Paris airport options

[Anal Annie]

I am FINALLY under a year now for our big trip to Europe! We are planning to go to DLP / Paris first for about 4 nights before we head to Barcelona for our DCL Med cruise. I am just reaching the point now where the flights will be available to book for the trip. They're still far too expensive at this point to book but I plan to begin watching them on a regular basis from now on so whenever I see a good deal or a sale I can snag it. I figured CDG is the better choice for DLP BUT wondered if Orly is that much different / out of the way if I find a better deal there. One of the scenarios I priced had us flying into CDG from the US but then using Orly to go to Barcelona - the flight times were more to my liking out of Orly so I just wondered if there's a big difference in which airport we book and the best way to get there from DLP. Will we just eat up any savings of time & money by going to Orly vs sticking with CDG?!

TIA for any thoughts / stories / experiences with something like this!! I'm sure I'll be spending more time lurking here on this board from now on out!!!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

There are cheaper flights within Europe with companies like easyjet. I have flown into Orly the last two trips and it wasn't a problem at all. I took the bus to Disney - 17 Euro/person at that time and it took 45 minutes - 1 hour with traffic.

 

[Anal Annie]

There are cheaper flights within Europe with companies like easyjet. I have flown into Orly the last two trips and it wasn't a problem at all. I took the bus to Disney - 17 Euro/person at that time and it took 45 minutes - 1 hour with traffic.

Thanks! Is this a Disney operated bus or a public bus of some sort? I really wasn't sure if Orly was THAT much further away or not. Is CDG a lot closer then?? I'm guessing DLP may not retrieve luggage & transport to the resorts like they do in Florida with the DME service so I have to consider the hassle of dealing with our luggage too. Since this will be a 2 week trip I know we'll have our share and then some!

My problem when pricing flights is that since we're flying TO Paris and HOME from Barcelona if I don't just go ahead & include the flight between Paris & Barcelona all of the booking engines consider them one-way flights & the international flights are actually MORE EXPENSIVE than just including that flight with the other flights. It's usually cheaper to price it as a "multi-city round trip". That flight on Air France from Paris to Barcelona for example is a FRACTION of the price if I just include it. But if I try to price it separately it's outrageous. Go figure. I am also leary of getting into hidden fees with some of the European "budget carriers" that I am not familiar with. I am worried about luggage dimensions, weight differences, baggage allowance etc. that we may get caught up in. If we stick to one airline I feel like we're more likely to not get "stuck" with some fee I didn't account for. Just a little paranoid here!!

 

[Johnny_boy]

Most of the private shuttles will pick you up from Orly or CDG. CDG has the added option of the TGV but if you have a lot of luggage, it would be a pain getting it all on and then back off again in the 12 minutes that the TGV takes to get to the parks - lovely and fast but only really sat down for 10 mins and spent half of that worrying that we were about to arrive and had to get eveything ready

As far as I know, Disney will not transport luggage, that's up to you.

You'll find the internal EU allowances for luggage are not as generous as the US flights which are generally a lot more weight and often bigger carry-on - I got caught out using a US carry-on bag on Easyjet - it ended up in the hold on the way back and €22 charge.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Thanks! Is this a Disney operated bus or a public bus of some sort? I really wasn't sure if Orly was THAT much further away or not. Is CDG a lot closer then?? I'm guessing DLP may not retrieve luggage & transport to the resorts like they do in Florida with the DME service so I have to consider the hassle of dealing with our luggage too. Since this will be a 2 week trip I know we'll have our share and then some!

My problem when pricing flights is that since we're flying TO Paris and HOME from Barcelona if I don't just go ahead & include the flight between Paris & Barcelona all of the booking engines consider them one-way flights & the international flights are actually MORE EXPENSIVE than just including that flight with the other flights. It's usually cheaper to price it as a "multi-city round trip". That flight on Air France from Paris to Barcelona for example is a FRACTION of the price if I just include it. But if I try to price it separately it's outrageous. Go figure. I am also leary of getting into hidden fees with some of the European "budget carriers" that I am not familiar with. I am worried about luggage dimensions, weight differences, baggage allowance etc. that we may get caught up in. If we stick to one airline I feel like we're more likely to not get "stuck" with some fee I didn't account for. Just a little paranoid here!!

Yeah - you are right to think about all of these factors as they do come into play. There are big differences in luggage allowances between European economy carriers and your flagship airlines. Something to consider - make sure you know your allowances - should make things less stressful. I just had a friend flying to the States from Istanbul - but she had to pay $150 excess baggage on her flight to Istanbul - she had three large pieces though.


The "Disney" shuttle is called Navette VEA Shuttle and is run by a private company - running from three airports to Disneyland Paris. Here is a link to the UK site - http://www.vea-shuttle.co.uk/ For one person I found the shuttle just fine - if you were a whole family - prearranged transport might be more affordable.

 

[Johnny_boy]

most airlines will tell you the maximum size and weight as part of the booking or it's available on their website. Most of the budget carriers in Europe such as Easyjet don't publish fares more than 6 months ahead so you'd have to wait quite a bit for their fares.

I've only ever flown to CDG as the carriers I've used have all flown there. I think it is closer than Orly as the shuttle prices are less but there's not much in it.

We used Eazyshuttle for our transfer one way and can't recommend them enough, superb service.

 

[mkmommy]

Thanks! Is this a Disney operated bus or a public bus of some sort? I really wasn't sure if Orly was THAT much further away or not. Is CDG a lot closer then?? I'm guessing DLP may not retrieve luggage & transport to the resorts like they do in Florida with the DME service so I have to consider the hassle of dealing with our luggage too. Since this will be a 2 week trip I know we'll have our share and then some!

My problem when pricing flights is that since we're flying TO Paris and HOME from Barcelona if I don't just go ahead & include the flight between Paris & Barcelona all of the booking engines consider them one-way flights & the international flights are actually MORE EXPENSIVE than just including that flight with the other flights. It's usually cheaper to price it as a "multi-city round trip". That flight on Air France from Paris to Barcelona for example is a FRACTION of the price if I just include it. But if I try to price it separately it's outrageous. Go figure. I am also leary of getting into hidden fees with some of the European "budget carriers" that I am not familiar with. I am worried about luggage dimensions, weight differences, baggage allowance etc. that we may get caught up in. If we stick to one airline I feel like we're more likely to not get "stuck" with some fee I didn't account for. Just a little paranoid here!!

you should be able to book multiple city US to CDG and the BCN to US and it is pretty close to a return fare. you could even add in the Paris
to Barcelona flight but Easyjet has flights from CDG,so that would be less expensive.

try orbitz. Com and do multiple city