Disneyland Paris - February 2015 - Let the travelling begin...

So lets start at the very beginning...after all it's a very good place to start!

Getting to Disneyland Paris for us was split over two days. From where we are based in the UK we had around a 3 hour drive to the train station that would ultimately get us to Disneyland Paris. And because the train left first thing in the morning we decided to make the three hour car journey the day before and stay overnight in a cheap hotel.

So off we set on a clear, bright Sunday afternoon.

Thanks to Molly for this photo as we drove along

Molly kept herself occupied in the car...I'm sure I recognise that film!!

We managed a stop half way there for something to eat and I was pleasantly surprised at the healthy option I was able to find for myself...a nice BBQ chicken salad...the kids of course stuck to McDonalds!!

After our re-fuelling stop we carried on our way and decided to follow the lovely lady on our 'sat nav' who apparently decided that the most obvious route was not the best route! This resulted in a drive through the centre of London at night...something we have never done before...and probably won't do again! Although it was a rather unexpected route to take we all quite enjoyed the detour and it made the start to the vacation rather memorable!

Driving through centre of London at night

A little later than we had planned we arrived at our overnight hotel;

Obligatory selfie in our overnight hotel!

The next morning we were up bright and early ready to head over to Ebbsfleet International rail station.

Checking our train details!!

Arriving at the station was a breeze as I had pre-paid our car parking (saved us a whole £1 as prices had increased!) and this meant our car number plate was scanned and into the car park we went, followed by a few minutes walk into the station.

Unloading the car

Now Ebbsfleet is not a big station so there is not much in the way of shops etc. But as there is no lengthy check-in like there is at airports what was there was sufficient to keep us occupied for the short wait. So we grabbed a bacon sandwich and a couple of coffees to keep us going.

Not just any bacon sandwich, these were Marks & Spencer's bacon sandwiches!!

Using the Eurostar service was very efficient. We were allocated a car and seats via our tickets and this meant that we had a specific spot to wait at on the platform.  The train arrived on time, we got on, stowed our bags, found our seats and off we set on our 2 hour 20 minutes train journey

Whilst on the Eurostar we met with a Disney cast member who came along to confirm our reservation at the Sequoia Lodge as well as the procedures for when we arrived at the station at Disneyland Paris.

Me in charge of all the paperwork!

By travelling on the Eurostar we were able to take advantage of the Disney Express luggage service. We were given special luggage labels for our bags that identified which hotel we were staying at.

Luggage label for Disney Express Service

When we arrived at Disneyland Paris station we simply took our luggage to the special Disney Express desk where we were given the bottom tear off slip from the label as well as all our check-in information AND our park tickets.  This meant we were able to go off and do whatever we liked...parks, eat, shop, hotel...whatever we liked :)

And we're here :)

And I shall tell you more about our first day in my next post...