Adults First Trip to Paris and DLP - Feb 2018 Q's

[Off to Neverland 7]

Hello everyone!

I'm in the very beginning stages of planning for our February 2018 trip and my brain is spinning after reading the disney tourist blog and disboards forums. I've got a few questions and am hoping you DISers can help us

A little background: DH and I are traveling to Europe for work and are extending our stay to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary in Paris. This is our first trip to Paris and will have one week to explore - No kids, just DH and I. We travel 4-5 times a month for work, so we're pretty good with navigating new cities and cultures. We've been fortunate enough to visit WDW 5x, DCL 3x, DHK, Tokyo Disney and are in SoCal and frequent DCA several times a year. DLP is a bucket list trip and we don't plan on coming back anytime soon after this trip.

Our questions:

- we originally planned to stay onsite for only 2 nights/3 days but there's a deal offering 2 free nights so we can get 4 nights/5 days for the same price as 2 nights - would you do it? -- My concern: we would still want to explore the rest of Paris. We would split stay and stay the rest of our trip in the city. Is 4 nights at DLP and 3 nights in the city enough time to complete most of Paris' main attractions? Is 4 nights/5 days at DLP overkill?

- I've logged into a European DLP site as recommended in past posts, the price difference between Newport and Sequioa are $145. Would you make the jump to stay in Newport? Or save the money?

- half board? Full board? Or no board? - should we add on a meal plan or are we better off paying per meal?

- crowd levels in February- will it be a busy time?

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[Moliphino]

- we originally planned to stay onsite for only 2 nights/3 days but there's a deal offering 2 free nights so we can get 4 nights/5 days for the same price as 2 nights - would you do it? -- My concern: we would still want to explore the rest of Paris. We would split stay and stay the rest of our trip in the city. Is 4 nights at DLP and 3 nights in the city enough time to complete most of Paris' main attractions? Is 4 nights/5 days at DLP overkill?

We had the same deal this spring and I thought 4 park days was more than enough. We didn't end up using the 5th ticket day at all and took the train in to the city in the morning on the 5th day (didn't feel too guilty, as it was still a free night in the hotel). 3 park days would still give you plenty of time to do all of both parks. We had 4 days in the city and got a lot done, but nowhere near close to all of the main attractions. There's so much to do in Paris.

 

[olafLover]

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[zavandor]

Unless you get an offer with half board included, it's not a good value purchased out of pocket. You can easily spend 2 or 3 weeks in Paris alone, so it's up to you how much time you want to spend in the city and how much in the parks. If you book a 4 nights stay, that will probably cost not much more than 2 with the offer, you can go to the resort in the evening on the 4th day and spend one day more in Paris.

 

[Absimilliard]

Sequoia Lodge is my favorite of the DLP hotels and I would go with that one instead of the Newport. As for the 4 nights in DLP and 3 nights in Paris, figure that if you only do the park 3 days, you can ride the RER (suburb train) into town right from the doors of DLP. Also, you can go to Val d'Europe, one stop away, and check out the mall and attached outlet. No matter what you do, for a fun cultural shock, visit Auchan in the mall and you will be amazed at how different it is.

You're looking at 35-45 minutes each way by RER to Paris and the cheapest way to do is to avoid the tourist trap "Paris Visite" tickets. DLP station is "Marne La Vallee-Chessy-Parc Disneyland" and it is located in zone 5. Paris itself is zone 1, so a one day "Paris Visite" valid for zone 1-5 is 25.25 euros for a single day all the way up to 65.80 euros for 5 days. Instead, they sell, hidden in the ticket machines, a "Mobilis" ticket that cost 17.80 euros for a single day for zone 1-5. What does it do? Nearly the same exact thing as the Paris Visite train wise. One thing though: you cannot use it to go to and from Charles-De-Gaulle airport while the Paris Visite works there.

 

[Aurynn]

- crowd levels in February- will it be a busy time?

You may want to check the school holidays but we went in February 2015 and February/March this year and the crowd levels were fine. It does tend to be off-season so it's pretty good. One thing I would definitely recommend is bringing lots of warm layers in February.

I've never done a meal plan. They're only valid for quite a limited amount of restaurants and we prefer to have more flexibility as to what and how much we eat.

As for Sequoia vs Newport Bay I think it depends on the atmosphere you want. Sequoia has the wonderful Redwood bar with the huge fireplace which is sooooo lovely to chill at on a dark cold day. I do love the rooms at Newport Bay (haven't stayed in Sequoia since the refurb so can't comment on those).

 

[Chickkypoo]

We are going to DLP and Paris in May 2018. We booked the 2 nights free deal as it worked out cheaper than getting a hotel in Paris. It's about a 45 minute train ride into the city. I think we'll do 2 or 3 days in the parks, and split it up by heading to Paris in between days. Afterwards we are spending 4 nights in Paris as well.