Disneyland Paris: General Discussion

[MattyH]

Considering its meant to be one of the most magical places on earth the wait for food does it bit to reduce the magic...

 

[siralgenon]

Queues for Casey's Corner were spilling out the front door all day Saturday. Service is far too slow all over the park and it's especially annoying when you're paying so much for pretty average food.

It's never not queuing out the door, and when it is you're looking at about a 20-30 min wait, no exaggeration.

 

[djtruefitt]

I often see on Twitter fansites of Disney Paris moaning about food, just seems to be a constant problem, and the cuts to food seem worse than a merlin park, with outlets even closed on peak days, or not open to full capacity.

It must lose them money as people won’t want to queue for ages to get food, so they’ll probably go to Disney village for stuff, or only have the one meal rather than two of the perks open late.

 

[venny]

What’s the feeling on DLP generally now Disney are in control? Is this food service problem a hold-over from the old regime, something Disney have instigated themselves or just not yet sorted out?

 

[Tim]

I've been meaning to visit Disneyland Paris again for years as my girlfriend's never been. But it's just too expensive and the food is the main problem! I can get better and cheaper at Europa, so we do.

 

[AT86]

What’s the feeling on DLP generally now Disney are in control? Is this food service problem a hold-over from the old regime, something Disney have instigated themselves or just not yet sorted out?

The food issue has been around for years. Sadly Disney don’t seem to have made any improvements since taking control. If anything, restaurant availability is getting worse.

 

[Ian]

I’d say on the whole the quality of restaurant food has improved. When we went in early November we had full board and made a point of only eating at full table service restaurants to get the best value.

However, the park are clearly struggling to keep all F&B outlets open. We dined at Silver Spur (highly recommended!) on our first day as it closed after that. Hathi’s Pizza Outpost was closed the whole time. Walt’s has also been mothballed for some time as well it seems. It’s a real shame as the table service has come on a lot in my opinion.

Quick service has always been a problem. The offering is generally pretty uninspiring and they simply don’t have the capacity to handle the volume of guests they need to serve. They’ve flip-flopped a lot in their history to try and get the balance right, but they never seem to have quite managed it.

But besides the closures, the most bizarre thing I find about DLP is making restaurant bookings. In the UK you have a phone number to call which patches you through to Team Disney in America (though not before they’ve ruptured your eardrum blasting Lost In The Magic down the phone before every IVR message). However, certain countries have the ability to book online including Spain, the Netherlands and Germany (though not France!). This means you’re able to check for closures or fully booked days in advance without having to wait on the phone. Just make sure you get the English menu when arriving at your booking

 

[Tink242424]

I’d say on the whole the quality of restaurant food has improved. When we went in early November we had full board and made a point of only eating at full table service restaurants to get the best value.

However, the park are clearly struggling to keep all F&B outlets open. We dined at Silver Spur (highly recommended!) on our first day as it closed after that. Hathi’s Pizza Outpost was closed the whole time. Walt’s has also been mothballed for some time as well it seems. It’s a real shame as the table service has come on a lot in my opinion.

Quick service has always been a problem. The offering is generally pretty uninspiring and they simply don’t have the capacity to handle the volume of guests they need to serve. They’ve flip-flopped a lot in their history to try and get the balance right, but they never seem to have quite managed it.

But besides the closures, the most bizarre thing I find about DLP is making restaurant bookings. In the UK you have a phone number to call which patches you through to Team Disney in America (though not before they’ve ruptured your eardrum blasting Lost In The Magic down the phone before every IVR message). However, certain countries have the ability to book online including Spain, the Netherlands and Germany (though not France!). This means you’re able to check for closures or fully booked days in advance without having to wait on the phone. Just make sure you get the English menu when arriving at your booking

As a note anyone can use the Spain, Netherlands & Germany websites to make restaurant reservations. I did this early this year for a trip in May and I'm in the US. So don't be afraid to use the other sites.

 

[Ian]

Yeah they clearly know people do it as well. When we arrived at Silver Spur the cast member got very confused that we didn’t want Dutch menus. She then started fiddling with the PC for a few minutes and mysteriously at all future bookings the screens showed the reservation as from the UK... I’m assuming they can go on and make a change and the system cascades it to all reservations in the same name and details.

All you have to do is change the website language and navigate to the Restaurants section. Then you’ll see a button to make a reservation alongside each listing that allows it.

 

[Sam]

What's the story with Hyperspace Mountain? Is it reverting back to Mission 2, or the original, and when?

Edit: just seen that the latest iteration of HM in Anaheim opened on 4 May 2019 and will close on Monday.

 

[evilcod]

What's the story with Hyperspace Mountain? Is it reverting back to Mission 2, or the original, and when?

Edit: just seen that the latest iteration of HM in Anaheim opened on 4 May 2019 and will close on Monday.

This is only a guess but Star Wars is a big money maker so I would expect we will see Hyperspace stay around until the new Star Wars area opens in studios which is a good few years away yet.

After that my guess would be a new version of the original theme based on the train design.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Rob]

Some plans and visuals of the new Frozen themed area coming to Walt Disney Studios Park have emerged online:

Source and more of the plans

The ride will be based on the Frozen boat ride at Epcot, which I've got to admit is slightly disappointing.

 

[Benjsh]

I love how they've managed to trick everyone into thinking these are new "lands". They're basically just new rides with extensive theming. Lands to me suggests multiple attractions. Looks like Frozen and Star Wars are going to have just one attraction each. Disappointing to say the least not at all surprising.

Even Avengers campus is only getting one new attraction from what I can see (Spiderman) and that's apparently going to be a similar ride system to the Toy Story mania / Ninjago rides which are hardly ground breaking these days. The other stand out ride is a re-theme of a very outdated and rough as hell coaster.

It will definitely improve the Studios park because it's currently the worst disney park out there but it could have been so much better than this.

The lake is actually the most exciting development for me out of everything. A centre piece for the park.

 

[DistortAMG]

The ride will be based on the Frozen boat ride at Epcot, which I've got to admit is slightly disappointing.

Perhaps it will be executed better. After all this attraction is being built from the ground up with Frozen in mind. They had to work within the constraints of a building and boat system originally designed for a totally different attraction at Epcot.

 

[TheBolt]

The new Studios areas are all following the model Ratatouille proved works for Paris. One key ride, supported by a heavily themed area of retail, food, meet and greets and general theming.

Disney can announce something major every couple of years, to bring the crowds in. The lake supports a daytime parade route option, the lake an evening show, to sell food and hotel rooms as you have to stay 2 nights to see both parks shows.

50%+ of the current attractions are getting rebuilt in some way, new shows etc., plus all the new elements, will mean there is not a single opening day attraction left (?) in its original form.
You have pretty unrealistic expectations if you expected more in one decade.

 

[Benjsh]

The new Studios areas are all following the model Ratatouille proved works for Paris. One key ride, supported by a heavily themed area of retail, food, meet and greets and general theming.

Disney can announce something major every couple of years, to bring the crowds in. The lake supports a daytime parade route option, the lake an evening show, to sell food and hotel rooms as you have to stay 2 nights to see both parks shows.

50%+ of the current attractions are getting rebuilt in some way, new shows etc., plus all the new elements, will mean there is not a single opening day attraction left (?) in its original form.
You have pretty unrealistic expectations if you expected more in one decade.

Not saying it won't work for them. Of course it will do. Frozen, Marvel and Star Wars is basically a license to print money.
Just would have been nice to have something more unique to Paris. A land that can't be found at other Disney parks ideally or failing that unique Frozen and Star Wars attractions.

 

[D4n]

I agree with the above. Following the success of Ratatouille (unique) it would have been nice if Paris started getting more original attractions rather than a poor man's edition of areas elsewhere.

 

[Danny]

Isn't DLP just the poor man's edition of the Disney theme park concept full stop?

 

[AT86]

Isn't DLP just the poor man's edition of the Disney theme park concept full stop?

I would say the Disneyland Park is far greater in design than Magic Kingdom.

 

[Plastic Person]

I would say the Disneyland Park is far greater in design than Magic Kingdom.

I would agree, the foundations of the park are excellent, but undeniably, its development has been stagnant in comparison to every other Magic Kingdom park in the world.