Just the Two of Us at DLP Feb 2019 - Day One - 19.02.19 *Part One*

HappyPanda · 26 Feb 19, 10:27 AM

Today was the day we'd been counting down to for months... Disney day!

Our alarm went off at 4.45am and I needn't have worried about oversleeping as I had been awake on and off since 3am! So bleary eyed but very excited we got dressed, left our room and headed to St. Pancras.

Our train was at 6.45am and we arrived at check in just after 5.45am - it was quite busy and it was 6.15am before we got through to the departure lounge. I had a bit of a panic at the ticket gate as I had somehow managed to print Olivia's tickets twice and hadn't printed any of mine, thankfully i was able to just scan my ones from my phone so wasn't too much of a crisis in the end!

I really miss the WH Smith that they used to have her; they now only have a tiny Duty Free shop and a Pret a Manger which had a queue outside of at least 30 people desperate for their coffee fix! Luckily, I had thought ahead and bought some croissants from Tesco the night before that we could have for breakfast.

Right on time our train arrived, despite how busy the departure lounge was the train was actually half empty which was nice. It was our first time going indirect and the first thing we noticed is how quiet the train was compared to the loud, excitement of the direct service. We found our seats and settled in for the journey to Lille.

It was already nice and sunny and we enjoyed watching the countryside whizzing past!

Before we knew it we were in Lille where we would be changing trains. We had an hour between trains and had to find our way from Lille Europe to Lille Flandres, the stations are literally 5 minutes apart and well signposted.

Once we got to Lille Flandres we realised we still had 55 minutes until our train so decided to go for a wander around the big shopping centre - there's so many shops there include a big Primark and I could have easily spent a lot of time (and money) there but we had more important things to be doing... so after about 45 minutes we headed back to the station and got on our SNCF train to Marne-La-Vallee.

Olivia was really excited when she saw the train as it was a double-decker one which she'd never been on before - we found our seats (on the top deck) and within a few minutes we were off. The journey went really quickly and before we knew it we were pulling into MLV station.

I couldn't believe how stress-free the journey had been and hoped that this would be replicated on the journey home!

Once we arrived at MLV we headed straight up to the Disney Express desk to drop off our case and pick up our tickets - the lady on the desk was fabulous and loved our "Team Pirates" and "Team Princesses" badges (a theme that ran through our entire trip). After a few minutes we were heading out of the station and through security... WE WERE HOME! It felt weird to be here so early on travel day, it was just gone 11.30am so it felt like we had an almost full day today of fun ahead of us.

After posing for a quick photo in front of the Disneyland Hotel we headed straight for the Disneyland Parc.

As we walked onto Main Street we noticed that the Princess Promenade was just starting so we stood and watch Elena and Sofia come past - it was a really cute little parade and a nice start to our trip.

Now it was time for our first ride! Liv chose Indiana Jones as her first ride of the trip but on our way there we picked up a Fastpass for BTM at 3pm. The queue for IJ was showing as 45 minutes but we were on and off within 25 which was a nice surprise.

It was a similar story with Pirates of the Carribean, the queue showed 35 minutes but was actually 20 minutes. We had purchased a photopass for our trip and this was our first photo on there - Liv absolutely loved doing different poses on each photo!

Next it was time for a ride on Casey Jr. I love this little ride so much and there was very little queue which made it even better. This is my youngest Daughter's favourite ride so I did feel a pang of sadness that she wasn't with us.

As we'd been up for hours already and only had a couple of croissants for breakfast we were starving so headed for Casey's Corner - we both had a classic hot dog each and shared a fries and a fanta costing 27euros in total.

The food was lovely and definitely hit the spot, we were both feeling refuelled and refreshed and ready to hit the parks again!

To be continued...

kadypants · 26 Feb 19, 08:29 PM

Love how stress free your journey was. I'm really considering indirect for our next trip. And into the parks so early on travel day! Amazing!

We loved Elena and Sofia too... Jack got a bit struck with Elena so it was a parade we saw a lot of!

HappyPanda · 26 Feb 19, 09:18 PM

Originally Posted by kadypants

Love how stress free your journey was. I'm really considering indirect for our next trip. And into the parks so early on travel day! Amazing!

We loved Elena and Sofia too... Jack got a bit struck with Elena so it was a parade we saw a lot of!

The indirect service worked REALLY well on the way out, not quite as stress-free on the return journey but still much more enjoyable than the scrum we experienced in November at MLV.

We actually only saw the Elena and Sofia one that one time!

Animagus · 27 Feb 19, 12:03 AM

You got off to a great start. The journey sounded very smooth.
Can I ask, did you book your Eurostar through Disney? I haven�t and I�ve been led to believe you can�t do the Express luggage drop unless you are on a direct train?
Also, did you pre-book seats on the SNCF? We travel via Gare du Nord in May and I�m not sure if I can or need to book a seat on the RER line?

Looking forward to reading the rest.

HappyPanda · 27 Feb 19, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by Animagus

You got off to a great start. The journey sounded very smooth.
Can I ask, did you book your Eurostar through Disney? I haven�t and I�ve been led to believe you can�t do the Express luggage drop unless you are on a direct train?
Also, did you pre-book seats on the SNCF? We travel via Gare du Nord in May and I�m not sure if I can or need to book a seat on the RER line?

Looking forward to reading the rest.

We booked our Eurostar direct and just added the Disney Express onto our Disney package. You never used to get the option to add on it on unless you bought your eurostar through Disney but this has recently changed.

We booked our SNCF train through Eurostar so they had allocated us seats. If you're doing the Gare du Nord route you won't need to prebook anything for the RER, they're a bit like our underground trains where you just sit wherever you like.

**Gill H** · 27 Feb 19, 12:30 PM

You can�t do the Express service on GdN trains. To be honest though we have never used it. I think it is too expensive to add on, and since we always book Eurostar cheaply separately (by phoning the day they are released - those �72 returns sell out in hours) we have never booked it through Disney.

I prefer to go to the hotel first so I can check all is OK. We do use the luggage transfer service on the way back sometimes though. This is 25 Euros per room (not per person) and can be booked on the day. It wouldn�t help you going from GdN though.