Points make Paris... TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 6/29 - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
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It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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This reminds me of a funny story about us. We met at that service station once for food and toilet before the tunnel. Graeme and Peter got there before us shouting about being brilliant etc. When we left they left first and promptly took the London turn off on the roundabout (we were going to the tunnel!!!!) Gemma and I just drove to the tunnel and were still laughing our heads off at how brilliant they were 40 minutes later when they got there.
Finally, we were seeing signs for the Eurotunnel terminal…
They’ve changed the whole entrance to make a more definitive break between freight and passenger traffic, which is no bad thing, given the issues the tunnel can sometimes have with freight transport, particularly if there’s bad weather or the French go on strike, which happens a fair bit – trust me.
When we got to the kiosk, we put in our credit card, having carefully retained it, as that was the card we’d used to pay and our card issuer had assured us it would work. I think you can see where this is going… The kiosk did not recognise it at all, which didn’t surprise me, as I suspected the stop on the card might have been completed and affected this.
We quickly found our booking number instead (thank goodness we had it with us! ) and then we were presented with the option of getting a slightly earlier train, the 2:40pm, as opposed to the 2:50pm train. We were at one kiosk and Dave and Barb were opposite, but we couldn’t see them, and I couldn’t open my door to get out to ask them which one to go for. Thank goodness there was a Eurotunnel employee, who effectively became our go-between to establish which train we were going for!
The problem was Dave and Barb hadn’t yet got to that screen, but when they did, they opted for the earlier train… remember this… We got through, and then both of us waited while Sara and Tom came through, as they were behind Dave and Barb. Dave seemed in a real hurry, and asked if we wanted to go to the terminal building. I wouldn’t have minded, but no-one else appeared that bothered, so we set off, even though technically our number hadn’t been called yet. That wasn’t stopping Dave – he was off and gone!
We were about to be stopped by an employee, and we just told them we and the car behind us were with the guy in front, and he let us go.
The next stop was British passport control, and that was simple enough, except both ourselves and Dave and Barb were singled out for additional security checks, so Sara and Tom went through French passport control and waited for us. About five minutes later, after having our steering wheel and door handles checked, presumably for any sign of explosives, we were finally off as well.
When we got to the rows for boarding, we did think that we might be separated by a rogue Belgian car, but luckily not. Phew! We headed off for quick restroom stops, and then headed back to the car, hopeful that we might be able to get on the earlier train, as it didn’t look as if that was full, but luck was not on our side today…
As we waited, I couldn’t resist getting some photos of this guy just strutting around, as if he owned the place!
Finally, we were boarding, although we noticed that there seemed to be a problem with the hotel booking the others had. Dave had noticed that if you were going to arrive after 7:00pm, you had to let them know, and I knew they’d called, but there seemed to be a lot of discussions going on. We figured we’d find out what had happened once we got on board the train.
It was a very slow boarding process, although it was quite nice in a way, as I got to get a lot of shots that I wouldn’t normally get, as normally you’re just driving along, but today we stopped on quite a few occasions, as you can see…
We all wanted the bottom deck, as Barb and I both feel ill from the movement on the top deck, and we had no problems with that, as we were signposted on to the bottom deck.
We all kept driving along, and eventually when we got to our carriage, the three cars were together by some miracle. However, as we entered the carriage, I did think the white BMW behind us was pushing his luck trying to get in as well. Normally, you wait until you know there’s enough space, but he didn’t. Well, guess what happened to him? He had to reverse back into the next carriage, as he couldn’t fit in…
Once we were positioned, we waited for everyone else to finish boarding. Daisy was quite excited, which was funny, given that when she was told, apparently her first reaction was “that will take ages to get there!” She kept asking if we’d be going in a moment, and given it was almost 2:40pm, I said we probably would… how wrong you can be!
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Well done! You all managed to get together in the end.
Always love the train photos, it's such a foreign concept! I'm not liking your teaser.... uh oh.
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Glad you were able to get in together! Although, from the looks of your next update, I don't think getting on the earlier train was that much of an advantage.
Well done! You all managed to get together in the end.
I was amazed we managed it, given how many times we were split up...
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Always love the train photos, it's such a foreign concept! I'm not liking your teaser.... uh oh.
Mark kept saying to me "you always take so many photos whenever we get on the train" and I was saying to him "but they don't have anything like this in the States and they're fascinated by it!" I'm so glad I was right about that.
Glad you were able to get in together! Although, from the looks of your next update, I don't think getting on the earlier train was that much of an advantage.
Seems like a lot of confusion so far in the beginnings of your TR! Just a matter of who is where and when all of you will meet up! Always makes it more confusing when you have more people involved as more can go wrong with schedules and this one needs to do that, forgot this and so on! At least when I travel solo all I have to worry about our my plans and it's just up to me to execute them with the exception of things beyond my control!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Seems like a lot of confusion so far in the beginnings of your TR! Just a matter of who is where and when all of you will meet up! Always makes it more confusing when you have more people involved as more can go wrong with schedules and this one needs to do that, forgot this and so on! At least when I travel solo all I have to worry about our my plans and it's just up to me to execute them with the exception of things beyond my control!
Tell me about it! I'm used to just travelling the two of us, so this was very different.
Friday 29 April – part three: this was supposed to be the earlier train…
The time ticked on and ticked on, and eventually I noticed the scrolling display was saying in turn in French and English that there had been a delay. Mark and Dave ended up talking to the train driver, and apparently there was a broken down vehicle on the upper deck. We soon had an announcement to this effect as well, and they said they’d try and board some more vehicles, which I could understand.
Dave said to me if we’d been on the 2:50pm train, we’d have been away by now, although I did notice that one didn’t get away on time either. It was hardly surprising, given it had only pulled in at 2:25pm, and they say boarding starts 25 minutes before departure. Well, that was hardly going to happen now was it?
However, eventually that one left, and we got an announcement, telling us about the car on the top deck. Apparently they’d managed to get the vehicle off, and now we were just waiting for the signal to go. In fairness, I reckon we were maybe 10 minutes behind the train we should’ve been on, so it was nothing terrible.
I got some neat shots as we left…
The great thing about being with family on the Eurotunnel was I could get a variety of shots. Usually when it’s just the two of us, I’m limited with what I can photograph, given you’re essentially in a tunnel for much of the journey, but this was so much more fun!
There were lots of food goodies around in each of the cars, so we weren’t going to go hungry, and I was very flattered when Daisy offered me the last biscuit in the packet. I said unless Evie wanted it, and her eyes lit up. She checked to see if I was sure, and I assured her I was, then she split the biscuit in two between us! So sweet…
I loved the fact that Sara had got Daisy Mickey ears – how neat is that! Apparently, she bought them on Amazon, and they had literally only turned up that morning. Now that’s what you call pixie dust!
Not long after we set off, we received this text message, which I thought was neat, although offering some form of discount for a future trip would’ve been even better…
Eventually we were arriving in France, and I could not believe the quality of these photos, given they were shot through the car window, and also through the window of the Eurotunnel. Not bad for shooting through two glass windows!
Then we were on our way out of the train…
… and my goodness the sight that awaited us was quite something!
Now if you haven’t read any of my trip reports before when we’ve taken the Eurotunnel, this probably won’t mean much to me, but trust me, this place has changed beyond all recognition. All the fencing and barbed wire you see is new since last summer, when there were horrendous problems with migrants trying to reach the UK. For some reason, we are seen as the place to head for, rather than the rest of the European Union.
You can move freely within the EU once you get there, with the exception of the UK. We opted out of the free movement, and retained our borders, so thousands of migrants gathered in Calais and some would try to get on trains to the UK. Some were killed, some almost made it, walking almost 30 miles through the tunnels to try and get here.
So why is the UK so desirable? Honestly, I do not know. Sure, we have the NHS, the National Health Service, and it is free to everyone at the point of delivery, and we do have a good benefits system, but honestly, the vast majority of migrants who get to the UK find that the grass really is not greener on the other side. I used to work for local government, and I saw the conditions many end up in, exploited, because if you don’t have the correct papers, finding legitimate work is really tough. Many work for a pittance, often to pay back those who smuggled them in, and without the necessary paperwork, live in appalling conditions.
There, that’s me off my soapbox, but I figured I had to explain what had happened out here.
The Eurotunnel is very interesting! I didn't know anything about it, so very cool to see how it works. From what I can gather, you are in your cars in a train? But it looks like you can get out of your cars and walk around?
Tha barbed wire upon exit looks pretty scary and prison-like!
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We got through, and then both of us waited while Sara and Tom came through, as they were behind Dave and Barb. Dave seemed in a real hurry, and asked if we wanted to go to the terminal building. I wouldn’t have minded, but no-one else appeared that bothered, so we set off, even though technically our number hadn’t been called yet. That wasn’t stopping Dave – he was off and gone! 
Just a matter of who is where and when all of you will meet up! 
Always makes it more confusing when you have more people involved as more can go wrong with schedules and this one needs to do that, forgot this and so on! 
I used to work for local government, and I saw the conditions many end up in, exploited, because if you don’t have the correct papers, finding legitimate work is really tough. Many work for a pittance, often to pay back those who smuggled them in, and without the necessary paperwork, live in appalling conditions. 
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