Disneyland Paris February 2015 - Day One

Firstly many apologies for such a long time between blog posts, unfortunately lots of 'life' stuff has happened which has both restricted my time and my want to get on and type. But I'm back on it now and I shall continue with my adventures at Disneyland Paris from a few weeks back...so where were we?

Ah yes...we'd made it to Disneyland Paris...well the train station at least, so what did we do next?

Well, we made our way out of the station and had our first encounter with security at Disneyland Paris. As you leave the area surrounding the station and head to the parks and Disney Village you have to go through 'bag check', which will be familiar to anyone who visits Disney theme parks all over the world. At Paris they have 'bag checks' set up when you leave the train station area and also when you enter the Disney Village from the hotel area of the resort. The 'bag check' is very efficient as they use the same x-ray machines that are used in airports. Simply place your bags on a conveyor belt and collect them the other side of the x-ray machine - very simple, efficient and relatively quick.

Little green tent set up as 'bag check' area when leaving hotels and entering Disney Village

So once we were safely through bag check we decided that rather than head straight for the parks we needed food...and there was only one place to go...somewhere we all loved and hadn't been able to experience since our last trip to WDW back in August 2013...we are talking Earl of Sandwich of course!

Upstairs at Earl of Sandwich

The infamous gold brick!!

The kids enjoying their food :)

I opted for the healthy thai chicken salad option, which was lovely! Although I did have the amazing bread pudding as well!

So whilst we were in the warmth of the Earl of Sandwich I took five minutes to complete the hotel check-in card which we had been given when we dropped our luggage off at the Disney Express counter inside the train station - I figured completing it now would save us some time later on.

Me filling out forms!

Once the paperwork was completed, and now feeling re-energised after our food, we decided to have a wander around the shops of Disney Village. I fell in love with the Disney Fashion store and knew that I'd be back spending in there before our trip was done! I also loved The Disney Gallery shop as there were some lovely pieces of artwork to admire.

We then decided to head over to our hotel, the Sequoia Lodge, and get checked-in.

Arriving at the Sequoia Lodge.

We made our way to the hotel reception, which when you enter from the Disney Village side of the hotel is actually on the first floor, so you go up a set of stairs and walk around to the right of the main bar area in order to reach the check-in desks.

Check-in was relatively straight forward although the major difference between Paris and the US parks is the amount of paper you are given to carry around with you! First there are the park entry tickets - multi-park, multi-day paper tickets - then there is a piece of paper that is basically your hotel ID which gives you access to your hotel facilities like the swimming pool, spa, gym etc but also identifies you as a resort guest for the purposes of early park entry (Extra Magic Hours) and then if you'd like to be able to charge things back to your resort hotel there is a third piece of paper! 

Park ticket, hotel ID and charging card

We also had to pick what time we wanted to have breakfast over the stay of our vacation. The package we had booked meant that a standard breakfast was included for each day of our stay. In order to manage the large number of people in the hotel wanting breakfast they operate a time system, whereby you pick a time slot when you'd like to have your breakfast for each day of your stay. This time can vary each day as once a slot is 'full' you will only be able to pick slots with 'spaces'. For each day you are given yet another 'piece of paper' by way of a coloured card that is specific to the day of the week and the time chosen, and this is needed to access the restaurant at breakfast time. We were also told that at no extra charge we were able to take breakfast in the parks and were offered a slot for one of our days. This can feel a bit restrictive, having to pick times for the duration of your stay when you have no idea how you'll be feeling each day or what plans you may decide upon. But one thing to note is that the system is really only a guide as to when you take your breakfast, we were 'late' on a couple of occasions but this didn't stop us getting our breakfast!

Oh and of course we needed a key for our room, which was a separate plastic credit card sized room key! Once we had our room key and bits of paper we headed to the Left Luggage Office to collect our luggage which had been transported to the hotel from the train station. We then used our hotel map to find our way to our hotel room.

Hotel map

We were in a standard room which meant that we were in one of five lodges located in the grounds of the hotel, rather than in the main building. Our lodge was called Big Sur - the others are Monterey, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Sierra.

In our room, getting sorted and ready to head off out!! I think I shall devote a blog post at a later date to the hotel, the room and it's facilities.

So with dusk falling we headed off to the parks, well Disneyland Park to be precise.

We've made it! Outside the main entrance

Looking down Main Street, USA as dusk is falling

Once into the park there was only one thing the kids wanted to do and that was to ride Big Thunder Mountain...so off we went. We had a 40 minute wait but we were all happy with this as we knew that this was a ride well worth waiting for. Unlike it's US counterparts the main part of the ride is actually situated on an island in the middle of the Rivers of the Far West, whilst the boarding station is in Frontierland. This means that the first part of the ride is actually in a tunnel that goes under the water, which means that the start (and end) of the ride is surprisingly dark and especially so when riding it at the time of day we did; by the time we got on the train the evening had really drawn in and we had a great night time ride!

Whilst in Frontierland we hopped over to take a ride on Phantom Manor. This is a beautifully themed and presented attraction and has it's own unique story line. Although beware it is presented in French and so it's worth reading up on the back story before hand as it will help enhance your ride experience. Certain elements of the ride are similar to other versions around the world whilst there are sections that are particular to this version; the cemetery scene in particular is amazing!

By now it was quite dark, very cold and we were all feeling in the need for food and somewhere warm! So off we set to see what we could find, unfortunately most of the restaurants we encountered were closed which we put down to the time - it was around 7.00pm and the park was due to close at 8.00pm - so what to do?  Well we took a wander through the shops of Main Street, USA to try and get warmed up before leaving the park and heading into the Disney Village in search of food. Most of the restaurants in the Village either had long queues or were out of our budget and so we ended up back at Earl of Sandwich...not that any of us were complaining!

And therein completes day one of our trip to Disneyland Paris; a long and tiring day but very enjoyable too...suffice to say we were all asleep rather quickly!!

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...

Back to Reality

Here we are a few days after the end of our short vacation to Disneyland Paris and as ever back to reality with a big bump.

For those who follow my blog you will know that the decision to continue on with our vacation was not an easy one as we had just experienced a family tragedy.  Two days before we were due to travel my mum, unexpectedly, passed away...so as I'm sure anyone can imagine the decision to go away was made with a very heavy heart.

But with the blessing of family and friends we took the vacation that we had been so looking forward to, and although there were moments along the way where we all felt the effects of recent events we managed to enjoy our time away as a family.

Returning home has been hard, as it always is after any vacation, but this time it has been doubly so as we try to come to terms with our loss.

But I have lots of information that I want to share with you about our visit to Disneyland Paris.  I kept a pretty comprehensive diary and at last count we have over 850 photos to go through plus a fair few hours of video footage.  So over the course of the coming posts I shall attempt to go through our vacation; the ups and the downs, the good and the not so good and try to give my own personal view about Disneyland Paris.

I look forward to sharing with you all my experiences.

Let the travelling begin...

So here we are about to begin our travels to Disneyland Paris.

This vacation has felt like it's been a long time coming, although it was only booked about five months ago, but the run-up to it has been tempered with a series of unfortunate events.  Even the last couple of days has seen a personal family tragedy that has made us re-look at our plans to decide whether actually going away was the best thing to be doing.

Having spoken with family and amongst ourselves we have decided that the best thing (and probably the right thing) to do is to continue on with our plans.  We have some emotional times ahead of us, but I know that as a family we will pull together and come through the other side.  And perhaps the injection of a little Disney along the way will help ease the pain that we are all feeling at the moment.

So today we jump in the car and travel to our overnight destination, so that we can be up bright and early to take the Eurostar direct to the doors of Disneyland Paris tomorrow.

During our visit I shall be taking lots of photos and notes. I shall have both Simon and Molly taking video too. So when I return I shall be able to do a series of posts all about our adventures.  In the meantime please follow me on Twitter @JaynePhipps as I shall try and keep in touch direct from the parks.

See you on the other side :)

Only a few days to go...

Well it's not long to go now...one more day of work then it's a day of packing and getting ready before the travelling begins.

Through the Disney on-line community I have been fortunate to make lots of new friends one of whom has just returned from a visit to Disneyland Paris and was kind enough to think of me and send me through a little package...

A few park maps, a note written on Disneyland Hotel note paper (how geeky am I that I think this is soooo cool?!) and a few sweeties...

The great thing is that looking at the map has brought back a lot of memories about the layout of the parks and I can now see (and appreciate) where the changes have been made over at Walt Disney Studios since our last visit in 2006.

My daughter was chatting yesterday and counting up the times we'd been to 'Disney', she knew that I'd been to Walt Disney World eight times and that she'd been four times and that we'd all visited Disneyland just the once but when it came to Paris she struggled. She said 'well I know I've only been once' to which I could correct her and tell her she's actually been twice before...although she was only about 18 months the first time she went.  So this picture is just for Molly to prove she has been more than once...

Sorry Molly ;)

I think I'm going to get the old photo albums out now and have a look through (yes an actual album as this photo was back in 2002 before we'd swapped over completely to digital!).

So when we go in a few days time it will actually be our sixth visit (but Molly's third!).

A week to go...

So it's getting closer...we only have a week to go and we'll be on our way to Disneyland Paris...it's getting very real now, very exciting and very much needed.

It's funny being a Disney fan I always manage to keep Disney in my life on a daily basis, whether it's following the on-line community on Twitter and Facebook or perhaps chatting with podcast co-host Michelle or looking back over old photos but whatever it maybe Disney is always there. And all that helps when you know that the length of time between trips is going to be much longer than you'd prefer! But now as we edge closer and closer to our trip I realise just how much I miss not going to a Disney resort and just how much more special that makes this and any trip.

The last few weeks have been a bit of a tough time with lots of things not going to plan but everything seems to be sorting itself out now which makes this trip feel even more valuable. It will be time that we get to spend away from the day-to-day life things and time that we'll be able to spend as a family with non of the usual distractions.

My euro's arrived yesterday and I even found some coins that I had saved from our last trip in 2006! I had a sudden, and irrational, panic over passports thinking that perhaps they were out of date, but thankfully I was completely wrong, in fact they are valid for ages yet! I have been nagging everyone to make sure that they know what clothes they want to take so that I can make sure everything is washed and ironed. I don't want the dreaded 'mum where's my favourite t-shirt?' just as I'm packing and be expected to get it washed, ironed and packed in 10 minutes!!!

So I think that we have everything in place....which must mean it's now time to make lists!  This is a must-do for any trip...I think it must be the OCD in me coming out...but I have to make lists of what we need to take with us, what we need to do before we go and what we're going to do whilst we're there of course!

So why I am sat here typing this?? Those lists won't write themselves you know!!

10 days and counting...

Well it's not long to go now until we head off for Disneyland Paris and to say that me and the rest of the family are ready for this small vacation would be an understatement!

Especially as the last few weeks have been a testing time with sudden family illness, broken cars, work demands...you name it and it seems to have fallen our way.  But everything is now looking much better and we are getting ourselves back on track ready for some Disney time :)

So in getting ready for this trip I thought I ought to be prepared for the cold weather...I've already got my snow boots and this week my new hat arrived...

Hat selfie!!

We're already to go with cameras as we treated ourselves to a new video camera at Christmas and my daughter has a 'Go-Pro' camera which should mean we can get some brilliant footage on rides.

I'm just about to order some Euros to go spending with and then I think we'll be all set bar the packing!

One of my Disney community friends (Jenni) has just spent a few days in Disneyland Paris celebrating her birthday so I was able to find out from first hand experience about something that I had resigned myself to not seeing - Disney Dreams.  I had presumed that because we are visiting in the low season and we won't even be there over a weekend that the show wouldn't be happening, but guess what I was wrong!  Jenni confirmed that Disney Dreams (or to give it it's full title A Night Time Spectacular Show: Disney Dreams!) runs every night at park closing come rain or shine!!  I am now one happy person.  I have heard so much about this show and about how good it is that I was pretty gutted when I thought we might not see it but now I can't wait to see it...and I've been told I'll want to see it again and again.  The show is a mix of fireworks, lasers, projections onto Sleeping Beauty's castle and water fountains and sounds amazing.  I have resisted the urge to look at videos on the internet and am looking forward to experiencing it for myself with no preconceptions just the hope that I will be blown away by it all.  I love the Wishes Night Time Spectacular at Walt Disney World and it always brings me to tears so it will be interesting to see what the effect of Disney Dreams will be!

The more pre-trip reading I do the more I am remembering things from our previous trips and the more I am looking forward to going.  I am really looking forward to experiencing those attractions that are unique to Paris like La Taniere du Dragon (a dragon underneath the castle!) as well as being able to compare and contrast the classics like Pirates of the Caribbean.  And having children that are that much older with us this time I am hoping that we will be able to experience the whole resort with fresh eyes.

10 days to go....