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[Martha86]

Hi everyone,
                      My boyfriend and I recently got back from DLRP, this has been our fourth holiday there since June 2006, so as you can tell we love it and go over as often as we possibly can! We booked the hotel direct through Disneyland Resort Paris and the Eurostar direct from their website, which saved us £300 in total by comparison to what high street travel agents would have charged for the same dates and rooms. Bear this in mind as it can save you money! We went for three nights and four days, going by Eurostar from St. Pancras International and stayed in Sequoia Lodge. Overall, this cost just over £300 each.
      We were annoyed at the change of the Eurostar from Waterloo to St. Pancras as it meant we couldn't get the train to London in the morning because of South West Train's schedules, so we had to use the National Express instead but it wasn't too much of a problem. The terminal was great when we got there, and a Disney brass band were playing all the classic songs by the boarding gates which was a nice touch. The train journey was fine although some excited child pulled the emergency stop lever as we were approaching Marné La Vallee, so we had to sit there for about ten minutes and it started to rain, but thankfully it had stopped by the time we pulled in and had got off the train. The only downside to booking Eurostar separately was that we didn't have the Disney Express on the way there, so we walked our luggage around to Sequoia Lodge - the walk is only a few minutes so this was nothing for us at all, plus it gave me a few extra seconds to look at the Disney Village improvements, which looked great compared to when we were last there in September '07.
      Every time we've been to DLRP, we've stayed in Sequoia Lodge and keep going back because it's fantastic but during our September visit, we decided to upgrade to Newport Bay Club as there wasn't a lot of difference in terms of price. NEVER AGAIN! This hotel was severely lacking the Disney touch. There were too many business people in suits and just didn't feel like Disney to us. It felt very reserved and didn't have a family atmosphere like Sequoia does, so this time, we made sure we went back to our favourite. As it was our third holiday there in a short space of time, they upgraded our room, which was fantastic. We literally dumped our luggage and went straight to the Disneyland Park and walked straight onto Phantom Manor, which had barely any queue lines. We got a lot done on this day - Space Mountain, It's A Small World etc. The park was really busy, but it was a Sunday. The weather turned out to be quite good aswell so we made the most of our afternoon in the park and ate in the Beaver Creek Tavern at night, I think the meal was €27 for a buffet starter and buffet desserts but with a set main meal. Once again, the food here was fantastic, the atmosphere was very Disney and everything was great.
      The second day we were given Good Morning Fantasyland passes, although someone on this message board said they had stopped doing this - not true, we had breakfast in Pinocchio's restaurant at 9.15am and despite the little birds that are always in there, it was lovely and not that busy. The rain really started to come down during breakfast so we bought a couple of those ridiculous looking poncho's and went straight onto Dumbo, It's A Small World, Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain - all the outdoors things. It was kinda fun in the rain, but not great for pictures. We had lunch at Casey's Corner - the hot dogs were really good and pretty cheap, and made it over to the Studios, where we managed Crush's Coaster (The queue line is always at least ten minutes shorter than what the board says, trust me - I have been on it a lot since it opened and this has always been the case...it said 70mins on the Monday and was about 45 in reality) Rock n' Rollercoaster and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This ride was amazing, I loved it so much - the theming, the ride itself, the view from the top and the gift shop...everything was incredible. We watched the Parade in the Disneyland Park in the afternoon and that was great as usual but the rain started halfway through, which was a bit of a nightmare.
      That night, we ate in Café Mickey's and were so excited that the pizza's were back! We both had pizza, of course, and I had a chocolate fondue inside a hollowed out pineapple with lots of different fruits for dessert and my boyfriend had a really good ice cream sundae. The characters all came round and were dancing on the bar with the staff, which was a lot of fun. The only bad thing about this is that certain people from certain countries have no concept of either queuing, courtesy or waiting turns. The characters come round to the tables, there is no need to run halfway across the restaurant, barging children out of the way to get their attention, it's very inappropriate. It was nice to see that Goofy made a point of telling this particular woman to go back to her table by shaking his head and hand at her. It must be annoying. The food was excellent, and our waiter brought over two massive handfuls of the kids sweets from the bowls at the buffet section as we paid to leave.
      The third day was a bit of a nightmare. My boyfriend woke up in the night feeling unwell, and although he managed to sit through both Animagique and Cinemagique, looked as if he was about to pass out, so we had to go back to the hotel at midday and didn't leave for the rest of that day. He had sickness and a high temperature - we were rather annoyed that there was no medical assistance available in our hotel - not even flu tablets or paracetamol, and were told to go down to first aid in the village that opened at 2pm or go into the parks and use the first aid there...failing that, we had to go to Val D'Europe. He was too ill to get out of bed, let alone get on a train. So, we sat in out and he tried to sleep it off. Our last day was a bit better, we made it into the Studios and Disneyland Park where first aid gave him a very strong dose of flu tablets.  We did Peter Pan's flight but that made him feel nauseous again, so we spent the rest of the day in and out of shops and sat down. It came to 6pm and we made our way to the Eurostar terminal and because he was so ill, were relieved that we could go straight through check in and onto the train, which was around one hour early! We had been sat on the train for about half an hour, when we had to all be evacuated due to a security breach. The sniffer dogs and armed police got on and everyone had to wait at the check in desk...we were there for an hour and a half before anyone was allowed to go back through security. Think screaming, tired children - not the best situation for someone that's unwell and dizzy. We eventually got back on the train, apparently two men had jumped over the fence and tried to get on the train or something like that. As compensation for being over 2 hours late, Eurostar said they'd give us all free bottled water. We got back into England and they then announced they would also give us either a free single or half price return trip on Eurostar if we go within twelve months, so hopefully we can go and get our two days back that we lost to my boyfriend being unwell.
     Strangely enough, when we went last September, I got almost exactly the same illness but on our last day. Does anyone know what this could be? We made sure not to drink the water, although, when I got to the bottom of my cocktail, there were tiny, almost melted, pieces of ice in it.

Overall, the holiday was fantastic as usual!

[Javey74]

Thanks for that trip report Martha86, I feel really sorry for you and your boyfriend, I had really bad flu once, I had it on the day I was leaving for DLRP and I still had it when I got back, ok I took my own flu capsules which helped, but it really does knock the edge off the fun.  

Reading your report, it looks as though you got off to a brilliant start, then everything seemed to go a bit down hill, with a few enlightenments throughout.  :roll:

In cases like these you have to make the best of a bad situation, which is really hard under the circumstances.  :|

As far as the ice cubes, I heard that they use purified water or bottled water to make them, for the sole reason incase they upset guests stomachs.  I know the only time I have their tap water in my mouth is when I'm brushing my teeth and even then I always spit it our, I never ever swallow it, just in case.  :wink:

Anyway I really hope you get to use those discount tickets to get your days back you lost.  

[The Butlin Boy]

Great trip report Martha, thanks for sharing it.

I'm very sorry to hear about your boyfriend getting ill, it's always upsetting when that happens :x

[131184]

This is France not the sub tropics, unless you have a very very weak system the water in France is totally safe.

I think you may have just been unlucky.