Chilling at DLP Day 5

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Day 5 Thursday December 7th

Well it seems the novelty of writing this trip report has worn off with my son, so having pried his sparse notes from him it now falls to me to complete the tale of our December trip. Still at least the weather is similar now in mid March with light snow falling outside my window to jog my memory.

Anyway, back in time we go to a sad cold day in early December just outside of Paris. Why sad? Well because this was the day we went home. We were up about 8am and soon packed, 9.30 saw us walking back to the car to load our luggage, pausing along the way to get some pictures of the resort.


You could almost believe you are in the Pacific North West, I wonder how much the trees cost?


The main building, where we were, on the left.

Car loaded we headed over to the parks to hit our highlights before lunch and the drive home. Just after 10 we were at the gates to the Studios.


One day I’ll frame this shot right, just another reason to return.

First order of the day was Tower of Terror for one last bounce.


This is a great street scene, just a shame this is about all there is of it.

Having discovered the other day that she actually quite enjoyed Crush’s Coaster Julia was happy to ride again this morning, although this time our car was much less balanced and so spun a lot more. With there being three of us the balance of the car was always pot luck, depending on who was next in the single rider queue. This morning a guy about the same size as me was called forward, making one side at least double the weight of the other I’d guess.

Once back from the EAC we saw that there was a Mickey and the Magician starting in a few minutes at 11:10 and so made our way over. Once again Julia was placed directly in front for the doors in the disabled queue area in her EVC as they like to load wheel chairs and ECVs before everyone else. The show was a little late in loading and when we got inside we found a group of creative types sat with notes in the very center of the room discussing something. I can only presume they were either rehearsing someone or some tweak to the show. Having now watched a few YouTube videos of the show from various people taken at various times you can see it has very subtly changed over its run, like any other show does.

The show itself was just as good as ever, easily still holding our attention after multiple views this week. With it over we had done everything we wanted to in the Studios, what with Edward really not getting on with the 3D in Ratatouille and so we headed out for the last time this trip.


That is indeed a wrap.

A few moments later, at almost exactly noon we were heading into Disneyland Park.


Why not a dancing elephant?

Here with Hyperspace Mountain being down for its refurb our targets were all up the left had side of the park, namely Phantom Manor, Big Thunder and Pirates.

As we entered Town Square crowds were gathering for the Christmas parade, but having watched yesterday we were in no mood to stand around in the cold. Rather we took the route up the left hand arcade to the hub and then the covered walk way into Frontier Land.


Not huge crowds, but more than yesterday.


These arcades are a great boon when the parades are on.


The dead were waiting for us, not that they had much choice, being dead and unable to move.


We never did make it onto the ship back in the summer, and it was far too cold to try it this trip.

Big Thunder was next and then once back from the wildest ride in the wilderness we took a walk up and over the bridge onto Adventure Isle on our way to Pirates. The is so much to see here, it is extremely well themed.


Animal Kingdom or Disneyland Park? Unfortunately the weather gives it away.


I almost wished for a child to go and explore the ship with.


The very well concealed Pirates show building.

The warmth of the Pirates queue was very welcome indeed, it was absolutely freezing again today with some horrible sleety drizzle in the cold gusty wind. Having done everything we wanted to do and with the first Big Band show scheduled to happen much later we decided to hit the road early and hope to get on an earlier train. Also the forecast wasn’t the greatest and we didn’t fancy the prospect of the Paris rush hour in snow.

Since we were heading out of the park anyway we decided try Earl of Sandwich for our lunch, rather than one of the counter service offerings inside. We made our way back via the hub and the arcade again, with me stopping for a few pictures on the way.


The front view of the pirate ship.


Paint the Land Rover red and you could almost be at Busch Gardens.


I don’t think the indigenous people and the settlers ever lived that close together in the real wild west somehow.


Notice the building facades continue off above the arcade, you could believe there is another road over to the right.


Traditional final park exit shot.

The Earl wasn’t at all busy and we easily found a table downstairs with room for the ECV. Edward and I both had The Traditional roast beef while Julia had the Ham and Swiss. We all had some sort of combo meal with crisps and drinks. Julia and Edward both saved half of their sandwiches for the train later. Lunch done we got some coffee and cookies for the road from the Starbucks next door before taking a final walk around the lake back to the Sequoia Lodge and Edward’s car.


One last photo of the plastic beavers on the fake dam in the hotel grounds.

I think we were on the road about 2:45 after a brief bit of repacking of the car to get the ECV in and Julia’s pillows into the back seat. I topped Edward’s tank with diesel in the onsite petrol station and we were straight onto the motorways. Once we were clear of the Paris area there really wasn’t any traffic, but the weather turned for the worst and at some points Edward was struggling to see the lane markings on the road for the rain. Thankfully the roads stayed quiet and we pulled into the Euro Tunnel terminal about 18:00. The automated check-in barrier spat out a boarding card for the 19:50, rather than the 20:50 shuttle we were booked onto, so we had some time to kill. We could have gone to the ticket desk and asked about an earlier train I guess, but we would have probably had to pay.

We got some drinks from the Starbucks in the terminal and sat reading for a while. I also went and got myself a baguette from the fast food area, once again rejecting Burger King’s kind offer of a €15 Whopper. The time soon passed and as soon as our group was called we went back to the car and drove round to the gates. Here we sat for a while as a Eurostar train had stopped in the tunnel entrance earlier. We eventually started boarding about 8pm and the train pulled out about 8:25. If we had stuck to our booked train I don’t think we would have got away much before 11pm the way the delays were building on the screens.

As always the hardest part of the drive was from Folkstone up around the M25 and up the M1, but we were home in Northampton by 10:30. If you remember back to our first day you’ll know we had stacked all of Edward’s bedroom furniture and stuff around the house in preparation for him getting new carpets laid, so we came home to that new carpet smell and a mountain of furniture to move before we could get to bed. Indeed Edward had to rebuild his bed before it could be made for him to get into. It was almost midnight before the lights went out, I was glad I’d taken the Friday off work as well.


Conclusion

Well I think Edward had enjoyed his first trip to Disneyland Paris, at least he was enthusiastic enough to start writing this report. We were talking recently about the trip and he did say that when we go back he wouldn’t want 5 days in the parks as the days tend to be a bit the same and you run out of new things to try. We agreed we’d probably stop off somewhere on the way down next time and even take a day to go into Paris properly next time.

We knew before hand that it was going to be cold this trip, but we had hoped to at least see the sun. Crisp sunny days would have been much nicer than gloomy dank cold days, but at least it was mainly dry. It was lovely to see all the Christmas decorations, shows and parades, but I don’t think we’ll rush back in December.

The change in hotel was a real boon, it was lovely being able to just walk to the parks without the fun of the buses, especially for Julia in the ECV. I’m sure Edward said the same thing last time, but apparently he is definitely booking his own room next time to give himself some peace at night.

I’m not sure when we’ll be back, we have nothing booked, but I can safely say we will return to Disneyland Paris at some point in the next couple of years.

Thanks for reading along and your comments, sorry it has taken so long to get this finished.