The long trek trip to DLP from the islands last day update

[scampbunny]

just wanted to add my too - i know what its like tryin to deal with a child espec as shes bein looked at for adhd (we are too) and its hard enough for us to try and calm down the child, without some1 basically sticking their nose in. i do think u did the right thing, and glad u n emmer and still seein each other - u sound very caring and i do with u all the best - and cant wait for my of ur trip report!!

 

[karenmoloney]

I think you have been very brave in your decision of how to deal with your situation both on holiday & when you got back home. I hope that telling us about it helps in some way.

Your trip report is fantastic & lovely photos. I am looking forward to reading the other installments because we go in 5 days for a week & would like to do other things while we are there other than just Disney. We are thinking of going into Paris a day, but I'm wondering how easy it will be getting in and out of metro stations with a pram - we will probably take our big one as DD2 can put her feet on the ground with the light buggy & stop us pushing it & can also "walk" with the pram! I see you mention going to the zoo. I didn't know there are one nearby, so I am dying to hear about that too.

 

[paula34]

I think you have been very brave in your decision of how to deal with your situation both on holiday & when you got back home. I hope that telling us about it helps in some way.

Your trip report is fantastic & lovely photos. I am looking forward to reading the other installments because we go in 5 days for a week & would like to do other things while we are there other than just Disney. We are thinking of going into Paris a day, but I'm wondering how easy it will be getting in and out of metro stations with a pram - we will probably take our big one as DD2 can put her feet on the ground with the light buggy & stop us pushing it & can also "walk" with the pram! I see you mention going to the zoo. I didn't know there are one nearby, so I am dying to hear about that too.

getting to the zoo was easy and it was a pleasant enough day out, I am writing it now, the stop we needed was shut so we went one past no biggie but you can ask if it's open

you need to take the train from disney and head for gare de lyon (this is the red line on the rer map. Then you change to metro, take the yellow line(line 1) for chateau de vincennes so one change we went a slightly different way and had 3 stops so this would be easier for you. I found it all very easy to navigate and they have a lot of moving walkways and things, and lots of signs to help you along, if in doubt ask most people are happy to help. I hope this helps you, the big cat park was also good, but asterix was a big fat headache as you will read later lol

 

[karenmoloney]

Thanks for the information. I might give it a go. Looking forward to reading about it. Hopefully it will be posted when I get a chance to sit down tonight. Just off now to lift DD2 from her cot & do the school run!

 

[paula34]

Day 3

Today was zoo day, this was the cheapest thing we did in our time in France and the most relaxing!! It was around 6 euros each the adults and Emma counted as a child here and was around 3 and Shannon was free woohoooo I love free. (If I was a Disney character I’d be scrooge mcduck!!! Because I’m Scottish you understand!!!)

So we are up around the 8am mark, I won the bathroom race, I wasn’t long I had bathed the night before in the vain hope of loosening off my leg muscles, they were agony my legs, but the water was “set” at a certain heat and wasn’t near hot enough for my needs.
We headed for brekkie and today we snuck a couple of rolls stuffed with ham and chicken into my bag for a picnic lunch (I still have the guilt’s about this, but everyone else seemed to be doing it)
Suitably weighed down we left the breakfast area and met, for the first time, the hotels characters. There was a dragon and a lion I think Shannon was delighted and shot off for a cuddle…now I know I took a pic of this but it isn’t on the puter so it must be on the normal camera so sorry no pics of these.
We catch the morning scrumbus and head for the rer station arriving just in time for that nice train that just waits for us, we have 2 changes this morning which we manage with no hold ups or getting lost, get on our last train, to find, that the station we need is out of service so we have to get off at the next one.
Now we are lost, but wait a nice man ask’s us in French what we are looking for *gets out phrase book* he takes one look and switches to English, and he gives us directions ( I found asking directions really bad there and had to ask about 4 people before we could find our way, maybe just me)
The zoo was ok, I think a city like Paris could do better with it though, a lot of the buildings were looking sad and empty enclosures do not look good, but the animals looked well kept and were breeding (always a good sign in a zoo)
We saw, hippos, giraffe, antelope, arctic wolves (so beautiful), baboons and a host of others no big cats or unusual animals though, set in a big park though so pretty.
There was a excellent wee place for Shannon to play as well with benches for the big people so we sat there in the nice warm sun for a good hour having our purloined rolls and a couple of bottles of water.

my favotites

these were cute

shannon and emma being frogs

play area

The park itself is nice to just walk around and there was a boating pond there also where you could rent a boat if you liked…we saw one called Suzy, which caused great mirth as Emma’s sister has this name!
We were here for another couple of hours just wandering and watching and chilling, when we left we decided to grab something to eat for the kids for their main meal and we would head to DD that night, so we went into this café, I had a beer, Emma had a veggie pizza and Shannon spag bol kids meal, it was ok we certainly ate in better places though and it was expensive for what it was (there was a MacDonald’s just round the corner as well grrrr)…never mind you live and learn lol
The travel back to the hotel was uneventful; we got back to our room, bathed Shannon sorted ourselves out and headed for downtown and cocktails, Ady had the litre jugs of beer, they were huge and actually worked out a lot cheaper than the drinks in our hotel, and I started with a large vodka (I was needing one) we were in the sports bar first which I liked it was quite laid back there and not to noisy and they had table heaters for when it got a bit chillier.
We left here and went to the steakhouse to eat, ady had a steak and I had the ribs both were very good, then pudding I had the key lime something or other (sorry lol) and it was to die for but rich and I struggled to finish it,it was all washed down with a very nice bottle of wine
Then we went to the western bar, Billy bobs , I liked this bar there was good music playing and lots of people up dancing with their kids (why can’t it be like this here, take your kids out with you in safety and enjoy, although I never had mine she needs her sleep or is impossible to deal with) I had a cocktail here, but I have forgotten what it was, very good though I had 4 maybe why I can’t remember *ahem* , we went to catch a bus opppps too late the last one just went disappeared round the corner, so we got a taxi back to the hotel and fell into bed watched some TV, before falling asleep.

My pics turned out terribel for this night so some more zoo instead

hippo

hutia

emma made guinea pig noises at them and the spoke back to her and proceeded to follow us around the enclosure

these guys reminded me of the vultures in jungle book

next up parc asterix

 

[karenmoloney]

Thanks for posting that - it has definiately given me another activity to do next week. Your pictures are great & it doesn't matter if there isn't a great selection of animals - my girls are too young to know any better! Looking forward to hearing more & especially about the Wild Cat Park.

 

[paula34]

Day 4


Today is the day we had decided on for Asterix park, as in off peak season it is only open weekends. Our travel pass tickets made their money as we had to travel out to CDG airport again for the shuttle bus, by now we are all old hands at the travel system and arrive there at 9.30. The office to buy the bus tickets was right there and there was a bus waiting and ready to go (I think it was every half hour that they went) we bought a pastry and a drink to have on the bus and were off.
The bus journey was about a half hour I think, with no traffic hold ups and we arrived
Just after opening time, to be faced with a huge queue ekkkk. We joined the queue and I found the paperwork for half the tickets (I bought 2 from Keith Prowse and 2 off the eBay France site, I wished I had got them all from eBay, it worked out cheapest) we get to the front of the queue to find I should have gone elsewhere with the e-ticket, so we have to turn around and go back to the ticket office, which was hidden off to one side.
We get our tickets and enter without anymore problems. First stop toilets!!! , then we get the map out and decide we will head for the biggest rollercoaster in the park, me and Shannon are going to stop at the smaller rides and they will meet us back there.
Was a good plan expect the coaster is shut, and we are still waiting in line for a rocket ride….did I mention how busy this place is, it’s insanely busy, you can hardly move and even the little rides have 20 to 25 minutes rides! Emma spots a pirate ship ride nearby and heads off to queue for that. We get on the rocket ride at last and Shannon can go on her own, she is delighted, so I head out the gate and watch her spin round about 5 times and off…all that waiting for that. Good job kids are easy pleased

a roman gladiator

There is a very good dolphin show here so we head off for that 15 minutes early to find the doors shut and it is full up. Time for a little thought here, we sit down and decide what to do next. The next dolphin show is at 3 so we will be there at least half an hour before. There was a water ride nearby so we joined the queue for that an hour later and we were sitting in a six seater large ring and getting good and wet….or rather Emma did We needed the cooling down because did I mention it was very very hot here. From here we tried to find another coaster (there are 5 here) this place is quite hard to get around and a lot of the paths ended in dead ends….so no more coaster lol.
We had lunch at a snack stand hot dogs and drinks, and headed for the dolphin show and sat down, it was a long wait and did I mention very hot…Emma and ady got sunburnt in here the sun was shining straight in and there was no escape, me and Shannon were fine as we both like the outdoors and had tans already left from summer *smug look*
The show started and I can say it was well worth the wait, they have a sealion show first, and then the main attraction, the commentary is all in French though, although it didn’t detract for me.


shannon snuck into thor's seat when he was gone lol

some of these would be useful at home!!!!

I don’t think we did anything else after this, we went for an ice-cream and saw a roman army go past and they did a little skit in front of us, we did not see any of the asterix the gaul characters anywhere, although I know they do have them around which was a shame.
Overall I would say it would be a good park to go to on a less busy day in the summer when it is open 7 days a week. I was glad my tickets were cheap as in all we did 1 show; Shannon did 3 rides and Emma 2 me and ady 1. The themeing is great though and the park tidy and staff helpful.
We started on the long trek home, and once again stopped in val de Europe (we do dine at Disney I promise and oh boy was it worth it) we ate in a café pub directly across from the station, I highly recommend this place, the staff were awesome, the food mmmmmmm ady had shank of lamb, which was falling off the bone, with mash and winter veg. I had scallops and king prawns in a white wine and cream sauce with rice, it was amazing, my mouth is watering thinking of it. Emma had a ceaser salad, and Shannon had the childrens menu spag bol again (easier to let her have what she likes) no one had pudding and we shared a bottle of wine between the 3 of us and Shannon had a massive milkshake. We waddled back to the station and headed for the hotel and bed

heading home on the bus

we bought her a little dog obelix's dog, but cannot remember what its is called any ideas anyone?

 

[Cyrano]

Dogmatix is his name

Enjoyed your further installments

 

[Dianetigger]

Lovely pictures and I didn't realise there was a zoo in Paris!! Learn something new every day! Many thanks for another great report.

 

[karenmoloney]

Sorry to hear you didn't get too much out of Parc Asterix. I love the photo of Shannon in the stocks.

 

[paula34]

Dogmatix is his name

Enjoyed your further installments [/QUOTE?]


thanks for that, I saw so annoyed I couldn't remeber on holiday as I read all the books when i was young, I told shannon and the dog is now called tix lol

 

[paula34]

Lovely pictures and I didn't realise there was a zoo in Paris!! Learn something new every day! Many thanks for another great report.

It isn't even that far from the disney area as well, was a pleasant day out

 

[paula34]

Sorry to hear you didn't get too much out of Parc Asterix. I love the photo of Shannon in the stocks.

I would go back if we were to get there in the summer, on a weekday when the french are all working lol

 

[cap'njack.]

OMG!! I was thinking that it was going to be that someone got slightly injured or was ill on the trip. I was not expecting that!

I hope that you are all ok and I personally think that you have done the right thing. Once something happens to detroy trust, especially where children are involved then that seems the right time to end it before it gets worse.

 

[NULAH]

Great detailed trip report. I think you handled the 'situation' perfectly, allowing the children to enjoy the remainder of the holiday so they would not always associate DLRP with what happened. Well done you, you should be very proud of yourself as a mother.

 

[paula34]

Thank you all so much for your kind responses to what happened, I so appreciate it and believe it or not it is giving me so much strength, I still was feeling I should have left immediatly, but I truely know I made the right chioces now I have been working tonight, but will hopefully ge the next chapter up tonight, this day had the for me best disney magic of the entire trip and got me right back in the groove of being silly and foolish, as I had been a bit quiet and withdrawn after paris. Hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed it myself

 

[paula34]

Day 5


Today we planned to go to the big cat park or le parc de des Felines. No really early rise this morning, was 8.20 before we were roused, but yet again we were in no big hurry as it was only 15 mins away by train.
I went down to reception while everyone was getting ready as I wanted them to try and get me a reservation for dinner later which was a surprise for all, so you too will have to wait lol
We headed for brekkie, made a few rolls for lunch again, and headed off, no delays at all this morning (I cannot recommended the rer and metro for travel enough so easy to get around) A short taxi trip at the end destination and we were there. It cost 12 euro for the three adults and 7 for Shannon (anyone over 10 is a adult) and it was worth the money.
I loved this place nice enclosure, with space, and hiding places for the cats…so if you will be bothered about not seeing every animal don’t go, it is designed to help the cat’s have privacy for the breeding programme.
There are lots of different types of big cats and it was divided into, European, American, Asian and African. We saw Snow leopards (my fave) Tigers (Emma’s fave) lions, leopard, lynx, ocelot, caracal (I remember doing an endangered species study at school and this beautiful cat was on it first time I have seen one) puma and a host of wildcat.
I’m sorry there are no pics of this place, I have taken picture, but they are on my old film camera which I was using up, and I still have 5 pics to go.
We had a nice picnic here, and again had lovely weather for the day, although not as hot as the day before (as all the crispy round the edges people were glad for)
I was being badgered silly to tell where we were going for dinner tonight, but I was keeping it zipped and the kids were getting annoyed with me lol.
We headed back about half four, and back to the room to get everyone ready for out booking, which I had made for half six.
We left the hotel again at 6.10 and headed for downtown Disney, where I led them to Café Mickey, now I was fairly dancing with anticipation as I knew it was a character meal…no one else had a clue!!!! ( I have never been to a character meal before even though I have done Disney a lot before so I was probably the most excited at the table lol) We were seated up stairs and our drinks order taken, and just as I was being asked what I had been so secret about and what the big deal was who walked in…….GOOFY woohoooo….now everyone gets what special lol, the food wasn’t anything to write home about tbh but the interaction is worth every penny, Minnie helped me pick my dinner, king john was naughty and tried to steal the money on the table for the bill, this cracked me up. Mickey danced with Emma; captain hook was a right charmer kissing all the ladies hands, and for some reason none of the characters could leave Shannon’s hair alone, goofy was rubbing it and making it stand up with static (have this on film somewhere) we also saw friar tuck and gepeto, and a guy from the hunchback film ( I saw him a bit and I still have no idea as I haven’t seen the film) I really wanted to see pooh bear, as the queue everyday to see him was massive and Shannon would never have had the patience, but no pooh bear. Rafiki appeared just as we were leaving (we have en excuse to go back though lol) All in all this dinner brought back the Disney magic totally for me. Watching Shannon interacting with the characters, brought a lump to my throat, and Emma lost all her teenage cool and loved it as well. I would defiantly do this again. Maybe next time the princess one will be good.

king john and shannon

hugs for minnie

emmer and minnie

mickey

captain hook boo hissss

goofy

I cuddled the main mouse

i forgot pluto

behind you (this is the guy I didn't know)

next up...the rest is all disney

 

[Cyrano]

Shame about the food at Cafe Mickey since we enjoyed it so much we did it twice

Frollo is the character

 

[karenmoloney]

Glad you had such a great day. Lovely photos.

 

[paula34]

Now reverse a little to day 3, we had originally planned to go back to Paris today, but I wasn’t going to take Shannon, the journey in and changes just hype her up too much and after day 2 no chance! I thought I would take her to sea world instead. But on looking at the financial position I suggest another day at Disney, all we really had spent so far was money to eat. So a vote was taken and it was unanimous, we would have another day in the parks (this worked out the best way anyway)
Today I didn’t have breakfast (does anyone else find they can get sick of eating on holiday lol) I had a mocha in the room and got the tickets at reception, so when they phoned me I was all ready to go. Down the lift, and right in time for a bus, we found them a lot quieter now the weekend had passed and a lot of the crowds seemed to have dispersed, so we got to sit down on the bus for the first time YAY.
We were doing the studio’s today with the more “grown up” rides today, and we were all looking forward to them. We had no particular plans on what we were going to do as I know this is a smaller park and just took it as we went (I know gasp, shock, horror) First stop was the Agrabah carpets (best to get the are we going on rides out of the way immediately lol) It was cute and Shannon liked being the “driver”, past crush, which was already at 30 mins wait, so we did cars after about a 15 minute wait (one of the sections was shut so was moving slowly) Shannon enjoyed it, and I got chatting to another scot in the queue and found out that Orkney seemed to have had the best summer in the country!!)

going in

Now Shannon was happy for a bit we headed for bigger fish, and went to the studio tram tour. I explained to Shannon it might be scary but that she was wedged between Emma and me so we would keep her safe (It is always better to try and let her know what is happening she does not react well to change or surprises, so being away from her routing can be a challenge) She loved it!!! Wanted to go again lol, so we did, after dropping the others at TOT…..I have absolutely no ambitions to do this ride anytime in my lifetime, so taking Shannon was a good reason/excuse not to go lol.
Emma loved this ride, I lost count of how many times she did it over the last 2 days, but she always said that the first guy they had was the best, very dry and sarcastic.

TOT

From here it was time for the stunt show, so we went and got seated, this show is really good, I thought an hour might be too much but it flew past I thoroughly recommend it. We got out of here quite quickly and 5 mins for RNRC , this is my absolute favourite ride at Disney, I love areosmith and coaster awesome ride. Me and ady went first, then I rode with Emma, Shannon got a certificate while she was waiting which I thought was nice, telling her to come back when she was bigger, she was a bit of a handful apparently as she couldn’t see where I was. That was me happy everyone can do what they like from now on I have done my ride. We head back to the main gates for lunch, and have fast food there. Just across from there I spot a shop doing photos where they inlay your pic into a character scene, so I took Shannon in, she wanted wall-e and no amount of pleading or cajoling would make her have the princesses (she is going to be a tomboy like her mum was) but the picture is nice and she loves it so that’s all that really matters.
After this we spot stitch live so head for this, it is so funny and we got lucky as Shannon got to speak to stitch, and ady was the escaped convict lol all in all was probably my favourite thing in both the parks (sorry aerosmith!!!) and Shannon never stopped talking about it, and now stitch is her favourite as opposed to wall-e. I went shopping for a bit now and spent some cash on things to take home and a pressie for Emma, as she had been such a help with Shannon over the holiday (I got her a pink and grey Tinkerbelle t shirt and it’s never off her back now lol) after that we were wandering around and we met sully, so we got a pic, Shannon was excited to see him as well she loves monsters inc. We also met remmy and mr incredible.

remy

sully

Mr Incredible

We met back up with the others and went on Armageddon, this was not a success, one terrified girl left the building, I quickly whipped her back into stitch and this restored Disney calm. We headed for out and remembered crush, so headed for this the wait now was 20 minutes so we joined the queue and I passed the time by chatting to the nice couple behind us (I can make friends anywhere lol) time to get on and Shannon rode with me. At this point I would like to say that the restrictions on here are not enough, taller and older please people. Shannon is tall for her age so got through no bother and watching the clips they were showing in the hotels it didn’t look that bad…oh dear we came to nemo and she was all excited then chunk chuck chunk….are we going uphill…oh yes a BIG hill, I wasn’t that concerned as POTC has a similar climb for the drop involved. But this was a big drop and fast and spinning. Needless to say she cried and screamed the whole way from there, and I felt like the worst mother in the world, I have no idea what this ride was like I was too busy with her lol.


i managed to get this photo outside

We left here and I quickly took her back to carpets, just to get her back in the saddle as such.
We went to MacDonald’s for dinner, and left ady at the sports bar while we shopped some more, then back to the hotel to bed

Next up
Day 7 park hopping