Planning a trip to DLP is super overwhelming

[CookieandOatmeal]

My husband and I are thinking about taking a trip to DLP when we go to Germany for European pickup for his new BMW next summer. I am a pro at planning WDW trips but don't really know where to start with a DLP trip. We are from the US and I have visited the DLP official site. Since the car is being built to his specifications, we won't be alerted to when it is ready until a few months before so not a lot of advanced warning. Any helpful tips would be much appreciated as to what I should do to start my planning.

 

[DLPdaft]

DLP is not like WDW where you can get the best deals booking the year before - when you have your definite date when the BMW is ready, that will still be plenty of time to organise a great trip to DLP. When you know your dates, and if you want to stay onsite, you can check the UK, French and Irish versions of the official DLP site, they are cheaper than the US version, and you can use any country's website to book their price, regardless of which country you live in.

 

[OldSchoolReasons]

You also don't really have to worry about restaurant reservations, you can book them on arrival if you want or from the three month window (if you know that far in advance).
Fast passes are the paper kind so bonkers to worry about Magic Band style booking either.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Like PP have said, really no need to stress about visiting DLP. Even for a visit in peak season, 3 months out is perfectly ok to start the planning. For example I took my mum to DLP over Christmas, we arrived December 23 2013 and left December 27 2013. We booked the hotel, flights and park tickets package in September 2013, then in October I did the ADR.

The ADR is done by phone, and only really necessary if you are going at peak time. I did ADR for Blue Lagoon ( Blue Bayou in USA Parks) for December 26 as I knew it would be full capacity in the park that day. Most people either do the ADR the week before or when they arrive either at their hotel check in or at Town Hall.

If you are staying onsite you will get a paper Hotel Easy pass for access to EMH. Depending on which hotel and accommodation level, you may also get a Hotel Fast Pass, which again is paper.

The ride fast passes are the paper kind from the machines at the rides so no need to pre plan before your visit.

Like PP has said, check the different countries websites not just the USA website for different deals and offers. Disney do this as different countries want different types of vacations, for example, the French and German sites may have better offers for shorter stays and the UK and Irish may have better offers for longer stays.

The Irish website (in English ) www.disneylandparis.ie
The UK website (in English ) http://www.disneylandparis.co.uk/
The French website ( in French ) www.disneylandparis.fr

How to start planning
1. Wait until you know the dates you you can visit DLP

2. If you are just planning to do Disney and stay onsite, then 4 days is plenty for the 2 parks

3. Decide your budget

4. Once you have your budget, look at the hotels. The hotel prices are basically ranked for distance to the park. The Disneyland Hotel is the entrance to the park, The New York at the Disney Village (Downtown Disney) The Sequoia near The New York, New Port Bay near Sequoia and the Santa Fe,and Cheyanne, the budget choice, the furthest out from Disney Village.

5. Breakfast is included as standard in all the hotels. The standard breakfast is whats known as a continental buffet. This means a buffet with a selection of cold meat and cheese, cereals, toast,croissants, pastries, fruit juice, tea and coffee. Some of the hotels have a different breakfast depending on whether you are staying in the more expensive rooms

6.Disney really push the prepaid meal plans, but I have visited twice and prefer NOT to pay for the meal plans. For the meal plans you pay in advance and get vouchers for lunch and dinner for each day of your visit. The vouchers can only be redeemed at certain restaurants and there is usually a special menu for the meal plan vouchers at the restaurants. For me personally 2 full sit down meals in a day is too much, and I don't like to be tied to only eating in certain restaurants at a set time and from a limited menu. They seem to be better value and more use to families with children.

7. As a WDW pro you will be extremely surprised by the ease and compactness of DLP. Even the furtherest onsite hotels, the Chayenne and Santa Fe are only about 30 mins walk from the park entrance (although most people use the free shuttle buses) The two parks are beside each other and very close to Disney Village, very similar to Disneyland California. Most people park hop multiple times in the day.

8. There are a number of rides and attractions unique to DLP.
Pirates - is the original ride and has no film references, no Captain Jack
Haunted Mansion is Phantom Manor - similar but not the same and has a spooky graveyard called Boot Hill
The Castle - taller and different shape to WDW and DL, has an upstairs walk though and a dragon underneath
Indiana Jones - a roller-coaster similar to BTM
BTM - is on an island and has an underground part to get to the island
Main Street - has two covered arcades which are at the back of the shops. One of the arcades is the start of the hidden covered over walkway which goes through Adventureland down to the back of the park to Pirates and Peter Pan in FantasyLand
Crushs Coaster and the new ride Ratatouille in the studios

I know there is alot more but thats I can think of off hand

 

[LizardQueen8]

This is wonderful information! Thank you!

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

Thank you so much for all this information especially BadTinkPink! It really does decrease my disney planning anxiety as I'm so used to planning a whole year ahead with certain deadlines I have to keep in mind. Will it be any more difficult to book for July/August? Not sure when summer vacation is in Europe. I am super interested in staying at the Disneyland Hotel since I love the location of it. Does anyone have first hand experience with booking a room there? Is it as nice as it seems? (I've already checked out the DIS thread on it)

 

[BadPinkTink]

July and August is right in the school vacation season. Irish school holidays are June / July / August , UK school holidays are July / August and French school holidays are July / August

I would do a test booking this week on the different sites. You can check hotels and availability without having to put in credit card details. This will give you an idea for next year.

I haven't stayed in the Disneyland Hotel, waaaay outside my budget but I am a member of a European Disney forum and many members have stayed there. On all the trip reports there have been great reviews. The location is amazing, the general public entrance to the parks is through tunnels under the hotel!! In the top level suites which cost about €3000 per night, there is even a private walkway / corridor direct from the suites into the park via Mainstreet Train Station!!!

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

July and August is right in the school vacation season. Irish school holidays are June / July / August , UK school holidays are July / August and French school holidays are July / August

I haven't stayed in the Disneyland Hotel, waaaay outside my budget but I am a member of a European Disney forum and many members have stayed there. On all the trip reports there have been great reviews. The location is amazing, the general public entrance to the parks is through tunnels under the hotel!! In the top level suites which cost about €3000 per night, there is even a private walkway / corridor direct from the suites into the park via Mainstreet Train Station!!!

Thanks I will definitely put the dates in to get an idea. Unfortunately since I'm a teacher, I can only go in the summer so hopefully I can still get a room at the Disneyland Hotel for my time frame.

Yeah the location totally sold me. Since it may be a long time before I ever come back to DL Paris, I wanted to stay there to get the experience. Definitely saving my pennies for it!!

 

[cmpeter]

We are going this July. We opted for the Hotel NY, although the DL Hotel was high on my list, I couldn't justify the cost with some of our other plans in Europe for this vacation.

I did book my ADRs at 60 days out, just because I know it's going to be busy and I am an uber planner. I called DLP to book. But, on another tgread someone mentioned they were able to call the WDW reservation line and get transferred to DLP. I tried it with the CA DL line and they could not transfer me.

 

[cdsmiler81]

You seem to have your heart set on the DLH, but just to add a few bits for anyone else who may be looking at this:

Breakfasts at hotels - the differences for NORMAL rooms:

Cheyenne and Santa Fe - continental, no hot food, find your own table. (Can be a bit scrum like at peak times!)
Sequoia Lodge - continental, no hot food, you are given a table by a CM
Newport Bay - sorry, don't know the details!
Hotel New York - Continental PLUS some hot items (I believe this now includes pancakes?!), given a table.
Disneyland Hotel - Continental AND lots of hot items. Tea and coffee served at your table.

There are variations for 'special' rooms - Golden Forest rooms at the Sequoia Lodge for example, but there's been changes to these recently too so I'm not sure what the differences now are other than a smaller quieter more private experience.

With regards to the meal plans, I too have never had them, but I believe that although BadPinkTink is mostly right, you CAN use them for face value. (?) I'm sure someone who's used the newer meal tickets can advise a bit more on whether this is still the case and whether there's a restriction on which restaurants you can use them in....

Hope that helps a little too?

C x