Points make Paris... TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 6/29 - Page 32 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
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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:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
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.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Just catching up after a busy weekend. It was nice that you got a chance to go up in the balloon! We've done it once at DTD, and I'm thinking it would be fun to give it another go in September.
I think we might as well...
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Wow, another run-in with some rude, oblivious people! The kind that think they are the only ones on the planet!
What was the yellow resort (from the balloon)? That looked pretty. The hotel you stayed at was just beautiful and it certainly does photograph well.
If you mean the yellow and blue one at the end of the lake, that's the Newport Bay Club, their equivalent in theming terms to the Yacht and Beach Club. We stayed there once, but weren't impressed, as it's more like a moderate than a deluxe. It's a shame, as we were hoping it would be like our beloved Beach Club and it wasn't.
Monday 2 May – part six: there are delays in checking in
We passed through a lot of beautiful French countryside, and whenever we travel through France, it always reminds me of just how huge this country is, compared to our tiny island…
Finally, we were approaching Calais…
… and, as we did, the sky got darker. Considering the beautiful weather we’d had when we left Disneyland Paris, this was quite a change… and not for the better.
Sara and I had been texting about whether or not to catch an earlier train if we got the option, but then we both got a text message saying there were delays in checking in at the Calais terminal. Ugh. The last time we’d encountered that, we’d had a wait of about 45 minutes just to get to the ticket machines. As we approached, I kept an eye out to see how far back the cars were stretched, and I couldn’t see much, so it didn’t look too bad. This was what we eventually found…
It took us about 15-20 minutes to get to the ticket machines, but the problem lay on the French passport control side, which is directly beyond those machines, as that was queueing back. I don’t know why, as we passed passport control easily enough. We literally just waved them underneath the guy’s nose and he was fine with them. Admittedly, we got stopped, as did Sara and Tom, who were still just behind us, but that was for a standard set of swabs for explosives, and we were moving again in less than two minutes. I cannot believe that was what was holding up the traffic.
Once the other side of that, you then pass through British passport control, and again that didn’t take long. We waited maybe a couple of minutes, and that was it. We certainly noticed the difference though. The last time I’d driven through here was in early 2014 on a day trip with Debbie, and I think Mark and I last drove through the Eurotunnel in fall 2013, when we took a road trip to Switzerland. Since then, they’ve added a lot more booths for passport control, although given what we’d seen today, it still isn’t completely solving the problem. They’re also building more garages behind that to do security checks, so they’re certainly investing a lot of money in this place.
Given how chaotic things had been, we decided to head straight for the train. I was going to go into the terminal and get some cheap wine, but I figured it wasn’t worth it, in case it was chaos in there too.
We made our way towards the train, following the signs for Great Britain…
… and passing underneath these:
We were fine, but we did worry about Tom and Sara behind, as their car’s taller than ours, but they were Ok.
We got to the point where you usually stop, and the way was clear for us to proceed. I’m guessing there were so many cars stuck at the ticket machines that the trains weren’t even leaving full, so they were just trying to get as many people as possible on each one. We figured we’d be on an earlier train, and indeed we were. We got on the 3:06pm one, as opposed to the 3:20pm train. That was ironic, given when we’d checked in, we’d been told that our booked train was the only one we could take.
When we got to this train, and I took this photo, the guy stopped us and told us it would be €20 for the photo. We told him he’d obviously been to Egypt, where sadly things like that aren’t a joke, they are all too real.
We headed on board…
… and once again, we were in the same carriage together. I made a move to use the restroom while they were still loading the train, with everyone else following suit gradually. We were very impressed when the train actually left ahead of schedule. Both Tom and I made it 3:03pm when we finally pulled out of the terminal.
I got a few shots as we headed out…
Even more impressively, we were back in the UK before our scheduled arrival time, although it looked distinctly grey and horrible outside…
We headed off the train…
… and as soon as we emerged outside, we realised that it was indeed truly grey and miserable outside. It’s a standing joke that Bank Holidays in the UK are always like this, and this one was proving to be no different.
We made our way home…
… and as we did, we would occasionally see the sun peeking out, but never for very long, and there were always dark and threatening clouds in the distance.
I at least managed to get some photos of these cute lambs that are out in the field near where we swim. Usually I never have a camera to capture them.
We made it home about half an hour later, and we were very pleasantly surprised to see the garden had really burst into bloom in the couple of days we’d been gone. As you can probably tell from the photos, the sun also put in an appearance, albeit briefly…
I was particularly pleased to see our cherry blossom tree was finally coming into bloom, about two weeks after the first buds appeared on it. The thing never takes that long to blossom, so I reckon it had been confused by our wacky spring, where we’ve had some very cold temperatures…
With that, it was back to real life, and that meant washing and catching up with what we’d missed on TV over the time we’d been away. It had been a wonderful break, but more of that coming up in my final thoughts…
The weather today was a lot warmer, sunny, with temperatures into the low 60s. The best thing today was breakfast at Café Mickey. The worst thing today was the delays getting into the Eurotunnel terminal. The funniest thing today was Pluto with Evie at breakfast. Today we tried taking the Panoramagique balloon And the result was it was a wonderful experience with some superb views. The most magical moment today was seeing the amazing views from the Panoramagique balloon.
The French countryside is so beautiful. I'm looking forward to seeing some of it for myself in less than 2 months now. And your garden is GORGEOUS!!
Overall, seemed like a great birthday trip for Daisy, with fun had by all.
This time the earlier train really was an earlier train.
The flowers are beautiful!
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Tanya
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Sorry your trips over already. I'm glad you were able to get on an earlier train.
Your garden is beautiful. I love the tulips. I can't grow tulips here. The deer eat them along with the hostas and roses.
Liz
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The French countryside is so beautiful. I'm looking forward to seeing some of it for myself in less than 2 months now.
I can't believe how quickly that's coming around now. I was looking at the diary yesterday and thinking we'll be meeting up with you guys in just a few short weeks' time!
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And your garden is GORGEOUS!!
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Overall, seemed like a great birthday trip for Daisy, with fun had by all.
Sorry your trips over already. I'm glad you were able to get on an earlier train.
Your garden is beautiful. I love the tulips. I can't grow tulips here. The deer eat them along with the hostas and roses.
Liz
Now there's a problem we don't have here! I just have to contend with slugs... and I have my own methods for dealing with those!
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We told him he’d obviously been to Egypt, where sadly things like that aren’t a joke, they are all too real. 
I made a move to use the restroom while they were still loading the train, with everyone else following suit gradually. We were very impressed when the train actually left ahead of schedule. Both Tom and I made it 3:03pm when we finally pulled out of the terminal. 
I've checked quite a few times and they didn't seem too bad. I assume that's on a holiday?
I was looking at the diary yesterday and thinking we'll be meeting up with you guys in just a few short weeks' time! 
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