For Christmas my wonderful boyfriend gave me the best gift ever...a trip to Disneyland Paris. I am a huge Disney and Disney Parks nerd and this will be my 8th visit to the parks. However it will be his very first time so we wanted to get the best deal we could. I kind of knew what I what I wanted from the trip but as for him, not a clue, just convincing him that it will be fun and her will enjoy it as a non Disney fan has been hard enough. However as we discussed it and decided together where to stay, and after watching an extensive amount of DLP YouTube videos (that I may have forced upon him) the excitement has definitely grown. We are now two weeks away from our trip so I thought I would share how and what we booked and hopefully you may find something helpful here.
There are many ways in which to book a Disneyland Paris trip and mostly how you book depends on what type of budget you have. Based on the budget we had I narrowed it down to two options, booking through Expedia and booking with Disneyland Paris direct.
The next decision that needs to be made, that also depends on your budget is whether or not to stay on Disney property. Just like Disney World in Orlando, Disneyland Paris has some great partner hotels as well as other non Disney hotels near by, so don't be put off taking a trip if the hotels offered by Disney are out of your price range. The first trip I took to DLP I stayed in the Radisson Blu Resort near by, the price was very reasonable, the hotel was beautiful and they offered a free shuttle bus to the park. So my advice here is shop around, there are many different options when it comes to where you stay.
So after weighing up all of our options for our budget we decided to take advantage of the deals Disneyland Paris were offering and book direct through their website and therefore stay in a Disney hotel. This was a first for me as every other time I have visited the parks I have stayed off property and booked through other sites. As this was a first for me I thought I would share what this involved.
As I mentioned before we took advantage of a package deal that Disneyland were offering, which was money off the hotel and free half board dining. Overall booking the package was the best deal for us and here is what was included:
- Return flights from Newcastle-UK to Charles de Gaulle - Paris, France with AirFrance
- 3 nights at the Sequoia Lodge Hotel at Disneyland Paris in a Montana Room
- 4 day Park tickets for both Disneyland and Hollywood Studios
- Half Board dining plan
- Extra Magic Hours
EXTRA: We also added airport transfers via the Magic Express buses that Disney offers.
TIP: To anyone looking to take a trip to DLP in a small group I would highly recommend booking on the Disney bus from the airport, whether you are staying at a Disney hotel or not. The bus can drop you off at the park entrance as well as the hotels. Speaking from experience this saves you so much money on taxi transfers.
After much research we finally settled on Disney's Sequoia Lodge for our stay. The selling point for us was that it is in walking distance to the park entrance, located just across the lake from the Disney Village, it is about a 15 minute walk to the park entrance. They also offer a free shuttle bus to the parks just as all Disney hotels do.
Disney's Sequoia Lodge is themed based on America's national parks and is in the style of a forest lodge. It has an indoor and an outdoor pool, 2 restaurants and a bar. I have never stayed at this hotel before so I don't have much to say about as of yet (there will be a review to come after my trip) but from what I have heard it is a great place to stay.
By choosing to stay here there were a few perks that come with it. First is Extra Magic Hours, which allows us access to the Disneyland park 2 hours early. Secondly is the free half board dining that came with our package deal. I will go into this in more detail below but this was a huge selling point for us as food at the parks can get quite pricey and because we are staying at this particular hotel we are upgraded to half board plus rather than the typical standard offer.
As part of the package we booked we received free half board dining. As this is my first time staying on Disney property I have never used the dining plan before, but I have heard nothing but good things, especially about the money it saves you. In case you didn't know eating at Disney is not cheap no matter what part of the world you are in. Also because we are staying in Sequoia Lodge (which I believe is the equivalent to a moderate priced hotel in Orlando) we were upgraded to half board plus.
When I first started looking at this it was all a little confusing, trying to figure out what was included in this, where we could eat, and how the vouchers worked. To be honest I am still not 100% certain that I have it all figured out, but with a lot of help from dlpguide.com I have a better idea.
So here is what I understand so far:
So here is what I understand so far:
- We get a voucher for breakfast that we can use at the hotel or a counter service breakfast in the park.
- We get a voucher for an evening meal that includes most buffet restaurants and a select few table service.
- We can exchange our vouchers for the cash value if we want to eat in a restaurant that is classed above our plan.
The next step is making our reservations which I will be doing in the next few days.
This is mainly a breakdown of how we booked our stay, obviously there are many different ways to book that are suited to different budgets and different needs. This is my first time booking this way so a review of how it all went will be coming after I get back on May 14th.
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