Morocco Storybook Tour – Day 12 / Paris – Day 1

Morocco Storybook Tour – Day 11 can be found here.

Departure day. Up at 3:20 am to catch our flight from Marrakech to Paris. We’d packed the night before, so it was just a matter of getting dressed, tucking away the last of the dirty laundry, and then we’d be on our way.

On the subject of laundry, Villas des Orangers will clean your clothes for free. But there is a small catch – you’re limited to one bag per day, and it’s not a particularly massive bag.

Tonic can for scale

Normally, this would be fine – particularly as we had two rooms – but we had been travelling all around Morocco for the past 10 nights, and our suitcases had enough sand in them to create a miniature Sahara on the floor of our expansive suite.

Thankfully, we’d had some of our laundry done earlier at Dar Faracha so we didn’t have that much to do at this stage but nevertheless my wife broke several small laws of physics in getting her clothes into a single bag.

This is another small point we’re going to pass along to Black Tomato – we absolutely understand that there have to be limits when it comes to free laundry, but best to inform travellers of these limits in advance so we can plan accordingly.

All’s well that ends well – we were able to get two loads of laundry through the system, and returned before 8 pm as promised, so we were mostly back at our starting point by the time we were leaving Marrakech.

One small issue, however – while our bags were now packed with freshly cleaned laundry, we were having some real trouble getting them moved to the front door.

We’d spoken with the front desk the evening before our departure to let them know we’d be leaving around 4 am, and they said to call down and they’d help us with our bags. I called down at 3:45 am, and the night clerk sai he was on it – but no one showed.

Eventually, I just moved the bags down myself. We don’t travel lightly but we can still manage on our own. There was no sign of the night clerk then so we had to unbar the street doors so that we could meet with our driver.

There we had a pleasant surprise – Ali was taking us to the airport! We’d thought he was done after dropping us off at Villas des Orangers a few days prior, but the kids did in fact get to say their goodbyes that they’d missed during our chaotic arrival.

The night clerk did eventually show up – having just packed some ridiculously elaborate breakfast boxes for us, including an entire shopping bag of fruit. We stuck with the toast, croissant and coffee instead.

The clerk also gave Ali a blast for opening the doors to the hotel – which of course he hadn’t done, and which I’d had no choice but to do if we were going to make our flight. Not sure what he’d expected…

Anyway, nothing that prevented us from making our flight and it represents the one minor point to improve for Villas des Orangers – when guests say that they’ll be leaving at 4 am, have the night clerk pack the breakfast box in advance so that they also have time to help with bags and open the front door. A less elaborate breakfast box is fine too!

In any case, we’d finally discovered the secret to beating Marrakech traffic – travel at 4 am.

It was only about 15 minutes before we reached the airport, and then we were once more sucked into the travel vortex. Thankfully we were travelling in business class, which meant that we had ‘fast track’ priority access to security, customs, and lounge access. All done in less than 20 minutes. But again with the caveat that we were not travelling at peak times and with fast track access as the regular lines looked long.

We had about an hour to relax with this beautiful setting and fantastic food:

And then it was time to board.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be some sort of issue with the plane so we were stuck on the ramp for quite some time. But the issue was eventually dealt with, and we continued boarding.

Business class on the flight between Marrakech and Paris on Air France is simply economy class with an empty seat in between, but it was still comfortable enough. And it was handy being able to stuff my backpack under the seat next to me so that I had additional legroom.

Their breakfast was delicious too.

Despite the delay in boarding, we managed to make up the time in the air and landed right on schedule at 10:50 am Paris time – a 3.5 hour flight, plus an hour time shift due to Ramadan in Morocco.

Arrival was also helped via the ‘fast track’ – we were soon through customs and collecting our bags.

We were so quick, in fact, that our driver only caught up with us just outside the baggage area. He said we were one of the quickest arrivals he’d seen in a long time.

We booked ourselves with BT Transfer – who were recommended by our travel agent, Deanne Leach. The cost for a transfer to Paris Disney from Charles de Gaulle was 75 Euro, and for that we had exclusive use of a very large, very luxurious Volkswagen van.

Well worth the price, no question – especially considering that the Disney bus costs roughly the same for a family of four, and you’d be fighting with everyone to be the first to check in, etc. Though apparently they take the bags straight from the airport through to your room.

It was about 30 – 40 minutes to reach the Newport Bay Club hotel at Paris Disney, at which point our checked luggage was whisked away and put into storage.

We were booked in on the Compass Club floor, which meant that we’d also have our own special check in area. It was a little busy when we arrived but they had a special section of the lounge where we could sit and wait. It was maybe 5 – 10 minutes before we could finish the check in process that we’d already started via Disney Paris app.

It took a few minutes to get the lay of the land – there’s a Compass Club lounge, but it only serves breakfast and ‘tea’ (desserts, mostly). You can get lunch in the bar – the Captain’s Quarters – but there’s not a lot of choice in terms of food. Most options are a short walk away, in the Disney Village.

It was pouring rain at this point, so we had to go into the baggage room to recover raincoats from our checked luggage before we set out. But Disney made that process simple enough.

We set out through the downpour to the Rainforest Café. I found the fajitas to be mediocre, but everyone else seemed to enjoy their food well enough.

Looking for fajitas that are not too hot, nor too tender? These are the fajitas for you…

The pizza, however, was apparently very good

The ambience is nice, with occasional thunderstorms and trumpets from animatronic elephants. The kids also really enjoyed looking at the massive aquarium.

Prices are steep, particularly compared to Morocco. Think US$25 for a hamburger, more still for fajitas. This is Disney, though, so it’s not terribly surprising.

After we went back to the Newport Bay Club, where we were pleasantly surprised to learn that our room was ready early.

Though to arrive at your room, you must first traverse a combination of The Shining / a Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror exhibit

We ended up booking a family room with 4 beds – two double beds, and two sofa beds. We generally try to avoid piling everyone in one room if at all possible, but this proved to be the best option when we crunched the numbers on everything – cost, park passes, the risk of non-adjacent rooms, and so on – this ended up being the top choice. Although if your kids are old enough you’re willing to risk non-connecting (or even adjacent) rooms I’d highly recommend booking 2 separate rooms.

The décor is a bit dated and tired, but clean and well laid out.

My wife then took the kids to the pool for a while, and I had a much-needed nap.

Image Credit: Disney Paris

Unlike as pictured – the pool was busy, but thankfully there are water features that help keep it interesting for kids.

We then got ready for dinner, at Brasserie Rosalie – which was surprisingly quiet at 6 pm. The food arrived quickly and was excellent.

I had the pepper steak with frites, while my wife had the scallops with risotto. The steak was tender and well seasoned, while the risotto had a lovely rich taste. My son also enjoyed his chicken fingers, which none of us could figure out how to order in French.

The rain had stopped at this point, so we decided to try our luck at the park to see if we could get some rides in while the lines were reasonable.

We did pretty well with just a brief period – we managed to get through Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril and Star Tours within an hour or so.

The French translation adds a certain je ne c’est quoi

Most rides are done in a mixture of French and English, and we felt as though we were able to follow the storylines well enough with our limited knowledge of French. Each of the rides are also distinct from their counterparts in other parks – they all have some small section that is unique to them.

Our daughter was unfortunately not able to go on the Indiana Jones rollercoaster as she was just a few inches too short, but that worked out for the best – it does have a brief loop, so she’s not sure she would’ve enjoyed it.

This giant stone serpent is the least frightening aspect of the ride

We used the Disney Paris app to navigate ourselves between rides – that worked fairly well, but be aware that the app is not updated to reflect construction or other temporary closures. When in doubt, take the larger, easier to follow route.

I haven’t been on Star Tours in a long time, and it was interesting to see that the ride had become 3D and been updated to include scenes from the new movies. Gran – my wife’s mother – is joining us on this trip, and said that this ride was different from her first ride earlier in the day. We’ll be interested to see whether it’s different for us tomorrow.

At this point everyone was gathering for the fireworks, but we were toast after our early start – so were off to bed.

But even with that short window, there were still some beautiful sights to see:

Even so, it was time to retire – we’ll need to be rested to make the most of tomorrow’s Ultimate Access Pass.

Continue reading Paris – Day 2.