We were gifted with return tickets to Paris for the purpose of a review!
Coach trips are fun and definitely our favourite way to travel. It makes life easier. Yes it’s long but I definitely feel more relaxed on a coach than I do on a other methods of transportation!
We were kindly gifted with Flixbus tickets and we decided to use them for our trip to Paris.
What is FlixBus?
Flixbus is a German coach travel brand that offers intercity bus service in Europe and the United States.
The booking process
It’s so easy. Just make sure you double check times and dates especially if you plan to travel overnight like we did. You can book via their website or their app! You’ll get an email confirmation that will have everything you’ll need before your departure. You can choose to print your tickets or show them on your phone.
The journey
I opted for an overnight coach (left London Victoria at 9pm and arrived at Paris Bercy at 6:45am) It made sense as my little one was bound to sleep the whole journey which she did.
The only difficult part was getting her off the coach (still sleeping) at Folkestone to show our passports (she’s no longer a light baby lol)
Our driver told us we had 20 minutes before we set off again. This was our first time using the Eurotunnel and I got a quick glimpse of it before drifting off back to sleep. I must be honest and say it’s not ideal for those who are claustrophobic but it was a cool experience for us!
Hours later we arrived at Paris Bercy. I used Apple maps to direct me to the nearest station where I could get the train to Disneyland (Gare De Lyon) From the coach station it was about a 15 minute walk and very easy to get to.
The train from Gare de Lyon to Marne-la-Vallée only cost €7.60 which is around £6.39. Buying a ticket was super easy too. Just change the langue to English and follow the steps!
Luggage
Generally your ticket includes the free transportation of:
• One item of hand luggage (max. 42 x 30 x 18 cm, max. 7kg)
• 2 items of luggage (max. 80 x 50 x 30 cm, slight deviations in dimensions with a max. circumference of 160 cm permitted, max. 20 kg)
Pushchairs
They’re consisdeded “special” luggage and you will have to call to add this to your booking. The number is not a U.K. number and when I checked with O2 it would cost a whopping £3 a minute 😮 so here’s what you can do…
You can reach out via a private message on either Facebook or Twitter (if you get replies from their messenger bot you can ask to “speak to a human agent”).
You’ll then get it confirmed they your pushchair has been added to your booking. This should be done no earlier than 48 hours before your departure
Flixbus with kids…The Need to know!
- Under 3s cannot board WITHOUT a car seat with a two-point seat belt.
- Children between 10 and 15 years can travel alone with a declaration of consent from their parent or guardian (to be given during booking).
- children may only travel alone on domestic routes, without changes and between the hours of 6:00 am – 10:00 pm.
- As mentioned above, pushchairs must be registered on your booking no earlier than 48 before departure.
- There are toilets onboard
How to make coach trips with kids nice and easy!
- SNACKS – no explanation needed!
- Pull ups – my 4yo is potty trained but pulls ups are definitely needed for long journeys
- Seat to sleep – a lightweight inflatable cushion that makes sleeping while travelling for kids so much more comfortable. For ages 3-10 (previously gifted)
- iPad – always use as a last resort. There’s WiFi available on the FlixBus but always download movies/shows just in case. We’ve used NOW tv kids, Netflix, BBC iplayer kids and Amazon Prime in the past!
- Book a late journey– as mentioned above we left at 9pm and little miss pretty much slept the whole way to Paris!
Frozen Celebration @ Disneyland Paris ❄️
Our first day
We got to Disneyland Paris just in time for extra magic hours! We dropped off our luggage at the park which is FREE as we are Infinity pass holders!
Day 1
Princess pavilion – I ran here with the buggy (although they tell you not to lol) and we were fourth in line! We met Snow White again.
Flying Dumbos – one of little miss’ favourites. A little wet this time thanks to the snow ⛄️
Les Voyages de Pinocchio – Join Pinocchio, and his friend Jiminy Cricket, on his incredible quest to become a real boy in this no-strings-attached adventure.
Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains (Snow White ride) – could definitely be a little scary for some but my little girl loves it!
Pirates of the Caribbean – the queue for this always seems to go by so fast. I love it!
Baloo and King Louie meet and greet – this was hilarious. Little miss had a little dance off with them. Such a cute and magical moment!
Mickey meet and greet – you can got to Disneyland and not see Mickey Mouse
Frozen 2: an enchanted journey – We got to see Anna, Olaf, Sven, Elsa and Kristoff on an amazing float with some great music and dancing!
Olaf meet and greet – our first time meeting him and it was very magical. You can only meet him using the Lineberty app. Rather than queuing up to meet the character, you get a timeslot from the app. You turn up when it’s your turn. If you’re still confused then check this out.
Animation academy – so much fun we learned how to draw Olaf!
Frozen: a musical invitation – we ended our day with the coolest Frozen show. We got to meet Anna, Olaf, Sven, Elsa and Kristoff. This is a standing experience and I reckon it lasted around 30 minutes
We managed to do loads and we left at 3pm.
You can see more of our amazing trip to DLP via our Instagram.
Our second day
Was unfortunately cut short! The hailstones and the wind was a little too much for us to bare! Thanks to extra magic hours we got to ride Peter Pans flight twice!
We spent the rest of the day shopping at Val de Europe and enjoying some indoor relaxing time!
Where did we stay?
We stayed at Séjours & Affaires Serris Rive Gauche again. We were even given the exact same room! You can read about our thoughts on our previous post here.
The Journey back..
Started off a little rocky as I was told my little one couldn’t get on the coach without a car seat. I had to quickly run to the FlixBus office at the station to get someone to tell the driver that she could get on. Someone from the office was nice enough to give us a a car seat to use anyway!
Would we use FlixBus again?
Absolutely! It’s super cheap and easy to use! Our trip would’ve cost us less than £60 which is just amazing! Great way to travel around Europe for families. We will be using this service again for our next trip to Disneyland and we also have Brussels booked too!
