DLP: Day 1

After three fun days in London, we packed up for part two of our European adventures:  a trip in the Chunnel to France for three days at Disneyland Paris.   We did get to practice our French (mostly bonjour, merci and sil vous plait) but this was a pretty easy entre into Europe with the familiarity of Disney and the many English speakers.   John and William saw the Eiffel Tower out the train window (I didn't) but that was the closest we got to Paris.   The park complex is about 20 minutes from the airport and 45 minutes outside city center, so we were totally within the Disney bubble for our entire trip.

The Eurostar train leaves from St. Pancras station in London and makes two stops outside London before the express train to Disneyland.   At the two stops we collected some very, uh, interesting...guests.  If there isn't a Housewives of Suburban London there should be!   There were two families that kept me entertained/annoyed the entire 3 hour trip.    I'm not sure if I was more intrigued/offended by the preschooler drinking Coca-Cola out of a baby bottle or his dad (who appeared around 20 years old) at 11 a.m. having his third beer from the snack car arguing with his friend that he didn't have a drinking problem.  No surprise they were behind us checking into our hotel a few hours later!  But I don't recall seeing them the rest of our trip.

The Disneyland Paris complex is two parks, a shopping area, and several themed hotels.  We stayed at Disneyland Hotel, a beautiful pink Victorian style building that is at the entrance of the castle park.   We didn't see the other hotels since they were a 15-20 minute walk (or short bus shuttle ride) away on the other side of the shopping village. 

I read many blogs in advance of the trip and got hints on how/where to book. They have different pricing/websites for different languages, so I checked all the English version ones (US, Canada, and UK) to find the best prices and got a great deal booking an all-inclusive package of hotel, tickets, and dining plan through Disneyland Paris's UK website.    Expedia was the next best deal.   In last place was the US version of the DLP website.

 

After checking into our room, we headed right to Parc Disneyland where the castle is pink and has the surprise of a dragon underneath! 

It was around 3 p.m. when we got to the park.  We enjoyed a late lunch, exploring the park, riding a few rides (mostly trying for the unique rides like "Hyper" Space Mountain (Star Wars themed Space Mountain) and then caught the fireworks and park closing before heading back to our hotel for dinner.  

Our two meals that day were Walt's on Main Street and Inventions character dinner at our hotel.   We ate dinner each night after the park closed (between 9 and 10 p.m.) to maximize our park time.   Our daily schedule was rope drop, return to the hotel for brunch before it closed at 11, late lunch (2-3 p.m.) and then dinner (9-10 p.m.).   At meals, I would approach the hostess and greet them in French and then after pleasantries would say, "Anglais, sil vous plait." to let them know we needed an English speaking server.  They would write that on our ticket and then the rest of the meal was primarily English with a few French words thrown in (un chocolat, deux café).  There are many UK and non-French European guests there, so lots of English is spoken.   The face characters spoke English and the furry characters certainly appeared to understand it, because William had a hilarious interaction with Chip and Dale (separately) about which one was the best.  The end result was a march across the restaurant so Chip could "confront" Dale for signing William's book as the best.  I mean, clearly, Chip is always first in Chip and Dale!  It was a cute end to the day -especially with the Mickey photobomb.

London: Day 3

We had one more full day to be tourists, and for this day the highlight was the Tower of London.  I had done this tour on my previous trip in 2016 but I couldn't wait to share it with the guys.  They loved it as much as I hoped and we ended up spending 4 hours there.  That meant a few other "optional" stops that were free admission with our London Pass were axed but it was worth it to really enjoy the Tower.

My original plan was to take the Underground there and then walk back via all of the stops we were going to make along the way.   Turns out it was cheaper, faster and easier to take Uber there than pay for three fares plus Oyster cards for the Tube - not to mention the timetable and navigating stops.  So, I've now been to London twice and never stepped foot into an Underground station.   I'm actually a little disappointed since I love the DC Metro and the NYC Subway, and have ridden both with William.  Oh well....maybe next time!

The iconic Tower of London sits along the Thames River and is an absolute "Must Do" in London.  But you shouldn't just walk in and self-guide.  You MUST join up with one of the Yeoman Warder (i.e. Beefeater) free tours.   Just an amazing amount of history and personality!  Our guide was Bob and he was amazing about getting the kid up front to see him and get engaged in the story telling at each of the stops as we moved through the grounds.

We saw a changing of the guards in front of the Crown Jewels building.  (Good thing, since we never made it over to Buckingham Palace for a formal look - just a quick drive past in the airport taxi.)  The other highlight was definitely the ravens.  I remember hearing about the ravens on my first tour, but didn't otherwise pay them much mind.  But on this day, one of the pairs (there are three) were among the people in the courtyard and people were getting really close.  It was quite the sight!

There was a troupe that did a little roleplay in front of White Hall.  And William enjoyed both souvenir shops!  I got a Christmas ornament (my usual!) and he picked out a raven.

We had a late lunch reservation across the river at a Jamie Oliver restaurant that I had eaten at on my last trip.  So we crossed Tower Bridge and started working our way along the South Bank.  When I was there last time, I stayed in the hotel where the restaurant was located, so the walk across Tower Bridge was done multiple times per day as part of our sight seeing adventures.   Lunch was tasty and re-energized us for our next stop:  the HMS Belfast which is anchored in the Thames across from the Tower and with a great view of the bridge.

  

It was overcast and drizzled throughout the day (true London weather?), so after the Tower, lunch and the Belfast, we retired to our hotel via another Uber.   We enjoyed a swim in the hotel pool and then ordered room service again to enjoy while we packed for part two of our trip.

London: Day 2

I never got tired of that Big Ben view!  In addition to sitting in bed watching the sun set, I took pictures of it every morning from the executive lounge during breakfast.  We were lucky to stock up on food (and coffee and chocolate) each morning so we weren't hangry as we were seeing the sights.  Because while I usually have our meals perfectly planned out on vacations, for this part of our trip, I made zero plans.   So that ended up meaning 3 full lounge breakfasts, snacks for lunch, and room service or McDonald's for dinner.  

Our destination this day was Kensington Palace which was going to require a ride on the Underground.  However, when we got outside, the temperatures were mild and the sun was shining, so we used our London Pass privileges on the hop on-hop off bus and rode via tour bus over to the stop for KP.   I was very pleasantly surprised by all of the green space around the palace.  It reminded me of Central Park in New York.   We enjoyed people (and dog and squirrel and bird) watching before heading inside for a self-guided tour.

After our time inside learning more about Queen Victoria and seeing Princess Diana's fashions on special exhibit (whew, that was a claustrophobic room!), we retired to the café for Jell-O and then walked around in the palace gardens.  I also did some online research about where all the current royals live in the castle currently.   (Spoiler alert: we didn't run into any!)   And even though it was brisk and William had just eaten a snack, we got another one at the ice cream truck on our way out!  I mean, we needed energy to walk to the Natural History Museum!

By this time it was mid-afternoon and our feet were getting tired.  At least time were.  But we were in the "neighborhood" of the Natural History Museum, and this was our only time over in this area, so we popped in.  Luckily, like a lot of London attractions, the admission is free.  They ask for a 5 pound donation or charge for a map or audio guide but you technically could go in for free.  Since we were only invested the 5 pounds, I didn't feel bad knowing we would last less than 2 hours.   I had a list of "must sees" including dinosaur fossils and the casts from Pompeii.  We saw those plus much more!

After our long day, we retired back to the executive lounge to plot out a plan for dinner.   William and I were too tired to leave the hotel again, so we went to the first floor near the London Eye where there was a McDonald's and got cheeseburgers to eat in our room.  John's wine/espresso combo got him the energy to walk across the river to a traditional pub.   I don't blame him for not wanting McD!  And I don't blame me for crawling into bed and appeasing a jet lagged kid.  The lizard was William's first souvenir of the trip.  A nice 3 pound find at the Natural History museum gift shop.