booking trip from U.S.

[tehvalerie]

Outside of adding international calling to my cell phone plan and booking our trip over the phone, can anyone offer advice for navigating DLP's horrible website for booking from the U.S.? We're planning to stay 2 nights but only 1 park day and the DLP website keeps defaulting us to a 3 day park ticket with no option to customize like on the Disney World site.

At this point i'm thinking it would just be easier to book our hotel separately and buy park tickets when we get there but I'm afraid we'd miss out on extra magic hours and whatever other bonuses are offered. (We're going to be staying at a partner hotel, not onsite at Disney.)

 

[sky13]

I think the DLP website automatically assumes that you will be visiting the parks every day of your stay, so it won't let you book tickets for less than your stay. I also don't think you can book room-only via the website (you can over the phone - but it's often more expensive for room-only than for room with tickets for 1 person!).

You can however book hotels quite easily through Expedia/booking.com/etc or with the hotel directly, and it can often be cheaper to book this way than via DLP! Additionally if you're only going to have one park day there are often discounted tickets available online (e.g. here at http://www.fnacspectacles.com/recherche/rechercheRapide.do?search=disneyland+paris or ticketnet.fr etc), so it would likely work out cheaper to book the room/tickets separately in your case?

You don't get Extra Magic Hours if staying offsite though (unless you have a Dream or Fantasy Annual Pass) so it wouldn't make a difference whether you booked your stay at a partner hotel via DLP or separately. The DLP brochure has more information for hotel comparisons http://www.disneylandparis.com/BROCHURE/WINTER13/E/catalogue/appli.htm#/48 - page 44...

I usually find Skype pretty cheap/useful for calling overseas if you do decide to book over the phone though!

Hope this helps - it definitely gets confusing trying to navigate the DLP website!

 

[tehvalerie]

Thanks! I think I was assuming EMH worked the same as in Anaheim--there you get all the perks when you stay at partner hotels.

 

[torsie24]

No, it's more like WDW. I think it's because it has 7 hotels so allowing the partners too would make for a lot of guests.

You might find you're cheaper to get duration of stay park tickets once you compare room only prices etc.

Just so you're aware you can book through the UK site (or France, Italy etc) I know the US site rarely has offers that match the European ones.

 

[Lisa_C]

Rack rate for just the Santa Fe is £400 a night! Johnny had a look last week - madness as packages are way less!!

You will get a far better deal booking a package via the UK site - its practically thrown in when you compare ticket prices

 

[sky13]

Yeah the rack rates are really insane! (for £400/night for the Cheyenne or Santa Fe I think I'd rather spend 3-4 nights in one of the partner hotels instead... and also get wifi!)

Though at off season you could get the Cheyenne or Santa Fe for around £65 a night room-only via Expedia, which is a really good rate...