CHAPTER 13 Disney

"You cannot park anywhere on the Euro-Disney resort until the morning, except in the car park of a Hotel you are staying at", said the security guard, supervising the entrance to the car park of the Sequoia Lodge Hotel. "We are booked in here, for tomorrow night", I responded. "Then you can come back tomorrow" he replied.

This conversation took place in the early dark hours of the morning. To be more precise it was 3:30am on Thursday and we had booked a room for Thursday night. Perhaps I should have said "tonight" instead of "tomorrow night".

It had been 7:00pm on Wednesday, when we had left North West London. Now on top of the drive to Dover and the ferry crossing, we had just driven non stop to the east of Paris, from Calais. By this time my desire to get a few hours sleep was the dominant of my priorities.

We had originally booked one night in the Hotel Santa Fe, which was the least expensive of the Euro-Disney hotels. At this time Euro-Disney was a new resort, which had only been open a very short while. Early media feedback suggested that it’s phase I amusement facilities were relatively limited, when compared with its American cousins. We had got the strong impression that a single day in the resort would enable us to cover the major rides to our satisfaction. Certainly there was a lot of publicity about low attendances and the resulting poor revenues.

Three weeks before our departure, the Disney people had phoned, to tell us that we had been upgraded to the more expensive Sequoia Lodge Hotel, at no extra cost. Naturally we were very pleased. They also offered us additional days on the same upgraded basis. We declined them, having already decided to stay for just the one day. We also thought that the few hours between our anticipated arrival and the resort opening, did not justify the cost of a whole nights accommodation. We had planned to sleep in the car for those few hours.

However it was now obvious that the security guard confronting me was determined to thwart this idea. I contemplated driving back to the motorway to find a rest area. By now though, tiredness was winning the argument over the extra French francs I would need to part with.

The receptionist made it clear that I would have to pay for a full extra night, even though the night was already more than half-gone. I was also told I would have to pay the full Sequoia Lodge price for the night, since the special deal we had previously been offered, only applied to advance bookings.

I think I might have raised my voice a bit at this point, because the single receptionist quickly morphed into a group of three hotel staff, who formed a united front to confirm the lack of flexibility in the room charging rules.

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