Frustrations with planning - please help!

[tiffjoy]

I am about to give up on going to DLP because I am finding planning very overwhelming, and as someone who has been often to DLR and WDW, it's very frustrating to feel so lost.

Maybe someone can help! Lol

We are going to Europe next summer for 8 weeks, and we will be in France for about a week. We have been to Paris before, and are planning to spend 3 days there again. I thought we would add an additional day for DLP. My thought was to stay at a hotel on site for two nights and go to DLP for one day. July 14-16 2019 are the dates I was planning, with the 15 being our day at the parks.

Issues:

Cost. It seems like so much money! I am seeing that I need to spend around 2K, which is an awful lot of money for one day in the parks.

Hotels. We are budget hotel people when we visit the parks because we spend so little time at them. I would prefer to stay on site since the partner hotels involve a little more coordination (it seems) to get to the parks. We have two young kids, and I would like a room with two double beds. This doesn't seem to be something I can be assured of getting, and we could show up late on the night of the 14 and be given a room with one king bed for four people (those roll cots are always super uncomfortable and I would not be thrilled about getting one for the money we are paying for the room).

Tickets. It doesn't seem that I can change the number of days with packages like I can for Disneyland here (even though I would never do a package here, but I know you can edit that). I am being quoted 3 day tickets even though we are only going to the parks one day. I thought, well, we can go for a little while on our checkout day maybe, but still, I am being charged for 3 days when on our arrival day, we won't get there until after the parks are closed, so why do I have to purchase a ticket?

I'm ready to throw it in because no one in my family besides me is all the crazy about going anyway. My kids would be fine skipping it since we go to WDW and DLR so often here, but I really want them to experience this new park (and I know they would really enjoy it). But with how stressed it is making me, I am thinking that with all the other planning i have for the rest of the trip, it isn't worth it. Can anyone help? Am I completely missing something? (sorry if my tone is snippy- I am really just frustrated after hours of research)

Oh, and I have done the check different country's websites thing, too. Yes, there is definite price differences, but my overall issues remain.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Hey, I'm so sorry you are feeling so frustrated. Let me try to help somewhat, though I've only done one trip.

Cost. It seems like so much money! I am seeing that I need to spend around 2K, which is an awful lot of money for one day in the parks.

Hotels. We are budget hotel people when we visit the parks because we spend so little time at them. I would prefer to stay on site since the partner hotels involve a little more coordination (it seems) to get to the parks. We have two young kids, and I would like a room with two double beds. This doesn't seem to be something I can be assured of getting, and we could show up late on the night of the 14 and be given a room with one king bed for four people (those roll cots are always super uncomfortable and I would not be thrilled about getting one for the money we are paying for the room).

Tickets. It doesn't seem that I can change the number of days with packages like I can for Disneyland here (even though I would never do a package here, but I know you can edit that). I am being quoted 3 day tickets even though we are only going to the parks one day. I thought, well, we can go for a little while on our checkout day maybe, but still, I am being charged for 3 days when on our arrival day, we won't get there until after the parks are closed, so why do I have to purchase a ticket?

If you book via DLP websites, then you only get a package. That includes a ticket for arrival and departure day, so yes, all the rates you are searching for will include tickets you don't want. The best way I would recommend is to look at other hotel booking sites, like Hotels.com. They are able to get room-only reservations (I don't think any discounts will really apply though). Right now it looks like they haven't loaded July 2019 into their system yet.

You can also consider off-site in Val d'Europe. A lot of hotels there have shuttles to and from the parks (and there's also the train and Ubers). The biggest drawback would be not getting the extra magic time in the morning. But cost wise, could be significantly cheaper, while still being very close to the parks. And if you do a mid-week trip, with only 1 day ticket, it shouldn't be too bad (you can also consider if you really want to get a park hopper, as there is plenty to see and do in Disneyland Park without needing to visit the Studios)

For the hotel room, if you have 4 people on the reservation they will give you 2 beds. If you had only 2 people and wanted 2 beds, that's where you could possibly have issues, but I think 3 or more would automatically get 2 beds. The rooms are definitely smaller than US hotel rooms, but for such a short stay it should be fine.

I'm ready to throw it in because no one in my family besides me is all the crazy about going anyway. My kids would be fine skipping it since we go to WDW and DLR so often here, but I really want them to experience this new park (and I know they would really enjoy it). But with how stressed it is making me, I am thinking that with all the other planning i have for the rest of the trip, it isn't worth it. Can anyone help? Am I completely missing something? (sorry if my tone is snippy- I am really just frustrated after hours of research)

I understand feeling overwhelmed with planning! I truly did love Disneyland Park though. It was just so gorgeous and detailed. They spent I think, $5 billion on it, and it really shows. There are just wonderful places to explore and feel like you've really gone to a different place. Adventure Isle was just so great to get lost in all the caves. And I really liked all the actual rides too, many of which were better than their DLR/WDW counterparts!

But I think only you know if it really is worth it to you. You mentioned you have young kids. Will this actually give them a nice kid-friendly break from going to museums and other adult-centric places all over Europe? Will this be your only chance to see Disneyland Paris?

Good luck!

 

[Dumbo7]

I just came back in early July. I feel your pain about booking. It was so frustrating I ended up booking at the Marriott timeshare in ille de France. It wasn’t bad. We didn’t love Disneyland Paris. Maybe we would have liked it better had we stayed at one of the on-site properties. First your expectation should be it is much different than WDW. What are the ages of your children? We loved hyperspace mountain and would have loved to go on crushes coaster but the only way that can happen is if you get the extra hours!!

 

[Absimilliard]

Can you change your dates? July 14 is Bastille Day in France and the equivalent to July 4th in the US. Parks are very, very busy and expect hotel prices to be at the maximum.

Check for hotels in Val d'Europe and you can find something cheaper. I can get the Hotel Elysee in front of the Val d'Europe train station for 200$ US a night on your dates with a Hotels.com account. That is for a two double beds room so you would be fine with your family. You can then either ride a city bus or the train into Chessy-Marne La Vallee station where the parks are.

As Dumbo7 said, treat your day at DLP like a pre Fast Pass+ WDW visit. Since the parks are really close to each others, you can walk between both if you get a park hopper ticket, which I don't recommend if you only have one day.. Their version of Pirates of the Caribbean is light years better than WDW and Phantom Manor will have come back with new tricks by the time you visit. Their Big Thunder Mountain is also very impressive.

 

[Karin1984]

You are having one big dilemma: You are going in the busiest time of the year, like Absimilliard said, so staying on site would not only make sense for logistics, but also to get the extra magic hour which you could really use well on a day like this.
Another perk to stay onsite for the entire period would be to see the fireworks, which is always special on the 14th, even if you watch it from outside the park (without music that is) .

However, if money is an issue, or not having the option to select only 1 day passes with a package (have you tried to call?) I would suggest to stay in one of the partner hotels or stay in Paris and take the train, as the 15th is the middle day of your 3 day stay.

I would use https://www.trivago.com/, here you can select family rooms. And this site combines all kinds of hotel booking websites.

 

[Dumbo7]

I would do both parks. I think you will disappointed if you don’t.

 

[tiffjoy]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I will try to respond to each.

If you book via DLP websites, then you only get a package. That includes a ticket for arrival and departure day, so yes, all the rates you are searching for will include tickets you don't want. The best way I would recommend is to look at other hotel booking sites, like Hotels.com. They are able to get room-only reservations (I don't think any discounts will really apply though). Right now it looks like they haven't loaded July 2019 into their system yet.

Thank you! I will try that and search different months just to get an idea. Do you know how to purchase just a one day ticket without having to do it the day off at the parks?

You can also consider off-site in Val d'Europe. A lot of hotels there have shuttles to and from the parks (and there's also the train and Ubers). The biggest drawback would be not getting the extra magic time in the morning. But cost wise, could be significantly cheaper, while still being very close to the parks. And if you do a mid-week trip, with only 1 day ticket, it shouldn't be too bad (you can also consider if you really want to get a park hopper, as there is plenty to see and do in Disneyland Park without needing to visit the Studios)

I want to see the Ratatouille stuff, so we would be getting a park hopper specifically for that. I will look into those hotels. It definitely wasn't my preference with only one day to manage, but I also don't want to pay for two days of a ticket we won't be using.

For the hotel room, if you have 4 people on the reservation they will give you 2 beds. If you had only 2 people and wanted 2 beds, that's where you could possibly have issues, but I think 3 or more would automatically get 2 beds. The rooms are definitely smaller than US hotel rooms, but for such a short stay it should be fine.

Thanks! I'm not worried about size, just the number of beds. That's helpful to know.

You mentioned you have young kids. Will this actually give them a nice kid-friendly break from going to museums and other adult-centric places all over Europe? Will this be your only chance to see Disneyland Paris?

We travel often with our kids, including internationally, and most of our travel is inclusive of their wants and interests. They have specifically requested returning to Paris for a few days, and they already picked what they want to do there. Honestly? Disney is more for me, but I know they will have a blast as well. I'm not really concerned about them needing a break, exactly. We would be going just because we like Disney and would enjoy going. I don't know if we would be back or not- like I said, we travel a lot, but we have a billion places to see. Maybe yes, maybe no.

First your expectation should be it is much different than WDW. What are the ages of your children? We loved hyperspace mountain and would have loved to go on crushes coaster but the only way that can happen is if you get the extra hours!!

Disneyland is by far my favorite over WDW, so I'm good that it's not like WDW. I am going in with neutral expectations, especially considering how crowded it will be, and I am not one to compare Disney properties. If I did, Japan would win every time.

My kids will be 7 and 9. They don't like Space Mountain, although I do, but I'll skip it when we only have one day. We are fine skipping things that have longer lines and moving on.

Can you change your dates? July 14 is Bastille Day in France and the equivalent to July 4th in the US. Parks are very, very busy and expect hotel prices to be at the maximum.

Shoot! I knew that but forgot!

I have some flexibility, but not a ton. I could either rent the place in Paris longer and just pick a random day during the week that is NOT the 14 and go in from there (not my preferred option). We could also flop around our Paris dates with our Disneyland dates which would have us at Disneyland on July 18 (a Thursday). We would be still arriving in Paris on Bastille Day, though, by plane and needing to get into the city. Do you imagine this will be a problem??? I might try to look at adding a day earlier in our trip to push our arrival out one day but that will be hard.

But I will definitely be moving that date. I wouldn't go to DLR, which we are very familiar with, on July 4, so definitely don't want to do it there.

Check for hotels in Val d'Europe and you can find something cheaper. I can get the Hotel Elysee in front of the Val d'Europe train station for 200$ US a night on your dates with a Hotels.com account. That is for a two double beds room so you would be fine with your family. You can then either ride a city bus or the train into Chessy-Marne La Vallee station where the parks are.

Thanks! I'll check it out.

As Dumbo7 said, treat your day at DLP like a pre Fast Pass+ WDW visit. Since the parks are really close to each others, you can walk between both if you get a park hopper ticket, which I don't recommend if you only have one day.. Their version of Pirates of the Caribbean is light years better than WDW and Phantom Manor will have come back with new tricks by the time you visit. Their Big Thunder Mountain is also very impressive.

I want to see the Ratatouille ride, so that's why I plan for the hopper (that's the only thing in the other park we care about, so we don't need much time there). We are hoppers at DLR but not at WDW.

You are having one big dilemma: You are going in the busiest time of the year, like Absimilliard said, so staying on site would not only make sense for logistics, but also to get the extra magic hour which you could really use well on a day like this.

Yes, we realize this is the busy time, but with our kids in school, summer is the only time for my husband and I to take our sabbatical from work, which will be 2 months off. We have done DLR in the summer and at Christmas, so we understand crowds.

However, if money is an issue, or not having the option to select only 1 day passes with a package (have you tried to call?) I would suggest to stay in one of the partner hotels or stay in Paris and take the train, as the 15th is the middle day of your 3 day stay.

I have been emailing with a representative to try to figure this out, but they haven't answered back with my latest questions about how to get a one day ticket.

We will be in Paris July 14-19. We only wanted to go to DLR one day, and I wanted to stay on site, so I want it at either the front or the back end. But maybe on site won't be happening.

I would use https://www.trivago.com/, here you can select family rooms. And this site combines all kinds of hotel booking websites.

Thanks! I'll check it out.

I would do both parks. I think you will disappointed if you don’t.

I agree. We skipped Disneyland Tokyo (ETA- we only did Disney Sea) and regretted it even though we only had a day. And we didn't stay on site, which we also regretted and which is why I am trying to avoid that this time.

 

[Lesley Wake]

Thank you! I will try that and search different months just to get an idea. Do you know how to purchase just a one day ticket without having to do it the day off at the parks?

You can buy it online beforehand. And sometimes I think it's actually cheaper online, but I could be wrong. Even though I had a 4-night solo stay coming up at the end my family's France trip, I realized Hyperspace Mountain would be down for refurb on the exact days I'd be there, which was one of the rides I was most excited to see. I did some brainstorming and also realized I could probably sneak over to DL one morning while my family was still in Paris to ride Hyperspace, and also had the bonus of seeing the Princess & Pirates festival. Honestly some people (actually most people) would think I'm crazy for doing that, but I totally did not regret it! It cost me around $60 for a one-day one-park ticket because it was mid-week so "mini" prices were in effect. And I had a week long Navigo card, so the train was also covered (and was very easy to navigate).

 

[Karin1984]

What I would do, is change your dates of your stay to the end. Via Trivago I can get a room in Kyriad with 4 single beds for about 120$ a night 17-19 July 2019, incl breakfast, non refundable, and about 165$ incl breakfast a night if you want to be able to cancel till 24h before arrival. Kyriad is one of the cheapest neighbour hotels with a free shuttle between the parks (train station) and the hotel.

With July 14th, I would recommend to be in the city, as yes, DLP has special fireworks for that day, but in the city of Paris there will be fireworks as well and more events.

 

[olafLover]

.

 

[elena_n2o]

Hello!

Mid july is one of the busiest times, everyone's on holidays, and as mentioned above the fireworks in Paris for Bastille day are definitely better than the ones in Disney - though Bastille day is one of the few days of the year when they're allowed to use proper fireworks, and they do put on a good show. The main isssue I see with your dates is that weekends (even during the holidays) are busier, Saturdays particularly, so if you can move dates to go to the parks during the week it may be slightly quieter...

As already mentioned, the DLP packages include tickets for the full stay so it may not be your best option. Unless I'm wrong now all the Disney hotels have double beds, so for 4 people you will definitely get a room with 2 big beds. I'd be surprised if they gave you 2 cots (and they don't have big enough beds for 4 people...)

We now have APs and stay offsite most of the time, but what we used to do when we needed less park tickets than the package included was staying somewhere near and cheap for the night before, then go to one of the Disney hotels, check-in first thing in the morning, leave the bags, grab our tickets and get to the park gates by 8am. If you want to do both parks (and I think you should) in July I think 2 days is really the minimum (personally I'd do 3 days and 2 nights but then I can never get enough...). So you can do a package for 1 night and get parkhopper tickets for 2 days, and stay an extra night nearby...

Hope this helps!!

 

[TommyJK]

I'm going to be there next week for a one day w/park hopper.

I had done as several have noted above.

We bought our park tickets from here: https://www.picniq.co.uk/
- Decent discount over and above buying online from Disney's site. 4 one day park hopper tickets cost us 264 pounds (which is ~ $345 USD)

We booked on-site hotel on its own (Cheyene) through hotels.com for $375 CAD per night (which is about $287 USD per night)