Has anyone gone to Disneyland Paris ?

[grumpydad]

We are looking to booked Disneyland Paris for july of 2010 along with a trip to Italy.

I called member services to get some idea as to when i could book and was told to call back in jan and at that time they could give me a better idea of how far in advance they have available. Supposedly Disneyland Paris only releases rooms at certain times and right now they only have thru Nov 2009 listed.

This being the case i would have a hard time coordinating the booking of flights and rooms in Italy with Paris if i have to wait until at least Jan. I was hoping to get the flights and Italy hotel in the next month or so.

If anybody has had any experience doing this and has any ideas i would apprieciate your help..thanks

 

[Sid74]

You may find, when you ring back in January that they will then tell you it will be March before you can book, it all depends on how busy Disneyland Paris is for the time you want to book. And July is a busy, and expensive time to go, so there may be less rooms available for DVC members at that time, as the hotels want cash bookings over points.

I wanted to use points for a stay last christmas, I started trying to book in March, kept ring every few weeks, as instructed by MS, and they still did not start booking until the middle of NOVEMBER!!! I gave up in the end.

I ended up going the first weekend in March this year, but had to wait until the middle of January to make the booking. I was told that it depends on how many cash bookings have been taken for hotels by DLP, as they don't really want to give much availability to DVC.

 

[bwvBound]

We visited in 2001 ... but were staying in Paris, not near the Disney park. The rail station sold a package (r/t rail transportation and park entrance ticket) which made things quite easy. Don't know if they still offer this package, but likely do??

 

[Mississippian]

Not to be argumentative, but is using points to book Disneyland Paris a good use of your points? Wouldn't you be better off renting out or transferring your points and using the cash thus obtained to book Disneyland Paris for cash?

As another poster pointed out, the RER station is right at the gates of DP, so you can stay in Paris and take the RER. A strong argument can be made that Paris has better dining options than Disneyland Paris.

Of course, if you are wanting to stay in the Disneyland Hotel, that would be a real experience!

 

[dozerdog]

I'm with Mississippian. You will be a lot let frustrated staying "off property" and taking the train in. It stops directly outside the park gates. Trying to book on property was more hassle than it was worth, and a lot less cost effective.

Just a note, the hours in Paris are shorter. They closed by 7:00PM in June when we were there in 2007 and no such thing as "fireworks" that we could see. Just so you don't get your expectations up, if you have been to WDW, you will be sorely dissappointed with the Paris experience. The park is A LOT smaller and the Disney customer service does NOT exist in this park.

My sister-in-law lost her Parkhopper pass on day 2, and even though we had a copy of it, they refused to replace it. She had to buy a new pass

Also we waited over 3 hours for the new Nemo ride, while they held some PR event with a film crew. Why they just didn't close the ride down that morning rather than have people wait in line I don't know. They CM kept telling us that it would be open any time. Also Thunder mountain broke down and we were refused "re-ads" or even "fast passes" to bypass the long lines later in the day. Long story short, not going back again!!

 

[Inkmahm]

I was at Disneyland Paris in June of 2008 and loved it. I had no problems with customer service there other than that the restaurants aren't always open every day. We wanted to eat at Walt's again after having a great meal there on a weekend and discovered that it was not open during the week!

I would definitely go back. I wouldn't use my points to stay there though.

 

[The Red Head]

We have used our points there, but it has been several years, when you used to get park tickets included with your reservation. They used to book out at about 6 months. I guess things have changed. Between cash trips and using points we have been to Disneyland Paris about 8 different trips. It is a nice park. The French are not on top of their customer service like we are here, but the attractions and castle are great.

 

[Pakey]

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel right at the park entrance a few months ago (cash, not using our DVC points) and we absolutely loved the Disney experience there. OP, good luck, I definitely think it's worth a visit. We can't wait to go back.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Just a note, the hours in Paris are shorter. They closed by 7:00PM in June when we were there in 2007 and no such thing as "fireworks" that we could see. Just so you don't get your expectations up, if you have been to WDW, you will be sorely dissappointed with the Paris experience. The park is A LOT smaller and the Disney customer service does NOT exist in this park.

We visited Disneyland Paris a few years ago. Stayed in Paris and took the train in. Our experience doesn't reconcile with the opinion above. True, the customer service may not be up to WDW standards (which have slipped themselves), but we didn't have any glaring customer service problems. There were fireworks when we went, although I suppose that could have changed. As for the park, if anything we found it to be bigger, and better, than the MK at WDW. We were not disappointed at all.