DW is too expensive, let's go to DLP instead

[becauseimnew]

Hi fellow Disney Lovers! Hope you all are doing well. I'm going to tell you a story on how we went from no Disney trips in 2022 to Disneyland Paris.

I don't know about your household, but in our household everyone is always asking to go back to Disney, including DH (the person that wanted to wait until our girls were older to do a one-and-done trip).

This was supposed to be our year off from Disney - it's funny that I thought that would actually happen. Why skip Disney this year? because we have a big trip to Hawaii this summer, which means we couldn't afford a Disney trip. But we all know that didn't happen, the fam finally convinced me to plan a trip. I agreed but only because we haven't taken the girls during Christmas season, DH and I went on a quick trip in December 2018, so I agreed but only if we could go to the Christmas party. This is how it all started, boy have plans changed.

I've done a couple of PTRs, never a TR as I'm not good a taking notes during the trip, but I'm an expert planner.

Let's introduce the cast:
Me - the planner, also known to as the financial guru in the family. I mostly hangout on the "I love credit card so much!" thread. Half of our travel funds come from credit card points; we wouldn’t travel this much without that side gig. For my 9-5 gig, I also plan and manage our department budget, which I love. I LOVE money.


Then there is DH – he’s turned into more of a Disney lover than I me. He grew up in California so visited Disneyland many times as a kid, he also visited DW once as a kid. He has a flexible and demanding job that he enjoys, he wants nothing to do with travel planning or home finances. He is happy to pack his bags an hour before we leave and not have anything to do with the planning.


There is oldest DD, we’ll call her Thing1. She’ll be a freshman in high school this fall and still loves Disney, it was her and DH that convinced me to plan this trip. She made the JV cheer team, her schedule dictates our travel dates.


Last but not least, Thing2, she’ll be in 6th grade in the fall and already has a boyfriend. Oh boy, this girl is going to give me all the grey hairs. She also loves cheer, playing ROBLOX and talking with her friends all day long.



Welcome to our 2022 Disney Trip!

 

[becauseimnew]

How did this trip go from Disney World to Disneyland Paris? Lots of great things led up to this trip.

The original plan was to visit Disney World in November for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. My original plan was to visit the second weekend in November, stay at Shades of Green and go to the Christmas party. Easy-peasy. I also wanted to use our Flying Blue miles that are set to expire in January. That was simple right? I made hotel reservations ($346 for 2 nights at Shades of Green) but didn’t book our flights because I was waiting for the school calendar to be released, I wanted to make sure there weren’t better non-holiday weekend available.

Then the 2022-2023 school calendar was released. Time to make final date decisions and book our flights. Turns out that the district changed Thanksgiving break to a full week! They also turned winter break into a terrible mess, instead of 2 Monday through Friday weeks, it’s two weeks Wednesday to Wednesday. This new mess changed our tentative Christmas break ski trip. You see where this is going, right?

I looked at the calendars, talked to DH about canceling our annual ski trip and just going to Disney World over Thanksgiving break, because we can’t do both. He agreed but wanted to go to Disney World over Christmas break, I knew that wasn’t a possibility. See, we have been going to Disney for the last 8 years using Disney’s awesome military discounts, and the discounts aren’t available at the end of December. That’s how this trip went from a weekend trip to a week-long vacation but doesn’t explain how it went from Disney World to Disneyland Paris.

As all vacation math goes, you can’t go to Orlando and NOT visit Universal Studios. WHAT? This is quickly getting out of hand. Now I was planning on adding Universal to our trip, had I lost my mind? Of course, I had but I had a reason. My mom and dad each received a $2,000 gift certificate to a travel agency from their employer, they don’t travel much and the certificates are only valid for twelve month, they managed to use one of the certificates but agreed to sell us the other certificate.

Let’s do some Disney math:

Flights: Less than $50 for 4 round trip ticket, thanks to my credit card hobby.
Universal Studios: $1,000 – price we paid for the travel agency gift certificate
Shades of Green - $865 for 5 nights
Disney World tickets 4 – 4 day park hoppers $1,528, plus $800 for party tickets
Food - $2,000
Souvenirs - $500
Transportation - $300
We are at $7,000ish

The problem was that we only had $5,000 budgeted for our ski trip, which meant I need to find a way to trip $2,000 from our trip. What to do, what to do? Let's see, we can skip table service meals, cut back to 4 park days. That doesn't get us down to $5,000. Can we go without Genie +? I started doing research.

During my research I came across this common theme, Disney is packed and has lost some of it's magic. Have you all read the threads of everyone complaining about Disney World, well I spent a day reading all of them. And at some point I came across a Disneyland Paris rave review. And that’s how this crazy idea came to be. We were over-budget and Disneyland Paris wasn’t over-crowded, could we go to Paris for $5,000? This all happened around the beginning of March, which is very important part of the story.

What’s so important about March? Europe still had COVID restrictions, France still had strict restrictions when I started my research, which meant that prices were pretty low. How low? Cheaper than a 8 day trip to Orlando! How is it possible to spend 7 days in France, visit Disneyland for 3 nights and spend 3 nights in Paris for $5,000? Let me tell you.

 

[becauseimnew]

We had dates, Saturday November 19th to Saturday November 26th. YAY!!!
I started by pricing out 3 nights at Disneyland Paris and I couldn't believe the prices, seriously so affordable. Four people, 3 night sat Disney's Newport Bay Club, 4 day park hopper tickets was only $1425! WHAT?!?! For that prices we had to go. I immediately emailed the travel agent, let's just say it was a terrible process, so much that by the time she actually got back to me prices had jumped to $1700. I was mad, but there was nothing I could do.



I started looking for flights, I knew we had to use our Flying Blue miles so that's where I started.
We had 60,000 Flying Blue miles. Did you know that Flying Blue offers 25% off award tickets for children 11 and under?
I was able get 4 tickets Chicago to Paris for 98,000 miles & $254 on Air France.
I did have to book a United flight from home to Chicago, those 4 tickets were 64,000 miles + $22.40. I've had those miles since 2018 so I was okay spending that many miles on a short flight. YAY! Flights there check!

Then I looked for return flights, I wanted to fly back with Air France, but they didn't have any flights to Dallas and the flights back to Chicago were closer to 200,000 miles, which we didn't have. Next I checked American Airlines and they actually had tickets available for 22,500 each to our home airport. I couldn't believe it! How is it possible to get award saver space on a holiday weekend? We were actually saving all of our American miles for our 2023 trip to Japan, but it so happens that the same weekend Barclays had a new sign up bonus for the American Airlines Business card, 80,000 miles bonus. As soon as I was approved for that card I went ahead and book our return flights. I couldn't believe that everything was coming together so smoothly, like this trip was meant to be.


Last but not least we needed 3 nights in Paris. I knew I wanted to stay at a Hyatt hotel because I'm a Hyatt Globalist and we get free breakfast with my status. There was only one option that would fit all of our needs, the Hyatt Regency Etoile. We could book a suite for 21,000 points per night, which is a steal. I contacted the Hyatt Concierge and they were able to book our room, I don't have enough points to book the room yet so the concierge booked a point advance reservation.


Let's add up our total:
Disneyland Paris through the travel agency $1,000
Flights to Chicago $23
Flights to Paris $255
Flights home $347
Paris hotel $0!
Food $2000
Souvenirs $500
Transportation $300
Paris Activities $500
TOTAL: $4,925

And just like that everything was booked. We're going to PARIS!!

If you've read my previous trip reports you know that I'm never satisfied, I always change things up which end up costing us more money. Oh why can't I just leave things alone?

I had an entire trip to France for under $5,000!

 

[becauseimnew]

I HAD an entire trip to France for under $5,000! Why didn't I just leave things alone?

Well, how nice would it be to fly in lie-flat business class seats on an overnight flight?


I kept checking Air France to see if any good deals would come up. And after only a few weeks they had a really nice deal, 4 business class seats for 216,000 miles + $798, WHAT? how could we not fly business class for that price? The catch? There is always a catch, that deal was not available for Saturday, we could fly Friday or Sunday for that price.

And what does any vacation addict do? You add another day to your trip, you don't make it shorter.

I was actually on a girls trip in San Diego when I saw that deal, so I spent about 45 minutes on hold waiting to cancel our perfect Saturday flight. As soon as that was done I transferred the additional miles from American Express and booked those faster than needed. But we are flying Business class to Paris! I'm so freaking excited!!

But then comes that snowball effect of adding a day to our trip. The downside is that now we've added $543 for flights and we need to add another night. I looked at just adding another night in a Disneyland hotel, but by now prices started skyrocketing - 1 night (no tickets) at Disneyland was $450 USD. We still had some money on the travel agency gift certificate, but working with that travel agency has been the worst experience of my life. After several emails asking her to quote us an additional day or move our reservation up a day, she finally got back to me after TWO weeks and by then prices had gone up even more. We ended up moving our reservation up a day but having to move to Disney Sequoia Lodge AND it was going to be more money. So now, we need to pay an additional $110 for our same 3 night stay, I knew it would be more money because now we are starting our stay on a Saturday night.

You guys, we are now over budget! And we haven't even added another hotel night, thankfully we have plenty of Chase Ultimate Rewards points and I was able to add another night to our Hyatt reservation, yay! something easy and free.

Disneyland Paris through the travel agency $1,000 $1,110
Flights to Chicago $23
Flights to Paris $255 Business Class flights to Paris $798
Flights home $347
Paris hotel $0!
Food $2000 $2,200 (adding another day)
Souvenirs $500
Transportation $300 $350 (adding another day)
Paris Activities $500 $600 (adding another day)
TOTAL: $4,925 $5,928

Now we HAVE to stick to this budget.

 

[mikalkwin]

I’d be surprised if you spend 2200usd for food and transportation for your whole trip.

 

[nursejackie]

It's good to try somewhere new. We went to DLP in 2019 after 8 DW and 1 DL trips in the previous 9 years, so thought it would be a little disappointing in comparison but we loved it. I had visited DLP 23 years before that trip, but couldn't remember too much about it, except I came off Space Mountain very dizzy!

 

[Camonkeygirl]

following, I am heading to DLP in December

 

[becauseimnew]

I’d be surprised if you spend 2200usd for food and transportation for your whole trip.

Oh I hope you are right. I just like over budgeting - because one time I under budget our Disney meals.

It's good to try somewhere new. We went to DLP in 2019 after 8 DW and 1 DL trips in the previous 9 years, so thought it would be a little disappointing in comparison but we loved it. I had visited DLP 23 years before that trip, but couldn't remember too much about it, except I came off Space Mountain very dizzy!

We are excited to visit another Disney castle. DD1 is already trying to figure out when we can make it to Shanghai and Hong Kong - hopefully they survive. They keep having to close, but they have been opened this summer.
All the reviews I've read is that DLP Space Mountain is better than the US Space Mountain.

following, I am heading to DLP in December

Yay. I'm most worried about the weather. Hopefully it isn't too cold.

 

[Camonkeygirl]

Disneyland Hong Kong and DL Shanghai is awesome. I was at both parks about 5 years ago. Just don’t go at Chinese New Year, the parks will be crazy.

 

[becauseimnew]

It is August and I haven't made any more changes to our trip! Yay, but that also means I haven't done much planning.

We spent the summer traveling, I traveled to San Antonio for a work conference, then California to pick up the girls from their grandparents' house, we spent 5 nights in Maui followed by 4 nights in Honolulu. Thing2 and I also flew to Seattle to spend time with her BFF, at the same time Thing1 was in Germany with her Science and Agriculture class and DH was at home recovering from COVID. It has been a busy wonderful summer.
Here are a few pictures from our summer travels.
We woke up at 2:30AM to watch the sunrise over Haleakala National Park in Maui.


We spent a lot of time at the beach next to our resort (Marriott Wailea Beach Resort).
We tried scuba diving in Waikiki, it was a great experience for us first timers. It was in a shallow lagoon, about 15 feet and only lasted an hour but it was exactly what I wanted. I would highly recommend this for anyone that wants to try scuba diving but isn't sure you'll be able to actually do it. It was pretty inexpensive, about $80/person. Our girls loved it. We'll definitely try another beginners experience where we actually go out to the deep blue scary ocean.


We also did the Kualoa Hollywood movie tour. It was nice but nothing amazing, glad we did it just for this picture. We LOVE the Jurassic franchise.
It was a great trip, we loved Maui. Didn't care for Oahu, although DH and I do want to visit Aulani one day.
The following week Thing2 and I flew to Seattle. We were able to visit Olympic National Park (get our passport stamped) and hiked Mount Storm King trail. It was a tough, steep trail with ropes at the summit. Awesome hike.

At the same time Thing1 was in Germany, she was there for 9 days on an EFtour with her class.

We are back home for the rest of the summer because cheer season begins the last week of July.
But time to focus on Paris, I've already made a 2 Disneyland dining reservations. More about DLP & Paris on my next post.

 

[becauseimnew]

Back to Disneyland & Paris planning.
We arrive at CDG at 8:30AM - I still haven't decided if we are going to hire a car to take us to DLP or if we'll take the high-speed TVG train. Right now train prices for November are about $130 for the four of us, for that price we'll just hire a car. Current TVG prices are about $65-70, hopefully prices will come down for our trip.
My plan is to get us the Weekly Navigo metro pass when we arrive at CDG. From what I've read most don't recommend the Weekly Navigo pass for tourist because there are cheaper options for those staying in the heart of Paris, but we aren't staying right in the center. We are staying closer to the edge of town. See that little green star next to the Arc de Triomphe? That's where the Hyatt Regency is located, so we'll be taking the metro a lot. And we also need a pass that allows travel to Zone 5, where the airport, Disneyland and the Palace of Versailles are located. The thing about the Weekly Navigo pass is that it is valid Monday 12:01AM to Sunday 11:59PM, so if your trip starts on Saturday this pass probably won't work for most, but fortunately for us we won't be needing the pass until Tuesday when we leave DLP.
Details on the Weekly Navigo Pass:

1. Price for Zones 1-5 22,80€ + 5€ for the actual card. Total 27,80€
2. Start on Monday 12:01AM, ends Sunday 11:58PM
3. You need a passport size picture for your pass, which can be purchased at several locations including CDG for about 5€ for a pack of 4, or you can bring them with you, which is what we'll be doing. The pass must be signed or you could be fined up to 100€!!

It cost 5€ to take the RER from DLP to the Hyatt, about 10€ RT to Versailles, and 10,30€ to the airport. Those 3 trips alone make the pass worth it. We'll also be taking the metre/bus to from the Hyatt, the RT for that is 3,80€. For our vacation and family the Navigo Weekly Pass is worth it.

We will also need to pick up our pocket wifi at the airport from https://hippocketwifi.com/en/book/. Verizon is our carrier, their international plan is expensive, it is $10/day per line, that would be $40/day for our family. I've also looked at eSIM card with for data plans only, but we would need 3 (Thing2 wouldn't get one because she'll never be alone, and we could just hotspot her). eSIM cards is option #2 currently, but only because of price, about $85. I like the pocket wifi option because we can get unlimited data and we would all be able to use it, but that means that if we were to split up some of us wouldn't have wifi, the price for that is about $70. I'm going to keep researching, maybe I can find a cheaper eSIM option, because that would be ideal. Any suggestions? We probably only need 5GB of data each, we'll mostly be using it for navigation and research. Thing1 thinks she needs it to Snap her friends every 5 seconds.

When we arrive at DLP where should we go? I'm thinking we'll be there by 11AM? I'm guessing we'll be hungry, so food will be our first priority, I'm thinking something quick and easy from Disney Village, maybe Earl of Sandwich. Then head to Disneyland to admire the beautiful castel.

I do have reservations at Manhattan for that evening. I haven't decided if we are going to keep it or maybe make reservations elsewhere. I think I want to have a reservation for our first night, just to simplify things but I'm not sure where. Any recommendations?

That is it for day one. That's all the planning I've done.

 

[sinnika]

Just saw your pre-trip report link in the I love credit cards forum. Your DLP trip sounds exciting! I had an opportunity to visit DLP last year. My son and I met in Frankfurt Germany and then flew to Paris December 21. My daughter is stationed in the military in Germany. She had just had a baby a month prior, otherwise she would’ve been there as well. We stayed in an Airbnb and took Ubers everywhere. We only did one day at Disneyland Paris but it was a packed day between the two parks. Not with crowds, but with all the things we were able to accomplish. We did purchase a couple of lightning Lane passes for rides that had a long wait. But majority of them were under 30 minutes. Crystal clear skies and the weather was very cold so be prepared. Of course I’m coming from Houston so cold is relative. Disneyland Paris is nowhere near as crowded as Disney World. In fact I love the ambience and the people not rushing around like they do at Disney World. Also had an opportunity to visit Disneyland Paris last month for my daughter‘s 27th birthday. This time we spent two days in the parks. But with a 10 month old baby the pace was very different. I did very few rides this time to let my daughter and son-in-law enjoy a few on their own. The best part were the shows for the 30th anniversary. I only saw the day show but the night show is supposed to be spectacular. A friend of mine posted a video of the show and it is like nothing I’ve ever seen before! Hopefully it’s still going on next year because I plan to do another visit, possibly in January lol. Just FYI, they do offer military rates but it’s for park tickets. You purchase them at the gate. They are incredibly cheap! They vary based on the days that you go but when I went in September I paid $112 for a two day park hopper. That is insane! We also stayed at an Airbnb and the cost was also very reasonable. Drove to the park the second time since we had driven from my daughters house to Disneyland Paris, which was about four hours from where she lives. It’s amazing to live in Europe and just go country a country in no time at all! There are plenty of places to eat in the Disney Village. My son and I arrived in the afternoon so we had a chance to shop and we ate at a place that was like a castle. I’ll look up the name. We also saw the nighttime parade in December. The other cool thing and hopefully this is set up when you go at Thanksgiving are the Christmas markets. They are amazing and I’m sure Paris will have one. My son and I did a side trip after we left Disneyland Paris and went to Strasbourg France by train and visited their Christmas markets and then on to Colmar which looks like a little Village out of beauty and the beast! We spent the night there and then our daughter joined us in Colmar the following morning and then we attended more Christmas markets that day and then drove back to her house which was about two hours away. She’s coming back to the states for a leadership course in November and December otherwise I would be back in Germany attending more Christmas markets! They also had a Christmas market in Hollywood studios near the Remy‘s ride. Oh I also highly recommend getting reservations at that restaurant. They have a set 3 course French meal that was very good and the ambience was very memorable. PM me if you have any specific questions, or want more details. I think you’re going to love DLP! It’s such a nice break from Disney World. I actually have three days left on a military park hopper that I’m considering just blowing off because it’s so crowded this time of year.

 

[CeeCee101]

You’ll love DLP. It’s so much less crowded and great ambience. I love credit cards and mileage/points too. when I retired (young) I had almost 1M BA miLes. We haven’t been back to WDW in 13 years, been doing Europe which is MUCH cheaper. However, DH wanted to go back to WDW for some milestone Bds for us so we will go next month, the cost is insane but we’ve been able to mitigate some by staying half the time at the Swan (thank you Marriott) and free air. Enjoy and will look for your actual TR when you get back.

 

[Camonkeygirl]

Just saw your pre-trip report link in the I love credit cards forum. Your DLP trip sounds exciting! I had an opportunity to visit DLP last year. My son and I met in Frankfurt Germany and then flew to Paris December 21. My daughter is stationed in the military in Germany. She had just had a baby a month prior, otherwise she would’ve been there as well. We stayed in an Airbnb and took Ubers everywhere. We only did one day at Disneyland Paris but it was a packed day between the two parks. Not with crowds, but with all the things we were able to accomplish. We did purchase a couple of lightning Lane passes for rides that had a long wait. But majority of them were under 30 minutes. Crystal clear skies and the weather was very cold so be prepared. Of course I’m coming from Houston so cold is relative. Disneyland Paris is nowhere near as crowded as Disney World. In fact I love the ambience and the people not rushing around like they do at Disney World. Also had an opportunity to visit Disneyland Paris last month for my daughter‘s 27th birthday. This time we spent two days in the parks. But with a 10 month old baby the pace was very different. I did very few rides this time to let my daughter and son-in-law enjoy a few on their own. The best part were the shows for the 30th anniversary. I only saw the day show but the night show is supposed to be spectacular. A friend of mine posted a video of the show and it is like nothing I’ve ever seen before! Hopefully it’s still going on next year because I plan to do another visit, possibly in January lol. Just FYI, they do offer military rates but it’s for park tickets. You purchase them at the gate. They are incredibly cheap! They vary based on the days that you go but when I went in September I paid $112 for a two day park hopper. That is insane! We also stayed at an Airbnb and the cost was also very reasonable. Drove to the park the second time since we had driven from my daughters house to Disneyland Paris, which was about four hours from where she lives. It’s amazing to live in Europe and just go country a country in no time at all! There are plenty of places to eat in the Disney Village. My son and I arrived in the afternoon so we had a chance to shop and we ate at a place that was like a castle. I’ll look up the name. We also saw the nighttime parade in December. The other cool thing and hopefully this is set up when you go at Thanksgiving are the Christmas markets. They are amazing and I’m sure Paris will have one. My son and I did a side trip after we left Disneyland Paris and went to Strasbourg France by train and visited their Christmas markets and then on to Colmar which looks like a little Village out of beauty and the beast! We spent the night there and then our daughter joined us in Colmar the following morning and then we attended more Christmas markets that day and then drove back to her house which was about two hours away. She’s coming back to the states for a leadership course in November and December otherwise I would be back in Germany attending more Christmas markets! They also had a Christmas market in Hollywood studios near the Remy‘s ride. Oh I also highly recommend getting reservations at that restaurant. They have a set 3 course French meal that was very good and the ambience was very memorable. PM me if you have any specific questions, or want more details. I think you’re going to love DLP! It’s such a nice break from Disney World. I actually have three days left on a military park hopper that I’m considering just blowing off because it’s so crowded this time of year.

Would you be able to give more information on the Military tickets for DLP? My husband is retired US Navy, would the spouse be able to get tickets? My DH is not going on our trip. Also, is the discount similar to the US parks?

 

[becauseimnew]

Just saw your pre-trip report link in the I love credit cards forum. Your DLP trip sounds exciting! I had an opportunity to visit DLP last year. My son and I met in Frankfurt Germany and then flew to Paris December 21. My daughter is stationed in the military in Germany. She had just had a baby a month prior, otherwise she would’ve been there as well. We stayed in an Airbnb and took Ubers everywhere. We only did one day at Disneyland Paris but it was a packed day between the two parks. Not with crowds, but with all the things we were able to accomplish. We did purchase a couple of lightning Lane passes for rides that had a long wait. But majority of them were under 30 minutes. Crystal clear skies and the weather was very cold so be prepared. Of course I’m coming from Houston so cold is relative. Disneyland Paris is nowhere near as crowded as Disney World. In fact I love the ambience and the people not rushing around like they do at Disney World. Also had an opportunity to visit Disneyland Paris last month for my daughter‘s 27th birthday. This time we spent two days in the parks. But with a 10 month old baby the pace was very different. I did very few rides this time to let my daughter and son-in-law enjoy a few on their own. The best part were the shows for the 30th anniversary. I only saw the day show but the night show is supposed to be spectacular. A friend of mine posted a video of the show and it is like nothing I’ve ever seen before! Hopefully it’s still going on next year because I plan to do another visit, possibly in January lol. Just FYI, they do offer military rates but it’s for park tickets. You purchase them at the gate. They are incredibly cheap! They vary based on the days that you go but when I went in September I paid $112 for a two day park hopper. That is insane! We also stayed at an Airbnb and the cost was also very reasonable. Drove to the park the second time since we had driven from my daughters house to Disneyland Paris, which was about four hours from where she lives. It’s amazing to live in Europe and just go country a country in no time at all! There are plenty of places to eat in the Disney Village. My son and I arrived in the afternoon so we had a chance to shop and we ate at a place that was like a castle. I’ll look up the name. We also saw the nighttime parade in December. The other cool thing and hopefully this is set up when you go at Thanksgiving are the Christmas markets. They are amazing and I’m sure Paris will have one. My son and I did a side trip after we left Disneyland Paris and went to Strasbourg France by train and visited their Christmas markets and then on to Colmar which looks like a little Village out of beauty and the beast! We spent the night there and then our daughter joined us in Colmar the following morning and then we attended more Christmas markets that day and then drove back to her house which was about two hours away. She’s coming back to the states for a leadership course in November and December otherwise I would be back in Germany attending more Christmas markets! They also had a Christmas market in Hollywood studios near the Remy‘s ride. Oh I also highly recommend getting reservations at that restaurant. They have a set 3 course French meal that was very good and the ambience was very memorable. PM me if you have any specific questions, or want more details. I think you’re going to love DLP! It’s such a nice break from Disney World. I actually have three days left on a military park hopper that I’m considering just blowing off because it’s so crowded this time of year.

OMG I just googled Colmar & Strasbourg and they are both beautiful places. Maybe one day we'll go back.

I wish I had known about military tickets, DH is retired Navy.

Thanks for all the tips.

You’ll love DLP. It’s so much less crowded and great ambience. I love credit cards and mileage/points too. when I retired (young) I had almost 1M BA miLes. We haven’t been back to WDW in 13 years, been doing Europe which is MUCH cheaper. However, DH wanted to go back to WDW for some milestone Bds for us so we will go next month, the cost is insane but we’ve been able to mitigate some by staying half the time at the Swan (thank you Marriott) and free air. Enjoy and will look for your actual TR when you get back.

We are so excited. I feel like there is so much planning, especially since so many places have moved to timed entry, but I'm a WDW Fastpass pro so I'm used to timed entry planning.

Have fun at WDW, it really is still fun, pricey but fun.

 

[sinnika]

Would you be able to give more information on the Military tickets for DLP? My husband is retired US Navy, would the spouse be able to get tickets? My DH is not going on our trip. Also, is the discount similar to the US parks?

I just googled Disneyland Paris military tickets. These are some of the prices in the photos. We purchased 2 day tickets at the gate on a Saturday. It was a good thing as they were at capacity on Sunday. Though it did not feel crowded to me. I’m the spouse of a retiree and have used my id anytime there is a military discount without a problem. Though this time my active duty daughter purchased the tickets. My spouse was not with me for this trip.

 

[becauseimnew]

We are less than 4 weeks away from our trip and I'm 100% planning mode.

I think I managed to book everything (except Paris Catacombs) that needs to be pre-booked. We have a very busy itinerary, might be too much but I would rather have too much planned and not do it all then not have enough planned and get bored.

Arrival day - Disneyland - Our main goal this day is to take it slow and stay awake until the night firework show - We'll just focus on the rides with short waits.
Day 2 Sunday - Studios - Extra Magic Hours and head straight to Crush Coaster. After that we'll head to Avengers Campus then all the other classics. Looking at current waits they don't seem too bad.
Day 3 Monday - Disneyland - Extra Magic hours - Hyperspace then all of the rides that we don't have in the US.
Day 4 Tuesday - we have park tickets for this day but we won't be using them, we have to head straight to our hotel in Paris then to our food tour. We scheduled a No Diet Club Food Tour on the canal, should be delicious. I'll report back on our thoughts. Then we'll head to The Sacré-Coeur for some touristy sights.



I've promised the girls they could do some shopping while in Paris so we'll head to the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, we don't live near Zara but we buy their stuff online all the time, it will be nice to get a chance to shop in the stores. I've got a couple a dinner places selected near the mall then after dinner we'll head back to the hotel.
Day 5 Wednesday is Eiffel Tower day. So excited for this day. But I'll save the last half of our trip for the next post.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

If you are shopping and enjoy tea, there are several boutique tea shops- Dammann Freres. Bali is my favorite tea- also makes a wonderful gift. Their Saint Germaine des Pres location is probably walkable from the Louvre. Rue Montorgueil is a fun pedestrian only street filled with cafes and bakeries.

 

[becauseimnew]

Day 5 Wednesday - Today we plan to visit the Paris Catacombs, these tickets can only be booked 7 days in advance. Hoping to get a morning slot since our Eiffel Tower tickets are for 3PM and would like to have a nice relaxed lunch before we try to climb. We have lift tickets to the top, but if it isn't cold and rainy we might just try to climb the stairs. Sunset is at 5:02PM, so we'll hang around until our dinner reservations at 7PM. I'm trying not to make too many reservations, but I still want something just so we're not wandering around. If anyone has any good French restaurant recommendations I would really appreciate it.

Day 6 Thursday - this day will start our 48 hour Paris Museum Pass. We have 9AM tickets for the Louvre, I have Jay Sawnson's Louvre Museum checklist. I need to watch the video a couple more times to make sure I know where we're going. The plan is to spend about 2.5 hours there, then head to Angelina's for lunch and some hot chocolate - I still haven't decided if I'm going to use Amex Concierge services to make reservations for us. Any input?
After lunch we have reservations at Sainte-Chapelle at 2PM, from there we'll walk to Notre Dame, then lots of walking to all the tourist places like Pantheon, Musee d'orsay to see the Starry Night, over to Ponte Alexander. For dinner I have Ober Mamma, it's on the other side of the river but the pizza looks delicious, they also take reservations which would make things easy.

Day 7 Friday - for our last day we head out of town the the Palace of Versailles, our entrance tickets are for 10AM. I don't know how long we'll be there but I don't have anything else booked for that day. I do want to make it back to Paris to visit the Arc De Triomphe at sunset, no reservations needed. But I just remembered that we do want to visit the Stranger Things Store, I think I need to get tickets for that. Depending on how much money we have left ( I did budget some for shopping) we might just continue shopping or I might try to book us a last minute Seine River Cruise. Thoughts on river cruise for our last dinner?

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

It's good to see the ORD Delta Sky Club opened as planned! I am so grateful to have a place to go finally in ORD; it's been such a lounge wasteland. It seems Gates M11 and M14 will board directly from the lounge! I think we leave a few days after you and I've been checking our flights- so far they haven't left from M14. Hope your travel departure day goes well!