How Many Days in DLP? Hotel Issues?

[GNRMatt]

Hi all,

Me and my girlfriend are planning a trip to Paris in October, and as big time Disney fans, we want to spend some time at Disneyland Paris. We have three main questions with regards to this trip that we'd like to seek everyone's help with...

1. How many days should we plan on visiting Disneyland Paris? We really would like to experience it as much as possible and don't want to miss anything due to lack of time. How many days would people recommend spending in Disneyland Paris for this? If time of year matters, we'll be there in mid-October this year.
2. For the hotels, when purchasing online, it looks like for every day you put in for the hotel, it comes with park tickets. If we end up staying in a hotel for, let's say 4 days, but only want 2 or 3 days in the park, how can we book this so we don't end up wasting money on tickets we don't use?
3. For the hotel purchases, is booking direct typically the best way to go? Or do people know of good deals through 3rd party sources? Typically I like to always book direct, but if there's any special tips/tricks for these specific hotels, they'd be appreciated.

Thanks!
-Matt

 

[@MinnieFan2016]

With regards to how many days, 4 normally gets you all the time to go round the parks, and do all of it, we going for 5 days next year coz we've gt a 3 year old and he's not quick walker, but there's only 2 of you, so 4 days should be plenty.
For tickets, i suppose you could request to only have so many tickets when booking? technically you'll receive one ticket each that gets you in both parks so either way you still only get one ticket, best thing to do is ask the travel agent, or message Disneyland Paris directly.
Can't help you with the third one sorry! xx

Contact numbers here:
https://my-disneyland.disneylandparis.co.uk/contact-us.html

 

[DLPdaft]

disneyland paris onsite hotels are generally sold as a package, including duration-of-stay park tickets. The package gets the good discounts (ie up to 40% off, or 2 free nights when you book 4 etc). Room only and booking less days' tickets will cost you more as you won't get a package discount.

If you want to stay onsite, direct is generally about as good a deal as you're going to get (but check out various official country's offers, as different countries get different offers all through the year, and you can book whichever one suits you best, regardless of where you reside).

My first trips to DLP were 2 nights and 3 days in the parks, but I prefer 3 and 4. If you can, its always much quieter midweek at DLP compared to the weekend, so avoid Saturdays and Sundays, and this year, the French schools are on holiday from 20th October, to go before then for low crowd levels.

 

[DLPDreams]

I'd go for 3 or 4 nights - obviously if you book with a 2 nights free offer, then 4 nights is going be best.

As Elaine says, if poss avoid weekends, mid week much better, and you'll find cheaper as well, as weekends usually attract a higher rate.

As Nikki says, tickets within a package are really cheap, so much so that when you ask for room only prices (which you can't get online, only by calling), you'll find it's often more expensive or only £s more!

Direct do tend to get some good deals, but I think the biggest advantage is, if you book early, then see a better offer later, you can often call DLP and change or add something minimal to change your package overall to match the offer. You can't do this with anyone else you book with. In addition, if you don't want to pay all in one go, you can pay a deposit (over the phone) and then pay off in instalments or balance by a deadline.

 

[ashley0139]

While the package is usually a good deal, for me it wasn't. I was there May 10-13 and booked only a couple weeks before that. I'm in the US, so the following is in USD. I only needed 3 park days and 3 nights, so I called up DLP to see what was the better deal. For me to get a room only price for 3 nights in Hotel Santa Fe it was $354. DLP was running a deal so that if you bought 2 park days you got the 3rd free. So my tickets were $158. Total: $512. For a 4 day/3 night package at the HSF they wanted $900. So the package is certainly not always the better deal.

Also, even if you don't speak French check out the French prices for the packages. They are cheaper.

I also looked at booking through hotels.com for the hotel but they wanted upwards of $200 per night while I ended up paying $118 booking directly.

I spent 3 park days (really 2 1/2 since I didn't get there until 1 the first day) and I saw everything more than once. It was plenty of time. Of course that was now when there are a lot of closures.

 

[DLPDreams]

While the package is usually a good deal, for me it wasn't. I was there May 10-13 and booked only a couple weeks before that. I'm in the US, so the following is in USD. I only needed 3 park days and 3 nights, so I called up DLP to see what was the better deal. For me to get a room only price for 3 nights in Hotel Santa Fe it was $354. DLP was running a deal so that if you bought 2 park days you got the 3rd free. So my tickets were $158. Total: $512. For a 4 day/3 night package at the HSF they wanted $900. So the package is certainly not always the better deal.

Also, even if you don't speak French check out the French prices for the packages. They are cheaper.

I also looked at booking through hotels.com for the hotel but they wanted upwards of $200 per night while I ended up paying $118 booking directly.

I spent 3 park days (really 2 1/2 since I didn't get there until 1 the first day) and I saw everything more than once. It was plenty of time. Of course that was now when there are a lot of closures.

Interesting about your ticket and room only price Ashley! I have rarely found that myself but then we are a family of 4. I wonder when it becomes better to do a deal - maybe 2+ people?

Agreed about the French deals - Ille de France in particular usually have good deals as they are local so I think they incentivise them more to stay onsite. But the Irish site sometimes has good deals etc.

I think 3 nights would be good for the OP, I know I originally said possibly 4, but that would depend on the deal (as above if it were a 2 night free offer for example). By October some things will be open again that aren't now.