DLRP in a Day, or the ‘Five Flavours of Ice Cream Before Dinner’ Caper - part 1

[Andre]

Date: Sunday 15th July

Cast List: Mainly Me (but also 38 other Disney Store employees and their families & friends who may pop up in this story from time to time...)

Weather in UK: Pretty crap really

Weather forecast in Paris: 35 degrees and sunny!


Background

For the past ten years or so, the Disney Store cast members from Birmingham and Merry Hill stores have organised an annual trip from the Midlands area to Disneyland Paris – in a day! We hire a coach and split the costs evenly, departing from Birmingham about 9pm on the first Saturday night of the longer summer park opening hours and travelling overnight. We normally take the Eurostar shuttle to France at about 3am, which gets us to the resort by around 8.30am ready for park opening at 9am. That then gives us all day at the parks and the coach departs for the return journey at midnight, allowing everyone to see the evening parade and fireworks. It may be a bit hectic - but for around £35 all-in, who's complaining?

I’ve organised these trips myself for the past seven or eight years, but as I’m now based at our admin offices near Lutterworth I’ve deferred the planning to the stores this year – so all I needed to do this time was turn up and go, which was a welcome relief from trying to balance all the various party numbers and monies!


The Journey

I was dropped off in Birmingham city centre at 8.45pm by my DSIL Jo, and DD Lucy came along for the ride to say goodbye. At seven years old I think she is still just a bit too young to cope with a long day trip like this; she would have loved to go to DLP but she would have been exhausted by lunchtime, bless her! Maybe next year?

I met up with some folks that I knew from the Birmingham store (Bruce and his partner, Chris and her kids, plus various others along with their family members and friends). The coach turned up a few minutes before 9pm and we all piled in to join the rest of the gang who had boarded thirty minutes earlier at Merry Hill.

Having done these trips many times before I always travel very light, so my next few minutes were spent arranging and rearranging my cool-bag with snacks & drinks for the journey, a backpack containing book/passport/money/MP3 player/etc, my camera case, a coat in case it gets cold later in the evening, a bag containing a change of clothing in case it gets warm tomorrow, a pillow, a blanket, etc, etc. In the meantime, less sensible people like Bruce popped their small tidy backpacks onto the overhead rack and sat down in comfort.

We watched “The Day After Tomorrow” on the coach’s DVD player on the way down. We were going to watch something, erm ... a bit more recent ... but the DVD wouldn’t play.

The plan was to head down the M40 and stop off at a Service Station on the M25 for a 45 minute break, However once we got onto the M25, the warning signs were reporting that the motorway was closed due to an accident between J3 and J4 - and we were due to turn off onto the M26/M20 at J5. The best plan seemed to be to press onward and get ourselves away from the M25 as soon as possible, before the traffic congestion reached back as far as J5. Then we would stop at the services on the M20.

As it turned out, the next services were only about 40 miles from the Channel Tunnel terminal anyway so we didn’t bother stopping at all and carried straight on to the terminal. No one at customs - which on our side is run by the French immigration service - wanted to even see our passports, let alone check the coach, so we managed to catch the earlier crossing at 1.17am. On the other side of the tunnel the driver filled the coach up with cheap French fuel and then everyone (OK, everyone except the driver!) slept for the next four hours while the coach continued onward toward Disneyland Paris.


Arriving at Disneyland Resort Paris

Due to the earlier crossing we arrived at DLRP at 6.30am, a couple of hours early. The car parks were shut, and there was no one around to suggest where to go. One lonely car sat waiting by the gate and a few camper vans were parked alongside the toll plaza. At my suggestion, our coach driver took us around to the TGV railway station so we could at least set down there instead.

Our normal routine is to allow people a little time to freshen up after the long journey, using the facilities at the car park, and then put their wash things back onto the coach. In this case, we had to use the toilets at the railway station - which cost €0.40 as opposed to the free ones by the DLRP car park, but at least they were clean. The coach had to drive round the block as there was no parking allowed at the bus stops and it came back at 7.15 to allow people to drop their stuff off. The sun was out already, so I had rashly changed into shorts and a T-shirt for the day. But even as I stepped back off the coach, the clouds were gathering…

The group separated at this point. A few of us thought we’d pop over to Guest Relations to see about getting various ticket vouchers exchanged for real tickets in advance, rather than waiting for the rush and queues later. At the security checkpoint in front of the Disneyland Hotel we were told that Guest Relations would not be open until 8am so we waited for 15 mins. Then we were told that only hotel guests could go in, and that Guest Relations wouldn’t be open until 9.30 anyway. The CM who told us otherwise just shrugged her shoulders. Ah, c’est France!

We also found out at this point that the parks would not be open today until 10am for non-resort guests – that’s an hour later than normal for the peak summer months. It appears that DLRP is celebrating its 15th Anniversary by cutting back on the general public admission times in order to convince hotel guests that they are getting a special deal with Extra Magic Hours.


Disney Village

We took a stroll over to Disney Village to get some breakfast – after all, at least somewhere like McDonalds would be open, right? Wrong! Nothing was open at 8.15am apart from Chef Mickey’s which, at €25 each for a character breakfast, was a little on the dear side for most people. Some folks decided that would still be a good chance to do a character meal without cutting into their park time, and there did seem to be plenty of spare tables available. Others of us opted to wait for MaccyDee’s to open.

Rather than having to hang around outside McDonalds’s for the best part of an hour, we walked over to the Hotel New York to take a look in their shop. The Newport Bay Club one is much bigger and better, but it’s also further to walk and it was starting to drizzle by now. Perhaps those shorts hadn’t been such a good idea after all...



We did meet Goofy in the lobby, and in hindsight we should have checked out the hotel’s breakfast options, but from previous experience I rather assumed that they’d be pretty full and fairly pricey. We walked back toward McD’s, and I suggested that the New York Style Sandwiches eatery might be worth a try as it would be nicer than a McDonalds breakfast which we could get at home any time. I had a simple croissant & jam and orange juice for about €2.50, which was pleasant enough. Others had cooked egg/bacon offerings and everyone seemed happy.


(Nope, those shorts were not a good idea!)

The ones who got the best deal though were Bruce and Chris, who had asked at the New York about eating breakfast there. They got a full hot all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast for just €11, and said it was lovely and really set them up for the day. In fact one group, a family of four, went to the desk to pay after they’d eaten only to be told that it was complimentary! They did tell the CM that there must have been some mistake as they were not staying at the hotel, but they were still told that there was no charge. Now I call that really jammy! I can only assume that the hotel staff thought that anyone turning up at 8am must have been staying at one of the other on-site hotels, and so was entitled to breakfast?

At 9.20am we walked over to the Guest Relations desk at Studios as it would probably have shorter queues than the one at the main park, and there was actually only one person waiting. We sorted out exchanging the necessary passes for our group, and I decided that since I was already there, I’d start my day at Studios.


... to be continued, as I haven't even mentioned ice cream yet!

[Guest]

Looking forward to reading more.

[Andre]

You might have to wait post-Potter...

Andre

[Guest]

Oh dear - not the best of starts arriveing early and nowhere open. Looking forward to reading more.

[Lesley Cassidy]

didnt you use your id card to get discount
also lloyd told me to say hi to you

[Sarah & Andy]

Wow, i bet you were so tired at the end of it! I have just got back from Merry Hill and the Disney Store!

[Chelle27]

Great start!

[shirley]

this is a great idea for a day out. cant wait for the rest. shilrey