Plane or Train, Advice please???

[kazdudds]

Ok, so planning our next big family trip to DLP in March 2009. There will be twelve of us going, 6 adults and 6 kids (ages 2 - 10).

This year we went by Eurostar, took us about an hour and a bit to get to St pancras, 6.15am start, on a mini bus that cost £100 each way, and then the train journey for 2 and a half hours. Also we were not sat together, so it of a bummer really!

Just been checking out costs etc for next year and noticed (don't know how I missed it last time!) that we could fly from Heathrow to CDG and it would cost us about the same as traveling by eurostar due to the under 12 travel free offer. We live approx 25 mins from Heathrow so would cost us about a tenner each way for taxi's.

So my question is this, (please help!!), Do you think it would be best to go by plane or train??? (How easy is it to get from CDG to DLP? Will it take ages to get baggage? WIll we have to check in ages before? Do you think we would be sat together? , Sorry a few more questions than I intended!)

I appreciate you reading this really long post, Don't know when to stop!!

Thanks Kaz xxx

 

[callumdougan]

I presume if your flights are with Disney direct?
In that case, AirFrance do not let you pre-book seats on these flights ( I called recently and they advised they only pre-book on long haul flights. So as long as your at the airport fairly sharp youll be able to get seats together as itll be first come first served.
I think its most likely that you'll land at 2F/E in that case when you come out the terminal it will take 2mins to get to the VEA bus stop. Baggage usually isnt too bad at CDG. I've certainly never had any probs and not waited more than 15mins for baggae for flights from, Edinburgh, Manchester, Amsterdam and Lyon.

 

[ema74]

If I were to choose, I'd go for the Eurostar. Then again, for us it's only one stop on the tube to St. Pancras and fairly easy...

I agree they can be a bit annoying with the seating plan etc but I've found that if you book over the phone (they charge £5 to book on the phone) you can book the family area and be seated where you wanted.

 

[torsie24]

I would alwasy choose Eurostar, but then again I tend to only travel in 2's and 4's.

I wish I could get the Eurostar everywhere, when we went to paris in Januray we were delayed for over an hour outside the tunnel, so i got to have my breakfast at a leisurely rate and not miss and french scenery, I think I was the only one happy we were delayed, I wish they did like 6 hour journeys so you could really relax into it. 2 hours is too short for me! Although I think when I'm on my way to Disneyland as opposed to Paris, I will be a lot less patient!!

 

[loobymiss]

I haven't used Eurostar but I flew with Air france last week.

I was really nervous about getting lost but didn't have any problems. We had to check in 2 hours before the flight and we got seats togehter (4 of us).

We flew into terminal 2E and just followed the crowds through passport control then looked at the screens for baggage reclaim and didn't get lost at all!!! I had booked transfers through RS Transports so we were whisked to DIsney real quick. I reckon we were at the airport for about 30 mins.

On the way back it was even easier, the taxi dropped us at the terminal door so we checked straight in and then got directed to the right gate number - easy peasy!

 

[kazdudds]

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I think I like the idea of flying, as you then feel like you're really on 'holiday'. Hubby is not so keen, but I think the kids will like it more as they really didn't enjoy the train journey. It can be hard to keep six very excitable kids sitting in seats (with three of them on our laps!) for the 2 and a half hour journey.

We are planning on staying at the SL, does anyone know how long the shuttle bus thing takes to get there?

Thanks again Kaz xxx

 

[torsie24]

We are planning on staying at the SL, does anyone know how long the shuttle bus thing takes to get there?

I think it's about 40 mins from CDG, having read a lot of these threads, but I've not done it myself, so hopefully someone more knowledgable will come along.

 

[Ware Bears]

Yep, that's right, it's about 40 minutes.

We always used to go via Eurostar as it was so easy to just hop on a train home when it was based at Waterloo. Now that it's relocated to St Pancras it's not so appealing so we've started flying with Air France from Southampton although I'm not averse to using Flybe, basically whoever is cheapest gets my money! I know what you mean about flying seeming "more like going on holiday" although there are negatives in terms of having to make sure the cases aren't too heavy and not packing liquids in handluggage etc.

Why not fly next time ~ then you'll know which one you prefer.

 

[gdulka]

I'd always choose Eurostar - it's much more fun as you can admire the scenery and I simply love travelling by train. However, if the money was an issue and a flight was much cheaper, I'd go for flight.

Recently, I wanted to go to Glasgow by train but it was sth like 120 pounds return and I managed to book flights with Ryanair for 40! Nevertheless, you have to remember that flying takes more time - you have to get to the airport like 2 hours before your flight, then it can be delayed, then you slways queue for the luggage etc etc..

 

[DLPdaft]

I don't think that flying will save you any journey time - with Eurostar, you're straight into the Magic.

You'll still have the same problem with children on your knee too on the flight, and trying to entertain them all the time you're in the airport lounge after check-in too.

I fly, because I don't live anywhere near Eurostar. But if I lived near a direct Eurostar station, I'd prefer to take Eurostar.

Elaine