Pre-Trip An incroyable Surprise!

Hello!

Let me just preface this PTR by stating that I have NEVER done one before, but you've all done such amazing ones so I wanted to give it a try. Let me also add that the trip I will be talking about in this PTR wasn't even in existence (at least to my knowledge) until roughly 8:00 pm last night.

So...without further ado, here we go!


As mentioned above, I never had any intention of writing the PTR because there this trip didn't exist.

Ryan (my hubby) and I have been throwing around the idea of possibly going to Europe this summer as a way to celebrate my birthday - a milestone birthday quickly approaching I might add. As we always do when a "trip idea" pops up, we slowly started saving small chunks of money here and there into our trip fund. However, like MOST "trip ideas" nothing actually occurs and we end up spending the trip fund the following year or so.

So we kept throwing a "euro trip" idea around, but as expected it always got put on the back burner. We'd talk about it here and there and look up prices, realize it's not quite feasible yet and place it again to the back of our minds. OR SO I THOUGHT.

For anyone who followed along until the end of my Honeymoon Trip Report, I had mentioned that we DO have our next Disney Trip booked for December 2017. I also mentioned that I was having a difficult time with some personal items and found myself in a slight state of depression - nothing alarming, just needed to work things out.

So I came home yesterday, fell into our normal routing of making and eating dinner and Ryan DROPS.THE.BOMB.

Conversation went something like this...

"So, your birthday is approaching and we haven't done anything in regards to the Euro trip we've been talking about"

"Yah. It would be nice"

"Hmm, you know how one of the items on your bucket list is to visit every Disney park?"

"Yes"

"Well, I'm determined to help with that. So I found some great prices on flights today and took it upon myself to book the Euro Trip. We had enough in our trip account to cover it all and I just want to you have something special to remember from this summer"

"Wait....what?"

"Yup, I've included Disneyland Paris in our trip plans. You'll be that much closer to checking that item off your bucket list. I sent an email to your manager to see if you could get the time off and she said absolutely. So we're going. No excuses. It's booked"

Cue the tears....from excitement, from nerves, from the thought he took the time to do all of this AND BECAUSE I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND PARIS! Heck yah! But really....HOW amazing is my hubby.


So here we are. We are heading on a Euro Trip including DLP in September 2017 AND THEN heading back to WDW in December 2017 for Christmas. I couldn't be more excited!​

 

[mlegerto]

WOW! Thank you all for all of your feedback and suggestions. It's amazing, I really do appreciate and read it all!

Sorry that I've been MIA recently, work has been really busy and I have zero desire to go on the computer when I get home from work after spending all day on one, but I do have a few updates to share with you since my last update. So wooo!

So I took your guys advice - you're all just so smart, and purchased two "travel" backpacks that are anti-theft certified. I started by searching on Pacsafe because I heard it was a reputable company for these kinds of bags and found a couple that I liked. I then did the good old trick of resorting to Amazon and found the exact ones that I wanted for 1/3 less than the official website - shipped by Amazon and new condition so why not. I also happened to be visiting our US Warehouses in Buffalo earlier this week so I had them shipped overnight there and avoided the huge shipping and duty fees!

Here is the one I got for Ryan
Pacsafe Vibe 25 Anti-theft 25L Backpack

It has the following safety features;
- RFID safe blocking material
- Laptop sleeve
- eXomesh slash guard fabric
- Smart Zipper; interlocking zipper pulls and a lock Roobar at the top

Here is the one I got for myself
Pacsafe Slingsafe LX400 Anti-Theft Backpack with Detachable Pocket

Mine doesn't have as many of the safety / security features that Ryan's does, but the front pouch detaches and becomes a side bag so I thought it was more useful for myself AND Ryan is a lot more likely to be carrying his backpack around every day than I am. Mine has the following features;
- eXomesh slash guard fabric
- Smart Zipper; interlocking zipper pulls
-RFID safe blocking material
- Laptop sleeve
- Detachable pocket bag with eXomesh slash guard fabric


We've received these items already and they are perfect for what we need in terms of size and lightweight-ness. Hopefully they do their job, so if you are interested in these items (or ones like it), feel free to ask me how useful they were when I return!


We've also booked our hotel for the time we are in Paris. We went back and forth about where we want to stay during our time here and after reading many many many reviews we decided to stay in Saint Germain district (6th Arr.). The location is quite near Notre Dame, Luxembourg Gardens and right on the train line.

We ended up booking the Grand Hotel des Balcons through Booking.com, which had really good ratings (8.4/10) AND offered a queen size bed (other hotels we were looking at only offered up to a double). We founds a great deal for the 4 nights, so we went ahead and booked it. We are close to some of the things we want to see (Notre Dame, Luxembourg Gardens, The Louvre and Catacombs) and a bit further from some (Eiffel Tower & Seine River), but they aren't THAT far of a walk and are accessible by transportation.

Well, those are all of the additional plans we've made thus far!

We are just working on figuring out where we will stay when we visit DLP - anyone have any suggestions? We will be there September 16 -19, 2017 (needing 3 nights accommodations) but we will only visit DLP September 17 & 18 - we will check into the hotel late on the 16th to prepare for the next day and will check out and head to Amsterdam in the AM of the 19th. If you have any suggestions, please let me know - it looks like staying on site is out of the question in terms of cost.

My mom is calling DVC to see if we can use our points there (I know you can, but we are going in December to WDW and I'm not sure what points we have available and such) so I haven't moved forward with booking any hotels in this area yet, but I am doing my research!

​

 

[Swissmiss]

Great location for your Paris hotel - I stayed in the same neighborhood on my first trip there more than 25 years ago (as well as on a few trips since) and it has always remained my favorite area for ease of getting to places.

As for hotels at DLP, unless you really feel it necessary to do EMH, you may want to consider the hotels that are nearby but not on property (they all have shuttles that run a few times an hour) as they can be much cheaper. I've not yet stayed in either the Cheyenne or the Santa Fe because they always sounded "far away" compared to the other four and I was quite surprised last year when running the DLP half marathon that in fact they a bit further away but not by much (but are much cheaper). If you do book a partner (off-site) hotel, go directly to the hotel's website (or something like Expedia or booking.com) and don't use the DLP site as the price is usually higher.

DLP hotels no longer include breakfast in the price but some of the partner hotels still do, so make sure you are comparing apples to apples. And don't assume a breakfast buffet will be as copious and have as much variety as a you might get at WDW.

 

[PacNWTigger]

We stayed in a "good neighbor" hotel at DLP. I believe it was the Vienna House Dream Castle. They had regular shuttles to the park areas, and they had a nice walking area out back as well. Kinda' campy in regards to decorations, but the rooms were clean and bed was comfortable. They also had breakfast (buffet) included, but we only went down there once during our stay. The earlier you go down the better because the lines got pretty crazy. I did enjoy the bar for a nice glass of wine at the end of the day though.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

We stayed onsite at the Sequoia Lodge and really enjoyed it. It was like Wilderness Lodge Light.

 

[mlegerto]

So we've gone ahead now and booked our DLP hotel.

Unfortunately we will not be staying on site (that is SO weird for me to say, I've never not stayed on site when visiting WDW or DL, but cost is a huge factor for this trip!). We called about using our DVC there, but there was a fee to use the points there, the points required per night were ridiculous and they didn't have any available DVC cash discount rooms available, so it just didn't work out for us! Oh well!

We looked up some youtube videos and spent a ton of time on Trip Advisor and other travel sites before we found the hotel for us. We ended up booking at Hotel l'Eyess Val d'Europe (which rated between 8.6-8.9/10 on travel sites). It also just went through a complete renovation so everything looks very nice and clean! We found it to be a better price booking it through their direct website than travel sites like Booking.com, Trivago.com, etc. and DLP website, so we did just that!

It had some great reviews online, the price was extremely reasonable (like 80 euros a night), it includes a shuttle from Marne la Vallee train sation and to/from DLP and breakfast. I also believe I read that it was quite close to a shopping area. Couldn't really ask for much more when not staying on property.

Here are some photos.

This will do the trick perfectly fine for our three nights there and will give us 2 fulls days in the parks!

Anyone out there ever stay here?

Last accommodation to book will be for our 3 nights in Amsterdam!

When in Amsterdam I want to stay near the canal and city center, but hotels are quite expensive! Any suggestions or recommendations on places to stay out there?

I also need to work on booking our transportation details. Now as I've mentioned before, I am a bit of a princess (duh!) so I am not really familiar with public transportation - outside of Disney's transportation I haven't really used any unless I've been with a friend who was familiar with it. I think we will be using the train to get from location to location a lot? I think we will be doing;

- train from Charles de Gaulle airport to Saint Germaine area (to get to the hotel)
- train from Saint Germaine area to DLP area (to get to the hotel)
- train from DLP area to Amsterdam

Anyone know how the train system works out there? Should I be looking at pre-purchasing tickets in advance - I know I at least want to pre-purchase tickets from DLP to Amsterdam as that's a bit more of a hike than the others. Where can I purchase/price out these tickets?

HELP if you can! I'm clearly daff on this. ​

 

[IAmMoana]

So incredibly jealous of this entire trip! It looks great so far. I use disneytouristblog.com for a lot of Disney-related information. They have a bunch of stuff on DLP too.

 

[Swissmiss]

The trains you will take from the airport and from your hotel to DLP are local commuter trains so you would buy your ticket at a vending machine before boarding. Keep looking on the RailEurope website for your tickets to Amsterdam, but I think it is too early for booking these (usually 3 months in advance but occasionally can be further out). The earlier you book the cheaper the fare; this being said make sure to pay attention to whether it is a cancellable or refundable ticket in case that is important to you.

 

[mlegerto]

So incredibly jealous of this entire trip! It looks great so far. I use disneytouristblog.com for a lot of Disney-related information. They have a bunch of stuff on DLP too.

Oh great! I will check them out, thanks for the insight.

The trains you will take from the airport and from your hotel to DLP are local commuter trains so you would buy your ticket at a vending machine before boarding. Keep looking on the RailEurope website for your tickets to Amsterdam, but I think it is too early for booking these (usually 3 months in advance but occasionally can be further out). The earlier you book the cheaper the fare; this being said make sure to pay attention to whether it is a cancellable or refundable ticket in case that is important to you.

Oh that makes sense! Yes, I keep checking the train to Amsterdam and I keep getting told there are no trains - makes sense if they aren't available yet. However someone told me they were released 6 months in advance so I thought I was doing something wrong since we are within 6 months of the trip (yikes! it's coming up so quickly!!). I will keep checking especially once we get close to the 3 month mark.

Thanks for the helpful information!

 

[Swissmiss]

This link will help you know when you will be able to book (occasionally they will open up vacation periods early, so it doesn't hurt to look from time to time to be sure you're not missing out). If I really want a particular route or time for a weekend trip, I'll book two one-way tickets as it opens for booking, as this usually ensures the lowest fare on each leg of the trip.

Edited to correct the link (sorry about that!):

https://www.raileurope.com/rail-help/how-to/how-far-in-advance-can-i-purchase-a-train-ticket.html

 

[mlegerto]

This link will help you know when you will be able to book (occasionally they will open up vacation periods early, so it doesn't hurt to look from time to time to be sure you're not missing out). If I really want a particular route or time for a weekend trip, I'll book two one-way tickets as it opens for booking, as this usually ensures the lowest fare on each leg of the trip.

Edited to correct the link (sorry about that!):

https://www.raileurope.com/rail-help/how-to/how-far-in-advance-can-i-purchase-a-train-ticket.html

Amazing!

Thank you so much!

 

[PacNWTigger]

The RER in Paris was our main source of transportation. http://parisbytrain.com/paris-rer/ Definitely look at the maps before your trip because once you're in Paris all of your signs are now in French. We generally take a shuttle or taxi to/from the airport because after spending an entire day on a plane my brain can be a bit mushy since I don't sleep well on planes. I would rather have somebody take me to my hotel than risk getting lost and getting frustrated due to lack of sleep.

I'll be curious to hear more about Amsterdam because my guy and I are planning a trip there possibly in October, and we're starting to look at hotels too. My guy tends to be a bit on the cheap side, but I'm nudging him more to the dark side of still being frugal but splurging a little bit too.

 

[mlegerto]

Well hello everyone!

It has been a bit of time since I've updated the PTR so I have some more news and updates to share with you!

We've gone ahead and booked our Amsterdam hotel. We booked through Booking.com as this is where we found the best prices for hotels in the area we were looking to stay. We are staying at the Mercure Hotel Amsterdam City South. It was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but anything "somewhat close" to the city / canal area was expensive - we ended up paying just over 300 euros for the 3 nights. We have booked just a classic double room. Here are some photos of the hotel.

The reviews were quite good on multiple travel sites (7.9 - 8.2 / 10). It is unfortunately just out of the city (trying to stay budget conscious), but it is only a few minute walk to the metro station to get to the city so it shouldn't be too bad and they also offer a boat shuttle/transfer into the city (for a fee of course).

Anyone stay here or in this area? How was the travel to the city? Any issues I should be aware of?

We've also now booked our train tickets from Disney Land Paris (Marne La Vallee TGV) to Amsterdam (Amsterdam CS). We booked them late last week, the first day that we saw them posted. The total was 188 euros (for two first class tickets) and our train leaves Paris at 10:52 am, which should have us arrive in Amsterdam (after a short layover in Brussels) at 3:52 pm.

When I initially selected this train and our seating preference (dual face to face so we wouldn't be in a foursome with randoms) it gave us seats together for the Paris to Brussels leg of the trip, but seats 1 apart from one another for the Brussels to Amsterdam journey (meaning we are each in dual face to face seats with randoms).

When I went back to select a different seat preference (for example, dual side by side) the price had jumped up like 80 euros. Ridiculous!

I called the help number on the website and they said that they select the seats for you based on your seating preference and availability and that the change in price is due to other peoples bookings and the demand. They weren't able to guarantee me seats together or honor the less expensive price and allow me to make a new seat preference, so I ended up booking the tickets at the 188 euros with the second part of the journey not sitting together.

I am PRAYING that whoever one of us is sat with is nice enough and willing to move forwards or backwards by 1 seat to allow us to sit together. Not sure why the "system" wouldn't have placed single riders together to keep parties together, but I'm not system or IT genius. Anyone ever have an experience life this trying to book train tickets? What are your thoughts, do you think someone will be willing to switch to allow us to sit together?....and this is why I don't enjoy public transportation LOL (Princess remember ).

Hubby's birthday just passed and as part of his gift, I included the Lonely Planet travel books for Iceland, Paris and Amsterdam. We've just started going through them and flagging things we really want to see and in the next few weeks hope to start booking any tours or booking advanced/skip the line tickets.

Should have another update in a week or so with ideas on things we are looking to book to get your feedback!

See ya' real soon!




​

 

[Swissmiss]

Whether people will switch with you may depend on whether they (or you) have a forward facing or backward facing seat, as some people don't like backward facing seats. Personally if someone asks me nicely (and I'm traveling alone) I'd switch, but then I have no problem with either direction (and will often head for backward facing seats in public transportation because these tend to be easier to get as some people can't ride backwards). As for the ticket prices, there are usually very few at the cheapest price - and sometimes only at certain times of the day -and as these sell out the price goes up so all it takes is someone completing their transaction before you and you can suddenly be told that your fare is no longer available.

 

[DryerLintFan]

WOW! Thank you all for all of your feedback and suggestions. It's amazing, I really do appreciate and read it all!

Sorry that I've been MIA recently, work has been really busy and I have zero desire to go on the computer when I get home from work after spending all day on one, but I do have a few updates to share with you since my last update. So wooo!

So I took your guys advice - you're all just so smart, and purchased two "travel" backpacks that are anti-theft certified. I started by searching on Pacsafe because I heard it was a reputable company for these kinds of bags and found a couple that I liked. I then did the good old trick of resorting to Amazon and found the exact ones that I wanted for 1/3 less than the official website - shipped by Amazon and new condition so why not. I also happened to be visiting our US Warehouses in Buffalo earlier this week so I had them shipped overnight there and avoided the huge shipping and duty fees!

Here is the one I got for Ryan
Pacsafe Vibe 25 Anti-theft 25L Backpack
View attachment 200692
It has the following safety features;
- RFID safe blocking material
- Laptop sleeve
- eXomesh slash guard fabric
- Smart Zipper; interlocking zipper pulls and a lock Roobar at the top

Here is the one I got for myself
Pacsafe Slingsafe LX400 Anti-Theft Backpack with Detachable Pocket
View attachment 200693

Mine doesn't have as many of the safety / security features that Ryan's does, but the front pouch detaches and becomes a side bag so I thought it was more useful for myself AND Ryan is a lot more likely to be carrying his backpack around every day than I am. Mine has the following features;
- eXomesh slash guard fabric
- Smart Zipper; interlocking zipper pulls
-RFID safe blocking material
- Laptop sleeve
- Detachable pocket bag with eXomesh slash guard fabric


We've received these items already and they are perfect for what we need in terms of size and lightweight-ness. Hopefully they do their job, so if you are interested in these items (or ones like it), feel free to ask me how useful they were when I return!


We've also booked our hotel for the time we are in Paris. We went back and forth about where we want to stay during our time here and after reading many many many reviews we decided to stay in Saint Germain district (6th Arr.). The location is quite near Notre Dame, Luxembourg Gardens and right on the train line.

We ended up booking the Grand Hotel des Balcons through Booking.com, which had really good ratings (8.4/10) AND offered a queen size bed (other hotels we were looking at only offered up to a double). We founds a great deal for the 4 nights, so we went ahead and booked it. We are close to some of the things we want to see (Notre Dame, Luxembourg Gardens, The Louvre and Catacombs) and a bit further from some (Eiffel Tower & Seine River), but they aren't THAT far of a walk and are accessible by transportation.

View attachment 200696

View attachment 200697

View attachment 200698

Well, those are all of the additional plans we've made thus far!

We are just working on figuring out where we will stay when we visit DLP - anyone have any suggestions? We will be there September 16 -19, 2017 (needing 3 nights accommodations) but we will only visit DLP September 17 & 18 - we will check into the hotel late on the 16th to prepare for the next day and will check out and head to Amsterdam in the AM of the 19th. If you have any suggestions, please let me know - it looks like staying on site is out of the question in terms of cost.

My mom is calling DVC to see if we can use our points there (I know you can, but we are going in December to WDW and I'm not sure what points we have available and such) so I haven't moved forward with booking any hotels in this area yet, but I am doing my research!

​

They don't run the catacombs tours every day and when we went they were sold out to the general public. We bought tickets online before we even set foot in country though. Definitely do the tour if you can!! IT WAS SO FLIPPING COOL!!!

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Your plans are really coming together! This is going to be such an epic trip! I am so pumped for you! Wish I could offer advice, but I have not been many places Guess I should start with Canada

 

[amjt660]

Your plans are really coming together! This is going to be such an epic trip! I am so pumped for you! Wish I could offer advice, but I have not been many places Guess I should start with Canada

The two of you are always welcome to come visit me up in Canada anytime

Max

 

[Emadsen]

If you're planning on doing Anne Frank house presale tickets will go on sale 60 days out, so sometime in July. From what I've heard this saves a bunch of time and it's only like 9 euro a ticket. Glad you were able to find something nice in Amsterdam. The prices are actually worse than Munich during Oktoberfest.

 

[mlegerto]

Your plans are really coming together! This is going to be such an epic trip! I am so pumped for you! Wish I could offer advice, but I have not been many places Guess I should start with Canada

HAHA, you and Joe are always welcome to come visit us up in Canada. We'll feed you some amazing poutine and we can drink some strong beer - remember, we've got to work up your tolerance for our December trip LOL

If you're planning on doing Anne Frank house presale tickets will go on sale 60 days out, so sometime in July. From what I've heard this saves a bunch of time and it's only like 9 euro a ticket. Glad you were able to find something nice in Amsterdam. The prices are actually worse than Munich during Oktoberfest.

Oh great! Yes, we are planning on doing the Anne Frank house. I will put it in my calendar to check 60 days in advance. Our plan is to pre-purchase as many tickets for attractions we want to visit to avoid waiting in lines and to really confirm/finalize our plans. Thanks for the information.

 

[12in12]

When you arrive in Amsterdam you should buy an OV card. This is a public transportation card you can use for all public transportation in the Netherlands.
https://www.ov-chipkaart.nl/everything-about-travelling/tourists.htm

I would try and visit the Anne Frank house at the end of your day as I found it very depressing and it made it hard for me to enjoy the rest of my day.
Should you want to do something free the new library near the central train station is a beautiful building with a cafe on the top floor.
I am Dutch and one of my brothers lives in Amsterdam so feel free to ask any questions. Happy to help if I can.

 

[mlegerto]

When you arrive in Amsterdam you should buy an OV card. This is a public transportation card you can use for all public transportation in the Netherlands.
https://www.ov-chipkaart.nl/everything-about-travelling/tourists.htm

I would try and visit the Anne Frank house at the end of your day as I found it very depressing and it made it hard for me to enjoy the rest of my day.
Should you want to do something free the new library near the central train station is a beautiful building with a cafe on the top floor.
I am Dutch and one of my brothers lives in Amsterdam so feel free to ask any questions. Happy to help if I can.

Oh those are both great suggestions! I was wondering if you had to pay each time you got on public transportation or if you bought like a weekly pass or something, so thank you! We will be sure to do that.

Yes, the Anne Frank house is something we are excited to see, but I do image it to be quite depressing and a somber experience. This is a great idea to do in the second half of a day as you suggested, I hadn't really thought about it. Thanks!