Hello everyone :)
I am really quite fond of my old blog, so I upload stuff on there, including trip reports with plenty of pictures.
So instead of copy pasting on here, I'm just going to leave you with links to click :)
You can comment here or there, I will reply anywhere :)
Day 1: Val d'Europe, Sea Life Paris, Disney Village and a crappy offsite hotel (http://hildekitten.livejournal.com/1106304.html)
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5792/21972701971_41fdb06761.jpg)
Day 2, part 1: Up to noon of the first full day in Disneyland Paris (http://hildekitten.livejournal.com/1107000.html)
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5797/21470038513_d12f89cc61.jpg)
Day 2, part 2: Dapper Day! (http://hildekitten.livejournal.com/1107334.html)
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5637/21791369265_505df48686.jpg)
Day 3 (http://hildekitten.livejournal.com/1108646.html), Walt Disney Studios Park, Disneyland Park, Disney Village, Hotel Cheyenne, shopping, Halloween and lots of fun!
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5621/22000789431_eaea989519.jpg)
Just so you know, RER tickets are valid either direction and there are no return fares – so you did get the right tickets and they would have worked fine in the gates :)
I don't think bag checks are illegal as the village is private property. Coming from the hotels (or even into the hotels£ there are also bag checks so no way to avoid it, it seems.
Agreed on McDonald's – the only thing I eat there is ice cream these days.
And your skirt looks AWESOME :D
Thank you so much! I can never find skirts with prints I like, so I just buy fabric and turn that into skirts instead :)
I think there must have been a kind of miscommunication about the RER tickets in my post.
What we should have received were two tickets from Bussy-St-Georges to Val d'Europe and two tickets from Val d'Europe to Bussy-St-George. I clearly explained we were going to and from, so we would be returning. I am very well aware that all tickets are single fares, but when I asked for retour I assumed that the woman selling tickets would be competent enough to give us two single fares to Val d'Europe and two to be able to return. What she did was sell us four single faires from Bussy-St-George to Val d'Europe, which meant that the ones we used to come back did in fact NOT work in the machines (trust me, we tried), as they were the wrong way around.
Hence the turnstile jumping.
I actually took a photo to illustrate what happened, because it was quite daft, and I think it would be quite good for people to know what to look out for. We were lucky because there was no staff around when we returned, but if there had been, I'm pretty sure we would have had quite a bit of explaining to do, even though we were sold the wrong tickets and it was no fault of our own, other than we didn't actually check the tickets (which we should have, and which we will definitely do in the future when we buy from a person rather than from a machine ^^).
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5659/21999391065_2940c8b07b.jpg)
As you can see, these are all tickets going to Val d'Europe, which means that returning with them would make the machine unresponsive to them, and so the gates didn't open.
And also as you can see, we did very much, NOT receive the right tickets. Well we did for the journey to the mall, just not for coming back XD
This is what we used to go to and from Val d'Europe to Disney Village are these. Which are clearly tickets to and from, so they are very much not valid either way, only the way indicated on the tickets.
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5822/21376620604_29306cf4ea.jpg)
I understand fully what you said as I am a frequent traveller around Paris. What I said was correct: see http://www.ratp.fr/fr/ratp/c_21187/billet-origine-destination/ – "Il est utilisable dans un sens ou dans l'autre, par exemple : Paris - Antony ou Antony - Paris", which as you know means "it is usable in one direction or the other". A single ticket from BSG to Val d'Europe should work the other direction too.
As for the gates refusing the ticket, when you were coming back did you go directly from Marne la Vallée to BSG? If you attempted to exit BSG without the ticket ever having been through a ticket gate, it will reject because it expects the ticket to have been put through a gate on entry and on exit.
And that's a summary of pointless RATP things! Hope it clarifies.
We knew that last bit, so we pushed it through the gate at Val d'Europe, so it really was rejecting our ticket because it could I suppose XD
We got out, that's what matters, but it was all a bit ridiculous really.
Mind you, we saw someone that got tickets after us in the queue in B-S-G jump the turnstiles on arrival too because his ticket didn't work, so there must have been _something_ up with them XD
A friend of mine that actually lives in Paris did tell me that you should always get tickets going to and tickets going from (so a set to make a return I suppose), because else it's worlds of grief in some stations. I guess Bussy-St-George is one of those XD.
A lengthy trip report ;D I like the pictures. Am curious at the pictures of the dapper day day. So I will keep an eye out for those.
Thanks!
I'm still editing photos, I took so many.
And I'm expecting more still because the two analog rolls are currently at the shop getting developped, I'm picking them up on Saturday :)
I'm hoping to get day 2 up on Sunday because I really want to include some of the analog photos ^^
I was there that weekend and saw many of the "Dapper" people during a photo shoot on the Storybook canal. Everyone looked SO AWESOME and I look forward to seeing the photos!
Great start, can't wait to read more!!
Good to know about the hotel... I've been tempted to book it many times, now I'm glad I didn't :)
Great pictures, particularly those of SeaLife!!
Loving reading and looking through your photos. And can I just say, that Christmas light Perry! Oh my gosh! :D
@BethKJ: I have to admit that I missed that part of Dapper Day, but I'll make sure to include links to the flickr pages of people that didn't in my trip report :)
There will be plenty of other Dapper Day photos though! :)
@never2old: Thank you!
Yeah avoid that hotel at all cost! If you are looking for a cheap hotel in the same area with the same accesibility to the RER etc, go for the Premiére Classe Bussy-St-George instead :) That's a good one :)
Next time I'm definitely booking that one, no doubt about it :)
Sea Life is well worth it though, I can really recommend that :)
@Ohana: Thank you :)
I know right! I loved that Christmas Perry plush, but sadly I have run out of room for plushies so I took a photo instead :D
Better than nothing :)
Loving it Hilde! I hadn't heard of Dapper Day until you mentioned it a few months ago!
Thanks Mitchell.
It's sadly not at all as well known in Europe as it is in the US parks :(
It seems really awesome!
Day 2, part 1: Up to noon of the first full day in Disneyland Paris (http://hildekitten.livejournal.com/1107000.html) is now online! :)
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5797/21470038513_d12f89cc61.jpg)
For the full scoop and more photos (lot's more photos) click that link *points above the photo* :)
As always, I will be happy to reply to comments here or there :)
Nice report so far :-)
Your pictures are gorgeous!!!
Great read too, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the next chapter!!
Thanks Norhel and Never2old!
Next chapter should be up tomorrow :)
Also again nice pictures made the wait a bit more bareble.
Thank you Michael :)
Day 2, part 2: Dapper Day (http://hildekitten.livejournal.com/1107334.html) is now online! :)
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5637/21791369265_505df48686.jpg)
I keep repeating myself but lovely pictures again. Still 55 days for me...?
Oh, Hilde! Such a nice and pleasant to read trip report! And these fotos! Amazing!
Can you tell me more about your camera - model, lens?
Cracking report and some fab photo's but what I love the most is despite the fact that there are a lot of topics about all the closures and green fences you clearly had a great time. Reckon all the people who are concerned their trip is going to be spoiled need to read your trip report.
Thanks for showing us the Disney Magic is still there :D, even if, by the sounds of it, some CM's seem to have forgotten.
@Mileto: Thanks! :)
Ah cameras!
My standard camera is a Canon EOS 700D (so the older model, the current one is the 750D) with the standard kit lens, the 18-55mm (I know a lot of people frown on it, but I really like that lens). I also used my husband's Canon EOS 60D (also an older model, the current one is the 70D if I'm not mistaken) with a kit lens, a 17-85mm. I had to, because at one point my camera utterly gave out (well the lens was too screwed up and the battery died on me).
The one that does the sort of square black and white photos is a vintage analog, an Agfa Isola 1, that runs on medium format (120mm) film.
Aside from that I used an instant camera, the fuji instax 90 NEO CLASSIC (yes, spelled like that, what's in a name right haha).
And the Lomography Sprocket Rocket, which was the source of all the weird, grainy, blurry failed panorama photos. I have seen really awesome photos from that camera, but clearly by people with a super stable wrist, ergo: not me XD
@RockNRoller: Lucky there were also very nice CMs :)
To be fair, the weekend we were there, there were only two fences up that I noticed (around Small World and Fuente del Oro). And scaffolding around the Newport Bay Club. So it was around areas we only passed by, rather than around stuff we really wanted to access. I think that does a lot.
The fences were thus very easily avoidable, not at all like they are now if if the stories of the current state of affairs are anything to go by.
I must admit that I am not particularly enamored by the idea of going when such a huge chunk of the park is up in green fences, because it would hinder my ability to take photos (and we all know that my two main reasons for going are taking photos and going on rides haha). But that's just me personally! I think that people who mainly go for the shows, parades, characters and general feel of the park could still have a wonderful, magical time! It's really a personal decision everyone needs to make for themselves.
Oh yes, those CMs ... well you get rotten eggs everywhere I guess. I like to write about everything that happened, and whilst a few were proper in need of at least a serious reprimand from their manager (at least!), I wouldn't let them ruin my trip, nor would I not go back because of some bad experiences with some employees. I will be much more careful with whom I hand my camera over to mind, because I've ran out of spare lenses.
Excellent report ;D ;D ;D
Thank you seraphelle :)
Day 3 (http://hildekitten.livejournal.com/1108646.html) is now online! :)
(https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5621/22000789431_eaea989519.jpg)