Disneyland Paris Trip Report – February 2017
The cast:
Me: Kirsty, 29 - chief organiser, Disney and Harry Potter obsessive (I have to be, it’s part of my job!), primary school teacher (see? Told you so!)
My Darling Hubby: Ben, 29 – football nut and secret Disney fan (he would never admit it, but he knows all the films!)
Our little monster: Jack, 2 – just starting to ‘get’ Disney – LOVES The Lion Guard, Lion King, Jungle Book and Mickey Mouse AND food – he loooves food!
The History:
As a teenager I experienced Disneyland Paris with my family on two separate occasions; both left a massive imprint on me and I always knew I’d go back, I just didn’t know when that would be!
I met Ben in 2005 and in 2010 we took our first (and hopefully not last!) trip back to the Mouse – 4 days staying on-site at Santa Fe – perfect! It was our first holiday abroad together and we loved every minute!
From then on I had itchy feet to go back, but we always seemed to have other plans and the timing was never right, mainly because we were still at uni/finding jobs/saving for a house – all those major life things!
Fortunately, in 2013 my itchy feet had a HUGE scratch in the form of a honeymoon in Florida/New York (see my previous trippie: incomplete – sorry!). This trip certainly satisfied my Disney appetite, and it was a good job too as late in 2013 I fell pregnant with our little man!
This leads us to the current day, now our little man is 2 years old we have decided it’s time for his first visit. Of course we debated long and hard about the merits of Orlando; the pros, the cons, the logisitics and the cost, but in the end we just couldn’t justify that much money, especially when we don’t know how he’ll take to it. So we decided to do Disneyland, Paris and boy am I excited!
The Planning
The planning basically started when Ben agreed we could go... I believe I had loaded The Dibb within seconds of him (finally) saying yes. (Even though it was originally his idea!) After a little bit of research I had narrowed it down to February half term. We had originally discussed October, but the price difference, and the fact that I really couldn’t wait that long, persuaded us to go with February, even though we were a bit uncertain about the weather!
We always knew we would want to stay onsite, mostly for the ease of things, we didn’t really want to do car rental or rely on shuttle buses/public transport with Jack being so young and unpredictable. We stayed in Santa Fe last time and although we both enjoyed it and found nothing wrong we wanted somewhere new. I really fancied Sequoia Lodge, but a quick pricing up on the official website told me it was going to be a good few hundred pounds more to stay there than at the more budget options, so we decided on Cheyenne, especially since the refurb should mostly be complete by the time we go.
That decided I was back on the Dibb estimating the best offer option for us, by using past years examples I figured the 2 days and nights free offer would be most suited, and as that was the current offer anyway I took the plunge. I actually made the booking at about 10pm a few days after our dates were released. Ben didn’t really get much say in the matter as he was half asleep at the time, but I was confident and happy with my decision making!
So, I booked 4 nights 5 days (including 2 free) at Hotel Cheyenne for February half term 2017 including lunch at Cafe Mickey the day before we go home. I debated Buffalo Bills, but figured I could add that on at a later date.
We’d already decided that we would travel direct on Eurostar from St Pancras, as we can stay with family in London beforehand and that’s what we had done previously. All this was providing we could get tickets of course!
I rang Eurostar a couple of times over the next few months to check our dates and each time I was told to call back at the end of the next month. I was at work when I received a message from my friend who said that Eurostar had gone onsale for our dates, so during my lunch break I checked the Eurostar site as well as a couple of others, before ringing Disneyland direct for a quote. Disney came in at quite a bit cheaper somehow, including Express luggage service, so I fired off a quick message to Ben whilst enquiring about Buffalo Bills, he messaged back to give me the go ahead and voila! Train tickets booked.
So, the plan is to stay with relatives in London on the Saturday and Sunday nights before getting the train on the Monday morning. I’m hoping that we might be able to get a cheeky lift to the station that way as well! Its Ben’s 30th while we’re away, so we’ll probably book a meal out with family on the Saturday night too.
We don’t really have too much of a concrete plan for while we’re there, we’re hoping to plan our meals and any potential later nights (Dreams and Buffalo Bills) and make a brief list of absolute ‘must-do’s’ but other than that we’ll play it by Jack I think.
So far we plan to eat at; Cafe Mickey, Rainforest Cafe, Earl of Sandwich (we missed this in Orlando, so this is on our must-do list!), Hakuna Matata (Lion King obsessed child!), Lucky Nugget Saloon and we are definitely going to book Buffalo Bills very soon.
Dreams was not on the last time we visited DLP so that is at the top of my must-do list. Ben is more keen on ride and eatery specifics; Pirates of the Caribbean and Rainforest Cafe being up there on his list. For Jack we’re thinking Fantasyland and the railroad, as well as the daily parade and Disney Jnr, oh and Cafe Mickey, of course!
That’s our plan so far! I appreciate any suggestions or comments, particularly for February tips and info or suggestions for Jack. And thanks for reading thus far.