Ninnie Visits Home: Day 5 - Hometime

[dancingelkhound]

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Today’s plan was essentially just travelling home, so not many photos today. If we hadn’t had DD we would have managed to squeeze in an hour of EMH but with a toddler it just didn’t feel possible.

The alarm was set for 6.30 but I woke early so decided to get up. After we’d showered I packed up most of our remaining bits, and we made our way to breakfast. It was the busiest we’d seen it, clearly 8am is a popular time. The CM who showed us to a table tried to suggest that DD should sit on of of the bench type seats rather than in a highchair, and despite me saying no, didn’t reappear with a high chair. I had to ask another CM who did then find me a highchair. I was sad knowing it was our last Disney breakfast, I was getting used to having nutella covered pancakes for breakfast every day.

Whilst browsing Main Street the previous day we’d seen a Minnie Mouse apron in one of the shops. Had I remembered about the option to send shopping back to your hotel, I would probably have bought it there and then, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. We knew that World of Disney was open at 9am so thought we’d have time to go and grab it before we had to check out.

We had a good look around World of Disney but could only see a Ratatouille apron, not a Minnie one. The other shops in the village didn’t open til 11am so we accepted we wouldn’t be getting an apron on this trip and walked back to the hotel. After a quick nappy change I packed our final bits and we rang for luggage service. We decided that we would check the pushchair straight away and so put it in the bag, along with our coats; the advantage of having a large pushchair bag, rather than just using the clear plastic bags provided by the airline.

DH went down to check out while I waited with the luggage. The CM who picked it up told us he’d take our luggage to the Golden Forest luggage room. By the time I got down to reception, DH had checked out and was waiting. We’d secured our charge card with an Amex card on arriving, but wanted to pay with a different one, which we’d been told would be no problem, and the CM reiterated that it was fine when DH repeated the request at check out, but then charged the Amex anyway, which was frustrating, especially as they then said it was DH’s fault and refused to apologise.

By this point it was 9.35, and our RS Transports pickup had been scheduled for 9.45. DH rejoined the GF queue to collect our bags while I went outside to see if the driver was there. After a couple of minutes the driver came out holding a sign with my name, we’d clearly missed each other in the lobby. We might have been better putting the bags in the normal luggage room as it took forever to collect our bags from the Golden Forest room, because of the queue being so long. I appreciate the advantage of having a dedicated area for Golden Forest guests, but with such a high percentage of the rooms being Golden Forest, they could really do with more staff there.

Once again despite paying for a shared transfer we had a minivan to ourselves, and a booster seat had been provided for DD. This one wasn’t quite as posh as the one we’d had on our arrival, but it did the job. We took a very rural route to the airport, and I was starting to wonder if we were going to the correct airport, when thankfully I recognised Charles de Gaulle.

Unfortunately, there was a queue at a standstill outside terminal 2E. Our driver drove down a level and across, spoke to some security guards, who let him drive into the car park, where he drove underneath and dropped us right by a lift which took us up to 2E. The board said we needed area 2/3 for our flight, which was right at the other end of the terminal. As we went past area 4 we remarked on how chaotic it was and how we were glad we didn’t have to go to that area. Unfortunately when we got to area 2/3, the Flybe representative told us that as our flight was AirFrance operated, we needed area 4, regardless of what the board said. We made our way back into the chaos, and it was absolute bedlam. We’d checked in online but needed to drop our bags. It was so jam-packed that there were queues to check which queue you needed to join. We took a punt and joined the shortest queue, which was for machines to print out boarding passes and bag tags. At this point DD got seriously fed up so I put her in the sling, which was an absolute godsend.

With our bags tagged, we joined another queue, to be allowed into another queue area, to drop our bags. The member of staff controlling access to this area directed us to a ‘priority’ queue, however we would have been better with the normal queue, which coincidentally was using the lane supposedly reserved for families with young children, and was moving much quicker. Eventually we got to the desk, where we dropped our bags, but were then told we had to take our stroller bag to another location. Finally, we joined the queue for border control. It was extremely hot in the terminal, and the queues here were huge too. DD was so agitated, but eventually fell asleep on me just before we were called forward to the passport desk. Straight after passport control was security, which somehow was far less busy.

Annoyingly, the security staff wouldn’t let me keep the carrier on, despite it being fabric, with no metal anywhere to be seen. DH managed with great difficulty to unclip it all, while I kept hold of DD, and I walked through no problem. DH left his belt on, so then had to go back through security, while I just stood next to our belongings, unable to do anything with them because I had my hands full with DD. And so a queue formed behind me, but security were dealing with someone in a wheelchair, so DH couldn’t get back through to help. One friendly staff member did offer to help me, but I didn’t know where to start, so I elected to just wait for DH.

Eventually we managed to get DD strapped back in the carrier, and found somewhere I could sit down while DH went to get us some lunch. He came back with a caesar salad for him and a cheese and ham panini for me, plus a very large pain au chocolat. It had taken so long to get through security that boarding had started by the time we’d finished eating.

This was the first time I’d flown with Air France from Charles de Gaulle, and the terminal was much nicer and more sensibly laid out than the terminal Easyjet use. It was a shame we didn’t have longer in the terminal post security as they had a Cars play area that DD would have loved. As it was, we were able to walk straight onto the plane as they were still boarding priority passengers. DD woke on the walk to the gate. Once on board, we noticed there was a baby behind, and opposite us. Clearly rows 11 and 12 are designated for those with infants. It was a very full plane so we weren’t optimistic about getting three seats to ourselves.

The pain au chocolat kept DD quiet for a little while, but she then grew restless, so DH got his tablet out and we watched about 40 minutes of Cars which kept her entertained. Once again, she dealt with the plane really well, no sore ears etc.

After landing, passport control was quick and painless. Because we had a baby, we couldn’t use the automated gates, which worked in our favour, as there was no queue for the desks manned by border guards. Our baggage came through straight away, so we grabbed a luggage trolley and walked to the car park, making a quick exit. And with that, our Disney trip was over

[Emma1987BTL]

😭😭😭😭 sad for it to be over