[Gill H]

So the next step was to book Eurostar tickets. In order to maximise our time we checked out the various options and decided to go for changing at Lille. This came in at a total of £196 between us, which is a serious bargain if you can’t get the elusive cheap tickets for the direct train. It even worked out slightly cheaper than going via Gare du Nord. We’ve changed at Lille before, but that was at Lille Europe station where we just had to stay on the same platform for 40 minutes. This time is slightly more complicated – but only slightly!

Our train leaves St Pancras at 6.47 (which means we need to get up at half past bleugh and get an early taxi), and arrives in Lille Europe at 9.26 French time. Then we have a quick 5 minute walk to the nearby Lille Flandres station, to get our 10.20 train to Marne la Vallee where we arrive at 11.28 am.

Coming home, we leave DLP at 18.52, arrive in Lille Europe at 19.56 and will go through security there. Hopefully this is a more pleasant experience than the ‘human cattle shed’ that is the pre-Eurostar security at Marne la Vallee. We have just over an hour to do this, so hopefully will have a chance to pick up a few last minute souvenirs or at least grab a coffee. Our train then leaves Lille Europe at 21.00, and because of the magic of timezones, we arrive back in London at 21.33! From there it will be home on the tube, to be welcomed home by Cookie before we fall into bed exhausted.

Transport sorted, the next thing to arrange was a hotel. Now, much as we love staying onsite, the hotel prices don’t make it easy. And since the Walt Disney Company took full ownership of DLP, the rates have skyrocketed. There are still occasional bargains to be had – but you have to search. And since we had already decided to get annual passes on this trip, we figured an offsite stay would make the best use of our money.
We’ve stayed in the Val d’Europe area before and find it very easy to get to the parks. It’s just a 5 minute journey on the RER, or you can use the free bus when it’s running. However, it doesn’t start early enough to get to the parks for Extra Magic Time, so I suspect we’ll be on the RER more often than not.

We eventually settled on the Ibis Val d’Europe. We have stayed in several Ibis hotels before. They aren’t exactly luxurious but they tend to be modern and clean, and provide a decent place to stay for a few nights. There are actually two Ibis hotels in the immediate area, the other being an Ibis Budget. We did consider this but thought it might be just a little too ‘budget’ for us this time.

Incidentally, you need to be careful when booking this hotel. There are several Ibis hotels in Marne la Vallee, and it’s possible to end up in the wrong one much further away! We have booked the nearest one … we hope…! And the cost for 3 nights was £226.56 (plus 1 Euro per person per night ‘city tax’ which we need to pay at the hotel).

We are hoping to continue the ‘budget’ theme with some offsite meals. Food at DLP doesn’t come cheap, even with annual pass discount (or indeed the discount we still get from the former Shareholder Club). So we’ve investigated some nearby options.
Vapiano was on the list until we read a few horror stories on a certain review site. Now OK, we take that site with a pinch of salt usually – but there were several recent accounts of hygiene lapses that made us decide to go elsewhere.

The plan at the moment is so loose as to be practically non-existent, but it involves at some point:

• Buying Annual Passes
• Eating at the Rendezvous Gourmand
• Seeing the Lion King show at the new theatre (scary queues permitting)
• Seeing the Jungle Jive show
• Eating at several new offsite places

Plus, well, the usual mix of rides, shows, merch and food that constitutes a DLP trip!
Check back soon to find out how it went.