EuroDisney - Dream Castle or Disney Hotel? Or other? Help pls.

[mumonahottinroof]

I'm taking dcs (I hope) to Eurodisney soon. I've been looking at hotels/deals and would love to take them to the Disney Hotel but it is £££]

Dream Castle seems to offer similar but further away. My question is a) how much do the shuttle buses impact on the experience and b) it's not clear to me if Dream Castle includes entrance to the park in its price, which would bump it up quite a bit I imagine.

I would have been keen on Newport Bay but it's booked, as is New York for the dates we can do.

So either persuade me to spend another grand on Disney or to compromise with Dream Castle.

Dh wants to do it in one night (arriving previous afternoon and leaving following evening). I'd prefer to stay for two. What do you think?

Thanks

No idea what Dream Castle is like, but have stayed at the Disney Hotel. my daughter loved that the characters were wandering around so she could go up and meet them. They didn't seem to just stick to meal times. We also liked that if the park got busy it was a quick walk back to the hotel for a swim and a quick walk to the park again. You also got early entry to the park. We went in at 8 with very few crowds, came back to the hotel for a late breakfast and then went back to the park as the entrance is at the side of the hotel.

forgot to add, you need at least 2 nights as you have the studios to go to as well.

What about sequoia lodge? Probably nicer than dream castle and much beter location. Personally I would not stay off site.

Will check out sequoia, thanks and magic circus - like the sound of curtained off bunks and dcs will too! I'd rather stay on site but am becoming v confused about what is and isn't in that category. Who would have thought it would be so confusing. Thanks for info, any more welcome

I have stayed at the Dream Castle and to be honest its not that far away from the main park. Now my dc are older, we could have easily walked it. We just stayed at the park all day and went back to the hotel and swam in the evening before bed. The only complaint I have about the Dream Castle is that we were there for a week and the first couple of nights were fine and then on the third night, a Frenchman and his child moved in next door. Oh and bloody nora they yapped and yapped and yapped at the top of their voices. The child couldn't have been much older than about 5 and eventually went to sleep about 1 in the morning and was up again about 6. We couldn't go to sleep until they did and ended up well and truly knackered and were woken up again the morning by their voices. We should have just invited them in to ours .

Yuk, Fimbo - how horrible. That would have driven me nuts. How long was the walk from DC to Disney in your recollection? My dcs are pretty good walkers, as I rarely drive . Thinking of going last weekend in June, Humperdink, everywhere on site except Disneyland seems to be booked up

We have stayed in the Newport Bay and the Dream Castle and would go back to the Dream Castle every time. At the very beginning and end of day the shuttle buses are busy, but not impossible. Benefits of Dream Castle rooms are nicer, pool is warmer (to be frank Newport Bay's is freezing) with nice shallow area, breakfast is a different class starting with the coffee being from bean as opposed to Disney Nescafe. At Newport Bay you have to pay for under 12s at evening meal, at Dream Castle under 12s eat free if their parents are eating.
Finally when full which it is every weekend Newport Bay sleeps 3500 people Dream castle sleeps 450.
Disney is surrounded by a ring road, the Dream Castle is on the ring road on the non-disney side so not really that far.

Lizcat and do you pay extra for park passes?

Dh reckons we could have done it 15-20 minutes tops. If it is a busy time, the buses usually get packed out with prams etc. We went in February and it was freezing so had no other option. But if it was a nice day, definately doable.

I think you could possibly take short cuts rather than the way the buses go too. But it was about 3 years ago now so things may have changed.

We've booked for 4 days/3 nights, 4 of us going in October. We're staying in Newport bay. I actually got a better deal booking through travel agent(think it's Thompson) so that might be an idea

I booked Dream Castle on Expedia. Tickets on a separate site. Then booked Eurostar direct with them by telephone, I think I did it before the official on-site release of tickets, as you can only book so far in advance and managed to get seats with a table.

Grr, after all that dh has to work the weekend in question and others will be tricky. Back to square one. Thanks for advice though, next time we book I'll have a much clearer idea of what we want.