A European Spring break

For years we had been discussing with one of our oldest friends a trip to Disney, before she had her children we talked about Disney World, after it was Disneyland Paris. We decided 2017 as it would be the 25th anniversary and her eldest would be a decent age to enjoy it. We booked to go Monday 27th March - Friday 31st staying at Disney's Hotel Cheyenne (the same hotel we stayed in last time which had since had a renovation. Also Carl and I had wanted to go to Bruges for a longtime so we hatched a plan to travel over a few days before them and spend the weekend in Bruges before travelling down.

Thursday 23rd we travelled to Dover and stayed at the premier inn overnight.

Friday 24th

We caught the 06:40 ferry to Calais (the usual ;-)) which arrived a little after 9. From there we drove across to Bruges which took about 90mins. We eventually found our hotel but we were too early for check in so we left our car and went out to find breakfast

We then decided to climb the Belfort tower

After this we returned to the hotel to check into our room before heading out for our afternoon activity

We wandered around a little before heading back for showers to freshen up for a night out where we visited a cool basement bar and the went to Ribs N Beer for dinner.

Stuffed with beer and all you eat ribs it was time to call it a night.

Saturday 25th

Today we headed out earlyish and again had waffles for breakfast before a long walk

Unfortunately, although it was Saturday, the pubs on the outskirts were closed. so we headed back into town

in the afternoon we went on a canal boat ride followed by the "best hot chocolate" and a drink in a locals bar

We decided to head back to the main square for dinner

That evening we went for a stroll around the canals

We really loved Bruges and can't wait for another trip!

Sunday 26th

We were off to a lucky start this morning as they forgot to charge us for the parking then couldn't be bothered with the paperwork after they realised! We had a super early start to get away before 6am to journey onto our next stop - The Palace of Versailles. This is a place I had wanted to visit on our last few trips but it is a little way out from where we have been so I thought this was a perfect time to add it on. We parked right in front of the Palace and spent most of the day wandering the grounds.

It is a beautiful place and well worth a visit. Originally I had booked to stay in Versailles this evening but then I found a deal for a hotel closer to Disneyland for under £50 so instead we left around 2ish to drive across town. We checked in and had a drink and showers - it had been an incredibly hot day - whilst we decided what to do for dinner. We were a short distance from the train station so we gave ourselves 2 options - catch the train into central Paris (about 45 mins - an hour) and find somewhere there OR catch the train 5 mins to Disney

You know us right!?!? seriously if it had been earlier or we weren't so tired Paris would have won but it had been a long hot day with lots of walking so we chose the closer option where we knew we would find something we'd want very quickly.

Monday 27th

We had a nice lie in, we had planned to meet our friends at the local Carrefour, They had caught a ferry around 4am! and had a long drive down. We stocked up on some essentials, including suncream - we were not expecting this weather! Then off we went to Disney!!

When we arrived at the hotel it was too early for our rooms so we picked up our park tickets and headed in for a few hours

We then went back and checked into our rooms which took a little while and enjoyed a drink or 2 in the bar

It had been an incredibly long day for Amber, Rich and the kids so we left them to chill out whilst we headed back to the Village for our traditional arrival day dinner

After this we headed back for an early night ourselves.

Tuesday 28th

Today was Rebecca's birthday!! OK, not really. Her birthday is actually in April but at the age of 5 do you really know when your birthday is and what's cooler than celebrating it on your first Disney trip. So as far as she was concerned it was her birthday.

We started our Day in the main park

Before heading over to Studios

As we walked by Tower of terror one of the CMs noticed Rebeccas sash and asked if she would like to go to the front of the queue. We deliberated and ultimately decided she would be ok as she'd been loving all the other rides...

...We were wrong!! sorry Becs!

That evening we went to a first for us - Buffalo Bills. I will tell you now it is a lot of fun and as far as I'm concerned worth every penny. You wouldn't want to do it every visit mind

I cannot recall what we did on each specific day after this other than we went on as many rides as we could and had a lot of fun so instead of doing day by day from this point I will just share a selection of photos

To make the most of our tickets we booked to stay in a 2 bed apartment on a nearby golf course on the Friday night so we were able to check out, spend a day at the parks then head over. We had some groceries so mostly chilled with some drinks

Saturdays plan had been to slowly meander up to Calais but we ended up breaking off early and paying to move to an earlier ferry as we were organising a surprise party fr Carls parents the following weekend and they, his sisters and his older sister Kate's family would be coming to stay and I was getting a little nervous we were leaving ourselves a lot to do in a very narrow timeframe.