Boundless Horizons

Day 7 – Travelling from Strasbourg to Disneyland Paris

As our hotel was directly across from the station, we were able to have a slow start to the day. The train from Strasbourg to Marne-la-Vallée / Chessy station is about two and a half hours, and they’re fairly regular. We used the SNCF website to book tickets for the 10:01 train which was scheduled to arrive at 12:27, and used the digital tickets in the SNCF app for travel. The SNCF app is useful as it will show platform information and other train details without having to find a board in the station.

We checked out and headed across to the station just after 9am. The station has a large glass bubble canopy, but once you enter you can see the original 19th century facade. As with previous journeys, we stopped off for supplies for the journey. While SNCF trains have an onboard shop, it can be a few carriages away and the selection is limited. La Croissanterie had a good selection of pastries and sandwiches, and most importantly we were able to get a coffee for me and a tea for Rhys to set us up.

The train journey itself was uneventful – we set off and arrived on schedule, and we had scenic views of the French countryside. Honestly, the train from Geneva to Zermatt has absolutely ruined us for other train journeys! The French TGV trains are comfortable and we booked first class for a little more space. We arrived at Marne-la-Vallée / Chessy, which is right beside Disneyland Paris, but on this trip we were staying at the ibis Marne la Vallée Val d’Europe, so we had one stop to go on the RER A to Val d’Europe.

Now, staying at Val d’Europe has its advantages, but it does have one drawback – RER ticket machines. While mobile tickets seem to be on the way, they’re currently only “t+ tickets” which are valid for Zone 1 (Disneyland Paris is in Zone 5) and not the wider network. The Navigo card is only for people living or working in the region and isn’t available to tourists. So our only option is to buy physical point-to-point carnets (tickets) from the machines at the stations. The real problem is that these machines are not very intuitive to use. At Marne-la-Vallée / Chessy station, which can be very busy and full of people who’ve never used these machines before, it means long lines to buy tickets. Argh!

So here is my advice. A single journey between Marne-la-Vallée / Chessy and Val d’Europe is €2,20, but you can buy a book of 10 for €17,60 or a book of 20 for €35,20. This gives you a discount compared to buying one at a time, they can be used in either direction, and they can be shared among multiple people because you get a bundle of individual tickets. But the really really big advantage is you now get to travel back and forth without queuing at the machine each time! Once you have the initial tickets, the machines at Val d’Europe have much shorter lines so if we need more, we pick them up there.

With our annual passes, ibis Marne la Vallée Val d’Europe has become a bit of a go-to hotel. It’s directly opposite the Montévrain – pl. Jean Monnet exit (exit 2) to Val D’Europe station – there are multiple exits so if you take a different one then you have an extra block to walk. On a previous trip I checked how long it took us to get to the parks – from our room to the Disneyland Paris security tents it was 7 minutes, and under 400 steps on my watch. The rooms are fairly small but clean and comfortable. This was our fourth time staying here and at €90 a night, it’s very hard to beat!

On our last visit, we knew would be coming back in July so we made sure to buy enough tickets to get us to the hotel! The RER is fairly frequent, particularly at peak times, so from our train arriving at Marne-la-Vallée / Chessy at 12:27pm, we were in our hotel room by 12:45pm.

As the parks were open late, we spent a little bit of time relaxing after the journey before heading to Disneyland Paris! Our first stop was at the Walt Disney Studios Park to catch the new show Alice & the Queen of Hearts: Back to Wonderland. The show is set in the former Lights, Motors, Action!: Extreme Stunt Show theatre, and you can still see some of the old sets peeking through behind the new ones. The show features Alice and the Queen of Hearts in a sing-off, and the audience gets to vote for the outcome. Alice is accompanied by gliding flowers and trampoline gymnasts; while the Queen of Hearts has drummers and BMX stunt riders. It’s a real spectacle! It’s difficult to describe what makes it work, but the audience was clearly having a great time and we enjoyed it enough that we made a point of seeing it again. Some people had even come dressed as the characters!

From there we headed around to Avengers Campus and over to Stark Factory for dinner. I had a spaghetti bolognese and Rhys had a pizza, but they were out of the thunder cake for dessert! There was lots of hero activity in the Campus, Thor and Loki were out doing their skit as we arrived, and after dinner we saw Captain Marvel greeting guests. I love the random hero encounters which bring the land to life.

Since we couldn’t get dessert at Stark Factory, we headed over to the Disneyland Hotel. On our last trip there was a reservation system to get into the hotel as it hadn’t long opened and they were limiting access. This time it was open to freely come and go, and it was much quieter inside. One of our DLP traditions, prior to the hotel closing for refurb, was going to Cafe Fantasia for a drink. The bar is now called Fleur de Lys and has been redecorated in keeping with the overall royal / princess theme of the hotel. It is still a nice place to sit with a drink… but I miss the live musicians we used to have.

Fleur de Lys has a selection of snacks in addition to a great bar, so it was perfect for a little dessert. Rhys had The Regal Invitation (€14), a chocolate-hazelnut cake delicately wrapped in a crêpe and sealed with a little chocolate “wax” seal. while I had The Court’s Sweet Favours (€13), Financier cake with orange lace and almond tile, biscuits from Reims, and fruit. Everything we’ve tried here is really tasty and these were no exception. It’s worth noting at the annual pass discount doesn’t apply in the hotel bars though! While Rhys opted for a wine, I ordered an Orang’inality cocktail from the summer menu which came elaborately decorated.

As we left the bar to head to the parks, we bumped into Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy on their way to the Royal Banquet! They can’t stop for photos as they pass though, but they’ll wave and greet guests as they go by which makes for a really fun spontaneous interaction. Though it does make for some blurry pictures as I tried to wave and snap photos at the same time!

Onto Disneyland Park for the first time on this visit, and it was really nice to see the Main Street vehicles still running in the evening. They usually stop in the morning but DLP has been trialling running them longer for the summer crowds. We paid a visit to the dragon under the castle, then headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean which has a reliably low wait time.

From there we strolled to Frontierland, taking in the golden hour views of the park along the way. This was a great time to grab photos for Instagram! Phantom Manor is also usually a low wait so we carried on around to that ride, before coming back to Big Thunder Mountain.

By now it was almost 10pm so we discussed whether we had time to ride it if we wanted to get a good spot for the drones. We looked at the line and decided we had time! Big Thunder Mountain is my favourite ride, but it’s also one of the most popular rides in the park. First thing in the morning or last thing at night are the best times to ride with a low wait – this time it was only 20 minutes!

We’ve been fortunate to see Disney Electrical Sky Parade on our previous visits and we’ve tested out different view points. I recommend Town Square, which is less crowded than Main Street and also lets you see the Main Street projections. The images created by the drones are so large that you actually get a better sense of them further back. We’ve also tried closer to the castle, in front of the Discovery Arcade. The advantage here is that the tables in front of Victoria’s give a place to sit for the show, but some of the view is blocked by trees.

The Electrical Sky Parade was as mesmerising as ever. I’m reminded of the quote from Arthur C. Clarke that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. The whole show is so well done, with the drones coordinating with the projection mapping to create amazing effects – like Cinderella leaving her drone carriage and walking down the staircase projected onto the castle.

Since we had a later start today, we decided to stay for the fireworks as this was our first chance to see Disney Illuminations which replaced Disney Dreams on 31 May. The show is fun, like with most firework shows I’m happy to have seen it once and then then pressure is off for the rest of the trip!

We stuck around afterwards to see Mickey waving goodbye from the train station, which was a magical way to end our first day in Disneyland Paris!