Killing 2 Birds With One Stone (updated 3/2/20, complete!!)

Just wanted to pop in and let you know that I've been reading along but forgetting to post. Or would get distracted before I could post. Life! Anyway, I'm enjoying seeing a different park and reading about your adventures.
 
Just wanted to pop in and let you know that I've been reading along but forgetting to post. Or would get distracted before I could post. Life! Anyway, I'm enjoying seeing a different park and reading about your adventures.
Thank you! Glad to know someone is reading 😊
 
Thanks so much for this review. We just booked at the Santa Fe for June - our first visit to DLP and we are so excited and there is nothing like reading a trip review to really get a fee for what we will see. Looking forward to the rest of your review!!!
 
When I left off, we had just finished lunch. Here are a couple pics of the inside of the restaurant.















We decided to head into Fantasyland. The rain had slowed to a drizzle and we walked around looking at the various wait times. I did use the app some too for wait times. IASW had the shortest wait at the time so we headed there. I just love this ride. The song doesn't even annoy me. It was strange starting out the ride outside.

Thought this was a cool fountain out in front of the ride.



Get ready for a plethora of Small World pictures:



















































Continued in next post
 


When I left off, we had just gone on It's a Small World and I took too many pictures. When we came out, it had stopped raining and was even looking like it was clearing up some. It was still pretty cold though.

We saw people going down this path off to the side and then others coming out so I looked on the map to see what was down there. It was the Canal boat ride and the Casey Jr train. We headed down and saw some cast members at the canal boat area but the ride was still down but Casey Jr was up and running so off we went. The line wasn't too bad, 10-15 minutes. Somehow I was expecting this to be a regular little train ride, I guess I didn't research this one all that much but it was a cute zippy little coaster type thing. Somewhere along the scale of Barnstormer at WDW but the track is flat to the ground and not in the air, the ground is hilly and curvy. Not a thrill ride by any means, LOL I was going to strangle my husband if he tried to get out of this one (I admit I half expected him to after he saw it :rotfl: ) The seats are really small (kid size) so we each got our own. A few pics.

















After Casey, we walked around some more and took in the atmosphere. It is just so pretty there, even with the stinky weather. I love Fantasyland, it's my favorite area at WDW too. We saw that the wait for Snow White was fairly manageable so we got in line. I think it was about 20 minutes. It was basically the same as the one in Florida a few differences. One thing I remember is they don't have the scene with her lying on the slab with the Dwarfs and animals all around her.

The outside of the building and the queue, beautiful attention to details:







Love the Castle:



A nice little touch:







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After Snow white we decided to head out. The only thing left that I really wanted to see was Peter Pan but that line was too long, like 90 minutes or something like that and we were cold and tired. Plus we were leaving the next day and had not packed a thing :scared1:

On the way out I did stop in a couple stores and got some souvenirs for a few people. I got Christmas Ornaments for my MIL and my hubby's Aunt and Uncle and his 2nd cousin (who they call "Aunt") I liked them so much I got one for us, too. Plus I got a cure Advent Calendar for our nephews and some candy to put in it. It was really cute, a triangular/Christmas Tree shaped box that had all little drawers that you put things in for each day. I wish there was time to find different things to put in but the candy did the job and they were cute little chocolates with Disney characters on them. It was decent tasting chocolate, too I must say (I ate the few that were left after I filled the calendar. I also got an Olaf mug, it's really cute. I will post pics when I get a chance to take pics of it and the ornament.







I love the blown glass. I found out in the last couple months that a guy I work with does or used to do glass blowing, so cool..









More Christmas decorations on the way out:










When we got back to the Hotel we went in to Starbucks to get some Hot Chocolate and something to nibble on, I got us each a big cookie and then I got a cinnamon roll for myself and I think it was a brownie that I got for Tim. It was good, I saved the cookie for the next day.

Next up, going home... :sad1: :sad2::sad:
 
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Saturday November 9th.

OK. Today is the day.:banana: The main reason we were here in Paris. The day of the concert had finally arrived after a year of waiting :love: (The presale for the tickets was actually on November 9th last year) but really also a year and 10 months plus 30+ years. We had gotten up and had our breakfast (see previous post) so now we headed to the bus that takes guests to the parks and the train station was right there. It was a long double length bus with the accordian thing in the center. We had to stand but it was a short ride. The bus stop was right alongside the train station and the bus let us off practically at the door. We wandered around the train station for a few minutes trying to figure out where to go but finally we did. We bought tickets to Paris and then went down to the train platform. One train left while we were coming downstairs but another one came by fairly quick. It was about an hour ride I think.

Backing up a little bit, Since we really had only planned this one day in actual Paris I knew there was no way we could see everything and a couple weeks before leaving I started thinking we should do a tour of some sort. I went on Trip Advisor to see about tours and I saw a couple companies that do hop on- hop off double-decker bus tours. I decided to book one of those, that way we could get transportation around the city to the things we wanted to see and not have to worry about Uber, getting lost, etc. The one I picked had slightly better reviews and was called Big Bus tours https://www.bigbustours.com/en/paris/paris-bus-tours/ We got the classic ticket + River cruise. It was 43.20 Euros each (the one without the cruise was 35 or something so the hour river cruise was 8 euros, a good deal I thought.) I had also seen on another TR on here a museum that I really wanted to see and it was one of the stops on this tour that was called the Musee D'Orsay. I even bought tickets to it the night before online so we wouldn't have to wait in a long ticket line. I tried to get ones for the Lourve, too but couldn't. For the Lourve you had to actually pick an appointment time but times were unavailable for that day.

OK back to the trip. I probably should have looked more into where to actually get off the train but I didn't. It worked out though. I was looking on my phone during the ride and decided that we would start at the Eiffel Tower. It was the first stop on the bus (you could start on any stop) so I looked up how to get to it. What I read said we would need to get off at the Charles De Gaulle stop and walk about 3/4-1 mile to get there. We got off the train and right at the top of the steps from the train platform was this cute little flower shop/stand. On the top shelves there was this huge display of Orchids, they were so pretty. A little Back story here, the lead singer of a-ha, Morten, has a fascination with nature and loved Orchids as a kid/teenager and grew and bred them in his house (still loves them now but doesn't breed them anymore, He actually has 2 species named after him - a wild one that grows in Rwanda and a hybrid). FYI he also loved insects and especially butterflies and would order the cocoons/chrysalis from catalogs and kept them in the bathroom to mature, he said in his autobiography that one he kept had a wingspan of 11 inches! His poor mother... :rotfl:





After some wandering around the station we finally figured out how to get outside and what do we see at the top of the steps (down the road a little ways)? The Arc de Triomphe! I said Oh great, that's one of the stops too, so we headed towards it, taking lots of pics, here are a couple:







That circle was treacherous! Cars, trucks, buses and bikes were going in and out and all around, there was no rhyme or reason to it, No lines to mark lanes, we were a little afraid of crossing it to get to the other side where the bus stop was and we were crossing at the outer area across the little feeder roads. We saw a bus and headed over but we knew it would leave before we could get to it but that was ok. We got on the next one. We decided to sit up top, outside to be able to see everything even though it was cold (45F or something like that = 7C). It was at least sunny for the most part. The description of the tour talked about live guides but we never heard/saw any guides, Maybe they only talked inside? There was recorded commentary but we didn't figure out you needed ear buds (and they were provided) until later in the day. Here are a couple more pics from the ride to the next stop that we got off:

















Hello from NORWAY... still reading your trip report... LOVING IT, but I can`t continue before saying somethings first :)
As a child I lived in the same town as MORTEN HARKET, and his father was our family dr..
AND Morten was a teacher assistant at my school... and we had this very "noisy" boy in my class.
One time Morten was so angry that he held this boy OUT OF THE WINDOW...
Yes... I know it sound like I am telling a joke, but I am telling you the truth...

(I always have to tell this story... "LOL")
This was in late 1970 or maybe 1980 and I don`t think Morten was famous then...
I LOVED A- HA and Morten Harket in my youth too, so I know what you mean.

I don`t see him on TV so much anymore, just on X factor (He was one on the judges)
Just had to share this story with you... IT`S A SMALL WORLD.

Our "HOME DISNEY" destination is also WDW, we have been there 14 or 15 times since 2001.
BUT, this spring DH and I have been married for 25 years, and we are hoping to go to PARIS in MAY for 3-4 days and of course we would like to see DISNEYLAND PARIS also.

(Saving money for our big trip to WDW in 2021/2021 for their 50 year celebration (and my 50 birthday in 2022)
Now, I can continue reading your trip report) THANK YOU :)
 
Hello from NORWAY... still reading your trip report... LOVING IT, but I can`t continue before saying somethings first :)
As a child I lived in the same town as MORTEN HARKET, and his father was our family dr..
AND Morten was a teacher assistant at my school... and we had this very "noisy" boy in my class.
One time Morten was so angry that he held this boy OUT OF THE WINDOW...
Yes... I know it sound like I am telling a joke, but I am telling you the truth...

(I always have to tell this story... "LOL")
This was in late 1970 or maybe 1980 and I don`t think Morten was famous then...
I LOVED A- HA and Morten Harket in my youth too, so I know what you mean.

I don`t see him on TV so much anymore, just on X factor (He was one on the judges)
Just had to share this story with you... IT`S A SMALL WORLD.

Our "HOME DISNEY" destination is also WDW, we have been there 14 or 15 times since 2001.
BUT, this spring DH and I have been married for 25 years, and we are hoping to go to PARIS in MAY for 3-4 days and of course we would like to see DISNEYLAND PARIS also.

(Saving money for our big trip to WDW in 2021/2021 for their 50 year celebration (and my 50 birthday in 2022)
Now, I can continue reading your trip report) THANK YOU :)

Oh awesome story, thank you for sharing. So cool that his dad was your family doctor. I have heard that he is a really nice man.

Hope you get to Paris, it's a beautiful City. Wish I had more time to spend there, well now it's a reason to go back...

Glad that you are enjoying the report.
 


Tuesday, November 12th
The sad journey home.

Today was the day we were heading home. :sad1: Our flight was leaving at 2:45 (1445) Paris time and landing at 4:30 (1630) or something US/Canada time. Somehow I had it in my head that this was going to be another overnight flight (I actually thought it was a later flight, too for some reason. LOL I guess my focus was all on getting there and I must have just repressed the idea of going home... :sad: :rotfl2: ) So I had told my whole family that we would be getting home on Wednesday and made the time off request for the days off at work with this in mind, too. So luckily I ended up with a couple days to rest before I had to go back to work Friday, so I was happy about that.

We had packed the night before for the most part but had some last minute stuff to do in the morning. I think our Magical Shuttle was coming at 11 or 12. After making sure there wasn't anything we had to do to check out we went to breakfast. Same thing for the most part but today I got a slice of the christmas tree bread/cake I had been seeing. It wasn't bad, maybe to compare, a slightly less sweet version of pound cake?



Funny, during breakfast we were sitting next to a family for part of the time that was most likely Norwegian, they had clothing with Norway and Norwegian flags on them and from what could tell, it sounded like they were speaking Norwegian. (I have watched a lot of Norwegian language interviews and TV clips of the band, they do speak English very well and have done a lot of interviews, etc over the years in England and across Europe so I always look for those, even though in places like Germany or France there was usually a translator speaking over them, but they did a lot of public appearances at home, too, love to hear Morten speak Norwegian, even though I can't understand it) Anyway we didn't rush through breakfast, we had plenty of time to get to the airport. after breakfast I took a couple more pics outside of the hotel.

This is the outside entrance to the restaurant, you could go in through the lobby as well



The outside entrance to the gift shop:



Starbucks:



The front entrance to the Hotel from the road




The trip to the airport was fairly quick and painless, I think it took about 30 minutes. Figuring out where to check our luggage and print the boarding passes was another story. We were told to go to 2 different places by 2 airport/airline employees. At opposite ends of the terminal area. Once we figured it all out, we still had lots of time so we just went to the gate to sit and wait, it was actually pretty crowded but we found a space for the 2 of us and all our stuff. There was a little food stand/cafe nearby so I went to get a little lunch for us. They had lots of choices of premade (but fairly fresh) sandwiches and wraps. I got us each a sesame chicken wrap and a drink. It was pretty good. I also had my cookie from Starbucks that I had gotten last night

The airport terminal and some pics of our plane








The little ramp leading down to the plane/gangway








The flight home was fairly uneventful. I watched a couple movies, finished the book I was reading on the Kindle. Listened to more a-ha :love:

Here are a couple pics of the meals we got this time:



The dinner was pretty good, it was some kind of chicken (I think it might have been honey chicken) with veggies and polenta. There was also a chopped cucumber salad that was pretty good (I ate his, too, he hates cucumbers), a roll with a foil wrapped wedge of a soft cheese and water. Dessert was a little cake like a swiss roll, I think it was caramel flavored.

Shortly before we landed, they served a meal more like lunch, a turkey sandwich, a little Madeline cake and a small bottle of juice.



After we landed at about 4:30pm (1645) it took a long time to get through the immigration/customs/passport control process. It was crazy busy. By the time we got to the car it was after 6pm (1800). There was snow on the ground and the car. When we got to the gate of the parking lot, the scanner wouldn't take the bar code we had, the gate wouldn't open to let us out. Now I was mad, come on, we had to pay to get IN to the lot. Why wouldn't it let us out? Then I remembered we were trying to leave a day earlier than I had set up on our reservation so maybe it was a glitch with the system. I backed out of the gate so I wouldn't be blocking it for another person trying to leave and called the number. He tried to get it to work and couldn't he eventually just looked up the camera feed and saw us on the camera and opened the gate remotely to let us out.

I hit the wall on the drive home, I was SO tired, we pulled off twice to close my eyes, we really should have stopped and found a hotel for the night especially since we did both have off the next day but for some reason we didn't. We made it home at about 11:45 (2345).

Overall it was a great trip. I would definitely like to go to DLP again, someday. I would love to go to Paris again, too, I really would like to get to see more of it that we didn't have time for. If I hadn't had the job change, I had planned to go for about a week or so maybe a little more because I would like to have spent more time in Paris. I would like to see Versailles, the Lourve, That Musee D'Orsay that we missed, etc. Oh, well, maybe someday. I think the hubs could take it or leave it. The main thing I would change would be the weather, so if I go again I would go at a different time of year (I had no choice as to the time of year for this trip because of the concert) although it was really nice to see the Christmas stuff.

During the trip I didn't get much shopping done but I did get to go in a few stores and bought some things. I bought some really cute Disney Paris Christmas cards ( that I never had the time to send out sadly, but I can still send them next year, they are not dated or anything).

I bought myself an Olaf mug:





I bought my nephews a Disney Paris Advent calendar box. I later learned it is for pins but I put candy in it, the one I got was green, maybe the pics are slightly different but you get the idea:



I bought my Mother in Law and My husband's Aunt and Uncle and another Aunt (really cousin) these cute Christmas ornaments, I liked them so much I bought one for us too, they light up and fade between different colors. This is the one for us. My MIL's has Mickey and Pluto, his Aunt and Uncle's one I think was Mickey and Minnie in front of a Christmas Tree, and His other Aunt's has Tinker Bell in front of the Eiffel Tower (She actually really loves Paris, has been a bunch of times)



Well, that's it. The end.

Stay tuned for Killing 2 Birds with One Stone part 2 in September!!!



Back a few months ago they made the announcement that they were coming to the US for this 2020 leg of the HHAL Tour, the fans were SO excited, we really hoped it would be more than one city but They said it was only one. We all thought it would be NYC but turns out it is LA (wondering if it might have something to do with the fact that the guitarist Pal and his wife just recently bought a house in the general area) Well, of course, you know I would have to get tickets. They actually sold out these 2 shows REALLY quickly, there were very few left after the presale and then it sold out the day the main sale happened. They added a 3rd show for Sunday and that one has sold out, now too. They said they will try to come back for more dates/cities in 2021, so here's hoping...

So we are going to LA in September and going to spend some time at Disneyland. We still have to make ressies but I am leaning towards staying the first couple nights in LA near the venue to do all the LA/Hollywood/possible Beach stuff I would like to do. The concert I have tickets for is the Saturday one-- Way in the back of the balcony... so I am sad that I won't get really great pics from so far back, it's not a really big place so in perspective it's really not too far. There is a fan meeting before that show that I plan to go to, there are a few people coming that I want to meet up with. Some of them were in Paris, too but we couldn't get together.

Then I want to move to DLR for the last few nights. I want to try for Paradise Pier since it is less days now, we were originally going to stay at DLR the whole time and travel back and forth but I changed my mind on that one. The actual Hotel is not set in stone yet. I am still doing my research on the DLR Boards and TR's.

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Hope to see you all around the boards!

:thumbsup2 :flower1::yay::wave::mickeyjum
 
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It's too funny, the things you notice way after the fact. :rotfl2: I was scrolling through the report, just looking at the pics again, looking back on the trip and I just now noticed the Queen up in this window... I had no clue she was there, totally missed it when taking this pic and all the times, seeing it posting, saving, etc.
 
I just read your trip report! I appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences. It is very helpful for someone like me who is going for the first time!
 
I just read your trip report! I appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences. It is very helpful for someone like me who is going for the first time!
Thanks for reading! Somehow I never got any notification of your reply. If your trip happened already, hope it was a great one! My DL trip and concert that I mentioned above got postponed a couple times and is now set to happen next month (23 days!!)
 

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