. With the exception of Remy (which wasn't bad, just wasn't awesome) everything has exceeded our expectations. Cast members were friendly and helpful. I saw many go out of their way to engage and provide excellent service. We found the parks clean and only experienced the one ride breakdown. No problems with smokers, we barely noticed them and didn't see any in the queue lines. No issues with folks jumping the line in the queues. We loved all the unique rides and being able to go on a number of old favorites. Given the opportunity to be back in this area, I would definitely visit again.
I had also purchased one of the VIP Fastpasses on ebay. I knew that we would want to ride most of the FP rides multiple times and was worried about crowds. There were posts on Trip Advisor suggesting/recommending them and even which seller to buy from. I bought mine back in April. Then a couple weeks before our trip another thread was started on Trip Advisor advising folks not to buy them on ebay and reporting that Disney was clamping down and starting to confiscate them. I was well out of the refund period with ebay/PayPal. We had no issues using ours at all and never had more than a glance and smile from the cast members when we presented it. However, given some of the other reports of confiscation, I wouldn’t personally purchase one again.
Thanks for posting
I read your TR over on TA as you were writing it and I was so pleased that you were having such a good time 
