Food In DLP

Many apologies for the delay between posts on my blog but finding the time of late has been tricky; busy at work, busy at home but now I'm able to grab a few minutes to put finger to keyboard!

One of the things that we like to talk about on the podcast I co-host (Disney Dream Girls) is food, and the range of options that can be available in Disney parks.

So I thought how about writing a piece all about the food I experienced at Disneyland Paris?! So here goes...

I think I should mention at the very beginning that when I visited Disneyland Paris it was back in February this year; it was very cold and it was what would be classified as 'low season' and I think both these factors had quite an impact on our food experience.

Also we were visiting as a family of four, but remember our two children are teenagers and so there were no children options to be had; we were in fact feeding four adults. Also we had picked this time of year to visit predominately from a cost point of view and so our budget for food was also limited. We knew that we were unlikely to be eating at any table service restaurants and that we would be relying on counter/quick service eateries.

Now each day we had breakfast as part of our hotel package and so we made sure that we took advantage of this and had plenty to eat! I've spoken about the breakfast options in a previous post - Disneys Sequoia Lodge Hotel Review Part 2 - so please check this out for more information and photos.

I think the main thing we became aware of very quickly was that the counter/quick service menus were pretty much the same no matter which part of the parks you were in. The menus were filled with the standard range of burgers, chicken nuggets and fries with occasionally (very occasionally!) something themed to the restaurant. For example Toad Hall Restaurant had fish & chips; and Restaurant Hakuna Matata had kebabs and Hakuna fries. I have to say that we all really enjoyed the food that we had at Restaurant Hakuna Matata especially the fries it was just unfortunate that we weren't able to eat here more often. Healthy options were also few and far between and were basically limited to salads - chicken, three cheese and vegetarian (whatever that means!).

Because of the time of year we were visiting not all of the restaurants were open all of the time. Having done my forward planning I was very aware of this and had made a note on my park map which days each restaurant was open. Luckily Disney had been very sensible and made sure that there was always at least one restaurant in each land that was open each day. So although this limited the choice available we found that over the 5 days we were there we would have been able to visit all restaurants (had we wanted to) as over those 5 days each restaurant was open at least once.

My park map with notations of which restaurants were closed/open

At Disneyland Paris they also have a number of restaurants that offer 'Buffet' service. Most adult options were priced around 27euros or £20/$30 which included one drink. Which for us as a family of four adults would have meant paying £80 ($120) minimum per meal which our budget simply wouldn't stretch to. We were therefore quite content to stick to the counter service options on offer.

The trouble with this plan however was two fold; firstly the choice of food as I've already mentioned was rather 'samey' and the second being the operating hours of the restaurants within the parks.

Now as I mentioned it was low season and restaurants had limited days they were open; this wasn't a problem because in theory there would still be enough restaurants open spread around the park. However one problem that we encountered, and on more than one day, was finding an open restaurant towards the end of the day. And by end of the day I am talking around 5.30pm/6pm in the evening which is what I would consider a prime eating time and was still 2 hours before the park closed at 8pm. In fact one evening we walked through three lands and tried numerous restaurants before finding one that was open. We even experienced restaurants that had unlocked doors and lights on but when we entered found there was no food being served and were asked, rather rudely, to leave by the cast members there! It all seemed very strange and very un-Disney!

Perhaps because of our experience of the US parks and their wide variety of counter service options our expectations were maybe set too high but we were really quite disappointed in what Disneyland Paris had to offer. In fact so much so that we decided on more than one occasion to leave the parks in search of food and ultimately ended up at Earl of Sandwich in the Disney Village.

The infamous 'gold brick' - yum yum!!

The choice at Earl of Sandwich was great (as always), really good value (hate to say it but much better value for money than in the parks!) plus they had free wi-fi (not yet available in the parks). We ate here more times than I can remember and had great food every time; we loved the soups on offer which were very welcome with the intense cold! I would definitely recommend eating here...just wish we had them over here in the UK!

Another downside of the time of year (and it being very cold!) was that those restaurants that had lots of outdoor seating weren't really where we wanted to be eating! Stopping for food or a drink was a chance to go inside and get warm. On one occasion the only place we could find open was Casey's Corner and with limited seating inside we had no choice but to sit outside to enjoy our hotdogs! On the plus side we did have prime viewing for the parade while we ate our dogs!

The lack of indoor seating also meant that quick stops like the Cable Car Bake Shop for a coffee and a muffin resulted in being unable to sit inside and having to wander out and about to find somewhere to sit down. On one occasion we found another restaurant with it's doors open but no food being served so we, along with other guests, took advantage of finding seats indoors. But we then had a cast member suddenly appear and although nothing was said it was very evident her task was to clear up after everyone as quickly as possible and encourage everyone to finish up and leave!

Now I am very aware that I have painted quite a poor picture of food available at Disneyland Paris but I have explained some of the reasons that I think led to this poor review. I do know friends that have eaten at the table service restaurants and have nothing but good things to say and I am sure during peak season with more restaurants being open the options available become much better. But let this review be a warning that food options in Paris are not the same as the US Disney parks so please don't go with high expectations if, like us, you will be relying on counter service restaurants.

Disneyland Paris - February 2015 - Day 5 - The Last Day

Well here we are, the last day of our short trip to Disneyland Paris.

It was yet another early start for us, breakfast was booked for 7.00am and we made it for 7.30am...we had the usual breakfast selections which I have to say we were all a little bored with by now. Not quite the same as staying at a Disney hotel in the US where the breakfast choices are wide and varied.

We then had to finish off our packing...I did feel a little mean squashing Sulley into the bags though...

Don't worry he made it home all safe and sound!

Because we had booked our trip direct with Disneyland Paris we automatically qualified for the Disney Express service. We took our cases down to the Left Luggage Office in the hotel and were then free to enjoy the parks on our last day knowing that the cases would be waiting for us at the train station later on.

We all decided that we'd really like to ride Ratatouille once more so off to Walt Disney Studios we went. Both Simon and I went through the turnstiles without a problem but neither of the kids tickets would work...so we were left with us one side of the gate and the kids on the other and a cast member who didn't speak enough English to be able to tell us what the problem was. The next thing we know is the cast member saying something to us in mainly French and then walking away...luckily they returned with two new tickets for the kids which got them through the turnstiles. Now the new tickets the kids got were basically one day park tickets which was fine for what we needed, but I was a little disappointed that they didn't give us back the original tickets that had stopped working. You see I'm a bit sentimental and like to keep things like tickets as mementos of trips but on this occasion I couldn't :(

The original park tickets we received (well the two we had left!)

The day tickets that replaced the ones that stopped working!

Now we were inside the Studios we headed to the right to ride Ratatouille. As we approached the Toon Studio area of the park it became very busy; on passing Crush's Coaster the queue was out into the pavement area, and in fact the Stand-By line hadn't even opened.

Then as we rounded the corner we were met with a sea of people and what looked like a very long queue. So we jumped on the end of the queue suspecting it was for Ratatouille and Simon went off to investigate.

Joining the queue...

Sure enough Ratatouille was not yet open, even the Stand-By line was not yet open and this large queue had formed. But there was also a lot of people simply congregating in the 'Place de Remy' the town square like area in front of the ride - there seemed to be no organisation as to what was happening. There were no cast members about, no-one giving out information, no-one organising the waiting guests...it just seemed terribly disorganised.

The queue on the way to Place de Remy

Almost in Place de Remy - just a tad busy!! 

We are not amused!

There was also an equally large queue for the Fastpass booths, which were already issuing tickets for midday and beyond. But as the ride was not yet operational, and showed no signs of being operational any time soon getting a Fastpass seemed a little pointless!

So we left the area and walked back round past Crush's Coaster which now displayed a 60 minute wait. Both the Stand-By line and the Single Rider line were taking up a lot of space in the thoroughfare and were making navigating this area rather tiresome.

We took this time to get a photo with the Partners statue, which is just beyond Disney Studio 1.

So what to do now?

We decided to look at the 'wait times board' as that might gives us an idea. Well the board confirmed that both Ratatouille and Crush's Coaster were closed. The shortest wait times were for the Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, neither of which we were interested in riding. So we looked at some of the shows; Animagique and CineMagique both of which were scheduled to start at either 11.00am or 11.30am and most of the showings were in French...the first English presentations weren't until the early afternoon! So after a 20 minute visit to Walt Disney Studios we found ourselves leaving the park and heading to Disneyland Park.

The Studios for us on this visit had been rather disappointing; I'm hoping for others visiting that we were just unlucky with our timings and that perhaps at busier times of the year this park has more to offer. There is so much potential here that I hope Disneyland Paris recognise that and continue to give this park the expansion it deserves and needs.

Arriving in Disneyland Park we headed for probably our favourite ride; Big Thunder Mountain. The wait time was 40 minutes but that was fine we were all happy to wait that long, so we joined the queue which seemed longer than on previous 40 minute waits but that didn't put us off. We'd been in the very slow moving queue about 10 minutes when both Simon and I noticed at almost the same time that we'd not seen any trains come through since joining the queue. Then I realised that the background music had stopped playing and on looking down to the entrance to the queue the cast members were turning guests away...this wasn't going to be our day! So we decided to turn around and leave the queue and as we headed away from the ride we looked back and could see that there was a train stopped on the track right at the top of one of the lift hills - oops!

By this time we needed cheering up and warming up so we popped into the Cable Car Bake Shop and had coffee, hot chocolates and muffins!

Re-charged we headed over to Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast and even this ride didn't run completely smoothly...although a couple of stops as we went round did mean we could rack up our scores...or at least try to! Molly did manage to get over 100,000 for the first time ever!!

Next we jumped onto the Disneyland Railroad at the Discoveryland station to take a tour around the park to Fantasyland. There is the lovely Grand Canyon diorama that you travel through on your way between Main Street USA and Frontierland which is a highlight of taking the train journey. Strangely we stopped at the station in Frontierland despite the station being closed and this was the view from the train...

This was once a 'petting zoo' type area

It was such a shame to see a whole area just left to ruin...there was literally nothing there but empty buildings and paddocks. If my memory serves me right this had once been a small petting zoo/farm type area populated with animals that children could get up close and personal with. Now there is nothing except empty space - what a waste :(

Once in Fantasyland the kids rode the Mad Hatters Tea Cups, followed by a quick stop over into Adventureland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean one last time. Back into Fantasyland to ride 'it's a small world' before we headed down Main Street USA...

Last photo in the park!

We did some last minute shopping as we left the park and then headed into the Disney Village in search of food and there could only be one place to go...yes it had to be Earl of Sandwich!

The infamous gold brick!

I think Molly might be a bit happy to be here!!

As we'd got a long journey ahead of us we made sure we ate well...I had Thai chicken soup followed by a Philly cheese steak sandwich and then my favourite - bread pudding!

Fully fuelled we wandered through the Disney Village to make our way to the train station. On the way we stopped at the Disney Store where me and Molly bought our first Tsum Tsum's; I opted for the classic Mickey & Minnie while Molly bought Perry the Platypus from Phineas & Ferb. We also took a stroll around the World of Disney store where I bought myself a new Mickey mug for work.

We got to the train station around 3.30pm and simply visited the Disney Express desk to fetch our luggage and whilst we had a small wait it wasn't too long and the desk operated very efficiently. Next we checked in for our Eurostar train which again was very straight forward and then found ourselves with about an hour to wait for the train. Unfortunately once through check-in there was nothing to do...no where to sit, no where to grab a coffee...nothing! Thankfully after about 35 minutes we were let through to the platform where our train was waiting so we had plenty of time to get on board and get settled ready for our journey home.

We arrived back at Ebbsfleet on time and were in our car and on our way home, in heavy rain, in no time at all.

And that was Disneyland Paris...a short visit and whilst not the same calibre as the parks in the US it did mean that I got my fix of Disney at a time that I really needed it. Will we be going back to Paris any time soon? I don't think so...from our families point of view whilst we enjoyed the trip we all agreed that we would rather save up for a trip to Walt Disney World or even Disneyland. Now this may be some way off but we will get there one day and until then I have plenty of Disney memories to keep me going!

Disneyland Paris - February 2015 - Day 3 continued

So what else did we get up to on day 3 of our Disneyland Paris trip?

Well, after a morning in Disneyland Park we headed over to Walt Disney Studios for the first time this trip.

Entrance to Walt Disney Studios

Once through the gates the first thing we all wanted was food! Unfortunately we probably made the wrong choice as far as food goes. On entering the Studios you arrive in the Front Lot area and then enter a building called 'Disney Studio 1' which has two distinct areas. The left hand side is a large shop while the right hand side is a fast food restaurant called Restaurant en Coulisse which serves your traditional fast food; various burgers and a couple of salads.

The problem was we chose to stop here at lunchtime when everyone else had decided to do the same thing. We ordered our food relatively quickly but trying to find somewhere to sit down to eat was almost impossible; we tried the upstairs seating (which was very awkward to navigate through) before coming downstairs where we resigned ourselves to having to eat standing at a bar area (which had no seats!). But then we spotted some people leaving and we had to literally pounce to get the table. The tables were tightly packed in so you had no sense of your own space and because it was so busy you were very aware of other groups of people 'hovering around' waiting for people to leave. Plus the food was just very basic and nothing special...not a very enjoyable experience at all.

Anyway once we'd eaten we headed straight for the 'Toon Studio' area of the park and in particular the newest attraction at Disneyland Paris; Ratatouille: L'Adventure Totalement Toquee de Remy.

The wait time was 50 minutes but we decided to just go for it! Ratatouille is a new concept in dark rides and your ride vehicle operates on a trackless system as you enter different rooms that are a mix of film, special effects and props.  The ride is beautiful and I only wish we could have gotten to ride it more.

The area in which the Ratatouille ride is located is also beautifully themed, although it did remind me a lot of the France pavilion at Epcot;

Table service restaurant - Bistrot Chez Remy

We then headed towards another Pixar themed ride; Crush's Coaster...now unfortunately we did not have the best experience while waiting for this ride, an experience which ultimately resulted in never getting the chance to ride.

The queue was at around 45 minutes which we were all quite happy to join and initially the queue moved relatively quickly, but after 15 minutes or so the queue began to slow down until eventually it stopped. But that was alright, sometimes the speed of queues vary but then I noticed that the music that had been playing had stopped. By this time we were surrounded by some rather noisy individuals who all thought it was perfectly acceptable to start smoking...something that was clearly signposted as 'not allowed'. This seemed to be quite common practice for smokers to 'light up' wherever they liked rather than in the designated areas...but disappointingly we also noticed that no-one seemed to be enforcing the rules about where it was and wasn't acceptable to smoke!!

Anyway, back to the queue...over the group of noisy individuals I thought I heard an announcement, but there were two problems; firstly it was not being played at the far end of the queue system where we were located and secondly it was only being played in French. We stood and waited a bit longer and then heard the indecipherable announcement again...by this point I was getting a little frustrated to say the least so I made the decision that we were leaving the queue. But as the people behind us in the queue weren't moving out of the queue area we literally had to push our way through and climb over the barriers that split the queue into 'lanes'. When we finally made it out to the entry point of the Stand-by entrance we found the entrance closed and cast members turning guests away. Now I appreciate that rides will break down and accept that it is an unfortunate part of any theme park experience, but what really upset me was the apparent lack of care or concern that was shown for guests waiting in the queue once the decision had been made to close the ride. Not one cast member walked the queue area to explain what was happening, the announcements were inaudible and only in French and when leaving the queue area there was no apology or even any sign of concern that guests were still standing in line. Not a good experience!!

All four of us were feeling a little disgruntled to say the least so we decided to wander over to the opposite side of the park to see what there was to do. Now I think by this point we were all struggling to enjoy the Studios...we walked past The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (not a ride I would do normally) and despite a short wait of 10 minutes no-one was interested in riding it. We thought about the Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic, again with a relatively short wait time but couldn't muster any enthusiasm. We passed Armageddon: Les Effects Speciaux and Moteurs...Action! Stunt Show Spectacular but neither grabbed our interest. By now we were in front of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith a ride which in Florida is always a must do (not me as I don't really like roller coasters!) and the wait time was 10 minutes...I turned to the kids and Simon expecting excitement but was met with a shrug of the shoulders and 'not really bothered' reply!

Oh dear the Studios were turning into a bit of a disaster for us so it was time for a re-fuel and somewhere to get warm. We went into Disney Blockbuster Cafe the only other counter service restaurant in the park and walked into an almost deserted restaurant. We then had to figure out how to get served as it really wasn't very clear; it was a help yourself counter service that when we were there was very poorly stocked, you then took your tray to a cashier to pay and order drinks. The drinks were self-serve but rather than in US parks where it would be a free refills drink station this was controlled by tokens. So one token meant one drink...no refills...

We decided to head back over to Crush's Coaster and see if we could get a ride, but alas no, the ride was still down. So instead we headed into Toy Story Playland, the only area of the park we had yet to do.

Buzz Lightyear guards the entrance to Toy Story Playland

This is a relatively small area of the studios which is home to three rides; Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop, Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin and RC Racer. and whilst the area is beautifully themed it didn't impress us enough to actually go on any of the rides. The Slinky Dog ride was definitely aimed at younger children, the RC Racer was basically a classic pirate ship swing ride but themed around toy cars and car-track and the Toy Soldier ride was your basic parachute drop affair. Nothing particularly unique and our two teenagers were not impressed and said they felt it was an area for 'little kids'!

We decided that we had had enough of Walt Disney Studios and headed into the Disney Village and partook of a little retail therapy!!

The obligatory trying on of hats!!

Playing with toy guns!!

Is it a cuddly Sully or is it a pillow? It's both!

Caught in full shopping mode...can't resist a bit of Disney jewellery....even if it's technically in the children's section!!

So a few purchases later we headed once more to our favourite eatery; Earl of Sandwich! We discovered their amazing soups on this trip which helped warm us up no end, followed by a yummy sandwich and we were all very happy. The day was now drawing to a close, so after taking advantage of the free wi-fi inside Earl of Sandwich, we headed back to the Sequoia Lodge. We stopped in at the hotel shop and bought a couple of beers and some chocolate before returning to our room for another well deserved sleep.

Disneyland Paris February 2015 - Day One

Firstly many apologies for such a long time between blog posts, unfortunately lots of 'life' stuff has happened which has both restricted my time and my want to get on and type. But I'm back on it now and I shall continue with my adventures at Disneyland Paris from a few weeks back...so where were we?

Ah yes...we'd made it to Disneyland Paris...well the train station at least, so what did we do next?

Well, we made our way out of the station and had our first encounter with security at Disneyland Paris. As you leave the area surrounding the station and head to the parks and Disney Village you have to go through 'bag check', which will be familiar to anyone who visits Disney theme parks all over the world. At Paris they have 'bag checks' set up when you leave the train station area and also when you enter the Disney Village from the hotel area of the resort. The 'bag check' is very efficient as they use the same x-ray machines that are used in airports. Simply place your bags on a conveyor belt and collect them the other side of the x-ray machine - very simple, efficient and relatively quick.

Little green tent set up as 'bag check' area when leaving hotels and entering Disney Village

So once we were safely through bag check we decided that rather than head straight for the parks we needed food...and there was only one place to go...somewhere we all loved and hadn't been able to experience since our last trip to WDW back in August 2013...we are talking Earl of Sandwich of course!

Upstairs at Earl of Sandwich

The infamous gold brick!!

The kids enjoying their food :)

I opted for the healthy thai chicken salad option, which was lovely! Although I did have the amazing bread pudding as well!

So whilst we were in the warmth of the Earl of Sandwich I took five minutes to complete the hotel check-in card which we had been given when we dropped our luggage off at the Disney Express counter inside the train station - I figured completing it now would save us some time later on.

Me filling out forms!

Once the paperwork was completed, and now feeling re-energised after our food, we decided to have a wander around the shops of Disney Village. I fell in love with the Disney Fashion store and knew that I'd be back spending in there before our trip was done! I also loved The Disney Gallery shop as there were some lovely pieces of artwork to admire.

We then decided to head over to our hotel, the Sequoia Lodge, and get checked-in.

Arriving at the Sequoia Lodge.

We made our way to the hotel reception, which when you enter from the Disney Village side of the hotel is actually on the first floor, so you go up a set of stairs and walk around to the right of the main bar area in order to reach the check-in desks.

Check-in was relatively straight forward although the major difference between Paris and the US parks is the amount of paper you are given to carry around with you! First there are the park entry tickets - multi-park, multi-day paper tickets - then there is a piece of paper that is basically your hotel ID which gives you access to your hotel facilities like the swimming pool, spa, gym etc but also identifies you as a resort guest for the purposes of early park entry (Extra Magic Hours) and then if you'd like to be able to charge things back to your resort hotel there is a third piece of paper! 

Park ticket, hotel ID and charging card

We also had to pick what time we wanted to have breakfast over the stay of our vacation. The package we had booked meant that a standard breakfast was included for each day of our stay. In order to manage the large number of people in the hotel wanting breakfast they operate a time system, whereby you pick a time slot when you'd like to have your breakfast for each day of your stay. This time can vary each day as once a slot is 'full' you will only be able to pick slots with 'spaces'. For each day you are given yet another 'piece of paper' by way of a coloured card that is specific to the day of the week and the time chosen, and this is needed to access the restaurant at breakfast time. We were also told that at no extra charge we were able to take breakfast in the parks and were offered a slot for one of our days. This can feel a bit restrictive, having to pick times for the duration of your stay when you have no idea how you'll be feeling each day or what plans you may decide upon. But one thing to note is that the system is really only a guide as to when you take your breakfast, we were 'late' on a couple of occasions but this didn't stop us getting our breakfast!

Oh and of course we needed a key for our room, which was a separate plastic credit card sized room key! Once we had our room key and bits of paper we headed to the Left Luggage Office to collect our luggage which had been transported to the hotel from the train station. We then used our hotel map to find our way to our hotel room.

Hotel map

We were in a standard room which meant that we were in one of five lodges located in the grounds of the hotel, rather than in the main building. Our lodge was called Big Sur - the others are Monterey, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Sierra.

In our room, getting sorted and ready to head off out!! I think I shall devote a blog post at a later date to the hotel, the room and it's facilities.

So with dusk falling we headed off to the parks, well Disneyland Park to be precise.

We've made it! Outside the main entrance

Looking down Main Street, USA as dusk is falling

Once into the park there was only one thing the kids wanted to do and that was to ride Big Thunder Mountain...so off we went. We had a 40 minute wait but we were all happy with this as we knew that this was a ride well worth waiting for. Unlike it's US counterparts the main part of the ride is actually situated on an island in the middle of the Rivers of the Far West, whilst the boarding station is in Frontierland. This means that the first part of the ride is actually in a tunnel that goes under the water, which means that the start (and end) of the ride is surprisingly dark and especially so when riding it at the time of day we did; by the time we got on the train the evening had really drawn in and we had a great night time ride!

Whilst in Frontierland we hopped over to take a ride on Phantom Manor. This is a beautifully themed and presented attraction and has it's own unique story line. Although beware it is presented in French and so it's worth reading up on the back story before hand as it will help enhance your ride experience. Certain elements of the ride are similar to other versions around the world whilst there are sections that are particular to this version; the cemetery scene in particular is amazing!

By now it was quite dark, very cold and we were all feeling in the need for food and somewhere warm! So off we set to see what we could find, unfortunately most of the restaurants we encountered were closed which we put down to the time - it was around 7.00pm and the park was due to close at 8.00pm - so what to do?  Well we took a wander through the shops of Main Street, USA to try and get warmed up before leaving the park and heading into the Disney Village in search of food. Most of the restaurants in the Village either had long queues or were out of our budget and so we ended up back at Earl of Sandwich...not that any of us were complaining!

And therein completes day one of our trip to Disneyland Paris; a long and tiring day but very enjoyable too...suffice to say we were all asleep rather quickly!!