Subsonic Radio

So just 4 days after returning home from WDW my wife contracted a serious dose of flu. She completly missed Christmas spending it in bed and was only a little better by New Year. Prior to our trip to WDW our Princess had told us that she intended to finish at DLP, feeling very homesick and unhappy that it had not quite been all that she dreamed of.
She had to give a months notice so we agreed that she would finish on Sat 3rd February 2018. This left us with only a few possible dates to go and see her. The biggest decision seemed to be how to travel. As we planned to take over an empty suitcase and return with it full this mainly ruled out flying, so eventually we settled on a train to London and the EuroStar to DLP. At almost half the cost of flights although only taking a few hours longer due to airport tranfers and check in times the booking was made. Train it was.
Sadly the dining packages were not that good but as Princess only got a discount on the room we worked out that a package was actually the cheapest option. We were out of spare cash after WDW so we went for Hotel Santa Fe. A long way off what we had just experienced at the Yacht Club but it should be ok.......shouldn't it? (I will explain later)
We booked to arrive Sunday 21st January and depart Wednesday 24th January. That would give us time to see the parks and spend some time with Princess who was able to arrange her shifts to spend some time with us.
With a few days to go the weather forecast was not good but who needs good weather at Disney? We would be ok wouldn't we?
Anyway we were off to see our Princess who confirmed that she would be Anna on Parade whilst we were there. Nothing could be better.
We packed our few things and put our bag inside the suitcase.
We were set

Whoo-hoo ~ can't wait to see what happened! I am curious though. Why would taking an empty suitcase over and bringing it back full preclude your flying?

Having visited DLP in March and also having stayed at Santa Fe, I have my own opinions on both of those. Cannot wait to see how things turned out for you.

We went to DLP last November for the 3rd time and I just love that park! Happened to be there for the 25th celebration tail end so came back with great 25th merch cheap!

Amy wrote:Whoo-hoo ~ can't wait to see what happened! I am curious though. Why would taking an empty suitcase over and bringing it back full preclude your flying?

The problem with short flights is that they are mainly operated by the low cost airlines and rely on everyone taking hand luggage only. If you have luggage they then charge crazy fees, so this along with the time for baggage check in & collection etc. made flights unattractive. Also there were no suitable flights from our local airport Liverpool so we would have had to go to Manchester incurring extra time and cost.

Train cost £205 ($270) each total journey time home to DLP approx 10 hours, Plane cost £330 ($435) each total time home to DLP approx 6 hours. Put all these together and we felt that theTrain was the best option.
I am sure you will agree

I am Sulley wrote:

Amy wrote:Whoo-hoo ~ can't wait to see what happened! I am curious though. Why would taking an empty suitcase over and bringing it back full preclude your flying?

The problem with short flights is that they are mainly operated by the low cost airlines and rely on everyone taking hand luggage only. If you have luggage they then charge crazy fees, so this along with the time for baggage check in & collection etc. made flights unattractive. Also there were no suitable flights from our local airport Liverpool so we would have had to go to Manchester incurring extra time and cost.

Train cost £205 ($270) each total journey time home to DLP approx 10 hours, Plane cost £330 ($435) each total time home to DLP approx 6 hours. Put all these together and we felt that theTrain was the best option.
I am sure you will agree

Ah, I see ~ yes, I would have done the same with the train I'm sure ~ thanks!

Day 1 Sunday 21st January

Our other daughter took us across to Liverpool for our early Sunday morning train to London. It was raining and cold, but it was mid-January so no surprise there. As we sped on our way we had the unusual experience of travelling at 100mph through heavy snow. Outside everywhere was white and it was like looking through a strange white mist appearing to move sideways. As we approaced London the snow turned back to rain which was fortunately not too heavy for the 5 minute walk between stations. We had never used EuroStar before but it has airline style check in and we chuckled to ouselves as our "Russian Doll" suitcase was scanned. What must they have thought?

We had to change trains in Lille which has to be one of the dullest stations in the world, not helped by poor signage which even my wifes (very) basic French could not deal with. We found our train and continued on through the heavy rain. About 30 to 40 mins before DLP(Marne La Vallee) we started to notice flooding. This got worse with whole fields under water and rivers that had clearly burst their banks. We saw several partially submerged vehicles

DLP was reached at about 4 o'clock and we stepped out of the station to .............. More Heavy Rain.
Dashing across to find our Bus Stop we squeezed under the inadequte shelter with about 100 other very wet people & crying soaked children exiting the parks early. We couldn't get the first bus but a second came along pretty quickly for what is actually only a 5 minute trip. Check in at Hotel Santa Fe went ok and luckily our room was only across the road, just 20 seconds in the rain.
We had about an hour before we were to meet "Princess" so relaxed and dryed out a bit before once again heading back out into the rain for the bus back to the Park entrance. We got there in good time and huddled in the doorway of the World of Disney store. I then realised that I had left our Park tickets in our room. Ooops! We were hoping to see the fireworks. I raced off, caught a bus, was able to run to our room for the tickets and board the same bus back seconds before it left and be back only minutes after our daughter arrived.

Disneyland Paris by wdw1998, on Flickr

With time limited we took the simple option for some fast food and then headed into the Disneyland Park. It was dark & raining so it was impossible to get any true impression of it but it did seem like a cute minature version of MK at WDW.
Thankfully the rain had now become light as the fireworks had been in doubt due to the weather. They were very good as you would expect but we didn't hang around at the end.
Disneyland Paris by wdw1998, on Flickr

Princess had to come back to our hotel for the suitcase. Whilst in our room she remarked about the strange noise which came and went. We thought nothing of it and after a little time chatting I saw her back on the bus and being now quite tired we turned in for the night.

What a soggy first day ~ that was so fortunate that you were able to run and grab your park tickets so quickly. That is something that likely wouldn't happen at WDW, and certainly not the same bus!
Lovely photos so far. Looking forward to some more

Just to show how wet it was when we arrived on the Sunday. I found this youtube video of the parade. Our Princess was Anna and was struggling with the rain in her eyes! You can watch her from about 8 mins in.

Here is the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SE74_x ... LPHx6K9W6k

It was wet!!!

Wow ~ yeah, that's a lot of wetness!

Cool to see her up there performing though!

Day 2 Monday 22nd January: Part 1

Hotel Santa Fe is Cars themed with cute roadways and scenery between the several buildings laid out in four groups.
Disney's Hotel Santa Fe by wdw1998, on Flickr

We did want to stay in Hotel Cheyenne as our older daughter had stayed there before Christmas but unfortunately the food area Chuck Wagon Cafe was closed for refurb so we opted for Santa Fe. We were put in building 42 room 14, very handy for the shop and food area, particularly in the rain and adjacent to the entrance door. BUT...........
Remember our Princess had remarked about the intermittent throbbing noise. Well when all is quiet you notice things more don't you. I have to say we had probably the worst nights sleep in living memory. The noise which seemed ever louder woke us on numerous occasions, not to mention the noisy doorway. I really cannot say how much actual sleep I had but rose to a banging headache and quite honestly felt like ****!
I could not sleep here for two more nights.
We stepped outside to, yes you guessed, more heavy rain!
Breakfast was at "La Cantina". It was at this point that we discovered our dining package only covered Breakfast at Restaurant Des Stars in Studios Park and 0830 only. Alternatively we could get 12 Euro each off the 16 Euro breakfast at La Cantina. Ok that didn't sound too bad until you discover that the French don't eat in the morning. 16 Euro for some cold croissants, bread, cheese, and ham. I found some cereal and a toaster but honestly Disney this was a pretty poor show and certainly not good value. People were taking piles of bread, butter and ham or jam(jelly) and making their lunchtime sandwiches at the table.

Next stop the front desk to request a room change, which to be fair they did without question. Sorted and awake at last we headed off to the Park.

Princess was working this day so we were waiting to hear what she was doing. She texted to say that she would be Chip in the Main Park but due to the bad weather did not know where yet.
So cue Disneyland Paris at 0940 in the rain !!!!
Disneyland Paris by wdw1998, on Flickr

We started looking around the shops to keep dry only to receive a text to say that she was going to be in Studios Park from 1100 by one of the theatres. Back into the rain across to Studios, it is lucky that the parks are closer together than at WDW
The way our luck was going we chose what turned out to be the wrong theatre where we spoke to a CM who confirmed that Chip & Dale would be out at 1100, however at about 1110 she checked again and told us that they were at the other theatre
The problem now - Was that our Chip? We hung around til 1130 when we got the simple text "What are you doing?" We were able to agree with her that we would get back in the line for her coming back out at 1200
We timed it perfect, third in line for our Chip and a VERY, VERY, excited one too. Lots of hugs off Chip (& Dale too). Dale was running off with my camera and getting the CM's, who knew who we were, to take photos, it was such good fun which must have looked a bit odd to those watching in the queue.
Meeting Chip & Dale by wdw1998, on Flickr

We now had 15 minutes to get back into the main Disneyland Park for our lunch which was booked for 1230 at Plaza Gardens. Splashing our way through the relentless rain we made it with seconds to spare.
Time to relax, recharge our batteries and reflect that maybe our luck so far was starting to turn around after meeting Chip.

You guys are serious troopers, given your smiles in that photo! The rain, bad night's sleep, and lousy breakfast would have significantly altered my mood for the worse!

I, too, had a less-than-stellar experience at Hotel Santa Fe. Lots of room noise and my front door WOULD NOT EVEN LATCH!

Hopefully, now that Disney owns the property we will see steady improvement in the resort quality as well as experience.

what a great photo of you all together! Definitely worth the running around in the rain in order to get to the right place
What was the source of the noise at the hotel? Construction?
Bummer about your breakfast ~ for that price, I don't blame the people making sandwiches for later. I would likely have done the same thing.