Disney Daft

You all must think I've gone a bit mad recently - well yes the overwhelming pressure of constantly studying for the last 3 years has had it toll on me - but I'm Disney Daft for a reason. You see I've just spent the weekend at Disneyland Paris! It's an awesome place to visit, and I know there is probably a bigger and better one in the States, but for someone who doesn't enjoying flying visiting the one near Paris is a far better option for me.

I last visited Disneyland with Phoebe oooh about 5 years ago. This year it was Emily's turn and at just being 3 years old I thought we could try a weekend away just the two of us. First option was how the heck was I going to get there without flying? ooh let me see - what has many wheels, some tracks and can travel at great speed under the ground? That's right Eurostar!!!

I booked tickets for travel (luckily Emily is under four and therefore didn't have to pay for a ticket for her unless I wanted to book a seat for her). The journey was was pretty good, catching an early train from our local station to Kings Cross and then walking across to the St Pancras Eurostar station, took only 5 minutes. We found a beautiful station with lots of lovely shops - so sorry I didn't have time to stop and check some out, perhaps next time. We checked in, went through security and passport control, grabbed some magazines from one shop and sat to wait for our train. Getting on the train was easy and straight forward - not like travelling by aeroplane that's for sure. I'd definitely say this was a more relaxed way to get there. The journey itself only took about 2.5 hours and it was lovely, arriving just outside Disneyland itself - what a hoot. I would recommend that if you get the Disney direct train to grab yourself the Disney Express service which checks in your bags for you, as they give you tickets to the park so you can just hop off the train and get straight on with the fun. We didn't do that so instead we waited for our coach to pick us up and we dropped off our luggage before heading back for some dinner at the Disney Village.

Our hotel was the Radisson Blu at the golf "area" of the resort which actually made for a nice quiet hotel (unlike the Kyriad I stayed at last time - noisy screaming shouting kids till very late at night). We had a great room - a large double bed for me and a sofa bed for Emily - though she took to hogging my side of the double bed. Room was very spacious, with not only a TV but a PS2 with its own screen - that if I had known the room had one I would have brought some films for Emily to watch. Our bathroom was lovely with double sinks - one for me and one for Emily.

After a nice nights sleep, we got up early, had a nice breakfast and then headed to the park to pick up our 2 day passes that let us visit both parks.

Our first call was to the main Disney park where we had our first ride on the Carousel-de-Lancelot followed by the Dumbo the flying Elephant, Peter Pans Flight, Alice's Curious Labyrinth, "It's a small world" which is a bit surreal. Next we took a stop in the Discovery Land but there weren't many rides that Emily wanted to go on, we did take a quick shot at the Buzz Light Year Laser Blast - which was pretty good. We then headed to Adventure Land and Emily wanted to explore the Pirate ship but sadly that was shut so instead she had a play in the Pirates Beach and the Adventure Isle.

By this time it was late afternoon and Emily was getting tired, so we made quick trip to Adventure Land but nothing tempted her there so we headed to the main street to watch the parade. Emily almost fell asleep on the pavement whilst we watched the parade - time to head off for bed.

Part-two tomorrow...