'The Dreams That you Wish Will Come True'.. A DLP PTR - My 1st one!

[ChelseyBun20]

A Perfect, Romantic Getaway!


Aloha & welcome to my pre-trip report! This is my first trip report of any kind, so please be nice ! I will try to make it exciting and I promise to update as much as I possibly can!

I thought I’d start to share my planning with you lovely people as
1. I only have 56 days to go until my first visit to DLP and
2. My family aren’t coming with me on this trip and they’re starting to get a little of the ‘Disney Depression’ with me going on and on and on about how excited I am! So, I thought I’d spare them the torture & let all of you guys get excited with me instead.

I think it’s time I introduced the cast of this trip before I just get carried away writing about useless information!! I will be writing quite a bit about who I am, as I am fairly new to joining the disboards, although I am a 'long-time lurker'!

Introductions

First up is me;

I’m Chelsey, I’m 20 years old (this trip is to celebrate my 21st birthday), I live in the UK & I am a huuuuuuge Disney fanatic!
I am a total home-bird, there is nothing more important to me than family and I can’t think of anything better than a night in watching a DVD with my sister, having the family over for tea or a shopping trip with my mum and dad. I am a massive movie geek, I love going to the cinema! I enjoy shopping, running, food (especially Disney food), a get together with my friends and spending quality time with my other half!

My favourite character has got to be Pluto, I love him!! But I absolutely adore Belle, she is my all time favourite Princess – my car is even named after her! My favourite Disney film is Beauty & The Beast, I’ve adored it ever since I was a little girl. Although, Tangled, The Lion King, Up, Toy Story, Monsters Inc & Cars are close 2nd’s! (I know that’s a lot of films, I just can’t choose!!)

This is me:

The other member of this trip is my DBF;

We have been together nearly 2 years and I can’t imagine myself with anybody else!

His name is Andy, he is 21 and also lives in the UK.
He’s the most loving, funny, understanding, supportive and incredible person I have ever met. He looks after me and we are very happy together.
He enjoys fishing, going to the gym, football (yawn!), movies, socialising with our friends and would you believe it – shopping! Well, only when its ‘men’s clothes’ we are shopping for, he hates following me round Primark for hours and hours .

He has been to Disneyland Paris once before, but he was about 3/4 years old & can’t remember anything! He has also been to WDW, but years and years ago, so he can just remember little bits about it. He is not the biggest Disney fan, but I’m hoping to convert him! Hopefully soon, we will take our first trip to WDW together – he is a big foodie & he thinks Disney food looks amazing.

This is just a few pictures of us:

That’s enough about us! Next up;


OUR TRIP PLANS!​

 

[ChelseyBun20]

Table Of Contents

Introductions
Our Trip Plans
'Rough Draft' Itinerary
Food Plans
Change of Plans
Shopping
​

 

[disneyhockeymad]

Aww you guys are too cute love that it's both your 'first' trip to DLP, you're going to love it

I love Pluto too he is absolutely adorable, have you seen those Pluto pillow pets? They are amazing, I want one soooo badly! First thing on my shopping list I think

I can't wait to read about your plans!

 

[frankieeyre]

56 days to go!!! That is going to FLY by!!
My car is called Belle too!!!! What a coincidence!!!
Love your earrings in the first picture!!

So excited that you and your boyfriend are going to be sharing your first trip together!!!

Cannot wait to hear your plans!!!

 

[ChelseyBun20]

Aww you guys are too cute love that it's both your 'first' trip to DLP, you're going to love it

I love Pluto too he is absolutely adorable, have you seen those Pluto pillow pets? They are amazing, I want one soooo badly! First thing on my shopping list I think

I can't wait to read about your plans!

Ahhhh, thank you lovely!! I'm so excited, I can't wait to go.
Yes I have seen them, I want one too - I hope they do them at DLP, I think I'll be doing a lot of shopping!​

 

[judithdisney]

what a great beginning! cant wait to see the planning
ps: where is the second photo of you token? hihi
xxx

 

[ChelseyBun20]

56 days to go!!! That is going to FLY by!!
My car is called Belle too!!!! What a coincidence!!!
Love your earrings in the first picture!!

So excited that you and your boyfriend are going to be sharing your first trip together!!!

Cannot wait to hear your plans!!!

I hope so, I need a Disney Fix!! Hahaha, that's brilliant, whenever my mum wants to borrow my car she says 'Can I borrow Belle today please?' - she never calls her just a car lol!
I know, it's going to be fab, but I've just got to try and make him love Disney as much as me ​

what a great beginning! cant wait to see the planning
ps: where is the second photo of you token? hihi
xxx

Helloooo you I will be writing some more tonight, so keep checking! The first photo was taken in Tenerife (maybe you recognise the place!) and the second one in Hollywood Studios at Disney World last year xx​

 

[ChelseyBun20]

56 days to go!!! That is going to FLY by!!
My car is called Belle too!!!! What a coincidence!!!
Love your earrings in the first picture!!

So excited that you and your boyfriend are going to be sharing your first trip together!!!

Cannot wait to hear your plans!!!

Oh and thank you for the compliment about my earrings! They are from Primark ​

 

[TigerTown]

Looking forward to your TR Chelsey. Make sure to take lots of pictures. The wife and I will probably never make it to DLP to I need to live vicariously through others

 

[ChelseyBun20]

Our Trip Plans


So the main reason for this trip is to celebrate my 21st Birthday. I’ve wanted to go for a long time, but waiting to go so we can celebrate a special occasion has made this trip even more exciting! Andy and I went to Tenerife earlier this year and he told me I wasn't allowed to get excited for Disneyland Paris until after we were home. Well now that we are back, I don't think he's heard about anything else!

Here are our basic plans:

Our dates are:
25th - 29th October 2012

So hopefully we will see a lot of this:

Halloween decorations!! Wooohooo!!
When we were deciding on our dates, it was a toss up between October for the Halloween Decorations (before my 21st) or December for the Christmas Decs (after my 21st). I love both holidays so I couldn’t really decide! In the end, going in December was so much more expensive and as we are flying, we couldn’t really trust the UK weather to hold out until then. More than likely it would have been snowing and our flight would be grounded! So money and weather made our decision for us.. October it is!


We are staying at:
Disney's Santa Fe Hotel

This hotel worked out the cheapest at the time of booking. I have read really good reviews about the Santa Fe hotel, so I am pleased we chose here. As we won't be spending much time in the room anyway, as long as it's clean & has a bed - I'm really not that fussed . One thing that I do love though is the theme of this place, I LOOVEEE Cars & Lightning McQueen so much! I've watched both films about 50 times!!


Transport:​

Flight​

We are flying with Air France from Birmingham International Airport into Charles De Gaulle. We decided flying was the best option for us, as it was quick and we could leave from Birmingham. Our outbound flight is an early one, which means more time within the Magic.

Airport Transfer

We will be using the VEA Airport Shuttle Bus! This was included in our package deal, which I am very glad of. If it hadn't of been, we would of had to pay more money to find alternative transport. Does anybody know how long the journey is from CDA Airport to DLP? I think I read somewhere it was about 1 hour, but I could be wrong!

Tickets:
5 Day Park Tickets​

We have Park Tickets for both the Disney parks, for the 5 days we are there! I don't know how much these were individually, as again, they were part of our package deal. I don't think we will be using them on our last day as we have to leave for the Airport early in the Afternoon! We will get a lot of use out of them for the other 4 days though, don't you worry .​

Food:​

Meal Plan​

We have the Standard Meal Plan. We each get a sit down meal or a buffet each evening and a quick service meal for lunch. A continental breakfast per person, per day of our stay, was already included within our Hotel booking! I have already made some notes on which restaurants we would like to try (which I will share with you soon), but if anybody has any suggestions - please let me know. Food was a important factor when booking this trip, Andy eats for England so knowing we have three meals a day, already paid for, is ideal for us! However, this does not mean I won't be able to find the time to try lots of yummy snacks - any recommendations?

Next up;

'ROUGH DRAFT' ITINERARY​

 

[ChelseyBun20]

Looking forward to your TR Chelsey. Make sure to take lots of pictures. The wife and I will probably never make it to DLP to I need to live vicariously through others

Thank you! I will definitely be taking loads of photo's - I bought an extra memory card for my camera recently so I don't run out of space ! Ahhh, I hope one day you make it there - but I will try and make my TR extra exciting for you!​

 

[disneyhockeymad]

Now I'm jealous, I have always wanted to go to Disney for a birthday but it's in May and that always clashed with exams, it sucked! I think we're gonna make a day of my trip (NEXT WEEK!) my birthday though, because technically we're using it as part of the reason for the trip! (I'll update my PTR with the other reasons... there are a lot of them!)

I LOVE Hallow'een, I am SO excited to see all the decorations! It's going to look amazing! I can't wait for your pictures!

I've been at Christmas before, and while it's stunningly beautiful man is it cold! At least you might get some decent weather in October!

Ooh I've never flown before we've always driven because my parents live so close to the Dover crossing to Calais/the Eurostar terminal! Flying will be so much quicker though!

Ok food wise, try Cafe Mickey's - it's a character dinner, it's amazing! And Annette's diner, my family and I absolutely love that place, they're all on rollerskates and every so often they all get up on the counters and dance, it was amazing! Other than that I really can't remember where else we ate... is that really bad? Ooh the Rainforest Cafe - but that's obv quite generic!

 

[pearldove]

Really excited for this trip report! I went to DLP with my boyfriend of two years in June this year and we had a brilliant time together I've been to DLP once before around Halloween and it was lovely, so I hope you have a lovely time too! I can also recommend going to Earl of Sandwich in Disney Village for a quick snack, they have some of the loveliest sandwiches I've ever tasted! They're served hot too so they'd be good if there's any chilly days and you can sit looking over Lake Disney

We also stayed at the Santa Fe hotel too and we had no complaints at all, I'm sure you'll have a great stay

 

[ChelseyBun20]

Now I'm jealous, I have always wanted to go to Disney for a birthday but it's in May and that always clashed with exams, it sucked! I think we're gonna make a day of my trip (NEXT WEEK!) my birthday though, because technically we're using it as part of the reason for the trip! (I'll update my PTR with the other reasons... there are a lot of them!)

I LOVE Hallow'een, I am SO excited to see all the decorations! It's going to look amazing! I can't wait for your pictures!

I've been at Christmas before, and while it's stunningly beautiful man is it cold! At least you might get some decent weather in October!

Ooh I've never flown before we've always driven because my parents live so close to the Dover crossing to Calais/the Eurostar terminal! Flying will be so much quicker though!

Ok food wise, try Cafe Mickey's - it's a character dinner, it's amazing! And Annette's diner, my family and I absolutely love that place, they're all on rollerskates and every so often they all get up on the counters and dance, it was amazing! Other than that I really can't remember where else we ate... is that really bad? Ooh the Rainforest Cafe - but that's obv quite generic!

I've just read that part of your PTR - you have so many reasons to celebrate (do I sound like an advert off the TV for WDW?)

Halloween is amazing, I love it, I wish we celebrated it more over here though! Your gonna love being in WDW for Halloween - 1st time I ever went, I went for Halloween - they celebrate it BIG STYLE over there.
Yeah I've heard its freezing (another reason to go to WDW for Christmas instead ).. Is the weather okay near the end of October then? I can't decide what clothes I need to take lol!

Annette's Diner is already on my list, it looks fab! Don't know if I can persuade DBF to go to Cafe Mickey's, it might be too full on for his 1st Disney trip lol!​

Really excited for this trip report! I went to DLP with my boyfriend of two years in June this year and we had a brilliant time together I've been to DLP once before around Halloween and it was lovely, so I hope you have a lovely time too! I can also recommend going to Earl of Sandwich in Disney Village for a quick snack, they have some of the loveliest sandwiches I've ever tasted! They're served hot too so they'd be good if there's any chilly days and you can sit looking over Lake Disney

We also stayed at the Santa Fe hotel too and we had no complaints at all, I'm sure you'll have a great stay

Yay, thank you!! Ahhh, that's lovely - glad you had such a nice time! Is your boyfriend a big Disney fan??

YESSSS - Earl Of Sandwich is AMAZING! Every time we go to Walt Disney World we visit there about 4 times haha, love the sandwiches! That sounds really nice, to be able to sit and look out over the lake !

I'm glad you had no complaints! Is there a particular good part of the hotel to stay in? I've looked at the map and it looks huuuge, I don't want to be the furthest away from everything lol! ​

 

[judithdisney]

oh so excited for my trip now haha! i can recommend the café hyperion. you can eat a burger with fries and you can watch mickey mouse cartoons on a huge screen! we always eat there , sort of a tradition and restaurant hakuna matata!
xox

 

[frankieeyre]

Yipee!!
Firstly im so excited you are going in Halloween! I went to DLP once at halloween and it was SO much fun! The decorations were so good! What was really weird though the day after halloween, we went in the park the next day and all the decorations were gone and the xmas ones were up!! So crazy how quick they changed them!
That's good that you are flying, will be so quick then!!

I've always wanted to stay at the Santa Fe hotel!! i LOVE Cars so would be absolutely perfect for me!! Make sure you take loads and loads of pictures!!

I hope they show you a good movie on the bus on the way to the airport like the Magical Express in WDW!

I'm sure you could definitely use the park tickets on your last day!! What time do you have to be on the bus? Disney hotels will normally hold on to your luggage for you so you can get the most time in the parks as possible!!

So i LOVE Cafe Mickey's! Last year when I went there it wasn't expensive, and got to see loads of characters, we also just booked it the day before so it was fine!!

So excited for more!!!

 

[ChelseyBun20]

'Rough Draft' Itinerary​

Okay, so this is just a rough draft of our Itinerary, I will be making adjustments etc probably quite a few times before we go! But if anybody has any suggestions at all, please tell me! I'm obviously new to planning a DLP trip, so I have no idea as to what is the best way to tour the parks. However, I do know I want to see as much as possible, as I don't know when we will be returning .

Sooo on with the plan ..​

Day 1: Thursday 25th October

We are aiming to wake up for 5.30am, then get showered, dressed, pack last minute things in a mad frenzy and be on the road by 6.15am. We need to be at Birmingham Airport for 7.40am (2 hours before our scheduled flight time). It's about a 45minute drive from my house, however we are planning on parking the car at the airport during our trip, so we need extra time to park and catch the shuttle to the terminal!
We are scheduled to arrive at Charles De Gaulle airport at 12.00pm and after collecting our luggage and catching the shuttle bus, I'm estimating we will arrive at DLP at about 2.30pm!
After we've checked it, we will dump the bags in the room & go find some lunch! Afterwards, back to the room to unpack, freshen up and head out to Disney Village for a night of shopping and some dinner! We think we might have a few drinks this night too in one of the hotels.. Any ideas which is best? Not the Disneyland Hotel as I've heard it's sooo expensive.

Day 2: Friday 26th October

We will be up early for breakfast as we want to make the most of this day as today is our Disneyland Park day! I'm so excited for this, especially to see the beautiful castle and the Halloween decorations. We are planning on spending the whole day and night in the park and having both lunch and dinner here. (I have some ideas on where to eat - this will be my next update). I want to try and do as much as possible, we will probably be tired from the early start the day before, but that won't stop me! Andy will probably have a little moan though .

Day 3: Saturday 27th October

Up early again for breakfast as we have a full day ahead! This day will be a bit different as we are planning on going off site to explore the wonderful Paris! As it is meant to be the 'City of Love' we really want to try and spend a day here. I've been once before, so I've seen a lot of the sites - however it was a long time ago and I'd love to see everything again and experience it with Andy. We are planning on getting the RER A train, I've got to have a good look at times and prices soon. So, we definitely want to go up the Eiffle Tower, I did it last time I went and loved it! Another definite is a bit of shopping (there will be a lot of this on this trip probably - just warning you now ). Notre Dame Cathedral, a river Cruise on the Seine, Champs Elysees & Arc de Triomphe are just a few other things we'd like to see and do if we have time!
We will then catch the train back, drop our purchases off in the room and head back to Disneyland Park for our evening meal!

Day 4: Sunday 28th October

Up again for breakfast and then we shall be heading over to the Walt Disney Studios Park!! I'm super excited for this day, I think Andy will love it too. We are again planning on spending the whole day and night here and eating both lunch and dinner. Depending on how tired we are, once we decided to head back, we may have a drink in our hotel before retiring to our room.

Day 5: Monday 29th October

Well today will be our last day . Our flight is scheduled for 3.25pm, so we are planning on catching the 12.25pm airport shuttle bus (I have checked online for the times). We will probably just get up, quickly pack our cases, head down for breakfast and then pop over to the Disney Village. We will do some last minute shopping and pick up some YUMMY, AMAZING sandwiches from Earl Of Sandwich for the journey home!! Then head back to the hotel and wait for our shuttle to arrive. Hopefully the flight is on time and we will arrive back in Birmingham at 3.50pm, collect the car, drive home and then it will be time for my Trip Report!

Next Up:

Food Plans​

 

[ChelseyBun20]

oh so excited for my trip now haha! i can recommend the café hyperion. you can eat a burger with fries and you can watch mickey mouse cartoons on a huge screen! we always eat there , sort of a tradition and restaurant hakuna matata!
xox

I'm excited for both of our trips haha!! Thank you for the suggestions, both of those restaurants sound really good, I will have to check if we can eat there on the meal plan we are on! xx​

 

[tinks_1989]

Sounds like an amazing trip you have planned!

 

[ChelseyBun20]

Yipee!!
Firstly im so excited you are going in Halloween! I went to DLP once at halloween and it was SO much fun! The decorations were so good! What was really weird though the day after halloween, we went in the park the next day and all the decorations were gone and the xmas ones were up!! So crazy how quick they changed them!
That's good that you are flying, will be so quick then!!

I've always wanted to stay at the Santa Fe hotel!! i LOVE Cars so would be absolutely perfect for me!! Make sure you take loads and loads of pictures!!

I hope they show you a good movie on the bus on the way to the airport like the Magical Express in WDW!

I'm sure you could definitely use the park tickets on your last day!! What time do you have to be on the bus? Disney hotels will normally hold on to your luggage for you so you can get the most time in the parks as possible!!

So i LOVE Cafe Mickey's! Last year when I went there it wasn't expensive, and got to see loads of characters, we also just booked it the day before so it was fine!!

So excited for more!!!

Yeah I can't wait to see the decorations! I love celebrating Halloween. I know, they are super quick at changing things - its like magic .
I wanted to fly anyway, feels more like a holiday to me when I'm at the airport!

I will 100% take looooads of photos for you!! Cars is a brilliant film.
We are planning to get the 12.25pm bus, so will have to be up really early to spend anytime in the Parks. I think we might just head over to Disney Village for the morning .

Oh I really want to eat there, I don't know if Andy will go for it though I will try and persuade him! Is it okay not to book restaurants in advance then? I didn't know whether to or not .
I've updated so get reading!! Haha, ​

Sounds like an amazing trip you have planned!

Thank you!! I'm so excited!!​