Disneyland Paris?

[puente0629]

Hi all,

We are thinking about spending our 5yr anniversary at DLP and using our DVC points. Is it worth it or should we pay out of pocket? Which resort would you recommend? We are thinking about going in Oct or Nov, has anyone gone at that time? Any more advice or recommendations are welcomed...

Thanks!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

I visited Disneyland Paris early November last year! (sorry to say the weather last November was cold and rainy - but it is not always like that I am sure but better to be prepared!) November is a good time because the Christmas decorations/shows are up - check the calendar. Paris is colder is does feel more wintery and festive for the Holidays in my opinion.

I love Disneyland Paris -and am looking to buy DVC direct so that I can use my points at DLP occasionally. There are discounts available for cash rooms on the UK website but unfortunately not as many available through the US website (though you can book through either - just leave your country as UK on the UK website - everything is electronic - they don't mail any documents through snail mail). So for me I would use points to stay at a Disneyland Paris Resort - especially for the Disneyland Hotel which is often well over $600/night and for which I would probably never pay cash.

The annual pass at DLRP is very good value!

If you go in November/October the weather may be really chilly so staying at the Disneyland Hotel is helpful - as it is located over the entrance gates to Disneyland Park and it will be nice to pop back to your room. Really none of the hotels are very far off and I have even walked from off site resorts in about 20 minutes.

The nicer resorts which have a hot breakfast (breakfast is included at all resorts at least when I was there) are the Disneyland Hotel and The Hotel New York - the main difference in the two would be location - the Hotel New York is maybe a 10 minute walk through the Disney Village to the Park entrances while the DLH is right there at the entrance - and of course the themes are different.

Lots of info. available through the DLRP board. Personally I would stay at any of the resorts and have stayed at the cheapest but I have heard people who are surprised because the rooms may be different than what we are used to at WDW. Some who have stayed at the Newport Bay Club expecting the Yacht Club have been disappointed. I have been living in Turkey for the past seven years and everything was fine for me even at the Santa Fe. But be aware there may be differences.

When I buy into DVC I want to use points for the Disneyland Hotel!

 

[Scoobydoo76]

We stayed at the Newport Bay Club as our first experience with DVC. We were terribly disappointed and questioned our decision buying into DVC. It was a regular hotel room in poor condition compared to WDW resort rooms. The room was a big letdown. However, we very much enjoyed the rest of the resort and the parks.

We have since stayed at numerous WDW DCV locations and are very pleased to have purchased into DVC.

I would suggest doing a comparison in points versus money. We feel that you get more for your points at WDW. Meaning bigger room(s) and a kitchen.

I honestly have no idea how much a rooms are going for in DL Paris these days. I really don’t think we would ever waist points at the Newport Bay Club again.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Just one more note about food. The one thing I found most valuable first trip was that I found it much more satisfying to book table restaurants rather than rely on counter service. Everything is more expensive and first trip I thought I would go for cheaper meals and honestly it wasn't worth it IMO. Also many restaurants in the parks close at 6pm so an afternoon table service meal was really helpful - I liked the buffets for value.

Restaurants at the Disney Village and resort hotels do stay open in the evenings.

Also - because the weather was cold I found a hot breakfast a really happy thing - the Disney hotels who offer a hot breakfast are the DLH and Hotel New York (as far as I know).

Happy planning!

Just saw the PP which confirmed my thoughts about differences in room quality between DLRP and WDW. My last three trips to DLRP I booked an offsite hotel that offered a hot breakfast - Magic Circus and Dream Castle are both very near and offer more for your money if you don't wish to use points - but even though both of these are "deluxe" not sure if they are deluxe by WDW standards. Just a warning.

 

[Anal Annie]

Hi all,

We are thinking about spending our 5yr anniversary at DLP and using our DVC points. Is it worth it or should we pay out of pocket? Which resort would you recommend? We are thinking about going in Oct or Nov, has anyone gone at that time? Any more advice or recommendations are welcomed...

Thanks!

We went last summer to start our European vacation and I spent a good bit of time hanging out on the Disneyland Paris board here on the DIS. Most people there will tell you (if they have also been to WDW) that the hotels and food do not compare in any way to what you're used to in Orlando. Everything is expensive - plan on a lot for your food budget. Since we were going in August the points required were VERY high (they're probably less for Nov.). There was no way I'd pay to stay there on points so we booked a cash package that included the park tix. By hanging out on the Paris board & by registering for emails on the DLP website I got emails and scoop for sales so I was able to book a package for 30% off. They also do not release schedules or hotel rates or park hours very far in advance and their hours are shorter. You'll be lucky to find some of this info. 6-8 months ahead. A LOT of their packages will be ones that include younger kids for free so I was super excited to get one that was a flat 30% off.

They operate a lot differently there and the one thing there that REALLLLLY irked me was that if you stay onsite you HAVE to buy what they call "length of stay park tickets". SOO we wanted to spend 2 days at the parks and 2 days sightseeing in Paris before we flew to Barcelona to catch our Disney cruise. Well, to book a room or a package onsite they would have required we pay for 4 nights and 5 days of park tickets even though our flight out on the last morning was before the parks even opened!!!! That would've been a terrible waste of money for us as like I said, we only wanted 2 days at the parks. I ended up booking a 1 night / 2 day package on cash at one of their "value" type resorts (as I knew we wouldn't be spending much time in the room) for what worked out to be just over $500 USD for the 3 of us. If we had been there for more than 1 night I would've booked a nicer hotel but this met our needs for what we were doing. Many on the DLP board like the Hotel NY but WOW is it expensive. We then moved into the city of Paris for 3 nights to another hotel in order to make our sightseeing easier (taking the train back & forth from DLP would've gotten expensive and time consuming on top of wasting 3 days worth of tickets). We LOVED staying in Paris and truely enjoyed our days there. We were really glad we moved into the city - it was wonderful. I really recommend taking some time to see the city while you are there. You really don't need more than 2 or 3 days for the parks. They are simply not as big as the ones at WDW. (We skipped most of the show type things like Lights, Motors Action as everything would've been in French and we'd seen it before. Since it originated at DLP it would've been sort of fun to see it but we just opted to do the rides.)

You can choose to view and price things in USD on their website which is VERY helpful. My recommendation (unless you have a lot of spare points to burn) is to book a cash package and save your points.

BTW, if you are interested, I have a lot of pictures & narration in my trip report in my siggie. You can get an idea of what you can see & do at DLP and in the city in a short time.