Lonely Caterpillar
 

Just like we dreamed it.

I am currently sat in my snuggly pjs with a big mug of tea and a chocolate bar catching up on tv after having been on another wonderful Disneyland Paris holiday with my lovely family, I could sleep for a year, (I will do another blog on arthritis and ASD aspects of this trip) but it was wonderful and totally worth the tiredness I now feel.

This trip was something a little different from our previous trips, we travelled with another family and we also flew from Dublin to Beauvais both new experiences for us.

Our flight from Dublin to Beauvais was very easy and smooth and although it added to our travel time but Ben (who complained for months about having to fly from Dublin) and I have agreed we would both do this route again. We flew with ryan air whom we haven’t flown with in around 8 years and I have to say our last experience wasn’t a great one. However despite being hesitant the flight price was over £300 difference and that was will all the added hidden extras so it was too good a price to pass on and we where not disappointed. The staff where friendly and helpful on both sides the flight was smooth, we booked our seats together in advance and had no bother and there was plenty of space for our bags etc, although be sure to get there early as only the first 90 handluggage bags are gaurenteed on the plane in a busy flight, I also didn’t realise that you can take a handbag and a hand luggage bag, something that EasyJet do not allow and I will remember for next time. Dublin Airport where wonderful especially with Elijah but I will touch on that more in my next blog. Beauvais airport is very small but effiecient and after Dublin being so big it was quite nice to have everything so close together on the other side. Transfers where what we thought would increase our cost flying this was however we booked a shared shuttle with RS transport, a company we had used for a private transferee from Charles de gaule previously for only 20 euro more than what we had paid from cdg and we actually ended up with a private transfere each way, the only negative was on the way to the hotel they had forgotten to bring two car seats, we explained the problem but on the way back they had brought both.  It took and hour and a half both ways compaired to about 40mins from CDG but both kids slept the whole journey there and back. I would definatly do this again but I would also stick to the early flight and late flight to avoid traffic.

We left our house at 2am on Saturday morning to get a 6.30 flight, we where at our hotel by around 11am however our room wouldn’t be ready until three. This was also a first for us as we where staying off site for the first night, we choose Adagio aparthotel near val de Europe as we didn’t have park tickets for the first day. We thought it would be good to have a day to recover from our journey and also we book off sight for the first night in order to get full use of our 4 nights 5 days in the park. The hotel was nice and spacious, you could easily stay here for a week and travel by their free shuttle bus to the parks (ten mins on the bus). it is self catering and you have a small kitchen and a bedroom and two pull out beds in the living room area and a dinning table, to be fair its probably nicer than the rooms at santa fe/Cheyenne but I’m not quite ready to stay off site for a whole trip just yet. Bare in mind of you are thnking of doing this you will need to buy park tickets and its often much cheaper to buy an annual pass if you are staying for four days or more.

On Sunday morning we booked a taxi to pick us up because of all our luggage at 7.15am and take us to hotel Cheyenne, we checked in within ten minuets and our room was already ready so we dropped off our bags met our friends and walked into the park in time for magic hours….

Some useful links

we booked our off site stay from www.booking.com

As always we booked our Disney stay directly through Disneyland Paris, this time we booked over the phone and paid a deposit initially. However you can also pay in full online. www.disneylandparis.co.uk the two nights two days free offer will almost always be your best offer but if you have children over 7 be sure to check the other European Disneyland sites to check for an under 12 stay free offer or if you are doing a shorter trip then the 30%/40% off and free meal plan offers might work out better for you. Play around with dates etc and always shop around.

Ryanair worked out so well for us this time and I truly couldn’t fault their service, as always shop around and check the cost of transport from Beauvais before you book as its very expensive with some companies but this is a journey we would defiantly do again. https://www.ryanair.com/ie/en/

The most useful Disney website with weekly schedules, menus etc is www.dlpguide.com

http://www.rstransports.com/ This is who we used for our transfers from Beauvais and we have previously used them from CDG too.

My favourite Facebook Disney page is The Disney Village (search and request to join).

The Dublin Airport website is also fab for anyone with autism as you have the ability to look around the airport and be prepared for the trip ahead.

https://www.dublinairport.com/