Disclaimer: No, I’m not disappointed. I was in Europe last summer. This trip I like in some ways, maybe better.
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Well, the husband and I visited a travel agent shortly before the holidays to talk about our anniversary trip. We are 25 years married in July, and we thought we would go to Disney Paris to see Phantom Manor. We are Haunted Mansion geeks. We haven’t been to Euro Disney yet. It seemed like a great idea. We would run in for a 4 night 5 day extravaganza.
But no. There’s an amazingly high fuel surplus on this summer’s tickets. The stars are poorly aligned on traveling from the US to Paris and back in 5 days, because the costs increase astronomically if you don’t stay over a Sunday. And if you do, there’s all sorts of plane and train connections that are impossible to make for this short time frame.
I could make this work myself. My plan would be to book a flight to Britain, spend a little time there, and then book a Disney package from Britain. Still expensive, but I think it would get us to Disney. However, in order to get this trip to work smoothly, we’re looking at a much higher cost and more time than we want to spend in Paris.
I know, you think. What an awful burden! However, what we wanted was a Disney Paris vacation, not a Paris vacation. And we could afford about a week in France.
The travel agent also pointed out how much cheaper this whole excursion would be if we went, say, now, or in October. It occurred to us that this might be a pilgrimage to make when we retire. We would probably save some money. And we might also be more inclined to also do Paris as well as Disney Paris.
The contingency plan? There’s always been a contingency plan.
Back when I figured up this trip, I also figured out what a Disney cruise would look like, a Disney park stay would look like, and a Disney Park stay combined with a cruise would look like. Yes, I like planning trips. In a past life I was the travel agent for Akhenaten. Someone had to get him back and forth from Amarna. Under budget.
For the same amount of money as 4 nights/5 days in Paris, I could get us a 4 day Disney cruise followed by a 4 day Disney World stay. Bryon brushed that off at the time, fixated as he was on Paris. I, on the other hand, with my impending trip to the fjords, was easy. I get to travel more than Bryon, so I am happy to let him make many of our personal travel decisions. I find if I want to go somewhere, I’ll usually make that happen. I could see the good stuff in any of the permutations of travel I sussed out.
After we talked with the travel agent, and she presented Bryon with pretty much the same options I had earlier, he decided he wanted more value for money. We decided we would take first a cruise, and be on our own to celebrate the anniversary, and then we would meet up with some friends at the World and share a room at the Animal Lodge, and show them the parks. This way we get travel alone, and travel with friends, which we really enjoy.
So, yes, it is too bad that we’re not going to Paris for this trip. But since I have another really nice trip as a consolation prize, I guess we’ll go from there.
I didn’t realize you were a Disney park lover as well! We will have yet another thing to geek about when we meet. 🙂