HERE WE GO!

Monday, October 7 - Tuesday, October 8

Our Air France flight left on the Monday night at 9:30pm from Toronto, direct to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. It was about a 7 hour flight. We intended on sleeping on the plane so that we would be somewhat refreshed upon arriving in the morning. NOTE: Paris is 6 hours ahead of Toronto (Eastern Standard Time). We arrived around 10am Paris time on Tuesday. My husband and daughter slept well on the plane, my son got about 2-3 hours sleep and I got what I expected...about half an hour. LOL! I’m such a light sleeper that I just couldn’t! The adrenaline from our upcoming adventure managed to get me through and I seemed to fair just fine on the minimal sleep.

For those of you wondering, yes, we do have two official languages in Canada (English and French) but let me assure you, I have not used my French since I graduated high school. Do not worry if you cannot speak fluent French. You should know how to say “Bonjour!” (Hello!), “Merci” (Thank-you) and “Parlez-vous anglais s’il vous plait” (Could you speak English please?), but beyond that, most of the French people we encountered would speak to us in English once they realized we did not understand. Much of the signage was bilingual as well - French and English. We made our way off the plane and followed the signs to get our baggage and go through customs. We had to board a little monorail-type train in the terminal at one point and were a bit hesitant that we were going the wrong way. A quick question (in English) to an airport employee assured us we were on the right path. Upon reaching customs, the man in the booth didn’t say a word to us. He just took our passports, stamped them, and we were on our way to get our suitcases.

After getting our baggage, we stopped by a tourism booth on the Arrivals level. I had preordered a travel wifi device so that we could stay connected during the trip. They had convenient pick-up right at the airport and allowed up to five devices to be connected all at the same time - great for my whole family. Once we had our phones reconnected to the internet, off we went to DLRP.

There are several options for getting to the resort from the airport, each with their own varying costs. You can take a Disney bus (sort of like Magical Express but with a fee attached), a taxi or private shuttle (approx. 45 min to an hour trip), the RER train (about a 45 minute ride on a regional train), or the TGV (a 10 minute ride on a high speed train). Knowing my kids have gotten air sick on our previous trips to the Azores, we opted for the quickest method of transportation - the TGV train - in case we were dealing with upset tummies. I had watched several Youtube videos on how to purchase TGV train tickets at the airport so I was pretty well prepared. We went down to the lowest level of the terminal to the train station, found the line-up for TGV train tickets and made our purchase. The next train was leaving in about 20 minutes so we made our way to the track. I would say this was the most complicated part of our whole week. We found our way to the track but I didn’t understand where we were supposed to wait
along the track so that we’d end up on the correct train car. The tickets were entirely in French and the overhead digital screens made no sense to us. Fortunately a nice woman waiting for the train took pity on us and explained where we should stand. Phew! When the train pulled up, we loaded our suitcases into a little luggage holding area on the train car and sat down in some empty seats. But then people came on and said that those where THEIR seats. Oops! We were still on the wrong train car! Haha! But at this point our suitcases were buried under other ones so we just opted to stand around the luggage. We knew we only had a ten minute train ride and would be getting off at the first stop.

Literally ten minutes later, we were there! The station is called Marne la Vallee Chessy. We hauled out our suitcases and got off the train, along with many other Disney-loving passengers. Upon leaving the station, you know you’ve arrived. Disney Village (a MUCH smaller version of Downtown Disney) is right outside. And steps away you can see Walt Disney Studios Park and Disneyland Paris Hotel (which doubles as the entrance to the Disneyland park).

The weather was not cooperating with us. It was raining upon our arrival but not to be deterred, we pulled up our hoods and headed in the direction of the hotel. Before getting onto official Disney property, all people must pass through a security tent. This requires walking through a metal detector and all luggage/backpacks/purses/etc must pass through an x-ray machine, similar to the airport. Upon clearing security, you’ve arrived! There are no more security checks because you are now in a secure area, whether you go between parks or to Disney Village.

We stopped in front of the beautiful Disneyland Paris Hotel to take a couple pictures. Then we found the (unmarked) entrance to the hotel to the right. Once inside, a friendly cast member directed us (in English) to the check-in line and entertained us with various Disney jokes while we waited. The cast member at the counter was quite pleasant and thoroughly explained the dining plan, park tickets, extra-magic hours, etc. Although we arrived around noon and check-in time isn’t until 3pm, they did have a room ready for us. Hooray! We headed off to our room to get refreshed before heading to the parks.

NOTE: I asked the woman at the check-in counter if she was able to check that our dinner reservations for the trip were in the system. She told me to go to the concierge desk and they could help me. I went to the other counter and he found all three reservations in his system. Hooray - my franglais conversation was successful! He printed out a receipt for each one that included my name, the restaurant name, date and time. I brought those with me to each reservation just to simplify the check-in process.

So first things first, we headed up to our room. It was quite nice. I booked a standard room and we lucked out with a partial view of Main Street USA! Our room had two double beds (double beds are the norm in Europe). The bathroom was lovely with two sinks, a huge mirror adorned with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on the frame, a tub and toilet. We discovered the audio from the bedroom television would play on a speaker in the bathroom as well which was a fun touch. The bathroom had a hair dryer...but it was awful! It looked like a strange vacuum hose instead of a hair dryer. I don’t know how else to explain it! It really didn’t work well. The television in our room had horrible reception as well. I know we didn’t travel half-way around the world to watch TV in our room, but it would have been nice in the evening. There were only a few English channels but the reception on ANY channel sucked. It seemed like it must be coming from a satellite dish that was pointing through trees. Every ten seconds or so there would be digital break-up that made viewing television virtually impossible. I know...first world problems.

NOTE: Remember that outlets in Europe are different than the outlets in North America. Be sure to pack the appropriate adaptor if you want to plug things in...like phone chargers!