Wanderings and Ramblings : Davy Crockett's Ranch and Crockett's Tavern at Disneyland Paris

I wanted to dedicate a separate post to our arrival at Davy Crockett's Ranch and to the buffet restaurant there because I know I enjoy researching places before I go and thought some people who are not my regular readers would appreciate photos of the cabins and I know there was almost no information on the buffet, but it is required dining with the new DLP hotel dining plan, so I wanted to review it as well for those future travelers.

We pulled back into the check in area around 4:00pm and were happy to see it was much less crowded at that time of day. 10 minutes later we had our missing Hotel Easy Pass, a key and a cabin number. Cabins are scattered around loops and we were on the second of four loops back (four per side) from the dining and pool area--not bad. We had Premium Cabin Number 1271. Each cabin has its own parking space right out front:

You can open it up a lot to get plenty of fresh air (there is also a/c and heat when needed), and there is a nice big front deck with a picnic table to use (there is also a grill if you want, you can see it between the bush and deck above):

You enter the cabin in the center, where there is a combined living/kitchen/dining area. This includes a TV, and a kitchen stocked with cooking utensils and dining items. Appliances include a kettle, coffee maker, good sized fridge and freezer, microwave, two burner stove top and dishwasher. There is no oven.

There is a small master bedroom on one side. It has its own 3/4 bathroom, and the sink is deisgned to work as a tub for very young children. The closet was small, but the over the bed storage area was pretty roomy; I left one side open to show that in the photo:

On the other side is a split bath with shower and sink in one room and toilet across from it in a separate room, for the kids. Past that is the kids' bedroom, which sleeps 4. There is a trundle under that bed on the far right. I suppose it would work for four very young kids, but boy it would be tight! It worked great for two teens though (as you can see, Rio was worn out already!):

After we unpacked, and relaxed for a bit, we headed over to the main "lobby" area and wandered around the shop and bought some wine to chill in the fridge (local grocery stores are less expensive but were closed on Sunday by the time we arrived).

I took some photos of some of the cuter Paris specific merchandise. I wished I had a reason to own rain boots--I thought they were adorable. Marika liked the tea items, which can probably be bought at any Disney Park:

We had booked under a special we got via email which gave us the new Hotel Full Board dining plan for free (and the room and ticket rate was the best I have gotten in 4 years of pricing, so it really was free in this case). The plan included :

1. vouchers to pick up breakfast at our hotel (this used to be included for all, but now has to be purchased separately at the very high cost of 8.50 euro per person if not on a dining plan)

2. vouchers for one counter service meal per person per night, to include entree, side, dessert and a drink (as we learned this meant ONLY menu 3, which was very limiting and I feel should have been included in the information--I would have been very upset to have paid for this and be so limited).

3. vouchers for one all you can eat buffet per person per night at our hotel'S buffet (and only there). The vouchers were for the buffet, without a drink, again, something we were not told ahead of time. It ran 15 euro and change per night for us to get a half carafe of wine and two sodas (no refills in Europe).

As I mentioned earlier, there were no recent (meaning less than 2 years old) reviews of the Crockett's Buffet that I could find, so I was a bit worried--but other than the shock of spending 15 euro a night for our free meal (for drinks), we were pleasantly surprised. The atmosphere was fun, the food was always good and there was enough variety to make 5 nights there reasonable.

There was a grill set up outside that night and also at the end of our trip, making fresh sausages, chicken legs and thighs and ribs.

There was a salad bar and cold starters area that had open faced oysters and a variety of cold vegetables as well as olives, chips and salsa, etc

There was a basket of fresh fruits every night:

Hot items generally included vegetarian chili (every night) a pasta (sauces varied), roasted turkey or pork loin (varied by evening), meatballs, cream soup, roasted potatoes or potatoes au gratin and green beans. For the "kids" there were always chicken and fish nuggets.