The Castles abroad: Disneyland Paris!

Yes I had to dedicate a whole post to Disneyland Paris. What can I say? The Castles love Disney! Mr. Castle and I hope to visit all the Disney parks in our lifetime so we were happy to cross one off the list on our honeymoon! First off let me tell you about where we stayed!

Staying in one of the Disneyland Paris hotels was not an option for us. The prices per night are quite pricey, even by Castle honeymoon standards. Mr. Castle found us a close hotel that offered a free shuttle to the park. This hotel was sooo nice, probably the best hotel we stayed in on our honeymoon. The Hotel L'Elysee is right across the street from a Metro RER stop. It was very easy to get from central Paris. We couldn't have been happier with the area around the hotel, tons of restaurants and cafes. I had the best cappuccino of the whole trip right across the street from our hotel!

Our first picture in the park. I apologize now for all my iPhone pictures. We didn't want to carry around our nice camera...

I will start by saying that Disneyland Paris is just as magical and enjoyable as Disneyland/World. There are some striking cultural differences though between Disneyland Paris and its domestic counterparts. One thing that we took note of right away when visiting the park was that we were joined mostly by families with children. It's not like in the states where Disneyland and World are visited by "children of all ages." This park definitely catered to young children. There are lots of rides and walk throughs for children to experience. There were also multiple play grounds in the park, something that I have never seen at an amusement park. After around 4pm not only did the park clear out, because all the kids were going home, but all the restaurants closed! There was not one place to get dinner inside the park, Frontierland became a true ghost town! We had to leave the park and go over to the Disney Village, their equivalent to Downtown Disney, to have dinner. The advantage to the park being geared towards kids and everyone clearing out around 4pm, is that we basically walked onto every ride. The big "E ticket" rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain and Phantom Manor (AKA Haunted Mansion) were not very popular with the children so we never waited more than five minutes.

We really enjoyed our visit to the Park. We found ourselves at times just walking around taking everything in. Mr. Castle told me before we visited that it is considered the most beautiful of the Disney Parks and I can see why. It seemed everywhere we turned was a picturesque scene. You really could just walk around and enjoy the beauty of everything around you.

A beautiful view of Big Thunder Mountain. I have to say Disneyland Paris wins for the best Big Thunder Mountain. It's much more thrilling than it's American Cousins.

One of my favorite things at Disneyland Paris was the Castle. Surprise, surprise, Mrs. Castle likes Castles. Mr. Castle informed me that since there are actual medieval castles in Europe they decided to make this Disneyland Castle more "fairy tale" like.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle 

We were so excited to be there! 

The best part about the Disneyland Paris Castle? There is a dragon underneath it!

Shout out to Miss Dragon! Let's face it, dragons are pretty cool and this animatronic Dragon was amazing. I took a video on my iPhone so I could share with everyone the awesomeness of this dragon.

Hope you like Mr. Castles cameo at the end there.

If you are a huge fan of Disneyland in California or the Magic Kingdom at Disney World, you might be interested to know some of the major differences at Disneyland Paris. For one, the area that we know as Tomorrowland is called Discoveryland.

Mr. Castle thinking about a Discovery yet to be made

What we know as "The Haunted Mansion," is called "Phantom Manor." It's very different.

The story of this ride is centered around a bride. :)

Space Mountain is completely different in Paris. From the outside decor to the roller coaster itself. The roller coaster features a loop and it is much more intense than the others.

Something you would NEVER see in California or Orlando. Five minute wait for Space Mountain!!! 

Walking right onto Pirates of the Caribbean. Mr. Castle thinks he might enjoy the Paris version over the original at Disneyland. It's a close call, but for me I vote for the original.

My only complaint about our visit would have to be the weather. It was freezing! Our first day it rained. Our second was day was dry but just as cold.

Freezing and trying to keep as warm as possible. I had to buy extra socks for my poor frozen toes.

Even with the cold we had a great time. We got to be kids on our honeymoon and experience one of our favorite places in a different country!  

Would you make a special trip to an amusement park on your honeymoon? Any other Disney nerds? Tokyo Disney is next on our list!

Just in case you didn't catch it the first time!

The Castles Abroad: Italy!

The Castles Abroad: Paris! 

All Photos (and video) are personal!

The Castles Abroad: Paris!

We decided to fly from Venice to Paris. It was surprisingly cheaper than taking the train. Italy really wore us out so we decided to take it a little easier in Paris. We did a lot of the touristy things, we went to the top of the Eiffel tower, visited the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Opera Garnier and the Arc du Triomphe. We also took a tour of the Palace of Versailles.

 A beautiful day in Paris

 I wore special socks

 The Castles in front of the Eiffel Tower

 The Palace of Versailles

 We made sure to go when all the fountains were on in the gardens at Versailles. 

 Visiting the Opera Garnier. Mr. Castles rule was no singing anything from Phantom of the Opera. 

One highlight during our time in Paris was meeting up with friends! A friend of ours was visiting Paris with her best friend and they offered to take Mr. Castle and I to their favorite tea house, Mariage Freres. It was quite an experience. The tea, the food, and the company were all fabulous but the most memorable part was the dessert. It was a chocolate mouse wrapped in, wait for it... edible gold! Yeah, we ate gold on our honeymoon.

Enjoying our tea and ready to dig into our dessert! 

Best dessert ever

Later that same evening we met up with our friends once again to have a picnic on the river Seine. We had some wine and watched the sun go down with Paris as our backdrop. We saw a lot of people enjoying wine outdoors in parks all around Paris and we were happy to partake! We had so much fun. There was definitely some tipsy, OK more than tipsy, tap dancing in the streets of Paris. It was a night to be remembered!

Our picnic spot in Paris. The tip of the Île de la Cité (The Island where Notre Dame is located)

Later that evening... Mr. Castle eager to carry his bride

My final Paris highlight took place on the last evening of our honeymoon. As a wedding gift we were given a dinner cruise with Bateaux Parisiens. We had to "dress smart" for this dinner so we carted Mr. Castle's suit around during our whole trip just for this one night! But it was worth it, he looked very handsome.

My handsome husband, waiting for the Metro

This dinner cruise was amazing. The food, the view, the wine, everything was incredible. It was the best possible way to end our honeymoon.

Our food was to die for!

The Castles "dressing smart" 

The view of the Eiffel tower during desert!

Well I took you through to the last night of our honeymoon, but I still have one more location to recap! In the middle of our stay in Paris we left the city for two days to visit Disneyland Paris! Coming up next!

If you missed the first half of the Castles Abroad check it out!
The Castles Abroad: Italy!

The Castles abroad: Italy!

As I said in my previous post we did A LOT on our honeymoon. To give you the play by play would take awhile and probably be a bit boring. So I'm just going to give you some highlights from our trip instead. If anyone is interested in specific details or advice send me a message and I'd be happy to give you more information about our trip!

Personal Photos ahead!

First stop, Rome!

The Castles in front of the Colosseum on our ancient Rome tour. 

We arrived in Rome after an 8 hour over night flight from NYC. We got to our hotel too early to check in so we walked around a bit. We were so exhausted and only one thing could perk us up... gelato! I don't know what it is about Italian gelato but I want some everyday of my life. We went back to the same gelato place everyday we were in Rome. I need to find a good gelato place in NYC because I want some... like right now. I asked Mr. Castle why we didn't take any pictures of our gelato and he responded, "Because we had full hands." True. No time for photos we were eating gelato!

Other than the gelato, the biggest highlight in Rome for me was our tour of the Vatican.

The Castles in St. Peter's Basilica

As a born and raised Catholic this was an especially thrilling experience for me. I cried in St. Peter's Basilica and was awestruck in the Sistine chapel. All the art and history were amazing enough but one of the most memorable moments during our visit to the Vatican was climbing St. Peter's dome. It was 551 steps to the top! It's quite a hike but the views from the top and the experience is totally worth it.

Starting the climb...

Halfway there! Inside the top of the dome.

Towards the top things get a little narrow and the walls are slanted.

The view from the top.

On the way back down, letting that Italian wind blow through my hair.

We spent four days in Rome. We saw all the major sites, the Colosseum, the roman forum, Spanish steps and the Trevi Fountain. We also visited this awesome excavation site tour called the Le Domus Romane di Palazzo Valentini. Check it out if your planning a trip to Rome anytime soon! I could go on and on about Rome. But I'd like to move on and talk about my new favorite city, Florence.

 The Duomo in Florence

I fell in love with Florence. It's such a special place full of art and beauty. One highlight from this part of our trip was our Florence sunset bike tour. We biked all over the city while learning about the different buildings, the history, and culture of Florence.

Ready for our bike tour. Our guide told us we got to wear "sexy vests" for the ride.

Rocking my orange vest while bike riding. Way to go Mr. Castle for getting an action shot.

After our bike tour we had our favorite meal of the whole honeymoon! It was at the restaurant Sasso Di Dante. It's right next to the Duomo so you would think it would be full of tourists but it totally wasn't! The food was amazing. Mr. Castle had gnocchi with truffles and I had some sort of beef pasta dish. I don't even remember what it was called but it was soo good!

Having some wine with the Duomo as our backdrop

Best Meal Ever

Our last night in Florence we walked up to the piazza Michelangelo to watch the sunset. It was very romantic. If you go, you have to go at sunset.

Our view

So Romantic....

...especially with some Duff beer! The Simpson's and Duff beer were strangely very popular in Italy!

Our last stop in Italy was Venice. We spent our first day exploring the city and ended the evening with dinner at our hotel. Our hotel was on top of a fabulous restaurant the Locanda Montin. The food was excellent, and it was nice knowing we didn't have to walk far to get to our hotel! In fact we could see our hotel room balcony from our table!

 Mr. Castle paying with his food. You can barely see it, but our hotel balcony is right above Mr. Castle's head in this picture.

Enjoying some wine after a full day in Venice

For our final day we booked a  Venice in one day tour.  The tour was great and included a Grand Canal boat cruise for later that same evening. In between the walking tour and the boat cruise we killed time by doing some shopping. Mr. Castle joked that Venice is sort of like a big shopping mall... there are alleys of little cute shops everywhere! I couldn't help but go into most of them... Finally the time came for our Grand Canal boat cruise. It was a great way to end our Italian adventure.

A shot from our tour. 

Side note: Most of our tours included a headphone so we could actually hear what our guide was saying. It was very helpful in the more crowded areas. :)

Boat tour with the Rialto Bridge behind us. I'm wearing some new earnings I had just bought. :)

I loved Italy and could have stayed forever, but it was time to move on. Next up, we jetted off to Paris! Anyone else visit Italy? What was your favorite "highlight?"

Back from the honeymoon with a new look!

Hello Hive!!!! I feel like I've been away forever but it hasn't even been a month yet since our wedding! It has been such a whirlwind going from our wedding in California back New York for a quick breather then onto our European honeymoon for two weeks. We had a blast but I'm happy to be back!

I have so much to tell about the weeks before the wedding, the honeymoon, the aftermath so far, not to mention recaps once we get our professional pictures! I'll start but telling you about a drastic change I decided to make just days after our wedding. Like many Bees before me I opted for a post wedding/pre-honeymoon haircut. I made up my mind long ago that I wanted short hair for our honeymoon. I referred to it as my "European bob." I was pretty tired of dealing with my long wedding hair and I knew it would end up in a pony tail the whole honeymoon if I didn't cut it all off.

Personal photos ahead! Here's how long it was the day of our rehearsal

And here it is after getting it cut two days after our wedding! 

 I wasn't wearing any makeup so I felt the sunglasses needed to stay on...

Here's a shot from our honeymoon!

I love it. I like my long hair too but I needed a change. It was a great cut for traveling. My hair dried so fast! And it took two seconds to style it with my travel sized hair straightener. Needless to say I'm very happy with my decision to cut my hair. :)

What about you? Will you/did you opt for the post wedding chop?

Honeymoon anyone?

I am sooo looking forward to going on our Honeymoon. I have never been out of the country, well that's not true I've been to Mexico but when you're from Southern California Mexico doesn't really count... I didn't need a passport to get across the border. I've had my passport for about a year and I can't wait to get my first stamp!

So where to? Well we both didn't want a beach location. I love the beach, but it's not what we envisioned for our honeymoon. I enjoy sitting, relaxing, reading a good book and sunbathing on the beach, but Mr. Castle is not a huge fan and likes to do none of those things. We both decided we want more of an experience, a chance to explore a new place together, our own little adventure if you will.

We had two locations on our brains... both in Europe, both full of Art and history, and both awesome. The first...

Image via Travelista

Italy has always been a place I wanted to visit. I am dying to go to Vatican City. (That's the Catholic upbringing in me) Rome, Venice, Florence and the Amalfi Coast are all on my list of places to visit someday. My father is strongly encouraging it. He's been twice and had amazing experiences. It was looking like this was our pick but then my Dad went on another trip that sparked a new idea in our brains.

Image Via Paris-VacationApartments

Paris... Le sigh, the city of romance. My Dad raved about his trip to Paris. He was pleasantly surprised with how much he enjoyed the city, and made it very appealing to Jeff and I. And just like that Paris was now on the table.

There are pros and cons to each. In Italy we could visit different cities, most likely Rome, Florence, and Venice. But that also brings up a con, having to plan the travel between cities and make itineraries for each. We also might feel rushed in each city we visit. In Paris we can stick to one place which will probably makes planning easier. But then I think about the amazing food in Italy, and seeing different parts of one country would be amazing.... But Paris is so romantic, I mean Paris on your Honeymoon!!! C'est magnifique!

Mr. Castle was really liking the Paris idea because we could visit Disneyland Paris... Because as I have said before we a huge Disney nerds...

After a lot of research, talking to friends, family, seeing what we could afford we decided.... to do both! I don't know what we are getting ourselves into but we have two weeks to explore two countries  and possibly five cities. We fly into Rome and out of Paris. At first I thought it might be too stressful to figure out the logistics of this trip, but it actually hasn't been that bad. Plus Mr. Castle has been mostly in charge of things.

Have you decided on a honeymoon? Would you chose one location over trying to visit as many as your could? Do you think we're crazy? Lol