Trip Report A Bird's Eye View of London and Paris March 2012 TR NEW! The END 1/12 p35

[Lovemy3babes]

I cannot believe you had to pay to pee. What the heck? That is the most bizarre thing I have ever read I think.

Hope the family reunion was fun Sheree!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

As usual, if something is not right in front of my face on the Trip Reports Board, I forget about it. And of course, closing out school made me crazier than usual. I have time this week to do what I want, so I was able to visit around on the DIS a little more. It was cool to catch up with your pictures.

I am glad you made it to your reunion. I'm sure everyone loved seeing the girls!

Thanks! We had a good time and they all enjoyed meeting the girls - so many of them it was for the first time!

Oh yes....I've been stopped on there too...going 5-10 miles over. And saw many pass me going faster

It was insane! I'll have to tell you about our adventure in a minute.

Subbing! Love your report. London is so beautiful. It and Paris are on my bucket list to do.

Can't wait to read all about Paris and see your pictures.

It's nice to have you here. Thanks - London and Paris were so amazing. I'd go back in a minute ifI didn't have 50 other places to see first! I think London is a great place to start if you haven't done much foreign travel. It's nice that they speak the same language (more or less!) and it's really easy to get around the city.

I cannot believe you had to pay to pee. What the heck? That is the most bizarre thing I have ever read I think.

Hope the family reunion was fun Sheree!

As my kids say, "I know, right?" It was weird. I almost wanted to ask them if my pee was really worth 50 cents!
The reunion was good! It was hot and fast and fun. They had lots of old family pictures on the walls, and all the military pictures from the 5 brothers (my FIL included) who served. Kind of nice for Memorial Day weekend.
Any of you that are friends with me on FB can see some photos. We counted about 77 in the big group photo we had taken. That's probably not even 1/2 the family!
DH's dad was one of 7 kids. Each of them had at least 3 kid, one had 12! So DH has a LOT of cousins! He's one of the younger ones I think so many of them have kids AND grandkids. Huge family!

So here's the little story -
We were driving home Sunday evening and had left the party around 5:30. When we got into Ohio, we knew there would be a ton of cops and there were. Stopping people every few miles. DH noticed one cop in the median sort of facing the other side (opposing traffic) and he BACKED UP into our side of traffic! Luckily no cars were in that lane! Then he proceeded to turn on the lights and PULL US OVER! We were going about 3 miles over the speed limit, so I figured it wasn't that, but also the way he was positioned I found it hard to believe he could get a reading on us. So we pull over and he asks for the license and registration. I'm digging out the rental paper b/c we told him we don't own the car...He says he pulled us over because our headlights weren't on! This was about 8:30 p.m. Not really dark yet. Sun was setting. I just about died! So the stupid rental car has the dash lights on, but not the headlights, no daytime running lights either I guess. He gave us a verbal "warning" and we turned on the lights and it really didn't seem to make a difference on the road, nor were the dash lights much different. So weird. Sorry if any of you own a Mazda CX-9, but we did not love that car! Stupid lights... It also wasn't very comfy riding - it was like an old pickup truck on the bumps!

End of story. I'll get back to Disneyland Paris soon! I promise!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

well that was just crummy!! what a way to end a vacation weekend!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

I bet you about died when he pulled you over. Sounds very nit picky to me!

 

[jenseib]

I almost always drive in the daytime with my lights on. I used to drive the turnpike daily for my job....and I got pulled over at 3Pm for having a headlight out. AND I got ticket. It was a work van, and they put the light in as soon as i got back. I think I ended up being able to show proof that I had it done and the ticket was nulled.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

In case anyone hasn't heard - Ticket prices are going UP TOMORROW!!!

I just checked a 5 day non-hopper and it's going up to $268 ($53.60 per day). This is without tax. I'm glad I bought 2 of them before the price hike! At least I save a little bit!
ETA: DH said we should buy the other two so I did. Saved a few more bucks, even though it wasn't in the budget for this month!!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

well that was just crummy!! what a way to end a vacation weekend!

Yeah, at least we didn't end up with a ticket!

I bet you about died when he pulled you over. Sounds very nit picky to me!

Small panic attack. More me worrying that DH would not say something that would get us in trouble! I'm sure he wouldn't, but I did remind him to be polite!

I almost always drive in the daytime with my lights on. I used to drive the turnpike daily for my job....and I got pulled over at 3Pm for having a headlight out. AND I got ticket. It was a work van, and they put the light in as soon as i got back. I think I ended up being able to show proof that I had it done and the ticket was nulled.

Wow, you got punished basically because you drove with your lights on in the daytime? That's dumb. I can see maybe to let you know it was out, but a ticket? Jeesh!
Good think you could get rid of it.

Working on an update now!!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Arrival at DLP

So, we left off with us getting off the train, walking out of the station and turning left. We walked through Disney Village with our luggage, noticing all the cool shops and restaurants. I had seen a few pictures, but it really didn’t look like I imagined it. It’s basically a wide street (without cars!) and shops and restaurants on either side. It’s cute, but not as big as Downtown Disney.
There was a bag check area we went through, including a mechanical scanner for the bags. It was odd, because there was a side entrance into the village that you could go through and there either was no one there working, or no bag scanner, just a person giving a cursory check. We chose that option when we could!

We noticed Rainforest Café, Earl of Sandwich, McDonalds, Planet Hollywood, Starbucks and then some places that are only at DLP – Café Mickey, Annette’s Diner, Billy Bob’s Country Western Saloon, King Ludwig’s Castle, NY Style Sandwiches, a Sports Bar, La Grange buffet and The Steakhouse. There were plenty of shops for my future shopping needs too! We passed through and saw the big balloon just like at DTD.
I will have more pictures of the village as we go. This is just what I took at that moment.

Cafe Mickey - Look behind to the right and you can see Hotel NY.

Our hotel was just to the left. It literally took us all of 10 minutes to get there!

Hotel New York
Nice and clean, designed to make you think of Manhattan – tall buildings, sleek and shiny in architectural style. Not that I was feeling too glamorous, but I liked it. One negative is that there was no counter-service place to grab a soda or snack at the hotel. Like we have at least a place you can refill your mugs etc. I was missing that!

It struck me as sort of funny that all the hotels seem to have an American theme – NY, woodsy lodge, southwest, New England…I guess Disney is All-American, so it makes sense, to bring American Disney to Europe that way.
Check in was smooth - very nice CM. We got our little cards for breakfast (it's included) and had to select a time to show up. Seemed strange, but she said they're not super strict on it, so if you pick 8:00 and show up later than that, it's not a big deal. All righty then. We'll take 8:00!


Here’s our room:

This was on our TV. I honestly don't remember this, but DH must have taken this. I'll have to ask him, but I think it might be that you could check your charges on screen, kind of like you can do on the cruise.

It was a pretty good sized room - I'd guess at least the size of the moderates at WDW. There was room for both a desk and a small table, but the beds were full, not queen. I know I have pictures of the bathroom too, I'll find them!
Found them!
Shower curtain

I've trained my kids to take pictures of the room too!!

The view from our window (no balconies)

We dumped our stuff in the room and headed to Disneyland!! We stopped for sandwiches at EOS! They were 5.50 Euro each, so pretty comparable pricing. Of course I had my Italian, the girls got PBJ and DH got Ham and Cheese. Just as good as at DTD!

cont.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

More pictures of Disney Village:

Our hotel was to the left from the balloon.

Well, we know the kids won't starve. At least they had free wi-fi there, so we were able to connect once in a while.

I'll have more shopping pictures later.

The entrance to the Disneyland Park is THROUGH the Disneyland Hotel. You go under a "tunnel" and there are ticket booths and turnstiles under there. It is so cool! If the other hotels weren't so close, I would have really wanted to stay there. But boy is it pricey!

See the sign? The entrance is under there.

How cute is this?

This is rather a crummy picture, but it's a cool statue!

This gives a little frame of reference at least

It was kind of windy, and quite chilly, but we were on a mission. We got to the park around 3 p.m. and we HAD to ride Pirates of the Caribbean! It was going to be closed after today! I needed to ride it at least once! How long a wait would we have? Would I stop taking pictures along the way so we could get to the ride? Ha! We all know I don't have to stop walking to take a bunch of pictures!!

Coming up - finally entering the park and is their POTC better than ours?

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Awesome update Sheree! Everything looks super cool. I can't wait to see more!! Thanks for sharing all the great pics. Your hotel looks nice!

 

[jenseib]

Fabulous pictures. This is so exciting

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Great update!
I'm loving all the pictures, so exciting to actually be heading into Disneyland Paris!!!!

Can't wait for the next update and the big answer to POTC!!!

 

[ClaireW]

Got way behind here but making the most of our extra holiday (to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee) and catching up on the Dis

Seeing your DLP pictures is making me want to go back - but even from the UK it's pricey and even the fuzzy Disney maths isn't helping

Did you go into Annettes Diner in the Disney Village? The theming is great and there are waitresses on roller skates!

Looking forward to your next update - and I think I might have the answer to the POTC question

 

[MEK]

Cool stuff. Its so interesting to see the similarities and the differences. It's also so cool that you could walk to everything. The Disneyland Hotel (is that the name?) does look very, very cool and how fun to have an entrance there to the park.

Looking forward to more!

 

[jeremysdisneymom]

Wow! How neat. Love your report. Can't wait to see if you rode pirates.

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

Awesome! Love the bedding in your room! The whole place looks really neat. Funny how everything in France is American themed, but I guess the French don't want French theming since they live that every day. The DL hotel looks wonderful too!

It's so funny to see the same places over there that are here, like EoS. I know you said the sandwich tasted the same, but it had to be better in Paris! Just think... you had an Italian sandwich in Paris, staying at a NY hotel! Multicuturalism at it's finest!!!

 

[torsie24]

Oh I love the Disneyland Hotel.

We were at HNY 2 weeks ago, and while we enjoyed it it was no where near as nice as the WDW deluxes or the DLH.

Looking forward to seeing how you enjoyed PotC, we know WDWs is a lot older, but the Paris one is sooooo much better in our opinion.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

I promise I'll come back and do replies, but I had to take a minute to do some "proud mommy" bragging.

Girls got their report cards on Thursday. Sarah got ALL As!! Paige doesn't get letter grades yet, but got all 3s and 4s. In bigger news, she brought home a certificate and a medal (!) for her math testing scores. Turns out she got the 3rd highest score on the standardized math test in the DISTRICT!! Then yesterday we got a letter from the school saying that Sarah is placed in the advanced math program for middle school!! I can't believe my kids are such math whizzes!!

We're between dance recitals - one yesterday and two more today, so they're making me proud on stage too! Paige does a ballet number to the song In my Daughter's Eyes, by Martina McBride. Makes me cry every time!! Oh, and DH is doing the DADS' dance!! It's awesome!
Okay, got to go put make up on my 9 year old and put her hair in a bun!

Thanks for indulging me! I'll be back!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Congrats to the girls!! I know you are so proud!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

congrats to both your girls on their great math success!!!! That's awesome!!!!