Trip Report Aussies' Disney Adventure - PTR

[maryr1oz]

I'm sure most of you know the feeling of pre-trip over excitement, and i have a big case of it right now...

Cast of Characters -
DH - 32, amazing husband of almost 3 years now, best friend and partner for around 10 years. Super excited to travel, but a little spacey on the details, which comes to me...
I'm 29, and the absolute Disney parks fan. I'm the planner and organizer.
Together, we make a great team. Here's a photo of us...

DH and i are going to be visiting Disneyland Paris in a little more than 2 months. We live in Australia, right down south near Melbourne. DH has never been to Europe, i've been a couple of times but when i was much younger - last time was in 1998.

This trip came around quite suddenly for us. I have a cousin who lives in London, and is getting married there in September. Also an Aunt in Malta that we have been bursting to visit. The pieces really just fell into place over the span of a few weeks, and before i knew it we were booked. Due to DH's work commitments, it will be a trip 3 weeks in length.

We are flying from Melbourne to Doha, spending 24 hours, and then onto Paris. We will have some time in Paris, London, Malta, Brussels and then to my beloved Disneyland Paris.

We are booked to stay 3 nights at the Newport Bay Club. I can't wait! Next time i'll post about our previous trips to other Disney Parks.


Chapter Links:
My First Disney Park Experience
First Trip to Disneyland, Anaheim
The Big Trip to Disneyland
The Honeymoon
The Itinerary
The Itinerary - Part 2

 

[HappyPanda]

How exciting! Looking forward to reading more about your planning and your trip! The next few months will whizz by I'm sure!

 

[PrincessInOz]

What an exciting trip! Settling in for the ride-along.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

We are heading there in April so I'm following along closely.

 

[maryr1oz]

How exciting! Looking forward to reading more about your planning and your trip! The next few months will whizz by I'm sure!

Thanks so much - my first comment!

What an exciting trip! Settling in for the ride-along.

Good to have you along, i hope i can entertain you enough in the coming months

We are heading there in April so I'm following along closely.

Fantastic - let me know if there are any particular things you want to find out that i can help you with while i'm there!

 

[maryr1oz]

Of course, like most of us i’m sure, i grew up watching the Disney movies, but it was always the allure of the parks that really kept me interested in Disney. When i was 14, my mother took my sister and i to visit family in Europe. It wasn’t too long into the planning process that i was able to convince her we needed to spend some time at (then called) EuroDisney.

We stayed for 3 nights at the Hotel Santa Fe. Despite being 14 and going through a very ‘me me’ stage i absolutely loved every minute we spent at that resort. I wasn’t afraid to beg to have breakfast with Mickey, or to ride Dumbo a handful of times. That trip cemented my dreams of what Disney parks would be like, and i would begin to daydream about visiting Disneyland and other parks from here on out. I only wish we had more photos of the actual park from that trip. There are dozens of parade photos, a few photos of my sister and i on some rides, and several from Disney Village and the hotel, but not many photos of the park itself.

I remember bringing home every little thing i could from that park, and keeping it in a shoe box until this day. There is the weight and string from my Minnie balloon, park maps, hotel maps, sugar sachets, napkins, plastic cutlery etc. We moved house last year and i saw that box, however i have NO idea where it ended up once we actually moved but if i find it i will have to post some photos.

 

[zanzibar138]

Subbing in

It's always exciting when fellow Aussies go overseas chasing their Disney dreams

Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[maryr1oz]

Subbing in

It's always exciting when fellow Aussies go overseas chasing their Disney dreams

Can't wait to hear all about it!

Hope i can keep everyone interested!

 

[maryr1oz]

From the time i got home from Disneyland Paris, right through to my early 20's i knew i wanted to get to the USA and see Disneyland. I had an amazing passion for all things American, and of course Disney. When i was 22 i scrambled trying to find a friend who would come with me to the US. Unfortunately the timing wasn't right for anyone that i knew, but i decided i couldn't wait any longer! I booked a 4 week trip, starting with a week in Anaheim, then Hollywood.

From there i joined a 10 day organised tour which visited Phoenix, Grand Canyon, Mammoth Mountain, Yosemite and ended in San Francisco. In San Francisco i met up with a friend who was there, and we drove together back down the Pacific Coast Highway to LA. On the night before i flew home, we ended up back in Anaheim, and spent the next day in Disneyland together. It was a great way to end the trip!

 

[Ms Poppins]

Lovely photos

Nice to see the New York taxi there, it's at the other side of the hotel now

 

[Carrie_Cat]

Sounds like a great trip you've got lined up there

It will be fun for you to see all the changes since your trip and this time take tons of photos

You are also going to one of my favourite places, Malta, so I'd be interested to hear how you enjoy it

 

[maryr1oz]

Lovely photos

Nice to see the New York taxi there, it's at the other side of the hotel now

Really?? I'll have to go and find it, i loved to see that taxi there every morning as we walked by on our way to the parks...

Sounds like a great trip you've got lined up there

It will be fun for you to see all the changes since your trip and this time take tons of photos

You are also going to one of my favourite places, Malta, so I'd be interested to hear how you enjoy it

Yes! I can't wait to get to Malta, i have an Aunt who is working there at the moment so a local guide will be fantastic

 

[maryr1oz]

In 2007 i had finally convinced my live-in boyfriend (at the time) to plan a big trip to the US. We plotted and planned for about a year and then finally it was time to leave.

We booked a 7 week trip. We had a couple of nights stop over on the way in Auckland, New Zealand and then headed to LA. Our basic itinerary was LA, Anaheim, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Vail, Denver, Cheyenne, Mount Rushmore, Minneapolis, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York. We self drove the whole way except the last leg of Chicago to New York.

This was DBF's first trip to the US, as well as his first time in a Disney Park. He gave me alot of grief over how long we had planned to stay in Anaheim before we left, but as soon as he arrived he realised how much there was to see and do there. It's a great base for touring the whole Southern California area.

We spent about 5 days in Disneyland and California Adventure.

I heard my DBF telling a group of mates after we got home that Disneyland was cool, so i knew i had converted him

Later on in that trip, while we were in Chicago, we took a boat cruise on the lake and the river. DBF took me to the back of the boat, got down on one knee, pulled out a ring and proposed to me I loved Chicago before that happened, but after it became such a special place to us. I hope we get back there together someday not too far away.

 

[zanzibar138]

Your DBF (at the time) sounds just like my DBF (at the time). He couldn't believe I'd only scheduled one non-Disney day for our week in Anaheim. That one day was Universal Studios and turns out he spent much of the day wanting to go back to Disneyland lol!

And, like your story, he proposed in the US as well. After World of Colour. And we did the Grand Canyon too!

We also chose to add a bit of Disney to our honeymoon with a stopover at HK Disneyland - it was his idea

 

[PrincessInOz]

What a romantic proposal story!

Your past trips sound great and I love your pictures.

 

[maryr1oz]

Your DBF (at the time) sounds just like my DBF (at the time). He couldn't believe I'd only scheduled one non-Disney day for our week in Anaheim. That one day was Universal Studios and turns out he spent much of the day wanting to go back to Disneyland lol!

And, like your story, he proposed in the US as well. After World of Colour. And we did the Grand Canyon too!

We also chose to add a bit of Disney to our honeymoon with a stopover at HK Disneyland - it was his idea

Great!! The next update i add will be of our honeymoon, during which we find ourselves again in Anaheim

What a romantic proposal story!

Your past trips sound great and I love your pictures.

Thanks so much!

 

[maryr1oz]

On August 1st, 2009 we were married. Not long after we were engaged we had decided that we would marry sometime during our winter, to coincide with the northern hemisphere's summer, therefore the best time for honeymooning

Also while planning this honeymoon we had made a big decision regarding it - we were going to ask several friends/family members to come along
DH and i decided that since we were getting married and we desperately wanted to travel with friends overseas we should combine the two and invite them on the trip with us. (Thinking there may be children in our near future, however 3 years down the track and we still haven't seemed to get around to that... )

The wedding was amazing - everything we'd dreamed of...

The honeymoon ended up consisting of:

DH and myself
My 2 younger sisters
My best friend, her husband and sister
DH's best friend

We were a great team and we had such a great trip...

We spent 4 weeks visiting Anaheim, Las Vegas, Yosemite, San Francisco, Niagara Falls, New York and Hollywood. Actually, everyone else in our party enjoyed Hollywood at the end of the trip, but not DH and I...

We were all in NYC, our second last day, and i started feeling ill. Vomiting, fever, back pain... unfortunately i knew these symptoms all too well... I had kidney stones (something i've suffered from my whole life). I could hardly move as is usual with this for me. We had a lovely doctor come to the hotel who gave me some injections for pain, and over the next few days i watched the rest of our party leave for Hollywood. The Dr organised some cat scans and further tests, and then i got sent to St Vincents hospital for further treatment. I struck a wonderful Dr there who said he was going to dope me up enough to fly home - otherwise it would be a drawn out, extremely expensive hospital visit in NYC. I ended up flying out to LA with DH the next day and ended up on our original flight back to Australia with our travelling party! It was good timing in that respect. Lucky for travel insurance - who were also wonderful.

I always joke that it was fate so we would have a few days alone on our honeymoon just the two of us... however i would not want to do it that way again!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great wedding and honeymoon shots!

Sorry you weren't feeling well at the end; but better 2 days at the end than 2 days into the start!

 

[maryr1oz]

Here's our basic itinerary (well for the the first half of the trip)...

Friday August 30th - Depart Melbourne Airport at 10:55pm flying Qatar Airways. This will be our first time flying with Qatar, but the departure dates and the prices were right for us. It's a 14 hour flight to Doha, and then we will have an overnight stop (about 30 hours) before flying onto Paris. Qatar Airways have just taken out the Skytrax airline of the year award again. If anyone has any comments about them or tips for Doha, i'd love to hear them

Sunday 2nd of September - We depart Doha at about 2pm local time, bound for Paris. It's a 7 hour flight. I'm quite keen to get the long leg out of the way first, as opposed to flying through Asia where it's the short leg first. We arrive in Paris late in the evening, and i think we will catch the Roissybus into the city, and a taxi to our nearby hotel. The hotel is the Hotel Paris France. A small hotel, and a great price, but has great Tripadvisor reviews.

Thursday 6th September - We will catch the Eurostar this morning to London.

I'm excited for this day, and looking forward to the ride. Something i've never done before. We arrive in London St. Pancras station before lunchtime, and we'll check into our nearby hotel. This hotel was one i chose based on earning some points with Accor. It was a good price, and also a good location for us. It's the Mercure Londom Bloomsbury. It's on Southampton Row right by Russell Square.

We will spend the weekend in London, which is when we will attend my cousin's wedding. Tuesday September 11th will be a long day. We will check out of our hotel, catch the Tube to Heathrow - but only to rent a car. From there we will drive north to York, to visit with family for a few hours. That night we will return south, but only to Luton. Here we will return the car, and settle in, ready for our early morning flight to Malta.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Oooh! What a great itinerary so far. Jealous!