Refurbishments - how much is true?

gemma2806 · March 30, 2015, 12:57:07 AM

Hi All I've been away from the forum for a while as I've got engaged (only been waiting 8 years!) and have been planning our honeymoon to WDW for Oct 2017. The new deals have come up for DLP and this will be the last year we can go where my son is still free! My fiancé was all ready and willing to book a 5 day break in November this year but has seen a lot of rumours and questions over refurbishments that are supposed to be taking place.

My fiancé has said that he doesn't want to pay to go to DLP if there are a lot of closures during our trip, he would prefer to put the money towards the Florida holiday.

My question is how much of this speculation is just that, speculation and how much is true? I'm desperate to go back this year but understand the concerns that he has. Are there any closures for major rides such as BTM set in stone or is everyone still guessing as to what will happen. If I can convince him it's worth it then we'll go but I don't want to go and then have him saying it's a waste of money when we get there. (He isn't a Scrooge by the way he just wants to get the best value as anybody would!)

Thanks in advance for any comments x

DLPWonders (Banned) · March 30, 2015, 08:14:55 AM

It's true, those long and big refurbs are happening.
The content of it might be a little exaggerated, I read somewhere for example that BTM is going to be moved 100cm.
Obviously that's not happening. But the duration of all the major refurbs is definitely 100% true and will happen.
I can definitely understand your fiancé's opinion and to be honest, I share it.
2015 and 2016 aren't really the best years to visit DLP.

MotherKnowsBest! · March 30, 2015, 10:20:40 AM

Hi, is there a list anywhere of planned closures/ refurbish all in one place please? I'd like to check what's closing before we book for our annual November trip. Thanks!

Captain Pan · March 30, 2015, 02:57:16 PM

Quote from: MotherKnowsBest! on March 30, 2015, 10:20:40 AM
Hi, is there a list anywhere of planned closures/ refurbish all in one place please? I'd like to check what's closing before we book for our annual November trip. Thanks!

Best Place to Check is on DLPGuide.com

http://www.dlpguide.com/calendar/closures-refurbishments/
and we have the thread
https://forum.dlpguide.com/index.php?topic=601.0 Although it was last posted in during October 2014, so may need a little updating.

gemma2806 · March 30, 2015, 04:38:58 PM

Thank you for your replies!

I've just picked up the new brochure for DLP for stays from November 2015 to March 2016.

They're not giving much away apart from the fact that Peter Pan's Flight, Star Tours and Animagique are marked as undergoing extensive periods of closure during this time but there are no exact dates stated.

Davy Crockett's Ranch is also noted as undergoing an extensive refurbishment from November but again no exact dates.

Sequoia Lodge will have the whole pool, whirlpool, sauna and gym etc closed from November onwards with no end date noted and Newport Bay states that refurbishment will be done by Autumn 2015 but the boutique will be closed until further notice.

This hasn't helped me make a decision though as I've run into more questions! I'm on a couple of forums and there seems to be a lot of people taking their holiday in November even though this is usually a quiet time of year. One lady I spoke to can't get seats on the Eurostar the last Monday in November as they are all sold out and there were only 3 seats available for the return journey on the Friday! Is there anything special happening this year that I'm not aware of that could cause a large rise in attendance. I'm talking weekdays as well not the weekends!

MotherKnowsBest! · March 30, 2015, 05:42:54 PM

I've been wondering exactly the same! We always go the same week in November and we've always been really lucky in that we've never had to queue very long for rides and the hotel seems pretty quiet etc... But I've noticed a lot of people mentioning they are going at the same time this year. I noticed on another thread that the last weekend in November last year (the week after we went) was insanely busy and they had to stop admissions! For me the Christmas season is the best time to go plus November is right in between my boys birthdays. Plus it's far enough in advance of Christmas that they won't be missing any Christmas activities etc at home.

gemma2806 · March 30, 2015, 06:02:27 PM

I went the very last week of November 2013 and it was amazing. No queues, very few people and still a great atmosphere but the weekends were a complete no-go as the parks wee heaving. I've spoken to my fiancé and he says that he still wants to go as we need a holiday but we may look at the week before the last week of November x

HFJohnson · March 30, 2015, 09:05:41 PM

Quote from: gemma2806 on March 30, 2015, 04:38:58 PM

This hasn't helped me make a decision though as I've run into more questions! I'm on a couple of forums and there seems to be a lot of people taking their holiday in November even though this is usually a quiet time of year. One lady I spoke to can't get seats on the Eurostar the last Monday in November as they are all sold out and there were only 3 seats available for the return journey on the Friday! Is there anything special happening this year that I'm not aware of that could cause a large rise in attendance. I'm talking weekdays as well not the weekends!

There are still seats available for those dates so I wouldn't expect it to be that busy. When it says "only x seats left" it means at a particular price, not for the whole train.

TappyFish · March 31, 2015, 01:53:12 PM

Hi. My fiancée and I are going to DLP in November. We are travelling via Eurostar and found their website to be somewhat misleading. We checked out the prices one week before going to book them the next and discovered via the website that there were only eight seats remaining. We rushed to book them to guarantee a place. The next day, we opted to choose our own seats and were amazed at how many free seats there were. Now, we're not complaining at getting what we wanted, but felt that Eurostar shouldn't say X amount of remaining seats when this clearly isn't the case.

Regarding refurbs, we were originally looking at staying in SL until we heard that the pool would be shut for our entire stay. The general consensus seemed to be you don't visit Disney to go swimming. While this may be true for some, we wanted to make use of a pool and opted for SL over Cheyenne for this very reason. We settled on an upgrade to New Port Bay. After making the booking, we later found out that the work going on at the hotel could impact our stay. After talking to our travel agent regarding what the work consisted of, we were told that one of the restaurants could be closed during our stay (meaning a real struggle for breakfast), scaffolding is outside most of the windows (so no view) and there was no guarantee of a new room. I personally disliked the old rooms so this was an issue for me.

We decided to amend our booking to stay at Hotel New York. We are much happier with our choice now. Like many others, we seem to be going at a rather popular time. Information regarding attraction closures is somewhat limited. While I can understand that it is a bit early in the year for all the information to be posted, November is only 7 months away. I'm hearing more and more rumours about ride closures during our stay and we're wondering if maybe we were better off saving our money and going in another year or so.

I'm only on this forum at present but do refer to the http://www.dlpguide.com/ website. Can anyone suggest another website or forum etc that may give accurate information regarding closures nearer the time please? Also, It was mentioned above that eter Pan's Flight, Star Tours and Animagique are marked as undergoing extensive periods of closure. As I understand it, no dates have been set. What page did this information come from? It would be nice to be able to read up on it too as we have a copy here but never came across it. Cheers.

stifle · March 31, 2015, 06:17:58 PM

As mentioned in the post immediately above yours, the X seats left flashes refer to seats at that price, not in general.

gemma2806 · March 31, 2015, 10:27:38 PM

We've decided to fly now as less hassle for us being in the midlands.

To be honest having spoken to my fiancé again we're just so desperate to have a holiday before 2017 that it looks like we'll be going regardless of closures!

TappyFish:- the closures for Peter Pan's Flight, Star Tours and Animagique are all confirmed in the Disneyland Paris brochure for Nov 2015 to Mar 2016. It doesn't give any specific dates so these closures could occur any time but personally I'm hoping they hold out till the start of next year when they seem to have more closures as a rule anyway.

LotsoHugginBear · March 31, 2015, 10:33:47 PM

Does this closure means the end of animagique? Have heard rumors about that but could not imagine that this could ever happen.

gemma2806 · April 01, 2015, 03:10:50 PM

I'm hoping it won't mean the end as Animagique is my favourite show in the Studios park! There have been a lot of rumours but the brochure makes no mention of what the closure is for apart from refurbishment. Maybe they will add or change some scenes to include some newer Disney movies. With all this Frozen hype maybe they'll add a Frozen scene!

TappyFish · April 01, 2015, 03:38:04 PM

Quote from: stifle on March 31, 2015, 06:17:58 PM
As mentioned in the post immediately above yours, the X seats left flashes refer to seats at that price, not in general.

I was trying to explain that they way I read the information on the website was that there were only X amount of seats remaining - in total - rather then X amount of seats at this price

But thanks for pointing it out all the same.

Quote from: gemma2806 on March 31, 2015, 10:27:38 PM
We've decided to fly now as less hassle for us being in the midlands.

To be honest having spoken to my fiancé again we're just so desperate to have a holiday before 2017 that it looks like we'll be going regardless of closures!

TappyFish:- the closures for Peter Pan's Flight, Star Tours and Animagique are all confirmed in the Disneyland Paris brochure for Nov 2015 to Mar 2016. It doesn't give any specific dates so these closures could occur any time but personally I'm hoping they hold out till the start of next year when they seem to have more closures as a rule anyway.

I've never considered flying to DLP. I've flown to France (Niece) before but when it comes to Disneyland, it's always been via Eurostar. I might look into it next time due to the sheer amount of people recommending it. Thanks for the tips also ^.^