Ms Poppins
I'm sure I'm very affected by all this Disney talk
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2009
The Cast
Me – Julie – 47
DH – John – 51
DS1 - Mark - 28
DS2 – Lewis – 18
Pre-trippie
Day 1
Tuesday 18 October
The alarm woke us at 5:30. It was finally here, after 3 years we were going back to Disney
We were soon ready and on our way to pick up Mark before heading to the airport. We said goodbye to our very own princess Abbey, who dropped us off. The airport was busy but with just hand luggage we were quickly through security and soon having some breakfast. Our flight was called and we boarded were on our way!
Everything went smoothly and Lewis was stunned when we landed – for some reason he thought it was a longer flight but was only an hour and 25 minutes. However, as is the norm in Charles de Gaulle the taxi to our stand took another 10 minutes or so. We still made it on time.
I’d been hearing of long delays at airport and that passport control could take forever. Our flight landed at terminal 2B, which used to be where we landed years ago but had been closed for a major refurb. We got through passport control quite quickly, I think around 10-15 minutes. As we walked into the baggage claim area however it was absolutely packed with people.
We didn’t have bags to collect but this was the way to the exit. It was soon clear that the exit was closed off. Another 10 minutes or so of waiting and the police opened the exit. It was a bit of a scrum but we managed to get through and found John from Ezyshuttle waiting with our name on a sign. There were lots of other private transfer drivers there and also loads of people asking if you wanted a taxi.
Happy to have found John, we followed him into the car park. He asked if everyone was here. Then he looked around and asked again and asked where the kids were. I pointed to our 2 6 footers and he laughed. He had got mixed up and thought we had kids with us and had booster seats all set up in the car for them
It was 11:50 now, so it had taken us 35 minutes total to get from landing to being in the car, pretty good I think. John explained that the fuel problem was still ongoing and that today was indeed a general strike with some trains not running. I think the TGV from the airport were limited if not cancelled, so that’s maybe why there were so many taxi touts around. I don’t recall seeing quite so many. It seemed like every second person we saw tried to stop us.
Happy to be in the safe hands of Ezyshuttle we enjoyed the 45 minute drive to Disney. John said he was avoiding the motorways and they’d been filled with people queueing up trying to get fuel. We’ve often gone the back roads to Disney with them, but I’m sure we go a different way every time
Soon we could see Hotel New York in the distance. It looked fantastic. Dropped off at the hotel, John confirmed that he’d ensure we were picked up on Thursday for our return journey.
** A note about getting to Disney from the airport. Because I thought we wouldn’t get picked up due to the fuel crisis, I did a bit of research:
Train - I often hear that the TGV high speed train ‘only takes 10 minutes’. Yes it does, from the time you are actually on the train. However, you need to get from your terminal to the station. Even if you land in the same terminal it’s almost impossible to predict how long it will take you to go through passport control, get bags etc. Therefore it’s difficult to pre-book. When I was looking there was a train 45 minutes after we landed. We would not have made this one. There wasn’t another for 50 minutes. If booking when you land, you take a chance that the train is full or you pay more. Prices I found ranged from 17E – 30E. Factor in that you then have to get out of the train station at Disney and either walk to your hotel with your luggage or use the shuttle bus. If you’re staying off-site, the shuttle buses serve more than one hotel, so can be busy and difficult to do with luggage. I think you might be able to use the luggage express service here (not sure if that's reserved for Eurostar customers) but there is another cost to add on if you do.
The Magic Shuttle - Bus has a schedule approx. every hour. We would have missed the one after we landed and then they take a short break so would have been waiting in the airport for close to an hour and a half. The cost currently is 23E per adult. I’ve also looked at a few youtube videos and it looks like a 15 minute walk from where we landed. The drive time is also longer because you are dropped off at multiple hotels.
Private Transfer – Door to door. A driver waits for you just outside baggage claim with your name on a sign. If you have kids you can ask for a car seat or booster seat. Drive to Disney is usually around 40 minutes. You’re dropped at your hotel entrance. The return journey is exactly the same and you’re driven to the terminal you’re leaving from. The cost with Ezyshuttle is currently 80E each way. I think this is really good value and I don’t think you can beat the convenience of it, especially if you have young kids and loads of luggage or have someone with walking difficulties.
Obviously the make-up of your travelling party and costs will determine if it’s worth it for you, but if we’d got the Magic Shuttle it would have been more than we paid for the private transfer and taken longer.***
Anyway, sorry, on with the story! We were here
We walked into the Hotel New York, Art of Marvel for the umpteenth time…..but it looked very different! The first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. The entire lobby was just gorgeous.
Our boys are massive Marvel fans and they were in awe of the art around the area. They went off to explore and John and I went off to check in. Our bags had been taken by the bell boy outside and we were told they’d be in our room when we got back. I’d checked in using the app before we travelled, printing off the required forms to sign, so handed them over when we got to reception. The app had also said that you’d be sent a text or email with your room number when the room was available. The receptionist was lovely. She gave us our magic passes – oh look at the design on them!
We were also given the Daily Bugle, which is full of hotel information for our stay and some Halloween badges. She said however that we did need to come back to reception after 15:00 to find out our room number and also to activate our magic passes as room keys.
A new photo location in the lobby replaces the old taxi prop
**I'll do a full hotel review later**
Happy to be here we were soon on our way into the village.
It was so quiet – I wondered if the fuel strike and train strike would make things a bit quieter today? It was just after 1pm now and we were all hungry so headed to Earl of Sandwich. I noticed that the balloon has changed colour since our last visit.
Inside EOS it wasn’t too busy and we used the self-serve machines to place our order. Too late I remembered about my shareholder discount, never mind, I’d make up for it for the rest of the trip, lol. John, Lewis and I enjoyed an Original and Mark had something different, I don’t recall what.
Me – Julie – 47
DH – John – 51
DS1 - Mark - 28
DS2 – Lewis – 18
Pre-trippie
Day 1
Tuesday 18 October
The alarm woke us at 5:30. It was finally here, after 3 years we were going back to Disney
We were soon ready and on our way to pick up Mark before heading to the airport. We said goodbye to our very own princess Abbey, who dropped us off. The airport was busy but with just hand luggage we were quickly through security and soon having some breakfast. Our flight was called and we boarded were on our way!
Everything went smoothly and Lewis was stunned when we landed – for some reason he thought it was a longer flight but was only an hour and 25 minutes. However, as is the norm in Charles de Gaulle the taxi to our stand took another 10 minutes or so. We still made it on time.
I’d been hearing of long delays at airport and that passport control could take forever. Our flight landed at terminal 2B, which used to be where we landed years ago but had been closed for a major refurb. We got through passport control quite quickly, I think around 10-15 minutes. As we walked into the baggage claim area however it was absolutely packed with people.
We didn’t have bags to collect but this was the way to the exit. It was soon clear that the exit was closed off. Another 10 minutes or so of waiting and the police opened the exit. It was a bit of a scrum but we managed to get through and found John from Ezyshuttle waiting with our name on a sign. There were lots of other private transfer drivers there and also loads of people asking if you wanted a taxi.
Happy to have found John, we followed him into the car park. He asked if everyone was here. Then he looked around and asked again and asked where the kids were. I pointed to our 2 6 footers and he laughed. He had got mixed up and thought we had kids with us and had booster seats all set up in the car for them
It was 11:50 now, so it had taken us 35 minutes total to get from landing to being in the car, pretty good I think. John explained that the fuel problem was still ongoing and that today was indeed a general strike with some trains not running. I think the TGV from the airport were limited if not cancelled, so that’s maybe why there were so many taxi touts around. I don’t recall seeing quite so many. It seemed like every second person we saw tried to stop us.
Happy to be in the safe hands of Ezyshuttle we enjoyed the 45 minute drive to Disney. John said he was avoiding the motorways and they’d been filled with people queueing up trying to get fuel. We’ve often gone the back roads to Disney with them, but I’m sure we go a different way every time
Soon we could see Hotel New York in the distance. It looked fantastic. Dropped off at the hotel, John confirmed that he’d ensure we were picked up on Thursday for our return journey.
** A note about getting to Disney from the airport. Because I thought we wouldn’t get picked up due to the fuel crisis, I did a bit of research:
Train - I often hear that the TGV high speed train ‘only takes 10 minutes’. Yes it does, from the time you are actually on the train. However, you need to get from your terminal to the station. Even if you land in the same terminal it’s almost impossible to predict how long it will take you to go through passport control, get bags etc. Therefore it’s difficult to pre-book. When I was looking there was a train 45 minutes after we landed. We would not have made this one. There wasn’t another for 50 minutes. If booking when you land, you take a chance that the train is full or you pay more. Prices I found ranged from 17E – 30E. Factor in that you then have to get out of the train station at Disney and either walk to your hotel with your luggage or use the shuttle bus. If you’re staying off-site, the shuttle buses serve more than one hotel, so can be busy and difficult to do with luggage. I think you might be able to use the luggage express service here (not sure if that's reserved for Eurostar customers) but there is another cost to add on if you do.
The Magic Shuttle - Bus has a schedule approx. every hour. We would have missed the one after we landed and then they take a short break so would have been waiting in the airport for close to an hour and a half. The cost currently is 23E per adult. I’ve also looked at a few youtube videos and it looks like a 15 minute walk from where we landed. The drive time is also longer because you are dropped off at multiple hotels.
Private Transfer – Door to door. A driver waits for you just outside baggage claim with your name on a sign. If you have kids you can ask for a car seat or booster seat. Drive to Disney is usually around 40 minutes. You’re dropped at your hotel entrance. The return journey is exactly the same and you’re driven to the terminal you’re leaving from. The cost with Ezyshuttle is currently 80E each way. I think this is really good value and I don’t think you can beat the convenience of it, especially if you have young kids and loads of luggage or have someone with walking difficulties.
Obviously the make-up of your travelling party and costs will determine if it’s worth it for you, but if we’d got the Magic Shuttle it would have been more than we paid for the private transfer and taken longer.***
Anyway, sorry, on with the story! We were here
We walked into the Hotel New York, Art of Marvel for the umpteenth time…..but it looked very different! The first thing I noticed was how quiet it was. The entire lobby was just gorgeous.
Our boys are massive Marvel fans and they were in awe of the art around the area. They went off to explore and John and I went off to check in. Our bags had been taken by the bell boy outside and we were told they’d be in our room when we got back. I’d checked in using the app before we travelled, printing off the required forms to sign, so handed them over when we got to reception. The app had also said that you’d be sent a text or email with your room number when the room was available. The receptionist was lovely. She gave us our magic passes – oh look at the design on them!
We were also given the Daily Bugle, which is full of hotel information for our stay and some Halloween badges. She said however that we did need to come back to reception after 15:00 to find out our room number and also to activate our magic passes as room keys.
A new photo location in the lobby replaces the old taxi prop
**I'll do a full hotel review later**
Happy to be here we were soon on our way into the village.
It was so quiet – I wondered if the fuel strike and train strike would make things a bit quieter today? It was just after 1pm now and we were all hungry so headed to Earl of Sandwich. I noticed that the balloon has changed colour since our last visit.
Inside EOS it wasn’t too busy and we used the self-serve machines to place our order. Too late I remembered about my shareholder discount, never mind, I’d make up for it for the rest of the trip, lol. John, Lewis and I enjoyed an Original and Mark had something different, I don’t recall what.
