Kacey and her sister took a trip from Washington DC to London and Paris. They went on a variety of bus tours in both cities and spent time at Disneyland Paris.
Post-trip timestamp: 21:40
Basics
Kacey and her sister spent 4 full days in London and 4 full days in Paris. They arrived in London the morning on March 26 and left for Paris on March 29. They stayed in Paris from March 29-April 2.
Their trip included a Warner Bros. Studio Tour of Harry Potter, several bus tours, and Disneyland Paris!
Departure (March 24)
Kacey and her sister left Dulles airport at 11:40 p.m. and landed at 10:18 a.m. in London The flight itself was only 5 hours or so.
Classic Rock Tour (March 25)
They landed, got through customs, and got to their driver at 11 a.m. They were at the hotel by 12 p.m. Their room wasn’t ready, but they had a tour schedule so they stored their luggage and rushed over to the tour they had scheduled.
The meeting point was about a mile from their hotel so they got an Uber. They arrived at the tour at 12:40 p.m. for the Classic Rock Tour. Kacey was so worried they would miss it!
The tour was a bus tour. They went all around London. They stayed on the bus mostly but did get off the bus at Abbey Road.
They saw some studios and also a lot of spots where people have passed away. They saw a lot of wonderful sights where famous people live or used to live.
They learned a lot of history and had fun. They completed the tour by 4:45 p.m. After that they walked back to the hotel.
Their room was ready so they checked in, got situated, and went out to dinner. They were very impressed with the room. It was very clean and beautiful.
They went to dinner at Flight Club Darts, a dart bar. It was so cool! They sat in the garden area and had delicious food!
At dinner they were so tired and ready to sleep. They went back to their hotel and crashed.
Bus Tour (March 26)
Kacey and her sister had a hop-on-hop-off bus tour today! One of the stops was right outside their hotel and they got on there.
The tour began at 9 a.m. and they got right on. They saw a lot of things from the bus but did get off the bus at the Tower of London.
They really enjoyed Barney as their tour guide. He was a great tour guide and had a very dry sense of humor. Kacey did learn that the tour guides are former Beefeaters.
This is also where Kacey and her sister saw the Crown Jewels! It was so beautiful. The room was so shiny and Kacey loved it.
After the Tower of London they got back on the bus and got on a River Thames tour. They took that boat back to Big Ben. They got lunch at Gordan Ramsey’s inside Harrod’s. It was so good!
They got back on the bus and road the bus to the end. They got to see some beautiful places including Notting Hill, Kensington Palace, and others before getting off at the stop near their hotel.
Harry Potter Warner Bro. Studio Tour (March 27)
The day started a little rough. They had booked the Warner Bro. Studio Tour for the tour to include transportation but had a lot of trouble figuring out where they would be picked up.
They were supposed to get picked up by 8:15 a.m. and left with plenty of time but ended up rushing because of the confusion.
They raced there and arrived just on time panicked that they were worried they would miss the bus. The driver assured that they wouldn’t have left without them. The trip out to the tour was about 50 minutes.
The tour was self-guided. You could have purchased the digital tour but they opted to do it themselves.
The tour was wonderful and so much fun. They got to see how things were made, features, and more. The insider information Kacey got was so interesting as a Harry Potter Fan! Kacey also said that the butterbeer ice cream was delicious!
Kacey and her sister were there for about 2.5 hours. It was really busy that day, which was challenging. That was plenty of time for them to see everything they wanted to see.
Before they got back on the bus to go back to their hotel, they grabbed some snacks and coffee. They got on the bus and went back to the hotel.
They arrived back at their hotel around 2 p.m. and relaxed until dinner. They went to the Shakespeare Pub in Victoria.
Warwick Castle and Shakespeare’s Home Bus Tour (March 28)
They walked behind the hotel and got on the bus for this tour. They went about 90 minutes outside of London to Warwick Castle.
They spent about an hour there before getting back on the bus and going to Shakespheare’s birthplace. They saw the home where he was born and walked around the town.
The bus tour took them through the rolling hills. It was very beautiful. They learned about the history about the sheep that used to be farmed there.
They got to Oxford and wandered around, learning about Oxford, and doing some shopping. When they were done they took the bus back to the hotel.
The tour was much longer than they expected. They thought it would be a half-day tour but they didn’t get back to the hotel until 6 p.m.
They packed, got ready for their next day, and went to sleep.
Disneyland Paris (March 29)
They had a driver pick them up at 6:30 a.m. to drive to the station to head to Paris! They got on the EuroStar at 7:40 a.m, leaving the station by 8 a.m., and arriving to Paris around 11 a.m.
Paris is an hour ahead of London so the train ride was only about 2 hours. They were picked up by a car at the train station, dropped their things in their hotel room, and hopped on another train to Disneyland Paris!
They arrived at Disneyland Paris by 2 p.m. It was a whirlwind and they were tired but excited. Kacey was able to use the Maps app on her phone to navigate to the train stations and then followed signs to where they needed to go.
When they arrived to Disneyland Paris the rain started. They were able to get some photos and go over to Phantom Manor with very little wait. They were in the stretching room after waiting about 10 minutes.
They were very hungry and stopped at Fuente Del Oro and got burritos. They were very good! The food options were very limited compared to other Disney Parks, especially open Quick Service options.
After lunch they got on Indiana Jones Temple of Peril and only waited 8 minutes. It was very intense! They went over to Pirates of the Caribbean but it was shut down.
They went to Pinoccio and waited about 20 minutes. It was very similar to Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. At about 3:55 p.m. they were going to go shopping but they got popcorn and watched the Dreams… and Shine Brighter Parade.
The rain started again but it didn’t stop anything. They decided to shop during the rain.
They rode HyperSpace Mountain and waited just less than 30 minutes. This ride is supposed to be Star Wars themed, but the queue was definitely not Star Wars at all.
The ride itself was Star Wars themed and Kacey said it was AWESOME! She compared it to Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster but not jerky.
Their next stop was Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast and they only waited 8 minutes. Then they took some time on Main Street to do some shopping. They picked up some souvenirs.
They’d really hoped that they could make it to the fireworks, but Kacey and her sister were exhausted.
They stopped at Disney Village and ate dinner at King Ludwig’s Castle. The food was very good! At 8:40 p.m. they got on the Metro but it stopped one stop before their stop and didn’t end up getting back until 10 p.m.
Bus Tour (March 30)
Today Kacey and her sister did another hop-on-hop-off bus tour today. The tour in Paris was much smaller than the one in London. It had about 10 stops.
They did get off at the Eiffel Tower and got to explore that area. They did some shopping around their hotel and Kacey got a Louis Vuitton purse. It was a luxurious experience.
Versailles (March 31)
Kacey and her sister took a bus near the Eiffel Tower to Versailles. It was about an hour trip outside of Paris.
It was very pretty. Everything was covered in gold and was very gorgeous. They also got some delicious macarons.
They finished the tour around 12 p.m. and got on the bus to go back to their hotel at 12:45 p.m.
They went back to the hotel and didn’t want to waste the day. They walked over to a shopping section in Paris. They walked around, did some shopping, and stopped at a restaurant near their hotel.
Disneyland Paris (April 1)
It ended up snowing all day. The weather wasn’t in their favor! They got some great photos, but it was a very wet snow.
They woke up, went to the pharmacy next door to get their covid tests, and got on the Metro for Disneyland Paris. They got on the Metro at 8:48 a.m. and were through the turnstiles at 9:49 a.m.
They had park hopper tickets today and started at Walt Disney Studios. They did that because they’d already done half a day at Disneyland. Unfortunately many people had this idea and Walt Disney Studios was very crowded.
They started at the back of the park and went right to Ratatouille: The Adventure. The standby was 20 minutes. It was so fun and very cute.
Their next ride was RC Racer and there was almost no wait. Tower of Terror was their next stop and it was about a 15 minute wait. It was much scarier than the Hollywood Studios version of the ride.
The wait times at Walt Disney Studios were all fairly long so they decided to go over to Disneyland. They went right to Pirates of the Caribbean and had very little wait. Kacey really enjoyed this version of the ride.
While they waited for Pirates of the Caribbean they mobile ordered lunch. Rather than sending the information to the app, the mobile order went to Kacey’s email. It was confusing.
Kacey thought that the parade would be starting soon so they sat down to watch it, but they were too early. It was very cold and still snowing. Kacey’s sister purchased a sweatshirt and then saw the parade.
They did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Kacey thought this ride was longer and faster than the Disney World version. Next they walked through the Alice in Wonderland maze. It was really cool and they were able to get some really cool views of the park.
Their next ride was the Storybook Land Canal Boats and there was no wait. This was completely outside though and they got wet.
They did more shopping. It was 5 p.m. now and the snow had slowed down but it was still very windy. Their dinner reservations weren’t until 7 p.m. so they tried to get an earlier reservation.
They walked over to Hotel New York and the restaurant was closed until 6 p.m. They wandered around the hotel and stopped at the Skyline Lounge. They got some drinks and hung out.
The lounge was very cool and set up like New York City. They finished there at 6:15 p.m. and they asked if they could get in. They didn’t have to wait at all even though their reservation wasn’t until 7:15 p.m.
The food and experience was wonderful! They were hoping that they would want to stay for the fireworks, but they ended up leaving after dinner. They got on the Metro and went right back to the hotel to pack and get ready to depart the next day!
Departure Day (April 2)
Their departure day was relatively uneventful. They flew from Paris to JFK in New York City. They did have to collect their bags at JFK before boarding a plane to Washington DC.
Key Takeaways
- Kacey only exchanged about $100 because she read that because of Covid, paper money isn’t as prevalent. At the bank, Kacey learned that her bank charged a foreign currency exchange rate of 3%. This would mean she would have been charged the exchange rate and the 3% rate. She ended up using her Apple card because there weren’t any fees.
- Kacey learned a little bit of French and tried it while they were in Paris. Usually they could switch to English but a few times she was in places where the person she was talking with didn’t speak English. Google translate came in very handy in these circumstances.
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