The hotel

While in Paris, we are staying at the Dream Castle Hotel; part of the DisneyLand family of hotels with free shuttles every day to the park. The hotel, modeled after a Viennese castle, reminds me of Versailles. The lobby's decor hearkens back to the medieval days of knights, damsels in distress, and kings. There are suits of armor, thrones, and even a rock with a sword stuck in it so kids can emulate the sword in the stone story. It also has modern amenities like a spa and fitness center, a playground, and an indoor pool with water slide.


In the rear of the hotel are large, grassy lawns. These are a welcome change from the concrete jungle of Jakarta. Leaving the hotel grounds, there is a walking path around a small lake behind all of the hotels in the area. We took a quick walk around the lake prior to bedding down for the night.

Like every Disney hotel, everything is overpriced. Especially the internet. The hotel charges $20 USD a day for internet. I understand the concept of providing very spartan amenities to encourage people to spend more at the primary attractions - Vegas does this quite well so that you spend your boredom in the casino, not watching TV in the room. Charging people an exorbitant fee for something that, in practicality, costs so little - like internet access and telephone calls - is really just robbery. It is a practice hotels need to correct, or I'll drive them out of business when I open my own.

We miss the Asian hospitality. The hotel restaurant where we ate a late lunch was woefully understaffed and inattentive. The one waitress who was working when we arrived - and, arguably, too busy - had the demeanor of Cruella Deville. She walked around the restaurant with a look on her face like she was sucking on a lemon. Several times, we would stand at the bar directly across from them to ask a question (like to request a menu), and we would be there for five minutes completely ignored. I know the French come across as aloof, and we are not supposed to take this as rude, but this was ridiculous.

Our original plans called for spending our first full day at the hotel to make use of the amenities and acclimate our bodies to the local time zone. This is when I thought they would have a nice, large, outdoor pool like the Disney hotels in the US have. Now, I think if we had to spend a whole day here we'd go stir crazy. We also seem fairly well adjusted to the timezone, so I think we'll spend the day in Paris, instead.