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?