Trip Report Birthdays are better at Disney! 2 continents, 2 Disney parks, 1 week

Hi Y'all! This is my first trip report-we'll see how this goes! I recently returned from a solo birthday trip that took me from Florida to Paris and back again. Here are the details:

Who: Just me-Libby

When: September 16-25, 2017

Here comes a lot of writing to explain how the trip came about:
This trip went through many changes in the 9 months I planned it-I originally booked a trip to WDW for the week of my birthday because I always take that week off from work (since I hate working and especially being on call for my birthday) as a bounce back offer at Yacht Club. It is one of my dream resorts to stay at and I got a great rate as a bounce back offer. I was going to go with my sister-in-law who has never been to Disney. She is not a fan of theme parks (my brother took her to Six Flags Over Georgia when they were dating) or thrill rides. I was luring her down with Food and Wine Festival as an introduction to the greatness that is Disney. My ultimate goal was to convince her to take a family trip with my brother and her 2 daughters (who love Disney princesses) to WDW with myself as their tour guide. I booked dining reservations and then a few things happened in the spring which made it impossible for her to come.

I then offered the trip to one of my friends from college whose birthday is 2 days before mine as a joint birthday trip, given that she is equally as obsessed with Disney and I already had dining reservations at some of her favorite places. She and her husband were on board and booked refundable plane tickets with the caveat that they may have to cancel if her mother-in-law wanted to take a trip for thanksgiving, therefore using up their vacation time for the year. Well I think you know what happened-in June she texted me and said that they had to cancel because her MIL had finally decided on a Thanksgiving trip.

I had to decide whether to keep my plans and go by myself or just cancel everything. For some reason, I really didn't want to do everything I had planned for just myself so I made the difficult decision to cancel my hotel and dining reservations (making someone happy in July I'm sure!). I didn't have any plans now for my week of vacation but figured I might have a staycation.

I have been thinking about taking a solo trip to Paris (I have been 2 other times before) to do some things that I haven't had the chance to do on previous trips but didn't want to spend a ton of money on a trip that was just me (I'm a little weird on what I will spend money on for just myself). I mentioned to one of my partners that I was looking for cheap airfare to go to Paris and he told me about Norwegian Airlines. Fortunately they fly out of Orlando and Ft Lauderdale and so I looked and finally booked myself on a direct flight between Ft Lauderdale and Paris for a very affordable price. As I was planning what I wanted to do on my solo trip I briefly thought about Disneyland Paris. I looked at their website on a whim and saw they were offering a special deal for their 25th anniversary-1 day tickets for the Child price through September. I took this as a sign that I should include it in my plans so I bought myself a 1-day, 2-park ticket. I was all ready to go on my fabulous solo birthday trip (with a planned stop for the weekend after my birthday at WDW for Food and Wine Festival) as Irma loomed in the Atlantic...

Would Irma ruin my trip? Stay tuned!

 

[AuburnBelle919]

Disneyland Paris looks breathtakingly beautiful. I would love to visit there one day! Thank you for sharing And I love your ears in your first photo!!

It really is a gorgeous park!! I loved seeing a different Disney park-now I think I will have to visit all of them! The Halloween and Christmas ears are my favorite-they had some really cute Christmas ears at DLP but I decided to just go with the anniversary ears.

 

[AuburnBelle919]

September 20, 2017
My last full day I slept in a little bit. I was pretty tired after spending the whole day before at DLP. My plan for today was something else I had never done on previous visits to Paris-take a day trip to Monet's house and gardens in Giverny. It is not very difficult to get to from Paris-you can take a train and be there in about 45-50 minutes. Because I slept in I missed the first train out that morning which I had originally planned to take. This pushed my trip back an hour or two but totally worth it for the extra sleep. I made it to Gare Saint-Lazare in time to catch the second train out to Vernon-Giverny. 45 minutes later I was in Vernon-the closest stop to Monet's house. They have shuttles outside the train station to go from Vernon to Giverny for 10 euros round trip. After a short walk from the shuttle I had made it to Monet's house. I'm so happy I made the effort to come here-Impressionism is my favorite art period and Monet is one of the leaders of Impressionism. It was incredible to see where he lived and painted.

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The view from Monet's bedroom-no wonder he painted such incredible paintings with a view like this to wake up to:
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I also really loved his blue kitchen!
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It was incredible to me how much was in bloom in September!

I picked up lunch at a little cafe near the house before heading back to the shuttle. Some pictures of Vernon on the way back to the train station:
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By the time I made it back to Paris and my hotel, it was about 4pm. I decided to rest a little bit before heading to my dinner reservation. Pictures and details about dinner and my last morning in Paris in the next post.[/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]

 

[AuburnBelle919]

One of my friends who lived in Paris for a year recommended the restaurant I went to: Pottoka. It is a small restaurant kind of near the Eiffel Tower. They had a prix fixe menu for 37 euros for an appetizer, entree, and dessert which I thought was a pretty good price.
I started with a crispy soft-boiled egg with mushrooms, chorizo, and risotto.

So good (even though I don't usually like soft boiled eggs or mushrooms!)
For my entree I had crispy duck with macaroni and clementine jelly.
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The citrus from the clementine went really well with the duck.
My dessert was "French toast"-which was really a bread pudding with mascarpone ice cream and candied pecans to add texture.
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Such a good meal for my last night in Paris! I would definitely recommend this restaurant if you go to Paris, but make a reservation because it is tiny!

I walked over to see the Eiffel Tower at night since I was in the neighborhood.
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I made my way back to the hotel via the metro and went to sleep. My flight didn't leave until 4:15pm the next day so I still had one more morning to enjoy.

September 21, 2017
After waking up and packing everything up, I checked my bags at the baggage hold at the hotel. I had a few more hours before I had to head to the airport and I wanted to visit my favorite museum-the Musee d'Orsay. This museum is in an old train station so the building is gorgeous, not to mention the artwork.
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After walking along the Seine one last time-
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and hanging out in the Place de la Concorde for a few pictures-
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it was time to pick up my bags from the hotel. I took a taxi to the airport because my feet were too tired to deal with the metro. Because I was flying premium class, I was able to hang out in one of the lounges for about an hour. I enjoyed free wifi and light snacks/wine before boarding my direct flight back to Ft. Lauderdale. My plane landed on time about 8pm EST and it took about 45 minutes to get through border control/customs. I headed over to Springhill Suites near the airport and checked into my room for the night.

I left myself the weekend to drive back to Tallahassee. I planned to stop in Orlando for the weekend to enjoy a little more Disney and Food and Wine Festival (there is no way I could drive through Orlando and not stop!).[/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]

 

[prfctlyximprct]

It really is a gorgeous park!! I loved seeing a different Disney park-now I think I will have to visit all of them! The Halloween and Christmas ears are my favorite-they had some really cute Christmas ears at DLP but I decided to just go with the anniversary ears.
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Those anniversary ears are GORGEOUS!! I am obsessed with ears and want them all! My bank account does not agree with my obsession saw they are releasing so many new ones and I at least need four pair!

 

[AuburnBelle919]

Sorry I went away for awhile-life got a little busy. I'm back to finish off my trip report before I head back down to WDW this weekend for the Wine & Dine 10K.
September 22, 2017
I checked out of my hotel in Ft Lauderdale and got on the road for Orlando. I didn't have any solid plans for Friday or Sunday, but I was planning on hitting up Epcot on Saturday for a whole day at F&W. I searched on the app for available fast passes for the other days and found a fast pass for FOP on Sunday! Because I planned the trip a little last minute, all the fast passes had been taken but I guess someone dropped it fortunately for me. I was staying at the Dolphin (first time to try out either of those hotels) so I decided to do Hollywood Studios that afternoon and evening. I quickly scored some fast passes and after a 3-hour drive I found myself here...


I checked into the Dolphin and found my way to my room. It was pretty convenient-on the same floor as the lobby. I thought the renovations were nice, but it misses a little of the charm I usually find at Disney hotels. Can't beat the price for the location though, especially during F&W.




After putting my bags in the room, I took the boat over to Hollywood Studios. I needed to grab lunch before using my fast passes and there was a place I have been wanting to try-the Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge. I started with a margarita flight-

Perfect way to cool off on a hot day!
For lunch I had the tamarind-glazed pork belly with chorizo, plantain, sweet potato hash and mango pico de gallo.

This was sooooo good!! I will definitely return here because everything on the menu sounded amazing.

I headed to Toy Story Midway Mania for my first fast pass of the day.



I never get a high score on the shooting games (but I am sadly better at this game compared to Buzz at MK). I don't know why I am so bad at these rides but I still like the challenge of trying to get better.

It was looking pretty cloudy so I ducked into One Man's Dream-I have never actually seen the movie that goes with this because they are always showing a preview for a movie when I am there. Today I finally got to see the video about Walt and his life.


Seeing the models for Toy Story Land and Star Wars was pretty awesome-can't wait for the new lands to open. It will be nice to have new areas of Hollywood Studios to explore.
When I left One Man's Dream it was of course pouring. Instead of standing around waiting for it to pass with everyone else, I remembered that I was right next to the Little Mermaid and there was a show about to start. This was timed perfectly and when it finished I came out to sunshine again. I walked past the Chinese Theater, sad that The Great Movie Ride is no more. I loved traveling through the movie scenes. Next up was Muppetvision-



I took a ride on Star Tours for my next fast pass and then walked into the last Indiana Jones show of the day.


I had a few more rides to catch on the other side of the park before the end of the day. First up, my favorite ride at HS-

I really need to stop visiting this hotel-the elevators keep malfunctioning!! Good thing they have seatbelts!

I found a fast car to take to the Aerosmith concert-quick 15 minute wait in the single rider line.


I wondered over to the Chinese Theater to find a place to catch the Star Wars fireworks. I don't know if it is my general apathy regarding Star Wars but I don't like these fireworks. It irritates me that they do the projections on the theater which is blocked by the stage that they use during the day. I saw the original fireworks show-Symphony in the Stars-which I thought was incredible. The new version with projections is less impressive to me. I probably won't make an effort to see it again.

After fireworks, I headed out of the park and took a bus to dinner. I wanted to take advantage of the 30% passholder discount after 8:30 so I headed to AKL. I had a late reservation at Jiko-I've only eaten here once and it was so good I wanted to go again.
First up was summer corn soup with pork shoulder, herb jam, lemon-corn curd, and a poached egg.

Not the best picture but it was a great start to the meal. For my entree I had the same thing I had last time-Moroccan lamb tagine.

The meat just falls off the bone. Yummy!!
I was of course too full for dessert (like last time), but I got one to go and figured I could eat it in the room later.
Orange-ginger cheesecake with blueberry


I made my way back to the Dolphin and went to bed. Early morning tomorrow to rope drop Frozen Ever After...

 

[amjt660]

I am finally caught up on this great report
The Monet paintings are amazing and take me back to our family trip in 2011
We had thought about a trip to the his gardens but then cut it - your pictures make me want to go.

We also did DLP on that trip - the one ride we did not do(not there yet) was the Rat
Looking forward to it coming to Epcot

Thanks for the report so far - looking forward to more!

Max

 

[Lyssa]

It's so cool seeing Disney Parks from around the world, thanks for sharing