Disneyland Paris Day 1

We saved the tokens from the Sun before Christmas and on Sunday we set off for a 3 day mini break to Disneyland Paris. It worked out a great deal saving well over 50% on the cheapest price I could find online for the same holiday. It did include a ferry crossing but Saturday afternoon we worked out how much it was going to cost us in petrol, toll charges, extra breakdown cover, a mapbook, wear and tear on the car etc etc and out of interest had a look to see how much Eurostar would be. Well, it worked out round the same price and as neither of us had any clue whether petrol was cheaper in France we decided to treat ourselves to the train. I have never been on Eurostar (or even on the train through the tunnel in the car) in the 15 years since it opened.

Me on the Eurostar train somewhere in France

I must say I am quite impressed with how easy it was. We got the tickets online Saturday evening. Sunday morning we got a City Thameslink train all the way from East Croydon to St Pancreas, printed our tickets from the automatic ticket machine, had breakfast and got on the train. All very stress free and simple! 2 and three quarter hours later we arrived at Disneyland!

Ollie has never been to Disney before and I went some many years ago to Paris just after it opened. From memory it was a good trip, apart from the torrential rain and lack of rides due to the newly opened status. My over-riding memory is of many many trips round the 'It's a Small World' ride as it was Laura's favourite.

Sunday afternoon we had a free afternoon to wonder around the Disney village and check out the hotel and amenities. The hotel and room was very nice, certainly one of the bigger rooms I have stayed in. I wish I could say something as positive about the pool though! It was billed as a sort of mini Center-Parcs type pool. Well it didn't even come close. The water was freezing, there were no bubbles in the bubble pool (trades description surely?) and the changing rooms were tiny, dirty and even though there was no-where private to change men kept wandering through at regular intervals. I think we stayed all of 3 minutes!

We did have a couple of games of pool (at €4 a game!) which was more fun, but was then rather spoiled by the Spurs game!

We had booked the steak restaurant for dinner without really taking too much notice of the menu. We turned up at the appointed time, waited a good few minutes to be seated and then almost fainted at the prices. The cheapest meal on the menu was €30, for just one main course. I pay that much for a steak at Smithfield market (except I don't because I have a 50% off card) and then only on extremely special occasions. I can guarantee the food will be excellent there and isn't full of brats running round screaming. We walked out, I refused to pay that much. Ok we thought, we must have picked the 'premium' restaurant. We'll try back at the hotel. No, they didn't have a table for 2 hours but their prices were slightly more reasonable at €25 for the set meal.

After wondering back around the village we ended up in the Rainforest cafe eating a main and a desert for €20. The food wasn't bad. I had chilli and Ollie had steak and chips. It was ok, but definitely not worth the money. Plus being a rainforest there were thunderstorms at regular intervals which made conversation rather tricky! It was cheaper to buy a bottle of wine than to pay for soft drinks, so that put us in a slightly better mood, but by bed time we certainly were not 'feeling the magic'