Just when I thought I was going to PCS back home to El Paso as quickly and cleanly as possible, Angeli convinced me to take a couple of days off and take the kids to Disney Paris on our way back home. After digesting some of the costs, which were mercifully blunted due to us being Disney Vacation Club members, I begrudgingly agreed.
I say begrudgingly because at the time the decision was made, it was a few weeks after our trip from Mauritania to the Philippines and back with our 2 year old over Christmas. I sarcastically swore off ever taking her anywhere again. She’s an active kid and prolonged plane travel with a 2 year old isn’t exactly relaxing. Thankfully, as she has gotten a little older, she has been able to communicate better, sit still longer, and follow instructions MUCH better. She also has really started enjoying Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so with all these elements combined, as time grew closer to the trip, I became more convinced Angeli was right (as always).
One nice little perk when travelling on official orders, is if your flight itinerary is over 14 hours, you are allowed a free rest stop of one day along your route back. Basically a way to break the travel in to more palatable chunks. I don’t think this is ever worth it when PCSing since you are usually hauling around a ton of luggage, but if you can flip it into a little extra leave over a weekend, it’s a solid idea. Since we always route through Paris, this made it easy for us to take some time before heading back to the U.S. and didn’t cost us anything extra in terms of our flights, and we actually got one day of per diem for the whole family covered thanks to the rest stop. I can’t complain.
We took the classic overnight flight from Nouakchott into Paris, and arrived very early in the morning on a Saturday to find ourselves taking the RER to Disney Paris and our hotel, the Disney Newport Bay Club. I guess it’s fitting we chose a resort themed after an American region on our way back for home leave. It was like a little sneak preview of being back home, with a French twist. The resort and grounds were great, and it’s gotten to the point that you can make a vacation out of just staying at all the Disney Resorts without ever setting foot inside a theme park. This is especially true in Florida and not too far off in Paris.
We spent our first day enjoying the resort, relaxing, and decompressing. It was weird laying there reflecting on the end of our tour in a place that is about as contrasted from Mauritania as it gets. Disney being a land of silly excess versus the austerity of Mauritania. Definitely a weird place to decompress.
After sort of getting over the jet lag, we enjoyed 2 full days in the Disney Paris parks, which were actually some of my favorite Disney Parks we have been to. I liked them way more than Florida since both parks are right next to each other and can easily be walked to, the weather is much better, and aesthetically it was nicer. Definitely easier to navigate with small kids. The lines were also great and we got to ride pretty much everything we wanted as much as we wanted. Overall an A+ experience.
Although a great time was had by all, by the 3rd day I was longing to return back to our Texas home, so we loaded up all our things and made the long journey from Paris back to Texas. This was a nice little rest stop and I fully admit Angeli was right on this one (and every other time too). Until next time! -Nick
