July 30th - August 8th Trip Report - Val D'Europe and Paris

Dianetigger

<font color=peach>May have to give the corkboard o
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
3,135
Cast:
Me – Diane (49 on day of the trip) – Disney mad particularly Tigger
DD1 – Rachel (24) – loves the Princesses especially Belle
DD2 – Rebecca (22) – Minnie Mouse but Goofy always seems to take a shine to her, refuses to believe that water is anywhere near BTM!
DS – Jay (19) – big Jack Skellington fan and Rock n’ Roller Coaster addict!

Day 4 Saturday August 2nd
Again down to breakfast for 7:30, coffee, fruit salad and yoghurt enjoyed by myself, everyone else had cereal and a mixture of other things.
Back to the room for others to dress themselves properly and get ready to go out, once everyone is ready (no mean feat this!) we walk towards the bus station. Find bus number 50, show him our hotel easy pass and he wasn’t having any of it, didn’t offer to take us if we paid told us we needed the bus in front (which was just leaving) with L’Eysee (or something like that) on it. Tried another number 50 bus and had the same reaction, decided that instead of wasting time waiting for another bus we’d go back to the hotel and book the shuttle. So at a return cost of 5 euros each we did that, shuttle arrived within 10 minutes and we were soon shopping in La Vallee, made the mistake of trying to take pictures there and was immediately stopped by a man, he didn’t offer explanations as to why no photographs (and there were no signs around to say you couldn’t take them) but I did as I was told and put my camera away.
After spending money (my three not me!) in La Vallee we headed into the large Val D’Europe complex where we spent a good couple of hours and left with less money than we’d arrived with! Went back to the Welcome Centre and asked for a shuttle back, this arrived within 15 minutes and we soon found ourselves back at the hotel where we decided to go for a swim.
We made our way back into the park for around 6pm stopped at the Market House Deli for our usual and then picked a spot opposite The Bella Notte to watch the parade. This time before the parade started we had Gaston,
Gaston.jpg

Daisy Duck, Esmeralda, Frollo, Phoebus, Clopin,
Frolloetc.jpg

Govenor Ratcliffe and King John. This was great as we hadn’t seen a lot of those characters around before.
Once the parade was over we managed to get on BTM and POC once again before the queues got larger and we decided cocktails and an early night were in order ready for our day trip to Paris.

Day 5 August 3rd
Breakfast once again at 7:30 and on the way to breakfast I picked up another few cards to get us in for the next few days. Breakfast over we went back to our room to get our things together for our day trip, then it was a nice walk over to the New York Hotel for 9:15 ready to catch our bus. Three large two deck buses duly arrived around 9:40am and we were first on the English/Spanish speaking bus, we hit lucky by getting the top front seats which gave us a wonderful position for taking photographs and video. We left the Hotel New York around 10am and it didn’t seem like long before we were in Paris. Our tour guide was excellent speaking both English and Spanish and once we put our headphones on it was fantastic to learn about the history of the monuments of Paris. All in all we felt the whole day was well worth the money (260 euros for the four of us), the price included a first floor visit to the Eiffel Tower and an hour boat trip down/up the River Seine. Our tour took in:
La Bastille – Hotel de Sens – Hotel de Ville – Latin Quarter – La Sorbonne – Le Pantheon – Palais du Luxembourg – Saint Germain des Pres – Orsay Museum – National Assembly – Grand & Petit Palais – Champs Elysees – Arc de Triomphe – Trocadero – One hour boat trip on the River Seine – Eiffel Tower with visit of first floor – L’Ecole Militaire – Les Invalides – Place de la Concorde – Louvre – Insitut de France – Pont Neuf – Conciergerie – Return to New York Hotel.
We firstly stopped for a 20 minute break at the Eiffel Tower to take pictures or stretch our legs then it was back on the tour,
Eiffel.jpg

we parked alongside the River Seine with instructions to meet back at the boat point at 2:10 which gave us around 90 minutes at the Eiffel Tower. Our tour guide walked us the short walk to the tower, gave us our tickets and saw us through the correct gates to the lifts. The views from the first floor were amazing and for me it was high enough!
Views.jpg

We grabbed a snack to eat here and then queued for ages for the toilets, three toilets for the ladies (and no others I could find) didn’t seem enough for the volume of people that must pass through here, although firstly 90 minutes seemed a long time to be able to explore around the streets near the tower in fact we ran out of time with the queue for the toilets and then again the long wait for the lifts down. But it was well worth doing, just not sure I’d repeat it on another trip.
We walked back to the meet point with time to spare, met our tour guide again and had a nice chat about the tower, we were handed our boat tickets and made our way onto the bateaux.
NotreDame-1.jpg

We all (even DD2) enjoyed this aspect of the tour, everything was well explained in English, German and Spanish (and probably a few other languages as well) with a little history attached to each building, it was fascinating. The hour seemed to speed by and once again we were back on dry land – we’d had our photograph taken as we boarded but we didn’t buy the picture.
Back on board the coach our sightseeing trip continued and we ended at the Louvre for an hour – what a beautiful place, we had time to have a good look around the grounds and to a point inside would love to return here again to spend more time.
pyramids.jpg

We met back for 5pm and walked back to the bus leaving around 5:15pm and here the tour commentary ended, our tour guide left us not long after and we continued the journey back to the Hotel New York arriving back around 6pm. We decided to stay and have cocktails in the bar and we were glad we did as the heavens opened around half past 6 and came steadily down for around an hour.
Once it was dry again we headed into the park (needed a Disney fix), we grabbed hot dogs/chicken nuggets etc., at Casey’s Corner followed by a browse around the Frontierland shops and onto POC once again. DD2 decided she was tired and went back to the hotel, we hit a few more shops before finding ourselves by BTM and it was DARK! The queue was very short much to our surprise and on we jumped – have to say this is a fabulous experience in the dark and the ride seemed so much longer! At one point at the top of a climb my son whipped out the camera again to take a picture of Phantom Manor much to my fright! I’m so glad we managed to do this, unfortunately our timing was never so great afterwards and we didn’t manage it again.
As we left Frontierland we saw Fantillusion coming round the plaza so we stopped in one of the little side paths to watch it, decided this was a great position for the fireworks and stayed there, in fact it was our position for the rest of the week.
Walked back to the hotel, have to say this was a very enjoyable walk round the lake, good fun was had by all in dodging (not very successfully) the sprinklers every night though!
 
Sounds like another great day. I must say that the Paris trip really does look worth while. Maybe we will do this on our next trip (after October) I always feel like using a day of my DLRP holiday to do something else like Paris is a waste but I suppose with 10 days you can take it a bit slower than my usual 3 or 4 :lmao:
 
We've never attempted a Paris trip before and only this time because of the length of time (normally we are a 5 night stay) we were there, so it didn't feel as though we'd lost out on any park time. Also with the parks begin so busy it was nice to be able to take our time rather than running round like headless chickens trying to fit everything in and queueing for unmentionable amounts of time.
 
Have to agree with you, BTM in the dark is an amazing experience.

If anything I prefer it in the dark when everything in the park is lit up.
 

Great day in Paris, the tour sounds nice & organised. When we went we did it by train & didn't get to see as much.

Lovely photos:thumbsup2
 
Paris trip sounds fab :)

its BTM brilliant, when dark,it was soooooooo pretty all lit up, the view was fab :goodvibes
 
The trip to Paris sounds very organised, this is something i would love to do once DD is a older. Don't think a 2 year old would appreciate the sights of Paris lol.
 
Sounds fantastic! And the Paris tour too, we want to do that after the next time we go. Great pics! I might try BTM when its dark too- sounds cool.

Ashleigh x
 
Great report. I agree BTM is brill in the dark - it seems to go faster as well for some odd reason. The queues are often shorter as well as FP has finished so they are loading both trains form the normal queue
 











Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE







New Posts





DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter DIS Bluesky

Back
Top