Halloween at DLP

samserena

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 15, 2013
Does anyone have tips for Halloween at DLP? Would you recommend it? As opposed to earlier in October or just after it in November?

We've done Halloween at DLR a couple of times (2013 & 14) and loved it. But it's Europe that's on the cards for this year and we're trying to decide on timing. For reference, last time we did DLP was January 2011.

Also, how far in advance do you need to book for Chez Remy? Can you book online? This is probably our highest priority for our visit!

Thank you in advance.
 
DLP is very busy around Halloween, many countries in Europe have a school holiday at the end of October. French school are off 23rd October until 5th November, UK school are also off during this time.

It may be better to visit a little earlier than this.

Restaurants can be booked 60 days in advance, though only by phone. Whether you need to book will depend on when you actually visit and if you have a specific time and date in mind.
 
DLP is very busy around Halloween, many countries in Europe have a school holiday at the end of October. French school are off 23rd October until 5th November, UK school are also off during this time.

It may be better to visit a little earlier than this.

Restaurants can be booked 60 days in advance, though only by phone. Whether you need to book will depend on when you actually visit and if you have a specific time and date in mind.


Thank you!! Very, very helpful!
 
I went the week after it back in 2012. The Bonfire Night events were still going on and Christmas season was just started. French schools were on holidays. I found the parks were crowded but doable BUT at the time I had alot of complaints about rudeness from people in the parks and CM's, which ruined the trip for us.
 


Perfect timing for this thread! My question is: Is it just an ongoing Halloween theme, or is there an event like WDW? How long is the Halloween theme up for, in either case? It looks like my daughters' school was out the third week of October last year, if we do this then I want to make sure she gets Halloween. :) We didn't live in Europe last year, so just going by the school calendar.
 
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Halloween tends to start from 1 October (I think or around that date) and finishes after the Halloween party on 31st. You need to book tickets for the event on 31 October and from what I've read it's a very, very busy event.

We tend to go in the first or second week of October and enjoy the park so much at this time as we go mid-week when it's pretty quiet. The parks look lovely and weather is generally ok too.
 
We went for Halloween a few years back and I've vowed never to go over Halloween week itself ever again. It was unbearably busy and the Halloween party was dangerously so - with lots of teens and young adults acting in very un-Disney ways. My Daughter nearly got trampled by a group of about 50 adults running to get to some rare Characters (Mike & Sully); luckily a lovely man saw what was happening and lifted her to safety as we had been separated by the crowd... it was awful.. never ever again!

I loved the Halloween theming though so would definitely go back earlier in the month to experience this without the crowds.
 


Hey. We stayed the week before and it was not too bad this year in terms of crowds. There is Halloween stuff up over the 3 or 4 weeks before the event. The halloween night is only one night, not like MNSHHP at WDW with the extended timeline. We left the day before halloween on 2016, and Disney were clearly getting people ready for inconvenience with notices about buses being full etc. The estimated crowd in 2016 was about 30 thousand on halloween night, so one of the busiest nights in the calendar. Chez Remy is lovely, I would thoroughly recommend, and would say if you are in halloween week you really should reserve. If you ring the US Disney number I think they can transfer you to the reservation line for restaurants, but be aware that the phone line is notoriously slow, and runs on french work time.
 
We were there the last week of September last year, and the fall/Halloween decorations were already up. I was very impressed with how nice it looked. We went on a Thursday or Friday, not sure which, and it wasn't busy at all. The weather was perfect.
 
You guys have been a great help!!

We're very close to booking (thinking Newport) just waiting for a seperate (non-disney:guilty:) cruise booking to be finalised so we have our exact dates but if everything goes to plan, we'll be there mid week, mid October!!

Very excited!
 
During the week in October (before the school holidays) it's absolutely brilliant. Before we were bound by school holidays we would always try to visit DLP mid-October (avoiding weekends). Weather is usually perfect (dry, sunny, and with some luck on the warm side). You're going to have a great time!

Frontierland looks gorgeous in the fall, make sure you go on the Riverboat to admire it in all its glory. The Halloween decorations and festivities are always a lot of fun (and this year with the added bonus of the 25th anniversary I'm sure they'll be even better). The Halloween parade is one of my favourites, it's usually on a couple of times a day, make sure you catch it at least once. It has a beautiful harvest theme and one of the catchiest songs in DLP.

You guys have been a great help!!

We're very close to booking (thinking Newport) just waiting for a seperate (non-disney:guilty:) cruise booking to be finalised so we have our exact dates but if everything goes to plan, we'll be there mid week, mid October!!

Very excited!

If you go for the Newport, try to get the Compass Club. Totally worth the upgrade!! Rooms are in the central area of the hotel so never too far from anything (it's a MASSIVE hotel, you can end up with a very very very long walk to your room....), you get a separate lounge for breakfast (very pleasant) and snacks in the afternoon, your separate check-in, and the ever useful hotel fastpass (one fastpass per person per day). The hotel is just out of a long refurb and looks beautiful, it's probably our new favourite place to stay!
 
If you go for the Newport, try to get the Compass Club. Totally worth the upgrade!! Rooms are in the central area of the hotel so never too far from anything (it's a MASSIVE hotel, you can end up with a very very very long walk to your room....), you get a separate lounge for breakfast (very pleasant) and snacks in the afternoon, your separate check-in, and the ever useful hotel fastpass (one fastpass per person per day). The hotel is just out of a long refurb and looks beautiful, it's probably our new favourite place to stay!

I was just looking at this Elena! It's an extra $AUD560 for us (3 adults & 1 infant), so I wasn't sure it was going to be worth it. Given we're getting a deal with half board (1 breakfast in the park per day and either dinner or lunch each day)- what do you think? Would that be basically doubling up on breakfast?
 
I was just looking at this Elena! It's an extra $AUD560 for us (3 adults & 1 infant), so I wasn't sure it was going to be worth it. Given we're getting a deal with half board (1 breakfast in the park per day and either dinner or lunch each day)- what do you think? Would that be basically doubling up on breakfast?

Maybe I'm not the best person to answer, because I am greatly biased towards the Club level rooms over the standard rooms... Your price difference, does it include also half board if you stay in the Compass Club?
 
Maybe I'm not the best person to answer, because I am greatly biased towards the Club level rooms over the standard rooms... Your price difference, does it include also half board if you stay in the Compass Club?

The $560 price difference includes half board for both prices (as in included in both compass and standard)

Your bias must be for good reason though!
 
The $560 price difference includes half board for both prices (as in included in both compass and standard)

Your bias must be for good reason though!

The thing about the Club levels is that the whole thing feels so much more pleasant… Very relaxed. My husband really likes it. He doesn’t mind going to DLP, but he’s not as big a fan as my daughter or myself. So his patience for crowds and queues is much more limited…

I don’t know how it will be once they stop offering breakfast to all guests (it’s now included in the price but that’s changing by the end of the month), but now breakfast can be very unpleasant: queue to get in, too many people everywhere… I’m guessing it will be better once they stop offering it to everyone, but we’ll have to wait and see. On the other hand in the Club lounge we had a much more cozy experience, even if it was on the busy side, food was nice and the service really good (my daughter made a friend of one of the cast members there, she had a lot of fun each morning!). Talking of service, overall in the Club it was really good, felt more personalized. We also went to the lounge for cakes in the afternoon (before heading down to the pool), that was really nice. Oh, and we had a Nespresso machine in the room!!

The check-in and check-out is also more pleasant. Of course they take your bags to the room for you (if you have a car they also have valet parking), you have a separate reception (nice to be able to avoid the queue in the main reception area), they will take the time to explain everything to you, recommend restaurants and book them for you (if needed). On your last day, you can leave the bags in the room, they’ll come and collect them for you.

And then there’s the hotel fastpass. Not quite as good as a VIP fastpass (which gives you unlimited use) but still, you have one guaranteed fastpass per day, and for some rides (Ratatouille, Big Thunder Mountain) it works really well (fastpasses for those rides can run out pretty quickly).

It's all about the budget of course, but personally I find that our trip to DLP was made overall a bit more magical because we were staying in the Compass Club.

Hope this helps!
 
Halloween season / theming is my favourite time @dlp
Just booking to go again ( we are tied to school half term hols unfortunately )
 

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