Coach (bus) Travel from England (early April)?

[Hoosier John]

Hi,

Just to introduce myself, I am John and I will be traveling with DW and DD (3) from Derbyshire to DLP. We are in Derby until the end of April and are thinking of taking a once in a lifetime trip to DLP on the second weekend of April. Might shift the weekend if I find crowds are better then, but this is my wife's birthday weekend.

Since my wife is working weekdays (although she could probably take a Friday or Monday off), I was thinking of how to get two full days at Disney. I began to wonder if there are overnight coaches (busses) which make the journey. This way we could leave Friday night and sleep on the way, arriving Saturday morning. Spend all day Saturday and Sunday in the parks and stay overnight on-site, Saturday. Then return Sunday night, again sleeping (between transfers), and arriving Monday morning.

I know it's a long-shot, but would work out very well for weekend travelers, and probably save some money too. The US dollar is so weak, prices here are killing us. Thanks for any help or advise you may be able to offer!

 

[jillrobinson]

Hi,
We've been by coach twice with Leger Holidays
http://tothemagic.co.uk/Results.aspx
I've had a quick look and they do have 2 trips in April that might be suitable Friday 15th and Friday 22nd April but they're not overnight journeys and quite expensive, possibly you'd get a better price booking a park package and flights/eurostar seperately. That's what I've found to be the cheapest option.

It is a very long journey by coach, 15 hours for us total journey time, quite a lot of hanging around at Dover waiting for all the feeder coaches to arrive but totally hassle free as Leger sort out the luggage from coach to coach and onto the ferry and even check you into your hotel. Passport control usually board the coach so you don't even have to leave your seat.

BTW those dates coincide with some UK Easter school holidays possibly french ones too, so expect a busy park.

 

[elstoleno]

Look into National Express for your coaches. They are cheap and as its not a package coach trip you can book your hotels / departure times etc to fit around what you want to do/how much time you want in the resort.

 

[Hoosier John]

Hi,
We've been by coach twice with Leger Holidays
http://tothemagic.co.uk/Results.aspx
I've had a quick look and they do have 2 trips in April that might be suitable Friday 15th and Friday 22nd April but they're not overnight journeys and quite expensive, possibly you'd get a better price booking a park package and flights/eurostar seperately. That's what I've found to be the cheapest option.

It is a very long journey by coach, 15 hours for us total journey time, quite a lot of hanging around at Dover waiting for all the feeder coaches to arrive but totally hassle free as Leger sort out the luggage from coach to coach and onto the ferry and even check you into your hotel. Passport control usually board the coach so you don't even have to leave your seat.

BTW those dates coincide with some UK Easter school holidays possibly french ones too, so expect a busy park.

Thanks Jill,

I did see Leger mentioned by a few posters here, so I checked out their site and saw what you did. I suppose most (or all) of the coach lines use the hub system where they all arrive at one location to transfer passengers. As such they (mostly) operate during the daytime in order to meet up at the hub. But on one of Leger's itineraries, I thought I saw a side note that if you were going somewhere? the coach left at 8 pm, otherwise you waited until the next day for your return. This is what got me thinking about traveling overnight.

But if it's anywhere near 15 hours from here, too, that won't work any better than flying/eurostar. Better check out google maps, just to get an idea what the drive time would be. Then I would have to add time for the transfer (maybe an hour?), the diversion to Dover, and the wait for a ferry. Makes the plane or train idea look better.

Wow ... I never considered Easter holiday being that long. In the states, we might get one day off. We're talking weeks of school holiday, right? Do you forsee any conflict the first weekend in April?

Look into National Express for your coaches. They are cheap and as its not a package coach trip you can book your hotels / departure times etc to fit around what you want to do/how much time you want in the resort.

Thanks elstoleno,

I'll check out National Express and see if they offer overnight trips.

If anyone else has tips or advise, please let me know.

 

[otwidalepda]

We went to Disneyland for the first time last year - by coach!
Try looking at gold crest... http://dpmagic.co.uk/

 

[DLPdaft]

John I'm in the East Midlands too, and we usually fly from either East Mids airport with BMI baby, or from Luton with Easyjet. Both have early morning commuter flights, with evening flights back from Paris CDG.

From East Mids airport on a commuter flight leaving at around 6.30am, we are usually in the parks by just after 11am (so only one hour after the parks open). We usually leave the parks at around 5.30pm on our last day to catch our flight back to East Mids from Paris CDG.

You may also have the option of a "through fare" from your nearest train station to DLP on the train/Eurostar. Call Eurostar to get prices/times etc, we did consider this from Nottingham for our next trip.

Easter/Spring school holidays start in Europe/France/UK from 9th April and run all the way through to the end of the month and into the beginning of May (schools usually have 2 weeks holidays at this time of year).

 

[Hoosier John]

Sorry I haven't been here over the weekend. We have family visiting this week, so we were in London all weekend. Going to see some local sites this week.

We went to Disneyland for the first time last year - by coach!
Try looking at gold crest... http://dpmagic.co.uk/

I'll take a look at them too ... Thanks for the tip. I wouldn't know which coach lines to even consider if it were'nt for the experienced and friendly people here!

John I'm in the East Midlands too, and we usually fly from either East Mids airport with BMI baby, or from Luton with Easyjet. Both have early morning commuter flights, with evening flights back from Paris CDG.

From East Mids airport on a commuter flight leaving at around 6.30am, we are usually in the parks by just after 11am (so only one hour after the parks open). We usually leave the parks at around 5.30pm on our last day to catch our flight back to East Mids from Paris CDG.

You may also have the option of a "through fare" from your nearest train station to DLP on the train/Eurostar. Call Eurostar to get prices/times etc, we did consider this from Nottingham for our next trip.

Easter/Spring school holidays start in Europe/France/UK from 9th April and run all the way through to the end of the month and into the beginning of May (schools usually have 2 weeks holidays at this time of year).

East Mids/BMI baby will probably be my backup plan, followed by a commuter from a farther airport. The train/eurostar will probably be my last choice depending on prices. I know I have got to 'do my homework' now.

Man, I wish I went to school here. Between Christmas break and the end of the school year, I think we got one week holiday called Spring break. Thanks for the 'head's up' on the holiday situation. I found the link for who has school holiday and when. I will try and presuade my wife into going the first weekend in April, but as 8 April is her birthday, we may end up then, regardless.

 

[Mickey'sZebra<3]

hi

im travelling to DLP from West Midlands in 2 weeks time on a coach, we did it before and found it a nice stress free,simple and cheap way of getting to DLP compared to flying.

we are travelling with gold crest on sunday 27th March, we will be arriving at DLP early evening for dinner in disney village, saying in Santa fe for 2 nights and having all day Monday and Tuesday in both the parks before travelling home by coach Tuesday night.

the price included the coach travel with local pick ups, 2 nights in disney hotel and a 2 day park hopper ticket, think we paid £220 each

hope you can find a solution that works for you and have a great trip!

 

[Hoosier John]

As a follow-up to my question and the great responses, here is a summary of what I found, in case others are trying to maximize their time at the parks and minimize time taken off work, by taking an overnight coach to DisneyLand Paris (from England).

National Express (08717 81 81 81) and their subsidiary Euroline coaches had the best journeys for our schedule. As elstoleno said they are not affiliated with Disney, thus you would need to arrange for lodging and park passes on your own. Also their journey does not end at Disney, so you take a local metro bus from there (forget exactly where in Paris they stop, but supposedly you only need to take one metro line to get to Disney). It wouldn't be fun for longer stays, transferring a lot of luggage around.

When booking more than a week away their price was 56 per person and 45 per child (157 total). This was from Derby. I remember looking at prices from London Heathrow and it was showing 123 round trip. As jillrobinson said, it takes a long time. 15 hours each way (accounting for a 1 hour time change) from Derby. From Victoria Station it takes about 9 hours, so perfect for sleeping (except I think this is the leg where you would pass through customs).

Gold Crest (01943 433 457) didn't have availability on the dates we needed, so I didn't investigate and further.

Leger Holidays (0844 504 6331) only had 3 night/4 day journeys as a minumum. And they only travel during the daytime, so that's two days of travel, 2 days at Disney, staying for 3 nights.

Thank you all for the help! If there are any more suggestions please feel free to post.

 

[Hoosier John]

hi

im travelling to DLP from West Midlands in 2 weeks time on a coach, we did it before and found it a nice stress free,simple and cheap way of getting to DLP compared to flying.

we are travelling with gold crest on sunday 27th March, we will be arriving at DLP early evening for dinner in disney village, saying in Santa fe for 2 nights and having all day Monday and Tuesday in both the parks before travelling home by coach Tuesday night.

the price included the coach travel with local pick ups, 2 nights in disney hotel and a 2 day park hopper ticket, think we paid £220 each

hope you can find a solution that works for you and have a great trip!

Hi Mickey'sZebra<3,

Have a great trip ... less than a week away, now! Say hi to Mickey and Minnie for me

I happend to see a show on the history of coaches in England not long ago. That might be one of the reasons I started thinking about a coach journey. I know it's not the same now as it was during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, but those folks really seemed to enjoy their journey. Really more than their destination. Excellent TV program. If it were on again, I would probably watch it a second time.

In the US we have a cross-country train (Amtrak) and a couple of coach lines. But mostly people drive or fly to their destination. Our trains and coaches are far inferior to the mass transit here.