Delays, Upgrades and ……. “Just Slam The Door”
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It was 3.30am when the first alarm went off. It got turned off and
we closed our eyes again. At 3.45 it could no longer be avoided, we
had to get up. We got ready, had a bite to eat, said goodbye to
Pixie, the cat and got in the car for the drive to the airport.
Thankfully at 5am the streets are empty and we made it to the
airport in the shortest possible time. We left the car in the short
term area, picked up the suitcases and headed inside the airport to
drop off our luggage before parking the car. There were just two
people in line and our luggage was gone in no time. We went back to
the car, drove to the car park, parked the car and went back to the
airport with only our hand luggage. Getting through security was
easy and after a short walk through the duty-free shop it was time
to board the plane to Frankfurt. |
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They started de-icing the plane and we were all in for leaving on
time, when we were informed that we had to wait for another 10
minutes until we could take off. Don't you just love a vacation that
starts with a delay? Once we had reached cruising altitude the
flight attendants started handing out
Coconut Macaroons and
served some drinks. It didn’t take long and it was time to fold up
our tables and get ready for landing again. |
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We had some time to kill in Frankfurt and since the new gate was
very close to where we had arrived we just looked for a table and
settled there to watch the picture perfect dawn. |
It was also time to consume the second breakfast we had brought from
home, a sesame roll with some Italian ham. The connecting flight
took off in time and after being handed a
Cheese Sandwich and some
Coke we landed in Paris. We were shocked when we looked out the
plane window and it was raining. Well, one can’t change the weather
so we decided to play along with it. Tom went ahead and picked up
the rental car, while I waited for our luggage. When I arrived at
the Hertz counter Tom was just signing the contract and we were off
in no time, to discover that we had gotten an upgrade on the car!
Yippie! We loaded our luggage into the car and off we went. About 5
minutes into our trip the rain stopped, and we hoped that it would
stay that way! It took us about 40 minutes to get to Magny le
Hongre and we decided to pick up some baguette at the little
boulangerie round the corner from the hotel. |
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We could not believe it, but even at quarter to 12 there was a line
nearly out the door. At 10 to 12 we arrived at the hotel ready to
pre-check in, but we were told that was not possible and to return
after 3pm. So we turned around and went back to the car to discuss
what to do. By that time we both felt a little hungry, so we decided
to head to the Disney Village for some lunch. We had the option of
parking at the main parking lot for free or to use the new parking
structure at the Disney Village. Disney Village parking involved
less walking so it won. When we entered the structure a poster
caught my eye. Discounted parking for pass holders! My French is not
all that good, but I did understand the gist of it and so once we
had parked the car we went to the office to ask about the terms.
Turns out that if you are a pass holder you can park there all day
for just 2 Euros. Yeah! Guess that makes parking at the main lot,
which is quite a hike away from the parks, an even less appealing
option. So we paid our 2 Euros and went over to Annette’s Diner to
find out if we could get a table. |
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We got in line and it was just a 5 minute wait and we were taken to
our table. We both ordered Diet Cokes and since their speciality are
burgers, we both got one. Tom got the
Double Rockabilly Burger,
a double burger, fried onion ring, bacon, cheese, BBQ sauce and
French fries. The Little
Italy Burger had caught my eye. It was a beef burger,
mozzarella, eggplant, sundried tomatoes, ham, pesto, foccacia bread,
accompanied by French fries and coleslaw. Both burgers were really
good and hit the spot. We even decided on trying dessert. Tom
decided on trying Annette’s
Café Gourmand, coffee, accompanied by a mini doughnut, a dark
chocolate brownie and a mini vanilla milk-shake. There were a lot of
nice desserts on the menu and I decided on ordering the
Cheesiest Choice of
Cheesecake, classic bruleed cheesecake made with Philadelphia
Cheese, sautéed apples with Annette’s Caramel, grilled almonds,
caramel ice-cream and whipped cream. |
We left the restaurant stuffed and very happy. Since we were already
at the Disney Village we decided to stroll through the shops and
look for new merchandise. We were surprised to find quite a few new
things. Once we had gone through all the shops we headed back to the
car and went to the Val d’Europe shopping center to do some grocery
shopping. A little after 3pm we were done shopping and went back to
the hotel to finally check in. We were the only ones there and we
were checked in in no time and on the way to our little house for
the next 3 nights. We tried to open the door and the key would not
turn. After wiggling it a bit it did open the door, but when we
tried to close it silently it would not stay shut. You had to slam
the door to make it stay shut. |
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The rest of the villa was okay, even though we were surprised that
after only a few years of use it already showed a lot of wear and
tear. But we were still worried about the door. I tried to lock from
the inside and could not turn the key, again! So we went back to
check in, now this time there were a lot of people ahead of us. This
time the guy’s English seemed to be much worse as he pretended not
to understand what we were talking about. He promised a few times to
come and have a look in 10 minutes time, but in the end just handed
us a new key and I guess he hoped that we would be happy with a new
key. Well, we gave up when we found out that the key worked
perfectly and we just continued to “slam the door” shut. Would be
nice to do when we got in after 1am the next day! Once we had
brought everything into to house we rested a little bit and then
headed over to the Downtown Disney car park again. |
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We parked the car, showed our Annual Pass, paid 2 Euros for parking,
received the corrected ticket and off we went. We used the security
entrance to the Walt Disney Studios as they usually have a far
shorter line than the one at the Disneyland Park. And we were right
to do so, there was an empty table so we had our bags open and went
through security in no time. |
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We then walked over to the Disneyland Hotel, took the usual photos
and walked underneath the hotel to the entrance and through the
turnstiles. The park was really crowded, even outside the train
station there were quite a lot of people. As we always do, we
touched the little inscription right underneath the train station
for good luck and for coming back. |
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We slowly strolled through the stores, discovered a few things we
wanted to pick up for friends and family on the way home and finally
made it to the hub. While we were taking in the Halloween
decorations the show at the hub started, so we stayed and watched
and tried to take some photos. But more and more people were moving
into our area and when they started putting their kids on their
shoulders and blocking everyone else’s view completely we gave up
and left the area. We moved around the hub and walked through the
castle to Fantasyland. Nothing new in the Christmas Store inside the
castle, so we walked over to the Carousel and the stores. There were
lots of pumpkins put up, so we started snapping away. Our next stop
was Belle’s Christmas Village. |
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We took a few photos and by then it started to get dark. All the
rides beyond Belle’s village were already closed so we walked over
to Pirates to try our luck there. We both didn’t fancy a 45 minute
wait, so we kept on walking and ended up in Frontierland. They
always have a lot of Halloween photo ops starting right where the
Big Thunder Fast Pass return is, so we headed that way. |
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There were loads of old and new displays and it was fun walking
around taking pictures in the dark.They use changing lighting, so
that the displays are looking a little different every few minutes.
By then it was way past 7pm and since there was no chance to ride
anything and we had gotten up real early in the morning, we decided
to call it a day and leave the parks to go back to our villa at the
Citea. Once there we had a “dinner feast”. |
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We had picked up some lunch meats, Boursin cheese, tomatoes, lots of
baguette and some chips and we sat down and had a leisurely and long
dinner. For dessert Tom had some
Niflettes we had picked
up at the Auchon Market and I still had the
Chocolate Éclair I had
bought at the little bakery. We enjoyed our treats in front of the
TV, where we watched a few TV shows, Tom had taped to bring with us,
as there is only one German channel. |
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We went to bed at around 11pm and decided to sleep in a little the
next morning. |
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