Hey folks,

So as promised, I am returning with another Disney post to continue my Disney segment. If this is something you want to hear about more regularly or the topic of holidays is, them be sure to let me know. I read all your comments and am so grateful for your kind words.

So without further ado..

A key part of your Disneyland Paris holiday is which hotel you choose for your stay. Now, I've been to Disneyland five times now and I've only ever stayed in two of the hotels, however friends of mine have stayed in another.


The first time I went, I stayed in the Santa Fe hotel. I was about eight years old at the time and so the memories of the hotel itself are pretty foggy. The three times after that I stayed at the Newport Bay Club Hotel which is beautiful and definitely one of the best looking hotels. This last time I visited I was on more of a budget and so I chose to return to the Santa Fe hotel which had been refurbished a fair bit since my trip fourteen years ago (well you'd hope so wouldn't you ha!).

How to decide on a hotel:

• Price range- the cheapest of the Disneyland hotels is the Davy Crockett Ranch, however this is further out and is self catered. Not one of my choices, I have to say. Santa Fe and the Hotel Cheyenne are the next best thing and are the next cheapest.
• Decide on a time of year that will be less busy e.g. school term time (obviously if you are going with kids, go in the school holidays!). This way the hotels and parks will be quieter, meaning quicker queue times, but also a nice relaxing atmosphere in your hotel.
• May and June time are good prices (from experience) but March also seems to be good.
• Whether or not you want a pool- Hotels like the New York, Sequoia Lodge and Newport Bay Club have swimming pools, and at a higher price you can enjoy them. These are exclusive to people staying at the hotels.
• Food- The food areas in Cheyenne and Santa Fe are relatively simplistic, with bread, croissants and cereal. However, at the more expensive restaurants there is probably a better selection. As well as this, evening meal menus are better.

• Theme- All Disneyland hotels have themes. Santa Fe is New Mexico and has 'Cars' as it's film theme. I loved this because the mirror had a chequed flag print around it, which was cute. Newport Bay is of course nautical. Sequoia Lodge is like a chalet in the woods. New York is, well, New York themed, and Cheyenne is cowboy themed! All hotels are lovely and you'll have a great time where ever you go.
• How many people you are with and who- I think all rooms in Cheyenne come with a double bed and a set of bunk beds. If you are adults you may want a room with two double beds. However myself and boyfriend stayed at Santa Fe and opted for a room with a double bed and a set of bunk beds (the room was ready there and then so we opted to have it) and it was fine because we weren't going to use the bunk beds or an extra double bed so it didn't matter what we had.
• Distance from the parks. All Disneyland hotels are near the park and all have shuttle bus services so distance is never an issue. Cheyenne and Santa Fe (and of course Davy Crockett) are probably furthest away. However, we walked in to the parks on many occasions and it only took us about ten minutes and it was a lovely scenic walk.

I really enjoyed my stay in both Newport Bay club and Santa Fe. Next I would like to stay at the Hotel Cheyenne because I love the cowboy theme. One day I hope to stay in the New York hotel too. Of course there is one hotel I haven't mentioned, which is the Disneyland Hotel resort itself. However this is ridiculously expensive, and unless you are rich you probably won't stay there. To be honest the other hotels have always appealed to me more anyway. And let's not forget that there are lots of other hotels nearby that aren't the 'Disneyland hotels' but are still connected to Disney via shuttle bus. These are even cheaper I think, and so you may opt for one of these.

My next Disney segment will be about the park itself. I'll be giving you tips on when the best time to go on rides is and which rides are suited for who. Thanks for reading!

Speak soon

Hello my lovelies,

So as you can probably tell from the title of this piece, this blog post is going to be about my recent trip to Disneyland Paris. I've thought a lot about how I wanted to do this, because there are a few aspects that I wanted to touch on, but to cram it all into one post might be hard, so I think I'll break it all down.

So I thought I'd start chronologically because that just makes sense, and start with travel because without travelling, I'd still be sat on the sofa in England.

So there are many ways in which you can travel to Disneyland Paris. When I booked my holiday over a year ago I decided to just book the hotel and park tickets and think about transport later. For me, booking the Eurostar through the Disney websites seemed too expensive for my current situation, so I wanted to look around at my other, cheaper options.

After about 6 months, I decided that going by eurostar was probably the easiest way, however I discovered that if you get the Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord instead of Marne-la-Vallee Chessy (Disney) it is about £100 cheaper! So that was that, we booked the Eurostar to arrive at Gare du Nord.

Now here's where it gets a little more tricky. Of course before even getting on the Eurostar, I knew there would be more travel involved. How was I going to get to London St Pancras? How was I going to get from Gare du Nord to Disney? I get quite stressed about travel as I haven't traveled without the aid of parents much. However looking back at the holiday now, it was all very easy.

So I was lucky enough to have my lovely Dad drive me and my boyfriend to London St Pancras. It was very early, around 4:30am, so we were very tired (but we wanted to make the most of the day once we arrived). Our Eurostar was at 7:01am and we arrived in London at around 6:00am. Luckily our train was up on the board, so we could go through passport control and security straight away and sit in the departure lounge, which had coffee shops and toilets. It was all very simple and at about 6:40am we were called through to the platform to board the Eurostar. This was possibly the easiest part of the journey. The train was clean and cool, so I felt comfortable and was able to relax for about two and a half hours which was lovely after such an early start. (Remember the time jumps forward an hour once you hit France, so we essentially lost an hour).

Now came the hardest bit. After we arrived at Gare du Nord we had to get two RER trains (that's just the name of their trains). This was all sign posted so you know which way to go, phew! We bought our RER tickets at a little machine. We typed in Marne-la-Vallee Chessy and it came to about 7.60 euros each, which is fantastic! Luckily, I had already researched the journey, as without doing so I would have had no idea we'd need to changed trains!

So if you are heading to Disney via this method, listen up. Once at Gare du Nord you need to get your first RER train to Chatelet-Les Halles which is literally the next stop. This was on either RER B or RER D I believe, however it could be different when you go. Basically head for a train that stops at Chatelet-Les Halles. Once you have arrived at Chatelet-Les Halles, get across to RER A and get on a train that is heading to Marne-la-Vallee Chessy. This stop is at the end of the line so once on the train you won't have to worry about missing your stop. And then voila you're in Disney!!

It honestly wasn't as hard at it may seem, and there are so many RER trains so there isn't any waiting around and if you miss a train, just hop on the next one.

Once at Marne-la-Vallee Chessy, we had to walk out of the train station. At this point you can already see the entrances to both Disney parks and Disney village. From here you have two options: get the correct shuttle bus to your hotel, or walk. It's entirely up to you and depends on which hotel you are staying at and how far it is. We decided to get the shuttle bus this time, because we though it'd be quicker (we later found out it was probably quicker to walk, however the shuttle bus is super quick too!). It took about 5 minutes on the Santa Fe shuttle bus to get to the Santa Fe hotel- our hotel! If you are unsure about the shuttle buses, it's really easy, just head to the bus stop which has your hotel name above it and then wait!

Returning home was as you'd assume: the same as the route there, except the other way around. So from Marne-la-Vallee Chessy, head to Chatelet-Les Halles. From Chatelet-Les Halles, head to Gare du Nord. Once at Gare du Nord, head to the London Hall, which is upstairs in the Eurostar area and once you're allowed to go through the gate, you're pretty much set!

So I hope I've explained that clearly enough. It may seem like there were a lot of parts to the journey, but it was super easy once I knew what to do and where to go. If I went again via this method I don't think I'd struggle at all! I would recommend this journey for students or families wanting to save some money, because it meant I had £100 extra left in my bank, for future holidays or spending money!

In my next blog post I'll be talking about DisneyLand Paris hotels, so stay tuned!
Speak soon

Hey folks,

Wow really thought I'd clicked 'publish' a couple weeks back. Evidently not. Sorry pals, but here is my blog post from then.
So this week I bring you a post about my last week at University. Yes, okay, I still get to go back for a few days for graduation, but really, last week was my last. It was my last real week in Portsmouth and my last real week with my friends and housemates.

University has been an experience. I say that because I'm not sure whether I could deem it good or bad to be quite frank with you. It's been difficult. I think most people have the same idea about university when they apply. They think it'll be partying, great nights out, house parties, and a close group of friends that when you meet them you think 'Oh my goodness where have you been all my life, you complete me!'. And although I did have some moments like these, the truth of the matter is, University is not what everyone expects it to be, at least it wasn't for me.

I'm not much of a party animal, but I do love a house party and I'm even happy for an odd night out, if it's with great company. I think I assumed when I arrived I'd make friends with a small group of girls who would be just like me and weirdly I pictured the women from Call The Midwife. So really what I was looking for was a group of friends from the 1950s. Unrealistic I know. Instead, we forget that we'll be bunched together with 5 other people from completely different cities with completely different backgrounds. For me, we did all share one thing in common- we'd all taken gap years. But the similarities pretty much ended there.

Now, before you think I'm saying that that's a bad thing, let me stop you right there. It wasn't. In the long run, this probably helped me more than I could have known. Being in a diverse environment made me more confident and accepting. It helped me learn more about people and realise that everyone is different and everyone functions and reacts differently. This, personally, felt like a valuable lesson. And I actually did make friends (as dysfunctional as we were). I ended up living with two of them for my entire university life! Plus one new pal in the picture below!


Now that I think of it, having a gap year probably wasn't the best idea. I assumed it would give me an edge, an insight to real life and a maturity that would benefit me. However I think it actually hindered me. Going to University straight from college or 6th form means you are probably in the younger, carefree and partying mindset. Some of the friends I made at Uni had only just turned 18 when they arrived and so had never experienced clubbing and drinking much, whereas I'd been clubbing for almost two years. I'd also been working for a couple of years and so I think I'd matured. Maturing is great but in some ways I think I'd matured just a little too much to enjoy the stereotypical student lifestyle. All I really wanted to do was put the kettle on and get cosy and watch a boxset.

However as my last week approached, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the idea of leaving. Despite the fact it had been tricky and more often then not I'd found myself disappointed, annoyed, frustrated and angry, I realised that too often I'd focused on the negatives. In my last week I couldn't help but reflect on the positives.


Portsmouth was beautiful, we may not have realised it all the time due to the high winds and rain, but when it was sunny it was an astonishing place to live. I played many games of mini golf and spent many evenings in the arcades with my housemates, laughing about wasting a pound trying to win a cuddly toy. I went to the cinema a few times and out for nice meals up at Gunwharf Quays and enjoyed three lots of Christmas shopping there. I went out for coffee and cake and lunch in places such as Garage Lounge and Southsea Coffee. I went for lots of runs down by the seafront, both with Parkrun and solo. I spent many evenings in the gym getting fit and took part in a lot of fitness classes. I was part of Show Choir, The University Choir, Dance and RAG and was a Course Representative. I made some lovely course friends and throughout the the three years I kept the same group of friends. I completed my course and eventually my hard work paid off as I got the result I wanted. I got a part time job in my second year and made some amazing friends there. I became more independent, confident, and self-assured.

So University has been both good and bad, but that is just life. Sometimes we can't choose where our paths take us. My path took me to Portsmouth, and the lessons I learnt and the friends I made, will remain in my heart forever. Portsmouth has been my life for three years, and I am so sad to be leaving, but I won't forget it and I know I will return again.

Speak soon