69 Days and counting

Yes there is a countdown happening!

Finally four years after our last visit to a Disney park we have a trip booked. This August we will be heading our way over to Disneyland Paris for a 5 day trip.

The last few years have been tight financially which has meant any Disney trips have had to take a back seat. But we now find ourselves in a position to be able to dip our toes back into visiting the parks once more.

The last time we visited Disneyland Paris (February 2015) things were very different. Firstly our kids were still kids now we have two young adults who we are blessed still want to come on vacation with us, but who are also now able to pay for themselves - win!

Back in February 2015 we made the trip under very sad circumstances as my mum had died only a few days before we were due to go. We made the trip with the blessing of family but it was a very hard trip to make, filled with memories of visits gone by made with my parents. And then there was the weather...the freezing cold weather! The wearing of layers upon layers to keep warm, the struggle to find shelter to keep warm, navigating the parks with limited food options and areas of the parks closed for big refurbishments.

Do not be fooled by the brilliant blue sky...it was blooming freezing!!

And although I did make a small trip back in 2017 with my fellow podcaster, Disney Dream Girl Michelle, there is something about visiting Disney which to me says 'family' and I am ready for us to embrace the Disney magic as a family once more.

Disney Dream Girls take on DLP - June 2017

Our lives this year are changing; both children are now young adults and both of them are reaching the end of their respective education paths and will be entering the world of work. We also find ourselves in a position to begin planning for much missed Disney travel and adventures and with a desire to ensure that life does not pass us by and that we make the most of every moment. This was brought home earlier this year when I had a brush with cancer. Thankfully it was very early stage; I have had the necessary surgery and although I have a few weeks of further treatment ahead it will all be completed by the time we set off to Disneyland Paris. But when life throws you a curve ball like this it does make you stop, think and re-assess...and although it is a cliche it does make you take a long hard look at what you are doing, why you are doing it and how can you ensure you make the best of the time that you have.

And so began the process of booking a trip!

We decided that we wanted to get away sooner rather than later which meant that a trip over to Paris was the most obvious choice. I wanted us to be able to re-visit Paris to enjoy it at a warmer time of year, to put sad memories to rest and to be able to take the time to enjoy it all at whatever pace we liked!

We knew we would have to visit over the Summer months as my job working in education forces us to visit during the school holidays. We then had to factor in my sons university graduation ceremony, my daughter getting her A-level results, dates already booked for a concert and a theatre trip...this left us with just a few weeks in August to choose from!

We also wanted to make this trip as simple and as easy as possible for us; we need to get our travel legs back so to speak! Plus I just wanted us to be able to enjoy the trip with as few stresses as possible. So we knew we wanted to stay at a Disney hotel and to travel there by Eurostar...here's where hours at the laptop kicked in weighing up all the different options!

Now money as always will play a factor when planning any vacation but especially a Disney one. And despite looking around at various different options, selecting different dates, different days of the week and through various different companies I actually ended up booking with Disney themselves.  I would always recommend that when booking you take the time to look at all the options out there and then ask yourself what you want out of a vacation and which option best meets your needs. This time around booking direct ticked the most boxes for us and we were also able to take advantage of some discounts that Disney were offering. On this occasion our booking covers all travel, hotel and park tickets but we did briefly debate whether buying an annual pass would be a better option. But because we can't at this point in time guarantee being able to use the pass more than on just this occasion and knowing that if we could make more trips we would need the pass with the most accessible dates we decided not to bother. But this maybe something we come back to in the future if we find ourselves able to travel more freely around work commitments! Who knows?!

So we are getting there by Eurostar and using their direct service. There were other options available with changes at Lille but we decided that on this occasion we wanted the simplicity of the direct train.  It's worth noting that the direct service only runs on set days per week and that may have an impact on planning, availability and of course cost! We have also booked the Disney Express service; this means that we can drop our luggage at the Disney Express point at Marne-la-Vallee station (station at Disneyland Paris) and our luggage will be taken to our hotel so that we can go straight into the parks, and then on departure day the hotel will take the luggage to the station so we can make the most of our final day.

As we live in the center of the UK we will have to travel about 3 hours to get to Ebbsfleet which is where we are taking the Eurostar from. The train actually runs from St Pancras, London and picks up at Ebbsfleet and then Ashford before heading over to France. We did look into whether we could take a train from home to London and then pick up the Eurostar but it would have cost us more than the petrol for driving down to Ebbsfleet. We have decided to travel down the day before and have booked a cheap hotel for overnight; this will take the stress out of getting there on time as we would have had to have left home in the early hours as well as battle rush hour traffic! And it still works out cheaper than taking a train from home!!

Well that's the getting there sorted so where are we staying? We knew we wanted to stay in a Disney hotel but which one? We had two factors to consider - money and whether we wanted to try somewhere different to our last visit. To be fair this did limit our choice to the Santa Fe, Cheyenne and Sequoia Lodge hotels and having stayed most recently at the Sequoia Lodge we were leaning towards the other two.

Both the Santa Fe and Cheyenne are 'graded' as 'two keys' and tend to follow the same or very similar pricing structures. But it is worth checking these two and the Sequoia Lodge against each other as on some of my searches for accommodation across various different dates there were times when the Sequoia Lodge actually came out the cheapest. But for the dates we had settled on it came down to a choice between the Santa Fe and the Cheyenne.

We had, many years ago when the children were much smaller, stayed at the Cheyenne a number of times and had fond memories of staying there;

August 1999 - Hotel Cheyenne - our first visit to Disneyland Paris

August 1999 - Disneyland Park

(Excuse the photos as these were taken pre-digital and are now physically stuck inside a photo album, so much so that I couldn't remove them to scan them so I had to take a photo of them in situ!)

Coupled with a recent room refurbishment and the additions of a Starbucks we were swayed into picking the Cheyenne over the Santa Fe. For me personally the Santa Fe doesn't look as inviting as the Cheyenne but I am definitely going to have a wander over and have a look while we are there just to see for myself.

The Cheyenne is located within the Disney resort area but is classified as about a 15/20 minute walk to the main park. There are free shuttle buses should you not fancy the walk but we know from previous visits that the walk is easy enough to do and is a pleasant walk along the 'Rio Grande' river. Having visited before with very young children and never once used the shuttle bus we know that this short walk is not an issue for us; I'd much rather have a stroll along the river than fighting to get on a shuttle bus!

So we have hotel, park tickets and travel all sorted and booked which means that I can now start planning and researching! I really want to be able to take in all the details this trip and soak up all the 'Disney' that I have been missing.

Well that research won't get it done by itself now will it....