to take a slow cooker to Disneyland Paris?

[ElizaPickford]

Ok, that sounds a bit odd, but here's the thing, we're going and the whole family is veggie (and now skint.) I couldn't justify spending nearly £70 a day on meal vouchers, and it looks like Disney and France in general have different ideas about what constitutes being vegetarian. (One of the veggie options in one restaurant was fish and chips, and one of the best veggie restaurants apparently uses meat stock for veggie dishes.)

If we just pay as we go, I think we're looking at £15 each for chips and salad. It's crazy expensive, and I don't want to pay through the nose for the kids to eat crap for almost a whole week.

Soooooo... I was thinking if I took my slow cooker, we could at least have baked potatoes when we get back at night? And maybe couscous if I take the kettle? I can take some fresh stuff with me although we'll have no fridge so that will be limited, but just trying to figure out if this is a socially unacceptable thing to do, and whether I run the risk of burning down the whole hotel when the euro-adapter blows up my slow cooker.

Or any other tips for not starving to death/going bankrupt while there?

The thought of someone cooking eggs and jars of pasta sauce in hotel kettles is giving me the boak.
People have to make their cups of tea with that!
Please, for the love of, tell me that it's your OWN kettle!

Why on earth aren't you going self catering? I just don't get it. When my DCs were that age I had years of SC intermixed with meals out. The thought of a slow cooker in a hotel room has me . Don't even contemplate it. Nor the camping gaz stove - that's complete madness. I'd be changing your booking for self catering pronto if you are even thinking of taking a slow cooker.

French supermarkets are fantastic, we had years over there when the kids were little. Croissants can be sweet or savoury (stuff with cheese), the breads are fantastic, fruits and salad stuff, olives etc. Why on earth would you even contemplate taking a slow cooker - this is a holiday! Take your DCs to the supermarket with you, let them choose food, have a neverending picnic of delicious french food.

As for the PP who boiled eggs and pasta in a kettle in a hotel room... well.. what can I say?! disgusting

I was a chambermaid a few years ago. I would have switched the slow cooker off, fire hazard. Boiling eggs in a kettle is nothing short of disgusting too. And I once cleaned out a family room where they had catered for themselves, this is a bog standard hotel room not a self catering place. The smell of pot noodles stayed in that room for days. Not to mention the actual dribbles from it that they and their children had left everywhere which I had to clean up and had dried to a rock hard mono sodium glutamate stinking lumps.

Pot noodles and baked potatoes on holiday? Sounds like hell. Buy cheese and bread instead.

Ledkr You're right I was never a child. Summers were spent working on the farm and we never went on holiday. Joking aside I had a wonderful childhood looking back. We never took our kids to theme parks because I couldn't stand the idea. Going on rides and queuing is my idea of hell. We're all different and we can do as we like.
I just think if you're going for a theme park then go for the whole experience. Slow cookers and kettles in rooms, making sandwiches at the breakfast buffet. I just don't relate to it at all.

Ha ha! This is classic!

I would go insane if the people in the next hotel room were cooking up dinners. The smell would be terrible. Even if the food tastes nice, second-hand cooking smells are excrutiating. Can you imagine the rage of the hotel as well?

I don't know about Disneyland Paris, but the range of options in Disneyworld in Florida is huge, and every palate, food preference and allergy is taken care of. Personally I would say, live a little, have a few nice meals, and also stock up at a supermarket with suitable snacks and especially water.

I think you will spoil your experience if you are stressing about not buying any food and making your family sit in a hotel room eating couscous. You can be sure they'll remember that part and posting about it on MN in 30 years' time rather than all the good fun things.

I agree, anyone who boils an egg in a hotel is an utterly selfish arse. Imagine being the next guest in the room. Makes me feel sick.

you can get SC apartments on air bnb close to the park for reasonable money. some of them even have Disney pictures up etc.
There are also campsites not far away you could rent a tent or a caravan.
Its still ridiculous money to get onto the park of course but youd still save more money than you would by taking a slow cooker.

It seems that some people have serious trouble thinking in shades of grey. Did it not occur to you that the OP's financial situation may have changed since she booked the holiday?! You can't always prepare for big costs or redundancies. Many people book holidays far in advance to get better deals.

I also don't see the need for Disneyland snobbery. Again, the holiday is bloody booked! I don't know why some people must clutch their pearls about Disney when their opinions weren't even being sought. Most parents are able to balance good old fashioned cheesy fun with cultural and learning experiences.

I will inspect hotel kettles VERY carefully in future. Yuck !

Pizzeria Bella notte in the main park does pizza and pasta with plain tomato sauces, it does 3 cheese salad, it does meat too if you want - 2 pizzas and salad did 4 of us.

New York sandwich place in the village does sandwiches to order - hot or cold - have what you like on it, and loads of different pasta dishes - we had a plain pesto pasta for a fussy one one year..

MacD's is same old - but breakfast pastries are nice..

L'Arbre enchanter does veggie pasta to takeaway in a cup

as a veggie you need to know that over there "Royale" means with ham and cheese..

those are all fast food places -

We enjoyed the Agrabah cafe for a decent buffet meal - morroccan/Mediterranean/middle eastern food, lots of veggie choice - expensive, but nice...

and we went (by car) to Davy Crocketts ranch last time we went for a buffet night - ( they also have a shop/mini mart on site with REALLY lovely fruit) their dessert collection was just AMAZING (can't remember the savoury side - the desserts were THAT amazing)

Yikes, this reminds me of the time I went to fill the kettle in a dodgy hotel room and found it full of dark brown coffee. I think I screamed.

But on the happier side, a weak euro you say? Should I stock up now for my summer trip to Majorca?

I luuuurrrrrrve Disneyworld, and dh and I also make a very decent fist of University Challenge and Only Connect. So many people express surprise at our (annual ) choice of holiday, but Disneyworld is not just rides and Mickey Mouse. And to my mind, Centrepants sounds like, well, riding a bike round a pine forest with middle-class twerps so I can be prejudiced too!

Anyway, I know dm would never touch the washing-up bowl in SC properties as she was convinced people used them to be sick into... We always took our own 1970s olive green washing up bowl, which travelled resplendently on the back shelf of the car.

It had never occurred to me that people might cook in hotel kettle - have they no consideration at all for other people? Rank. Maybe this is why the kettles are usually so small now.

I would also be pretty annoyed if cooking in a room set off the smoke alarms and meant the hotel had to evacuate, which is not impossible.

See, SomewhereIBelong has very useful information, and I'm sure the Disneyland website or a website such as the Dib would provide information on vegetarian eating options. I'm sure eating out of a kettle would not be one of them, though!

Now children, ' can you write down what you did on holiday '

If it's any consolation as a chambermaid we were told to empty the kettles of all water once the room was vacated. It never occurred to me to check it for eggs though

At least I finally have an explanation for a cup of tea I made in a hotel in London that made me vom... I know DP has always thought I was being a drama queen about it, but clearly it had been used as an egg cooker. Boak.

Please can someone explain how on earth you keep the water in a kettle boiling for long enough to actually cook eggs or pasta???

Well after this thread I will not be using a kettle in a hotel room anymore .

Will have to take a travel kettle everywhere now.

I already take my travel kettle everywhere!

What happens to people with egg allergies if they've had some raving loon in the room before them cooking eggs in the kettle?
You wouldn't even THINK that your cup of tea would set you off, but it could if there was cooked egg in there!

ElizaPickford - unfortunately Agrabah Cafe is closed from 30 March to the end of June at least (I'm not sure when you're going).
www.dlpguide.com/calendar/closures-refurbishments/restaurants/.
I think you'll be fine. Everything is over-priced, but there are cheaper options too.

Or coeliacs if it was wheat pasta! Oh, the humanity!