TotallyAngelic
Disney Addict
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2005
- Messages
- 6,687
Disney Christmas 2005 Day One: Getting there
..
How I managed to survive that morning at work I will never know .my eyes were glued to the clock from the moment I walked in. The first thing I said to my manager was if its quiet later can I take some time owing and get off early . As it happened it was far from quiet, but I managed to get everything done and by the time the late shift came in at 12:30 I was unable to contain myself. I was also rather anxious due to the lack of packing I had done, but kept reminding myself that we were only to be there for 2 days and that the packing could be kept to a minimum! I handed over to the late shift and finally my very nice manager said I could go, an hour and a half early!!! I think she thought it was either that or lose her sanity!
I flew home and DH was there, having done a bit of ironing (and tripped off all the electricity in the house in the process). I quickly sorted out the clothes not forgetting the scarves and gloves as rumour has it it can be very cold at Disneyland Paris at this time of year!
At 3:30 we drove down to pick the kids up from school, after their last day before the Christmas hols, and they were more than a little bit excited! They quickly packed their travel bags and DD had to be reminded yet again that her entire beanie collection did not need to come with us. I dont know what she managed to cram into her rucksack, but it was heavier than our trolley bag with all the clothes in! Packing completed we did the usual passports, paperwork, money, nationwide credit card, annual passes check, loaded up the car and we were off!
An hour and a half later we pulled into our car parking establishment, which has been a real find .excellent service every time we use them, and as they were just about to leave for the airport, we quickly transferred our bags onto the shuttle bus and jumped on board. Five minutes later we arrives at Liverpool Airport and joined the long and disorganised Easyjet check-in line. I popped to Travelex to pick up the euros which I had ordered online at a very reasonable rate 2 days before, and then rejoined the others in the line. Before long we got through the check in procedure (its a good job we always arrive at check-in an hour and a half before it closes, as they can be so slow ..I am not surprised so many people miss their flights on the TV show as if you cut it fine you dont stand a chance!)
Next stop was tea at Burger King for DH, DD and DS, and I grabbed a couple of sandwiches from Boots. Slight drama then arose when DH ordered DD a burger which came with (horror of horrors!) mayonnaise on it and forgot to order it plain!
Fortunately the mayonnaise was removed without too much difficulty and she forced herself to eat it! After tea we made it through to the gate and found that we had a bit of delay of about 10 minutes. We ended up with priority boarding as we had kids, which meant that we could more or less pick our seats on the aircraft, so we sat in a row of 3, with DH sitting behind us. Flight was very quick and we landed at CDG at about 9:45pm. Short wait for the bags, then I wandered over to the info desk to enquire about the times of the VEA shuttle only to be informed that we had missed the last one! Never mind ..plan B into action and we headed for the RER! We are quite accustomed to using the RER system, and it seemed to go without a hitch quick change at Les Halles and we were on the home stretch!
It is amazing how excited you feel when you start to see the familiar stations going past, and then suddenly the train pulls into Marne la Vallee!! We jumped off the train and whizzed up the steps to see the lights from Disney Village shining down at us through the station windows and then out into the open and it was like walking into a freezer! Now I knew what everyone meant when they said it was cold! We hurried over to the bus stop for the 54 bus. It seemed very quiet, not another person in sight, no-one waiting for the bus, or any bus for that matter. I glanced at the timetable, and didnt really like what I saw the last 54 bus had already left..obviously they didnt run so late at this time of year. So there we were, in the freezing cold, with 2 tired kids, with nowhere to go. The next idea was to get a taxi, but we couldnt see any taxis anywhere the place was deserted.
The only option was to start walking, but then I noticed a group of people with baby buggies hovering on the station side of the road, so I approached them to see if they know anything about taxis. They were English, and were also stranded with no where to go, only their situation was confounded by the fact that they had 2 toddlers. Just then, DH shouted me over from the entrance to the bus depot .he had managed to flag down a taxi! The feeling of relief was immense, but so was the feeling that it was more important to offer the taxi to the family with the toddlers, as their need was greater than ours. They were very grateful, and as luck would have it another taxi appeared from round the corner. Five minutes later we were checking in to the Holiday Inn, and it was like we had never been away! We had a nice room overlooking the ornamental pool in the centre. The kids were straight into bed, and DH and I popped downstairs and had a quick Kronenbourg 1664. It had been a long day, but we were back where we belong and looking forward to a Disney Christmas experience!!
How I managed to survive that morning at work I will never know .my eyes were glued to the clock from the moment I walked in. The first thing I said to my manager was if its quiet later can I take some time owing and get off early . As it happened it was far from quiet, but I managed to get everything done and by the time the late shift came in at 12:30 I was unable to contain myself. I was also rather anxious due to the lack of packing I had done, but kept reminding myself that we were only to be there for 2 days and that the packing could be kept to a minimum! I handed over to the late shift and finally my very nice manager said I could go, an hour and a half early!!! I think she thought it was either that or lose her sanity!
I flew home and DH was there, having done a bit of ironing (and tripped off all the electricity in the house in the process). I quickly sorted out the clothes not forgetting the scarves and gloves as rumour has it it can be very cold at Disneyland Paris at this time of year!
At 3:30 we drove down to pick the kids up from school, after their last day before the Christmas hols, and they were more than a little bit excited! They quickly packed their travel bags and DD had to be reminded yet again that her entire beanie collection did not need to come with us. I dont know what she managed to cram into her rucksack, but it was heavier than our trolley bag with all the clothes in! Packing completed we did the usual passports, paperwork, money, nationwide credit card, annual passes check, loaded up the car and we were off!
An hour and a half later we pulled into our car parking establishment, which has been a real find .excellent service every time we use them, and as they were just about to leave for the airport, we quickly transferred our bags onto the shuttle bus and jumped on board. Five minutes later we arrives at Liverpool Airport and joined the long and disorganised Easyjet check-in line. I popped to Travelex to pick up the euros which I had ordered online at a very reasonable rate 2 days before, and then rejoined the others in the line. Before long we got through the check in procedure (its a good job we always arrive at check-in an hour and a half before it closes, as they can be so slow ..I am not surprised so many people miss their flights on the TV show as if you cut it fine you dont stand a chance!)
Next stop was tea at Burger King for DH, DD and DS, and I grabbed a couple of sandwiches from Boots. Slight drama then arose when DH ordered DD a burger which came with (horror of horrors!) mayonnaise on it and forgot to order it plain!
Fortunately the mayonnaise was removed without too much difficulty and she forced herself to eat it! After tea we made it through to the gate and found that we had a bit of delay of about 10 minutes. We ended up with priority boarding as we had kids, which meant that we could more or less pick our seats on the aircraft, so we sat in a row of 3, with DH sitting behind us. Flight was very quick and we landed at CDG at about 9:45pm. Short wait for the bags, then I wandered over to the info desk to enquire about the times of the VEA shuttle only to be informed that we had missed the last one! Never mind ..plan B into action and we headed for the RER! We are quite accustomed to using the RER system, and it seemed to go without a hitch quick change at Les Halles and we were on the home stretch!
It is amazing how excited you feel when you start to see the familiar stations going past, and then suddenly the train pulls into Marne la Vallee!! We jumped off the train and whizzed up the steps to see the lights from Disney Village shining down at us through the station windows and then out into the open and it was like walking into a freezer! Now I knew what everyone meant when they said it was cold! We hurried over to the bus stop for the 54 bus. It seemed very quiet, not another person in sight, no-one waiting for the bus, or any bus for that matter. I glanced at the timetable, and didnt really like what I saw the last 54 bus had already left..obviously they didnt run so late at this time of year. So there we were, in the freezing cold, with 2 tired kids, with nowhere to go. The next idea was to get a taxi, but we couldnt see any taxis anywhere the place was deserted.
The only option was to start walking, but then I noticed a group of people with baby buggies hovering on the station side of the road, so I approached them to see if they know anything about taxis. They were English, and were also stranded with no where to go, only their situation was confounded by the fact that they had 2 toddlers. Just then, DH shouted me over from the entrance to the bus depot .he had managed to flag down a taxi! The feeling of relief was immense, but so was the feeling that it was more important to offer the taxi to the family with the toddlers, as their need was greater than ours. They were very grateful, and as luck would have it another taxi appeared from round the corner. Five minutes later we were checking in to the Holiday Inn, and it was like we had never been away! We had a nice room overlooking the ornamental pool in the centre. The kids were straight into bed, and DH and I popped downstairs and had a quick Kronenbourg 1664. It had been a long day, but we were back where we belong and looking forward to a Disney Christmas experience!!
