Just wondering

[Anal Annie]

Are there ever sales or PIN codes for resort & ticket packages at DLP like there are for WDW packages? And if there are is this board the right place to find them or should I be watching in a different place?? TIA!!

 

[zinderella]

Hi there

there are what we call 'flash sales' and this is certainly the place to hear about them!!! You can also sign up on the DLP website to get email updates of special offers.

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks... Signing up for email offers sounds good - I will do that. Do you know if is it possible to book rooms only at DLP without park tickets or do you HAVE to book a package that includes the parks?

I have sort of a mess to sort out. We own DVC and had originally planned to just use our DVC points for our stay in Paris but they force you to buy these length of stay park tickets - and we'll probably only go to the parks for a couple of days and go into the city for a couple of days - so that's a waste of money for 3 days of tickets not being used. We'd have to buy tickets thru DVC and pay for them right then & they don't offer any of the specials like the "buy 3 get 4" etc. They also have a 2 night minimum which would require 3 days of tickets so I was wondering if we could combine our DVC stay with a cash stay and just pay for a room alone?! Then they said they'd be 2 diff. ressies so we may have to move rooms. Well I don't want to move every 2 days - otherwise we'd just get a room in the city. OH, and we have 37 banked points that we HAVE to use by Nov. next year or lose them. Those would cover about 1 night at Sequoia Lodge. VERY point intensive to use points VS just paying cash for a package. But then we don't have any other plans right now for those 37 points...

The most annoying thing to ME is that LAST day when we wouldn't be using the darn tickets (I'd hoped to spend 4 nights in Paris then move on early the next day to Barcelona for our cruise - but they'll make us buy a park ticket for that day that we'll be GONE).

Sorry...I am just venting and talking to myself out loud!!

 

[DLPdaft]

Do you desperately want to stay onsite whilst at DLP? Its just that it might be more convenient for your travel plans to stay at the Dream Castle for example (a Vienna International hotel across the road from the onsite hotels) and you can book that room only, or bed and breakfast, with many agents such as Expedia, travelrepublic, the hotels own site etc. Then you can buy park tickets separately for as many days as suits you.

 

[Anal Annie]

Do you desperately want to stay onsite whilst at DLP? Its just that it might be more convenient for your travel plans to stay at the Dream Castle for example (a Vienna International hotel across the road from the onsite hotels) and you can book that room only, or bed and breakfast, with many agents such as Expedia, travelrepublic, the hotels own site etc. Then you can buy park tickets separately for as many days as suits you.

I had NOT considered staying off-site. We're Disney Philes through & through and have always stayed on-site at WDW. And now that we own DVC we'd just been planning all along that we should use our points to stay at DLP (we have 37 banked points that we either have to use or lose next year). So I always thought hey, this will work - UNTIL I priced out the park tickets and got a grip on how much those will run us. This is the absurd thing. We have to pay a $95 exchange fee to use our points at DLP and they told me that if we stay 4 nights we have to buy 5 days of park tickets at $221 USD pp. For the 3 of us that is $1,105 + the $95 is $1,200 USD AND it will suck down about 134 points to stay at Sequoia Lodge. I can stay 4 nights at Saratoga Springs for 66 points!! Anyway, I went on the DLP website and priced out a 4 night / 5 day package with the current deal (I know that will change but there is usually some sort of deal to find, right?) The bottom line - room + breakfast + park tickets came to $1,202!!!! Only $2 more!! So either way I look at it, I am spending $1,200. Meanwhile, I priced 2 days of park tickets (which is all I really want) and they would only be $492. So to stay onsite we're spending about $600 more on just tickets. It is a no win situation though as if we stay off-site we'd have to pay for a hotel room & I doubt we could get what we want for $600 AND we'd still have 37 points going to waste. So it's just a hard pill that I guess I have to swallow. Looks like 4 nights in Paris is going to run us $1,200 + expenses no matter how we book it. I haven't priced staying off-site but I suppose I SHOULD just so I know for sure what we're looking at from all angles.


(OH, and the other thing that KILLS me on this is that we usually buy Annual Passes in FL which, with our DVC membership, only run us about $1,200!!! And that is unlimited admission for all 4 parks!!!)


Anyway, thanks for the suggestion - I'll look into it just because I probably should!

 

[Cyrano]

As you have discovered DVC is not a good option at DLP since there is no DVC resort. Understandably they charge a decent price to DVC since the business units operate as seperate entities.
A better option; but probably not helpful in your situation, would be to rent the points and book DLP seperately.

 

[Anal Annie]

As you have discovered DVC is not a good option at DLP since there is no DVC resort. Understandably they charge a decent price to DVC since the business units operate as seperate entities.
A better option; but probably not helpful in your situation, would be to rent the points and book DLP seperately.

Yes, it's been a real eye opener for me and I've been posting on the DVC boards about my options to rent as well. I don't really WANT to rent them out but it's either that or lose the points. Thanks.

(I don't understand why DLP, DCL and DVC can't all work together to keep common customers happy?! Aren't they sort of cousins? You would think they could play nice together?!)

 

[mommy2ash]

Yes, it's been a real eye opener for me and I've been posting on the DVC boards about my options to rent as well. I don't really WANT to rent them out but it's either that or lose the points. Thanks.

(I don't understand why DLP, DCL and DVC can't all work together to keep common customers happy?! Aren't they sort of cousins? You would think they could play nice together?!)

you would think so but as separate companies they seem to like to keeps things separate lol

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

I too am a Disneyphile through and through - and would probably only consider staying onsite at WDW - however I have found that staying offsite at DLRP is really a good option. I bought an annual pass and am able to stay offsite for half of what I'd spend onsite for lesser quality - and it was in all honesty much better for me. I did not find the shuttle as good as Disney transport however - but because the park size is smaller, it didn't seem to make much difference. The location of many offsite hotels is really close.

I'd probably book the Dream Castle or Magic Circus if they were available now - no questions- even though I enjoyed my stay at the Santa Fe fine.

 

[Anal Annie]

I too am a Disneyphile through and through - and would probably only consider staying onsite at WDW - however I have found that staying offsite at DLRP is really a good option. I bought an annual pass and am able to stay offsite for half of what I'd spend onsite for lesser quality - and it was in all honesty much better for me. I did not find the shuttle as good as Disney transport however - but because the park size is smaller, it didn't seem to make much difference. The location of many offsite hotels is really close.

I'd probably book the Dream Castle or Magic Circus if they were available now - no questions- even though I enjoyed my stay at the Santa Fe fine.

OK, but so do you book these off-site properties thru the DLP website or separately so that you'd then buy your park tickets separately? It was my impression that if you book thru the website you HAVE to buy those length of stay tickets. Or am I missing something???

The other thought I had about staying onsite was about the advantage of the EMH's they offer for being on-site and I thought having breakfast included was a good deal. I am so used to doing EMH's at WDW - often we'll go at 7 or 8:00 whichever applies so we can get thru as much as possible before the crowds build in. We follow the "get in / get out" method!! Also the WDW parks appear to have longer hours. I looks the ones at DLP don't even open until 10:00. I was thinking that not knowing the DLP parks like we do in FL and only planning for 2 days there that we'd need find the extra time a good deal and that we'd be glad to have it available?! Any thoughts about that? Just trying to maximize our time!!

 

[DLPdaft]

EMH at DLP means Main St Usa is open (but not all the shops are open for business), the castle is open as a walkthrough, and some rides in Fantasyland and Discoveryland are open. You don't have access to the whole of the park in EMH, so it really depends on if you want particularly to do the rides which are open in EMH, as to whether onsite suits you better than offsite.
The rides which are open in EMH are usually Buzz Lightyear lazer blast, Space Mountain and Orbitron in Discoveryland, and in Fantasyland, its Carousel, Dumbo, Peter Pans Flight, Teacups, and sometimes Pinocchio or Snow White ride.

 

[Anal Annie]

EMH at DLP means Main St Usa is open (but not all the shops are open for business), the castle is open as a walkthrough, and some rides in Fantasyland and Discoveryland are open. You don't have access to the whole of the park in EMH, so it really depends on if you want particularly to do the rides which are open in EMH, as to whether onsite suits you better than offsite.
The rides which are open in EMH are usually Buzz Lightyear lazer blast, Space Mountain and Orbitron in Discoveryland, and in Fantasyland, its Carousel, Dumbo, Peter Pans Flight, Teacups, and sometimes Pinocchio or Snow White ride.

Since this is our first (and possibly only) trip ever to DLP I figured we'd need all the time we could bet - esp. if the park hours there are shorter. I don't know how the crowds compare in mid-August to the FL crowds?! We're not big shoppers so I don't care so much about the shops being open. We'll be there for the rides and will want to do as many as we can. Guessing a couple will be repeats for us too (anything that is different from WDW).

Someone mentioned to me on my DVC thread to look into getting Fantasy AP's at DLP. They're not offered on the English version of the site but are on the French one. I copied some of it into a Google Translator & skimmed thru it. When I convert Euro to USD they come out CHEAPER than buying 3 days + of tickets!! Any drawbacks to that that you know of? Do we need to LIVE in Europe? They shouldn't care where we LIVE should they? Seems like a better deal than buying 3 individual days worth. I looked at the restricted dates for 2011 - one is August 14 which is actually the day AFTER our cruise leaves Barcelona... Our first port is Villefranche (Cannes, Monte Carlo, Nice) and is ON August 14. Is there some sort of French holiday that day or something which might affect our port excursions?!

 

[DLPdaft]

You can buy a Fantasy Annual Pass for DLP regardless of which country you are from, they are straightforward to buy too .

 

[A Small World]

If it is August you are going it will be busy but the park hours will be much longer - 10am-11pm most days and then if you are in an onsite hotel you will get 2 hr EMH in the morning as well.

You also get EMH if you have dream annual passes but these are much more expensive and also if you stay off site at Elysee- val d'Europe which is a bit further away than the other offsite hotels mentioned but very easy to get to DLP by train

August 15th is a National hoiday in France but not 14th

 

[Anal Annie]

If it is August you are going it will be busy but the park hours will be much longer - 10am-11pm most days and then if you are in an onsite hotel you will get 2 hr EMH in the morning as well.

You also get EMH if you have dream annual passes but these are much more expensive and also if you stay off site at Elysee- val d'Europe which is a bit further away than the other offsite hotels mentioned but very easy to get to DLP by train

August 15th is a National hoiday in France but not 14th

Hummm. Interesting. I just copied the restricted days from the website for the Fantasy pass:

2011 :
les 26 et 27 mars
les 24 et 25 avril
les 3, 4 et 12 juin
les 2, 3, 15 et 16 juillet
le 14 août
les 24 et 25 septembre
du 28 au 31 octobre inclus
le 1er novembre
les 3, 4, 17 et 18 décembre, et du 27 au 30 décembre inclus

But now let me be clear on how these work as they're obviously different from the AP's that we are used to buying for FL. They get you IN the park for any day EXCEPT the ones listed above, right? There's no other fees upon admission or anything right?? They're not just a discount off the regular price of admission are they?! I can't figure out why anybody would buy a regular days admission ticket for 3 days if you could just buy one of these. It feels like I must be missing something in my Google Translator!!!

 

[DLPdaft]

You're not missing anything - a 3-day visit or longer is usually where an annual pass makes sense over a 3-day hopper park ticket . Yes, your annual pass, once purchased, gives you access to both parks at DLP, on every day of the year except for the restricted (blackout) dates. Nothing extra to pay once you've bought your annual pass.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

OK, but so do you book these off-site properties thru the DLP website or separately so that you'd then buy your park tickets separately? It was my impression that if you book thru the website you HAVE to buy those length of stay tickets. Or am I missing something???

The other thought I had about staying onsite was about the advantage of the EMH's they offer for being on-site and I thought having breakfast included was a good deal. I am so used to doing EMH's at WDW - often we'll go at 7 or 8:00 whichever applies so we can get thru as much as possible before the crowds build in. We follow the "get in / get out" method!! Also the WDW parks appear to have longer hours. I looks the ones at DLP don't even open until 10:00. I was thinking that not knowing the DLP parks like we do in FL and only planning for 2 days there that we'd need find the extra time a good deal and that we'd be glad to have it available?! Any thoughts about that? Just trying to maximize our time!!

I bought my annual pass at DLRP and booked my hotel through orbitz - got a very good rate that way. Also the Dream Castle and Magic Circus plus other offsite hotels include breakfast which also serve hot items (unlike some onsite hotels - the DLH and Hotel NY have hot breakfast as well/no need to prebook a time- but not all of them) and you don't need to prebook a time for breakfast with Dream Castle or Magic Circus which I found annoying when I stayed onsite.

Also as far as Extra Magic Hours I didn't find them as essential since the parks are smaller it is easy to do your favorites multiple times. Of course I went in March and June - and it wasn't crowded - August might be different. The first day I went to EMH - and by the second day I was going later - just not necessary. The only thing that might make me swing for Extra Magic Hours would be if I had small children who wanted to enjoy Fantasyland.

Enjoy your planning!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Also another advantage of using an annual pass - you get a discount for food and shopping (depending on which pass you buy).

You may have already found it - but the DLRPmagic web site is very helpful in navigating annual passes.

 

[kizzabel]

where would i buy an annual pass?
can i buy online?
thanks

 

[DLPdaft]

The best and most convenient way is to buy an annual pass when you first arrive at DLP, as they have to take your picture and laminate it onto your pass. Its a simple process, and doesn't cost any more to do it in person.
If you do it any other way, you only get a temporary pass, which you have to go to the annual pass office in the main park to change for the laminated picture permanent one anyway.