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Old 1 Nov 19, 09:06 PM  
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#11
Pez01
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That meat platter looks great 😋

Your accommodation looks pretty good - can’t wait to read more about your adventures.
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Old 1 Nov 19, 10:53 PM  
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Originally Posted by Pez01 View Post
That meat platter looks great 😋

Your accommodation looks pretty good - can’t wait to read more about your adventures.
it was lovely, the usual French way of making the ordinary items taste better even in a fairly chainy place. The accomodation was a lovely old farmhouse which I wouldn't hesitate to recommend albeit it was much more remote than I was expecting!

Thanks for following along
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Dining & Trip Reports:
50 Shades of Beige (2022) xxl rated food
DLP, EuropaPark & Efteling Roadtrip (2019) 3 parks, which is best?
The Prisoner of Vineland Mall (2019) Orlando passion, romance and fine dining...ok so it's mainly eating
Scream if you want to go Fatter! (2018) This report contains images some dieters may find distressing!
The 12 Days of Easter (2015) Rumoured to contain up to one good joke. Let me know if you find it
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Old 1 Nov 19, 11:25 PM  
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Lily8
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Originally Posted by theCMG View Post
Day 1 - Home to Paris (well a field somewhere near Paris)


We left Surrey bright and early for Folkestone and a morning Eurotunnel. We aren’t quite early enough to bump a train earlier and end up with a Flat White and a Mocha at the West Cornwall Pasty Co in the services style building near the terminal (coffees okay the breakfast in there looked very good). This terminal is mid refurb.

If there was ever any doubt that I’m travelling with a teenager it’s already dispelled. The refusal to appear in photos , headphones as communication barrier and complaining, it was like travelling with my 14 year old self Luckily I manage to pinch a photo here and there when she’s not paying attention, this one is actually from Efteling but illustrates the point.

Darth Teenagus

We’re called to the loading lanes fairly soon and away on the train. DD is admirably stuck into her art homework and I alternate between wandering around the carriage next to our car and trying to get a photo of her Audrey Hepburn sketch (which briefly recalls Groot before happily coming good). No joy on that photo… By 10:30 we’re already in France and heading to a Calais McDonalds for a breakfast.

I like to stop at this one because it’s only a few minutes from the Eurotunnel terminal in the right direction for Paris, you can park or drive thru and it’s right next to Calais Vins which is the wine place I’ve been going to for years on trips to France.

Eurotunnel terminal is just off the left of the pic and Maccers top right.


We weren’t that enamoured with the breakfast options - no hash browns! DD had an egg and bacon thing and I ended up with some odd bbq breakfast muffin burger that would convince anyone to vote leave (last Brexit reference I promise). We also shared a side of McGriddles that were a pair of syrup infused pancakes, those were nice.


After that and with a grumbling teen in tow it’s off to the wine shop to stock up. Quick scoot around and enough wine for me, DW and my folks for hopefully a couple of years Also picked up a few Belgian beers that put in an appearance later.

Wine Haul

BTW I love Calais Vins (not a sponsor!). It’s not huge but they seem to have all the main bases covered. I’ve had a loyalty card there forever and I despite me turning up unannounced every couple of years and never having the card with me they always give me the money off (something like 5% discount on next purchase). So they’re forever in the good books

Then it’s off to Paris. Uneventful drive apart from the usual comedy of DD stretching across to pay the tolls - rule 1 pull up as far away as possible We make it to our accomodation in Beautheil, East of DLP mid-afternoon.

Now the room is great, two separate rooms suite style and breakfast included all for a decent price.




I must admit it’s way out in countryside. Way out! You (I) forget that DLP is already a way East of Paris and this is 20 miles further out basically in the middle of some fields. We will not be popping out for the nightlife round here

So we head out later afternoon with the aim of visiting the shopping mall in Marne la Vallee so DD can browse for clothes and we can pick up some stuff from the big Auchan plus dinner. It takes about 35 minutes to get there - further than I wanted and it turns out DD is not in much of a shopping mood. We end up getting a very late lunch snack, mooching around then hitting Auchan before grabbing dinner.
I want to make those!


Deciding to avoid junk food for the evening we opt to go to Hippopotamus, a steak place in the mall. We share a platter of various meats that is a little pricey but comes with unlimited sides and sauces (albeit only 2 of the sides we ordered turned up).



We ordered salad too, honest


This was really good and came to just over €60, more than I wanted to spend but I was trying to respect DD’s wish to not eat junk with all those theme park days ahead. She was very taken with the cheesy potatoes and our one green thing never arrived

After that it was back to the middle of nowhere and our hotel for an early night ahead of tomorrow’s DLP
Sounds like you had a great first day. I love your accommodation; perfect combination of traditional and modern, right up my street. We stayed a walking distance from that shopping mall in Marne la Vallee in 2015 and really liked that supermarket. We were self catering and bought quite a bit of food there - nothing special really: bread, cheese, salad, olives... but as you say even ordinary items taste better in France. The downside of course was that food tasted so dull once we were back in England.
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Old 1 Nov 19, 11:41 PM  
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I am having a chuckle at the teen photo thing - my Eva is 12 on Sunday and has just started a phase of putting her hood up every time I attempt a photo. Should be fun on Sunday at her birthday bash 😂😂
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Old 2 Nov 19, 10:04 AM  
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Originally Posted by Lily8 View Post
Sounds like you had a great first day. I love your accommodation; perfect combination of traditional and modern, right up my street. We stayed a walking distance from that shopping mall in Marne la Vallee in 2015 and really liked that supermarket. We were self catering and bought quite a bit of food there - nothing special really: bread, cheese, salad, olives... but as you say even ordinary items taste better in France. The downside of course was that food tasted so dull once we were back in England.
Cheers Lily, it's a great mall isn't it. We should probably have stayed a lot closer too but it helped get a lot more for our money out in the fields and the owner was great, out every morning to pick up fresh pastries for a 07:30 breakfast

Originally Posted by Pez01 View Post
I am having a chuckle at the teen photo thing - my Eva is 12 on Sunday and has just started a phase of putting her hood up every time I attempt a photo. Should be fun on Sunday at her birthday bash 😂😂
How do all teenagers arrive at the same behaviour? Though I'd be worried, sounds like Eva is a quick learner

Day 2 following later today
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Dining & Trip Reports:
50 Shades of Beige (2022) xxl rated food
DLP, EuropaPark & Efteling Roadtrip (2019) 3 parks, which is best?
The Prisoner of Vineland Mall (2019) Orlando passion, romance and fine dining...ok so it's mainly eating
Scream if you want to go Fatter! (2018) This report contains images some dieters may find distressing!
The 12 Days of Easter (2015) Rumoured to contain up to one good joke. Let me know if you find it
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Old 2 Nov 19, 04:27 PM  
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Lily8
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My daughter is 10 and is still happy to pose for photos. We're quite clearly on borrowed time
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Old 2 Nov 19, 07:31 PM  
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#17
theCMG
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Originally Posted by Lily8 View Post
My daughter is 10 and is still happy to pose for photos. We're quite clearly on borrowed time
ah maybe but it'll only be a phase I'm sure, it's nice to see them get more grown-up too
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Dining & Trip Reports:
50 Shades of Beige (2022) xxl rated food
DLP, EuropaPark & Efteling Roadtrip (2019) 3 parks, which is best?
The Prisoner of Vineland Mall (2019) Orlando passion, romance and fine dining...ok so it's mainly eating
Scream if you want to go Fatter! (2018) This report contains images some dieters may find distressing!
The 12 Days of Easter (2015) Rumoured to contain up to one good joke. Let me know if you find it
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Old 2 Nov 19, 08:01 PM  
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Glad I’m not too far behind on your report. Looking forward to the reviews and final result
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Old 2 Nov 19, 08:19 PM  
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Day 2 - Disneyland Paris/Magic Kingdom

Breakfast is pre-arranged with the owner for 07:30 and we head downstairs to find a long farmhouse table nicely laid for 2 settings at each end. We tuck into the croissants and Pain au Chocolat, clearly all freshly baked these taste amazing , about as far from your UK supermarket croissant as you can imagine.


There’s also bread and jam, juice, water, coffee etc. it’s not a huge spread but everything is good as long as you don’t mind the carbs. We’re planning a Magic Kingdom day today, the park doesn’t open till 10 for non residents (why so late?) but we have to cash in our 2 day park hopper vouchers for tickets so plan to get there @09:15 in time to sort this and be near the front for opening.

DD is excited now, me too and we head off for the long drive through the dark back towards the city. This would not have been possible without google maps or a satnav just no way to navigate those lanes in the dark without it.

Anyway we get to the carpark before 9 as planned. Last time we visited DW had disgraced herself in buying the tickets, getting confused between French, English and Italian she had attempted Merci Beaucoup to the ticket lady and instead ended up shouting ‘Bu-cket’ at her as we drove off
Thank you Hyacinth!


Luckily this time DD made no such mistake but the words I was thinking as I handed over €30 for a day’s parking were a lot worse We parked near the front. As so often the moving walkways are not running (anyone - what is it? leaves on the line, maybe spend some of my €30 clearing them up eh?).

I digress, we’re soon heading up to the grand visage of the Disneyland Hotel I would love to stay there one day but not at the usual prices


We quickly sort the tickets and are through for rope drop. The park is themed beautifully for Halloween, it’s the first time I’ve been to a Disney park in this season and the effect is magical. There are plenty of pumpkins, the ghost figures with sound effects and some nice Coco related stuff over in Frontierland.




We go on to hit the rides hard in the morning covering Big Thunder, Pirates, Peter Pan, Phantom Manor to name a few. Big Thunder in particular I think is a brilliant ride at DLP much better than the WDW one IMHO. That said, we are disappointed with a fair few attraction closures. Indiana Jones is closed (we are destined to never ride it), that was known and Autopia too but the Railroad is also closed and worse, Hyperspace Mountain is closed when we get there around lunch and remains offline for our whole 2 days there!

We break for lunch at Earl of Sandwich in Disney Village, walking miles after completely failing to agree where to eat. I have a voucher anyway for a few € off with the tickets and we get two sandwich meals. These are ok, DD’s tuna is definitely better than my Original 1792 or whatever the year is roast beef and cheese. The best thing is probably the brownie dessert.

The Earl's a Pearl


After that it’s back into the MK and we bash through Buzz, Star Tours, Fantasmic and a few walk-through attractions. The dragon under the castle is always worth a visit especially if you wait long enough for it to do the full waking up thing which I think I had missed on previous visits.

BTW I do like the paper fastpass ticket system but wish you could keep the paper tickets. Aren’t these just the most collectable things, I’d love to have an album of them but they are chucked away.


The Alice maze is a full on queue experience all day so we avoid and next ride Small World as part of this session. Now I do have my issues with some of the maintenance at DLP. Did they fire all the gardeners because some of the topiary leaves a lot to be desired and I’m no Monty Don. Also some of the line of sight stuff is iffy. Check the first lovely scene from Small World then the shot up to the higher parts of the attraction and then the zoom-in on what the ceiling looks like.



What would Walt say?


Is it me or is that sort of line of sight fail something that wouldn’t be accepted in the US? Basically it’s an office ceiling clearly visible if you look up in the attraction. Please understand I’m bringing this up not because I’m a DLP hater but to objectively compare the 3 parks visited on the trip and this is a miss I'm afraid.

Contrast it with theming done well, this is in the arch over the entrance to Frontierland., Just a load of little touches to explore that you miss if you bomb through towards the big rides.

Much more like it



Afternoon snack from bakery in the Main Street - nutella filled

Back to the park we rode I think it was the Storybook boat ride thing and then headed back to Disney Village for the 18:30 Buffalo Bill show.

Buffalo Bill's pre-show, not to be confused with his NFL team


Not many photos of this that aren’t of blurred food. What can I say? The food was decent and plentiful (beer/soft drink, chili, nachos, roast chicken, ribs, cornbread, apple pie and ice-cream etc.) similar to Hoop de Doo or the Trails End lunch/dinner buffet but maybe not quite as nice. The show was also reasonable, DD liked it because of the horses, I thought is was ok and you get to keep the straw cowboy hats. There’s a lot of audience engagement and participation if you’re into that sort of thing

All in all Buffalo Bills was a good experience, albeit a one and done for us. We were properly 27000 steps knackered at that point and headed home to the fields.
__________________
Dining & Trip Reports:
50 Shades of Beige (2022) xxl rated food
DLP, EuropaPark & Efteling Roadtrip (2019) 3 parks, which is best?
The Prisoner of Vineland Mall (2019) Orlando passion, romance and fine dining...ok so it's mainly eating
Scream if you want to go Fatter! (2018) This report contains images some dieters may find distressing!
The 12 Days of Easter (2015) Rumoured to contain up to one good joke. Let me know if you find it

Edited at 08:49 PM.
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Old 2 Nov 19, 09:23 PM  
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Lily8
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Originally Posted by theCMG View Post
Day 2 - Disneyland Paris/Magic Kingdom

Breakfast is pre-arranged with the owner for 07:30 and we head downstairs to find a long farmhouse table nicely laid for 2 settings at each end. We tuck into the croissants and Pain au Chocolat, clearly all freshly baked these taste amazing , about as far from your UK supermarket croissant as you can imagine.


There’s also bread and jam, juice, water, coffee etc. it’s not a huge spread but everything is good as long as you don’t mind the carbs. We’re planning a Magic Kingdom day today, the park doesn’t open till 10 for non residents (why so late?) but we have to cash in our 2 day park hopper vouchers for tickets so plan to get there @09:15 in time to sort this and be near the front for opening.

DD is excited now, me too and we head off for the long drive through the dark back towards the city. This would not have been possible without google maps or a satnav just no way to navigate those lanes in the dark without it.

Anyway we get to the carpark before 9 as planned. Last time we visited DW had disgraced herself in buying the tickets, getting confused between French, English and Italian she had attempted Merci Beaucoup to the ticket lady and instead ended up shouting ‘Bu-cket’ at her as we drove off
Thank you Hyacinth!


Luckily this time DD made no such mistake but the words I was thinking as I handed over €30 for a day’s parking were a lot worse We parked near the front. As so often the moving walkways are not running (anyone - what is it? leaves on the line, maybe spend some of my €30 clearing them up eh?).

I digress, we’re soon heading up to the grand visage of the Disneyland Hotel I would love to stay there one day but not at the usual prices


We quickly sort the tickets and are through for rope drop. The park is themed beautifully for Halloween, it’s the first time I’ve been to a Disney park in this season and the effect is magical. There are plenty of pumpkins, the ghost figures with sound effects and some nice Coco related stuff over in Frontierland.




We go on to hit the rides hard in the morning covering Big Thunder, Pirates, Peter Pan, Phantom Manor to name a few. Big Thunder in particular I think is a brilliant ride at DLP much better than the WDW one IMHO. That said, we are disappointed with a fair few attraction closures. Indiana Jones is closed (we are destined to never ride it), that was known and Autopia too but the Railroad is also closed and worse, Hyperspace Mountain is closed when we get there around lunch and remains offline for our whole 2 days there!

We break for lunch at Earl of Sandwich in Disney Village, walking miles after completely failing to agree where to eat. I have a voucher anyway for a few € off with the tickets and we get two sandwich meals. These are ok, DD’s tuna is definitely better than my Original 1792 or whatever the year is roast beef and cheese. The best thing is probably the brownie dessert.

The Earl's a Pearl


After that it’s back into the MK and we bash through Buzz, Star Tours, Fantasmic and a few walk-through attractions. The dragon under the castle is always worth a visit especially if you wait long enough for it to do the full waking up thing which I think I had missed on previous visits.

BTW I do like the paper fastpass ticket system but wish you could keep the paper tickets. Aren’t these just the most collectable things, I’d love to have an album of them but they are chucked away.


The Alice maze is a full on queue experience all day so we avoid and next ride Small World as part of this session. Now I do have my issues with some of the maintenance at DLP. Did they fire all the gardeners because some of the topiary leaves a lot to be desired and I’m no Monty Don. Also some of the line of sight stuff is iffy. Check the first lovely scene from Small World then the shot up to the higher parts of the attraction and then the zoom-in on what the ceiling looks like.



What would Walt say?


Is it me or is that sort of line of sight fail something that wouldn’t be accepted in the US? Basically it’s an office ceiling clearly visible if you look up in the attraction. Please understand I’m bringing this up not because I’m a DLP hater but to objectively compare the 3 parks visited on the trip and this is a miss I'm afraid.

Contrast it with theming done well, this is in the arch over the entrance to Frontierland., Just a load of little touches to explore that you miss if you bomb through towards the big rides.

Much more like it



Afternoon snack from bakery in the Main Street - nutella filled

Back to the park we rode I think it was the Storybook boat ride thing and then headed back to Disney Village for the 18:30 Buffalo Bill show.

Buffalo Bill's pre-show, not to be confused with his NFL team


Not many photos of this that aren’t of blurred food. What can I say? The food was decent and plentiful (beer/soft drink, chili, nachos, roast chicken, ribs, cornbread, apple pie and ice-cream etc.) similar to Hoop de Doo or the Trails End lunch/dinner buffet but maybe not quite as nice. The show was also reasonable, DD liked it because of the horses, I thought is was ok and you get to keep the straw cowboy hats. There’s a lot of audience engagement and participation if you’re into that sort of thing

All in all Buffalo Bills was a good experience, albeit a one and done for us. We were properly 27000 steps knackered at that point and headed home to the fields.
€30 for parking... ouch! Just as well you've had such a lovely, fresh breakfast. I'm not really a big fan of pastries, particularly first thing, but these look good!

Looks like you've covered a lot of ground in one day and the park looks beautiful for Halloween. We'd love to visit at this time of the year, alas DH can have no time off during term time, and it seems awfully rude to go without him We were there for Easter and it was lovely too.

I don't remember the FP tickets looking so cute in 2015. Vey collectible indeed. Oh well, just well, as my (hoarder) daughter collects just about everything else

The ceiling issue you've identified isn't very Disney and rather disappointing. To be honest, I couldn't fault DLP on this front during our visit (or perhaps I wasn't looking closely enough) and we did have a fantastic 4 day visit. But there was something 'missing' and we haven't had the urge to return (like WDW), even though it is virtually on our door step. I'd be interested to see how you rate it against Efteling (which, as you know, we adored) and Europa Park (which we are so looking forward to visiting).
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