The Disneyland Paris, Europa Park & Efteling Halloween Roadtrip

[theCMG]

What has Europe ever done for us? I asked DW and she said ‘non chiedermi che ti ho sposato solo per la casa’ which I think means the house is going to feel empty without you my darling (*I could be wrong).


The Cast:

Me: 40 something never grown up teenager and occasional Dining Reporter, foodie and privacy loving theme park enthusiast.

DD: 14yo also into rollercoasters and food. Somehow combines being creative and eco-friendly with being into make-up and clothes, think a rural Kylie Jenner with a hint of Greta Thunberg. Still surprisingly well behaved for a teenager.

DW is not joining us so with spare seats in the car we have replaced her with a cardboard cutout of Emma Watson in a confusing is that an older sister for DD or a younger wife for me. No, it’s a cardboard cutout of Emma Watson; Officer...

The famous Hermione Grazer no less

Readers of my dining reports will be pleased to know I’ve finally traded up from the cheapest smartphone in the shop to one with a half decent camera. We still won’t appear in the photos unless you count thumbs...but the scenery and food might be less blurry.

Expect lots of food, memes and bad jokes. Updates will be as fast as I can do them with all the moving around, probably live-ish - scrub that it was too hectic and I'm writing it when we got back!


The Trip

We leave home on the Eurotunnel early Sunday morning and head to France. Probably a quick stop at a Calais wine warehouses to see if the John Smiths is on sale yet then the drive down to the Disneyland Paris area. Bit of teen-appeasing shopping Sunday pm then to our offsite hotel.

Day 1 - Travel UK to Beautheil off-site hotel (East of DLP)
Day 2-3 Disneyland Paris (Buffalo Bill’s show and Inventions character dinner booked)

Day 4 drive to Europa Park (over French/German border not far from Strasbourg), arrive at Europa Park campsite for an onsite Teepee stay
Day 5-6 Europa Park (nothing scheduled but a million things to see and do)

Day 7 drive to Efteling in Netherlands via probably a therme spa in Baden Baden or an outdoor mountain coaster check into Efteling onsite hotel
Day 8-9 Efteling, booked the Caro show and a set dinner thing but otherwise winging it

Day 8 Efteling park day
Day 9 Efteling park day
Day 10 AM - back to Calais and home just ahead of Brexit hopefully

We’ll be scoring all 3 parks out of 5 against these categories to see which we like best/recommend:

Theming
Attractions

Dining

Value

Customer Service

DD and I will score the 3 parks individually against these categories and tally them up to an Overall Score

This and more is detailed in the pre-trip thread here. Otherwise, we hope you can join us for the trip


*I was, according to google translate it’s something about only marrying me for the house. I’m sure she doesn’t mean it. Darling?

[Pez01]

Hurrah following along.

[theCMG]

Originally Posted by Pez01

Hurrah following along.

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Originally Posted by Lily8

Road trip, theme parks, food... what not to like? Following with much interest (yep, managed to book those Basel flights for July )

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Thanks both, just at Folkestone at the moment waiting for our train. DD already sprayed mocha over my trousers laughing so a good start I guess

Great news on the flights Lily! Full Europa Park review to follow 😁

[Ellibop]

I'm so excited to follow your report! I have today booked Efteling for May half term so will be very interested to read your review of that, but Europa is on the list for a future trip too (have done DLP a couple of times so will enjoy those parts aswell). Hope you're having an amazing time!

[theCMG]

Originally Posted by Ellibop

I'm so excited to follow your report! I have today booked Efteling for May half term so will be very interested to read your review of that, but Europa is on the list for a future trip too (have done DLP a couple of times so will enjoy those parts aswell). Hope you're having an amazing time!

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Aw thank you yes, at the halfway point now and lots of great things to share already Doing a full write up when we get back now rather than as we go, haven't had a room with a desk for a laptop yet (well it's a tent at the moment!)

[Lily8]

Road trip, theme parks, food... what not to like? Following with much interest (yep, managed to book those Basel flights for July )

[Sallyingforth]

Hope you're having a great last day. I can't wait to hear which was the winner! Hope its all been equally brilliant!

[theCMG]

Originally Posted by Sallyingforth

Hope you're having a great last day. I can't wait to hear which was the winner! Hope its all been equally brilliant!

See more...

All back now and a great time 😁
Sorting through photos and verdicts on the parks and should have the write-up starting in a couple of days 🙂

[theCMG]

Day 10 Au Revoir/Auf Weidersehen/Vaarwel

A final day mini-update. We checked out late that evening ahead of a very early start tomorrow (@05:30). True to form, Efteling was great and offered us packed breakfasts to take on the journey which hadn't even occured to us.

The breakfasts were scoffed en route but came in these natty Efteling bags.

The bags were left in the car at the end of the trip. In fact I used one in Tesco the other day when I forgot the bags for life which was a little embarassing. I suppose I could have rotated it to the dragon side if I encountered any ruffians. Anyway these contained something like water, juice, an apple, ginger cake, three cheese rolls, two turtle doves and a kinder beuno. It was a lot of food.

Anyway, back to Efteling, we left early and hit quite a lot of traffic on the way back to Calais. It is busy heading through Belgium and with some road closures we only just missed some outer city rush hours. By the time we got to France I was suffering from a heavy foot.

yes like so many of my trips to Europe this one ended in a minor, non criminal conviction. That on top of the tolls = @€170 extra from the France legs

Eventually but slightly quicker than it might have been we ended up at the Eurotunnel terminal.

A surprisingly literary name!

Then we were off back on the train home...

A big thank you to everyone has read and liked and especially commented Awards will follow later in the week. Reminder of the categories:

Theming

Attractions

Dining

Value

Guest Experience (renamed from Customer Service, I've been on a course)

and...Overall Score

[Pez01]

Can’t wait to read about the trip 😊