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Old 30 Nov 18, 06:28 AM  
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arisser
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Mobile New Zealand the long way round - Day 0 - Travel day plus bonus Disneyland Paris

note: the rest of this trip report will go in general trip reports sub forum, but I posted this one here since it has a very heavy disneyland focus!


A little background
Welcome to my very first trip report! I'm writing this for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to get some practice in so I can write a full trip report for my upcoming WDW trip next year. Secondly, New Zealand is a reaaaaallllly long way away and I have lots of time to kill on the flights, lol. Outbound I'm flying Birmingham to Paris to Newark to San Francisco to Sydney to Wellington. Whew.

Back in April this year I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when an error fare to Wellington, New Zealand dropped. For an unbelievable €325, I booked a round-trip from CDG Airport, Paris, all the way to Wellington and back. I snatched it right up and all that was left for me to do was sort out how I'd get to Paris. Luckily, one of my favourite places in the entire world is in Paris - Disneyland!

I'd originally planned to have a solo day at Disneyland the day before my flight to Wellington departed, giving me a little layover and wiggle room if bad weather struck and I was delayed getting to Paris. However, it didn't take much persuading for my work friends to jump on board and before I knew it, we had a room for 3 booked at Vienna House Magic Circus hotel in Marne-la-Vallée. So, a brief introduction. There's me, Alisse, my best friend, Alyssa, and our friend and work colleague, Gemma. Alyssa and I have been to Disneyland Paris together three times before and absolutely LOVE everything about it. Gemma has been to WDW before, but never Disneyland Paris, and was not nearly as enthusiastic as we were.

Travel day arrives
Our Flybe flight left Birmingham Airport for Charles de Gaulle at 06:40, getting us to Paris for around 9am. It was a godsend having Alyssa and Gemma with me. Since they only had small overnight bags each, they were able to help me with my huuuuge backpack which was being checked, as well as with my hand luggage which was going to see me through my 53 hour onward journey to New Zealand.



The flight was uneventful and quick, although not the smoothest and by the time we landed in Paris I was feeling a little bit travel sick.

Waiting for my checked bag took an absolute age and the ground staff at CDG weren't necessarily the most helpful After about 45 minutes, it turned up and we cleared customs to find our taxi driver waiting for us in arrivals. We'd prebooked a transfer with Rs Transports at a cost of €15pp each way. I've only ever travelled to Disneyland Paris from Gare du Nord in the city centre before, so it was interesting to see all the quaint little streets on the drive over. Unfortunately, the taxi was boiling hot and lots of swervy roads meant that my little bit of a dodgy tummy turned into a big bit of a dodgy tummy and it was all I could do not to lose my breakfast.

We arrived hassle free at Magic Circus hotel and I was hugely impressed. Check in was not officially until 3pm but our room was ready and so we were given keys straight away. I've only stayed on site on previous visits, and in my opinion Magic Circus surpassed Santa Fe and Sequoia Lodge, where I've stayed before. The room was massive, with the largest king sized bed I've ever seen as well as a bunk bed. Considering it was considerably cheaper than Disney hotels too, I think this will be a strong contender for my next trip.

In the room, I suddenly realised just how unwell I felt. I was dizzy and nauseated and had horribly aching muscles. Norovirus had been making the rounds at work, and I started to panic that it had struck me. Missing a day at Disneyland would be bad enough, but I was so scared that I'd be too ill to take my flights the next morning. Reluctantly, I waved Gemma and Alyssa off to the park, took a variety of different remedies for upset stomachs and crawled into bed hoping it wouldn't get any worse.

At about 1:30pm, Alyssa rang me to check how I was feeling and woke me up. I was feeling considerably less sick so I arranged to go out meet them. I still felt pretty delicate but fortunately, being at Disneyland meant it was socially acceptable to cover my face in glitter so at least I didn't look quite as rough as I felt!

The shuttle bus from Magic Circus was quick and easy and before I knew it I had met them at the Mexican quick service opposite Big Thunder Mountain. I wasn't feeling up to eating so while they ordered, I took our tickets and got us fast passes for BTM since it's my favourite ride and I didn't want to miss out even if I wasn't feeling well.

I couldn't tell you what they ordered, but they both said they really enjoyed it and once they'd finished eating, I dragged them over to do Philharmagique as it's a new attraction since our last visit. I'd done it in Hong Kong Disneyland earlier this year, but it was brand new for Alyssa and I'm pleased to say she loved it. Gemma was less impressed, unsurprisingly!

On our way back towards Big Thunder, we grabbed more fast passes for Buzz Lightyear as the return time was only an hour away. Big Thunder was great, as always, and surprisingly didn't make me feel any more queasy. Being up and about in the fresh air was doing me the world of good and I felt a lot better by now. Alyssa and Gemma went on Indiana Jones next. I sat this out, but it was only a five minute wait so I didn't have to stand around much at all. On the way back through Adventureland, we bumped into Daisy with no queue so me and Alyssa got a quick picture with her.



We returned to Buzz Lightyear and all got a rubbish score because the laser guns turned off halfway through and never came back on. We spent the second half of the ride just spinning round in our cars. After this, we tried to go on Space Mountain but it was temporarily interrupted so instead of waiting around, we went to It's A Small World. I love this ride at the best of times, but with the holiday layover it's just amazing!

By this point it was almost time for the main parade. As Gemma wasn't keen, and Alyssa and I have seen it loads before, we took this opportunity to hop over to the Studios and hopefully enjoy some shorter wait times since we figured most people would be in Disneyland for the parade. Alyssa and Gemma had already done Tower of Terror and Rock N Rollercoaster before I joined them, so the only two rides we really wanted to do were Crush's Coaster and Ratatouille. On our way in to the park, Crush was on a 20 minute wait for single rider but we decided to carry on to Ratatouille first. This was practically a walk on and couldn't have taken us more than ten minutes from start to finish. By the time we got back to Crush, the single rider line had closed and it was 55 minutes for the standby line. As good as this ride is, none of us wanted to wait that long and we decided not to bother. They really need to add Fastpass to this! We looked at doing Tower of Terror again but it had closed so we wandered back to Disneyland.

Luckily now Space Mountain was working again so we all queued up for this. I chickened out at the last minute and met Alyssa and Gemma at the exit. I'm not a huge fan of big roller-coasters and with not feeling well and having several long flights the next day, I didn't think it'd be worth me doing it. Alyssa and Gemma both loved it though! We had just enough time for one last ride on Big Thunder Mountain so we dashed across the park to get there. It was a walk on, pretty much, and it was so much fun! I don't know whether it was because it was dark outside, but it felt so much faster and more intense than usual. For once, I actually managed to be looking up at the camera when the photo took!



We got back on Main Street literally moments before the fireworks started. Gemma, despite having been to WDW several times with her family, has never seen Disney fireworks! Even she grudgingly admitted that they were very, very good. Alyssa and I cried, but then we always do.

We left the park and did some shopping in Disney Village. I was very tempted by one of the tshirts for Mickey's 90th, but the quality of the material just didn't seem that great so I left it. Instead, I treated myself to a Christmas decoration, a Mickey necklace, and a Remy tsum tsum. I don't have pictures, sadly, because Alyssa took them all home for me so I don't have as much to carry on my trip.

After this, it was to the sports bar for glowtinis for Gemma and Alyssa and a mocktail for me. Finally, at around 10:30pm we decided to get the shuttle back to the hotel and call it a night. I was starting to feel a little worse for wear again, so I quickly packed up my belongings and went to sleep, hoping I'd feel a bit better in the morning and would be able to make my next flight. (Spoiler alert: I did.)
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Old 2 Dec 18, 07:36 AM  
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Melbatb
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Glad that you were feeling better the next day - feeling sick is never any fun! Looking forward to reading about your NZ adventures.
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Index of my trip reports
2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg
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Old 2 Dec 18, 04:36 PM  
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DevonPumpkin
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Sounds like you had a great day even though you were feeling poorly!
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