Travelling to Disneyland Paris

Started by itslizi, August 26, 2014, 11:55:28 PM

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itslizi

Quote from: Slimy yet satisfying on August 28, 2014, 02:11:34 PM
O gosh you guys do make me giggle!
Try travelling from Scotland...for us its either a two and a half hour drive to the airport, up to a three hour check in, nearly a two hour flight, an hour for luggage and best part of an hour for transfer and check in! Or a 12-16 hour drive to dover depending whether we have our 28 foot caravan to drag, a 90 min check in plus 90 min ferry crossing then a four hour drive from calais. I wish we only had to worry about short train journeys or an overnight stop...whatever you are worrying about paying from southern england add at least another £100 per person for flights or fuel from north of the wall. Oh and we go straight to the park and hit it hard too! Honestly as my teenage daughter would say" man up princess!" It's only paris not the moon! :D

Obviously, we don't have it the worst. However being a nervous traveller any travelling that takes a connection or something of the unknown makes me nervous as it's not something I do often. Paris is a long distance journey when that's the furthest I've ever travelled, the only time I've left England has been to go to Disneyland Paris. I don't know any different.

It's all down to personal preference when hitting the park on the first day, it's each to their own.

DisneyRon

Same for me Lizi :) Couple that with social anxiety and you get a nice worry stew I assure you. ;D
I always dread my transfer in Paris Gare Du Nord to the metro, as that part of the station is such a maze.
Once I get to the RER station and embark for Marne la Vallée that all falls away, but until then...

Andybear

I'm the same, a nervous traveller particularly when travelling on my own.  I've done loads of solo travelling but it doesn't get any easier.  I have mild mental health problems too which definitely doesn't help.  It doesn't stop me from doing anything but does exacerbate my anxiety in those sorts of situations.  I'll be fine when I'm on the Eurostar that Sunday but will be a bit of a wreck that morning till I get to London.

DisneyRon

As I grow more confident going on solo vacations it has gotten a little easier, I'm generally fine once I'm on my way.
One habit I have gotten into is checking out the floor plan of any airport or transit hub I need to pass through well before I get there, to familiarize myself with the layout if that's possible.

Big unknowns remain an issue though, getting from airports / stations to hotels by taxi is something I dislike intensely, there are many variables and I can only account for a small number of them.
Especially on the American continent it's usually required as not all cities have good public transportation to take care of it (looking at you there Montreal... Lovely city, but it's public transit infrastructure is awful, taxis or limo-services are a must. Their metro-grid has all of 2 lines, for a city of 1.6 million that's a bit limited).

Not speaking the local language is also no help. My native tongue is Dutch, my English is more than passable, certainly good enough for general conversation, but beyond that only German is a language I feel any confidence in using (and it's quite rusty, I'd need a while to wake that stuff up again).
French is a language I can read just fine (which is a feature of quite a few languages oddly enough, even if I don't speak a word of it), but speaking it is certainly an issue. Those few words of French I recall I can use and pronounce properly, but holding a conversation is generally out of the question.

hmm, my apologies for the long winded post folks. :-[

Sulley's Arms

It's interesting reading this thread, as I totally get the whole pre-travel worries thing; I can't sleep the night before a "big trip", as I lie in bed going over everything I'm going to have to do on the journey (we always drive to our holidays rather than taking trains or planes, as [in addition to the lower cost of doing so] I like to know I can be in control of our options should it go Pete Tong en-route, such as choosing an alternative route if there's a jam, etc.).

I have to make sure I factor in enough traffic jam contingency time to ensure we make the Tunnel in plenty of time, plus the overnight hotel stopovers, etc (did I even book them!).

But having just driven back home from our summer hols in Spain, I'm sat having a chuckle about your train journeys to St Pancras!  As I say, I'm not mocking it, as I do it myself, but sitting here now the train to London feels like a quick trip to the shops, LOL.

I hope it goes well for you, and your DLP experience is great  :D .
Trip Counter
Nov 07 - DCR [4d]
Mar 09 - DCR [3d]
Feb 11 - DCR [4d]
Oct 11 - Kyriad [3d]
Dec 11 - Adagio [3d]
Feb 12 - DCR [6d]
Jun 12 - Crecy Golf [4d]
Aug 12 - Crecy Golf [2d]
Feb 13 - Adagio [4d]
Dec 13 - Crecy Golf [3d]
Feb 14 - DCR [5d]
Mar 15 - Sejours [4d]
Feb 16 - Kyriad [4d]
Dec 16 - Offsite [3d]
Feb 17 - Adagio [4d]
Aug 17 - Offsite [2d]
Dec 17 - Offsite [3d]
Dec 18 - Cheyenne [3d]


Andybear

I can't drive so that's not an option for me - I would if I could as I'd like to stay at Davy Crockett.  I could get a flight to Paris if I wanted to as I don't live very far from Luton Airport, - it's certainly closer to me than St Pancras International railway station.  However I like the fact that Disney has it's own railway station so as soon as I'm on the Eurostar I don't have to worry about any more connections once I get to France, ie all the panicking is done at the beginning of the journey, once I'm on the Eurostar I can relax.  This is the reason why I choose to go by Eurostar.