Hi everyone!
This is my first DLP trip report, and will also be mine and my OHs first Disney holiday together. Apologies if this becomes excessively long, I have a tendency to ramble!
First things first, the cast!
Me, Aimee, 21 - Completely childish, not helped by the fact that I look about 4 years younger than I actually am, Disney-obsessed, organiser, planner and worrier.
And my wonderful boyfriend, Tom, 22 - Complete gamer and my much more practical and rational other half, who has actually managed to express some excitement over this holiday
(This is a terrible photo, but as it turns out, he's not a massive fan of having his photo taken, not sure how he'll cope in Disneyland 
As I obviously intend to take photos of everything!)
We've been together for 2 and a half years, we've both been to DLP and WDW once, but never together! So I'm very excited about sharing the magic with him
And the last third of our family is Loki. Of course he won't be coming, but I felt he should be introduced nonetheless! He will be missed very much, but my parents have very kindly offered to look after him whilst we're away so I'm sure he'll enjoy his own little holiday!
So, how the holiday came about? Well, it's actually a pretty long story, but I will try to be concise! We used to be in a long distance relationship, and last summer we both moved fairly far away from our families to start our lives together. Last September we started planning a holiday to WDW, which we were hoping to take in September/October of this year. Mainly due to financial reasons, this year we realised it was much more likely to happen next year, and so we put it off. As it turns out, it was a good job we didn't book it for this year! In about May of this year I was very much struggling with disliking my job and generally feeling stuck in a rut in life, and so, 2 weeks before the deadline, I decided to apply for university. It all happened very quickly, but I am now a very proud student of the University of Essex
That decision meant both of us leaving our jobs and moving, yet again. Tom thankfully managed to find work very quickly and we've settled in well, it just means we probably won't get to WDW for another couple of years. So, we decided that after all the stress and change happening this year a few days away together at Christmas might be nice!
I initially started looking for weekend breaks in various European cities, thinking it would be lovely to see some other cities looking all festive. Of course, me being me, this soon led to pricing up a Disney holiday instead. After some research, I discovered we could do Disney for not much more than going anywhere else, so without much deliberation, it was decided and our very short countdown begins!
We are going Sunday 16th December - Wednesday 19th December. I finish uni on the Friday, so either Friday night or Saturday morning we will be travelling to my parents so that they can drop us off. We don't leave Paris until late on the 19th and have an overnight journey, so we arrive back at my parent's on the 20th and are planning on staying there for another night and finally travelling home on the 21st.
Transport
This is where the "crazy" part of the trip comes into play
We're getting the Megabus all the way from Milton Keynes to Paris. I know, I know, we probably really are crazy, but it was so ridiculously cheap. I've been by coach to Paris before on a school trip and found it fine, so we both think we'll be fine with this journey! We leave from Milton Keynes at 6:20am on the 16th 
arriving in Paris at 18:40pm. The plan is to then get the metro and RER from the coach station to Disney and then the shuttle to the hotel. It should take about an hour, then I'm sure we'll be exhausted enough to collapse in bed! On the Wednesday our coach doesn't leave Paris until 23:05pm and we arrive back into Milton Keynes at 10:00am on the 20th. I'm hoping we'll be tired enough to get a fair amount of sleep on the bus, if not then we'll just have a sleepy day at my parents.
Accommodation
I did start by pricing up Disney hotels, but they were definitely coming up too expensive compared to what we wanted to pay...hopefully one day! I then started looking at partner hotels, but even they were coming up too expensive on the Disney site, so I started looking at other options. It was at this point that I came across TravelRepublic and I was amazed by the difference in prices for the partner hotels!
We were initially going to spend our first night in a hotel in Paris before moving onto a hotel near Disney for the other two nights, but in the end we decided we'd rather spend the three nights in a Disney hotel and just take a trip into Paris one day. For two nights, our cheapest option was Hotel Explorers, which I have to say I love the look of! Being a complete child, the swimming pool looked amazing to me! However, it worked out cheaper to stay at Dream Castle for three nights, so that's where we booked! The price, having shuttles and also having breakfast included really swung it for us between staying there and staying in a non-partner hotel. We paid £156 for both of us for all three nights, which I think in an amazing price! TravelRepublic does slightly confuse me with all it's board options though! A lot of them seem to be the same, but priced differently. In the end we went for the cheapest one which was "double 1 or 2 beds standard, bed and breakfast", so fingers crossed it will all be ok!
Anyway, I think the hotel looks absolutely gorgeous and I'm so excited to be staying there I know we won't be spending a lot of time at the hotel, but I definitely think it makes a difference having a nice hotel to go back to at the end of the day. Plus, having the breakfast buffet included should save us a lot of time and hassle in the mornings.
I really hope we get a chance to use the swimming pool!
Tickets
To start with we were just looking at two day tickets since we're planning on spending one day in Paris. However, I soon realised it was the same price for three days as it was for two, plus we thought it would be nice to have the option to go into the parks on all three days, especially as we don't intend on spending an entire day in Paris. Then I stumbled upon annual passes. I saw the offer on Promo Parcs and realised it would cost us the same amount for two fantasy annual passes including postage as it would for two three day tickets! I ordered these last week and they arrived very promptly, so we are now very proud owners of annual passes
And yes, I may well use these as an excuse for another holiday (or two...) next year
That's all the main bits for now I think! Being the obsessive planner that I am, I am currently in the process of looking at menus and have already started planning outfits (as well as making the obligatory PowerPoint itinerary
). So there will be plenty more updates shortly!
In other slightly off-topic but very exciting news, we got engaged last night
I'm still kind of massively shocked but very happy and it's made us even more excited for the holiday!
This is my first DLP trip report, and will also be mine and my OHs first Disney holiday together. Apologies if this becomes excessively long, I have a tendency to ramble!
First things first, the cast!
Me, Aimee, 21 - Completely childish, not helped by the fact that I look about 4 years younger than I actually am, Disney-obsessed, organiser, planner and worrier.
And my wonderful boyfriend, Tom, 22 - Complete gamer and my much more practical and rational other half, who has actually managed to express some excitement over this holiday
(This is a terrible photo, but as it turns out, he's not a massive fan of having his photo taken, not sure how he'll cope in Disneyland As I obviously intend to take photos of everything!)
We've been together for 2 and a half years, we've both been to DLP and WDW once, but never together! So I'm very excited about sharing the magic with him
And the last third of our family is Loki. Of course he won't be coming, but I felt he should be introduced nonetheless! He will be missed very much, but my parents have very kindly offered to look after him whilst we're away so I'm sure he'll enjoy his own little holiday!
So, how the holiday came about? Well, it's actually a pretty long story, but I will try to be concise! We used to be in a long distance relationship, and last summer we both moved fairly far away from our families to start our lives together. Last September we started planning a holiday to WDW, which we were hoping to take in September/October of this year. Mainly due to financial reasons, this year we realised it was much more likely to happen next year, and so we put it off. As it turns out, it was a good job we didn't book it for this year! In about May of this year I was very much struggling with disliking my job and generally feeling stuck in a rut in life, and so, 2 weeks before the deadline, I decided to apply for university. It all happened very quickly, but I am now a very proud student of the University of Essex
That decision meant both of us leaving our jobs and moving, yet again. Tom thankfully managed to find work very quickly and we've settled in well, it just means we probably won't get to WDW for another couple of years. So, we decided that after all the stress and change happening this year a few days away together at Christmas might be nice!I initially started looking for weekend breaks in various European cities, thinking it would be lovely to see some other cities looking all festive. Of course, me being me, this soon led to pricing up a Disney holiday instead. After some research, I discovered we could do Disney for not much more than going anywhere else, so without much deliberation, it was decided and our very short countdown begins!
The details
We are going Sunday 16th December - Wednesday 19th December. I finish uni on the Friday, so either Friday night or Saturday morning we will be travelling to my parents so that they can drop us off. We don't leave Paris until late on the 19th and have an overnight journey, so we arrive back at my parent's on the 20th and are planning on staying there for another night and finally travelling home on the 21st.
Transport
This is where the "crazy" part of the trip comes into play
We're getting the Megabus all the way from Milton Keynes to Paris. I know, I know, we probably really are crazy, but it was so ridiculously cheap. I've been by coach to Paris before on a school trip and found it fine, so we both think we'll be fine with this journey! We leave from Milton Keynes at 6:20am on the 16th arriving in Paris at 18:40pm. The plan is to then get the metro and RER from the coach station to Disney and then the shuttle to the hotel. It should take about an hour, then I'm sure we'll be exhausted enough to collapse in bed! On the Wednesday our coach doesn't leave Paris until 23:05pm and we arrive back into Milton Keynes at 10:00am on the 20th. I'm hoping we'll be tired enough to get a fair amount of sleep on the bus, if not then we'll just have a sleepy day at my parents.Accommodation
I did start by pricing up Disney hotels, but they were definitely coming up too expensive compared to what we wanted to pay...hopefully one day! I then started looking at partner hotels, but even they were coming up too expensive on the Disney site, so I started looking at other options. It was at this point that I came across TravelRepublic and I was amazed by the difference in prices for the partner hotels!
We were initially going to spend our first night in a hotel in Paris before moving onto a hotel near Disney for the other two nights, but in the end we decided we'd rather spend the three nights in a Disney hotel and just take a trip into Paris one day. For two nights, our cheapest option was Hotel Explorers, which I have to say I love the look of! Being a complete child, the swimming pool looked amazing to me! However, it worked out cheaper to stay at Dream Castle for three nights, so that's where we booked! The price, having shuttles and also having breakfast included really swung it for us between staying there and staying in a non-partner hotel. We paid £156 for both of us for all three nights, which I think in an amazing price! TravelRepublic does slightly confuse me with all it's board options though! A lot of them seem to be the same, but priced differently. In the end we went for the cheapest one which was "double 1 or 2 beds standard, bed and breakfast", so fingers crossed it will all be ok!
Anyway, I think the hotel looks absolutely gorgeous and I'm so excited to be staying there
I know we won't be spending a lot of time at the hotel, but I definitely think it makes a difference having a nice hotel to go back to at the end of the day. Plus, having the breakfast buffet included should save us a lot of time and hassle in the mornings.
I really hope we get a chance to use the swimming pool!
Tickets
To start with we were just looking at two day tickets since we're planning on spending one day in Paris. However, I soon realised it was the same price for three days as it was for two, plus we thought it would be nice to have the option to go into the parks on all three days, especially as we don't intend on spending an entire day in Paris. Then I stumbled upon annual passes. I saw the offer on Promo Parcs and realised it would cost us the same amount for two fantasy annual passes including postage as it would for two three day tickets! I ordered these last week and they arrived very promptly, so we are now very proud owners of annual passes
And yes, I may well use these as an excuse for another holiday (or two...) next year
That's all the main bits for now I think! Being the obsessive planner that I am, I am currently in the process of looking at menus and have already started planning outfits (as well as making the obligatory PowerPoint itinerary
). So there will be plenty more updates shortly!In other slightly off-topic but very exciting news, we got engaged last night
I'm still kind of massively shocked but very happy and it's made us even more excited for the holiday!
For what it's worth I asked her is she would use them again and she said YES!! 
So glad that people have had positive experiences with it, really hoping that it doesn't drag.
Anything for more cocktail money!
