Disneyland Paris/EuroDisney - Questions & Answers

Discodee

you're very welcome jen

Just remember most hotels have a48 hr cancellation policy so what I usually do is, get the cheapest flight i can, and book any hoteln that I could afford, just to make sure I have one.
Then I can sit back and look at other hotels at my leisure, and if I find a better one, i book that and cancel the first.

dont forget to check out tripadvisor.co.uk. I found it invaluable. i use it every time I go abroad. I have been given all the transport details/prices, found a very cheap hotel in amsterdam and loads of good advice. (Go to the forums, thats where you can ask anything)

we're off to krakow next year and I'll be visiting the polish forums for that one

livinginhope

We went to Disney Paris in June,we paid £289 for 2 adults and 2 children with Eurostar,this included the 4* hotel.The hotel was in Bussey-saint-Georges a short train ride into Disney and it only cost 5 Euros,if you want Disney on a budget,stay away from the resort itself and get a hotel in the surrounding areas of Marne la valle,Bussey-saint-Georges.The free child places for under 7s do not work out a bargain when you add up the extra cost of staying in a Disney hotel
Just a quick note,we loved the Walt Disney studios,my DS was in absolute awe at the stunt show and DD loved the 'Behind the magic tour' as did I.I do think the tickets are expensive for the parks,but you can get some bargains if you book before you go.
Hope you find something and have a good time
LIH

traciemk

thanks for any one help:j

Discodee

it depends where you live though. It would cost us more in train fares to get to London to ride eurostar than it cost for us to fly to paris!

livinginhope

Discodee wrote: »

it depends where you live though. It would cost us more in train fares to get to London to ride eurostar than it cost for us to fly to paris!

We live a very long way from London,Norfolk,but with pre booking etc on train,it cost us £57 return for the 4 of us to get to Waterloo,it would cost us much more to fly!

House_Elf_2

I don't know if DLP do annual passes anymore, but about 5 years ago we upgraded our 3 day passes for annual passes. We realised that we only had to visit twice in 12 months to cover the cost. This does not seem to be widely advertised, and definitely not in English! We seemed to visit every school holiday that year! Used Tesco points for the Eurotunnel and stayed in the Novotel at Marne La Vallee. (Great breakfast!). Train station convenient for Paris trips. Huge Carrefor convenient for stocking up on wine!:j

We have also stayed at Explorers and Holiday Inn, but found all the comforts such as pool, play areas etc were a bit of a waste of money as we were either in the Parks or asleep!

DLP food is junk. Can't even get a good cup of coffee. Pizza Planet does reasonable Pizzas and Caseys does OK Hot Dogs. If you have a buggy try to take drinks and snacks, but we found carrying our own food around just too limiting. Resign yourself to bland pap and no vegetables for 3 or 4 days!!

It's great fun though! Aiming to go at half term. Halloween was really good fun. (Xmas was just too cold for us!).:rotfl:

Carmina_Piranha_3

i've been thinking about this too - using tesco points perhaps. we love hallowe'en there but would like to try xmas sometime.

if i were to do it cheaply i'd wait until my toddler is a bit older and has more patience. the queues at theme parks upset him at the moment.

my eldest has special needs and hates standing in queues (he loses his balance, and his temper) so we preferred to pay the extra to stay in the disney hotels themselves. they do a fantasyland breakfast at no extra charge - you can go into the park for breakfast before it opens, then get on 3 or 4 rides before the public are let into the park. it's worth it on busy days, then you can nip back to the hotel for a swim in the middle of the day, or go into paris - having already been on more rides than you'd have managed in the queues if you'd entered the park at official opening time. if the children want character autographs the characters come into the disney hotels for signing sessions.

it's definitely worth going into paris. we took some children with us while the others stayed in the park (we were in a group - i don't mean that i left some of my own children unattended in the park!) and they loved it. the metro, the eiffel tower in the dark, seeing the boats lit up on the seine etc. and even buskers on the train itself and real people speaking french. it really made the trip for me, and spud talked more about the eiffel tower when we got back than he did about the theme park.

i agree with madfrenchgirl about trying to speak french to the staff. even very poor french is rewarded, i found that the characters were more likely to turn to my children if they tried to speak in french too.

rev229

If you child has special needs and can't queue you can get a pass so you get straight on the rides. All you need to do is go to the information area on arrival with a letter saying the child has a disability and they issue a special pass. We went 2 years ago with our autistic daughter and the service we had was excellent, no queing at all in fact 1 show was turing people away, we showed her blue card and where allowed in. At the stunt show at the studios we had front row seats. All the staff where really helpful and very polite regarding her specila needs

blue_monkey_2

I agree with Rev, we saw this at Florida and if children havea disability they get on the front of the ride via the exit so there is no need for queueing - they can get too old for Disney I think so make the most of it while they are the right age to do so.

The only option for using the Clubcard points now though is if you stay in one of the French Life places and drive, or if you get the Eurotunnel. Las time I looked there was no other option for DLP with Clubcard as Ledger were pulling out and Cresta are no longer part of it. This is why we are now saving for Florida again. We used them with Cresta 2 years ago and went to Florida this year with Virgin (I love points), we was saving to go to DLP again but there are no companies offering it on deals so it'll be back to Florida in 2009 when the new Harry Potter land opens at Universal and by then the kids can get onto more of the rides than they could this year.

blue_monkey_2

Oh and xmas at disney is fab. it starts from November 11th this year - last time we went it was Xmas and it was wonderful, there were snaw machines going and all the lights were on. There was a fab Xmas parade in the Magic Kingdom - and if anyone else was there then did you see that 'toy soldier' dancing at the back of the parade? Very funny!! It is worth going for the experience - it was wonderful. Not so badly priced as well in the Middle of November considering they have all the lights and everything up. Have fun.