So this weekend just gone myself and my boyfriend headed over to France to explore Disney! :D This was my second time to the parks, and my boyfriends first ever time there, although he had already visited WDW.
Over 6 days we travelled and stayed in London, caught the eurostar to Disney, spent half a day in Paris, spent two days at the parks, one day in Val D'europe, back on Eurostar, and then a day in London, so it was a busy busy trip!
Day One:
Day one consisted of traveling to London so we could be up bright and early the next morning to catch our eurostar to Disney. We arrived in London in the afternoon, and due to a tube strike we had a bit of trouble getting to our hotel in Victoria, and eventually caught a taxi. This night we stayed in an Easy Hotel, and my gawd it was tiny. They do not lie when they explain the size of their rooms, and the fact there is no windows. The heat was unbearable in there and it was very hard to sleep. Although it sounds cheap, to get any of the normal service you'd exprect from a hotel you have to pay extra. Ok if you really are just going to sleep there, but even thats an issue, I wouldn't reccomend it, and will go back to paying just a little extra next time I stay in London for my normal hotel.
That night we had a stroll around London as the weather was lovely, dinner in Nandos Convent Garden, and a quick trip to the Hagan Daz Ice Cream cafe, a bit of a tradition for us. After this the tube strike had ended so after a walk through Trafalger Square and along the thames we caught the tube back to Victoria, for a rather bad nights sleep.
Trafalger Square:
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Day Two:
Up bright and early, 6am to be exact, to catch our taxi to St Pancras International to check in for Eurostar. We arrived before check-in so we bought some breakfast and filled in our luggage tags.
Check-in opened and we proceeded to the departure lounge, taking advantage of their free wi-fi until our train was called to board. Eurostar journey was very pleasant and the 2 and half hour journey flew by and before we knew it we were in the heart of the magic. After a quick food stop in the train station, I purchased us both Paris Visite Passes for the RER as we were going to head into Paris after we had checked into the Ibis hotel in Val D'europe. Check-in for the hotel was easy enough and the hotel was perfect. Right next to the RER station entrance, and a clean modern hotel, perfect for our needs. Would reccomend it to anyone!
Onboard Eurostar:
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Once we were all checked in and unpacked we headed to the RER station and caught the RER A train to La Defense to see the Grande Arche:
Grande Arche:
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La Defense Business District in Paris:
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Looking down towards Arc De Triomphe where we visited next:
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The buildings around this area were really cool, and I really loved the architecture!
Next we got back on the RER and headed for Arc De Triomphe where a ceremony was taking place so they emptied the roundabout which was surreal!
Arc De Triomphe:
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Firemen Ceremony:
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After having a walk around and numerous photos, it was back on the RER to Notre Dame changing at Châtelet – Les Halles for the RER B line. I've wanted to visit Notre Dame since a child although I'm not strictly religious but I was still taken by the atmosphere of the place, and fell in love with it. Only downside was the line to climb to the top was so long we decided to give it a miss, but this gives me a reason to visit again!
Notre Dame Exteria:
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The detail of this place is amazing!
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Beautiful Rose garden at the back:
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And a great view of the River Seine:
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It was early evening now so we headed for the Eiffel Tower, and queued about 90 minutes for the north pillar elevator, grabbing some food while we waited. It was totally worth the wait as the view was incredible and i'm so glad we did it.
Looking Up!
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North Pillar, our route to the top!
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View from the top of The Eiffel Tower:
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After exploring the different levels we headed down and had a slow walk back to Arc De Triomphe while the sun set, to catch the RER A back to Disney.
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Me and my Boyfriend with the tower in the background:
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Sun setting over Paris:
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That bought the end to our first day in France.
Trip report from Walt Disney Studios and Disneyland coming next. :)
Thanks for sharing the first part of your holiday with us :)
Funny, I've been to DL(R)P on numerous occasions but only spent one half day in Paris. Perhaps I should take a leaf from your book and have a day or two there :-k
Loved the last photo..very atmospheric =D>
Epcot_Boy :ears:
Lovely pictures. :D
Just need to get my 2 little ones to stay with family for a weekend so me and DH can enjoy those pictures in person. :(
Looking forward to your next pictures and holiday report.
great report and photos so far, really beautiful pictures!
can't wait to see and read more! :D
Great photos, thanks for sharing... it's making me wish the next couple of months would fly by - I love Paris and can't wait to be there again!
:)
great start to your trip report kellogs! Your photos of Paris are lovely!! What camera have you got? :D :mrgreen:
Great photo's and report of your first day kellogs, looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip with more of those important photies.. :D
Thanks for sharing.. :wink: :D
Quote from: "SophieD"great start to your trip report kellogs! Your photos of Paris are lovely!! What camera have you got? :D :mrgreen:
Thanks! And thanks everyone for your comments, just typing up Studios now. :) I have a just a Samsung P1000 digital point and shoot. I usually take my bigger camera, but for Paris and the parks this one was much more convient with its size, and does the job nicely. :)
Thanks for sharing the beginning of your trip with us, I really enjoyed reading it and looking at your amazing photos :)
I'm glad you had a great time, and I'm really looking forward to reading the rest :P
Ok, so lets continue. :)
Day 3 - Walt Disney Studios:
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So with being just a 3 minute train ride away, and as we'd already purchased our tickets from The Disney Store back in the UK, we were well rested and ready to take on a day at the Studios.
First thing we noticed? The weather. It was amazing! So sunny and warm. :) This made the park look lovely, but ofcourse bought in the crowds. When we arrived we got fastpasses for Tower of Terror for 12pm, and planned to go on Rock 'N' Rollercoaster, however it hadn't opened yet, so we headed to Studio Tram Tour which had about a 20 Minute queue.
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Was a good way to pass the time, but I still think this ride needs something else added to make it more re-rideable.
Next we went and watced Stitch Live, which I love! Followed by Cinemagique, which I hadn't seen before, and was very impressed, and the water was a nice surprise in the ever rising heat! After this it was time for our fast pass slot on Tower of Terror, which left us with a very minimal wait, and we even managed an english elevator! My boyfriend who has been on the Florida version loved it, although he still prefers the appearance of that hotel compared to Paris. :roll:
Tower of Terror:
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I love the attention to detail!
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Our on-ride photo:
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After this it was lunch time so we headed into studio one to grab some lunch were we both had the magical mickey menu, which for me included a Mickey Pizza. :)
My Mickey Pizza:
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After this it was time for our fast pass slot on RNRC so we headed over there and had a great ride:
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Next we decided to brave the Crush queue which as expected was our longest queue of the day! It was rather hellish to queue in the heat before we got to the covered area, and I really do think the queue needs some adding to as its boring just going back and forth until you get inside.
Once we got inside we had a bizarre ride as our car launched up the lifthill and then just jolted to stop at the top, and the effects played on the actual ride, so by the time our car moved we were out of sync with the effects. It was still a great ride though, and still one of my favourites.
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After this we stopped for drinks and High School Musical came out so we watched that for a bit before heading for another ride on RNRC.
Highschool Musical on Tour:
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Tour Bus:
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After this we had about 2 minutes to run to the final showing of Animagique for that day, so we bolted over and got there just in time!
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I loved it as usual. :)
After this we parked our bums on the pavement ready to watch Star n Cars, which was good, but unfortunately we got stuck behind the 'VIP' area, but we still managed to see most of the action.
Daisy and Donald:
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Mary Poppins and Bert:
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Jasmin and Alladin:
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All together:
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It was nearly closing time for studio's now so we headed over to Tower of Terror for one last ride!
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Once we left, the park was closing so just enough time to get some final photos:
Studio One
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Waving goodbye to studios we headed to Disney Village for the evening. My boyfriend really wanted to eat in Rain Forest cafe, after loving it in Florida, so thats where we ate that night. I'd been worried about getting a table so near park closing but we walked straight in! It was really cool inside, and the storm every 30 minutes was a nice touch. I bought myself a Lightening Lemonade Cocktail and purchased the souvenir glass. Our food was nice, and came quickly. Overall a good place to eat, if a little pricey.
The weather was still brillaint, so we had a walk around checking out the shops before sitting outside the sports bar trying the arrangement of different cocktails on offer. It was close to midnight when we left to catch the RER back to our hotel.
The translation made us both laugh:
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Rain Forest Cafe
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My souvenir glass:
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Was dark by the time we left!
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Overall a brilliant day at Studios with fantastic weather. My only nags would be how little there is too do there. The park was busy but at times we were a little lost as to what to do other than re-ride. Also the Crush queue needs more detail to keep you entained! But other than that, this place has a lot of potential!
Day Four featuring Disneyland coming next!
you got some great pics and love the pics from your trip into Paris!
You really have some amazing pictures!!!
Great trip report. Looking forward to the rest!! :D
Fantastic update, I really enjoyed reading it and seeing your photos. I'm looking forward to day 4 :)
More great pics. :D
Brilliant update kellogs, I really enjoyed reading it and seeing some more of your photos.. :wink: :D
I'm looking forward to day 4.. :D/
wow you're pictures are amazing. Thanks for posting them :D
im really enjoying your report , and looking forward to more, its really getting me in the mood for my trip in 48 hours time
Right, sorry for the slight delay, but here's day four at Disneyland Park! :)
Day Four - Part one
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So we were up bright and early again to catch our RER train and start our magical day at the Disneyland Park today, starting with Discovery Land to get a fastpass for Space Mountain!
Heading for Discovery Land:
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Space Mountain:
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Once we had our fast passes for SM, we decided to go on Buzz, as it was only a 10minute wait according to the boards, however it was walk-on! :D
Bonjour Buzz!
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On-ride photo:
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I love Buzz! It has to be one of my favourite rides overall!
So after a session on Buzz, we still had time to spare before our time slot on SM, but we were able to get another fast pass, so we decided it would be wise to venture to Fantasy Land and get on for Peter Pans Flight. While we were walking through we bumped into a few characters;
Goodmorning Pluto!
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Luckily she seemed to be in a good mood and didn't wish to chop off anyones head!
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Alice momentarily out of Wonderland:
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Eventually we made it to PPF and got ourselves a pair of fastpasses for just before lunch time!
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Next it was time for our slot on SM, so we queued in the fast queue which was frankly awful in the heat, and i've never been so glad to see sunlight!
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Next as Autopia and Star Tours had big queues, and we still had some time to spare before our PPF fastpass we went to explore the castle;
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After this we went to explore Alice's maze, seen as everything else in Fantasy Land had epic queues!
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Next we used our fastpasses on Peter Pans Flight, which was good, but they need to sort out the braking system! I'd never queue for it without fastpass though! Next we had lunch at Bella Notte.
After this we thought it would be a good idea to head over to Big Thunder Mountain to get fastpasses as the park was busy! We were right, Fast Passes were already for 7pm!
With Fast passes in hand, we went on Phatom Manor, which was about a 15 minute queue. I love this ride, and even my boyfriend said it was better than Haunted Mansion in Florida! Result!
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I leave part one there! Part two coming soon including the parade!
Great report, your photos are fabulous.
I can't wait for part 2 of part 4 :P
Wow, thank you so much for this fantastic trip report! You took some amazing, atmospheric pictures, such a pleasure to look at them =D>
I'm now looking forward to the rest of your story :)!
Oh, and I reckoned you come from Leicester? We went there last June to visit a friend of us who studied there (Erasmus year), such a nice city and area there :)!
Your trip report rocks!!! Can't wait for the rest! :)
I love your report and I am really looking forward to read the rest!!!
Quote from: "Nala_84"Wow, thank you so much for this fantastic trip report! You took some amazing, atmospheric pictures, such a pleasure to look at them =D>
I'm now looking forward to the rest of your story :)!
Oh, and I reckoned you come from Leicester? We went there last June to visit a friend of us who studied there (Erasmus year), such a nice city and area there :)!
Thankyou! And thankyou to everyone else, i'm having a lot of fun writing it and looking back on my ace trip, just wish I could go back now!
As for Leicester, I actually study there, so I live there during term time, but I'm actually from Stoke on Trent which is further up north. But yes, Leicester is a nice city, I really enjoy living there (great shopping hehe :))
I should be able to get the next part up tonight. :)
Day Four - Part Two
So after Phantom Manor we had some time to spare before the parade, so we went back over to Adventure Land for a look around and explored the caves:
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I love this part of Adventure Land;
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Exploring Skull Rock;
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Bit more exploring!
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Next we went for a drink to cool down, it was now very, very hot! After this we got fastpasses for Indianna Jones, then went to find a spot to watch the Parade. We got a very good spot, right at the front, but we had to 'fight' for it, as in I got rammed by at least two prams, and some other idiot trying to lift their pram over the ever increasing crowd with the child still inside. I do wonder about the level of some peoples intelligence at times like this. Nevertheless, I loved the Parade. I didn't get to see it last year, but this year I was determined and it was worth it. :) For the most part I video'd this so there is a video at the end, but I did take some photos;
And so it begins! Hello Mickey!
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I loved the Alice in Wonderland Float!
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Woody and Jessy;
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Pooh!
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Peter Pan Float;
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Definately my favourite float!
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Simba was very cool!
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One of my favourite photos from the trip;
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Sleeping Beauty takes the lead;
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Very cute touch :)
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And heres my shortened down version of the parade, minus the Princess float as I busy taking photos! :)
[youtube:tkcr4hqb]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYfh9t5eIFk[/youtube:tkcr4hqb]
Next we battled our way through the crowds back to Adventure Land to use our fastpasses on Indi, which was an ok ride, seemed to hurt less this year!
I love the queueline for this ride;
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Next we headed for a fast pass for Star Tours, and then went for tea at Casey's Corner, where we watched Mickeys Magical Party time from a far. However I was too busy eating to take pictures haha. On the way there an english man stopped me and asked if I was english, when I replied 'Yes', he gave me and my boyfriend his family VIP fastpass tickets :D As they were leaving the park early. We couldn't believe our luck!
After food we headed back to Star Tours to use our fastpass:
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And then we took advantage of our VIP pass and went for another spin on Buzz, getting much better scores this time!
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Next we went over to BTM to use our VIP passes again for a really fun ride! My boyfriend didn't think it was any better or any worse than its oversea's cousin.
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On-ride photo;
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Next we went over to Pirates, as the 45 minute queue from earlier had turned into 5 minutes :D I love pirates, and had forgotten it was such a long ride!
On-ride photo;
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After this we decided on one last ride on SM uses our VIP passes, before heading over to the Village, as we were now very tired!
One last walk to Discovery Land;
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And time for a few last photos of the castle and main street;
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I will eat here one day!
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Love the entrance to this park;
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Back in Disney Village;
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More funky cocktails in the Sports Bar;
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After a drink there we headed for a look around the lake and the hotels surrounding it. We settled down in Newport Bay for another drink before calling it a night and catching the RER back to our hotel, bringing the end to day 4!
First class and great photos!!
I'm glad you enjoyed your time at the magic and I hope there are plenty more visits for you to come!!
:D :D
Another great instalment Kellogs, I really loved reading bout your day and seeing your fantastic photos. Lucky you getting some free VIP fastpasses too :P
Thanks for sharing it, and I'm glad you had a great time :)
Great Trip Report!! I loved reading it!! Lovely photos too!!
Can't wait to read the rest :D :D :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Day Five
No photo's from today as it was time to go back to the UK and our sort of 'chill out' day. So we woke up at 11am, lie in! Woo. :) Check-out was at 12pm so time to get ready and pack. After Check-out we left our luggage in Ibis and went to check out the mall in Val D'europe.
First we headed for the hugee supermarket and I bought myself some milka, mmm. :) And Cheetos! I haven't seen anywhere sell cheetos for so long I got a bit over excited haha. Also bought some lunch, in the form of yummy sandwhiches. :)
After this we looked around a bit more, venturing out into the outlet mall, the weather had taken a turn for the worse, although it was still warm, the rain had come, but this didn't bother us much!
After we got bored of the mall, we went back to Disney Village for another look around the shops, and then off to newport bay for a drink or two to pass the time as our eurostar home wasn't until 7pm.
After a few drinks we decided to go get an early dinner and decided on Planet Hollywood, which was so much smaller than I expected! Food came extremely fast and was nice enough, but I decided I much preferred the location of Rain Forest Cafe. Planet Hollywood just looked a bit dated to me, and need of a freshen up, although the mirror in the ladies toilets was really cool! :D
When we were finished we headed back to the Ibis to collect our bags, then straight back on the RER to go check-in at Eurostar, which was easy enough, and we were let straight on the train to sit for an hour before we headed off.
Had a pleasant journey and like the way there went very fast, and before we knew it we were back in the UK. After topping up our Oyster Cards we caught the tube to Victoria for another night in the dreaded Easy Hotel. Tonight we were in the basement, and although we could hear the rumble of the underground, it was significantly cooler!
We walked around victoria trying to stay out of the hotel as much as possible, and ended up in a busy pub. Haha I've just realised how much this trip report involves drinking, but I assure you we aren't alcoholics! Lol.
Around midnight we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep!
Day 6
The last day of our holiday, and we ended it with a day out in London. We were up and out by 10am and headed for breakfast at the yummy bagal factory stand in Victoria Station. They are so yummy, everyone should try them!
After breakfast we caught the tube to Euston to drop off our bags in left luggage, then over to London bridge for a walk along the thames to the Tower of London, one of my favourite places...ever!
We had a great visit to the Tower, with a fantastic tour guide as usual, and a good 3 hours taken up!
Tower of London - Queen's House
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Jewel House at the Tower of London
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Tower Green memorial
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Prisoner graffiti in the Beauchamp Tower at the Tower of London.
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The White Tower
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After the Tower we went for lunch at a Bar and Grill, before heading over to Harrods for a little shopping and some Krispy Kreme Donuts, before meeting up with our friend for more shopping and drinks in Covent Garden. Afterwards we went to our favourite Italian Restaurant in Soho which does 15 inch pizzas!
After dinner we said goodbye to our friend and had a walk to Euston Station to pick up our bags and settling down to wait for our trains home.
When 9pm came it was time to catch my train home after an amazing trip and I was very sad to see it end!
Heres a video of our trip;
[youtube:15p7ng66]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3wim54mbfQ[/youtube:15p7ng66]
That brings an end to my trip report, I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it! :D
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loved it , loved it, loved it, glad you had such a good time, your pics were great. thankyou.
Loved the "That's a wrap" ending!
AMAZING trip report!!
I'm glad you had a great time!
I LOVE your report! and the video in the end is so cool!
glad you had such a good time!
and thanks for sharing!
I am really enjoying your trip report so far. For those on this board who never venture out of DLP, they are missing a lot. One of the awesome things about DLP is how you can mix culture and parks into a brilliant vacation.
Quote from: "Kellogs"Overall a brilliant day at Studios with fantastic weather. My only nags would be how little there is too do there. The park was busy but at times we were a little lost as to what to do other than re-ride. Also the Crush queue needs more detail to keep you entained! But other than that, this place has a lot of potential!
But it seems like you missed some major attractions - Moteurs Action, Art of Animation and Armageddon? To me, we can easily spend a couple or more days in the Studios now (that said we have little ones who love Cars, Playhouse Disney and the shorter character queues too).
Glad you had a great time. If you like a drink and are staying in Val De Europe, next time be sure to enjoy La Terrasse and the bars behind it in the future, much cheaper than the village, and in a way, better too.
Overall, what did your boyfriend think? Personally we prefer DLP to WDW in many ways (though we miss Epcot and DAK, and the big fireworks, DLP and WDSP are better than their Floridian equivelents in our opinion). I am surprised he did not think DLP's Big Thunder was better than Florida's - those tunnels under the Rivers of the Far West are amazing.
Quote from: "davewasbaloo"I am really enjoying your trip report so far. For those on this board who never venture out of DLP, they are missing a lot. One of the awesome things about DLP is how you can mix culture and parks into a brilliant vacation.
Quote from: "Kellogs"Overall a brilliant day at Studios with fantastic weather. My only nags would be how little there is too do there. The park was busy but at times we were a little lost as to what to do other than re-ride. Also the Crush queue needs more detail to keep you entained! But other than that, this place has a lot of potential!
But it seems like you missed some major attractions - Moteurs Action, Art of Animation and Armageddon? To me, we can easily spend a couple or more days in the Studios now (that said we have little ones who love Cars, Playhouse Disney and the shorter character queues too).
Moteurs Action was closed. We did do Armageddon, but I had no photo's so it escaped my memory, and not really bothered about Art of Animation. With such huge queues, we hit the main things.
Kellogs I am just in love with your photos hehe.
Great trip report :ears:
Thanks for the fantastic report, I have really enjoyed reading it and seeing your amazing photos :P
I'm glad you both had an amazing time :)
Great trip report. I really enjoyed your pictures!
Thanks all for the lovely replies :)
Thought i'd just add another quick video I took of Minnie's Party Train;
[youtube:2zxu8q0p]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTpVn-4rrWk[/youtube:2zxu8q0p]