danandjackie
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2003
- Messages
- 440
Apologies for doing this in parts, but i feel if i dont get something down it may be years. Most of what I am talking about can be seen in our album at http://community.webshots.com/user/danny_jackie where i have added captions to the photos so they make more sense.
Ok so we decided early in October to make a clean break this Christmas and get away to DLP for a few days. We are both in our early 30's with no children so we though what the hell lets do it. Best decision we ever made and I only hope this report can show a tiny speck of the enjoyment we had for four days. Details I booked the Disney selected hotel Kyriad on Active Hotels website and got it for under 60 pounds sterlingf a room per night. I booked Air France flights from Manchester at about 100 pounds per seat, there were cheaper options with other carriers but i wanted the times to be user friendly. We departed just after lunch and arrived 1 hour later at CDG Paris after rushing down a ham sandwich and helping ourselves to the free wine service on board.
Now our initial plan after doing a little research was to pick up the VEA shuttle service straight from the terminal as it seemed hastle free and would take us to the door to the hotel. On finding the pick up point the first thing to be aware of was that at this pick up point there was already in excess of over 60 people waiting for the shuttle, I already know from VEAs website they use 42 seater single decker buses so I am already anticipating a problem. After 20mins or so the bus arrives and a rather grumpy driver gets off and shuts the door, it appears he has 5 seats left. Forget it I say. One other thing about this shuttle service. It seems to spendabout an hour going from terminal to terminal before it actually sets off towards Marne le Valee, this is 55 km away so say another hour to get there, it then spends time dropping off and unloading guests at the hotels which conservatively gives it a trip time from its first to last pick up off 2 hours.
We head to the TGV station which is in Terminal 2, the TGV takes 10mins to get to Marne le Valee and is cheaper than the shuttle. The advantage of the shuttle taking you to the door of your hotel is a non starter, because, as soon as you get off the train you are at the hotel shuttle bus sation, so you simply get on your free shuttle and are at the Kyriad 5mins later. I estimate we probably arrived at our Hotel before the VEA shuttle had even left the airport perimeter.
Checking in is a breeze though the heating in the hotel lobby is set so high I feel like stripping off layers. The hotel is brand new, simple, clean, and the rooms perfect if all you want to do is have somewhere to bed down for the night. I ask for a 7.00-7.30 breakfast spot(included in the price) to be sure we have an early start in the morning. We have already got 3 day park passes which we bought direct from Paris DLP website as the Euro rate worked out cheaper than buying them in the UK. We unpack, have a quick shower change and head back to the disney village where we settle on Ludvigs for dinner as its the only restaurant that doesn't seem to base its menu solely on fast food. Every other meal I have pre booked direct with DLP before we arrived. The food is Ok at Ludvigs though nothing special but the beer is great. The village seems a little cramped especially with all the extra christmas Kiosks dotted everywhere and seems to create a lot of bottleknecks even tonight when its relatively quite.
We leave Ludvigs later and head back on the Shuttle to the Hotel to be ready for an early start in the morning. The Shuttle Service by the way is superb, the receptionist at the Kyriad has already made me learn the times of the first and last shuttles off by heart when I checked in. Officially they range from every 7 mins at peak times to every 20mins but we never seemed to have to wait more than 5 mins for one. It drops off at the Explorers Hotel (which resembles the state penetentiary in Green Mile), our Hotel, then picks up at the Holiday Inn which looks like every other Holiday Inn and seems massive. The Kyriad is a managable 300 rooms or so meaning there are no problems at breakfast times etc. Its only downsides are no entertainment like pools and the like but I have never understood why you would want this anyway with the Park on your doorstep.
Ok so we decided early in October to make a clean break this Christmas and get away to DLP for a few days. We are both in our early 30's with no children so we though what the hell lets do it. Best decision we ever made and I only hope this report can show a tiny speck of the enjoyment we had for four days. Details I booked the Disney selected hotel Kyriad on Active Hotels website and got it for under 60 pounds sterlingf a room per night. I booked Air France flights from Manchester at about 100 pounds per seat, there were cheaper options with other carriers but i wanted the times to be user friendly. We departed just after lunch and arrived 1 hour later at CDG Paris after rushing down a ham sandwich and helping ourselves to the free wine service on board.
Now our initial plan after doing a little research was to pick up the VEA shuttle service straight from the terminal as it seemed hastle free and would take us to the door to the hotel. On finding the pick up point the first thing to be aware of was that at this pick up point there was already in excess of over 60 people waiting for the shuttle, I already know from VEAs website they use 42 seater single decker buses so I am already anticipating a problem. After 20mins or so the bus arrives and a rather grumpy driver gets off and shuts the door, it appears he has 5 seats left. Forget it I say. One other thing about this shuttle service. It seems to spendabout an hour going from terminal to terminal before it actually sets off towards Marne le Valee, this is 55 km away so say another hour to get there, it then spends time dropping off and unloading guests at the hotels which conservatively gives it a trip time from its first to last pick up off 2 hours.
We head to the TGV station which is in Terminal 2, the TGV takes 10mins to get to Marne le Valee and is cheaper than the shuttle. The advantage of the shuttle taking you to the door of your hotel is a non starter, because, as soon as you get off the train you are at the hotel shuttle bus sation, so you simply get on your free shuttle and are at the Kyriad 5mins later. I estimate we probably arrived at our Hotel before the VEA shuttle had even left the airport perimeter.
Checking in is a breeze though the heating in the hotel lobby is set so high I feel like stripping off layers. The hotel is brand new, simple, clean, and the rooms perfect if all you want to do is have somewhere to bed down for the night. I ask for a 7.00-7.30 breakfast spot(included in the price) to be sure we have an early start in the morning. We have already got 3 day park passes which we bought direct from Paris DLP website as the Euro rate worked out cheaper than buying them in the UK. We unpack, have a quick shower change and head back to the disney village where we settle on Ludvigs for dinner as its the only restaurant that doesn't seem to base its menu solely on fast food. Every other meal I have pre booked direct with DLP before we arrived. The food is Ok at Ludvigs though nothing special but the beer is great. The village seems a little cramped especially with all the extra christmas Kiosks dotted everywhere and seems to create a lot of bottleknecks even tonight when its relatively quite.
We leave Ludvigs later and head back on the Shuttle to the Hotel to be ready for an early start in the morning. The Shuttle Service by the way is superb, the receptionist at the Kyriad has already made me learn the times of the first and last shuttles off by heart when I checked in. Officially they range from every 7 mins at peak times to every 20mins but we never seemed to have to wait more than 5 mins for one. It drops off at the Explorers Hotel (which resembles the state penetentiary in Green Mile), our Hotel, then picks up at the Holiday Inn which looks like every other Holiday Inn and seems massive. The Kyriad is a managable 300 rooms or so meaning there are no problems at breakfast times etc. Its only downsides are no entertainment like pools and the like but I have never understood why you would want this anyway with the Park on your doorstep.
