Mrs Hobbes
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2008
I can't believe that I am actually here writing a trip report for our vacation to Disneyland Paris. It all happened very suddenly and we are leaving in just 16 days! I'm very excited
When
Friday 27th June - Sunday 29th June 2014
The Who’s who
So this is going to be an adult only trip - our first ever adult only trip to Disney! I promise I’m not an awful mum as luck would have it this fell on the same weekend that my DD and DSD had plans to go with grandparents to London to see Harry Potter so they didn't mind a bit!
Me & DH - we are huge Disney fans and proud owners of DVC we usually go to WDW about every 18months or so and because of this we haven't been to DLRP many times. In fact we’ve only been once and that was back in 2005 when DD was just 3 and we only visited the main park. So we are very excited to be going back and being able to visit Studios as well.
Our friends - who are huge Disney fans as well (thats why we love them lol!) but unlike us are annual pass holds for DLRP and go multiple times a year (lucky things). They only live round the corner from us and we got to know them at the beginning of last year and quickly became really good friends. Having a mutual love of Disney will do that for you. It was only a matter of time that we all decided to go to Disney together.
How it came about
Saturday 28th is my friends birthday and we were talking about what we should do for the weekend. We joked about going to Disney but it was short notice and with no offer on we thought too expensive as well. Besides they’d literally only just got back from a weeks trip over to Paris in May.
We considered going to London to see the Lion King, something we’d all very much like to do but once we started to price that up the costs began to mount. It was going to be around £80 each for theatre tickets, then hotel rooms were around £80/ £90 per night so we were up to around £240 per couple for a night away in London before we knew it and that was staying just one night.
It was a lot for one night away and we decided to think about it before booking anything. Then a couple of days later my Facebook message box popped up with
“It doesn't cost that much more to go to DLRP!!!!”
My amazing friend had put in the research and found out that she could get us a weekend away in Disneyland for around the same price as a night in London to see Lion King!! Well we all knew what we would rather spend our money on it wasn't a difficult decision.
It would mean a few sacrifices and not staying in absolute luxury but we all agreed we’d be in our happy place and we didn't mind a bit.
How could we do it on a shoe string?
Fuel - luckily we have an economical diesel car which can get us there on about £40 each way.
Tunnel Crossing - our lovely friend used club card vouchers to pay for this.
Tickets - current offer for Dreams Passholders to bring guests for 21euros a day. So just 84 euros (approx £68) in total for our park tickets.
Magic Circus - to keep costs down we decided to split the room and share. DH and I get to sleep in the circus tent! It also includes the buffet breakfast which should keep us going until our evening meal with just a midday snack. I’m quite excited it will be like camping lol! Our share of the room came to £74.
So total cost would be around £200 for travel and accommodation! It was too good to turn down!
The Original Plan
Annoyingly my DH was working an evening shift on the Friday night which meant that we couldn't leave until 10pm. So the original plan was to drive down at 1am on Saturday morning to get the first Channel Tunnel Crossing which would get us to Disney late morning. We would then park up, leave bags in the car spend the day in the park. Head to the hotel for check in late afternoon and then back into the park for a meal and to see Dreams. Then we would have most of the day in the park on the Sunday before leaving late afternoon to catch the last tunnel crossing home.
Yes we would probably feel like zombies but we’d be in Disney so it didn't matter.
DH was going to try and get the night off and if he could we would stay the night in Folkestone on the Friday to make us less zombie-like but we would just have to wait and see. It would be a long shot trying to get a friday night shift off in the summer!
Thats when the magic started happening
So some how DH managed to convince someone to cover his shift and he got the night off. My friend had the day off already so if we could all be off then we could travel down to Folkestone during the day, have a nice evening meal and go to bed reasonably early for our early start on the Saturday.
I managed to get the day off work and then so did my friends DH as well. We were all off and that meant a leisurely afternoon drive down to Folkestone on the Friday.
But wait…
if we are all off on Friday and now planning to pay £50 a night to stay in the Holiday Express then why don't we travel to Paris on the Friday instead and get to Disney early!!
So we called to change the tunnel crossing and for just £7 we were able to change to the 13.20 crossing!
Friday night at the Magic Circus was cheaper at £96 and we all knew we’d rather be there than in the Holiday Express in Folkestone!
It would give us the evening in the Disney Village and then a full Saturday in the Parks instead of half a day.
All this for just £250 the price of spending one night in London and seeing the Lion King Show would give us 2 nights in Disney and 2 days in the park.
So its happening -in the blink of an eye we’re booked and going in just 16 days!
When
Friday 27th June - Sunday 29th June 2014
The Who’s who
So this is going to be an adult only trip - our first ever adult only trip to Disney! I promise I’m not an awful mum as luck would have it this fell on the same weekend that my DD and DSD had plans to go with grandparents to London to see Harry Potter so they didn't mind a bit!
Me & DH - we are huge Disney fans and proud owners of DVC we usually go to WDW about every 18months or so and because of this we haven't been to DLRP many times. In fact we’ve only been once and that was back in 2005 when DD was just 3 and we only visited the main park. So we are very excited to be going back and being able to visit Studios as well.
Our friends - who are huge Disney fans as well (thats why we love them lol!) but unlike us are annual pass holds for DLRP and go multiple times a year (lucky things). They only live round the corner from us and we got to know them at the beginning of last year and quickly became really good friends. Having a mutual love of Disney will do that for you. It was only a matter of time that we all decided to go to Disney together.
How it came about
Saturday 28th is my friends birthday and we were talking about what we should do for the weekend. We joked about going to Disney but it was short notice and with no offer on we thought too expensive as well. Besides they’d literally only just got back from a weeks trip over to Paris in May.
We considered going to London to see the Lion King, something we’d all very much like to do but once we started to price that up the costs began to mount. It was going to be around £80 each for theatre tickets, then hotel rooms were around £80/ £90 per night so we were up to around £240 per couple for a night away in London before we knew it and that was staying just one night.
It was a lot for one night away and we decided to think about it before booking anything. Then a couple of days later my Facebook message box popped up with
“It doesn't cost that much more to go to DLRP!!!!”
My amazing friend had put in the research and found out that she could get us a weekend away in Disneyland for around the same price as a night in London to see Lion King!! Well we all knew what we would rather spend our money on it wasn't a difficult decision.
It would mean a few sacrifices and not staying in absolute luxury but we all agreed we’d be in our happy place and we didn't mind a bit.
How could we do it on a shoe string?
Fuel - luckily we have an economical diesel car which can get us there on about £40 each way.
Tunnel Crossing - our lovely friend used club card vouchers to pay for this.
Tickets - current offer for Dreams Passholders to bring guests for 21euros a day. So just 84 euros (approx £68) in total for our park tickets.
Magic Circus - to keep costs down we decided to split the room and share. DH and I get to sleep in the circus tent! It also includes the buffet breakfast which should keep us going until our evening meal with just a midday snack. I’m quite excited it will be like camping lol! Our share of the room came to £74.
So total cost would be around £200 for travel and accommodation! It was too good to turn down!
The Original Plan
Annoyingly my DH was working an evening shift on the Friday night which meant that we couldn't leave until 10pm. So the original plan was to drive down at 1am on Saturday morning to get the first Channel Tunnel Crossing which would get us to Disney late morning. We would then park up, leave bags in the car spend the day in the park. Head to the hotel for check in late afternoon and then back into the park for a meal and to see Dreams. Then we would have most of the day in the park on the Sunday before leaving late afternoon to catch the last tunnel crossing home.
Yes we would probably feel like zombies but we’d be in Disney so it didn't matter.
DH was going to try and get the night off and if he could we would stay the night in Folkestone on the Friday to make us less zombie-like but we would just have to wait and see. It would be a long shot trying to get a friday night shift off in the summer!
Thats when the magic started happening
So some how DH managed to convince someone to cover his shift and he got the night off. My friend had the day off already so if we could all be off then we could travel down to Folkestone during the day, have a nice evening meal and go to bed reasonably early for our early start on the Saturday.
I managed to get the day off work and then so did my friends DH as well. We were all off and that meant a leisurely afternoon drive down to Folkestone on the Friday.
But wait…
if we are all off on Friday and now planning to pay £50 a night to stay in the Holiday Express then why don't we travel to Paris on the Friday instead and get to Disney early!!
So we called to change the tunnel crossing and for just £7 we were able to change to the 13.20 crossing!
Friday night at the Magic Circus was cheaper at £96 and we all knew we’d rather be there than in the Holiday Express in Folkestone!
It would give us the evening in the Disney Village and then a full Saturday in the Parks instead of half a day.
All this for just £250 the price of spending one night in London and seeing the Lion King Show would give us 2 nights in Disney and 2 days in the park.
So its happening -in the blink of an eye we’re booked and going in just 16 days!
