Globetrotting: to Disneyland Paris and back with TCD

Tri-Circle-D · June 16, 2015

Whoah! Stop the train! Study this photo:

Is it my imagination or did the Imagineers actually create a scene where the draw bridge is opening while a busload of children is going over it?!?
WTF?!
How did this design become a reality?! Why do all the kids on the bus look happy?! Why aren't they screaming in terror?

LOL.

It's good to have you along for this TR, Norm.

I never noticed that the bridge was opening beneath a bus full of children, but there it is.

I attribute this to the intense mutual dislike that I discovered to exist between the English and the French. When we were in London, there was a very cheaply made TV comedy show that played in the mornings where 90% of the jokes were slams on the French. I thought it was quite humorous, but I was surprised by it. Why should these neighbors hate each other?

I think you should have gone to the front desk and asked for the full instructions for the kettle.
It reminds me of a story my friend told me. After her grandmother died they were going through her house and she had saved the instructions for everything, including her bath mat. Yes, her bath mat.

You're right- it would have been interesting to see what else there was to tell about how to plug in an electric kettle.

Instructions for a bath mat? Those must be riveting reading.

At least you got a good parking spot.....

LOL.

True.

It sure looks like it.

Yes it does. I guess it gave the Frenchmen who built the ride a good chuckle.

I enjoy carbs. That breakfast looks pretty good.
Booooo EMH.

The breakfast was good. The croissants and baguettes were very fresh. But, it was a lot of bread.

But really, this breakfast is for two people. So you are to eat one baguette, one croissant, one oj, one milk, and some Nutella? Do these people eat protein?

You forgot the applesauce. It's not meat, but at least it's not bread. They apparently don't have a food pyramid in France.

I'm curious whether the French speaking breakfast girl offered you cheese and salami of some kind? Most European breakfasts I've seen that had baguettes had cheese and salami too. Maybe she offered it but you couldn't understand her. Cause that is a somewhat strange looking breakfast, even by Euro standards.

Furthermore, I know it's been said previously (but I've been offline a lot)....that place just looks sad. The Davy Crockett ranch resembles an unkempt state park. what with the weeds growing around benches, the Path of UnAwesomeness, and the general look of disrepair. Disney should be ashamed. If for no other reason, they should be keeping the place up simply to entice all the Europeans to spend their annual vacation allowance on a trip to Florida where they could drop some serious coin. If that place gave me my primary impression of the Walt Disney Company, I'd be spending my future Euros elsewhere.

Salami? Do they have salami in France? I assure you that if that French girl offered me salami, I would have gladly accepted. There was no meat offered. The only thing I saw in the shack that I didn't get was small boxes of cornflakes. I think those could be swapped out for one of the breads. The other choices had to do with juice, milk, and whether I wanted tea, coffee or hot cocoa. Your observation that there should have been some meat and cheese is right, though- I've seen photos of the breakfast buffets offered at the other DLP resorts, and they have meats and cheeses there.

Your observation about the place looking sad is correct. And, I haven't even shared photos of what made me the saddest yet. Those are yet to come. On top of that, this danged place was expensive! Even backing out the meals and the park tickets, that stupid cabin was the most expensive room we had on this trip.

I agree with Dave. I bet salami and cheese were on the menu. Although if she was waving that stuff around I'm sure you would have accepted. Or maybe she assumed you had already had your horse grill you up some hot dogs.

Nope. No salami. No cheese. And definitely no hot dogs. My choices were bread, bread, or cornflakes. Everything else was spreads and beverages.

TCD

Tri-Circle-D · June 16, 2015

Let's get back to the trip.

I left off with us "enjoying" EMH at Disneyland on Monday morning, May 18. It wasn't busy, but there also wasn't a whole lot to do.

The park map mentions to check the "Programme" to find out about entertainment and such.

The Programme has the entertainment schedules for both parks, and apparently is printed once a week. So, this is what they use instead of the Times Guides you might be familiar with at WDW. There are two sides, and it's the size of a typical brochure:

This is the grid showing the entertainment for Disneyland:

As you can see, there were several special shows for the special Spring event that was going on. The one called La Garden Party de Dingo sounded good. In case you don't know, they call Goofy Dingo over there in France. Why? What's wrong with calling him Goofy? As you know, we arrived late in the day on May 17. Look at the schedule- there would be no Dingo show on May 18 or 19. So no Dingo for us.

The other shows sounded cute, but they also sounded a lot like really short parades. We agreed that we wouldn't go out of our way to try to catch them.

The final observation I have about the Disneyland part of the Programme is that there are very few chances to meet characters in DLP. They list the opportunity to meet Pan-Pan as if it's a big deal. Pan-Pan is what they call Thumper from Bambi. Again- why? What's wrong with calling him Thumper. And, if there's a good reason to not call him Thumper, then why Pan-Pan? What is wrong with these people?

This is the Walt Disney Studios grid from the Programme:

As you can see, they have a lot of shows in that park. I thought we should catch one or two of them, and the times seemed like they might work. Maybe we would get a FP for something, and see a show while we were waiting.

Before we head into Walt Disney Studios, let's take a look at the map:

If your initial reaction is that the park looks kind of small, you are correct.

They have the park divided into several different "lands." Up at the top right, they have Toon Studio:

On the other side of the park, they have the Backlot:

And the Production Courtyard:

Here's the list of attractions for Production Courtyard and the Backlot:

Here's the list of attractions for the Toon Studio and the Front Lot (which doesn't seem to have any attractions) :

Note that the Toon Studio incorporates an area called Toy Story Playland. This might be significant to you, as there are rumors that DHS may be getting a Toy Story Play Land. We will be taking a closer look at that in this update.

Here we are heading in to the park. Guests enter the park through this gigantic building-which is full of gift shops and a couple of restaurants:

When we looked at the hub area in front of Disneyland's castle, did you notice that something was missing?

How about now?:

Here in DLP, the famous Partners statue, which is front and center in the MK and Disneyland California, is relegated to the lesser park. It does look nice here, and I like how the Hollywood sign is off in the distance, but Walt and Mickey belong in front of the castle.

Their Tower of Terror is incorporated into the streetscape here:

I forgot to mention that we arrived at the front gate of Walt Disney Studios at about 9:50, and the park was supposed to open at 10. But, they were letting people in, and we walked right in early with the rest of the arriving guests.

The top two things on our list here were Crush's Coaster and the Ratatouille ride. So we headed straight to the Toon Studio part of the park. We saw the entrance to Crush's Coaster, and guests were streaming in there. There are no FP's for Crush's Coaster, and I had read that it has long waits. So does Ratatouille, but it has FP's. What made sense to me was for me to go and get us Ratatouille FP's and then ride Crush's Coaster stand-by. So, that's what I did. That ended up being a bad idea, as I arrived there to find a huge line of guests waiting for them to turn on the FP machines at 10. Based on the mob in front of me, it would probably take me 15 minutes just to get the FP's. And in that time, the Crush's Coaster line would continue to grow.

So, I headed back to DD empty handed, and we joined this happy queue outside of Crush's Coaster. It was 10:03 am when I took this photo. The park supposedly had been open for three minutes:

All of those guests are ahead of us.

I was hoping that they spent all of the money on the ride, because they sure didn't spend in on the queue:

That queue moved slow. It was 10:22 when I took this photo as we finally made it to the inside part of the queue:

Four minutes later we had moved about five feet to this group of signs:

Once we got inside the ride building, things moved a little quicker. It ended up being a 30 minute wait. Which isn't bad, but it isn't great considering we arrived at rope drop.

I had read several reviews of Crush's Coaster, but I never fully understood what this ride would be like. Riders board individual cars shaped like turtle shells. Each shell holds four riders- who sit back to back. This is one reason the line moves so slow, as they have to stop and load each shell, one at a time. From the loading area, you roll forward and head up a lift hill. You are in a big building, and it is dark. The first part of the ride is a lot like the Nemo ride in Epcot, with props showing sharks and jellyfish and such. Then, things get crazy as you meet Crush and you enter the "EAC." Since it was dark, the first drop came as a surprise, and we went down the hill backward, and then our car spun. The ride track and spinning car reminded me of Primeval Whirl in Animal Kingdom- but in the dark. After all of the twists and turns, the track runs outside of the building for a bit, and then we arrived at the unload area.

Reading up on this after the fact, it turns out that the reason the ride seems a lot like Primeval Whirl is that the were both built by the same German firm which is famous for its "Wild Mouse" coasters. Crush's Coaster is a custom variation of a Wild Mouse coaster. It was pretty good, but I'm not a fan of riding rolling coasters backwards or spinning, so one ride on this was plenty for me.

Here's a photo of the outside part of the ride which I took after we rode so you can see what the turtle shell cars look like:

It was 11 am before we made it to Ratatouille. They were still distributing FP's so I got us a couple, and we would need to come back at 14:00 to ride. The standby time was posted as being 50 minutes, and the single rider line said it was only 5 minutes:

DD came up with a brilliant suggestion here. She suggested that we ride Ratatouille as single riders now, and then we could come back and use our FP's later if we really liked it.

And that's what we did. We headed in via the single riders queue, and walked non-stop right to the loading area. We didn't even stop- as a CM there assigned us to the next car that would load. The rat cars seat six-like the cars at Test Track. We were seated with a party of four, one of us in the third seat in the front row, and the other right behind in the back row. Perfect.

The Ratatouille ride is brand new. It isn't even a year old yet. This whole area of the park is new, and has been hailed a huge step in the right direction for this much maligned park. I purposely had not read reviews about the ride, as I wanted to experience it without preconceived ideas.

The ride is good. It is unlike any ride currently in the US Disney parks. It incorporates very large projection screens, and the riders are supposed to be the size of a rat. The experience is a lot like the Spiderman and Transformer rides at Universal Studios, where riders travel from scene to scene as the story and ride experience unfolds.

We liked it. But not so much that we felt it necessary to ride it again with our FP's. Those ended up being souvenirs for DD's scrapbook.

Next, we took a look at the Toy Story area:

There are three rides here which are obviously off-the-shelf carnival type rides which have been decorated with Toy Story props. They have an area that they call Bug's Land in Disney's California Adventure that is like this. The area was busy, and the waits were long for the rides, but to me it felt very cheap, and more like something I'd expect to find in Busch Gardens or a Six Flags park than in a Disney park. I could see them adding this type of thing to DHS, as it would be a cheap way to give people more to do. But, I won't like it.

There wasn't anything else that we wanted to do on this side of the park, so we headed across the park to the other side. We passed Tower of Terror, and thought about riding it, until we saw that the posted wait time was 45 minutes:

We also passed the entrance for their Back Lot tour, which I was very interested in seeing, since they have a catastrophe canyon and everything, but the posted wait time there was 90 minutes! Which made no sense, as the park really didn't seem that busy. There really weren't a lot of people walking around- I guess they were all in lines:

I suggested that we go and check out their Rock N Rollercoaster, so we walked to that side of the park.

On the way, we passed the attraction dedicated to the Armageddon movie. You know, the one with Bruce Willis from 1998? Was that a big enough hit to justify a whole attraction? I liked it and all, but I don't think so. Anyway, they have this giant vehicle prop set up outside of the theater there:

Here's something you might not know- those vehicles were called Armadillos in the movie. And there used to be one of them on display in DHS at WDW right were the Big Hat used to be. For all I know, this is the same one.

I'm sure you know that the Lights, Motors, Action show in DHS was a gift to us from France when they opened attractions from other parks in WDW for the 100 Years of Magic promotion. This is the original version:

Look, a Con Air poster. I was beginning to feel like I had time traveled back to the 90's:

OK, OK, maybe I'm being a little too hard on Walt Disney Studios. Look, here's a poster from a current movie (if you consider 2012 current) :

Here's their Rock N Rollercoaster:

The wait time here was only 5 minutes. So we went in. And there was no line. We went right in to the pre-show room. The video they show there is totally different from the one shown in the US- but it is still in English. When you leave that room, you head out to the loading area, which is not themed like a parking garage, but like you are actually at an arena. But the layout of everything is exactly the same. How could the Back Lot tour have a 90 minute wait? We got the very back row. And, man, they need to do some maintenance on this ride- the ride in the last car was very rough, with audible rattling sounds as we shook our way along the track.

Here's something you find in DLP that you won't find in the US:

You can meet Spiderman here!

Weird.

We thought about it, but the posted wait time was 30 minutes.

After being crammed in with a bunch of Euros in the Crush's Coaster line, we just weren't feeling being in any more long lines this morning.

While things hadn't gone exactly as planned this morning, we had already ridden the rides that we really wanted to ride in Walt Disney Studios.

Next, we decided that we should take in one of the shows. I'll tell you how that went in the next update.

TCD

Tri-Circle-D · June 16, 2015

We left off in the late morning as we toured Walt Disney Studios.

We had ridden the big rides, and now were looking for a show.

I was willing to give the Armageddon show a try:

But DD asked a good question: "what is it?" The map says that it's "an avalanche of sounds, bumps and special effects guaranteed!" And, this is not a show with a schedule. It's some kind of continuous thing. The description made it sound like the old Sounds Dangerous attraction at DHS. Which was really bad. So, we passed.

If not Armageddon then what?

We looked at the Programme.

We considered two shows: Animagique or Cinemagique. We had missed the 11:30 shows, and the next shows weren't until 12:30. Well, we could eat lunch and then go. That was kind of the plan.

Our plan for lunch was to head out to someplace in the Disney Village, as the clerk at the Davy Crockett Ranch last night told us we would find free Wi-Fi there, and we both had some things we needed to do.

I kind of suspected that we wouldn't make it back for either 12:30 show, but I didn't really care. I wasn't impressed with Walt Disney Studios, and I wanted to go have lunch. If we made it back after, fine. If not, that was fine too.

So, we decided to head out.

There's a relatively new poster- for the Cinderella movie that came out this past spring:

And here's a really new poster- for the new Pixar movie, Inside Out, which comes out this weekend. Only in France, it's called Vice Versa:

They still have a BAH at their Studios:

I'm not sure if you can see it, but they have Peter Pan, Wendy and Tinkerbell flying around their BAH.

Here's a poster for a current Disney Channel show, and past that in the background, there was a screen that guests could use as a photo op. I wanted to get a photo there, but the group you see in the photo was hogging it:

Another shot of their BAH:

I took this photo because Twin #2 was able to purchase a copy of the Snow White poster you see on that light pole from the WDW CM store last year, and she has it hanging in her apartment:

Here we are at the park exit:

Then we headed out into the Disney Village, which is their version of Downtown Disney- it's like the one in California- much smaller than the one at WDW. As we walked in, DD checked for Wi-Fi, and found nothing. So we kept on heading further in, and still nothing. It turns out that they don't have Wi-Fi all over the village, but certain restaurants offer it.

We walked all the way back to where they have their big balloon:

That's the Sequoia Lodge across the water there, which is supposed to be like Wilderness Lodge:

Did you notice what's there on the right?

Earl of Sandwich.

And the sign in their window said they had free Wi-Fi.

I had said going in to this trip that we would try to eat things that we couldn't get at home, but this was a desperate time, and we needed that Wi-Fi. So we went in. Most of the things on the menu were the same. But, they did have something called Le Frenchy, which is what I had:

One nice thing about EOS is that they had a self serve drink machine, with ice. We liked that.

Their Wi-Fi worked too. Which made both of us happy.

As we enjoyed lunch, I reminded DD that I needed to stop by the train station some time today to check on getting a train out of here tomorrow afternoon. DD was happy where she was, so I told her I'd head over there, and then come back here to get her. That ended up being a lot of walking for me, but it worked.

I had a hard time at first trying to find any information in that train station- it was so big. Finally, I found the right ticket window, and found that getting a train to Paris was really simple. There is no schedule. They run back and forth all day, about every 15 minutes. I could buy our tickets now, or then, and just hop on the train whenever I wanted to. So, I got the tickets- it was something like $15 total for the two tickets. Much less than I thought it would be. I don't know why I couldn't find that very simple information in any of the guidebooks I read- they all made it sound much more complicated.

With our tickets squared away, I headed back to EOS and retrieved DD. It was past 1:30 at this point, and we needed to decide about going back in to the studios. We had already planned to take an afternoon break and head back to the ranch, as we thought we wanted to eat dinner there at Crockett's Tavern, and then head back to Disneyland in the evening. We decided to start our afternoon break now. So no more Studios for us.

Here we are heading out to the parking lot:

That good parking space came in handy, and we hopped in the car and drove back to the ranch. No traffic again.

When we got to the ranch, we decided to head to the Trading Post before heading to the cabin. We hadn't checked out the souvenirs in there, and I was hoping for a Davy Crockett Ranch t-shirt.

The Trading Post is nice and big, and has this cool sign in it:

I like that sign, but I still wanted to see Mickey holding his musket.

I never did get to see that.

I think French Mickey has lost his musket too.

They had a lot of fresh fruit for sale here, and they sold it by weight, not by the piece like they do at the Meadow Trading Post:

They had a lot of interesting frozen items:

And bread that looks like it came from the same place the bread we got at breakfast time came from:

This is milk- it was out on the shelves and not refrigerated. They do weird things to their milk over here:

I like that antler chandelier:

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, they had not one Davy Crockett Ranch t-shirt in that entire store. The only item in the whole store that said Davy Crockett Ranch on it was a trading pin. Which I bought. But, that's all they had.

Lame.

Here we are back at the parking lot. Note that everyone is not backed in to their spaces:

Then we did some looping. In our Fiat Panda. I went around the 1500 loop. It was deserted. We found one of those different cabins, and I hopped out to look in the windows. They do have a different floor plan. The front bedroom has just the one bed in it, as opposed to the three plus the trundle that we had in ours:

Front bedroom, side window:

Note that they also get bedspreads, which we didn't.

This is a really bad photo showing the living room area because of the reflection in the glass, but it's the only one I have- if you look there to the left, you can see the same ugly couch that we had, but they have a different table, and some kind of fancier coffer maker on the counter:

I don't have a photo, but I could see that in the back bedroom there were two sets of bunk beds, which made much more floor space.

DD's theory is that this loop wasn't even open to guests, and that these cabins were not in use. I think she is right, as this loop was closest to the construction, and we could hear a lot of noise from here.

These clearly aren't handicap cabins, so my guess is that this is what they call a premium cabin. I can't see any good reason to pay more for one of these, though.

When we were in the Trading Post, we picked up our free cleaning kit.

And here it is:

That's a small zip-lock bag, like smaller than a sandwich size- with a sponge, a handy wipe, a small bottle of dish soap, and two dishwasher packets. I'm not sure if guests staying longer get more than this, but it didn't seem like they did.

The clerk in the Trading Post marked our map so we couldn't sneak in and get a second free cleaning kit:

So what is the point of all of this? Why can't they just leave this stuff in the cabin for each guest to use? Why make guests go with their maps to pick it up? It's really dumb, isn't it?

By the way, the only dishes we used the whole time were a couple of coffee cups and some knives to spread our nutella. Those all got left in the sink. So, I got to take my free cleaning kit home. I'm going to use it the next time we camp at the Fort. If you see me there, I'll be happy to show it to you.

Since I was already taking pictures of pieces of paper, I took these photos of the little guide they gave us at check in:

Some interesting things to note about the guide:

-the guide stresses that reservations are a good idea if you want to eat at Crockett's Tavern. We did, but I hadn't made a reservation.

-look at the entertainment page. And note how there is none. Except for the pool. There is a note there to check the information board in the village. I did, and there was nothing on it. There are no organized activities of any kind here. None.

-Look at list of things you have to leave a deposit for on the back page. I already told you had we had to leave 30 Euros to borrow a hair dryer. Look at how you have to pay a deposit of 45 Euros just to have an extra key to the cabin.

-the guide says you have to leave a credit card on file with the front desk to use the phone. I wanted to call and try to get a reservation for Crockett's Tavern for dinner, but it worried me that there would be a charge to use the phone.

We wanted to eat at Crockett's so I decided that I would try to call someone to make a reservation. If that didn't work, I would head to the front desk.

And, I had brought my swimming trunks all the way here so I could try the pool, and it looked like I had time to do that.

After I try to get us a dining reservation, we will be heading back down to Davy's Village for a swim next.

TCD

jmaul · June 16, 2015

Crush's Coaster looks like it would be a hit with me and my kids.

Score on the walk-up for Rocking Roller Coaster.

Spiderman. Humm. Saw that on the Programme and was wondering if you were going to do the meet n greet.

Would have liked your review of ToT, comparing it to the others.

Thanks for the pics of the grand chapeau de cul.

Can't wait for the next installment. Saw an online pic of the pool and it looks neat.

Momof6....aka Marty · June 16, 2015

TCD, I have to say Thank You for biting the bullet and checking out DLP for the FF. So far, it is not somewhere I would spend the money to go to. If I had the money.

But you did make me want to visit London again and esp. want to visit Dublin.

I can't wait to read your impressions of Paris.

keith_h · June 16, 2015

We left off in the late morning as we toured Walt Disney Studios.

We had ridden the big rides, and now were looking for a show.

I was willing to give the Armageddon show a try:

But DD asked a good question: "what is it?" The map says that it's "an avalanche of sounds, bumps and special effects guaranteed!" And, this is not a show with a schedule. It's some kind of continuous thing. The description made it sound like the old Sounds Dangerous attraction at DHS. Which was really bad. So, we passed.

If not Armageddon then what?

I wonder if it like the old alien theatre in the round that used to be in Tomorrowland?

Tri-Circle-D · June 16, 2015

Crush's Coaster looks like it would be a hit with me and my kids.

Score on the walk-up for Rocking Roller Coaster.

Spiderman. Humm. Saw that on the Programme and was wondering if you were going to do the meet n greet.

Would have liked your review of ToT, comparing it to the others.

Thanks for the pics of the grand chapeau de cul.

Can't wait for the next installment. Saw an online pic of the pool and it looks neat.

I wish that I had met Spiderman and ridden Tower of Terror also. One regret I have is that we only spent a few hours total in Walt Disney Studios. I didn't like the vibe of the whole place, and the long lines at some of the attractions didn't make sense. But, I should have tried a few more things.

But, that would have eaten into my time back at the ranch that afternoon, and I did get to swim and see some more things there.

TCD, I have to say Thank You for biting the bullet and checking out DLP for the FF. So far, it is not somewhere I would spend the money to go to. If I had the money.

But you did make me want to visit London again and esp. want to visit Dublin.

I can't wait to read your impressions of Paris.

Even though it wasn't what I expected it to be, I'm still glad that I got to go, and as crazy as it sounds, I probably will go again one day. Twin #2 hasn't gotten to visit there. If she ends up as a Disney CM (and that's certainly the path she's on), she will be able to get CM discounts there, and free admission to the parks. That's too good a deal to pass up.

I did love Dublin and London, and would gladly visit those cities and the areas surrounding them again.

My impressions of Paris are more complicated, which we will get to in due time.

I wonder if it like the old alien theatre in the round that used to be in Tomorrowland?

It could have been something like that.

By the way, the theater of which you speak still exists. It's part of the Stitch ride, and, aside from a giant blue alien robot, the theater is the same as when it was Mission to Mars (and later Alien Encounter).

TCD

Tri-Circle-D · June 16, 2015

Man, this TR is getting long.

And, when I look at the photos I have left, we still have a ways to go.

But, if I keep posting, I know we will get to the end eventually.

We left off with us back at the Fort on Monday afternoon. We had hit the end of EMH at Disneyland that morning, then visited Walt Disney Studios.

Now we're taking a break back at the Ranch. I keep on typing Fort, and having to correct myself.

We weren't 100% sure earlier, but now we were sure that we wanted to eat dinner at Crockett's Tavern tonight. I mean, I had to, didn't I? I was hoping that maybe they'd have fried chicken.

But we didn't have a reservation.

I needed to fix that.

So, I went to this relic:

Seriously, I'll bet that is one of the original 1991 phones from when the ranch opened.

I tried to call the number for dining reservations.

No one answered.

I tried again.

Same deal.

Then I waited a bit and tried again.

Nope.

It wasn't all bad. I got to watch Sophie go through here top 10 a few times.

Like I said, she's no Stacy, but she isn't bad.

Finally I got through, and was able to make a reservation for 6:00.

We were in.

Now it was time to check out the pool.

DD declined.

So I went solo.

The gate in the construction fence was open by the Bike Barn, so I took a peek:

I'm not sure what I'm looking at here. I think these buildings were already there. I wonder what they're doing to them. I have a theory, but I won't be sharing that until I get to my final thoughts about Davy Crockett Ranch.

Here's a photo of the landscaping along the walkway to the pool entrance. I like this birch tree:

JMaul already spilled the beans, but this innocuous poster on the bulletin board outside of the pool told me what all the construction around this place was about:

If you poke around the website for that place, you will see that this outside company has partnered with the company that runs Disney here to build a gigantic resort which will surround Davy Crockett Ranch on three sides (the highway is on the other side). This project is at least four times the size of Davy Crockett Ranch, and will bring thousands of visitors into this quiet little area. As I mentioned earlier, it ended up being a good thing that I visited now, as think Davy Crockett Ranch is going to be much less of a sleepy little haven in the future. The changed is already happening.

Enough of that, let's check out the pool. The pool is indoors, and takes up about 75% of the giant fake Pioneer Hall that you've seen photos of. You have to show your resort ID and bring your own towel, or else you have to rent one for 2 Euros. The pool is very large considering the size of the resort. I'd say it's bigger than the main pool at the Fort:

There's a bridge that crossed it, and a tower, and a slide back in one corner. There are hot tubs along the back that are connected to each other, almost in a lazy river fashion:

I shouldn't have been surprised, but the slide was not open when I got there. No explanation -it was just closed, and it looked like it had been in a while. The hot tubs weren't very hot.

Sadly, it was kind of how I expected it to be. It probably was cool when it first opened, and would be cool if it was operating the way it was supposed to, but my experience that day was lame.

At least the lockers are free to use:

As I headed out, I admired this Davy Crockett poster in the foyer:

The Saloon is right across from the Tavern. And, it was five o'clock somewhere, so I thought I'd get a drink before I headed back to get ready for dinner. Nope, they don't open until 6:

And they close at 10.

That's the only bar on the property.

Yee Haw.

Note that you can get a take out pizza here. The prices must be high, because I never saw them published anywhere, and the sign doesn't say how much either.

I wasn't sure if I had enough photos of the scaffolding on the Trading Post, so I took this photo while I was here. I apologize now, as I think I already did have enough scaffolding photos:

As I walked out, I could see behind the construction fence across from the parking lot, and can see they have a bunch of construction material stored back there:

When I got back to the cabin, I decided to chill a bit on the porch. It was a beautiful afternoon. But, the rumble of construction equipment disturbed my peace. I stood over on the corner of the porch to see if I could see where the noise was coming from:

You can't see it too well in that photo, but I could see through the trees that there were men with big trucks working just though the woods.

I decided to take a walk in that direction to see if I could see what they were doing.

This is the main road that leads into the ranch. The men working were just on the other side of it:

I crossed the road, and tried to see past the trees on the other side. Here, you can see that there is a road on the other side of the fence, and construction trucks just past it:

This is a look back toward my loop from the other side of the road. The trees do a good job shielding the cabins from view:

That's my cabin there through the woods:

I liked the picnic tables here. Very classic:

I took this shot out the back window of my cabin, because I could see and hear the construction noise from inside the cabin. This photo doesn't make it look very bad:

Even with the doors and windows shut, I could hear the rumble of construction equipment and the beeping of the trucks as they backed up. Not very magical, and not at all what I expected when choosing to stay in a cabin instead of a hotel room.

6:00 came soon. Or 18:00 as they call it there. We hopped in the Fiat and headed down to the village:

We arrived right on time to find a short line of guests waiting for Crockett's Tavern rope drop.

I took this photo at 6:06 pm as they slowly got everyone seated. Since this is a buffet, and most people apparently had dining vouchers, you paid or handed over your vouchers when you came in. This gentleman with the mullet (I don't know the French word for mullet) was causing some kind of issue. But, I didn't mind. I mean, that's a nice mullet, isn't it?:

They got the mullet man squared away soon enough, and we were seated and shown our way to the buffet.

They had stuff for adults and kids here:

These are all hot vegetables, with some hot soups at the end of the line:

This is the dessert area, with written descriptions of the choices:

They even had more desserts in addition to those:

The main entrees were over here- it was typical lower tier buffet food- chicken, fish, pasta, etc.:

The center area was all cold salads and sliced meats and cheeses:

I looked high and low, and there was no fried chicken. But there was rabbit:

I love to try things I've never tried before, but I drew the line here. No way was I going to eat some cold rabbit meatloaf. No thanks.

We each found plenty to eat, and the desserts were great.

Here's a photo of our placemats:

I liked the buffet here OK, but there was really nothing about it that was special for the location.

I think it was basically the same stuff we had to choose from at the Plaza restaurant the night before.

Except for the rabbit.

I need to stop here because of the photo limit.

I have a few more Crockett's Tavern photos to share, and then we're going to go and shut Disneyland park down again.

TCD

WannaBeImagineer · June 16, 2015

Great job so far TCD!

I find all of this DCP area very interesting. I still want to go one day but I'm getting the feeling that I could probably do everything I want to do in one day.

Did you feel like you had too much time there? Would you have rather had more time at one of the historical places like Dublin, London, Paris, or even add different stops at Normandy or Versailles instead?

That's the debate we have every time we talk about DLP.

Thanks again for posting all of this!

WBI

Momof6....aka Marty · June 16, 2015

Yum! Cold rabbit meatloaf!

Only kidding. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Editing to add a question: If you did go back with Twin #2, have you decided where you would want to stay?

Tri-Circle-D · June 16, 2015

Great job so far TCD!

I find all of this DCP area very interesting. I still want to go one day but I'm getting the feeling that I could probably do everything I want to do in one day.

Did you feel like you had too much time there? Would you have rather had more time at one of the historical places like Dublin, London, Paris, or even add different stops at Normandy or Versailles instead?

That's the debate we have every time we talk about DLP.

Thanks again for posting all of this!

WBI

Deciding to got to Disneyland Paris was tough, because it did mean we had to cut out some other French destinations. Twin #1 visited Versailles last year when she was in France, and she said it was interesting, but way too crowded and rushed to enjoy. She loved visiting Normandy, but they actually spent a couple of nights in that area before crossing over to England. For this trip, since we are Disney people we had to go. I felt like two nights there with a three day pass was the right amount of time. Twin #1 only went on a day trip from Paris, and missed a lot of stuff because of the short time she had in the parks, and the weather and crowds that day. We lucked out with really nice weather and low crowds, so we easily got everything done, but I liked knowing that we had the extra time just in case.

One of the tips I read in one of the many guidebooks I read preparing for this trip was to not approach the trip like this is the only time you will ever visit a certain place. If you like it, you can always come back. If you find something that interests you, and you want to spend extra time enjoying it, you should do that, rather than rushing off because of a rigid schedule. That was kind of our approach on this trip. We knew that we were just scratching the surface of the places we visited.

So, if you want to see DLP, you should. Maybe you'll miss Versailles or Normandy on that trip, but so what?

Yum! Cold rabbit meatloaf!

Only kidding. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Editing to add a question: If you did go back with Twin #2, have you decided where you would want to stay?

I regret not trying the rabbit now. I'm sure I wouldn't have liked it, but now I'm always going to wonder.

If I ever go back to DLP, I know I will not stay at Davy Crockett Ranch. I might like to try the Sequoia Lodge, or I might investigate staying off-site somewhere on the train line. There isn't much benefit to being a resort guest there, and based on my experience at Davy Crockett Ranch, I don't feel the DLP resorts are managed the same way that WDW and Disneyland California resorts are. They're not worth the high prices they charge.

TCD

Momof6....aka Marty · June 16, 2015

One of the tips I read in one of the many guidebooks I read preparing for this trip was to not approach the trip like this is the only time you will ever visit a certain place. If you like it, you can always come back. If you find something that interests you, and you want to spend extra time enjoying it, you should do that, rather than rushing off because of a rigid schedule. That was kind of our approach on this trip. We knew that we were just scratching the surface of the places we visited.

My parents took me to Paris for four days when I was 16. The itinerary for the trip was see as much as possible in as short a time as possible. Maybe that is part of the reason I don't want to go back to France? But the snotty people were definitely part of it.

We did spend most of one day at Versailles. That was the best part of the trip, in my opinion. That and my mother being terrified on the Eiffel Tower since she is terrified of heights, but insisted on going up because it is the touristy thing to do.

WannaBeImagineer · June 16, 2015

Deciding to got to Disneyland Paris was tough, because it did mean we had to cut out some other French destinations. Twin #1 visited Versailles last year when she was in France, and she said it was interesting, but way too crowded and rushed to enjoy. She loved visiting Normandy, but they actually spent a couple of nights in that area before crossing over to England. For this trip, since we are Disney people we had to go. I felt like two nights there with a three day pass was the right amount of time. Twin #1 only went on a day trip from Paris, and missed a lot of stuff because of the short time she had in the parks, and the weather and crowds that day. We lucked out with really nice weather and low crowds, so we easily got everything done, but I liked knowing that we had the extra time just in case.

One of the tips I read in one of the many guidebooks I read preparing for this trip was to not approach the trip like this is the only time you will ever visit a certain place. If you like it, you can always come back. If you find something that interests you, and you want to spend extra time enjoying it, you should do that, rather than rushing off because of a rigid schedule. That was kind of our approach on this trip. We knew that we were just scratching the surface of the places we visited.

So, if you want to see DLP, you should. Maybe you'll miss Versailles or Normandy on that trip, but so what?

TCD

I follow you, and I agree about the since you are Disney people you had to go. We'll make it there one day. That makes sense about the three day pass too, if you hit crowds or bad weather who knows how your touring could have gone.

I also agree with your outlook on visiting, we were the same way. We tried to do our best of enjoying the moments and atmosphere and not focus on doing the things we "had" to do.

Versailles was a perfect example of that, I went there as a day trip during my solo adventure and I ended up really enjoying the grounds portion of it, exploring all the gardens. But when I took CP to Paris we chose to skip it to give ourselves more time to relax and enjoy taking it slow.

Well now I'm ready to plan another trip!

WBI

bhall · June 17, 2015

I would have skipped the rabbit too! But only because I hate rosemary. Of course, I don't think I've ever had rabbit without little pellets in it :)

jmaul · June 17, 2015

Seems my expectations of the pool were higher than experienced.

okgirlie...Brandy · June 17, 2015

I made it to the end!

You started this report right around the time we went on vacation. We got home Thursday but it's been so crazy here. I finally sat down yesterday to start reading and finished this morning. :)

Loved reading about Ireland and England. My husband and I are planning on going in 5 years for our 20th anniversary.

I wanted to comment on the smoking. When we went to Universal and stayed at Royal Pacific it seemed like everyone was smoking outside everywhere. Completely different than how it was at Disney and it almost ruined our experience.

I haven't ever thought about going to France but since that train ride makes it easy that might be something we look into when we start planning. I guess I'll have to keep reading your report to see if I would really want to go or not.

CCIntrigue...aka Gwen · June 17, 2015

TCD, I have to say Thank You for biting the bullet and checking out DLP for the FF. So far, it is not somewhere I would spend the money to go to. If I had the money.

Same here.

Seals · June 17, 2015

"children eat like parents" -- what does that even mean? Usually there are kids foods because some children won't "eat like parents."

I like that placemat. I guess they didn't sell them in the gift shop?

Tri-Circle-D · June 17, 2015

My parents took me to Paris for four days when I was 16. The itinerary for the trip was see as much as possible in as short a time as possible. Maybe that is part of the reason I don't want to go back to France? But the snotty people were definitely part of it.

We did spend most of one day at Versailles. That was the best part of the trip, in my opinion. That and my mother being terrified on the Eiffel Tower since she is terrified of heights, but insisted on going up because it is the touristy thing to do.

It sound like a successful trip to me- you have great memories from it.

Hearing about your mom's reaction to the Eiffel Tower makes me feel better about not going up to the top. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have liked it.

I follow you, and I agree about the since you are Disney people you had to go. We'll make it there one day. That makes sense about the three day pass too, if you hit crowds or bad weather who knows how your touring could have gone.

I also agree with your outlook on visiting, we were the same way. We tried to do our best of enjoying the moments and atmosphere and not focus on doing the things we "had" to do.

Versailles was a perfect example of that, I went there as a day trip during my solo adventure and I ended up really enjoying the grounds portion of it, exploring all the gardens. But when I took CP to Paris we chose to skip it to give ourselves more time to relax and enjoy taking it slow.

Well now I'm ready to plan another trip!

WBI

I think I would enjoy the grounds of Versailles more than the palace too. I'll probably get there one day.

It might be fun to take a child to DLP- but then again, I'm not sure it would be worth it. Think of the Disneyworld (or Disneyland California) trip you could take for the same or less money.

I would have skipped the rabbit too! But only because I hate rosemary. Of course, I don't think I've ever had rabbit without little pellets in it :)

I'm not a fan of too much rosemary either. Just thinking of what that rabbit meatloaf might taste like was enough to make me skip it.

Seems my expectations of the pool were higher than experienced.

Welcome to the club.

I made it to the end!

You started this report right around the time we went on vacation. We got home Thursday but it's been so crazy here. I finally sat down yesterday to start reading and finished this morning. :)

Loved reading about Ireland and England. My husband and I are planning on going in 5 years for our 20th anniversary.

I wanted to comment on the smoking. When we went to Universal and stayed at Royal Pacific it seemed like everyone was smoking outside everywhere. Completely different than how it was at Disney and it almost ruined our experience.

I haven't ever thought about going to France but since that train ride makes it easy that might be something we look into when we start planning. I guess I'll have to keep reading your report to see if I would really want to go or not.

Thanks for reading.

And commenting.

We still have a ways to go with this one, so stick around.

If you want to go to France, the train from London is the way to go. That was very easy and pleasant. Plus it was fun to be on something that went that fast.

Same here.

I concur.

"children eat like parents" -- what does that even mean? Usually there are kids foods because some children won't "eat like parents."

I like that placemat. I guess they didn't sell them in the gift shop?

Good point- what does that mean? That sign was advertising chicken and fish nuggets, which I think were for the kids, not the parents.

No, they didn't sell the placemats in the gift shop, but we were seated at a four top, and I accidentally put all of those placemats in my backpack before we ate. One of them is in DD's scrapbook, which leaves three available for other uses.

TCD

Tri-Circle-D · June 17, 2015

Moving right along . . .

We left off at dinner at Crockett's Tavern.

Despite all the hoopla about needing a reservation, there were lots of empty tables in there. This one had a view of the pool:

A big party got seated there just as we were finishing up.

Our table was next to a little partition wall, and the buffet was right on the other side of it. I took these photos over the top of the wall as we got up to go. They show how the ceiling above the buffet is decorated. Kind of looks like Trail's End, doesn't it?:

On our way out, I took a minute to pop over to the Saloon to see if it was open. It is just a big room, and not decorated too much. There's a pool table to the left as you walk in. I would have taken a photo of it, but there was a couple using it. Not to play pool. For their baby to crawl around on. It would have made a good photo, but they were staring at me as I walked in. This is the rest of the room- they have a big TV in here, and a stage. The could do karaoke or something here, but there was no mention of that anywhere:

From there, we hopped in the Panda and went back to Disneyland. The drive wasn't bad, but that long walk from the parking lot was getting old. Plus, at this time of night, the moving sidewalks in the center of the walkway were all going in the direction away from the parks and to the parking lot, so we couldn't even use those.

This statue is in the area in front of the Disneyland Hotel as you approach:

I have to admit that is one sweet looking hotel, but it's ridiculous that everyone has to walk under it to get to the park:

Here we go again:

There's a plaque like this at both WDW and Disneyland, but this one is less prominent:

And we're in:

Looking back at the train station- we were going to head up there in a minute so we could ride the train from here to Fantasyland- we hadn't ridden that part of the track yet:

There's that Main Street Transportation building- it seems out of place there were Tony's and the Town Square Theater should be:

City Hall:

We headed up to the train station. Check out the logo used for the railroad- they never changed it after they stopped calling this place Euro Disneyland:

I like looking down Main Street from the Train Station. Note that our luck was running out on the weather:

Hey- look at those American flags:

This old organ was on the train platform:

We waited a short while for the train, but it eventually came:

This photo shows how they have gates on the train cars here:

We loaded up and headed out. We passed through the Grand Canyon diorama. It's weird that they have it here, but not at WDW. The one they built at Disneyland is there to keep people from seeing offices and the utility equipment for the park. I wonder if this one is there to hide stuff related to the hotel? Like their parking lots and stuff?

We passed Phantom Manor, and then we were in this area of Frontierland, which is supposed to have geysers erupting, but apparently, they're broken:

The landscape is nice:

They have a lot of unused space inside the train tracks here:

This kind of looks like the road between Adventureland and Frontierland at the MK:

Here we are at the Frontierland Depot- look how they call this area Thunder Mesa, which includes Big Thunder Mountain RR and the Phantom Manor:

There is a closed off area here. That old map I posted earlier indicates that there used to be something called Critter Corral back here, but that isn't listed on the map we got for this trip:

Leaving Frontierland:

I guess this was Critter Corral- I wonder if getting in there and taking photos of the closed attraction would be interesting to people?:

Here's another big empty field with what I think are supposed to be Indiana Jones props:

We are going to keep on rolling right to Fantasyland to try to ride some of the things that were closed on our prior attempts, and I will pick up right from here in the next update.

TCD

Family of Bears · June 17, 2015

Few things:

First, I knew those placemats came home with you the second I saw them. No way in the world you could have stopped them from hopping into my bag.

Also, how many people do you think go to the pan pan meet and greet expecting a fairy boy in tights?

I did my research earlier on tripadvisor and had seen the pool. It looked nice in the pics. I can imagine it would be great if busy and taken care of, some music, happy kids, activities. It has potential. Just like you said. But your experience just makes me feel sad and lonely.

I definitely would have felt a little homesick for the fort there at the ranch. Which brings me to my last point:

Stop calling it the fort. I know you keep catching yourself, but every time you do that, a freeloader unloads another cooler at the pool.

twiceblessed....nacole · June 17, 2015

Okay.. wow, lots to catch up on (you had such a great/busy trip Andrew!). Liked a lot of it but my favorite... the pool area. I thought that place was AWESOME! That, and the American Flags :)

Momof6....aka Marty · June 17, 2015

There's a plaque like this at both WDW and Disneyland, but this one is less prominent:

And we're in:

Love the topiaries!

Seals · June 17, 2015

No, they didn't sell the placemats in the gift shop, but we were seated at a four top, and I accidentally put all of those placemats in my backpack before we ate. One of them is in DD's scrapbook, which leaves three available for other uses.

TCD

:waycool:

Tri-Circle-D · June 17, 2015

Few things:
First, I knew those placemats came home with you the second I saw them. No way in the world you could have stopped them from hopping into my bag.
Also, how many people do you think go to the pan pan meet and greet expecting a fairy boy in tights?
I did my research earlier on tripadvisor and had seen the pool. It looked nice in the pics. I can imagine it would be great if busy and taken care of, some music, happy kids, activities. It has potential. Just like you said. But your experience just makes me feel sad and lonely.
I definitely would have felt a little homesick for the fort there at the ranch. Which brings me to my last point:
Stop calling it the fort. I know you keep catching yourself, but every time you do that, a freeloader unloads another cooler at the pool.

I thought the same thing about them calling Thumper Pan Pan. They should just call him Thumper.

LOL about freeloaders unloading coolers at the pool.

Okay.. wow, lots to catch up on (you had such a great/busy trip Andrew!). Liked a lot of it but my favorite... the pool area. I thought that place was AWESOME! That, and the American Flags :)

The pool probably was awesome when the ranch first opened. Now, like everything else around there, it seems dated and neglected. It was not OK with me that the slide wasn't working. That was probably the last straw for me.

Love the topiaries!

I liked them too. But, the ones at Epcot for the Flower and Garden Festival are better.

:waycool:

If I think of something cool to do with the placemats, I'll let you know.

TCD

Globetrotting: to Disneyland Paris and back with TCD

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