My Family:
Myself Susan, just turned 40 (ouch), Disney fan with 1 trip to WDW and 2 trips to Disneyland previously enjoyed.
DH Darling husband, also just turned 40. Never been to Disney and at a loss to understand why I love it so much
Zino 7 Years, lover of all things Disney having accompanied me on all my Disney trips the first one being when he was 1 year old.
Zak 20 months First time visitor to Disney. Not really interested unless its covered in chocolate.
Our departure flight was at 8.10am which meant we all had to be up and out of the flat at 5.45am to catch the London Underground from Notting Hill Gate to Heathrow. It was cold and dark and damp but we were all pretty excited so we didnt mind. In fact Zino danced up Portobello Road a pretty strange sight at 6am!
Both kids slept thought the flight which was a bit bumpy but I figured this was good mental preparation for the Disney rides. Our first hitch was on arrival when our pushchair was not delivered to the plane door as promised. I was eventually told by cabin crew that the ground staff at Paris are supposed to bring pushchairs up to the plane door but rarely bother. At baggage claim it took 30 minutes for the bags to arrive and another 45 (!) minutes of searching to locate the pushchair. No staff seemed interested in helping and Zino eventually spotted an airport employee carrying it to the far side of the airport. We then got the shuttle bus to the RER station and went to the information office who told us that the next TGV train (10 minutes to Disney) was not for 45 minutes and told us that instead of waiting it would be just as fast to get the RER immediately. Wrong Wrong WRONG. Not only was the RER crowded and uncomfortable (like London Underground in the rush hour), but it took us 2 hours to get to our destination. Not fun with a tired, irritable toddler, pushchair and baggage. All in all it took us an exhausting 4 hours to get from plane to hotel.
Our Hotel was the lElysee Val dEurope. Val dEurope is a big shopping mall one RER stop from Disneyland Paris, and lElysee is one of the new Disney affiliated hotels (opened early 2002 I think). I had booked this hotel through the Disney booking line after trying to get accommodation at one of the on-site hotels, which were all full. The Hotel is just across the road from the RER station and also just across the road from the entrance to the Val dEurope shopping centre. Its a pretty good location. From the outside the Hotel looks very new and very nice. Inside its new and clean and about as Disney as a service station on the M25. In fact there only are three things Disney about this hotel:
1. The Booking confirmation was on Disney letterhead
2. There was a small cardboard stand on the reception desk which was supposed to contain Disney maps but was empty for most of our stay
3. The sugar in the restaurant had the Disney logo on it!
And that was it. The hotel advertises an indoor play room for kids but this is just a room full of those gaming machines. In fact apart from marketing itself as a Disney hotel the other main source of revenue seems to be conferences. This seems a bizarre sort of mix. I mention all these things because there was just a total and complete lack of atmosphere to the Hotel. It was ok. It was ordinary. It was incredibly bland. It was definitely not Disney. The first two times I had phoned the Disney booking line they tried to sell me this hotel at a very expensive rate which included park passes. In fact it was almost the same rate as the on site hotels. On my third phone call I pleaded complete poverty and managed to get a Bed and breakfast rate of 50 pounds per night. I gather this was quite unusual as the reception staff seemed quite surprised at my rate and also the fact that I did not have a deal including tickets. Notices in the room gave the usual bed and breakfast rate as 120 pounds per night, which I thought was way too expensive for this hotel.
Initially when we arrived the staff told us that we could not check in until 3pm. As it was already 2pm I thought this was a bit picky. Anyhow I smiled nicely and pleaded sheer exhaustion and a tired toddler and eventually they agreed to let us check in immediately. I noticed the Foyer was full of families and suitcases all waiting obediently for the 3pm check in time. And by 3pm there was long (very long) queue of tired travellers all wanting to check in at the same time.
Like the rest of the hotel our room was clean and tidy and dull. The advertised room safe was missing and there were no tea and coffee facilities. But it did have a minibar which Zak quickly found and started to empty while we unpacked. There was a double bed and the sofa folded out into two very uncomfortable singles. One of these was made up with a badly stained blanket (which was definitely older than the hotel) but was without a bedspread. The pre-ordered cot was a travel cot, which had definitely seen better days. The base was so unstable that eventually Zak slept in bed with us each night as we felt too nervous about using the cot. After unpacking I decided to help Zak finish clearing out the minibar as we wanted to stock the fridge up with food later. As we were removing the last of the contents I noticed these curious levers under each item. It was then I read the notice announcing that the minibar was fully computerised and each item moved will be automatically charged to our account. I phoned reception and sure enough, the entire contents of the minibar had already been added to our account. A staff member soon arrived to repack the minibar. Once full there was only a tiny bit of room left at the top. I asked if I could have the minibar left empty and was told that this was not possible, I was not allowed to use the minibar for personal items, and if I did not want to use the minibar it would be locked.
After a bit of a rest we decided to suss out the shopping centre across the road and take the kids to the Aquarium inside the centre. The girl at the information counter in the shopping centre told us that the Aquarium was open until 10 pm every day. So we had a wander through some shops. It was Thursday evening, which I suspect was their late night as the shopping centre was incredibly busy. We were bumped and jostled and pushed by other shoppers and both Zino and Zak got quite upset at all the pushing. At one stage Zino was physically pushed over by someone rushing to get past (no apologies) and another time Zak was left in tears when someone poked him in the eye with a shopping bag (he was in his pushchair at the time!). Again no apologies. Even Zino noticed that nobody ever bothered to apologise and he told me that he thought that people in this country had not been taught any manners! Aside from the distinct lack of manners it was a very nice shopping centre. Very large with a great selection of shops in all price ranges. We entered at one end (near the hotel and RER station) and at the far end (a good 20 minutes walk) was the Aquarium and a huge food court which had free live entertainment at night. Just outside all this is an outlet shopping mall which has many famous name brands selling cheap. If you like shopping you will probably be pretty happy with this Mall. There was also a Hypermarket which had about everything you could wish for and was pretty cheap, and a supermarket inside the Hypermarket which also sold lots of hot takeaway food.
After a good look around we had a very late lunch (it was 4pm by this time) and then stocked up on bread, cheese, etc for picnic lunches for the parks the next day. We then headed for the Acquarium. It was closed. It was only just after 5.30pm, I had in my hand a brochure stating that it was Open daily until late and we had been told by the information counter that it was open until 10pm. Zino was pretty upset (actually we all were) so we headed off back to the information counter who said they had no idea why it was closed maybe they close early in the winter. They were pretty unhelpful and really didnt seem too concerned that they had given us the wrong information. So our day was over unexpectedly early as it was too late to visit any of the parks now. So we looked through the shops a bit more (much to Zinos disgust as he hates shopping!) and then decided to get a couple of pizzas to take back to the hotel for dinner. We ordered two takeaway pizzas from a nice looking restaurant in the food court. They took 45 minutes to arrive, the side of the box was not done up properly and one of them slid out onto the pavement as we crossed the road back to the hotel, and they were stone cold. Not a good finish to the day.
Myself Susan, just turned 40 (ouch), Disney fan with 1 trip to WDW and 2 trips to Disneyland previously enjoyed.
DH Darling husband, also just turned 40. Never been to Disney and at a loss to understand why I love it so much
Zino 7 Years, lover of all things Disney having accompanied me on all my Disney trips the first one being when he was 1 year old.
Zak 20 months First time visitor to Disney. Not really interested unless its covered in chocolate.
Our departure flight was at 8.10am which meant we all had to be up and out of the flat at 5.45am to catch the London Underground from Notting Hill Gate to Heathrow. It was cold and dark and damp but we were all pretty excited so we didnt mind. In fact Zino danced up Portobello Road a pretty strange sight at 6am!
Both kids slept thought the flight which was a bit bumpy but I figured this was good mental preparation for the Disney rides. Our first hitch was on arrival when our pushchair was not delivered to the plane door as promised. I was eventually told by cabin crew that the ground staff at Paris are supposed to bring pushchairs up to the plane door but rarely bother. At baggage claim it took 30 minutes for the bags to arrive and another 45 (!) minutes of searching to locate the pushchair. No staff seemed interested in helping and Zino eventually spotted an airport employee carrying it to the far side of the airport. We then got the shuttle bus to the RER station and went to the information office who told us that the next TGV train (10 minutes to Disney) was not for 45 minutes and told us that instead of waiting it would be just as fast to get the RER immediately. Wrong Wrong WRONG. Not only was the RER crowded and uncomfortable (like London Underground in the rush hour), but it took us 2 hours to get to our destination. Not fun with a tired, irritable toddler, pushchair and baggage. All in all it took us an exhausting 4 hours to get from plane to hotel.
Our Hotel was the lElysee Val dEurope. Val dEurope is a big shopping mall one RER stop from Disneyland Paris, and lElysee is one of the new Disney affiliated hotels (opened early 2002 I think). I had booked this hotel through the Disney booking line after trying to get accommodation at one of the on-site hotels, which were all full. The Hotel is just across the road from the RER station and also just across the road from the entrance to the Val dEurope shopping centre. Its a pretty good location. From the outside the Hotel looks very new and very nice. Inside its new and clean and about as Disney as a service station on the M25. In fact there only are three things Disney about this hotel:
1. The Booking confirmation was on Disney letterhead
2. There was a small cardboard stand on the reception desk which was supposed to contain Disney maps but was empty for most of our stay
3. The sugar in the restaurant had the Disney logo on it!
And that was it. The hotel advertises an indoor play room for kids but this is just a room full of those gaming machines. In fact apart from marketing itself as a Disney hotel the other main source of revenue seems to be conferences. This seems a bizarre sort of mix. I mention all these things because there was just a total and complete lack of atmosphere to the Hotel. It was ok. It was ordinary. It was incredibly bland. It was definitely not Disney. The first two times I had phoned the Disney booking line they tried to sell me this hotel at a very expensive rate which included park passes. In fact it was almost the same rate as the on site hotels. On my third phone call I pleaded complete poverty and managed to get a Bed and breakfast rate of 50 pounds per night. I gather this was quite unusual as the reception staff seemed quite surprised at my rate and also the fact that I did not have a deal including tickets. Notices in the room gave the usual bed and breakfast rate as 120 pounds per night, which I thought was way too expensive for this hotel.
Initially when we arrived the staff told us that we could not check in until 3pm. As it was already 2pm I thought this was a bit picky. Anyhow I smiled nicely and pleaded sheer exhaustion and a tired toddler and eventually they agreed to let us check in immediately. I noticed the Foyer was full of families and suitcases all waiting obediently for the 3pm check in time. And by 3pm there was long (very long) queue of tired travellers all wanting to check in at the same time.
Like the rest of the hotel our room was clean and tidy and dull. The advertised room safe was missing and there were no tea and coffee facilities. But it did have a minibar which Zak quickly found and started to empty while we unpacked. There was a double bed and the sofa folded out into two very uncomfortable singles. One of these was made up with a badly stained blanket (which was definitely older than the hotel) but was without a bedspread. The pre-ordered cot was a travel cot, which had definitely seen better days. The base was so unstable that eventually Zak slept in bed with us each night as we felt too nervous about using the cot. After unpacking I decided to help Zak finish clearing out the minibar as we wanted to stock the fridge up with food later. As we were removing the last of the contents I noticed these curious levers under each item. It was then I read the notice announcing that the minibar was fully computerised and each item moved will be automatically charged to our account. I phoned reception and sure enough, the entire contents of the minibar had already been added to our account. A staff member soon arrived to repack the minibar. Once full there was only a tiny bit of room left at the top. I asked if I could have the minibar left empty and was told that this was not possible, I was not allowed to use the minibar for personal items, and if I did not want to use the minibar it would be locked.
After a bit of a rest we decided to suss out the shopping centre across the road and take the kids to the Aquarium inside the centre. The girl at the information counter in the shopping centre told us that the Aquarium was open until 10 pm every day. So we had a wander through some shops. It was Thursday evening, which I suspect was their late night as the shopping centre was incredibly busy. We were bumped and jostled and pushed by other shoppers and both Zino and Zak got quite upset at all the pushing. At one stage Zino was physically pushed over by someone rushing to get past (no apologies) and another time Zak was left in tears when someone poked him in the eye with a shopping bag (he was in his pushchair at the time!). Again no apologies. Even Zino noticed that nobody ever bothered to apologise and he told me that he thought that people in this country had not been taught any manners! Aside from the distinct lack of manners it was a very nice shopping centre. Very large with a great selection of shops in all price ranges. We entered at one end (near the hotel and RER station) and at the far end (a good 20 minutes walk) was the Aquarium and a huge food court which had free live entertainment at night. Just outside all this is an outlet shopping mall which has many famous name brands selling cheap. If you like shopping you will probably be pretty happy with this Mall. There was also a Hypermarket which had about everything you could wish for and was pretty cheap, and a supermarket inside the Hypermarket which also sold lots of hot takeaway food.
After a good look around we had a very late lunch (it was 4pm by this time) and then stocked up on bread, cheese, etc for picnic lunches for the parks the next day. We then headed for the Acquarium. It was closed. It was only just after 5.30pm, I had in my hand a brochure stating that it was Open daily until late and we had been told by the information counter that it was open until 10pm. Zino was pretty upset (actually we all were) so we headed off back to the information counter who said they had no idea why it was closed maybe they close early in the winter. They were pretty unhelpful and really didnt seem too concerned that they had given us the wrong information. So our day was over unexpectedly early as it was too late to visit any of the parks now. So we looked through the shops a bit more (much to Zinos disgust as he hates shopping!) and then decided to get a couple of pizzas to take back to the hotel for dinner. We ordered two takeaway pizzas from a nice looking restaurant in the food court. They took 45 minutes to arrive, the side of the box was not done up properly and one of them slid out onto the pavement as we crossed the road back to the hotel, and they were stone cold. Not a good finish to the day.
