Disneyland Paris (HowTo)
Fallone Favourite Disney Tips (Paris)
Jeni Fallone
26 June 2011
Getting there
Airport parking and hotel
Quality hotel at Edinburgh airport offers a good deal on overnight stay including dinner and parking – usually about 120.00 for a family room including dinner for all. Book this via quidco (www.quidco.com) using holiday extras and you can get cashback too – the food at the quality hotel is actually really good and if you have an early start is to be recommended. They do shuttle bus to the airport terminal and return.
Fly with Ryanair to Beauvais (much cheapness)
Beauvais airport is tiny and much less stressful to traverse with small children (Ryanair also do flights really cheaply from Edinburgh and very rarely are delayed – just pack light as they charge for suitcases). Some of the money that you save can be used for door to door drop off and pick up (again much less stressful and still cheaper than flying into CDG and getting the train or the Disney bus)
Approx cost: 190 GBP for 3 return flights including tax and luggage
Transport service
http://www.paris-blue-airport-shuttle.fr/index_en.php
Booked online (in English!) and can either pay with paypal in advance or pay on the day in Euros. We were met at arrivals in Beauvais and shuttled to our hotel in Val d’Europe in around 1 hour 15 minutes. The driver and Merc minibus were immaculate – inbound we were in with one other family, outbound there was just us but because we booked with ‘shared’ service it was still only the shared price that was paid. We asked for pickup approx 3.5 hour before our return flight and this left us loads of time at the airport and meant there was no fear about missing the flight on the way back although it did mean we had some time to kill at the tiny wee airport!)
They picked us up exactly on schedule for the return at the front reception of the hotel – again no stress, no dragging bags (you can see where my holiday priorities are) The added advantage is that if you are flying home later in the day – you can get the hotel to store your luggage on checkout, have the day in the park and then go back to hotel to be met by the driver. If flying in to CDG I would still recommend this service over the disney shuttle buses which are about 20 Euros per person each way and take ages! – of course if you feel flush you can take the bullet train (60 quid for a ten minute journey and not nearly as exciting as we thought it would be)
Cost: 161.5 euros for 3 of us return journey for shuttle bus
Where to Stay/Booking Accommodation
Escape the resort
The Disney hotels are fine (if you don’t mind sitting quietly in your room at night so not to wake the
children, eating lots of junk food and not seeing fresh fruit for a few days). We prefer to stay outwith the resort – you can also get to the park faster from Val D’Europe than from some of the other Disney hotels!
Staying outwith the resort has a number of other advantages -
• you can get suite accommodation that allows you to sit up and have a glass of wine once the children are in bed
• you can shop at the hypermarket and partake of the very cheap (albeit French) wine
• you can make packed lunches/suit yourselves more around food etc and just get some sanity/adult time away from the park.
• you can run to your own schedule
• free WiFi in your room
• can connect DVD player etc to tv if you want to watch movies etc (or hdmi connect with iPad…)
Having stayed at the resort several times before we were nervous about straying but now you couldn’t drag me back to the resort hotels!
Accommodation in Val D’Europe is great – it is one (2 minute) RER stop from the Disney station which is at the front door to the park. ALL trains stop at Val D’Europe and terminate at the park so there is no danger of getting on the wrong train and they come and go about every 5 minutes.
We have stayed in 2 different hotel/apartments in Val D’Europe – both booked via Quidco using expedia.co.uk (can sometimes get about 12% cashback!) and depending on the dates your are going – can work out super cheap for accommodation far superior to that available in the Disney hotels. Our favourite is the Relais Spa Chessy (photos) – 2 minute walk from the
RER station and very plush.
We have also stayed in Residhome Val D’Europe (back door to RER station is right outside the hotel door!) – they do some great free night special offers and the accommodation is clean but more basic than Relais Spa. We got our last 4 nights break for under £300.
Both the hotels offer suites – this means you get a sitting/livingroom area with sofa bed, a kitchenette with dishwasher, fridge, microwave hob etc (fully equipped) and a bedroom, (and of course shower(bathroom). On our last stay at Residhome, we were given a free upgrade at reception to a 2 bedroomed apartment which Sofia loved as she got her own room.
Expedia is currently offering 3 nights allowing for 4 days in break in Sept 2011 for a suite in Residhome for £250.00. Relais Spa is £400.00 for the same duration but offers appear and disappear. If you don’t intend to spend much time in the rooms, Residhome can be a great budget option – especially if you want to go for 2 bedrooms!(photos below)
Neither hotel has a swimming pool but to be honest – we didn’t miss it. The air-con in Relais seemed to be better than that in Residhome which is worth thinking about if you are going in summer. In either room – take a plastic card like a library card or something and put it in the slot inside the room instead of the room key – this lets you keep the aircon etc on while you are out all day so room is cool when you get back.
There are quite a few hotels offering suites in Val D’Europe and some slightly further out offer a free shuttle
bus to Disney – we opted to stay in the town though as it meant easy access to the hypermarket, la vallee village, sea life centre and food places.
There is a HUGE shopping centre a few moments walk from the hotels and in this is a hypermarket
which makes Tesco extra seem the size of the local Spar. We would stock up on drinks/snacks/packed lunch stuff (& of course wine) but get our breakfast croissants from the small baker next to the train station – warm pain au chocolate is most tasty.
What else is in Val D’Europe?
As well as being a 2 minute train from the parks, Val
D’Europe has some useful features http://www.valdeurope.com/en
Sea Life Centre (you can book tickets online more cheaply)
http://www.visitsealife.com/paris/en/
La Vallee Village – designer shopping (not my cup of tea but then I shop in George at Asda) - good for people watching and posh sweeties if you don’t like the clothes…
http://www.lavalleevillage.com/en/home/home
They run a shuttle bus to Disney so if you are shopping there and then want to go to the park-this could be a free transport option It is about a 10 minute walk from the RERstation to the village proper- we accessed it by cutting through the shopping center. There is a large food court and some outdoor restaurants next to the village and sea life center, while not particularly cheap, they are better value and tastier than Disney’s offerings..
Tickets and the Parks
RER Tickets
Tickets for the RER (train to Disney) can be purchased in multipacks often in the little machines at
the train station or if you arrive on a Sunday you can get a weekly pass (but only on Sundays!) we tended to use one for me and the buggy with Sofia and one for Mike – they are pretty cheap -I think about 7 Euro for ten (one needed each way). Of course sometimes we would all sneak through the buggy door conserving tickets – which seems to be the French way!
Although Sofia won’t normally entertain a buggy it is well worth taking one – she used it in Disney when her legs were tired and it is also useful for storing packed lunches etc. Ryanair will allow you 1 travel buggy without charging (wonders will never cease!) It is also good for hacking at the ankles of the rude french persons when they stand directly in front of your child at the parades..
Once or twice Sofia even had a nap in the buggy and we used the time to do parent swap on all the bg rides (remember to fast-pass them’ if possible – if not parent swap is a must)
Park Tickets
If you are only going for a couple of days and don’t intend to make repeat visits, then order your tickets online in advance e.g. from attraction tix – this can save you about 20%. (also check Quidco!) If you are going for 3-4 days or more or intend to visit again within a year buy the Passport Annuel.
Disney don’t hugely advertise this (is only in the French version of the Disney site – sneaky sneaky) but it can offer you great savings.
There are 2 levels – Fantasy or Dream. Both give you the ability to hop between both parks as often as you would like.
Fantasy is 139 euros – check before you go though as there are some restrictions on dates when it can be used (see below). We use these as dates to ‘avoid’ as they are likely to be holiday times in France so the park will be much busier…(shudder)
http://offres.disneylandparis.fr/passeport-annuel/non-adherents/index.xhtml
2011 :
les 24 et 25 avril les 3, 4 et 12 juin
les 2, 3, 15 et 16 juillet le 14 août
les 24 et 25 septembre
du 28 au 31 octobre inclus le 1er novembre
les 3, 4, 17 et 18 décembre, et du 27 au 30 décembre inclus
2012
les 24, 25 et 31 mars le 8 avril
les 18 et 27 mai
les 2, 16 et 30 juin le 1er juillet
les 22, 23, 29 et 30 septembre les 27, 28 et 31 octobre inclus
du 1er au 4 inclus et le 10 novembre
Les 1er, 8, 9 et du 29 au 31 décembre inclus
2013
le 1er janvier
les 30 et 31 mars le 1er avril
The Dream passport is 199 euros per adult and has no restricted access. Both the passports offer additional benefits though:
• 10% off in disney shops
• 10% off in disney food places (also works in Starbucks in disney village)
• reduction in ticket price for Buffalo Bill show
• can get other people inwith 10% discount
• money off Disney hotels (on the off chance you do want to stay in one)
The full list of benefits of each one is on the website (albeit in French but it is pretty obvious what most of them are)
To get a Passport Annuel – go to the main entrance and then go to the far right – there is an office for Passport Annuel – takes about ten minutes to go through the process, they take your picture, your money and give you a wee plastic card and thats you done. You will need some form of ID with you (passport recommended for speed). If your French is good you could do it online but we found it easier to do in person.
We purchased ours because it worked out to be the same price as a 4 day 2 park ticket (on special offer) and then have saved on food/drink in the park and then saved again as we had another Disney holiday we hadn’t planned to as all we then had to get was the flights and accommodation. well worthwhile.
In the Parks
If you have young children they will quickly establish their favourite rides which must be visited daily!!! (well it is a holiday) The Toy Story area in the studio park is great for young ones – it is worth going there first thing when the studios open – this way you can get the slinky dog, parachutes, cars etc out of the way with no queues. Parachutes especially can get busy but Sofia loved them so that was usually first port of call!
Try and make use of Fast-Pass where it is available – especially for the Peter Pan ride which children seem to love and is always hideously busy. Children under 3 are free to the park and therefore don’t require Fast-Pass tickets either. To allow Sofia 2 shots, we would both
get Peter Pan Fast-Pass then just one of us would go on with her, swap and then take her back on – that way she got 2 Peter Pan rides back to back!
The rides are generally quieter during the parades – worth noting as once you have seen the parades you can plan what you want to do at parade time.
Depending on what time of year you are there, some of the shows are pretty good – Mickeys Winter Wonderland show on ice is on in the Christmas season – Sofia LOVED it. The stunt show in the studio park is more for adults though – too noisy for tots!
Mondays and Tuesday (if not holidays) are the quieter days – Friday and Saturday can be a bit fraught although in holiday season, all days are likely to be busy. Be sure to take plenty of snacks and drinks in with you for hungry children/husbands or you will end up spending a fortune for substandard nutritionally questionable fayre.
If your child is under 3 (or small and looks under 3) be sure to point this out when eating in restaurants in the park as often children under 3 are free in the buffet style establishments but they will charge you unless you specifically state on entry that your child is under 3. (Again with the sneaky)
Think thats all! Enjoy – don’t rush too much, walk at your own pace, encourage your children to learn some french phrases – can get you much better treatment and sometimes (shock horror) even a smile from the staff! Also it is very cute to watch your children talking in french and looking confused when they don’t understand the answer they get.
Oh – and watch those data roaming charges if you are using one of the park apps on your phone. Try and sort out a deal before you go.
