I was lucky enough to join 270 UK travel agents and a couple of hundred European agents at the Disney Stars Live 'Magical Moments' festival, which took place between the 9th and 11th May 2011. Being a Disney fanatic this is one of my favourite destinations so I was excited to visit to keep up to speed with the changes that have been made since my last visit a few years ago.
My journey started when I joined my fellow Travel Counsellors at St Pancras International Station. Our method of travel was the Eurostar train which took just 2hrs 40 minutes from door to door. The seats on the Eurostar were comfortable and if required we could have used the buffet car, which was located in one of the other carriages further down the train. We were given our Disney Park tickets on the train by Disney cast members together with our meal voucher for use that day. The train arrived at Marne-Le-Vallee station, which is just a short 5 minute walk from the Disney park entrance. On arrival we left our bags at the Express Luggage desk on the second floor where they would be transported magically to the Newport Bay hotel - our home for the next 3 days, allowing us to go straight to the Disneyland Park.
Disney has 2 parks; Magic Kingdom and Disney Studios. Our adventure started in the Magic Kingdom, which to our surprise was very quiet allowing us to experience more rides as the queues were very short. We also had VIP fast passes, which gave us priority access to the major rides without queuing. Our meal voucher entitled us to a menu 2 meal. This included a main course, a pudding and a drink of our choice. I felt this system worked extremely well and would happily recommend it to my clients. Our first evening finished with private viewing of Mickey's Magical Celebration followed by a group dinner for all.
Our first full day started with a sales presentation by Eurostar, Air France, Leger and Disneyland Paris. After receiving loads of new information to take on-board, we went in teams to do a treasure hunt. During this treasure hunt we were able to look at hotel rooms at the Sequoia Lodge and New York hotels. We then had free time in the parks to try out a few more rides before returning to our hotel to get glammed up before the main Gala night that was being held at the New York hotel in the Time Square ballroom. We were treated to a brilliant evening hosted by Minnie and Mickey and the Princes and Princesses.
The following day we joined a small tour to visit the Hotel Cheyenne and Santa Fe, which ended in the park where we watched the Mickey's Once Upon a Dream Parade before returning to the Eurostar station for our evening journey home.
For clients on a budget the Santa Fe and Cheyenne would be perfect. The Cheyenne also has bunk beds, which are good for children who do not want to share a bed. There are also pony rides available at a supplement. In my opinion the Santa Fe hotel looks like student accommodation! Although it is clean it is also very basic and lacks the Disney Magic.
Newport Bay and Sequoia Lodge hotels are located just a 10 minute walk from the parks and would be brilliant for clients not wanting to queue for buses all the time and both have swimming pools and are 3* rated.
The New York hotel is a 4* and is the second closest hotel to the park. I cannot comment on the Disneyland Hotel as sadly we were not able to view this hotel or any rooms.
Overall a fantastic trip made even better by my fellow Travel Counsellors.
