Ooh la la our trip to Disneyland Paris *Finished!* About This Page:

[BritDisFan]

Who:

Me, Karen, just turned 29 on the 20th April

Boyfriend, Allan 32





When: 21st-25th April 2004

Where: Seqouia Lodge, Montana Room, Disneyland Paris

Why: My Birthday present from Allan.







Day Before D (Disney) Day. 20th April



I had to work on my Birthday, I found this completely rubbish but I consoled myself that we would be at Disney tommorrow. Fortunately the day flew by and I rushed home to get changed as we were going out to dinner with my Mum, Dad and sister Laura at 8.15pm. Allan works a long way from home (about 65 miles each way) I rang him to see if he was running on time, he wasn't!!!! I picked Allan some clothes out for when he got in and as soon as he walked in the door I knew we weren't going to make it on time. I rang Mum and asked her to ring the restaurant to change the reservation, she booked it for half an hour later. We finally got there and had a lovely dinner , when we left the restaurant it was approaching 11.30pm.



We drove home and arrived back at about 12.00am and we commenced packing, by the time we had finished it was nearly 2.00am and we had to be up at 4.30am!!! I set three alarms (I have learned my lesson from previous experience) and we went to sleep very quickly, we were shattered. It seemed we had been asleep about 10 minutes and the alarm went off, we were both really tired but very excited .







Day 1 21st December



After getting showered and changed, Allan packed his laptop bag and I took the bags out to the car , Allan loaded them into the boot and we were on our way. We were catching the Eurostar from Ashford International Station in Kent (not far from where Chezp lives), the drive normally takes at least an hour and we wanted to leave plenty of time in case there was bad traffic. Our train was due to depart at 07:59am and you have to be there at least half an hour before and we also had to pick up our tickets from the ticket desk.



There is a direct Eurostar service into Disney but I ended up booking the train to Gare du Nord in Paris, I tried to book the direct service at a travel agent rate but all the seats were taken at that special rate so I thought it would be no problem arriving at Gare du Nord and then getting the RER (Regional Train Service) to Marne La Vallee (Disneyland Station), the journey on the RER is only about half an hour. Anyway we arrived at Ashford and parked the car, we found out parking was £9.00 a day, we both thought it was pretty expensive and we were going to be away for five days. We went to the ticket desk and picked up our tickets, everything was correct we were going out standard and returning first class. We went through to security, it is very similar to airport security your bags are xrayed and everyone must pass through a metal detector. After that we had to go through french passport control. The young guy who checked my passport wished me a happy birthday as he saw from my date of birth that it was my birthday yesterday, then he proceeded to show my dodgy passport photo to his colleague and they were both giggling about it. It is a pretty terrible picture and both guys were pretty young and good looking so I blushed, I was so embarrassed .



After the passport ordeal we stopped to get some breakfast, we both had coffee, Allan had a bacon sandwich and I had some toast with strawberry jam. When we finished our call to board came over the tannoy. Our carriage was right at the front so we had a fair walk, by the time we walked to our boarding place the train had arrived – so no photos. We got on and put our luggage in the racks that are at the end of each carriage and went to find our seats. When we got there, someone was sitting in Allan's seat, he offered to move but we said he could sit there as there were four seats at the table and we sat opposite him. He thanked us as his allocated seat was with his back to the engine and made him feel quite ill and now he was facing forwards.



We looked in the luggage rack above his head and saw a tv camera, we soon realised that he worked for the BBC and his assistant and cameraman were sitting behind him. At this point we didn't realise who he was and started chatting to him. I used to book the travel for the BBC before our company lost the account and he was talking about one of my colleagues who still works in Television Centre. The guy who he was talking about books for the newsroom and we then realised that we were talking to one of the presenters of a BBC show called Newsnight.



It was so interesting, he started telling us about the feature that they were filming for the programme which led us into talking to us about EU politics and when he went to Afghanistan. He was laughing at me because I was reading The Sun, a tabloid newspaper, which is full of gossipy rubbish, he told us he never reads The Sun for news.



The journey flew by and we arrived at Gare du Nord. We got off the train and headed into the RER. We had to go one stop and then change to a direct service into Marne La Vallee. When we got on the second train Allan's mobile rang, it was his boss, one of Allan's clients had called and was waiting for a report. Allan told his boss that he was on the train but when he got to the hotel he would be able to send it over – of course I( knew it would not just be one email (boooooooo) . I was bitterly disappointed that Allan had to work on our holiday.





Me at the RER Station (with my evil red eyes)





We arrived at Marne La Vallee got off the train and made our way towards the hotel. We could either get the bus or walk through Disney Village (equivalent of DTD). We decided to walk through the village it was such a lovely sunny day we thought we would enjoy the walk. When we got to the entrance our bags were searched and the security guards waved a metal detector over us, to be honest it wasn't a very thorough check but we don't find the checks at WDW that thorough either. It took us about 10 minutes to walk to the hotel. Sequoia Lodge is based on the WL at WDW but it is not a deluxe property here, it is the equivalent of a 3 star hotel. The hotel is also not as stunning as the WL it looks more square but we found it a very nice hotel. We checked in and were given our breakfast times for two mornings. The breakfast is included in the room rate at DLP and they have to give you an allocated time to go to breakfast as the restuarants get so busy. Our breakfast time for the following morning was 7.00am eeek!!!!



We got the keys to our room, we were in the South lodge room 6219. We had booked a Montana room which meant we were in the main building but had not paid for Lake View as that was extra and we didn't think that we would spend that much time in the room. When we got to our room we found out we had been upgraded to a Lake View, from our window, in the distance we could see the castle and Space Mountain. We were both thrilled, our view was fantastic .





The view from our window





Next Allan has to work and dinner at the California grill

[ilovelilo]

I'm enjoying your trip report so far! I hope Allan didn't have to work too much while on your trip! Looking forward to reading more!

[SarahJ]

Great start Karen, I can't wait to read more. I can totally relate to having a partner who has to work while on vacation. On our last trip to WDW, we had just got to our room at WL when DH's mobil starting ringing. He must have received and placed 4-5 calls before we hit the Magic Kingdom that afternoon.

[mac]

Yay, a DLP report with pics! I can't wait to hear more !

[BostonTeaParty]

I love the picture of you with the advertisement behind you - in french!! How cool that you got to chat with a local celebrity on your train ride. He must have been a very interesting person. Sorry about Allan's having to work during your vacation. I wouldn't like that either. And 7 am for breakfast??? I wouldn't make it to breakfast that early on vacation. On the other hand, what an awesome view from your room!! Looking forward to your next installment!!

[DebbieG]

Excellent start Karen! I am looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

Debbie

[Tara O'Hara]

Oh my gosh, Karen!! This is gonna be a way cool report!! I can't wait to read about your adventures!!

[DrDolphin]

Woo Hoo!! Disneyland Paris report!!!

[statelady01]

Great start Karen!! Looking forward to the rest!

[GoofyMom]

I love how the guy who checked your passport showed your photo to his colleague, especially after he was nice enough to wish you happy birthday! But don't worry, I'm sure they've seen worse!!!

The view from your window looks really nice! Can't wait for the next part!

[goofy4goofy]

Great start Karen!! I can't wait for the next installment!

Kelly

[wdwlovers]

Great start Karen! I can't wait to read more! Hope Allan didn't have too much work to do!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Karen How great that you were able to get an upgrade. The view from your room is spectacular

Looking forward to more

[JulieandChris]

I`ve been looking forward to reading your trip report, as DLP has never appealed to me but I`d be happy to change my mind!
Who was the Celeb? When I watch Newsnight and I see a certain presenter I go "Ooh Jeremy", my husband thinks I have weird taste!
DD is off to DLP in a few weeks, her choir from school are going to sing there, they were due to sing in the Notre Dame as well but this has been cancelled.
Thanks again will look forward to reading more.

Julie.
Dec/Jan POR/DCL/AKL

[BritDisFan]

Hi Julie, it was Mark Urban, he is the diplomatic editor for Newsnight. To be honest Newsnight isn't my programme of choice but DBF loves it, I think it's heavy viewing that time of night! Mark Urban is on the BBC website or you can google him if you're interested.

I hope your daughter enjoys her trip to DLP, I'm sure she will have a lovely time.

Karen