we have just come back from 4 days in the sequoia lodge, the rooms were fine with 2 double beds,tv,and bathroom with bath. we did find this hotel very expensive for certain things, the mini bar was around 4 euro for most things inc small pack of sweets etc. hubby wasnt happy paying £6 a pint so therefore only had 1 a night, this really is extortionate.
pluto, mickey,goofy seemed to visit most days for 25 mins at a time at allocated times,long queues for photos, but kids enjoyed seeing them ,shame they didnt vary the characters more as it was 1 of these 3 every day
the hotel was about 20 mins stroll to the 2 main parks and about 12-15 mins to the disney village area.
pool area was ok, not as nice as the photos make it look.
exchange rate in hotel rip off, we got 1.10 to the £ before we left, hotel was offering .89
breakfast was a nightmare, again queues for around 20-30 mins despite been given allocated times, this really annoyed us, but the breakfasts were good, self service to inc, crossiants,pain chocolate,cereals, yoghurts, mixed fruit, bread rolls, ham, salami,chicken, various juices. most people were making up a picnic to take with them, to save money
well where do i start. firstly the prices are horrendous, from the gift shops to the restaurants, bottles of coke, fanta etc around 2.5 to 3 euros each, cafe mickey, 22.50 euros for kids meal, that was tiny, and adults 3 course meal 30 euros, again small portions with poor quality, but kids did see lots of the disney characters.
we enjoyed the honey i shrunk the audience show and cinemagique show, i recommend both these they were great
a warning to anyone that doesnt like fast rides, we all went on the nemo ride and it was awful, my daughter came off shaking and crying ,white as a sheet in total shock, it took my half hour to calm her down, there wasnt any warnings saying how fast and dark it was and we seemed to come down spinning backwards, i hated every minute of it, and feel strongly there should be more warnings about this ride.
hubby enjoyed the stunt show, the tower of terror, indiana jones and space mountain, these 3 are very fast rides which i avoided
sat and sun despite being march was so packed, most rides were 2 hr queues which is crazy. on sat every ride we went on either broke down whilst on it or whilst waiting, we got stuck in pinocchio for 15 mins whilst they repaired it, buzz lightyear and the haunted house broke down also whilst we were on it, but was repaired within 5 mins, nemo, space mountain broke down whilst hubby was in the queue and he had to wait longer and the thunder mountain had broken down and was closed for an hr when we arrived to have a go, this really is quite worrying , a lot of the shows were closed. fast pass was a joke, we put card in for peter pan ride at 12 to get a time of 8.30pm , whats the point of that, half the time the fast passes were closed too, it also meant you couldnt use your fast pass again that day.
the kids enjoyed it and luckily we had 2 week days aswell as the weekend, but i dont think its that good value for money with all the queuing involved, we met my cousin for the day on sat, it took her 90 mins to get tickets, then they had only 6 hrs in the park and managed about 3 rides and paid 42 euro each, that works out very expensive. i recommend avoid weekends and holiday times or you wont see get time to go on much.
it could be so much better if the rides hadnt have broken down so much, not so many people and fast pass open more, all fast passes were closed on thurs and fri.
all the water fountains were not working for the 4 days we were there, so i just felt we were being slightly ripped off all the time, as we had to buy drinks all day at expensive prices.
we enjoyed ourselves still but if we go back again will only go at quieter times, week days out of season, if march weekends were this busy i dread to see what the height of season is like
sounds like it was one of those holidays you just have to make the most of. Not great that so many things broke down.
the kids had a ball so that made it worth while , loads of room for big improvements lol
That sounds like an honest trip report to me.
I agree, I would never go to DLRP on a weekend, or for that matter, in high summer season. The crowds would just spoil it for me - we don't do queues of more than 15 minutes.
There are ways of economising on food etc at DLRP, but on your first visit you don't necessarily want to be doing that, you want to have the freedom to eat what you want, where you want.
Luckily for me, my DD doesn't like coasters, she went on Crush with my sister last year, and didn't like it (although the other kids in our group did - they described it as "spinball whizzer in the dark").
Its very common for the likes of Phantom Manor and Buzz Lightyear to stop mid-ride for a minute or 2 - the ride isn't broken when this happens, its to allow disabled riders on and off the ride, or when there are a row of people in the ride cars waiting to get off. I always found the Buzz stops very useful for getting a few more points with my lazer gun lol.
Glad to hear the children enjoyed their trip though
i tried to be honest as possible, we did enjoy our time there, but there could be improvements, better fast pass system needed for starters lol, photos with disney characters should be more controlled as some people, were taking a few photos, & putting each child individually with character then themselves instead of all together etc and not everyone then got a go which was a shame for kids queuing to be turned away, it should be limited to 1-2 photos , my 2 tried to get as many autographs as possible, kept them entertained lol
forgot to say we had bags checked but this time didnt have our food removed lol
crush is horrid isnt it !
It's been a few years since we went to DP Karen . We also stayed in the sequoia Lodge and can confirm the prices were as bad back then . To be fair the prices are the same whatever hotel you choose and yes a complete rip off. Well they have a captive audience so it's to be expected . We never bothered with the hotel of an evening either . Hubby and one of the boys went down the first night for 1 beer and 1 soft drink and that was about 10 euros back then , probably 6 years ago. We found it better value to eat in a proper restuarant rather than buy hot bogs and cans of drinks from the vans for lunch too. Just a plain hot dog and a can of pop for 5 of us came to about 60 euros but you could go and sit down in the Rainforest cafe and have a proper meal and drink for maybe 20 euros more .
i hated every min of it lol, and i knew ellie would be panicing too as she doesnt like rides and we didnt know this was going to be so fast and dark grr and i could do nothing to console her whilst on the ride lol
lyn
ellie loved it so much shes desperate to go back again, i certainly would only go week days during school term as i couldnt cope with the crowds and queues lol. im trying to work on big sister to take her lol, emma would love it and that would save me money too lol, only having ellie to pay for . i think the £ being so weak to the euro hasnt helped but even so prices were just silly
karen
The boys loved it and we took my elderly Dad with us . He was exhausted but wouldnt give up and just kept going at our pace . We got back to our rooms on the saturday night about 9pm and he said he sat on the end of his bed to take his shoes off and that was the last he remembered . He woke up at 5am with his clothes and shoes still on and had ovbiously just fallen back on the bed . I think as an elderly grandad that was very untravelled it was a very emotional experience for him .Bless him he was crying at the parade
We were all exhausted but had an enjoyable weekend .
It's not something we would repeat but my youngest sons have been a couple of times since with cousins .
I don't think it will ever change, they don't have to make the effort as people will continue to go anyway however poor it is there.
I probably stayed there about the same time as you Lyn, only we were in the Newport Bay hotel, which was loved and was fine for three nights but I wouldn't want to spend 2 weeks (rooms far to small for 4 for a fortnight)
The redeeming feature for us was Disney Studios, as by a huge stroke of luck we went the week it first opened, so everything was spotless and it 'spread the crowds' a bit.
We ate full service meals in the Newport Bay every evening. I'd rather pay 50 quid for something decent than 22.50 for something akin to a happy meal. Its appalling to think a Country with a tradition for good food can serve the crap they do in the park. Ive had better at Legoland in the UK, and thats saying something.
That said, needless to say the kids loved it and for some years after kept wanting to go back. I just let this fall on deaf ears and they are now too old for it. We loved all the rides but I did feel ill after RocknRoller coaster, although I love the music. I thought Space Mountain was much better than the Florida one.
So glad you had a good time Karen even though it sounds like you now need a second mortgage to pay for it. A good honest review from you as usual.
The redeeming feature for us was Disney Studios, as by a huge stroke of luck we went the week it first opened,
You must of gone the week after us Chris . The weekend we were there they were doing a trial run at the studios before it opened officially that week . I think we just paid a nominal fee and it was quite a surprise bonus .
Hope my post didn't seem negative as I have to say we had a great time there, as do most people, it just has the potential to be so much better, but there is not really that much competition for them. Obvioulsy you get a Disney Fix by going there but we do prefer Port Aventura, it has a lot more going for it what with being near the coast and having Spanish weather.
On the Disney Boards a lot recommend upgrading to half-board in the Disney hotels now as the food is so expensive, what with it always having been overpriced and now the sterling crash on top .
Its a shame as it took us less time to get there than it did to Alton Towers.
we have to go on a wkend or during school hols ,as my eldest is in secondary school
we do have to plan more,using FP's and EMH as much as possible and do a character meal so dont "waste" time waiting in queues to meet characters in the parks
Dec wkend trip was manic, and won't be repeating that in a hurry !
but summer hols are fine,as you have the nicer ( ?!) weather and longer opening hours
the offer we got was 2 free kids under 12, so the hotel for 3 nights inc 4 days of disneypark tickets was £372 for sequioa lodge, think the santa fe was about £70 cheaper, then the flights on top were around £90 each from our local airport could have got them with easy jet for £60 but from luton instead of birmingham. so really we got quite a good deal.
we went to disneyland in march 04 last time but stayed in paris and visited for the day, and it poured all day lol so the crowds werent too bad due to the weather , so we had to buy the nice yellow disney ponchos
all the big rides like space mountain,big thunder mountain, nemos crushs coaster, rock'n roller, tower of terror etc over the weekend had 2 hr queues, thurs and fri when we were there queues werent so bad so we did most of our rides those 2 days
whaaaaat ?!
OMG queues werent even that bad in Dec ! few wkends before xmas !
why so busy in march ?!!
guess everyone had the same idea, and go out of season when its "quiet" ! and taking up the free kids offer etc
Longest we queued @ xmas was 80 mins for BTM but in reality it was only (!) about 55 min wait
All other times we only queued about an hour at the most for Tower of Terror (which terrified my 6 year old!) and Rock n Roller Coaster and also used FastPass on another couple of rides. Nemo was 90 min wait so we didnt bother.
We stayed in a hotel about an hour away and a pint was 8 Euros!!
BTM in the dark is always a "must do " on our trips
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