As you will have seen in my previous post I was planning to go to Disneyland Paris, well I went last week and it was amazing!!! I’m so glad all of my planning and research paid off and the trip went really well. I thought I’d put together a trip report/ copy of our itinerary for anyone that is planning to go in the future so you can see what we managed to get done during the time we had there.

Thursday – Mainly travelling

Our Eurostar from Ebbsfleet was at 11:15am but it is recommended to get to the station an hour before the departure time, it worked out well as once we had checked in gone through security we were able to grab some food from Café’ Nero whilst we were waiting. As I mentioned in my previous post I haven’t ever travelled on the Eurostar before so was unsure what there would be available in the departure lounge but there was also a W H Smith’s. We went down to the platform about 10 minutes before the train arrived and once it did found our seats pretty easily. It took just over an hour to get to Lille where we needed to change over onto the train that would take us into the station next to Disneyland. This next bit of the journey was extremely stressful as our tickets said carriage 7 and on the outside of the train doors there were large numbers so we automatically assumed these were the carriage numbers. As we were walking up the platform all I could see was numbers 1 and 2, I asked a gentleman working on the platform and he said something in French and pointed for us to walk further up. We continued walking, nearly at the end of the train by this point where I was starting to worry as we only had a few minutes before the train was due to depart. I asked another gentleman and he said that we needed to walk back the other way, it turns out the carriage number was not the large obvious number on the side of the train but instead a small light up number just inside the door. The train we got on in Lille was much more spacious than the Eurostar which was a relief, this journey also took just over an hour and we arrived in Marne-la-Vallée (Disneyland) at 14:59. France is an hour ahead of the UK, the journey took 2 hours 45 minutes including a 25 minute stop over in Lille.

Once we arrived at the station, we walked outside and only had to wait 5 minutes for a shuttle to come along which took us to our hotel. The shuttle service is free of charge which is great, you can also walk to most of the Disney hotels in about 10 minutes from the station through the Disney Village. We couldn’t walk on this occasion as we had some alcohol in our suitcases and it is prohibited when walking through the parks/ village. It took under 10 minutes for the shuttle to take us to Sequoia Lodge and once we got there we went security in the reception pretty quickly and then checked in. I had booked one of the standard rooms which I believe are outside of the main hotel however they kindly upgraded us to a Montana room in the main building. The room was great for what we wanted which was really just somewhere to sleep and freshen up, we didn’t spend a lot of time in the room because there’s so much to see and do in the parks. After putting all of our luggage down in the room and freshening up we headed out to try and catch the parade at 4:45 in the main park. Luckily we got into the park just before it started and got a really good view, it was absolutely amazing and a lovely way to start off the trip. We were freezing cold and soaking wet after standing out in the rain so went to Casey’s Corner on Main Street to use our Tea Time Treat vouchers which were included in our meal plan. We both chose to have a hot chocolate and a donut, definitely wasn’t the weather for the option of a Magnum! After this we then just had a browse in a few of the shops on Main Street and then went back to the Disney Village and had dinner at Annette’s Diner which was again included in the Half Board Plus meal plan we purchased. Their menu mainly had salads and burgers on it which was fine for us, we both opted for a burger and they tasted so nice. After having a starter and most of our burgers we couldn’t fit in a dessert so I took my Chocolate Fudge Cake to go and had it later on back at the hotel.

We then spent the rest of the evening in the Redwood bar & lounge in the Sequoia Lodge, the atmosphere was really nice in there as were the cocktails. I got a chance to try the famous Glowtini, well famous to people that are planning a trip to Disneyland and who like cocktails!  The standard size cocktails were between 13 and 15 euros, I didn’t think this was too expensive considering they were really nice and we were in a Disney hotel.

Friday – Disney Studios, Dreams and Buffalo Bills Wild West Show

We were up and out by about 9 on our first full day which was surprising as we were in the hotel bar until quite late. We decided to skip the continental breakfast in the hotel so I can’t provide any insight into what that was a like and instead got a McDonalds breakfast in the village on the way to the parks. A bacon and egg McMuffin and a small coffee was only 3 euros which I thought was really reasonable and possibly cheaper than it would be in England. We then made it to the Disney Studios around 10am just as it opened, I was disappointed to see the Studio Tram Tour was closed for refurbishment as I had read this was well worth going on. Neither of us are big thrill seekers when it comes to rides and so The Tower of Terror was most definitely not on our list of things to do. The things I’d recommend the most to do in the Disney Studio’s is the Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show Spectacular, Ratatouille: The Adventure and Crush’s Coaster. There was a lot of things to do in this park that would suit people that didn’t really like rides. The stunt show is a must see, it was absolutely amazing and they take you behind the scenes to show you how the stunts are performed.  We ate at lunch time in Restaurant des Stars, the food was nice but not really to our tastes. Mains included things like chicken wings, pizza, some seafood and pork. The desserts were things like pecan pie, cheesecake, muffins, cookies and ice cream.  It took us about 6 hours to do the bits in the park we wanted to and because we did this on a winter weekday there wasn’t any queues. If you’re planning to do a day trip I’d say the Disney Studio’s could easily be done in a full day.

After the Studio’s we went into the main park and went on the Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast and then had our Teatime Treat in Café Hyperion. There was then only an hour until dreams started and as I’d read on the Facebook group I mentioned in my previous post it was advisable to get in front of the castle an hour before the show. We had an excellent view when it started, we could see the whole story that was being projected onto the castle, the whole experience was so magical. The show went on for about half an hour so after this we still had an hour until Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show which we needed to start queuing for at 8:30, we decided to look round World of Disney, this was the biggest shop in the Disney Village so we easily spent an hour looking round it and picking out souvenirs. There was a really good sale on throughout the park and the village during our stay so we managed to pick up some really good bargains.

We arrived at Buffalo Bills at 8:30pm which is what it advised on our ticket as the show was starting at 9:30pm. The queue inside was quite long and they didn’t start taking peoples tickets until closer to 9pm, my legs were aching after a really long day and there was nowhere for anyone to sit so that was a little disappointing. Once they had taken our tickets we got given a souvenir cowboy hat and were directed through to a bar area with a little stage where there were a few musicians and dancers performing.  About 10 minutes before the show started we were directed to our seats around the arena, the show was really great and I’d never seen anything like it before. There were live buffalo and horses in the arena as part of the show and we were served food whilst watching. The food was a set menu consisting of tortilla chips, corn bread and chilli to start followed by potatoes, ribs, sausage and chicken for the main and then apple crumble, ice cream and coffee for dessert. We were also served beer which they were a little bit shy in coming round to fill up our glasses which was slightly annoying as it was meant to be unlimited. There was also water and soft drinks on offer too. When you book it is mentioned not go if you have asthma, I don’t have asthma but do suffer with a weakness in my chest and even though we purchased cheaper tickets we were sat right at the front and I struggled with the amount of dust/ animal hair that was flying everywhere so its just something to bare in mind if you think it could affect you.

After the show we were so tired and our feet ached so much from having such a long action packed day. We headed to the bar for a couple of drinks and then went straight to bed.