Bonne anniversaire a Disneyland Paris COMPLETE About This Page:

[chezp]

Bonne anniversaire a Disneyland Paris

Dates: Friday 19 December – Sunday 21 December
Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (35, turning 36 that weekend!) and DH Mark (43)
Resort: Hotel l’Elysee
Meets: Spending the weekend with Sabine (Disneybine) and her DH Manuel
Celebration: It’s my 36th birthday!

This trip really came about in two ways. Firstly, when we went for the day to Disneyland Paris in January I discovered that, at that time, you couldn’t buy a one day pass for both parks. You had to either pick one park for the whole day, which we decided we didn’t want to do, or you had to buy a two day hopper pass that was good for a year. Guess which option we went for? That’s right, so within a year, we had to go back to Disneyland Park to enjoy another day at the parks – gosh, what a tough life we lead!

Then in March we went to Berlin for the Easter weekendand met up with Sabine (Disneybine on the boards) while we were there. We both loved her company and got on with her instantly, so when she started talking about taking a return trip to Disneyland Paris, sometime in December, and perhaps the weekend before Christmas, my mind started racing, especially as that weekend would be my birthday. What a great way that would be to spend my birthday.

We agreed to stay in touch and keep each other updated about our plans and by August, Sabine had confirmed that they would be visiting Disneyland Paris that weekend. My mind went into overdrive with how to sort this out. Originally I was looking at taking the Eurostar train across to Lille, then taking the direct fast TGV train service from there into Disneyland Paris, but there were no prices out for Eurostar just yet.

After a lot of plotting and planning to try and work this out, a thought hit me – “maybe it would be cheaper to use the Eurotunnel instead and just drive over to Disneyland Paris?” I did a bit of research and quickly confirmed that it was indeed the cheapest option, but it would obviously take more time. Would Mark be able to take the afternoon off work on the Friday, instead of leaving in the evening, as I’d originally planned? If he could, then this would work out. I asked – and immediately he said yes. A very pleasant surprise! So I went ahead and booked and we were all set with our plans.

Just for those of you who don’t know, a little bit of background about Eurotunnel. The Channel Tunnel is used by the Eurostar train and Eurotunnel service, which carries freight and passenger cars in separate trains. For cars, the process is simple. Essentially you drive straight on board, then you park off, turn your engine off and can either sit in your car or wander around (trust me, there’s nothing to see during your journey, as you’re under the sea in a dark tunnel – not seeing the fish, as some people may think! ) for the 35 minutes of your journey and then, before you know it, you’re in France. When the train comes to a halt, then the traffic moves forward and you drive through the rest of the train, out at the front end and you’re on your way. It’s very simple and impressive and it’s also something we’ve not done in probably about eight or nine years, so it’s going to be a pleasant change for us.

We would travel out on the Friday afternoon, arriving at the Disneyland Paris resort in the evening and would spend two nights there, before coming home on the afternoon of the Sunday – my actual birthday.

Then it was on to the question of which hotel to stay in. I immediately ruled out all of the Disney hotels. Much as we’d love to stay in one of them, they were just way too expensive. That is my real bugbear with Disneyland Paris – the price of their hotels and packages that include hotels. They don’t do the same as Florida and have deals for those who live nearby (heck, even though we’re in a different country, we probably would qualify for that), but there’s nothing like that. So it was time to look at the offsite options instead.

After a great deal of looking (and we’re talking literally months here ) our options started to narrow, many because some were sold out! Eventually, in mid November, I opted for Hotel l’Elysee, which I thought looked like a good bet. It’s a stop down on the RER train line, but you do get free parking there, a good benefit, as we’ll have the car with us. Another good benefit is that we should be able to get into the park on Extra Magic Hours, as it’s the only non-Disney hotel included on that benefit. How cool.

By now, Sabine had made our dining reservations – thank goodness we had her help with that, as they opened up the bookings while we were touring America in October and it was lovely to know that we didn’t have to worry about that, as she was taking care of it – and take care of it, she did. We’re eating with Sabine and her DH for all our meals out there, apart from one. Our dining plans are:

Friday 19 December:
Dinner at Cafe Mickey in the Disney Village (equivalent of Downtown Disney) – it’s a character meal and we had a lot of fun when we were last here in 2003... yes, that long ago!

Saturday 20 December:
Lunch at the Blue Bayou, at the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean in the Disneyland Park. Again, we have fond memories of our meal here in 2003.
Dinner for just the two of us at their California Grill. This is at the Disneyland Hotel at the entrance to the Disneyland Park – essentially the resort is just like the Grand Floridian in style and I know the California Grill is similar to its Florida namesake, with an expensive menu, so I’m looking forward to trying it out.

Sunday 21 December:
Lunch at the buffet at Cape Cod at the Newport Bay. This is Disneyland Paris’ equivalent of the Beach Club and somewhere we’ve never eaten before. We haven’t been back to the Newport Bay since we stayed there in 2003.

Because we only have one day’s admission on our park tickets – actually, remaining on mine, as Mark managed to lose his we’re only going to be going into the parks on the Saturday, hence why having the Extra Magic Hours will be such a nice bonus. A new one day park hopper has arrived for Mark, so at least we won’t have to leave him behind that day.

To be honest, the main reason we’re going is to see the Christmas celebrations at a different Disney park, so our priority is to catch as many of those as we can. I also want to ride Tower of Terror and Crush’s Coaster at the Walt Disney Studios, as I’ll have a ride buddy with me ( Sabine!) and Stitch Live!, a new addition to the Studios, is something else we’ll have to see. From what I understand, it’s the same concept as the Stitch interactive show we saw at Hong Kong Disneyland. To give you an idea, it’s like Turtle Talk with Crush, but with the lovable blue alien.

So those are our plans – I’ll be back to report how we got on after the weekend.

Next:

[emtpej]

Sounds like a great trip planned, as usual!
How neat to take the 'Auto-Train' to DLP!

[emtpej]

Sounds like a great trip planned, as usual!
How neat to take the 'Auto-Train' to DLP!

[Wendyismyname]

Imagine the blur of those fishies if you could see them!! They'd make you seasick! I've always wanted to go through the chunnel, maybe someday.

Sounds like a fantastic trip with great friends!! Have a great weekend!

[MickeyMAC]

Have a great trip and a very Happy Birthday.

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Cheryl! Have a great trip!!

[amandal]

Chez. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

[jimmymac]

Great start. Happy Birthday btw

[claytrgtshooter]

Happy birthday Cheryl -- enjoy your weekend

[Disneydiana]

have a great time!

[RobDVC]

Have a terrific Birthday trip!

[KMB733]

Have a great trip!

[rlb38]

Have fun

[simbarel]

You're going to have a great time, can't wait!

[disney_duke]

This sounds great!! Hopefully you're able to rest and get some sleep tonight before you're off for an exciting weekend! Looking forward to hearing all about it.

I had no idea they offered the car service for the chunnel. I rode the chunnel in 2001 and didn't recall seeing this option anywhere - is it new?? Just curious. It's entirely possible that I missed it completely! I hope it's an uneventful train ride with no service issues (our trip took 5 hours due to mechanical. yuck.)!!!