A few more ? regarding Paris & DLP

[ryankski]

With us leaving in a couple days I'm trying to get a few things figured out and have the following questions:

1. Are there any sites that are currently requiring tickets to be purchased in advance? I know covid has changed things, but we have basic idea of what we want to see and the potential day. We are planning on not having a specific time for things (e.g Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, catacombs, Versailles, etc) given having a young child, but I'm curious if there are any of the main site that can only be visited with advance purchase tickets. The little amount of research I've done it appears that most are allowing people to show up and wait in line to purchase tickets. Another reason I'm trying to avoid specific times is that we still haven't received our French Health Passes and they are still pending. From what i've read most places are accepting the CDC vaccine cards, but I'd had to have tickets purchased and have a location and/or individual not accept that if we haven't received a rapid test.

2. Is there any way to get DLP tickets on your phone without Apple Pay? I spend quite a bit of time on the website and app and have been unable to figure out a way to have a digital ticket. Seems crazy to have a large computer printed ticket. Or can you take the printer paper ticket and exchange it for a small plastic or thick paper ticket?

3. I'm trying to under stand the Navigo metro pass. It seems like this may have changed recently, but many things I'm finding online are from 3+ years ago. It sounded like when you purchase a Navigo pass you put a certain amount of tickets (at 1.90 euro each for closest zones) on the card and additional rides can't be added to it. Although I also read that they can be. It also sounded like all of the ones purchased at single visit are good for what ever distance you purchase. Additionally it sounds like you need a special tickets for get from the airport to central Paris and can't use funds on a tap in/tap out card. Is this correct? Does Paris not have a card that you just put money on and then top off as needed that removes money based on the distance from when you tap in and then tap out? I've gotten all over Tokyo, Sydney, Hong Kong etc. in this manner. From what I'm understanding it's not as simple as putting say, 15 euros on a card and then topping off with more money as needed. We are staying near the Eiffel tower and are coming from CDG with plans to go to Versailles and of course DLP. Is it easier to just purchase individual paper tickets to those farther destinations and then maybe put a 10 pack of tickets on each of our Navigo cards and depending on how much we use it either adding another 10 pack or just buying individual tickets for other rides we might need? We also arrive on Thursday afternoon and so we could buy individual tickets for thursday and then buy the Navigo weekly pass for Friday through the following thursday. Honestly though I'd just prefer a card that I put money on and tap on and off and it takes the right amount when I tap out. I'm really hoping someone can point me in the right direction as I find the whole trying to figure out how many passes you think you will need and/or buying a seperate ticket for every trip to be a hassle and even if slightly more would find the convenience of just taping in and out of the metro, busses etc and topping off when in a while the best option. Please advise if there is such a system or I'm misunderstanding how the Paris metro card(s) work..

Thanks again for any advice and reading through all of that.

 

[CERS]

Hello! Well, I went there this summer, I'll try to help you out based on that experience:

1- So, advance tickets are usually a must if you want to make sure you visit something. Health requirements are being lifted across Europe, which probably means more people are coming to Paris. Versailles needs advance tickets if they still have the capacity limit, and Eiffel Tower could if the lines are very long. In a normal year, you could easily get in line anywhere, but lines are pretty long (a few hours). Also, bear in mind DLP still asks for reservations on the day you are going, or dated tickets. It is quite important, as sometimes (like this past weekend) the parks might get to capacity and don't allow anyone without a reservation or dated ticket to enter the park for the day (with the exception of hotel guests).

2- As far as I know, no. You would need to get the ticket printed. At least that's how I've done it when I go offsite. But maybe someone else knows a better way. This year I stayed on site so didn't have that problem.

3- As for the metro pass, I usually find more appealing and useful the Paris Visité tickets. You can get it for various days and various zones. That most expensive one includes CDG, DLP and Versailles, so it is ideal to get it when you arrive at CDG airport (or in advance), and you get umlimited travels on trains, metro and buses for the lenght of your stay, including travelling to CDG, DLP and Versailles.

 

[Torchy]

3 - Paris Visite was too expensive, we used a Mobilis ticket for each day (all-zones cost about €17 each). We bought ours each day at the metro ticket machines (used visa c-card).

https://www.ratp.fr/en/titres-et-tarifs/mobilishttps://www.ratp.fr/en/titres-et-tarifs/passe-navigo-easy

 

[Karin1984]

For #2 I do not remember ever seeing someone scanning their phone to get into the park. Either hotel tickets, annual passes or pieces of paper.
France is not the most tech savvy country in Western Europe.

 

[steve_rob]

Yeah it's a bit of an odd one. You can get your restaurant bookings and Premier Access purchases in the DLP app on your phone; your park reservation QR codes can also be on your phone, but only as an e-mail, not in the app; but tickets can only be traditional style paper ones or printed PDFs. It's like three different departments of the park all are working on separate systems that are at different stages of "going digital" and no-one seemingly can tell who's doing what! I'm sure they'll all get there eventually...

BTW for your question #1, even pre-Covid I would have recommended purchasing tickets in advance for ANY Paris tourist attraction. The amount of queues we skipped by having pre-booked things like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, etc. that last time we went into the city itself, was a huge timesaver. In the current situation, even if it's not mandatory to do anything in advance, I still would.

 

[ryankski]

Thanks everyone. Yes, regarding DLP we bought undated tickets and then just over an hour later (when the system would let us) reserved our dates. So we are good on that and have the specific dates we need. It's also good to know I wasn't missing anything with digital tickets. It seems crazy to me that I can only have a full size piece of paper printed from my computer for my ticket, but I can live with to go to the park.

I understand advance tickets are recommended and if we only had a few days I would be purchasing. However, with six days for Paris and with the 10 day weather forecast calling for rain every day as recent as a day or two ago we are trying to leave our options open. And really is an hour or two line any different then some of the rides at Disney. Although I see now that my Google weather app is now saying there wont' be rain this Friday, Sat, and Sunday. However, we don't want to end up booking the climb up the Eiffel Tower and it be raining that day when we can move things around and go on a day when it isn't raining. This is our plan as much as possible. We will probably try and pre-book the day before or day of if possible and a printed copy isn't required. Otherwise my son (and us) can learn patience in a line.

So it sounds like it may make sense for us to buy individual tickets on days we don't plan on using the metro much and the days we are going to Versailles or to to and from DLP to buy a Mobilis as there will be other rides involved.

 

[curias]

I was in Paris in September. I bought attraction tickets in advance, only to find out you can now purchase them on site. But I didn't go to the big attractions - Eiffel Tower, Louvre. You could probably purchase them online the day of. Although there were tourists, it isn't up to the old levels of tourism yet.

For the transit, I bought individual tickets. At the airport the ticket machine will say ticket to Paris. In Paris it said ticket to Disneyland. Otherwise, I just bought 10 tickets at a time. I love they still have paper tickets. I saved them all for an art project.

And, as you mentioned, I used a Paper ticket I had printed off, that I scanned at Disneyland.

 

[zavandor]

Catacombs require a timed ticket. They are cheaper if purchased the same day, but they might sell out. I was in Paris last week and I have a lot of options during the week.

 

[NashvilleMama]

We were there week before last and all the major sites had tickets available the day before, some even the day of (we booked the Louvre the same day, and Sainte Chapelle). Eiffel Tower I had reserved in advance, but could have done it same day as I looked that morning to see how crowded it might be and there were plenty of times for the top summit available. We also walked up and bought our Seine cruise tickets about 30 minutes in advance. Hope that helps, enjoy your trip!!

 

[Kate_45]

I was in Paris a few days ago. I would pre book, for comforts sake, it was pretty busy - but then it was school holidays.

For train tickets we bought a carnet of 10 for adults to share and a carnet of 10 half price for the kids. 20 mini paper tickets that I popped in my ticket pocket. Not having them on a touch in and out card meant we could share them and these tickets didn't all have to be used in a set time unlike passes. 5 journeys for a family of four cost about €25 total, so much less than passes. Single tickets don't give a child discount and so it made more sense to buy tickets we may not need than to only get a few and do more walking.

Hope this helps