Disneyland Paris

German schools have two weeks off in October for a fall break so we decided to do some traveling while Oscar had time off from school.  The first week we went to Disneyland Paris for four days and three nights.  We left on Monday morning and returned late on Thursday night.

One thing I discovered when we were thinking about booking this trip is that the British version of the website consistently had lower prices (sometimes by as much as 50%) and better promotions (ie, kids under 12 are free with paying adults) than any of the other country versions of the website.  So it makes a lot of sense to book through the UK website.  Except the British version of the website requires a British address when booking a vacation.  I was doing some poking around online and I came across a pretty fantastic tip -- it turns out that http://www.expedia.co.uk usually offers the same promotions as http://disneylandparis.co.uk except they don't enforce the address restriction.  So I booked our trip through Expedia and paid the British price (in pounds).

We stayed at the Davey Crocket Ranch -- a set of "log cabins" (trailers) that provide more room for families.  The trailers aren't huge but they do have a kitchen and a living room so they are definitely bigger than a standard hotel room.  Some of the cabins looked to have been recently replaced / renovated but ours wasn't so great.  It was definitely old and it wasn't very clean.  I probably should have complained about it before we unpacked.  After we had unpacked everything, we didn't want to deal with the hassle of moving to a new place when we were only going to be there for three nights anyway.

Cobweb in the front door.  Yuck.

Wad of toilet paper stuffed in a hole in the ceiling.  Nasty!

Baseboard in bathroom is rotting.  Floor isn't clean either...

Wallpaper in bathroom is coming apart.  Is that mold on the wall?

So the trailer wasn't so great.  The parks were better but things there were not fantastic either.  The biggest problem was that lots of rides were closed.

The race cars were closed the last three days of our trip.  Oscar never got to do his favorite ride.

He had to settle for a photo with the car parked on the street.

No Buzz Lightyear for us...

We saw signs like this all over the park.

Even the restaurant Tina wanted to visit was closed.

We were disappointed about not getting to do some of our favorite rides but we still found plenty of other things to do.

Lightning McQueen ride

Slinky has a ride too.

We rode the train.

Captian EO was lame.  At least the glasses were cute.

The "ranch" had a very nice swimming pool.  I took the boys swimming one night.  Afterward, we got our photos taken with Pluto.

We saw several parades...

Buzz Lightyear frames the entrance to Toy Story Playland.  It opened in August. 

Magic Carpet ride...

Sara enjoyed her first trip to a Disney property

She also slept a lot.

There are lots of signs telling people that picnicing in the park is not allowed.  Whatever.  I'm not paying 9 € for a burger and some fries.

The official picnic area (outside the parks).  We walked past this every day and never saw a single person there.  On the other hand, we did see lots of families eating lunch on benches in the parks.

Photos on Main Street

The garden maze was a lot of fun.

The hotel where Tina wanted to stay.

Scenic photo of the big castle.  We decided to take some photos with each member of our family in front of the castle.

Disneyland Paris used to be known as Euro Disney.  I was surprised to see that the rebranding did not include replacing the signage on this clock.

We left on Thursday afternoon and had a five hour drive back home.  On the way home, we stopped at Ramstein Air Base to fill up gas and eat dinner at the food court.

Unlike Germany, Autobahns in France all have a maximum speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour (81 MPH).  They also are not free -- the trip cost us 54€ in tolls (27€ each way)!

Many traffic signs in France use an all-caps font.  Ugh.  This guy isn't a big fan either.

Speed limit signs often feature the word "Rappel."  I had to ask Google what this was all about.

Disneyland Paris was not a bad trip but it could have been a lot better.  Maybe we'll try again next year...