Rangers summer trip

Monday 29th August 

To start our journey, we all met at Worthing station at 5:30am. After greeting each other, we managed to catch an earlier train than we had planned for. After an uneventful train ride, we arrived at St Pancras International Station. Before boarding the train, we had a bite to eat.

We all separated into groups at this point, and from the sounds of it, all wandered around lost. After a while however, we stumbled upon Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain, a Vekoma launch rollercoaster located in Discoveryland. We both enjoyed it so much, we went on it twice. Quick word of advice, keep your head on the headrest. A massive headache is what happens when you don’t.

Between the two rides, we went on Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast. Throughout this trip, we hope to see our high score for that ride improve.

We then watched the parade, the highlights for us being the dragon and the princesses.
Then we went back to the hotel, had our dinner at La Cantina, and then four of us went back to the park to see the fireworks.

We went on Hyperspace Mountain again, and managed to get front row seats! We followed that by another ride on Buzz Lightyear, this time with Karen joining us.

The fireworks were lovely, albeit incredibly busy. The water fountains were especially impressive. We then returned to the hotel, and quickly fell asleep, excited for the next day of this incredible international trip.

Tuesday 30th August 

After breakfast we travelled to the park on the bus.  We went onto the Pirates of the Caribbean ride whereas the others went on the Peter-Pan’s Flight ride.

After lunch we all joined up and went to Le Passage Enchanté d’Aladdin which was a walkthrough of the scenes in the film with animatronics. We were really excited to go on Big Thunder Mountain so whilst waiting for the queue to go down we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. After Big Thunder Mountain, all of us Rangers met up to go on the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride for a photo.

While the Parade was on most of us went to Hyper Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast as we had seen the parade the day before and it was amazing. Next we travelled back to the hotel on the bus and freshened up before going to dinner at the Chuck Wagon Cafe at the hotel over the river.

Wednesday 31st August 

We started off the day by looking out of our window and seeing the sunrise and thinking, we have an amazing day in front of us.

We travelled to the train station by shuttle bus and went into the train station and bought lunch. We got the train to Charles de Gaulle – Étoile from Marne – la – Vallée – Chessy and the train was a double decker with 16 stops till our destination.

After two hours of walking, we arrived at the Eiffel Tower. We then stopped in a nearby park to have lunch. After lunch, some Rangers went to take pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower and one Ranger said “The pictures are worth it”.

After lunch, we took a short walk to the River Seine to get onto the ’batobus’ to go to the ‘Notre Dame’ After our boat ride, we arrived at the ‘Notre Dame’, and we were hoping to go and look inside but unfortunately it was under construction due to the accident that was caused in 2019 but we were still able to take photos of the beautiful church.

Then we set off back to Disneyland and the hotel where we ate dinner. We returned back to our hotel and some Rangers got a photo with Minnie Mouse! Some Rangers went into the park to go on rides (‘Phantom Manor’ and ‘The Big Thunder’ and then watched the light show and the fireworks which were both incredible and definitely worth watching!

We arrived back at the hotel and deserved a very well and rested night’s sleep. The weather from today overall was hot meaning a lot of sunscreen lotion! One leader achieved 28,833 steps! Overall, a very enjoyable day! One Ranger said “The day overall was amazing, seeing all the different landmarks and the backstories behind it!”.

Thursday 1st September 

We split off into two groups and we went into the two different parks.

One group went into Disney Store and bought gifts for family and then waited for the gates of the Disney Studios. We went on many different rides throughout the morning and into the afternoon.

One ride was called ‘Crush’s Coasters’, one Ranger’s view was “I thought it was very cleverly done and thrilling”, another ride was called ‘The Tower of Terror’, one Ranger’s opinion of the ride was “it is really scary, but really good”.

We went back into the Disneyland Park from leaving Disney Studios. Once we arrived back in Disneyland Park, we did more fun and exciting rides, one ride was called ‘Pirates of The Caribbean’, one Ranger’s opinion was “At first, I did not know what to expect but doing it over and over again increased how much I liked the ride, making it one of my favourite rides to do’“. We carried on going on rides until early evening and then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

We met all together in the reception hotel to go onto the shuttle bus to go and catch a different shuttlebus to take us to the hotel. After dinner, everyone either went into the Disneyland Park or stayed in the hotel and came into the park later on to enjoy the rides.

Friday 2nd September

For Friday, we woke up to a grey morning but that did not dampen our spirits. We work up later than previous mornings, as we had to check out.

We got into Disneyland and spent the rest of the day on our favourite rides in both the park and studios. We discovered that some of us enjoy being scared whereas others prefer “to have their feet safely on the ground”. However, we managed to all enjoy ourselves no matter what rides we choose to go on.

Lunch was spent at a variety of restaurants depending on what group you went around with; one group found a Tony Stark themed restaurant with very cool napkins. We also did some shopping for family and ourselves.

We left Disneyland and met everyone at the station, we managed to get through security and collect our luggage successfully before getting onto the Eurostar train. The journey on the Eurostar was pleasant including a rain shower and a gorgeous sunset once back on English soil.  Two more train journeys later and we were back home, safe and sound.

Overall, although we are all very tired. We have been so excited to explore a new culture and see the most famous sights in the city. Being a ranger does of course come with more responsibilities but it is all worth it with the exciting new experiences we get to encounter and places we get to visit.

Worthing Cissbury Division Rangers – Sept 2022

This international trip had been a long time coming and being able to combine both fun in the parks and the ‘educational element’ of Paris and the touristy things which we saw and did was a great opportunity for all who participated. All in all a wonderful trip, making memories are a wonderful way of keeping the trip alive for many years to come, to be able to recall the excitements, joy and fun which these opportunities give those who attend.

Grab those opportunities when they arise, you never know what you are missing if you don’t.