Our Paris and DLP March Anniversary Trip

[Guest]

Hello everyone,

I'm quite new to the forums but I've really enjoyed reading all of your excellent trip reports, and doing so has got me so buzzed for our trip, I can't wait any longer before making my pre-trip report!

The Backstory
I have a tendency to go on at length when I start telling any story, so I will try to keep this as brief as possible. My husband Bob and I met twelve years ago at a Freshers' Fair at the University of Glasgow. For years, we danced around each other, bumping into each other at the student union and encountering each other through mutual friends. Both of us remember seeing each other and thinking the other was cute, but as circumstances would have it, the timing was never right for us. In 2009, I moved back to Glasgow after living in Manchester for a short while. Bob invited me to his birthday party and we became very good friends, though both still fancied each other. As we were both involved with other people at that time, nothing happened between us until April 2010, when we went for a really awkward cup of coffee and confessed our feelings for each other.

We started dating that month, and in April 2013, we got married. For my walking down the aisle music, I had 'I See the Light' from Tangled. Both being enormous film and fantasy geeks, we had a fantasy themed wedding reception, with Wonderland and A Galaxy Far Far Away as the top table, plus some sneaky Disney references.


Our wedding in April 2013.

As a child, I had visited Walt Disney World many times, but Bob had never been, and we both dreamed of having our honeymoon there. Fortunately, fate was on our side, and we had our first joint trip to WDW in September 2013 for a slightly belated honeymoon.


Our Disneymoon, September 2013.

We had the time of our lives - a super romantic honeymoon where it felt like all our dreams were coming true. I was ready to book the next Disney holiday the moment we returned from WDW, but unfortunately, financial commitments prevented us from returning for quite a while. I spent a long time experiencing the post-Disney blues, wondering if we would ever afford to get back to the World. When we bought a house at the end of 2014, this took up a lot of our savings, and we put Disney on the backburner for a while.

Our luck started to look up when Bob got moved to a new project team at work, doing specialist data research. He was informed by his boss that the amount of data he added to the current collection would directly affect his bonus at the end of the quarter. Bob worked super hard to complete as much work as possible, so when the end of the quarter arrived, he received a bonus large enough to pay for a holiday!

I have always wanted to visit Paris but never got around to it, and when my sister's boyfriend surprised her with a trip to Paris for their anniversary, I mentioned to Bob that I was gutted we couldn't go. As we are totally unable to keep secrets from each other, Bob revealed that he had been planning to take me to Paris for our anniversary too! We both agreed that there was no way we could do Paris without Disneyland. My sister, who worked as a cast member for a Summer in Paris, advised against visiting for more than a day, saying it wasn't anywhere near as good as Florida and we'd be disappointed. A friend who loves Disney also suggested a day might be long enough, but we weren't that easily dissuaded from spending some proper quality time in a Disney resort.

In the end we settled on three nights in Paris Centre, three nights in Disneyland Paris, staying in the Hotel Cheyenne so we could afford both portions of the trip.

And so there we have it! A year ago, I didn't think we would ever get back to a Disney resort, and now it's just over a month till our trip! We will be celebrating our two year wedding anniversary/five year dating anniversary a little early seeing as how we got married in April, but we managed to get a really good deal on a March trip.

The Cast

Lauren (me): Hi all, my name is Lauren, and I'm 29 years old. This photo is of me at Downtown Disney on our honeymoon. I'm from Glasgow and have lived there my whole life except for a brief time I spent in Cheshire. I'm a part-time Library Assistant, with an M.A. in English Lit and an MLitt in Victorian Lit. In my spare time, I enjoy writing, running, film, and participating in online communities. I'm an obsessive planner to the point of compulsion and I'm always planning our next trip or holiday the minute we get back from the last one! I've been obsessed with Disney for as long as I can remember. My favourite Disney film is Beauty and the Beast and my favourite character is Marie from Aristocats. I have twelve tattoos, including one of Marie (I got this one as a post-honeymoon memento after I met her in MK!), and an appointment to get a Princess Belle portrait done next. At DLP, I am most looking forward to seeing the Sleeping Beauty castle and going on the Snow White ride (an old favourite of mine that was removed from WDW).


Bob (my husband): This is Bob (Robert, but his friends all call him Bob, as do I. His family call him Rob, which is confusing, but for the purposes of this Trip Report, he shall be Bob!) Bob is 33 years old and he's a researcher for a commercial real estate company, with a Physics degree. He is from Edinburgh but has been in Glasgow for 16 years! Bob loves gaming, sci-fi and fantasy. Star Wars is probably his favourite thing ever. This photo was taken just after Star Tours in WDW when he had bought himself a Mickey Mouse stormtrooper pin and was looking quite chuffed. His favourite Disney film is Wreck It Ralph, and after some deliberation, he decided his favourite character is probably Megara from Hercules. He has two tattoos - one is a Legend of Zelda Hyrule crest and the other is 13 in Roman numerals to match my 13 horseshoe as we got married on the 13th April 2013. At DLP, Bob is most looking forward to seeing the dragon and probably going on Star Tours (I haven't asked him about this last part but I'm presuming).

Anyway, that's our introductions out of the way but I'm not nearly done with this thing, so sit tight and the next installment will follow shortly, and shall cover where we are staying for both parts of the trip, plus a rough itinerary.

[Guest]

Stella (our cat):
Quick addition to the introductions before we get onto my next installment. We also have a beautiful kitty called Stella. She is five years old but we rehomed her at the end of last year, from a family friend who couldn't keep her anymore due to allergies. This is her, she is beautiful but crazy. It didn't feel fair to leave her out of the report! I will probably be hiring a professional cat-sitter to come in and feed her as she is quite prickly and doesn't like new environments.

[Louisiana]

That's fab, I honeymooned in wdw as well ( back in 2002!) and have only made it back once. It will be my 1st trip to DLP and I'm so looking forward to a bit more of a laid back trip, we are doing 4 nights- no way could I go just for a day!
Who are you getting to do your belle tattoo?(im in glasgow as well) ive got a beauty and the beast dancing scene tattoo but I went down to Manchester to get it done.

[Guest]

The Trip
Okay, so now onto the little details of our trip. We're flying with Easyjet from Glasgow Airport to Charles-de-Gaulle on the 21st of March. Our flight is at 10:50 and we arrive at 13:40, so we'll probably be grabbing a quick snack when we arrive, before getting couple of RER trains to our hotel in the 8th arrondissement. We are staying in a hotel called Hotel Exe Paris Centre, which is walking distance from the Moulin Rouge, near Liege metro station. It is a three star and pretty basic, but looks quite nice, and we tend to only really use rooms for sleeping when we travel.
Here are some photos of our hotel for the Paris portion of our trip.




There is a lot that I want to do in Paris, but as we're only there for three nights, I've tried to narrow it down to what is most important to me. This is the rough plan so far.

Day 1 (travel day): As I mentioned above, we'll probably grab a quick snack upon arrival and then get the train to our Paris hotel where we will check in. By the time we are checked in, it will be late afternoon, so we will probably just explore the surrounding area and then head for some dinner. We recently went vegan for Veganuary, and decided to keep it up as we were having so much fun with food, and we both felt it was having a positive impact on our health and well-being. As this is our first trip abroad as vegans, I will be using the Happy Cow app and website to seek out vegan friendly restaurants for us to eat. This will be a bit of an adventure, but I'm sure we will figure it out! I am looking forward to falafel!



Day 2: I have set this day aside for doing something I'm super excited about - THE AMELIE SIGHTSEEING WALK. I love French cinema and we're both huge film buffs in general, so this will be a very exciting day for us. There is a website dedicated to how to do the walk, so I am nearly prepared for it. In the morning, we'll be getting up, grabbing breakfast and then getting the Metro to Lamarck-Caulaincourt for the walk. There is lots we will be wanting to see, but the thing I am most excited about is Amelie's cafe.


Amelie's cafe from the film.

We will stop for lunch wherever along the way looks most likely to accommodate our diet. After we are done, we will head to the Latin Quarter for dinner and maybe a drink.

Day 3: Hoping for another early start, so we can grab a quick breakfast and head to the Louvre. I've heard it gets busy so the earlier we can get there, the better!



After a wander around the Louvre, we will probably grab lunch at a vegan cafe, then head to the Eiffel Tower. I would like to make it to the top, and get a kiss under it!



After all of this, I'd like to head back to the hotel, get changed and go out for dinner and a night out in Paris! We'd also like to walk up to the Moulin Rouge and see the outside (again, because we're film nerds!) Come What May from Moulin Rouge was actually our first dance song at our wedding.



I will continue with the Disney portion of our trip in another instalment, as it's the part I'm most excited about! Coming up, THREE DAYS IN DISNEYLAND PARIS!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Louisiana

That's fab, I honeymooned in wdw as well ( back in 2002!) and have only made it back once. It will be my 1st trip to DLP and I'm so looking forward to a bit more of a laid back trip, we are doing 4 nights- no way could I go just for a day!
Who are you getting to do your belle tattoo?(im in glasgow as well) ive got a beauty and the beast dancing scene tattoo but I went down to Manchester to get it done.

See more...

Thanks for the reply! I'm pleased we went for three nights but part of me wishes we'd booked for four. The person doing my Belle portrait is Frenchie from Lucky Cat tattoo - she has done a Wizard of Oz one for me previously and it is amazing. I'm not sure if it will all be done by the time we go to Paris, as it's going to make up part of a half sleeve, and I'm probably going to need a few sessions.

[Louisiana]

Frenchie is fab! She's not done any of mine but Rachel from lucky cat has!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Louisiana

Frenchie is fab! She's not done any of mine but Rachel from lucky cat has!

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Yeah, Frenchie's great! This is the one of mine she did. I love it!

[Louisiana]

😍 love it!

[Guest]

Finally, Disney!
I can't believe it's taken me this long to get to the Disney bit! I have a problem with brevity. Nonetheless, here goes!

We looked at a few options for hotels - knowing that we were on a budget, the three main contenders were Santa Fe, Sequoia Lodge and Hotel Cheyenne. Originally I was drawn to Santa Fe for the Cars theming, but once I looked at it in a little more detail, I found I wasn't very impressed with the buildings, as they seemed a little dull. I read Tom Bricker's Disneyland Paris trip report over at Disney Tourist Blog (if you haven't read it, I really recommend it, as it got me really excited about Disneyland Paris!) and he recommended Sequoia, but by the time we had taken into account the cost of the Paris part of our stay, we realised that we couldn't really justify the extra cost.

Tom Bricker's photos of Cheyenne really sold it to me, and I read a number of great reviews which convinced me it had a great theme and would be the perfect fit for us (a very active couple who usually spend minimal time in our hotel room). We had finally settled on three nights in Cheyenne from the 24th to the 27th March. We managed to get a free standard half board meal plan included in our deal, which I thought was really reasonable, especially considering breakfast is included. Part of me regrets not booking for four nights, but I think it was necessary to keep it at three this time around because we also wanted to spend time in Paris.





We are planning to cram as much as possible into the time we have in DLP, and I've got a rough itinerary including the infamous Drinks Around the Lake, pinched from Libby and Ben's trip reports, and a breakdown of where we're planning to eat each day.

Day 4 (travel day): So we'll be getting up early yet again and checking out of our Paris hotel as soon as possible, grabbing a quick breakfast somewhere then heading for the train to DLP. Depending on the time we arrive at Hotel Cheyenne, we will either ask them to hold our luggage for us till check-in time, or just check in.



We'll basically be dumping our bags and heading straight for the Disneyland park. First stop will definitely be the castle, to look at the Sleeping Beauty story, and visit the dragon. Oh, and just be in awe of the fact that we are back in a Disney park!



After we've done some exploring, we'll probably do a few attractions, before heading to the Cable Car Bake Shop. I really want to get coffee here as I love the look of it - so Parisian and different from your standard Disney CS place. If we've not eaten already, we'll probably grab a vegetable sandwich and a fruit pot here; otherwise it'll just be a coffee.



After a coffee, it'll probably be back to the hotel to check in if we haven't already done so, then off to the village for a wander. We'll have a look in World of Disney, then grab a veggie burger from Annette's for dinner.



After dinner, we'll probably be pretty tired, so we'll either get a drink in King Ludwig's, or head back to do a couple of hotel bars. Please note: we haven't yet decided whether to do Drinks Around the Lake all in one night, or to stage it across a few nights. We will probably end up doing whatever feels right at the time as we often find once we get settled somewhere, we're reluctant to move on! Either way, I'm determined to visit all the hotel bars as I really appreciate the novelty of being able to do so.

Day 5:
EMH are 8-10am. We're not morning people but I am going to aim to get us to the park as early as possible, after stopping for a quick breakfast in the Cheyenne. We'll then be heading to Disneyland Park for the whole day, generally trying as many attractions as possible.

We have a lunch booking at Agrabah Cafe at 12pm (tried to get dinner but we were told it wasn't open for dinner that day, so we settled for lunch). This place I'm really excited about eating at, as I've heard it's really good for vegan food, plus I really dig the theming.



After lunch, I imagine we'll be pretty full, so we'll have a wander, and go on some more attractions. We have no dinner plans for this night, so we'll play it by ear and either get a CS park meal or head back to the hotel or village for a light dinner.

Now comes the exciting part. Our main plans for this night are EXPLORE AS MANY HOTEL BARS AS POSSIBLE, probably starting at our own hotel and working our way up to the Disneyland Hotel; however, as I've mentioned, we may end up staging this across a few nights if we're not feeling like drinking too much.



Day 6:
I think we might be a bit hungover this morning, so we'll likely take our time and head to the Studios when we're ready.



We're going to spend the morning at the Studios, and probably grab a veggie sandwich at Blockbuster Cafe, before heading back to Disneyland in the afternoon to finish off anything we've missed.

Dinner that night is booked for Plaza Gardens at 6pm, so we'll be heading there, then catching Dreams, before heading for a drink somewhere and saying goodbye before we go home. :'(



Day 7: I don't really want to talk about this day, as it's the day we go home, but we'll be up early in order to get a train to CDG and catch our early afternoon flight home.

That's the plan, folks! I'm sure it'll change lots before we go, and when we get there, but it'll do for now. So excited!

In the meantime, here are some shots of us at WDW to keep me going till DLP!

[Disney_time]

Fab plans - we also went to DLP for a March anniversary (25th) as we had honeymooned in WDW. March is nice, but it's just a bit strange wearing a warm jacket!