Scottish-Helen
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2002
The cast Helen (31) and DH Ric (32)
I have 3 loves in my life, Ric, Disney and Trance music. So when I read on the internet one evening back in March that the worlds number 1 DJ, Tiesto was playing a special concert at Disneyland Paris to celebrate the opening of Space Mountain - Mission 2 I was so excited and decided I just had to go.
Ric is not really a Disney fan but he puts up with my obsession so we decided to go to Paris itself for 1 night and then Disneyland Paris for 1 night.
(Please feel free to skip the first section of this report as it is about our short time in Paris itself although I would recommend a Segway tour to anybody)
April 15th - Day 1
We caught an Air France flight at 7.35pm from Manchester to Paris. Everything is on time and we land at 10pm. We jump in a taxi to take us to the hotel, Hilton Paris (we have heard all the jokes) as I don't want to have to mess around with public transport at that time of night. This costed us 45 euros.
On arrival at the hotel our request for a room with a view of the Eiffel Tower is granted and we are given room 820 which is a deluxe room and is furnished very nicely. We have a balcony and when you stand outside the Eiffel Tower is right next to us. Every night on the hour the tower has lights all over it which twinkle for 10 minutes and is quite magical. We go to bed about midnight as we have to be up early the next morning to go up the tower and join our segway tour of Paris.
April 16 - Day 2
We get up around 8, go to breakfast and check out of the Hilton. We are keeping the bags here as we are going on a segway tour of Paris this morning. The segway tour meets at the Eiffel Tower at 10.25 so I am hoping that we will have time to go up the tower beforehand. We get to the tower at about 9.15 and join a short queue at one of the legs. The tower opens at 9.30 and we decide to go to the top which costs 10 euros 70. I have been up the CN Tower in Toronto and on the London Eye but I thought the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower was the best. We get down by 10.10 and wait at the bottom for our segway guide to meet us.
I had seen segways on the holiday programme a few months ago and remembered that they did a tour with them at EPCOT. I found out about the Paris tour on tripadvisor and booked on www.citysegwaytours.com For those that don't know what a segway is it is a battery powered personal transportation device which you stand on, it has 2 large wheels at either side and you move it by leaning forwards or backwards and turn using the left hand handle. It has 3 speed setiings using different coloured keys. tourists can go up to the second level which I think was 8mph and felt quite fast. Our tour lasted about 5 hours and the first 40 minutes or so was spent practising before we hit the streets of Paris. I took to my segway straight away and have to say it is one of the most fun things I have ever done. I'm going back to WDW next year and will definitely be trying to get on the EPCOT segway tour round World Showcase.
We finished our tour around 3.30 and reluctantly handed our segways back. We then walked back to the Hilton which was just round the corner from the segway office to collect our luggage before making our way over to DLP
We got the metro a couple of stops up to Charles De Gaulle Etoile to join RER line A where we would get the train to Marne La Vallee and Disnyeyland Paris. The journey cost about 7 euros each and took about 40 minutes.
We got there about 5.15 and decided to walk to our hotel for the next night, the Newport Bay. We walked through Disney Village and round the lake and were at the hotel in about 10 minutes. After reading various reports on the hotel we had paid an extra £8 each for a room on the Admirals Floor so we went to the special check in desk where we were given our room key, 3 fastpasses each for the next day and our tickets for the Tiesto concert.
We were both tired as we had been up early so we went up to our room,8200. I really liked the room with it's nautical theme and it was a good size with a seperate basin outside the bathroom, safe, minibar,kingsize bed, table and chairs by the window, TV. The room was non smoking and I'm a smoker so I left Ric to have a relaxing bath and I went down to have a drink (and a cig) in the Fishermans Wharf bar. I thought this bar was very comfortable but the drinks were a bit pricey (but hey, I'm on holiday). I finished my drink and then went to have a look in the shop, where I could have bought everything but managed to resist.
One of the benefits of the Admirals Floor was room service and so we ordered some for dinner as we were heading over to the Walt Disney Studios at 8pm for the concert. We made sure we had our tickets and then walked over to the Studios.
We got there just after 8 and there was a huge crowd waiting to get into the concert. We waited about half an hour before we got in and the first thing I did upon entering was head straight for Rock N Rollercoaster which is one of my favourite rides in WDW. Ric is not keen on rollercoasters so he waited outside as I went on.Luckliy there was no queue so I was on within 5 minutes. I absolutely love the way you just go into this ride at top speed it's just so exciting! I came off the ride and then we went to see the Armageddon show. I thought this was OK but nothing special. We then headed over to the Studio Tram Tour which was the other ride which had been specially opened. I had been on this before in Florida but Ric hadn't and didn't know about Catastrophe Canyon so that bit was a srprise for him. I had made sure we sat on the right hand side so we didn't get wet. The Walt Disney Studio park is a definite asset to Disneyland Paris but it does need some more attractions which I believe are on the way. Bring on Tower of Terror!!!
When we came off we decided to go over to where the concert stage had been set up as it was a chilly evening and we thought it would be warmer if we got into the crowd. A French DJ, Bob Sinclar was warming up for the main man Tiesto and he was ok but nothing special. At 11.15pm Tiesto himself came on which is what everyone had been waiting for. He played some fantastic tunes and I had a good dance. It got to about 12.30 though and I was just so tired, it had been a long day and I knew I wanted to be on form to enjoy Disneyland itself the next morning so we decided to call it a
night. We walked back to the Newport Bay where my head hit the pillow and I went straight to sleep.
Part 2 to follow..... Disneyland Park
I have 3 loves in my life, Ric, Disney and Trance music. So when I read on the internet one evening back in March that the worlds number 1 DJ, Tiesto was playing a special concert at Disneyland Paris to celebrate the opening of Space Mountain - Mission 2 I was so excited and decided I just had to go.
Ric is not really a Disney fan but he puts up with my obsession so we decided to go to Paris itself for 1 night and then Disneyland Paris for 1 night.
(Please feel free to skip the first section of this report as it is about our short time in Paris itself although I would recommend a Segway tour to anybody)
April 15th - Day 1
We caught an Air France flight at 7.35pm from Manchester to Paris. Everything is on time and we land at 10pm. We jump in a taxi to take us to the hotel, Hilton Paris (we have heard all the jokes) as I don't want to have to mess around with public transport at that time of night. This costed us 45 euros.
On arrival at the hotel our request for a room with a view of the Eiffel Tower is granted and we are given room 820 which is a deluxe room and is furnished very nicely. We have a balcony and when you stand outside the Eiffel Tower is right next to us. Every night on the hour the tower has lights all over it which twinkle for 10 minutes and is quite magical. We go to bed about midnight as we have to be up early the next morning to go up the tower and join our segway tour of Paris.
April 16 - Day 2
We get up around 8, go to breakfast and check out of the Hilton. We are keeping the bags here as we are going on a segway tour of Paris this morning. The segway tour meets at the Eiffel Tower at 10.25 so I am hoping that we will have time to go up the tower beforehand. We get to the tower at about 9.15 and join a short queue at one of the legs. The tower opens at 9.30 and we decide to go to the top which costs 10 euros 70. I have been up the CN Tower in Toronto and on the London Eye but I thought the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower was the best. We get down by 10.10 and wait at the bottom for our segway guide to meet us.
I had seen segways on the holiday programme a few months ago and remembered that they did a tour with them at EPCOT. I found out about the Paris tour on tripadvisor and booked on www.citysegwaytours.com For those that don't know what a segway is it is a battery powered personal transportation device which you stand on, it has 2 large wheels at either side and you move it by leaning forwards or backwards and turn using the left hand handle. It has 3 speed setiings using different coloured keys. tourists can go up to the second level which I think was 8mph and felt quite fast. Our tour lasted about 5 hours and the first 40 minutes or so was spent practising before we hit the streets of Paris. I took to my segway straight away and have to say it is one of the most fun things I have ever done. I'm going back to WDW next year and will definitely be trying to get on the EPCOT segway tour round World Showcase.
We finished our tour around 3.30 and reluctantly handed our segways back. We then walked back to the Hilton which was just round the corner from the segway office to collect our luggage before making our way over to DLP
We got the metro a couple of stops up to Charles De Gaulle Etoile to join RER line A where we would get the train to Marne La Vallee and Disnyeyland Paris. The journey cost about 7 euros each and took about 40 minutes.We got there about 5.15 and decided to walk to our hotel for the next night, the Newport Bay. We walked through Disney Village and round the lake and were at the hotel in about 10 minutes. After reading various reports on the hotel we had paid an extra £8 each for a room on the Admirals Floor so we went to the special check in desk where we were given our room key, 3 fastpasses each for the next day and our tickets for the Tiesto concert.
We were both tired as we had been up early so we went up to our room,8200. I really liked the room with it's nautical theme and it was a good size with a seperate basin outside the bathroom, safe, minibar,kingsize bed, table and chairs by the window, TV. The room was non smoking and I'm a smoker so I left Ric to have a relaxing bath and I went down to have a drink (and a cig) in the Fishermans Wharf bar. I thought this bar was very comfortable but the drinks were a bit pricey (but hey, I'm on holiday). I finished my drink and then went to have a look in the shop, where I could have bought everything but managed to resist.
One of the benefits of the Admirals Floor was room service and so we ordered some for dinner as we were heading over to the Walt Disney Studios at 8pm for the concert. We made sure we had our tickets and then walked over to the Studios.
We got there just after 8 and there was a huge crowd waiting to get into the concert. We waited about half an hour before we got in and the first thing I did upon entering was head straight for Rock N Rollercoaster which is one of my favourite rides in WDW. Ric is not keen on rollercoasters so he waited outside as I went on.Luckliy there was no queue so I was on within 5 minutes. I absolutely love the way you just go into this ride at top speed it's just so exciting! I came off the ride and then we went to see the Armageddon show. I thought this was OK but nothing special. We then headed over to the Studio Tram Tour which was the other ride which had been specially opened. I had been on this before in Florida but Ric hadn't and didn't know about Catastrophe Canyon so that bit was a srprise for him. I had made sure we sat on the right hand side so we didn't get wet. The Walt Disney Studio park is a definite asset to Disneyland Paris but it does need some more attractions which I believe are on the way. Bring on Tower of Terror!!!
When we came off we decided to go over to where the concert stage had been set up as it was a chilly evening and we thought it would be warmer if we got into the crowd. A French DJ, Bob Sinclar was warming up for the main man Tiesto and he was ok but nothing special. At 11.15pm Tiesto himself came on which is what everyone had been waiting for. He played some fantastic tunes and I had a good dance. It got to about 12.30 though and I was just so tired, it had been a long day and I knew I wanted to be on form to enjoy Disneyland itself the next morning so we decided to call it a
night. We walked back to the Newport Bay where my head hit the pillow and I went straight to sleep.
Part 2 to follow..... Disneyland Park
