Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
Pre-night 1 - Disneyland Paris
Off we go again... to Germany! For this trip it's me and my 11yo DS, Gavin. After SE Asia, China, and Australia in the last few years, Gavin and I decided on something a little closer if not a little shorter. I gave him half a dozen options, and he chose Germany. Since Disneyland Paris is pretty close to Frankfort/Heidelberg where the Germany ABD starts, we decided spend our pre nights here at DLP. Gavin's never been. So, it made for a nice fit. This is an unusual trip for me, because I've planned so little of it. Even with ABD's I typically plan all details of the pre nights and the OYO time. Not here. We have 5 nights at DLP, and we'll take each day at a time. I'm familiar with Paris, so we'll likely go into town a couple of those days, but really no structured activities set or must see sites in Paris this time.
As was mentioned in another thread, we upgraded to business class on United to Paris and it made all the difference in the world. Gavin and I both got a lot of sleep and that helped us make the most of our first day. We arrived in the morning around 10am and had planned to take the TGV which is a 10 min ride from the airport, but the next train wasn't for a couple of hours so we took the DLP version of the Magical Express bus instead. It was ok, but it took an hour to get here. We're staying at the Disneyland Hotel. The security seems very tight. There are security barricades raised at the entrance gates at all hotels. All bags were sent through x-ray machines and I was wanded with a metal detector.
The Disneyland Hotel is lovely hotel. I ended up getting a great deal on the room many months in advance. I don't know if the hotel is worth the regular room rate, but it is a beautiful hotel and it's basically located at the entrance to DLP so when you're coming home from the park, it's nice to just to walk under the train station, enter the hotel and you're home.
We meandered around the parks most of the afternoon and evening. We ate lunch at the Golden Nugget (counter service), whose food is nothing special, but they have live entertainment a la Golden Horseshoe. There was a piano player, a singer, a ventriloquist?!, and a marionette show with Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, and Prospector Pete which was very cute.
Let's see, the hits for Gavin were Ratatouille (a trackless ride like Mystic Manor), the Alice in Wonderland Maze, and seeing the Jedi Training Academy in their indoor theater (where they lower the lights so everyone's lightsabers are lit up). My highlights were Ratatouille, Space Mountain, and just walking around the park. It's such a beautiful park.
That's enough for now! As usual as soon as I compress my photos I'll post them up as well. Cheers!
Off we go again... to Germany! For this trip it's me and my 11yo DS, Gavin. After SE Asia, China, and Australia in the last few years, Gavin and I decided on something a little closer if not a little shorter. I gave him half a dozen options, and he chose Germany. Since Disneyland Paris is pretty close to Frankfort/Heidelberg where the Germany ABD starts, we decided spend our pre nights here at DLP. Gavin's never been. So, it made for a nice fit. This is an unusual trip for me, because I've planned so little of it. Even with ABD's I typically plan all details of the pre nights and the OYO time. Not here. We have 5 nights at DLP, and we'll take each day at a time. I'm familiar with Paris, so we'll likely go into town a couple of those days, but really no structured activities set or must see sites in Paris this time.
As was mentioned in another thread, we upgraded to business class on United to Paris and it made all the difference in the world. Gavin and I both got a lot of sleep and that helped us make the most of our first day. We arrived in the morning around 10am and had planned to take the TGV which is a 10 min ride from the airport, but the next train wasn't for a couple of hours so we took the DLP version of the Magical Express bus instead. It was ok, but it took an hour to get here. We're staying at the Disneyland Hotel. The security seems very tight. There are security barricades raised at the entrance gates at all hotels. All bags were sent through x-ray machines and I was wanded with a metal detector.
The Disneyland Hotel is lovely hotel. I ended up getting a great deal on the room many months in advance. I don't know if the hotel is worth the regular room rate, but it is a beautiful hotel and it's basically located at the entrance to DLP so when you're coming home from the park, it's nice to just to walk under the train station, enter the hotel and you're home.
We meandered around the parks most of the afternoon and evening. We ate lunch at the Golden Nugget (counter service), whose food is nothing special, but they have live entertainment a la Golden Horseshoe. There was a piano player, a singer, a ventriloquist?!, and a marionette show with Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, and Prospector Pete which was very cute.
Let's see, the hits for Gavin were Ratatouille (a trackless ride like Mystic Manor), the Alice in Wonderland Maze, and seeing the Jedi Training Academy in their indoor theater (where they lower the lights so everyone's lightsabers are lit up). My highlights were Ratatouille, Space Mountain, and just walking around the park. It's such a beautiful park.
That's enough for now! As usual as soon as I compress my photos I'll post them up as well. Cheers!
