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Old 19 Sep 18, 11:20 PM  
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DevonPumpkin
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Finally going back...19 years later! *Update 18th November!*

Now my trip to Disneyland Paris is officially less than 10 weeks away (!) I think it's about time to get started on my trip report! As you can see from the title of this thread, we've had quite a long wait for our return trip to DLP.

We last went in June 1999. It was an unbelievably special trip as we were very lucky to be given the holiday by a local charity that arranges holidays for people with disabilities and other health conditions. My dad had cancer, and our DLP holiday was our last as a family of three as he passed away just over a year later. Me and mum always said one day we would go back to relive our amazing memories of that trip, and so now here I am writing this report!


The three of us. You've got to love a vintage Disney photo!


The Cast


Me and Mum!


It's a Mummy/Daughter trip! My boyfriend has no interest in a Disney holiday, so he's staying home to look after the guinea pigs and Mum's cats As you can see from the photo, we've changed a bit in the last 19 years! Fun(ish) fact - I was actually born the day before Disneyland Paris opened! If only it opened a day earlier, I could have got some merch with my birth date on

The Plan
We booked the trip alllll the way back in March of this year, so we've had a long time to plan everything we want to do, see and eat! As you can imagine, the park has changed a lot since our last trip almost 20 years ago. For one thing, there was no such thing as the studios park! We also never saw a fireworks show on our first trip, I'm not sure if this is because there wasn't one or because it was just on way too late for 7 year old me.

We started pricing up Disney holidays and looking at options online. Originally we thought of staying in Sequoia Lodge, as this is where we stayed on our first trip. Mum thought that might bring back too many memories on what is bound to be a very emotional trip anyway so we started looking at the other Disney hotels. In the end, we both decided we loved the look of Newport Bay Club, and we've gone for a standard room.





Then came the tricky decision of choosing when to go. Well, we decided against the summer to avoid the crowds. I like Halloween, but mum isn't a fan so that ruled that out, how about Christmas? We both LOVE Christmas, so what could be a better time to go! And because we booked so far in advance, we could get the two nights free offer. We went ahead and booked 4 nights, arriving on 26th November. We booked through Magic Breaks.



We also decided to include the half board plus plan, and paid the extra to book a Plaza Gardens character breakfast. We thought Auberge was too expensive, and neither of us were interested in Buffalo Bills so we skipped those options.

Then we had to decide how to get there! On our first trip in '99 we went on the Eurostar and found it very convenient. We briefly thought about flying but the prices were high, and we plan on doing quite a bit of shopping so didn't want to worry about weight limits! Tickets were available on the Eurostar site for our dates so we booked through them. Me and Mum are both nervous travellers, so we opted for the direct to DLP train so we won't have to worry about changing trains a country where neither of us speak the language! I've since seen on the Dibb that the change at Lille is supposed to be pretty simple, so maybe next time . On our return journey on Friday, we were given the option to upgrade to standard premier for next to nothing (I think £11 each but I'm not totally sure) so we decided to go for it. Well, we have to do something to cheer us up on the way home!

Eurostar tickets booked (£302 for both of us return if you were wondering! I looked at the same tickets this weekend and they were nearly £600 now! ) we realised that we would need to be in London for 9am on a Monday morning. As you have probably guessed from my username, we live in Devon, so it's not exactly a quick (or cheap!) journey to London. In the end we thought, why not extend our holiday and go up to London a day early on Sunday and stay overnight! We found a great deal on Premier Inn Euston which is just a couple minutes walk from St Pancras station so we booked a twin room with breakfast (who doesn't love a Premier Inn breakfast!)



We didn't book tickets to London straight away as we were going to go up by train, and the tickets weren't available yet. In fact, even though all of what I've described so far was arranged in March, we only just booked our tickets to London this weekend! The train was super expensive on Sunday even though we were booking so far in advance so we started investigating coaches. I managed to find a National Express coach leaving our city at 06:30 in the morning on Sunday, arriving just over four hours later in London for just £2.40 each! Yep, you read that right! Safe to say I booked it straight away. Yes it's early, and it's twice as long as the train but who cares for that price! I'll quite happily have a nap on the way

For our journey home on Friday, I managed to find a train for £19 each, which seemed like a decent deal. However, remember earlier when I mentioned me and Mum our nervous travellers? The train leaves London two hours after our Eurostar is due to get in, which is fine as long as everything is running on time but I'm not sure I could handle the stress of being delayed and potentially missing the train home! As a back up plan, we have also booked a coach for four hours later than our Eurostar arrival time. It was £5 each so if we don't need to use the tickets we haven't lost too much money, and I feel so much better knowing we have another option!

So now with all the essentials booked and paid for, it was time to start planning all the fun stuff (not that this wasn't fun, I love planning ). As Mum is very generously paying for the trip, I decided to surprise her by booking tickets to The Lion King on the West End on Sunday afternoon as a thank you. We've always wanted to see it, and it never seems to come on tour near us so this seemed like the perfect opportunity!



After watching just about every Disneyland Paris video I could find on YouTube, and stalking Trip Ad visor reviews for months me and Mum decided on the restaurants we want to use our meal plan vouchers on. We decided on Annette's Diner, Hunters Grill (although Mum doesn't want to stay in Sequoia Lodge, I still wanted to go back and have a look around), Plaza Gardens, and Bistrot Chez Remy. Unfortunately I've now seen on the app that it looks like Remy's will be closed the entire time we're there . I think instead we will go to Yacht Club as we still want to do table service, and we don't really like the look of the menu in Captain Jacks. We're also planning to try Earl of Sandwich and King Ludwigs while we're there!

Phew, that was a long one so I think I'll leave it there for now. If you got this far thank you so much! I'd love to hear any tips or suggestions you might have, even though this is my second trip I'm feeling very much like a first timer! Stay tuned for updates, as I'll keep updating this right up until we go, including the shopping I've been doing to get ready for the trip!

Edited at 10:20 PM.
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Old 21 Sep 18, 11:08 PM  
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Animagus
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How lovely that you and your mum will be returning together. It is bound to be emotional but you will have one another for support.
Your plans sound great. Fantastic deal on the coach! We are travelling to DLP next year for the first time in 7 years, so I'm interested to read along and see what you think of it. Newport Bay does look lovely and gets very good reviews - and it is only a short walk to the parks.

Have fun with the last of the planning. I'd love to visit a Disney park for Christmas one day so look forward to the full trippie.
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Old 21 Sep 18, 11:08 PM  
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DevonPumpkin
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As promised, here is my shopping update! As we booked back in March I've had a few too many months to plan outfits As we are going at the very end of November, I'm expecting very chilly weather so have tried to go for cosy jumpers to wear during the day. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately for my bank account!) my local Primark has virtually turned into the Disney store recently

First things first - a non-clothing item. The all important trip report notebook! I had been looking at a couple from the Disney store but they were all very pricey, so when this one popped up in Primark I snapped it up! I'm still torn about whether or not to also use this as my autograph book, or if I should get a separate one.



£4.50, and it's got tons of pages


Now for the clothes! The first thing I bought was this hoodie back in March very soon after we booked the trip. I'm glad I got it when I did because it sold out and I never saw it in there again. It's got some really cute details, like the Mickey hands on the drawstrings, and a tag saying 1928.


£12


Then came a bit of a buying drought while I waited for the warmer Disney clothes to come back in, but they've come back with a vengeance the last couple of weeks!

There was so many options for these jumpers, it was hard to pick which ones to get. In the end I narrowed it down to red Minnie Mouse jumper as I didn't have anything with Minnie on; and the yellow Mickey jumper because it's so cute and I love yellow!


£8 each


Lilo and Stitch is my favourite Disney film, and Stitch by far my favourite character, so I had to get something to represent! I just hope I get to meet him now


£12, so slightly pricier than the other two jumpers, but it is nicely embroidered and quite thick!


The next one is my most recent purchase. I kept seeing it all over Instagram, but didn't expect it to come into my local store so I was really pleased to find it in there at the weekend! And it is sooo soft. I also got this pair of socks at the same time


£14 for the jumper, £2.50 for the socks (it's a 3 pack)


Now the all important pyjamas! I feel like I have more pyjamas than actual clothes sometimes But I got these ones especially to take with my on my trip, so they have been packed away along with everything else I have shown so far! Apologies, but I can't remember the prices for either of these! I think the Marie ones were £10 and the Mickey ones were £12 or £14.




And that's it! I have a jumper for every day in the park so I'm definitely not planing on getting any more. I'll probably take a few other outfits for the evenings, but those probably won't be Disney related. My plan is to try and have quite a bit of empty space in my suitcase so I have room for bringing back shopping, but I'm not sure how well I will manage that!
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Old 21 Sep 18, 11:16 PM  
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Originally Posted by Animagus View Post
How lovely that you and your mum will be returning together. It is bound to be emotional but you will have one another for support.
Your plans sound great. Fantastic deal on the coach! We are travelling to DLP next year for the first time in 7 years, so I'm interested to read along and see what you think of it. Newport Bay does look lovely and gets very good reviews - and it is only a short walk to the parks.

Have fun with the last of the planning. I'd love to visit a Disney park for Christmas one day so look forward to the full trippie.
Ahh thank you so much for reading and commenting! It will be emotional, I get a little lump in my throat everytime I think about seeing the castle again, me and Mum are really close which helps a lot.

I couldn't believe the price of the coach! That's less than a return ticket for a 5 minute journey in my town! I'm really glad we went for Newport Bay in the end. I expect Sequoia is gorgeous at Christmas, but I do prefer the style of the Newport.

When will you be going next year? Are you staying onsite?
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Old 21 Sep 18, 11:52 PM  
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We (dh, dd who will be 12 and I) are going May half term next year. Both dh and I are teachers so all our Disney adventures have to be in school holidays .
I booked our trip few months back too on the 2 nights free offer. We have only been once before and stayed off site so this one will be a real treat. We opted for SL in a GF room as it really wasn't that much more and we get the buffet breakfast and afternoon snacks.

I love reading trip reports so I might even have a go at writing one myself this time.

Love a good Disney holiday haul. I was in our local Primark the other day and saw your red and yellow jumpers. Primark really is a Disney lovers dream.

Keep the updates coming.
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Old 22 Sep 18, 01:48 PM  
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Originally Posted by Animagus View Post
We (dh, dd who will be 12 and I) are going May half term next year. Both dh and I are teachers so all our Disney adventures have to be in school holidays .
I booked our trip few months back too on the 2 nights free offer. We have only been once before and stayed off site so this one will be a real treat. We opted for SL in a GF room as it really wasn't that much more and we get the buffet breakfast and afternoon snacks.

I love reading trip reports so I might even have a go at writing one myself this time.

Love a good Disney holiday haul. I was in our local Primark the other day and saw your red and yellow jumpers. Primark really is a Disney lovers dream.

Keep the updates coming.
Ahh I know the feeling! The boyfriend's Mum and sister are both teachers, so all of our holidays with them have to be in the school holidays, it's scary how much it bumps the price up! The May half term sounds like a great time to go though, good weather but still missing the main summer holiday crowds SL GF looks amazing, I'd love to stay club level one day, you get some great perks.

You should definitely try a trip report! I'd never heard of the before I joined The Dibb but it's a great idea. I can't wait to look back on it after the holiday, I feel like so much blurs in to one and it's easy to forget what you've done on a busy trip!
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Old 25 Sep 18, 05:42 PM  
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Sounds like the promise of a fab trip!
We stayed at NPB at Christmas, it was so beautiful!
Look forward to reading your report
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Old 29 Sep 18, 03:38 PM  
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Time for a quick update It's officially less than two months until we arrive which meant it's time to book the restaurants!

I've been trying over the last couple of days to make reservations online but was getting absolutely nowhere with it. I was either getting an error message or the page would load incorrectly and not let me do anything It does seem crazy that a company as big as Disney hasn't got an online reservation system sorted but never mind!

I actually don't have a landline so I was really worried about the cost of calling France from a mobile to book our restaurants, but in the end I found I could add 100 minutes of international calls to my phone contract for just £3. Might be a useful tip if you are in the same position as me to check your phone company's website! This was with Vodafone, and I can opt out of it next month so it's not a permanent addition to my contract

I read online that you get through much quicker if you call early morning or late at night, so I rang just after 10 last night. I spoke to two different people during the call who were both really helpful and spoke excellent English, the whole thing was surprisingly easy. All of my reservations were made in one 6 minute long phone call!

You might remember from my original post that we wanted to eat in Bistrot Chez Remy but the Disneyland Paris app shows that it is closed for refurbishment for our whole trip. I decided to try my luck anyway and I was able to make a reservation! Hopefully we won't get there and find that it actually is closed, but perhaps the app is showing out of date information? I'll definitely keep checking back and if necessary call up again to double check it will be open, but I'm so excited to go there!

Our reservations are:

Monday: None, as we want to have dinner in Annette's Diner and they don't accept reservations.



Tuesday: Plaza Gardens for lunch



Wednesday: Bistrot Chez Remy for lunch



Thursday: Hunter's Grill for dinner



Friday: None again, as we'll have run out of meal plan vouchers at this point, and as its our last day we will just eat quick service anyway.

So there we go, another major part of the planning is ticked off the list! All that's left to sort now is travel insurance, euros, and getting everything printed off like coach and theatre tickets. It's starting to feel really real now!
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Old 8 Oct 18, 06:06 PM  
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This is getting closer now!

Love your Disney haul from Primark, those PJ's are so cute. have you got a Disney bag for the parks too? I took a little rucksack when I went 2 weeks ago and it was so handy to have my hands free.

Newport Bay is beautiful, I hope that you really enjoy staying there. Did you book direct with Disney? If so, you might be able to add Disney Express onto your booking and you can have them transport your bags from the train station to your hotel for you so you can head straight into the parks.

Bistrot Chez Remy looks amazing, you can see into the restaurant from the unloading area of the Ratatouille ride and the theming in the restaurant is stunning - enjoy!

If you are going for QS on your last day, I recommend Restaurant Hakuna Matata in Adventureland. Their fried are seasoned a bit like curly fries and are delicious!

I am enjoying reading your plans so far and hope you have a very merry Christmassy trip.
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Old 9 Oct 18, 07:54 PM  
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Originally Posted by Cazzius View Post
This is getting closer now!

Love your Disney haul from Primark, those PJ's are so cute. have you got a Disney bag for the parks too? I took a little rucksack when I went 2 weeks ago and it was so handy to have my hands free.

Newport Bay is beautiful, I hope that you really enjoy staying there. Did you book direct with Disney? If so, you might be able to add Disney Express onto your booking and you can have them transport your bags from the train station to your hotel for you so you can head straight into the parks.

Bistrot Chez Remy looks amazing, you can see into the restaurant from the unloading area of the Ratatouille ride and the theming in the restaurant is stunning - enjoy!

If you are going for QS on your last day, I recommend Restaurant Hakuna Matata in Adventureland. Their fried are seasoned a bit like curly fries and are delicious!

I am enjoying reading your plans so far and hope you have a very merry Christmassy trip.
I can't believe I forgot my parks bag! Luckily Cath Kidston did a huge sale on their Mickey collection not long after we booked so I got a backpack from there. I've been very good at resisting the temptation to use it, it's still in the bag hidden under my bed! I think it was originally 65 but I got it for £43 in the sale, and couldn't resist a matching umbrella that was better than half price!



We booked through Magic Breaks but made sure to add on the Disney Express to make the most of our first day! How did you find it, did you have to queue for long to check in your bag?

I've heard good things about Hakuna Matata, we'll definitely bear it in mind, thanks for the tip!
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