Day 1, January 3
Not as planned, but a nice surprise!- Part 2
Tom had gotten me a trolley to put our luggage on once it was delivered before he headed to the Hertz rental car pick up. Now that rental car reservation has a fun little history as well.
Right after we had purchased our plane tickets we had booked our rental through the company we always use, AutoEurope. Around mid November Tom called me to let me know that he had had a call from someone from AutoEurope telling him that we would not be able to pick up the car at the time we had requested as the station would be closed. Now, we wanted to pick up the car at 7.15pm at Paris most busy airport! I laughed it off and checked online if there were any closures at the airport, then called Hertz Austria, who got in touch with Hertz France, and they assured me that they would be open 24/7. So, when the guy called back to tell me about the closure I told him that I had made some phone calls myself and no one at Hertz knew about the changes. Still the AutoEurope guy insisted that HE was right and I was wrong and that he would cancel our reservation anyway. So I told him to go ahead and I would make other arrangements. 5 minutes later we had booked the same car for about the same (just a tiny bit more) price with Hertz directly. In the evening of the same day I searched around the internet and came across another company that offered FULL insurance packages AND gave a nice discount for first time users of their site. So, in the end we cancelled the booking we had made with Hertz, and went with the new company. We paid less than 100 Euros for 3 days of use of the car including ALL insurances. Needless to say I was right about the opening times of the Hertz booth at the airport 24/7.
So, while I was waiting for the luggage Tom was heading to pick up the car. They have added a fun new feature at CDG airport, they have overhead screens where you can see the suitcases that are loaded onto the arrival belt.
So once I had seen our suitcases coming up the belt it was easy to just pick them up, load them on the trolley and head towards the exit. Tom was already waiting, paperwork in hand. He had been told that the car had 5 larger scratches and a few smaller ones, which again rang some bells. Maybe some of you remember the scam they tried to pull off some time ago with a scratched car that when we returned it to the airport it had a huge dent as well. We went to take photos of all the scratches
when I saw another larger scraping.
Since we could not find an attendant close to where the cars were parked we headed back down to the rental booth and had all the damages marked on our rental contract. So with about a 10 minute delay we finally got into the car, fixed the GPS on the windscreen and made our way out of the airport.
The GPS did not show any delays on the motorway, so we made it to Val dEurope in good time. We stopped at the Auchan, a huge grocery store, to pick up some drinks and a bit of baguette, some cheese and some pastries, so we would have something to nibble on in case Earl of Sandwich was already closed.
The stop was short and sweet and since we had a half empty bag, that is where we put everything. Into the car we got again and off we went to the Hotel New York. We showed our reservation at the security check-point and were allowed in.
And our luck didnt run out as we found some empty parking spaces right close to the main entrance of the hotel. So we got all our luggage and headed towards the Front Desk. We were second in line and were soon asked to step up to the Front Desk. I was a bit irritated as while he checked us in the cast member continued to laugh and joke with another cast member in French. He put ONE room key on the counter and started to write down the room number when I asked if this indeed was a room with two beds.
In those hotels you can book either a room with one double bed and a daybed, or a room with two beds. I had clearly booked a room with two beds. He looked, then mentioned it was a room with one bed. No good, we need two beds. He went to a room in the back for quite some time then came out and told us that he had found another room with one bed and a pull-out bed. And it was on the same floor. He wrote down the room number and I was waiting for him to get me a key to the other room but he did nothing. So I asked about the key and he said that this one would be okay at the new room too.
Okay my friend, I might be female, but I am not stupid, you did nothing, you just gave us the same room again. So I went on to tell him that I was not happy with a day-bed, which he told me again was a pull out but I disagreed and that I had booked a room with two beds and I was not happy that one of us had to sleep on a pull-out.
I mean that hotel is not cheap. I paid over 1100 Euros for three nights and that included a 35% discount. So, the cast member went back to the back room again and stayed there for quite some time, before coming back to tell us that they did not have any more rooms with two beds, but they would move us to another room the next day.
Okay, I can live with that, even though it is pretty inconvenient if you only stay for three nights. Finally, key in hand we headed towards the 5th (US 6th) floor and were looking for our room. Once we opened the door we knew why the cast member had made such a fuzz about us needing to stay in that room for the night.
They had put a welcome gift into the room.
Still would have been nice if they had read the reservation more carefully. Once inside the room we went to inspect everything,
then started to look at the gift. Since this had been our second visit, we were welcomed back with a nice letter, a bottle of Vittel water and two glasses and a fun Mickey mug with an attached spoon and some candy
and a rose in the bathroom. The bed had been turned down and there were even chocolate coins with Disney characters on it.
The view out the window was nice
even though the windows were divided and small. And while we were still looking around, there was a knock at the door and a cast member came to pull out and put up the daybed. He asked if he should put out the pillows as well, as they were in a drawer, but we told him that we could do that ourselves.
So he left after we had tipped him and we opened a drawer in search for a pillow. No pillow in drawer one. Well, none of the drawers had pillows inside but there were so many on the regular bed that we did not mind at all. By then we were already a bit on the tired side and we still wanted to get some dinner from Earl of Sandwich, so we just left everything in the room, I grabbed my purse and off we went to the Disney Village.
Safe travels, and Happy New Year!
Happy to have you!
Now it is catch-up time for all, students and profs alike.
It was beautiful to watch - I just would not like to have to face the cold. 
