Planning for Paris and DLP, April/May or November 2022 - Come on in and lets all plan our trips together

[LovesTimone]

When you get to Paris go I to a store in Val D Europe ( mall one exit from Disney). Buy a coat and now you have a vacation coat.

I don't agree with your friends advice of a n airport hotel u less you have a late arriving flight or early morning flight. Too much moving around.

DH and I just talked about this yesterday... the staying at a airport hotel.... We have several scenario's for which this would work out... If we can get later arrival time, and leave a day early then for sure we would opt for the airport hotel, and get to Paris a day early would be great... Of course that is a wait and see kinda thing...

 

[wishing4PA]

I keep looking at August, wondering if an August trip actually could happen ... or how much of a hassle changing air and getting refunds for hotels, packages, etc. would be. And I have the opposite approach to LovesTimone, in that I keep wishing for a day less on the flights, meaning one fewer day I have to figure out where to stay and what to do on in Paris, b/c there's no way I'm booking a full week at Disney Paris for 2 parks. But the 7 day airfare is cheaper than 5 or 6 days for what I already see as a slightly overpriced flight. I know, the airlines are trying to cover costs plus make up for the lost year, but I'd like to have my Tokyo ticket vouchers come a bit closer to the cost of Paris flights, otherwise I might have booked already.

Well, that's me rambling, as every day lately I've been trying to decide if it's worth trying to book for August before school starts. For Paris, the parks don't seem to care where I live, but who knows for sure if France really will be open. OTOH, I'm reasonably sure that California will be open to me by August, but not sure about DL or DCA. So I keep looking at those 2 options ... with "option 3" being to just hang onto the voucher and do nothing until maybe Christmas break, at which point I'd be trying to second-guess Japan's future re-opening.

LovesTimone, if you don't have anything against used clothing, maybe try a consignment or thrift shop for a coat? Many of those folks that moved down from "up North" came down with coats, I'm sure. Now, some of them may have done what I did, and hung onto their coats not planning to be in southern temps forever. I'm likely to have outgrown all my winter wear before I ever get a chance to wear it again. And the less hardy folks will wear their sub-zero temp coats when it drops into the 60s, but there might be some former northerners who put their gently worn warm stuff out for consignment while it's still relatively new. Or FT Floridians could have bought for one trip and decided they'd never need it again.

 

[carolinadj]

We are planning our trip for the first part of June. I’ll follow along in this thread to get some tips and ideas.

 

[wishing4PA]

Well, I'm off the DLP thread for now.
I finally decided that for August I was more comfortable taking chances with California's DL and COVID and government situation than France's. The "vaccine passport" type idea sounds great, but I didn't want to have to navigate all that in just over 2 months.
One thing I really liked about DLP was they didn't have the park reservation system, their resort packages guaranteed park entry iirc. And if I'd booked 3 nights at Cheyenne and 3 budget/moderate hotels in Paris or near CDG, the cost was going to run me about the same as my DL 4 nights (3 offsite across the street and 1 at a Disney Resort.)
After all my research, though, I now know at least a few basics about Paris, which I'd been woefully ignorant of until a month ago. So I'm more comfortable planning a trip to visit in more normal days.
Have fun guys!
Come to think of it, I might have to stick around just to hear about some of your trips!
TDR might come before DLP for me, but hopefully one day I get to both of them!

 

[carolinadj]

I went “Disney crazy” post-vaccine. Not being able to see Mickey for over a year, I plunged into planning trips to WDW, DL, and DLP plus an ABD. I may be going a little overboard, but I’m not getting any younger. The pandemic made me realize time is fleeting so I need to live while I can!

 

[diberry]

Hi! We are planning a family trip (9 of us) in April 2022. Can anyone tell me when bookings will be open for Davy Crockett Ranch, please?

 

[FrannyFrogs]

We are planning our first trip to Paris and DLP for late June 2022! I'm most excited to see the dragon lol. And, my kid can try out her high school French!

 

[Karin1984]

Hi! We are planning a family trip (9 of us) in April 2022. Can anyone tell me when bookings will be open for Davy Crockett Ranch, please?

I would say next month. You can now make reservations up to 30 MAR 22.

 

[diberry]

I would say next month. You can now make reservations up to 30 MAR 22.

Thank you.

 

[diberry]

Thank you.

Tried to phone today but the line went dead twice. It looks like you can only book up to 3 days online but we plan to go for 6 days. Am I missing something?

 

[Karin1984]

Tried to phone today but the line went dead twice. It looks like you can only book up to 3 days online but we plan to go for 6 days. Am I missing something?

What are you trying to book, tickets only, or a package?
Tickets are max 4 days, so you would need to book 2x3 or 1x4, 1x2 days.
If you book a package you should be able to get tickets for all days of your stay, including arrival and departure day.

Are you looking at the AP requirements? AP holders can only book 3 days at a time during covid restrictions.

When booking packages online, always change the website to different countries to find different offers. US / Canada website usually has the most expensive offers.

 

[diberry]

What are you trying to book, tickets only, or a package?
Tickets are max 4 days, so you would need to book 2x3 or 1x4, 1x2 days.
If you book a package you should be able to get tickets for all days of your stay, including arrival and departure day.

Are you looking at the AP requirements? AP holders can only book 3 days at a time during covid restrictions.

When booking packages online, always change the website to different countries to find different offers. US / Canada website usually has the most expensive offers.

We want to book a package and are not AP holders.
Thank you for your advice re: different countries.
Which website do you use? I've been looking at the DLP site which has very little on offer.

 

[Karin1984]

I'm in the Netherlands so my default settings are using NL. I could book 8 days Davy Crocket Ranch with same amount of tickets.
There is not a lot on offer at the moment. Probably due to covid and not all hotels will open in the coming weeks. If your visit is far in the future, I would suggest wait to see if there will be offers later.

 

[diberry]

I'm in the Netherlands so my default settings are using NL. I could book 8 days Davy Crocket Ranch with same amount of tickets.
There is not a lot on offer at the moment. Probably due to covid and not all hotels will open in the coming weeks. If your visit is far in the future, I would suggest wait to see if there will be offers later.

Ok. Thank you very much.

 

[Boardwalk_bride]

Joining in - planning for early July 2022. I’ll already be in the Netherlands for work so I’ll be flying (or train) over to meet my family. My daughter will be finished her first year of French immersion so she can see French in action (although not sure how much they learn in kindergarten)!
We are planning a Paris, DLP, Alsace trip - between 10-13 nights.

 

[LovesTimone]

OP here... So we have decided on May...

Here's a list of things that I have to check on before we settle on exact dates..

Air and Transportation strikes... dates...? We already had a experience with them adding on a extra strike day last trip to France with Air, which came 30 hours before we were to leave.... nightmare to say the least.... Plus all the train where shut down which really did not effect us transportation wise...

School Holidays or breaks...

National Holidays - we were in Paris on the French Labor day and everything was shut down, and it really was kinda a wasted day... so this is something that I really want to avoid...

Dealing with air fare... we have a credit with Delta due to the shut down last year, and how to use this to our advantage..

Hotels are slowly... really slowly opening up... and looking for a much better rate than what I am seeing right now. So I will be seeing what kinda hotel deals our credit cards are offering, and hotel points and such can be maximized...
The hotel we stayed at before the rate is doubled at least if not more...so once more hotels open up we are hoping that this nonsense of double or tripling rates will stop, and hotel cost in Paris was outrageous to begin with...

I went back over my trip report from our first trip, and wow it really jogged my memory, and got me excited, and in gear to start planning for next year... here's a link if you are interested...

https://www.disboards.com/threads/f...ris-and-dlp-adventure-completed-7-10.3681409/

I broke out a new note book to get started... LOL

Let the planning begin...

 

[ZehnJahren]

I decided to jump in here, even though we aren't going until April or early May of 2023! Reading through is getting my mind in gear to set the trip up! We have a timeshare with 2 bedrooms on the train line by Disney Paris so we'll stay there, and after a few days at DLP we'll be heading to Germany to visit friends and the city I lived in during part of my undergrad.

I cannot WAIT to take my daughter to meet my friend and her family, and my friend said that she thinks they can come meet us in Paris and all of us can go to DLP together!!! She speaks French, so that could be helpful. I only speak English and German and some Spanish - so having a fluent speaker would be helpful. Anyway, we are already looking forward to the trip, and I'm enjoying reading all this info! I'll be lurking!

 

[Karin1984]

I cannot WAIT to take my daughter to meet my friend and her family, and my friend said that she thinks they can come meet us in Paris and all of us can go to DLP together!!! She speaks French, so that could be helpful. I only speak English and German and some Spanish - so having a fluent speaker would be helpful. Anyway, we are already looking forward to the trip, and I'm enjoying reading all this info! I'll be lurking!

You don't have to worry about not speaking French. The park is fully bilingual. Announcements & Menus are at least in French and English.
When the park is fully operating, announcements and park maps are available in at least 6 languages, French, English, Spanish, Dutch, German and Italian. And I think they have maps also in Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese.

Shows are usually build up with a lot of repeats, Mickey says something in French, Minnie answers in English.
Mickey: "Bienvenue à tous!"
Minnie: "Oh yes, welcome everybody!"
The conversations are build in a way that most guests can understand the plotline.

Ten years ago it could happen that you encountered a CM who only spoke French, those moments were rare, and now extremely rare.
At least for the CMs that have to interact with guests, with the cleaners it can sometimes happen they speak limited English.

CMs at hotels and at Guest services usually wear flag pins to indicate which languages they speak.

 

[LovesTimone]

I decided to jump in here, even though we aren't going until April or early May of 2023! Reading through is getting my mind in gear to set the trip up! We have a timeshare with 2 bedrooms on the train line by Disney Paris so we'll stay there, and after a few days at DLP we'll be heading to Germany to visit friends and the city I lived in during part of my undergrad.

I cannot WAIT to take my daughter to meet my friend and her family, and my friend said that she thinks they can come meet us in Paris and all of us can go to DLP together!!! She speaks French, so that could be helpful. I only speak English and German and some Spanish - so having a fluent speaker would be helpful. Anyway, we are already looking forward to the trip, and I'm enjoying reading all this info! I'll be lurking!

Welcome aboard...

In Paris a lot of people speak English, yet you should learn a few phrases, and words to help you as well. Like... Please/ Thank you/ where is the restroom/ may I have the bill please/ how much. We went into a shop and greeted the owner in French, Bonjour Madam and after shopping around, I was asking how much, and she replied... English, - Oui - I said, American? Oui I said - and she started speaking English, enough to where could communicate, Her husband came out and started talking to us, and he said American? Oui, and he said you don't look American, and you don't act American. We spent about 30 minutes just talking to them. I wanted to ask why we didn't "look American" , then decided against it... We ended up buying a few things and they both were so nice, giving us a few tips on restaurants, to which they were on point on both places... Delicious meals... she said begin in French, and you will find more help. So that's what we did and she was right!


DLP- pretty much all the CM's speak some level of English, some much better, some just getting their feet wet. We found that alot of the times, they want to practice or ask what for the word in English, more conversational style way of speaking. We stayed at Newport Bay, and every morning in the club, these two lovely young women would make it a point to stop and practice with us. So we traded, They helped me with my French, and us with their English... One of them wanting to come to America to work at WDW... she said she had to reach a certain level before she could even be interview. The other young woman was wanting to go to work on the Disney Cruise line, she said she had gotten the interview. I hope they both got their wish.

 

[ZehnJahren]

When I was living in Germany, I often heard that my German was spoken with a French accent, haha! Most Germans thought I was French.
I figured I'd pick up a few phrases and hope for German / English speakers when I couldn't be understood. That's great to hear it will be appreciated - I can definitely pick up enough French in time to get us around but no chance I'll have any nuance!

I am so excited to head back to Europe and take my family with. I lived just a few hours away from Paris by train, but never got the chance to go because I was too busy with studies, and also poor.