8/2/08 Arrived with lots of time to spare to Eurostar terminal at Ashford for our 9.27 am departure to Marne La Vallee. We'd stayed overnight at a nearby Travelodge so that we didn't have to make the long drive from Bournemouth that morning!
The departure lounge at Ashford is very nice & the hour we had there passed very quickly. Eurostar left on time & we arrived at Marne La Vallee 12.30 Paris time.
As this little trip was just me & DH, we only had Disney passes for the Saturday, so on arrival we put our case into a locker at the station(4 Euro)& bought return tickets for the RER to Val D'Europe for some shopping!
WOW Val D'Europe is huge & the outside 'Village' was lovely to walk around, especially as it was such lovely sunny weather. We bought a present for our big son(He's 13) & some baguettes/drinks for a late lunch and enjojed eating them whilst people watching!
We headed back to Marne La Valee at around 4pm, collected our suitcase & walked across from the station to catch the shuttle bus to The Dream Castle Hotel(bus no. 54).We were very lucky as a bus arrived almost immediately so we got to the hotel really fast, no more than 8 mins!
Check in was a bit slow as they didn't seem to have many staff on duty. We had already pre paid on line so just had to pay the 'City tax' but had to pay that on CC as the reception didn't seem able to take cash for some reason(it was only 6 Euro!) which Dh was a bit annoyed about!
Anyway, we went to our room on the 5th floor & were really happy with it..the view of the gardens was spectacular.We were so tired from all the shopping that we decided to have a nice rest before heading out to dinner!
We showered & got ready for dinner around 7pm & went down to catch the shuttle back to Disney Village. once again, the bus arrived immediately & we were at Disney village really quickly. We wandered around for about an hour or so, the park had closed at 7pm so everywhere was getting very busy by 8pm. we walked all around the Disney Hotels, saw the ice skating at the New York & had a couple drinks at Sequoia Lodge bar before returning to the Village to find somewhere to eat!
We had wanted to eat at Newport bay but it is 'reservation only' unlike the other Hotel restaurants where we could have just walked in!Decided to reserve for the following night instead & went off to Planet Hollywood.
The last time we'd eaten there(New year trip 2004) we had to wait an hour & half but this time we only waited about 10 mins but it was 9.45 pm by then so getting quieter.
We both ordered burger meals but I had to send mine back as it wasn't cooked..the waiter brought me a new meal which was ok but still had the wooden sqewer(sp) inside the burger which I found on biting into it. I guess the chef was making sure it was cooked that time, either that or trying to kill me!LOL!!(That'll teach me for sending it back!)We were dissappointed with the food at PH as it didn't seem good value at all, in fact we could have gone to McDonalds!
Went to catch the bus back to Dream Castle & yes..Again the bus was there!
This time the driver went a different order around the hotels which was ok as we got to chat to a lovely American couple who got on the bus at Explorers to go TO Disney Village...they were having a good time but said it was costing them a small fortune & that Disney was 5X as much as back home(We agree with that!)
Arrived home to Hotel about 11pm, thought about a drink in the bar but on looking at the tarif we decided against it as 2 drinks would have cost about £15!!
This is going to be an expensive weekend me thinks!!
Off to bed, tomorrow is our marathon 2 park Disney day!!
The departure lounge at Ashford is very nice & the hour we had there passed very quickly. Eurostar left on time & we arrived at Marne La Vallee 12.30 Paris time.
As this little trip was just me & DH, we only had Disney passes for the Saturday, so on arrival we put our case into a locker at the station(4 Euro)& bought return tickets for the RER to Val D'Europe for some shopping!
WOW Val D'Europe is huge & the outside 'Village' was lovely to walk around, especially as it was such lovely sunny weather. We bought a present for our big son(He's 13) & some baguettes/drinks for a late lunch and enjojed eating them whilst people watching!
We headed back to Marne La Valee at around 4pm, collected our suitcase & walked across from the station to catch the shuttle bus to The Dream Castle Hotel(bus no. 54).We were very lucky as a bus arrived almost immediately so we got to the hotel really fast, no more than 8 mins!
Check in was a bit slow as they didn't seem to have many staff on duty. We had already pre paid on line so just had to pay the 'City tax' but had to pay that on CC as the reception didn't seem able to take cash for some reason(it was only 6 Euro!) which Dh was a bit annoyed about!
Anyway, we went to our room on the 5th floor & were really happy with it..the view of the gardens was spectacular.We were so tired from all the shopping that we decided to have a nice rest before heading out to dinner!
We showered & got ready for dinner around 7pm & went down to catch the shuttle back to Disney Village. once again, the bus arrived immediately & we were at Disney village really quickly. We wandered around for about an hour or so, the park had closed at 7pm so everywhere was getting very busy by 8pm. we walked all around the Disney Hotels, saw the ice skating at the New York & had a couple drinks at Sequoia Lodge bar before returning to the Village to find somewhere to eat!
We had wanted to eat at Newport bay but it is 'reservation only' unlike the other Hotel restaurants where we could have just walked in!Decided to reserve for the following night instead & went off to Planet Hollywood.
The last time we'd eaten there(New year trip 2004) we had to wait an hour & half but this time we only waited about 10 mins but it was 9.45 pm by then so getting quieter.
We both ordered burger meals but I had to send mine back as it wasn't cooked..the waiter brought me a new meal which was ok but still had the wooden sqewer(sp) inside the burger which I found on biting into it. I guess the chef was making sure it was cooked that time, either that or trying to kill me!LOL!!(That'll teach me for sending it back!)We were dissappointed with the food at PH as it didn't seem good value at all, in fact we could have gone to McDonalds!
Went to catch the bus back to Dream Castle & yes..Again the bus was there!
This time the driver went a different order around the hotels which was ok as we got to chat to a lovely American couple who got on the bus at Explorers to go TO Disney Village...they were having a good time but said it was costing them a small fortune & that Disney was 5X as much as back home(We agree with that!)
Arrived home to Hotel about 11pm, thought about a drink in the bar but on looking at the tarif we decided against it as 2 drinks would have cost about £15!!
This is going to be an expensive weekend me thinks!!
Off to bed, tomorrow is our marathon 2 park Disney day!!
