Cast Members
Me, Sarah Croote: organiser, driver, lover of all things Disney.
DH, Paul Not Disney again!?! Croote.
DD, Hannah aged 3, a proper princess
or should that be madam?!
Our holiday buddies, the Fairhursts!
My friend, Katy, 5 months pregnant with number 3!!!
Katys DH, Pete aka Pirate Pete.
DD1, Eloise, aged 3, loves princesses, Mickey and Minnie.
DD2, Emily, aged 18 months, aka Millie Mouse! Loves Dumbo!
Introduction
There were a few reasons for this, DDs fourth trip to DLP. The first was that wed bought annual Fantasy passes last November and were therefore obligated to go before the year was up bummer!!!
The second was that Katy and Pete had wanted to take their girls for ages and suggested we go together; and the third was simply that I cant go for more than a year without another Disney fix! 
BIG sigh from DH at this point and much rolling of eyeballs! 
We went for September because we knew it would be fairly quiet and not too cold. We chose the Marriotts Village dIle-de-France because we could exchange our timeshare for there and its a very nice place to stay. Anyway, enough waffle, lets get on with it!
19th September 2006, Day One Getting there.
(Apologies but no photos today as in the stress of travelling I forgot!)
Yippee, were off!!
The bags were packed and Hannah had stuck her last sticker on her How many sleeps left until Disneyland Paris? chart. Obviously, there was the usual buzz of excitement as we dragged ourselves out of bed at 2.30 am!!! Actually, it was more of a sluggish moan but that wouldnt sound so thrilling now, would it?
We packed those last few pesky items, the ones that you just cant do without when you wake up; threw the case, bags and ourselves into the car and set off for Exeter airport, where we were to meet up with our holiday buddies! Paul got out his TomTom and spent the whole journey fiddling with it until we finally reached the centre of the universe aka Exeter Airport!! Now, I dont know if youve ever been to Exeter Airport, I certainly hadnt for many years, but it was dead. It felt a bit like a milking shed waiting for the cows to come in. Eventually, the cows did come in and, with the children (and the adults!) bouncing around like Tiggers 
, we checked in to Flybe flight 1501 with no problems things are looking good!
Reaching the Departure Lounge, we set up camp, staking our claim to around 15 seats with the random scattering of toys, and grabbed some coffee
to keep us awake. Finally, it was time to board the plane and this was when we got a shock. If youve ever looked at the Flybe website, you may have noticed a pic of a small plane with propellors sticking out in front of the engines. THAT WAS OUR PLANE! 
It was ickle to say the least and was apparently a Dash 8! Dash? More like crawl! With much trepidation, we boarded, took off and within 5 minutes Hannah and Paul were asleep! I love it when that happens! Unfortunately, because it never happens I had failed to bring anything to read so I just chilled out and relaxed in my luxurious, first class surroundings yeah right!
We reached Charles de Gaulle in around 1 hour, 15 mins and landed with an almighty bump but fortunately no crash, bang or wallop! Once again, I found myself marvelling at the unbelievably drab and dingy building that is CdG airport. Anyway, I digress, finding the cases and car seats was pretty uneventful and we made our way to the Europcar desk where our holiday buddies encountered a slight hitch. Katy was the named driver but she does not have a credit card. I know what youre thinking a woman without a credit card!!!!!??? How can this be???
So, Pete had to be an additional driver which solved the problem.
After a wee bit of tooing and froing and scratching of chins
, we eventually found our cars. Ours was the tiniest car (short of one of those Smart things) that I have ever seen: a Kia Picanto. It was very cute though! Our buddies, the Fairhursts, had a Ford Fiesta which was scratched all over (they had been warned about this) but was at least bigger than our box! 
So, having taken photo evidence of the extent of the scratching, we set off in the rain to the Marriott. 
We arrived there without a hitch thanks to my detailed instructions (who needs SatNav?) and expert driving skills, although these did come into question as the car almost bottomed out over the 3 foot high speed bumps!!! We nursed our bruised heads, checked in and checked out our new home for the next few days. It was fab: all the mod cons and all the space that was lacking in the plane and the car! We settled in and then Katy, Hannah (always clingy when travelling) and I zipped off to the Auchan supermarket at Val dEurope for some supplies. We grabbed what we needed and, with Hannah protesting about our audacity to walk past a toy shop without entering, we headed home.
We unpacked, ate, explored, exploded the girls compact Minnie Mouse flannels in their respective baths and shuffled off to bed ready for our first day at Disney!!!
Me, Sarah Croote: organiser, driver, lover of all things Disney.
DH, Paul Not Disney again!?! Croote.
DD, Hannah aged 3, a proper princess
or should that be madam?!Our holiday buddies, the Fairhursts!
My friend, Katy, 5 months pregnant with number 3!!!
Katys DH, Pete aka Pirate Pete.
DD1, Eloise, aged 3, loves princesses, Mickey and Minnie.
DD2, Emily, aged 18 months, aka Millie Mouse! Loves Dumbo!
Introduction
There were a few reasons for this, DDs fourth trip to DLP. The first was that wed bought annual Fantasy passes last November and were therefore obligated to go before the year was up bummer!!!
The second was that Katy and Pete had wanted to take their girls for ages and suggested we go together; and the third was simply that I cant go for more than a year without another Disney fix! BIG sigh from DH at this point and much rolling of eyeballs! We went for September because we knew it would be fairly quiet and not too cold. We chose the Marriotts Village dIle-de-France because we could exchange our timeshare for there and its a very nice place to stay. Anyway, enough waffle, lets get on with it!
19th September 2006, Day One Getting there.
(Apologies but no photos today as in the stress of travelling I forgot!)
Yippee, were off!!
The bags were packed and Hannah had stuck her last sticker on her How many sleeps left until Disneyland Paris? chart. Obviously, there was the usual buzz of excitement as we dragged ourselves out of bed at 2.30 am!!! Actually, it was more of a sluggish moan but that wouldnt sound so thrilling now, would it?We packed those last few pesky items, the ones that you just cant do without when you wake up; threw the case, bags and ourselves into the car and set off for Exeter airport, where we were to meet up with our holiday buddies! Paul got out his TomTom and spent the whole journey fiddling with it until we finally reached the centre of the universe aka Exeter Airport!!
Now, I dont know if youve ever been to Exeter Airport, I certainly hadnt for many years, but it was dead. It felt a bit like a milking shed waiting for the cows to come in. Eventually, the cows did come in and, with the children (and the adults!) bouncing around like Tiggers , we checked in to Flybe flight 1501 with no problems things are looking good!Reaching the Departure Lounge, we set up camp, staking our claim to around 15 seats with the random scattering of toys, and grabbed some coffee
to keep us awake. Finally, it was time to board the plane and this was when we got a shock. If youve ever looked at the Flybe website, you may have noticed a pic of a small plane with propellors sticking out in front of the engines. THAT WAS OUR PLANE! It was ickle to say the least and was apparently a Dash 8! Dash? More like crawl! With much trepidation, we boarded, took off and within 5 minutes Hannah and Paul were asleep! I love it when that happens! Unfortunately, because it never happens I had failed to bring anything to read so I just chilled out and relaxed in my luxurious, first class surroundings yeah right!We reached Charles de Gaulle in around 1 hour, 15 mins and landed with an almighty bump but fortunately no crash, bang or wallop! Once again, I found myself marvelling at the unbelievably drab and dingy building that is CdG airport. Anyway, I digress, finding the cases and car seats was pretty uneventful and we made our way to the Europcar desk where our holiday buddies encountered a slight hitch. Katy was the named driver but she does not have a credit card. I know what youre thinking a woman without a credit card!!!!!??? How can this be???
So, Pete had to be an additional driver which solved the problem.After a wee bit of tooing and froing and scratching of chins
, we eventually found our cars. Ours was the tiniest car (short of one of those Smart things) that I have ever seen: a Kia Picanto. It was very cute though! Our buddies, the Fairhursts, had a Ford Fiesta which was scratched all over (they had been warned about this) but was at least bigger than our box! So, having taken photo evidence of the extent of the scratching, we set off in the rain to the Marriott. We arrived there without a hitch thanks to my detailed instructions (who needs SatNav?) and expert driving skills, although these did come into question as the car almost bottomed out over the 3 foot high speed bumps!!! We nursed our bruised heads, checked in and checked out our new home for the next few days. It was fab: all the mod cons and all the space that was lacking in the plane and the car! We settled in and then Katy, Hannah (always clingy when travelling) and I zipped off to the Auchan supermarket at Val dEurope for some supplies. We grabbed what we needed and, with Hannah protesting about our audacity to walk past a toy shop without entering, we headed home.
We unpacked, ate, explored, exploded the girls compact Minnie Mouse flannels in their respective baths and shuffled off to bed ready for our first day at Disney!!!
I take it Hannah has a few more dresses
Wanna read more of this report!! 
