American visiting DLP as part of a larger trip - questions

I am in the early (incredibly early, incredibly broad and rough) planning stages for a solo trip to DLP (I've decided that I want to visit every Disney park in the world at least once, and this is my next step). Given the time and expense involved in crossing the ocean I plan to make it part of a longer visit to Europe, though I'm not yet decided on where else I'll go. Most likely candidates are England or Norway, given that I really enjoyed the one other time I got to visit England and given that I have a friend in Norway who's offered to either put me up or meet me in London (she doesn't seem particularly interested in the DLP portion of the trip). I've also assumed in my plans so far that I'll visit Paris itself at least briefly.

Anyway, I have a question!

If you were planning a multi-stop trip, would you put DLP at the beginning or end of the trip? My concern about putting it at the beginning is worrying that it'll be weird coming down from Disney afterward, though for all I know I might like the other part of the trip better. My concern about putting it at the end is whether I'll be too tired to enjoy the parks.

Besides that, how many days would you suggest I allow for DLP? Due to the cost of international travel plus my other travel goals, this may be the only time I visit DLP, so I want to be sure I give myself plenty of time to enjoy it...without going so overboard that I get sick of it and wish I'd spent the time elsewhere. Advice on what time of year to go is good, too; I'm aware that it gets relatively cold in winter and that the colder and less popular months are likely to see attractions down for refurbishments. While I'd like to avoid crowds I'd like even more to avoid missing my one chance to ride a major attraction.

When are you looking at visiting Europe? I ask because 2017 will be the parks 25th anniversary and very few rides will be closed for refurbishment that year. If your looking at visiting next year 2016, then quite a few rides will be closed as part of the refurbishment programme, BTM for example will be closed for a year.

I would visit DLP in the middle, visit England first then take advantage of the Eurostar train from London to Paris or direct to DLP then go onto Norway. I think it will help break up the holiday, three days should be enough to enable you to enjoy the parks in a relaxing way and staying on site for two nights will give you the advantage of Extra Magic Hours.

As for time of year, September is quiet as the childern in Europe go back to school from their summer break. Another good time would be May or June as summer begins. If you book your accomodation at DLP as far in advance as possible will also benefit with some cheaper prices.

We'll be in Europe for two weeks and our DLP day sits right in the middle. We'll be staying in Paris at the time, but the ease of the Eurostar makes it very easy to get from London to Paris. I'd pay attention to the crowd calendar and tickets, I would pick a week-day over a weekend to avoid crowds and look at the school calendars as well. Good luck!

Let me know if you have any questions about Norway. Pricewise, I suspect putting DLP in the middle is a good option. It should cost you less to fly to Norway from France than the other way, and since there are lots of flights from Norway to the UK, you should be able to get a good price on your ticket.

Jonjo said:

When are you looking at visiting Europe? I ask because 2017 will be the parks 25th anniversary and very few rides will be closed for refurbishment that year. If your looking at visiting next year 2016, then quite a few rides will be closed as part of the refurbishment programme, BTM for example will be closed for a year.

I would visit DLP in the middle, visit England first then take advantage of the Eurostar train from London to Paris or direct to DLP then go onto Norway. I think it will help break up the holiday, three days should be enough to enable you to enjoy the parks in a relaxing way and staying on site for two nights will give you the advantage of Extra Magic Hours.

As for time of year, September is quiet as the childern in Europe go back to school from their summer break. Another good time would be May or June as summer begins. If you book your accomodation at DLP as far in advance as possible will also benefit with some cheaper prices.

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2017 is looking much more likely than 2016 for budget reasons anyhow -- I'd thought it might even be as late as 2018, but if we're coming up on a big anniversary it makes more sense to push harder on the savings plan and get there during the celebration. And that sounds like it's not so different from WDW in terms of times of year to go, apart from dropping the January/February option that generally works well in WDW. My first instinct is September, but if I do go up to Norway early summer might be better.

C3PO said:

Let me know if you have any questions about Norway. Pricewise, I suspect putting DLP in the middle is a good option. It should cost you less to fly to Norway from France than the other way, and since there are lots of flights from Norway to the UK, you should be able to get a good price on your ticket.

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I had jotted down an option that involves both the UK and Norway, but was worried it would make for too complicated of a trip -- it's interesting (and reassuring) that two people have replied with options that have me going London --> DLP --> Norway. It would be really nice to do all three and frankly if I need to simplify the trip, Paris itself is going to be the first thing to go (been there once, definitely enjoyed the art museums, didn't enjoy the city in general as much as I did London). Hadn't really thought of doing DLP in the middle, but it makes sense, particularly as I suspect Norway would be the most relaxed leg of the trip given that it's a visit to a friend's home. The question would then be whether she'd still want to meet me in London if I was planning to detour to DLP before coming up to Norway, but that's something to work out with my friend.

I'm really not sure what to ask at this point re: Norway, but I'll keep your offer in mind.

We are planning a 2016 trip and put DLP in the middle. I was going to put it at the end, but we had FF miles for the flights and that's how the flights worked out (we could fly into Paris form the US on miles, but not back out). Were combining France with Scotland (visited in 2006 and loved it) and spending 3 days at DLP.

JonJo has excellent advice. I do want to add that if you are looking at May/June to avoid the week before and after Whit Monday--lots of kids are out on school holidays then and the parks are pretty full. If you can hit those months at any other time though we have had low crowds.

I have a couple of suggestions. I love to travel and because I bring along my three kids with us when we do travel, I have learned how to get there as cheap as possible! I think you should look into IcelandAir and stop over in Iceland on your way to England...Manchester to be exact. We did this in summer 2014 and the flights were very reasonable plus Iceland is a really unique and beautiful country! I would stay two days in Iceland and then fly to Manchester and use the trains around England then Eurostar to Paris and head home from there after you tour around or on to Norway. We used Aerlingus to fly home one-way and it was also not too bad. We also used EasyJet to fly from Venice to Paris and they are very cheap. I'm sure you could get a very cheap fare from Paris to where ever you wanted in Norway. Or you can play around with the different flights and see if Icelandair can get you to Norway cheaper and go from there.

As far as DLP goes, mid-June was a great time to be there and I think two full days with another half day is plenty.

Planning is half the fun, so have fun!