Disneyland Paris's Alice in Wonderland - and More Notices

Just back from a few days in Disneyland Paris. It's for an article, so it's work - but definitely the kind of work I like as I'm a huge Disney fan.

Paris has one of the best Alice in Wonderland attractions of any of the Disney parks - not only the revolving teacups, but also a labyrinth, where you walk to, fro and round, trying to find your way to the castle in the middle. All right, I know there isn't a castle in "Alice" but this is rather beautiful with its gorgeously Kremlin-style tiled roof and golden weathervane.

There were also Alice and Mad Hatter characters on the floats, signing autographs and posing for photographs in the park - it was quite hard to get this one, amidst the jostling crowd.

What about Tim Burton's version? The only signs of those, were posters. No doubt that will change, unless Disney have decided to stick with their cartoon Alice as the definitive one.

More reviews. Apparently the book was mentioned in the Universal Register in Tuesday's copy of the Times of London. I've been unable to find this online, but my UK publisher Haus promises to send me a clipping. Hurrah! I've always wanted to be featured on the Times Universal Register!

A nice review from Salt Lake City. And many thanks to Bill Burns for letting me know more about Newsday.

I was thrilled to see this elegant Japanese blog with a long, thoughtful review.

For comments and more info please go to the main Jabberwock website. Thanks!

Cancellation of a Trip and Disneyland Paris Insurance -

A cautionary tale. A friend booked to go to Disneyland Paris on the Eurostar during the recent bad weather. Eurostar's website advised passengers to travel only if necessary, due to trains having been stuck in the tunnel.  They also warned of further cancellations and major delays.   Since she was travelling with a small child, she cancelled the trip.

She had taken out Disneyland's own insurance at time of booking.  It is not possible to see full policy details on the Disneyland website (there is a brief version in their brochure), and also you must book the insurance at the time of booking your acommodation.  The insurance details were not emailed through to her at time of booking, even though they were supposed to be.

After cancelling, she read the details of the policy. It was not only very expensive, but had many exclusions. For instance, deaths of close relatives were not covered unless the person who died was actually named on the booking.   The policy, covering only 4 days, was also very expensive, perhaps four times as expensive as regular travel insurance.

The moral is, first if buying a Disney insurance policy, check it BEFORE bookiing and make sure you can't get a better deal elsewhere.

Secondly, don't cancel just because the train operator advises against travel.  Regular insurance policies don't insure against this either, unless the specific train you were going to use, is cancelled.  Bad weather and adverse advice from travel companies is not a reason for cancelling.