Newbie to DLP lots of questions

kelmac284

Lover of all things Disney since 1975
Joined
Jun 25, 2005
My daughter may have an opportunity to be an Au Pair this summer. If she does it we would be flying into Paris from the US probably a week before she is to report. I wanted to go to DLP and would love any and all info I could get. I was thinking that depending on when our flight would get in we would either take the train that same day to DLP and spend the night and do the park the next day or if it was too late stay in Paris the first night and then take the train in the next day. My question is how do you get the best deals. I know that they sell package deals with hotel and tickets but I was wondering if we would be better off with a "good neighbor" hotel or something else. I want to be close to the parks to go the next day etc and the train station. Would I be better buying the tickets and room separately or use their package? I like the idea of staying onsite but money is def an issue. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA!
 
I would recommend staying onsite. In addition to proximity, you'll get the Extra Magic Time in the morning when you get can a lot of stuff done. They have cheaper options (Cheyenne or Santa Fe; they are still close enough to walk or just take the resort bus).

For purchasing you have a couple options:
1) Get a package. If you do it online then that is pretty much your only option. The package will be the room plus park hopper tickets for the number of nights in your stay +1 (so you can go arrival day, departure day, and all days in between).
2) Get a room from a non-Disney vender (like Expedia or Hotels.com). Sometimes those can be cheaper. Then you can purchase tickets separately for the number of days you are planning. So, say you won't arrive until evening; the package would have given you a ticket for that day but you wouldn't have been able to use it. If you booked room and tickets separately then you can just get a 1-day ticket (and even can consider getting a 1-park vs a park hopper).

If you do go off-site, it's not the end of the world, just not as convenient and you don't get that Disney immersion. I wouldn't bother limiting to the Good Neighbor hotels, as it doesn't give you any extra benefits (I assume they just pay DLP so they appear on the website) - just go with whatever works for you in Val d'Europe. It's only a 1-stop train ride and some of the hotels even have complimentary shuttles.
 
There are 6 onsite hotels, all of which have access to early opening for all guests.

Disneyland Hotel
This is the premium priced deluxe hotel. It is located at the entrance to the main park. It is Victoriana themed

Hotel New York
This would be the premium price moderate hotel. It is located after Disney Village and is the nearest to Disney Village. It is themed as a Manhatten / New York building. It would be a 10 minute walk to the main park entrance OR you can take the free shuttle bus. This hotel is closing soon for refurb so check the dates.

Hotel Sequoia Lodge
This would be the moderate hotel. It is located after Disney Village, past Hotel New York and half way along Lake Disney. It is themed like a Californian Red Wood Forest, similar to the Grand Californian in Disneyland California. It would be a 15 minute walk to the park entrance OR you can take the free shuttle bus. The standard rooms are located in separate buildings called Lodges. The main building has the more expensive standard rooms and the Club Level. The swimming pool is located in a separate building.

Hotel NewPort Bay

This would be the moderate hotel. It is located after Disney Village, past Hotel New York and Sequoia Lodge, at the end of Lake Disney. It is themed like a Newport Bay Yacht Club. It would be a 20 minute walk to the park main entrance OR you can take the free shuttle bus. This is the largest hotel building. Some rooms can be a 15 minute walk from the main reception area where the restaurants and shop are located. It has a swimming pool.

Hotel Cheyenne
This would be the budget hotel. It is located after Disney Village and past Hotel New York. It is themed like Toy Story / Sherriff Woody, The Wild West. It would be a 20 minute walk to the main park entrance OR you can take the free shuttle bus, There is no swimming pool and the rooms are located in separate buildings

Hotel Santa Fe

This would be the budget hotel. It is located after Disney Village and past Hotel New York and then past Hotel Sequoia Lodge. It would be a 20 minute walk to the main park entrance OR you can take the free shuttle bus. There is no swimming pool and the rooms are located in separate buildings.

Partner Hotels
There are also 5 Partner Hotels. These are located on the far edge of Disney property. They are not walkable to to the parks, they have a free shuttle bus to the parks. As they are independent hotels, they dont have the Disney onsite perks of access to early opening or the shopping service.

  1. Hotel Kyraid
  2. Magic Circus
  3. Dream Castle
  4. Explorers
  5. B & B Hotel

some things you need to know about Disneyland Paris which are different to the American Parks

  1. You dont have to book using the website for your country. Disneyland Paris has different deals and offers on the different country websites. Most of us regulars would advise AGAINST booking with the American site as it is by far the most expensive
  2. The other country websites to check are
  3. http://www.disneylandparis.ie/
    http://www.disneylandparis.co.uk
    http://www.disneylandparis.fr
    http://www.disneylandparis.de
    http://www.disneylandparis.it
    http://www.disneylandparis.be
    http://www.disneylandparis.nl
  4. Disneyland Paris does not mail anything in the post. You get a confirmation email which you bring with you to checkin
  5. When you book direct with Disneyland Paris you are booking a hotel and park hopper tickets package
  6. Your park tickets are valid for both arrival day and departure day
  7. You can book direct with Disney through any of the websites. When you book through the website you will pay the full amount at the time of booking
  8. You can also book direct with Disney by phone. To call Disneyland Paris and not have to pay the international phone charges, just call the regular phone number for Walt Disney World in Florida and ask to be transferred to Disneyland Paris.
  9. When you book direct with Disney by phone you pay a 15% deposit and the balance is payable 30 or 60 days before arrivial, I cant remember which
  10. When you have booked you will get a confirmation email with your itinerary, you will need this email to check in
  11. Once you have your confirmation number you need to go to the website / country you booked with, not the country you live in. You will need to create a new MY DISNEY ACCOUNT on that website
  12. When you log in to your new My Disney Account you will see your itinerary. If you have a balance to pay you will see an online payment form.
  13. To pay your balance you can either phone again or pay online
  14. Restaurant ADR can only be booked over the phone. Just repeat step 8 and ask for Disneyland Paris Dining Reservations.
  15. Disneyland Paris Restaurant ADR open 60 days from arrival date
  16. Disneyland Paris does not have Magic Bands or Fatspass ++. The Fastpass are the paper ones which you get on the day at the machines beside the rides.
 
Wow thank you so much for all the info. That is very helpful. I guess my only other question would be how do you know which "other" country has the best deal. And if you book under say UK do you tell DLP that when you book?
 


Yes, you can try all the websites and see which deal they have, you'll have to determine for yourself which is best. Then when you call, you say you want to book the UK deal.
great thanks!
 
I would recommend staying onsite...... They have cheaper options (Cheyenne or Santa Fe; they are still close enough to walk or just take the resort bus).

For purchasing you have a couple options:
....
2) Get a room from a non-Disney vender (like Expedia or Hotels.com). Sometimes those can be cheaper. Then you can purchase tickets separately for the number of days you are planning. So, say you won't arrive until evening; the package would have given you a ticket for that day but you wouldn't have been able to use it. If you booked room and tickets separately then you can just get a 1-day ticket (and even can consider getting a 1-park vs a park hopper).

We did the above for a one night stay and then did one day in the parks the following morning taking advantage of early entry for onsite guests.

Got a good deal on the price to stay at Cheyenne (from Hotels.com). And we ordered our tickets from https://www.picniq.co.uk/ which we found had the cheapest tickets for a one day park hopper ticket.
 


We did the above for a one night stay and then did one day in the parks the following morning taking advantage of early entry for onsite guests.

Got a good deal on the price to stay at Cheyenne (from Hotels.com). And we ordered our tickets from https://www.picniq.co.uk/ which we found had the cheapest tickets for a one day park hopper ticket.
excellent. That is exactly what I was hoping to do. We are flying in from San Francisco so depending on when we arrive I was thinking we would either take the train over that day and spend the night and do the parks the next day or if it is too late get a room in paris that night and then head over in the morning. I just want to take one day and do a hopper because we are hoping to spend a few days in paris and then we have to take a 5 hour train to Toulouse to where my daughter will be staying.

Thanks so much!!
 
excellent. That is exactly what I was hoping to do. We are flying in from San Francisco so depending on when we arrive I was thinking we would either take the train over that day and spend the night and do the parks the next day or if it is too late get a room in paris that night and then head over in the morning. I just want to take one day and do a hopper because we are hoping to spend a few days in paris and then we have to take a 5 hour train to Toulouse to where my daughter will be staying.

Thanks so much!!

We basically did this as we were spending 8 days in Paris for a wedding but our first "days" were at Disney.

On day of arrival we had Cheyenne booked, so we went from the airport to Cheyenne, slept the night, and then checked out when we woke. Headed over to the parks for early entry. Then when we were done we went into Paris proper to checkin where we were staying for the rest of our trip. It just made things much more convenient than checking in somewhere in Paris, heading to DLP in the morning and then back again in the evening.

We were fortunate though because we had a rental car, so when we checked out we just put our luggage in the trunk early in the morning and stayed parked at Cheyenne until we were done at the parks and then drove back to Paris (it's a good 45 minutes from Paris to DLP and vice versa). If you're going by train from the airport to DLP, when you check out next morning you'll need to figure out what to do with your bags for the day. I'm guessing the hotel would have a secure bag check area to leave your bags for the day, but I'm not 100% sure so you may want to check on that bit.
 
I have taken your advice to check other sites like hotels.com for the disney hotels but they all say unavailable. Is this possibly because it is too early? Do they have rooms for June of 19 or do I need to wait till closer to the beginning of the year maybe?
 
I have taken your advice to check other sites like hotels.com for the disney hotels but they all say unavailable. Is this possibly because it is too early? Do they have rooms for June of 19 or do I need to wait till closer to the beginning of the year maybe?
Yes- I think you are too early. They seem to be opening about 6 months out.
 
are you going to see Paris as well?
Yes. Our plan is to go to DLP for 1 day and spend 3 days in paris then take the train to Toulouse and drop my daughter off and then my mom and other daughter and I will head to Barcelona and then back home.
 
My daughter may have an opportunity to be an Au Pair this summer. If she does it we would be flying into Paris from the US probably a week before she is to report. I wanted to go to DLP and would love any and all info I could get. I was thinking that depending on when our flight would get in we would either take the train that same day to DLP and spend the night and do the park the next day or if it was too late stay in Paris the first night and then take the train in the next day. My question is how do you get the best deals. I know that they sell package deals with hotel and tickets but I was wondering if we would be better off with a "good neighbor" hotel or something else. I want to be close to the parks to go the next day etc and the train station. Would I be better buying the tickets and room separately or use their package? I like the idea of staying onsite but money is def an issue. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA!
where are you staying in Paris?
 
If you're only going to DLP one day, I think I'd pick a hotel in Paris and go to DLP by RER, but not drag all your stuff around for just one day
Normally I prob would do that but I want to be there early to do the early entry at 8. I don't want to have to get up that early to ride in from Paris. The flight we are looking at gets into CDG at around 4 p.m. I figured we could take the train straight from CDG and get into disney that day and then go to bed early as we will be on US time. Then we would be right there to get up first thing the next day and do the full day in the parks. Then I was thinking about going back to Paris that evening but my mom wants to stay the 2nd night so we are not rushed and we would leave the morning of the 3rd day to go back to paris.
 
where are you staying in Paris?
Not sure yet. We are still working out all the details. Once we get everything worked out with the host family and get our air tickets bought and figure out the disney portion then we will look into the Paris part. I like the idea of an air bnb but my mom wants to stay in a hotel she stayed at years ago. We shall see.
 
I have taken your advice to check other sites like hotels.com for the disney hotels but they all say unavailable. Is this possibly because it is too early? Do they have rooms for June of 19 or do I need to wait till closer to the beginning of the year maybe?
I booked our June 2019 trip this past June, and was able to take advantage of the 4 nights for the price of 2 offer.
 
Wow thank you so much for all the info. That is very helpful. I guess my only other question would be how do you know which "other" country has the best deal. And if you book under say UK do you tell DLP that when you book?
Yes, it's allowed & they're fine with it. I'm American & booked over the phone. I told the agent I wanted the deal on the Irish website & he was happy to do that.
 

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