A French Disney home for the holidays…. COMPLETED - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Dates: Thursday 13 – Monday 17 November Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (41) and DH Mark (49) Destinations: Disneyland Paris Resorts: Disneyland Hotel Meets: None Celebration: enjoying the holidays at a Disney park and an offer too good to pass up!
Ever since we were last at Disneyland Paris on our June 2013 visit, I’ve been wanting to go back this year for one reason, the new Ratatouille ride, called Ratatouille – The Adventure. As I write this, it’s April 2014, and the ride is due to open in the summer, so I don’t know all the details, but we do know it’s a dark ride using state-of-the-art 3D projections, and it will be a world exclusive ride. It’s opening in a new part of the Studios called La Place de Remy, and there will also be a new restaurant there called Le Bistrot Chez Remy. Now, depending on reviews when that opens, that could be one to add to our dining list…
As a result of this, I was keeping an eye out for deals at Disneyland Paris. Generally, most of the deals they do are no good for us, as they’re usually for children staying free and having free park tickets, but I started to notice some offers that would apply to us – stay two nights and get two nights free. There was a deal that had that, along with a massive reduction on half board (one main meal a day, either lunch or dinner) and I figured we’d go for that.
However, the deal expired just as I was about to book it. I couldn’t believe it! I figured that was it, but a couple of days after that, I happened to have another look for offers on the Disneyland Paris website, just in case I’d got the date wrong, and what did I find? Well, it turned out the deal for staying two nights and getting two nights free was still on, albeit for later dates. Ok, so there wasn’t a reduction on the half board meal plan, but it meant that Disneyland Paris was still a possibility…
I was originally looking at either staying at the Sequoia Lodge, which is similar in appearance to the Wilderness Lodge, or Hotel New York, which is a step up from the Sequoia Lodge, but neither of them were inspiring me. I did ask on the boards which one people would go for, and the votes came back in for Hotel New York, which was a bit more money…
For a while we didn’t do anything about it, as the deal was good until April, then I asked Mark one night about it and which hotel he’d like to go for out of the two of them. His response really surprised me. “How much would the Disneyland Hotel be?” Ok, I hadn’t even thought of that.
As a bit of background, that was where we stayed during our June 2010 visit. In those days, the price using Disney Vacation Club points was a lot more reasonable, and I figured it would be a one-off, as the prices for this place are seriously stupid! We are literally talking hundreds per night to stay here. We spoke to one guy during our stay who spent as much for a four night stay there as we pay for flights and Annual Passes for Florida!
Why does the Disneyland Hotel cost so much? Because it’s literally located right at the entrance to the Disneyland Park, with the Walt Disney Studios Park only a couple of minutes walk away. This compares to the Hotel New York, which is a good 10 minutes walk away from the park. You have to walk through the Disney Village to get to it, and the Sequoia Lodge is even further away still. You can see why it’s so highly priced.
So how much more was it? It was about £300 (about $500) for the whole stay. Now I know you’re probably thinking that’s a lot of money, but you need to bear in mind that Disneyland Paris packages include length of stay park passes. It worked out to £275 ($440) per night, which I didn’t think was bad for a hotel that’s essentially on a par with the Grand Floridian, and with park passes included.
We went ahead and booked it, and then just needed to sort out our travel. I had originally looked at booking the Eurostar train direct with Disneyland Paris, but when I plugged in our dates and checked prices, it turned out I could get them a lot cheaper if I went directly through Eurostar, so that’s what I did. By the time we got around to booking, the seats were more expensive than the original price I got, so we decided to treat ourselves, and get Standard Premier on the journey home. We’d done that on our trip over to Paris in March and really enjoyed it, but decided that in the future, if we did it again, we’d do it as a return journey, as it’s easier to upgrade for a return journey, but harder to downgrade…
Well, it’s been a long time since those original plans were made, and since then I’ve looked into whether it’s worth getting the Parisian version of the dining plan for our stay, and the simple answer is it isn’t. It will only save up to a maximum of 10%, and that’s only if you go for the most expensive meals on offer. I really can’t be bothered with that for such a small saving, so we’ve decided not to bother. At the end of the day, it’s only four days, so I’m sure we can manage with the expense while we’re out there.
The park hours are now out, which allows me to do a bit more planning, just as well as that means deciding which of the dining options at Disneyland Paris we’re going to indulge in!
So, with it now just being a few weeks before our trip – what are our plans?
Well, eyes down – here goes…
Thursday 13 November
We leave England in the morning on the Eurostar train and arrive in Disneyland Paris at 2:00pm, so we’ll probably grab lunch on the train. We’ll then check into the Disneyland Hotel, which is conveniently right by the station and then hopefully get our room before heading out to the parks, as the Disneyland Park is open until 7:00pm, and the Studios Park is open until 6:00pm.
My hope is to see the Disney Christmas Parade in the Disneyland Park, which I think will be 5:30pm. In case you’re wondering why I don’t know, the reason is simple. Disneyland Paris don’t publish parade/firework timetables as far out as Walt Disney World. They usually have a programme available that’s for around 10 days or two weeks, so you can make some assumptions on what’s usual and that’s what I’m doing here, but you won’t know for sure until a few days before you go, which is a bit frustrating, but that’s the way they do things.
Again, guessing here, but Disney Dreams, their night-time show is usually on at park closing, and tonight that’s at 7:00pm, so fingers crossed, we’ll be able to see that, then wander back to our hotel, where we’re booked for dinner at the Inventions buffet, with the Disney characters. We really enjoyed our dinner there in June 2010, so hopefully it will still be just as good.
Friday 14 November
Today the plan is to get breakfast, which is included with our stay, then head into the Walt Disney Studios Park, as that’s where Extra Magic Hours are. The park opens at 8:00am for two hours. I’d really like to do the new Ratatouille: The Adventure ride during those two hours, but I’m under no illusion, because I’ve read in various places that it doesn’t open for Extra Magic Hours. To me, that’s nuts, as it’s the newest ride, but who knows with Disney? Equally, their not overly helpful website doesn’t actually tell me which rides are included in Extra Magic Hours, so there’s no way of knowing for sure. At least if we’re there early, we can hopefully ride it as soon as the park opens to the public, as that’s one of the main reasons for going.
After that, we have no real plans, although I may enquire about guided tours for this day. Again, you can’t get much information online, as they tell you to go to guest services on the day you arrive to “check the language options for the next few days and, if they suit, book your tour there and then”. Oh yes, folks this is very different to Disney World! I don’t even know how much they cost, as that information isn’t on the website!
The options are either the Disneyland Paris guided tour, which lasts two hours and leaves from City Hall at 1:00pm or 4:00pm and the Walt Disney studio tour, which is an hour and a half and departs from Studio Services at 4:00pm. We’ll just play it by ear when we get there and see what happens with those…
At 3:45pm, we’ll head to Walt’s An American Restaurant in the Disneyland Park for a late lunch. I was hoping to get dinner here, having eaten here twice before for dinner and loved it both times, but when I called up to book, I was told there was only lunch available for the whole of our stay, which was a bit odd. I couldn’t work out from the Cast Member I spoke to whether it was fully booked or whether it was closed for dinner, and as her English wasn’t 100%, I didn’t think it was worth getting into a debate about it. It’s a shame, but at least we get to eat there, and we can always grab a snack later on if we need one.
Saturday 15 November
Today I’m not sure whether we’ll head into the parks or not. The hours are now quite long, with the Disneyland Park closing at 10:00pm, so I guess that could mean large crowds. I figure I’d rather try and do things on the weekdays we’re there, rather than the weekends. So we may go in, we may not. If we don’t, then we could go to the Sea Life Aquarium at nearby Val d’Europe, as we’ve never done that, and then there’s the Chateau de Vincennes, which we haven’t visited either and is a fairly easy reach from Disneyland Paris.
Whatever we do, we’ll need to be back at the Walt Disney Studios Park by 5:00pm, as that’s when we’ve got dinner booked at Bistrot Chez Remy, the new restaurant that’s opened as part of the expansion of the park to include a Ratatouille area. I’m really looking forward to sampling a new restaurant at Disneyland Paris, although if I’m honest, the selection isn’t that great, so hopefully Chez Remy will be a good addition to the park line-up…
Sunday 16 November
This is definitely a day away from the parks, as we’ve got a three hour Segway tour of Paris booked at 2:00pm. We’ll spend the day in the city, as I’d like to visit the Conciergerie and the Musee National du Moyen Age beforehand if we can.
We’ve got dinner booked at the Steakhouse in the Disney Village that night at 7:30pm, yet another new place to try. Now I know that it’s a bit weird for a non-meat eater to be going to somewhere that’s called the Steakhouse, but I had a look at the various menus, and this was the one that appealed the most to me. Again, I don’t know if we’ll go into the parks or not, as I suspect they’ll be crowded again, with the same opening hours at yesterday. If we haven’t seen everything we want, maybe we will, but we’ll just have to see…
Monday 17 November
It’s our final day at Disneyland Paris, so we’ll definitely head into the parks this morning to make the best of our remaining time here. Which park will depend on where we still have things we want to do. I suspect we’ll probably have a later start, as no doubt we’ll want to make the best of the final morning in our room.
Our train doesn’t leave until the evening and, with the hour’s time difference, we’ll be back an hour and 20 minutes later, although of course the journey will be an hour longer. Confused yet? We decided to opt for standard premier class on the way back, as it didn’t cost that much more than standard class, so we’ll get a dinner included on our journey, and it will be a nice way to finish up our time away.
So there you have it, all our plans for our French Disney home for the holidays….
Ooooo, that trips sounds wonderful - wish I was going in your stead I hope you have a fantastic time! I'm looking forward to your photos.
As an aside: Have you checked the current programme? They usually put which attractions are open for EMH on there (somewhere towards the bottom if I remember correctly).
Ooooo, that trips sounds wonderful - wish I was going in your stead I hope you have a fantastic time! I'm looking forward to your photos.
As an aside: Have you checked the current programme? They usually put which attractions are open for EMH on there (somewhere towards the bottom if I remember correctly).
I've got the current programme, but if it's on there, I can't see it anywhere. I guess it'll be a fun surprise for when we get there, although when it comes to Disney vacations, I have to confess I don't like surprises...
Well, we've made it to Disneyland Paris and our room in the Disneyland Hotel is beautiful. We were told on reception that they often give it to VIPs, as apparently it's one of very few king size rooms they have - makes sense, as they are generally catering to families here. Nice smooth journey here, although there were a few hiccups before we got on the train...
Heading into the parks shortly, so we can use today's hotel Fastpasses!
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This all sounds lovely! The lack of planning knowledge would likely make me a little nuts. But it's a different frame of mind to just roll with it.... just have to adjust mentally!
Glad you've arrived and you're already getting VIP treatment.
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Tanya
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I couldn’t believe it! I figured that was it, but a couple of days after that, I happened to have another look for offers on the Disneyland Paris website, just in case I’d got the date wrong, and what did I find? Well, it turned out the deal for staying two nights and getting two nights free was still on, albeit for later dates. Ok, so there wasn’t a reduction on the half board meal plan, but it meant that Disneyland Paris was still a possibility… 
At least if we’re there early, we can hopefully ride it as soon as the park opens to the public, as that’s one of the main reasons for going. 
It’s a shame, but at least we get to eat there, and we can always grab a snack later on if we need one. 
I figure I’d rather try and do things on the weekdays we’re there, rather than the weekends. So we may go in, we may not. If we don’t, then we could go to the Sea Life Aquarium at nearby Val d’Europe, as we’ve never done that, and then there’s the Chateau de Vincennes, which we haven’t visited either and is a fairly easy reach from Disneyland Paris. 
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I hope you have a fantastic time! I'm looking forward to your photos. 
I guess it'll be a fun surprise for when we get there, although when it comes to Disney vacations, I have to confess I don't like surprises...
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