Long time no see..Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong trip in the planning!

[zanzibar138]

I've booked our Eurostar! The new timetable was released today and we're on the 10.14am train direct from London St Pancras to Paris Disneyland on 23 December!! It was more expensive then expected (65 pounds per person instead of 41 pounds) (and all my kids will be "adults" by then as the youngest will have turned 12 ) but I expect that being Christmas time. So excited!!

Yay! What a relief to have that locked in

 

[Travel Mum]

Hi EhsMum,

We had a trip-of-a-lifetime to UK/Europe this past December/January. It was our children's first time to Europe and it had been 20 years since my husband and I had last been. Our girls were aged 16, 13 and 10 at the time. As this trip was not about Disney (we only had one day at the Paris Disneyland parks - on Christmas Day), I did not post a TR here. Instead I created a private Facebook group which my family and lots of my FB friends (which include lots of former contributors to this Aussie Disney forum) joined. So I then posted daily updates and photos to that group as we travelled along which worked really well and has turned out to be a great record of our trip.

We were away from December 12, 2014- January 27, 2015. Our itinerary was:
Fly from Wellington to Bangkok
2 nights Bangkok
Fly from Bangkok to Munich
1 night Munich
Train from Munich to Fussen
1 night Fussen
Bus & train from Fussen to Seefeld
3 nights Seefeld-in-Tirol, Austria
Train from Seefeld to Munich
2 nights Munich
Train from Munich to Colmar
2 nights Colmar, France
Train from Colmar to Paris
6 nights Paris (including Christmas)
Eurostar from Paris to London
8 nights London (including New Years)
Fly from London to Venice
2 nights Venice
Train from Venice to Rome
5 nights Rome
10 night Eastern Med cruise on NCL's Norwegian Jade which included visits to Katakolon, Greece for Olympia, Athens, Kusadai, Turkey for Ephesus, Istanbul and Naples
Fly from Rome to Bangkok
1 night in Bangkok
Fly from Bangkok to Wellington

We did heaps of things while we were away and during the time that was pre-Christmas, I tried to visit all the gorgeous & magical European Christmas markets that I could! I won't name it all but our activities include:

Munich: Christmas markets, Deutsches Museum

Fussen: Neuschwanstein Castle

Seefeld: Christmas market, Sleigh ride, day trip down the mountain to Innsbruck to visit the Christmas markets and to go up the cable car to have some fun in the slow

Colmar: Christmas markets immersion in the gorgeous old town (Google image "Colmar at Christmas) ! Also did ice-skating.

Paris: Both Disney parks on Christmas day, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, The Louvre, Versailles and Le Cirque D'Hiver Bouglione Dans Geant - the winter circus and the longest running European circus (they even had elephants!)

London: Hop on/Hop off bus circuit on our first day (without getting off), exploring by foot all the main places (such as Buckingham Palace, the Mall, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, the Horse Guards, Downing Street, Westminster Abbey), Phantom of the Opera on New Years Eve, Harrods, Natural History Museum, The British Museum, the Tower of London, Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio, Madame Tussauds and a day trip to Bath.

Venice - just spent our time showing our girls this amazing place, that my husband I have always loved, by exploring all over plus we did a gondola ride.

Rome: Colosseum, Forum, Pantheon, St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museums & the Sistine Chapel, a day trip to Pompeii and a half day trip to Ostia Antica

The cruise - a combination of kicking back to relax and visiting places on our port stops.


We had expected more snow than we got. The only places we had snow was one magical night & the following day up in Seefeld (I had expected it to have been snowy our whole time there and it normally is so was unusual) and of course when we went up the cable car in Innsbruck. But no snow anywhere else. We all had warm snow boots which was good because from the Munich to Venice part of our trip, even though it did not snow, it was very cold. We dressed in merino layers topped off with warm puffer jackets/coats. We all had a hat, gloves and scarf. We had thermals under our jeans.

So I hope that is helpful and I've very excited for you! Ours was a trip that we will never ever forget and would do again in a heartbeat but it took years of savings to get there and we could not go away over Christmas again for the sake of our parents back in NZ.

 

[WendyTJ]

will be spending Christmas at Disneyland Paris !! I'm so excited!!

We will be there earlier in Dec. Really looking forward to it

 

[ehsmum]

Hi Travel Mum, I'm so sorry that I didn't see your post before now but wow, what great info! Only 45 days to our trip and we are so excited! Will do an update tomorrow, I've been so busy with work/kids etc that I haven't had time to plan let alone post. But we have an itinerary in place now, so will post tomorrow

 

[Travel Mum]

Would love to see your itinerary

 

[ehsmum]

I'm a bit worried that we are cramming too much in, but hopefully it will work out ok!

Weds 9th Dec - fly Perth to Dubai - 2 nights Dubai
Friday 11th Dec- fly Dubai to Manchester - pick up a car, drive to Liverpool - 1 night Liverpool
Saturday 12th Dec - drive to Birmingham - 2 nights
Monday 14th Dec - fly to Dublin - 2 nights
Wednesday 16th Dec - drive to Galway - 1 night
Thursday 17th Dec - 1 night Shannon
Friday 18th Dec - fly Shannon to London - 5 nights London
Wednesday 23rd Dec - Eurostar to Disneyland Paris - 3 nights including Christmas Day
Saturday 26 Dec - train to Paris - 3 nights
Tuesday 29 Dec - train to Lyon, pick up car - 1 night in Annecy
Wednesday 30 Dec - drive around Lake Geneva - 1 night Lausanne
Thursday 31 Dec - drive to Swiss Alps - 1 night Interlaken
Friday 1 Jan - drive to Italy - 1 night Cinque Terre
Saturday 2 Jan - drive to Rome via Pisa - 3 nights Rome
Tuesday 5 Jan - drive to Venice - 2 nights Venice
Thursday 7 Jan - drive to Austria - 1 night Salzburg
Friday 8 Jan - drive to Germany - 4 nights visiting DH's relatives, unconfirmed as yet
Tuesday 12 Jan - 1 night Mainz
Wednesday 13 Jan - fly Frankfurt to Hong Kong - 3 nights/4 days Hong Kong
Sunday 17 Jan - fly Hong Kong Perth

As far as pre-booking tours and activities, I haven't done too much.

Dubai - we arrive 1pm and I want to book a Desert Safari for that evening. The following day we need to decided whether to explore Dubai, which I'd love to do, or take a taxi to Abu Dhabi and visit Ferrari World, which has been highly recommended. The boys are all big car racing fans and I've been told even my daughter would love it. But we'd be sacrificing time in Dubai to visit a theme park, when we'll be going to 2 Disney Parks during the trip. I thought my DH would be desperate to do Ferrari World but he isn't fussed, so we will probably skip it.

Liverpool - I've booked the Fab Four Taxi tour for our first afternoon/evening and bought tickets to The Beatles Story museum the next day.

Birmingham - we'll be visiting family. My uncle and cousin are taking the boys to a soccer game (Arsenal vs Aston Villa) on the Sunday.

Ireland - nothing set in stone. We will probably do the Hop On/Hop Off bus in Dublin one day and visit friends in Wicklow the other day. We'll definitely do the Cliffs of Moher in Clare (hopefully they'll be open) and probably Bunratty Castle/Village.

London - oh boy, London. How do we cram London into 5 days?? I lived there for nearly 3 years and still didn't do/see everything! We have the Warner Bros Harry Potter tour booked for the afternoon that we arrive. I did not want to do it that day but I naively thought that we could just show up there when we felt like it, I didn't have any idea that we needed to book in advance. I had signed up for their newsletter and got an email the other day about the winter activities and casually clicked on the "book tickets" link to see that it is completely sold out during our stay except for our arrival day! Talk about panic stations!!! Our flights is due to arrive at Heathrow at 10:20am so I've booked the 3:30pm tour, hoping and praying that the flight is not delayed! If we arrive on time, we will get a cab to our accommodation in North London, drop off our luggage and then catch the train to Watford. If we're running late, we'll have the cab goes past the flat (we're staying in an Airbnb) dump the bags, and continue in the cab to the studios. Not ideal, but we can't miss it! Oh, more panic stations!! When I got the confirmation email, I had booked two different tour times . I bought a family ticket for 2 adults and 2 kids for the 3:30pm tour but got the extra adult ticket for my daughter for the 2:30pm tour! I've sent a desperate, pleading email asking them to change the time on her ticket t0 3:30pm. No reply as yet. I can't imagine that they won't do it, but if they refuse, I guess I'll have to suck it up and pay for another ticket for the 3:30pm tour. Okay, other plans for London - definitely the Hop On/Off bus, Hampton Court, Tower of London, London Eye, Trafalgar Sq, Buckingham Palace etc etc. They boys may go to the Chelsea vs Sunderland soccer game on the Saturday, and probably do a tour of Lords Cricket ground. Shopping at Harrods and hopefully there will be time for a West End show for either all of us, or just the girls (maybe while the boys are at the football!). Our last day we will probably hire a car and drive out to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath. I want the kids to see pretty England, not just the big, dirty cities!

Disneyland- we've got 3 nights at Residhome Val d'Europe. I booked it because it was the most reasonably priced accommodation I could find (415 euro for 3 nights in a one bed apartment) but have continued to look for other/better deals. Haven't found anything nearly as cheap though and it's got good reviews, so we're going to stick with it. There isn't a free shuttle but we can walk 5 minutes to Hotel Elysee and get the shuttle there, or just catch the train from outside the hotel. We arrive at 2pm to Marne La Valle but will then need to change trains to get to Val d'Europe so I'm guessing we will check in around 3pm. Drop the bags and head to the park! I've bought our tickets which are 2 park 4 days for price of 3. I haven't booked any meals as yet, we are still trying to decide what to do. My youngest is a very fussy eater so we are best to stick to places like Rainforest Cafe or Planet Hollywood but I want to eat somewhere special on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I'd love to eat at Blue Lagoon and Bistro Chef Remy, but I've looked at the menus and I know he won't eat a thing. And they are pricey! All of the special Christmas Dinners are on Christmas Eve, but again, the menus are not to his taste. So I'm thinking of booking Inventions for dinner on Christmas Eve and Cafe Mickey for breakfast on Xmas Day and then just play it by ear the rest of the time. I need to call the dining reservations line, but I'm confused on whether I can do that yet. I've read that you can book 2 months prior to arrival, which we are now but I've read other posts that say that's only if you're staying in a Disney property. I think I'll call later today and find out.

Paris - we will likely spend the morning of Boxing Day in the parks, catching anything we missed and redoing our favourites, and head into Paris by train after lunch. We are staying in an Airbnb on the Right Bank. I haven't pre-booked anything but need to look into booking the Eiffel Tower. I've been to Paris so many times that I've lost count, but I've never been up the Eiffel Tower! We'll do the Hop on/off bus and maybe a tour out to Versaille, just general sight seeing.

Lyon/Annecy - we pick up a car on arrival in Lyon and keep it until we fly out of Frankfurt 2 weeks later. The plan here is to explore Lyon and surrounds and stay overnight in Annecy.

Lausanne - next day we will drive to Geneva and then on to Lausanne for the Festival of Lights.

Interlaken - on New Year's Eve we will drive around Lake Geneva into the Swiss Alps. Depending on arrival time and weather conditions in Interlaken, we will either go up Jungfraujoch that afternoon or the next morning

Cinque Terre - on New Year's Day we will drive south to Italy, via Lake Como to say hi to George and Amal and stay overnight in Cinque Terre. Again, whether we explore the villages that afternoon on the next morning will depend on arrival time and weather

Rome - we will visit Pisa and maybe one of the hilltop villages (San Gimignano or Sienna) on our drive down to Rome. We have an Airbnb close to the Vatican City for 3 nights. We'll do general sight seeing in Rome.

Venice - we need to find somewhere to leave our car while we are in Venice. We are staying in a hotel in San Marco square and the plan here is to just walk around and soak up our favourite place in the world

Salzburg - my daughter and I will definitely do a Sound of Music tour, not sure about the male members of the family yet. I need to see if there's something more interesting for them to do in Salzburg. Maybe they can cross into Germany and just drive fast up and down the Autobahn

Germany - DH is communicating with relatives in Germany about visiting, so nothing is booked yet. We are thinking 2 nights in Munich on our own, then one night Ingolsold (?) and one night Rastatt

Mainz - DH didn't want to stay in Frankfurt the night before we fly out, so we've booked in Mainz which is about 45 minutes out of the city

Hong Kong - we are staying with friends in Discovery Bay. We arrive early Thursday morning and depart late Sunday night so have 4 full days. Definitely HKDL one day and maybe Ocean Park another. We might do a day trip to Macau but I think we will probably just take it easy and wind down after our whirlwind tour of Europe!

 

[ehsmum]

Wow, lots of predictive text (in)corrections there, but I can't be bothered going through and changing. You get the idea!

We will be there earlier in Dec. Really looking forward to it

Exciting! I hope I get to see your TR before we get there

 

[Travel Mum]

Wow what a fantastic itinerary! So lucky you got the booking for Harry Potter. I booked ours as soon as the booking window opened because, at that peak time of the year, it books out so early. And I'm fairly sure that they do not take walk-ins - you must pre-book. Hopefully they might allow your daughter to go into your session but, if you don't hear back from them before you go, I would not suggest you risk it. It would be a huge nuisance but one of the adults would have to go in at 2.30 and then he/she could presumably just wait in the café (which is 2/3 way through the tour) as people seemed to be able to stay as long as they wanted it there. Of course the remaining four would then have to wait the hour at the entrance. Then you'd eventually all meet up in the café area and finish the tour together.

And, regarding the Eiffel Tower, it also books out at that time of the year. They do however also take walk-ins but the queues are massive. We did not pre-book in the end because I was not sure if it was too risky to pre-book in case you got bad weather. In the end though, when I went back to check a few months before we departed, it turns out that I had procrastinated for too long and there were no longer any booking slots left for any time during the 6 nights/7 days we were in Paris (24-30 Dec). So we first turned up at mid-morning, none of our children wanted to queue so we just took some photos and left to continue our exploration of Paris. But my husband and I thought that they really did not know what they were missing so, on the day before we left, we made them get up early (they were no amused) and we went to the tower pre-opening. There were already queues and so we ended up waiting for an hour in freezing cold weather (it is so hard queuing when you cannot get warm) before we made it to the lifts. Note that, if we had have been prepared to climb the stairs, the queues would have been much shorter. But we figured that, if we were going up, we wanted to take our girls to the top and, for that, you have to take the lift. At the top, it was even more freezing (was probably the coldest we felt on our whole trip) and I remember as that was one of the few times I took photos with our regular camera since there was no way I was taking my glove off to take photos with my phone (which I used for most of the trip for photos)!!

Yes, just immerse yourselves in the magic of Venice as it sounds like, as it was for my husband and I, you will just be so happy to be back there and for sharing it with your children.

Have a great trip

 

[ehsmum]

Thanks for the tip on the Eiffel Tower! I haven't looked yet, but from your experience, sounds like it will already be booked out . That's why I've never been up it, the queues were always too daunting! Will make it a priority tonight to see if I can make a booking!

If I don't hear back from Harry Potter (well not the wizard himself ), I think I'll book another ticket for 3.30pm. With us only arriving in London that morning, I doubt we'd make the 2.30 tour for one of us to go in anyway. Hopefully they will get back to me today. If not, I might get my cousin in England to call for me. Fingers crossed!

 

[Travel Mum]

Good luck but, regardless, you will have an awesome trip!!!

 

[zanzibar138]

Wow that's a full itinerary! It'll definitely be busy and full on, but you'll see and do so much I would definitely make a more relaxed itinerary in HK.

While you're in the vicinity (Lausanne), I recommend you check out Montreux. It's a beautiful city (although Lausanne probably is too).

Agree about Paris too. The Eiffel Tower books out pretty quickly. We actually booked one of the tours (not just a ticket to the top). Unfortunately, on the day we visited it was snowing and the tower was closed due to ice. Just something to keep in mind visiting over winter. Unfortunately it was our last day in Paris, so we got refunds and went to Arc d'Triomphe for our views instead. It would be so magical if you got snow at DLP - there's just something about it I recommend Walt's for a special occasion if you think there's anything there that would appeal to your kids. Think Carthay Circle.

Sounds like you were pretty lucky to get into the Harry Potter tour! I wouldn't leave it too long to follow up about the timing discrepancy. It might be too bad for you if the 3:30pm session sells out while you're waiting for an answer.

I hope you get good weather over there. I'd be scared doing all that driving when it's likely to be snowy! I'm guessing you guys must be used to it if you lived in London for a while.

 

[WendyTJ]

We had a few problems booking ourHarry potter tickets. We have them now though thank goodness.
We have almost 3 weeks in London after Paris.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great itinerary! Looks like you'll have fun. Hope you get the HP tix sorted out.

 

[ehsmum]

Good luck but, regardless, you will have an awesome trip!!!

Thanks! I've looked at a few Eiffel Tower tours sites and there doesn't seem to be anything available, but I'll keep looking

Wow that's a full itinerary! It'll definitely be busy and full on, but you'll see and do so much I would definitely make a more relaxed itinerary in HK.

While you're in the vicinity (Lausanne), I recommend you check out Montreux. It's a beautiful city (although Lausanne probably is too).

Agree about Paris too. The Eiffel Tower books out pretty quickly. We actually booked one of the tours (not just a ticket to the top). Unfortunately, on the day we visited it was snowing and the tower was closed due to ice. Just something to keep in mind visiting over winter. Unfortunately it was our last day in Paris, so we got refunds and went to Arc d'Triomphe for our views instead. It would be so magical if you got snow at DLP - there's just something about it I recommend Walt's for a special occasion if you think there's anything there that would appeal to your kids. Think Carthay Circle.

Sounds like you were pretty lucky to get into the Harry Potter tour! I wouldn't leave it too long to follow up about the timing discrepancy. It might be too bad for you if the 3:30pm session sells out while you're waiting for an answer.

I hope you get good weather over there. I'd be scared doing all that driving when it's likely to be snowy! I'm guessing you guys must be used to it if you lived in London for a while.

Yes, I think HK will be pretty relaxed. Luckily we've been there before, so we won't feel the need to try to cram in a ton of sight seeing.

Thanks for the tip on Montreux, I'll look it up! We decided to go with Lausanne as I was chatting with an agent on the myswitzerland website and he recommended it for the kids. He thought it would be the town/festival that teenagers would enjoy the most. There is also an Olympics Museum there which gets great reviews, even from non-sports fans (like DD and myself).

I really, really hope it snows at DLP. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas and all that . I would be happy if that's the only time it snows though! I personally won't be doing any driving, I'll leave that up to DH, but not having to deal with chains etc would be preferable. The longest drives we have are 5 - 5.5 hours but that's the estimate without snow. They will turn into long driving days if it's snowing.

We had a few problems booking ourHarry potter tickets. We have them now though thank goodness.
We have almost 3 weeks in London after Paris.

3 weeks in London, wow! I'm jealous! I'd love to stay that long, but we would have to sacrifice something else. This trip is our Europe tester for the kids, just giving them a little taste of 7 countries and hopefully they will get the bug and return to explore more, either with us or on their own in a few years time!

Great itinerary! Looks like you'll have fun. Hope you get the HP tix sorted out.

I did, thank goodness . I didn't get any response to my first email so sent another one 24 hours later. This time I did get an automated response saying they'd received my request and would get back to me, but it also noted that if my query was wanting to change the time of a tour, to phone the Customer Service line and pay 10 pounds to change it. Rather then wait for a return email, I called and the lovely girl saw that it was obviously a mistake and changed the time without any fee (she must be a Gryffindor ). So, phew, that's a relief.

Okay, off to try to book Eiffel Tower tickets!

 

[ehsmum]

Oh and I also called the Dining Reservations line today and am now more confused then ever. I decided to try the Inventions buffet for Christmas Eve dinner and Cafe Mickey for Christmas morning breakfast and then just play it by ear for the rest of the meals but the CM I spoke to said I had to call a different number for Inventions and I couldn't understand why, then she said that Cafe Mickey can only be booked 2 days before, which seems ridiculous for Christmas Day. But we weren't really getting anywhere with the language barrier, so I'm none the wiser. I'll do a bit more research and call back tomorrow.

 

[ehsmum]

Eiffel Tower booked! I tried Eiffel Tower Tours who took the booking but then came back and said they couldn't confirm. So I tried Viatour who confirmed it immediately. Another relief

 

[Travel Mum]

Great progress in the space of a couple of days !!

 

[zanzibar138]

Yay for booking the Eiffel Tower! I hope you have learned from my mistake and not booked it on your last day

I would call back for dining. We just booked ours the day of, but of course it wasn't Christmas time! It doesn't seem right that you wouldn't be able to book all your Disney dining in the one place at the one time I would just keep calling back until you get a helpful CM.

 

[ehsmum]

Great progress in the space of a couple of days !!

Thanks! I'm normally super organised when planning a trip and really meticulous with research etc, but I just haven't had the time this trip. I have been starting to stress that I've left things too late, so really happy that I got those two things sorted . Now I just have to hope beyond hope that there aren't any issues with our flight into London and that we actually make our HP tour time!

Yay for booking the Eiffel Tower! I hope you have learned from my mistake and not booked it on your last day

I would call back for dining. We just booked ours the day of, but of course it wasn't Christmas time! It doesn't seem right that you wouldn't be able to book all your Disney dining in the one place at the one time I would just keep calling back until you get a helpful CM.

I did remember your story and booked for our second day. Didn't want to book the first day as we don't want to have to rush away from DLP before we're ready, and I didn't book our last day in case we need to reschedule. I booked the 11am on our middle day as I figured that way we can have breakfast and head over there and spend as long as we like rather then book an afternoon tour and have to leave somewhere else to make it in time.

I will call the dining reservations again tonight and hopefully get a more helpful CM. I'll re-read the website today and do some more research first to see if I can figure out what she was talking about!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Glad to see it all worked out. I was going to say for benefit of others re HP your daughter could have entered 5 mins before the end of her entry block and you queued ready at the start of yours. She may have had to wait 15 mins for you to join her so watched the entry movie by herself or you might have been ok. We found the entry block times a bit rubbery around the edges. really looking forward to a TR please for the whole trip! so jealous; have an amazing time!