Just shy of the 20th Anniversary Celebrations DLRP Trip Report!

Well this is my first EVER Trip report so I hope you enjoy what I have in store for you! My name is Tristan and I am 19, from the UK! I am a huge Disney fan! I will admit, Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL, USA is my favourite but Disneyland Resort Paris and I am very impressed by the amount of updates and new additions coming to the resort! Especially during the 20th Anniversary which is in April of this year, 2012. With this trip report, I am writing as I go along on this holiday but I will try and write it as though we have already been, to make it come across more like a report and not a diary!

So, here is a small brief overview of how we have come to going to Disneyland Paris…

We decided to go to Disneyland Resort Paris only about a month ago because at the end of April this year I will be embarking on a long and hard journey to become a Commercial Airline Pilot! Therefore I wanted to have a small holiday with my family before I go, as I will be away from home for quite a long time. We only wanted a small holiday so we are going for 2 nights/3 days! We are going to be staying at Disney’s Newport Bay Club Hotel, which is situated on the Disneyland Resort Paris site! (So we can enjoy those Extra Magic Hours!) We will be travelling from London’s St Pancras International Station, travelling with Eurostar! First trip with them!
I live in the southwest of the UK so it is quite a drive to London but it’s not a problem!

 

[Mickey92]

This is me:

On Wednesday 5th March 2012, I was just about to pop off to sleep before we were due to get up at 04:30am the next day for the drive to London to catch the Eurostar, until I came across on the news, Eurostar Power line fault – Major Delays!!

I think I will define it as Disney Panic! Thankfully, I checked the info on our train to see if it was affected and it wasn’t! The information I was looking at, on the Eurostar website, was the trains that were affected so I assumed that our train was ok! So, Panic over!

Tuesday 6th March

Up at 04:30am, I was surprisingly awake and ready to go! I did check the Eurostar website just in case there was any further information, but it was the same. So we carried on our way and we were on the road by 05:30am!

My family on this trip was my mum, dad and my brother. All like Disney but I think I like Disney the most in my family! I can’t really remember how many times I have been to Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort Paris, but these are the only two places I have been. I have definitely been to Walt Disney World more than Disneyland Paris but I like both of them!

The night before, I had the usual ‘I have forgotten something’ pre-holiday feeling so I checked and re-checked that I had everything such as Camera, Magazines, iPod, Laptop and last but not least, not forgetting, my little Mickey!

The reason we left so early to get to St Pancras in London is because of the long drive to London, the usual London rush hour!! And also we had to get there to park and collect our tickets!


Sorry for no pictures inside St Pancras other than having breakfast at Costa, It’s quite hard taking pictures when we were walking around a lot and pulling suitcases etc. I would’ve loved to take some pictures!

Our train was at 10:57 from Platform 10 at St Pancras so as I said we had to get our tickets and check-in so we actually got to the station at around 08:45.

I noticed that the Eurostar trains were incredibly dirty on the outside, which obviously doesn’t do Eurostar’s image too good, but other than that the inside was nice and the chairs were comfortable! We had booked table seats so that we could all be together and have a table to put things on which was very useful! This is the first time I have been on Eurostar and I was very impressed by how smooth the boarding process was and the journey!

En-route to Marne-la-Vallee, we had to stop off at Lille and change to a TGV Train, then onward to Lille! The trip on the Eurostar was very quick! Only about an hour and a half!

We arrived in Lille right on time at 13:26, local French time, and we had about half an hour to kill before we had to board the TGV to Marne-la-Vallee. I noticed for the first time that they had these awesome, warming ‘pylons’! Why do we not see them in the UK?!

Leaving Lille at 13:57 we were on our way to Disneyland Resort Paris! In the meantime, to occupy myself, I watched a video of the grand opening of Euro Disney, which was recorded in April 1992! Anybody remember Matthew Kelly and Pat Sharp presenting this? Well I used to watch this when I was very young over and over again and I loved it! Really got me in the Disney mood!

 

[Mickey92]

We arrived at Marne-la-Vallee again on time and made our way to the yellow buses which a cast member from twitter I am following kindly recommended us to use as we were carrying luggage so we didn’t want to walk a long way from the station to the Newport Bay Club! (Thanks Claire!)

Well we had no hesitation! Straight into our rooms and put something a bit warmer on and we were on our way to the Disneyland Park!

The building construction around the Disneyland Paris main hotel added a lot of confusion as to where the ‘temporary’ entrance was for the park. Signage wasn’t clear but eventually we found a route to the park entrance! Once inside the park we headed for a bite to eat before we went to Space Mountain: Mission 2! The hot chocolate here was incredible! Sooo chocolatey!

 

[Mickey92]

When we were in our hotel room I quickly checked the wait times on my Disneyland Paris app on my iPhone and it was showing Space Mountain to have a wait time of 55 minutes! Well, this proved to be inaccurate as when we got there, the wait time was 20 minutes and it was pretty much walk-on!

Just a quick word about the weather, it was quite cold! We noticed on the train journey over that there were traces of snow still lying on the ground around Lille and that it had been raining quite a lot due to some fields being flooded… Other than that the cloud was low, so apologies for the lighting in the pictures, it was quite a dull day!

I noticed a lot on Space Mountain: Mission 2, that it is very very shaky! When on the ride, your head gets moved around a lot! On Rock n’ Rollercoaster it is a much smoother ride! Maybe they should look into this…

After Space Mountain we made our way to the classic, Captain EO! I remember this from when I was very young, I remember watching this at Disneyland Resort Paris or it could’ve been Walt Disney World, not too sure, but it definitely is awesome!! My brother really enjoyed it too and I think it is great that they have brought this attraction/show back to Disney parks because the music is really good!

We stopped by Star Traders to pick up some merchandise for Captain EO!

Making our way over to Frontierland, I again noticed that there was a lot of work going on around the hub of Main Street, USA near Sleeping Beauties castle. From what I have read on various DLRP Sites is that they are making more room for guests to stand and watch the new upcoming ‘Disney Dreams’ show, debuting in April 2012, for the 20th Anniversary!

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was the ride that we were heading to next! I actually, and I will admit this; prefer this version to the WDW one! I feel the ride is slightly longer and I really like it that the train goes under water and out to the island/mountains where the ride takes place!

 

[Mickey92]

Because we only had some of the afternoon to enjoy a few attractions, it was now time to head to Plaza Gardens, which we had booked a place for a few days ago before we left. We made sure that we booked, as we were not sure how busy it was going to be so we just took the safe option! They were pretty much empty and there was lots of space! Plenty of food to choose from and the selection of food were great! Presented well and the tastes were nice too! We all really enjoyed the theming of this restaurant as it fitted in nicely with Main Street, USA and that sort of genre!

After Plaza Gardens, we took a walk back down Main Street, USA where I took the time to take some night pictures!

Back in our Hotel we wandered round the shop and bought a few gifts and souvenirs! I bought a Disneyland Paris Souvenir Book, Magazine and also a Mickey Blanket!

 

[Mickey92]

Wednesday 7th March

The next day was here and it was time to make use of our Extra Magic Hours! We planned on using these at the Disney Studios, but I remembered as soon as we got to the entrance of the park that it was only the Disneyland Park, which was having 2 extra hours for Hotel Guests today! So off we went to the Disneyland Park entrance!

Just a word about breakfast, it was continental which was nice and it was tasty and a good breakfast but the range and selection of the food was disappointing… No fry up??

I was surprised to see that only a few bits of the park were open... Only two lands! Discoveryland and Fantasyland. Why is this? A staffing issue? Not wanting to over-use the park in the morning? Anyway, we made use of it and made our way to Fantasyland, where Peter Pan was already a long wait, so we then made our way to Discoveryland to go on Space Mountain again!!

Whilst I went on Space Mountain, my family popped into Videopolis to watch a few short films whilst they were waiting! I think showing short films in Videopolis is a great idea! It wasn’t deserted but it wasn’t hugely busy! There were some people there enjoying the films!

We then made our way to Adventureland to wait until it opened and then our plan was to head to the Indiana Jones Ride as we haven’t been on it before

What had I missed out on?! This ride was amazing!! Really really good! Although I think I would’ve preferred it if it was a bit warmer as we were at the front on the first ride and my face was freezing by the end of it! The Indiana Jones ride I feel comes across to me as a more intense version of Big Thunder Mountain!

 

[Mickey92]

After, The Haunted Mansion/Phantom Manor beckoned us towards it to fill that extra space just for one more! Such a classic ride and they really have kept the house tip top with regards to its theming! With my shots I tried to get the eerie and haunted look across!

It was time now to go to the Disney Studios for my favourite ride of all time! Rock n’ Rollercoaster!!

 

[Mickey92]

We did lots here, but we first went to Rock n’ Rollercoaster! So here are some photos of the things we did!...

What I noticed at the Lights Moteurs Action Show, is that I quickly remembered as I was watching it that Lightning McQueen was going to be coming out, taking over from Herbie! I actually really enjoyed the Lightning McQueen part! Very detailed car! And because Cars I/II is Awesome!!

 

[Mickey92]

Now, I do love the Light’s Moteurs Action Show! However, maybe a change to the show now? It seems all the same now, although very very good and professional! I just think maybe a change could be worthwhile with all the 20th Anniversary celebrations and the money invested from Disney for Park Expansion! As I said, the Lightning McQueen segment was very good!

Then the heaven’s opened! Raining, low cloud, and freezing cold! But we did get to do some things such as Backlot tour (When the rain started!), Animagique, Art of Animation and Tower of Terror!

I wanted to see the new Toy Story ‘Play Area’ but we decided that after we did the above, we would go and grab something warm to drink and then head to Planet Hollywood for a final holiday meal! It was a delicious meal and something I definitely looked forward to before I came to Disneyland Paris!

Once back at the hotel, we went to the bar to have a drink, which we also did the night before. I have to say the staff that work here were very good! The barman who was serving us was interacting with us and joking with us, which is really good to see and made the evening a whole lot more enjoyable!

 

[Mickey92]

Thursday 8th March

Thursday, our last day and sadly we didn’t have any time to go into the parks for the last time until we come back purely because our train left Marne-la-Vallee at 1035! Again, Breakfast was the same but still nice! Maybe it’s just Disney and they prefer to have the same thing every morning but at Walt Disney World there is a lot more choice! Maybe I’m just picky!

We went to pay the bill for things that we got charged towards our room for the past 2 days. On Tuesday night, at Plaza Gardens, we payed directly for our meal and had a receipt to prove this. We are then charged again for the same meal when we saw the end bill on Thursday meal. Showed them the receipt, Disney were having none of it and said we had to go back to Plaza Gardens to sort it out. Now, we couldn’t do this because our tickets had run out of use AND we had a train to catch! Disney accused us of lying because they said ‘Well you are taking the Eurostar which leaves this evening’ so they still wanted us to go into the park and sort it with Plaza Gardens. But as soon as we said were taking the TGV, it sort of sorted the situation and the charge was taken off… I mean this is Disney we are talking about! If we had a receipt showing our payment, why did they not accept that?


We took the same bus as we took when we arrived, but this time it was back to the station and on our way home! Again, another lovely journey with Eurostar and TGV!

I really enjoyed my trip to Disneyland Paris! Although it was very cold, it still was very enjoyable! There was a lot of construction in and around the park but this was all very tidy and didn’t ruin the experience for all of us and didn’t get in the way of our holiday!

 

[Patrick_Ears]

WOW Love this!!! Great report so far, your pictures are truly amazing!!

 

[Mickey92]

WOW Love this!!! Great report so far, your pictures are truly amazing!!

Thanks very very much! Are the pics really big? :/ I have resized them from the originals so I am sorry if they are really big :/

 

[Korfar]

Since I have never been to the UK it was strange to me to see the steering wheel of the car on the right side and oncoming traffic on the right side of the highway. Made me do a double take. Great photos though.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Awesome pictures! Looks like you guys hada great time!

I've never been to DLRP but I have extended family in the UK and I hope to some day go visit them and go to DLRP!

Thanks for sharing! :wave:

 

[diddy_mouse]

Wow, what a great report! You took some fantastic pictures around DLRP.

Being the travel geek that I am I really liked the pictures you took of the train stations, especially the departure/arrival boards.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Mickey92]

Wow, what a great report! You took some fantastic pictures around DLRP.

Being the travel geek that I am I really liked the pictures you took of the train stations, especially the departure/arrival boards.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks very very much! For anyone wondering, I use a Nikon D300s and edit my pictures in Adobe Lightroom 3 :wave:

 

[meeskamickey]

Great trip report! Sounds like you had a great time, even though the weather stunk! Love your pictures!!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Great report! I enjoyed seeing all these pictures of DLRP because I have never been there, actually I've never been out of the USA! I would love to visit all the Disney Parks one day.

Your pictures are beautiful, I really love all the detailed ones you took! I was partial to the eerie ones of the Phantom Manor and the Tower of Terror (It's my favorite ride at WDW)

Thanks for letting us follow along and good luck with your training to be a pilot! :wave:

 

[Mickey92]

Great trip report! Sounds like you had a great time, even though the weather stunk! Love your pictures!!

Thanks very much! It was bitterly cold but still enjoyable nonetheless! :sohappy:

Great report! I enjoyed seeing all these pictures of DLRP because I have never been there, actually I've never been out of the USA! I would love to visit all the Disney Parks one day.

Your pictures are beautiful, I really love all the detailed ones you took! I was partial to the eerie ones of the Phantom Manor and the Tower of Terror (It's my favorite ride at WDW)

Thanks for letting us follow along and good luck with your training to be a pilot! :wave:

Thankyou! It is a good park and I think in time it will get alot better! But in my heart I am a true WDW Fan, but still love DLRP!

Thankyou for all your comments on the pics! I try really hard every time to improve the photos I took the last time I went Did you like the Phantom Manor and TOT pictures or you didn't?

I will do! Thanks everyone! :wave: :sohappy:

 

[dreamscometrue]

great report and some wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing. :wave: