The "Did somebody say Jingle Bells" Disneyland Paris Trip Report **COMPLETED 1/14/09** About This Page:

[Disneybine]

Yay, I'm finally ready to start my trip report! You can find my pre-trip report here: The "Did somebody say Jingle Bells?" Pre-Trip Report (Updated 12/12/08)

So, here we go...

Wednesday, December 17, 2008
We left home around 8:30 am, half an hour later than I’d hoped to but you know how guys are ... Anyways, we sped up while we still could – Germany doesn’t have a speed limit on freeways Here’s a pic of our tachometer:



Fortunately, roads weren’t too crowded.





Hubby had his GPS set to Disneyland Paris but it told us to take a freeway we knew would be packed during rush hour. Sooo, he clicked on “alternative route” – we were to find out later that we indeed got an ALTERNATIVE route...



Here we’re on our way to the Netherlands. Roads were a tad more crowded once we got there...



The GPS lead us directly through Maastricht and Liège. By that time we were starting to wonder why we weren’t using one of those nice, wide freeways we had taken the last time we drove to Paris (which was 6 years ago – there were no GPS yet back then).





When we entered France through back roads like this...















... we finally realized that the GPS had chosen an entirely alternative route instead of just re-routing to the freeway we wanted in Germany! But since we didn’t think to bring a map, we had no choice but to follow wherever the thing would take us. I gotta admit that it wasn’t a bad route as we reached Disneyland Paris around 3 pm, meaning it only took us 6.5 hours. Not bad at all!





Entrance to the other moderate resort on Disney property, the Newport Bay Club



Entering the Sequoia Lodge parking lot



Entrance to the Sequoia Lodge

As I got in line to check in, I spotted Cheryl’s favorite donkey doing a happy dance! He must have known Cheryl was coming later!





Check in desk

It didn’t take long to check in. We found out that we got upgraded to a Montana room (Montana rooms are in the main lodge while standard rooms are in the six smaller lodges). The room we got was on the ground floor, way at the end of the lodge’s north wing, and had a kingsize bed. There wasn’t anything wrong with the room, really, just that it felt like a storage room for some reason. It seemed to be smaller than normal (I had stayed at this hotel before but that was 12 years ago), too. I went ahead and unpacked anyways, while hubby took a quick nap after the long drive.











Later that afternoon we walked to the Disney Village to grab a bite to eat.





This cute tram goes around the lake taking people to the hotels and to the Disney Village.

Since it wasn’t busy at all, we were able to get a table at Annette’s Diner without trouble. I’ve eaten at this old-fashioned diner everytime I went to DLP so it was fun to go back.











I got Annette’s Favorite Menu which included the Rock’n’Roll Burger (comes with fries) and a brownie for dessert. Manuel also got the Rock’n’Roll Burger but went for the Apple Crumble and a cup of coffee for dessert. We shared the hash brown potato sticks. The food was very good and a great start to our vacation!









Please excuse that the food pics were taken halfway through the meal – I’m new to taking pics of my food before I can eat it!

Annette’s Diner

Entrée 9 1/2 9
Dessert 9 7
Service 8 8
Atmosphere 9 1/2 9
Value for money 9 8

Average score: 8.60

After dinner we left the Disney Village towards the parks as there were a bunch of Christmas market booths set up.





As we walked back through the Village we made a quick coffee stop at Mc Donald’s.



Finally, we went inside the Newport Bay Club and spotted a huge globe. It had all the Disney parks locations marked on it, too!





The weather today was drizzling, with temperatures in the 40s.
The best thing today was dinner at Annette's Diner.
The worst thing today was feeling a little lost in the middle of nowhere near the Belgium/France border without a map.
The funniest thing today was finding ourselves on bumpy back roads.
Today we tried getting a table without a reservation.
And the result was it was no problem at all.
The most magical moment today was entering the Sequoia Lodge and being greeted by Eeyore at check-in.


Next up: It's not even open yet and there's already a line?

[chezp]

Great start Sabine! The German motorways with no speed limit are legendary to us - if only we had that! And as for all that snow on the group as you drove... my goodness, I am surprised by that.

[Colexis Mom]

What a great start Sabine!! Love the pictures!! More please!!

[Minnie Lor]

Originally Posted by Disneybine

Ok, this has me I did the conversion and that's 105 mph. I get nervous at 75 mph. Great start. Love all the pictures of scenic route to Paris.

[DrDolphin]

Great start Sabine - I will have to hide the tach picture from DBF - he is a speed demon and will insist we have to move to Germany right away (although the Corps DOES have offices in Germany... HMMMM now you've got me thinking!!!)

[Meggera]

I all of your pictures. Annette's Diner looks so cute and yummy good, too. I was telling my DH about your drive from Germany to the Netherlands to France, and we were wondering if there is a checkpoint when you enter each country or if you drive from country to country like we drive from state to state in the US. Great start on your TR, by the way.

[Kenny]

Great start, Sabine!! Well, you got there, so I'm thinking Manuel slowed down a bit on those smaller, snowy, country roads (LOL). I think he's a pretty good driver!
Your pictures are great! Never having seen any of that, they are a real treat!

[Disneybine]

Originally Posted by Meggera

I was telling my DH about your drive from Germany to the Netherlands to France, and we were wondering if there is a checkpoint when you enter each country or if you drive from country to country like we drive from state to state in the US.

When you drive from country to country, you can still see the old checkpoints but today you can just keep on driving. There's also a sign telling you the speed limits in the country you just entered - but that's about it.

By the way, we also passed through Belgium on our way

[tinker_me_happy]

Great Start!! I have to agree... Keep that picture away from my speed demon husband!! Though I did drive in France on a large highway (so many years ago now I can't remember which one) Going south from Paris towards Dijon... And BOY were WE going fast! Apparantly still NOT as fast as you go in Germany though!

[simbarel]

OMG, I would have LOVED to have taken that back route! And it sounds like you made good timing, thanks so much for sharing all your photos, they're great!

[Disneybine]

Thursday, December 18, 2008

We woke up bright and early on our first full day of vacation. Since both hubby and I still didn’t feel at home in the hotel room we had been given, I decided to head to the front desk and politely ask for a different room. I explained to the very nice CM that we wouldn’t mind going back to a standard room either. She told us that she’d give us a new room but that we’d have to vacate the current one before 11 am. We’d get a new room assigned at 3 pm then. I was so happy and I didn’t mind packing up our stuff at all. It was quickly done, and then we were off to breakfast. All packages for stays at Disney resorts on property at DLP include complimentary continental breakfast (as well as length-of-stay park hopper tickets). Here are a few pics I took of the breakfast buffet.


Rolls and bread


Different types of yoghurt


Croissants – plain and chocolate


Cereal


Tea selection


Cold meats and cheese

It was really good. If you were in the mood for an American breakfast, you could also order hot items like eggs, bacon, sausages etc. but it cost extra.

With stomachs filled, we headed to the Walt Disney Studios Park first. We were allowed into the park 20 minutes before its official opening at 10 am. And wouldn’t you know, there was already a huge line for the parks headline attraction, Crush’s Coaster. I was dying to go on it, and since nothing was open yet anyways, we got in line as well.


Can you tell it was freezing?


Part of the line...

Once the attraction opened, the wait wasn’t too bad. I think we waited 30 minutes total – which isn’t bad at all, considering that the Imagineers failed to design a separate line for Fastpass (meaning they're not able to use FP for this attraction ) and the regular line wait is usually around 90 minutes throughout all of the day!


This is the loading area of Crush’s Coaster.

I love this ride! It’s a wild-mouse type ride and you really get twirled around! The ride itself is as smooth as the come, though. Afterwards we walked over to the one other headline attraction this park has, the Tower of Terror. Did I mention this is my all-time favorite ride? It only had a 10-minute wait. Here are two pics of the waiting area:





I think the ride is pretty much the same as the one in Anaheim, by the way.

When we got out, I checked and a showing of Animagique was about to start in a few minutes so we headed for the theater and were admitted right in. Animagique is a cute show with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck using black light. The storyline is that Donald opens up a movie archive and finds himself surrounded by famous movie characters like Simba. So fun! Since you’re not allowed to take pics during the show, I was only able to snatch this one before the show started:



As we got out, I took some pics of my beloved Tower of Terror.





Manuel’s still really cold








The theater where Cinemagique (a tribute to movie history) is shown. It’s a nice enough movie but we didn’t feel like watching it.

As we walked around, we spotted characters!







Next we went to check out Stitch Live! Look what I spotted in the waiting area:


Can you find the hidden mickey?

Stitch Live! was SO much fun! OMG!!! And guess what – Stitch recognized Manuel! He said he had met him at a coffee stand in Hawaii and that Manuel was wanted for space prison! He also asked hubby where he was from and when hubby replied “Germany”, Stitch said “Cool! ... Never heard of it.” Later Stitch also blamed hubby for stealing the spaceship that Stitch had taken! It was hillarious.

After the show we walked back to the park entrance as we needed to get to the Disneyland Park for our lunch reservation.


Holiday decorations

Next: That tastes horrible!

[Minnie Lor]

Your encounter with Stitch sounds really fun. It did look cold out. I'm amazed Lilo wasn't in a sweater.

Breakfast looked good. I would've been all over the chocolate filled croissants. Looking forward to more.

[mcc0313]

What a great start Sabine...sorry the room was a bit uncomfortable but glad that they were able to make the change and get you a new room. It looks pretty cold but glad you are both having such a great time...

[Colexis Mom]

Great update and pictures Sabine!! More please!!

[pamcarey]

Great start!! So interesting to see a park that I probably won't visit for MANY years to come. I hope you like your new room at the hotel better than the first!