what do you think of my DLP plan?

[Liz79]

Planning still in rudimentary stages but we're wanting to go in October half term & have 2 kids DD will be 4.10 & DS 2.5. I am super excited & just waiting for work to say I can have that week as annual leave & then I will book & pay deposit.

Sat: Drive to folkestone from northern England, stay in premier inn.
Sun: get eurotunnel approx 7.20, croissants & coffee in france. Drive to DLP, lunch just outside park.

spend afternoon getting orientated, check in (thinking Santa fe as cheapest & I think we just need somewhere to sleep?), eat in hotel (?)

spend Monday & tuesday as per 2 day itinerary for families with toddlers on DLP website:

Monday is fantasyland, frontierland & princess dinner
Tuesday character breakfast then studios park, lunch in village, discoveryland

spend wednesday doing good stuff again or bits we missed. character breakfast. leave in time to get euro tunnel 8-9pm, stay in premier inn, drive home on thursday,

is this a reasonable length of time & will we see all the good stuff? will santa fe be OK or is it worth a better hotel? Should we get standard half board meals or plus/premier? I also see there is full board available now, do you think this would be worth it?

TIA. I am going to look on trip advisor but need a bit of time as there is so much there.

Just to add another side, ds was 20 months when we took him (we went for dd's 6th Birthday) fully expecting him to be bored and irritable at the whole thing - he LOVED it, probably as much as dd did. He still looks at the photos now and talks about mickey and donald. He got to go on most of the rides that dd wanted to go on. Depends on what you are expecting them to do I suppose.

thank you bellie

It's worth considering crossing on the Saturday and staying in either the Etap or Ibis right by the tunnel. We now do this it will make the Sunday a lot less tiring as you can get up later and have breakfast in hotel.
Beware that if you get of tunnel and drive on peage first service station is a very long way.

Also I find that eating at Cafe Mickey you get better food and characters at a better price.

Thanks lizcat that is good to know. I think we have decided to go may 2013 as it will give us much longer to save up & ds will be that much older.

When eandh says you can't take pushchairs everywhere - you can't take them into theatres and indoor rides, but every ride and attraction has its own buggy park outside so kids don't have to walk or be carried far. They do have to walk or be carried in ride queue lines, which is why it is worth going at a quiet time of the year when kids are very young.

We have Trip Reports where people took their older children with toddlers and babies and they seemed to have a great time. There are Babycare Centres in both parks for feeding/ changing with microwaves for warming bottles and baby supplies.

The main thing is to keep young children warm and dry, ( cool in summer ) and don't overtire them.

It is not always cheapest booking with Disney. Look at www.disneylandparisdirect.com or this site
www.disneylandresort-paris.co.uk/

The current offers are not brilliant - a while ago they had better ones.

They may carry the 20th Anniversary celebrations on for a further year as they did for the 15th Anniversary, so you may still see them if you go in 2013.
It's not easy juggling the right time to go when you have kids of different ages - we found this with a 4.5 yr gap between our two boys.

We took them to DLP regularly until they were 9 & 13.5, then went to WDW Florida for the first time.

If booking transport separately, check resort hotel prices on Expedia or Booking.com

Some rides have a height restriction - see this page.

www.dlrpmagic.com/planning/advice/ride-restrictions/

Have you considered driving to Ashford and catching the direct Disney Eurostar train instead of driving all the way to Disney? It takes 2 hrs from Ashford straight into Disneyland.

When I wanted to go at the last minute in January Disney had nothing available, nor transport.
I got the hotel I wanted and direct Eurostar both ways booking with Eurostar.com with 30% off.

I had a three night stay at the Disney hotel .

Same price

do it 'unhelp'

book your own flights , book your own hotel (not santa fe that is miles out of the Disney experience)

It is a wonderful place and brings enjoyment to adults and children alike

I so love Disneyland Paris

One thing to bear in mind is that kids under 3yrs eat free in Disney buffets and table service restaurants - when they are 3yrs or over you have to pay!

You might find this TR interesting where they took 3 children aged 7, 5 and 2 during Halloween week.

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g226865-i2224-k4025359-Family_Trip_report_26th_to_30th_October-Marne_la_Vallee_Seine_et_Marne_Ile_de_France.html

This poster went in March with a son aged 4.11 and a baby of 11 months. Contains useful tips for people taking very young children.

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g226865-i2224-k4352569-Trip_report_21_25_March_2_adults_1_child_1_baby_Santa_Fe-Marne_la_Vallee_Seine_et_Marne_Ile_de_France.html

This poster took 4 children aged 9,6,4 and 2 yrs in March. ( I am meeting her there with her children in January when we are both staying in Sequoia Lodge ).

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g226865-i2224-k4354109-Trip_Report_14th_20th_March-Marne_la_Vallee_Seine_et_Marne_Ile_de_France.html

Book the Cheyenne, not! Santa Fe.

Kids under 6 yrs are not allowed to sleep in the top bunk in Cheyenne rooms.

sorry for the hijack but quite a few of my questions have already been answered in this thread so just want to add a few more. I would like to travel to DLP as well during half term (Apr 11th) nxt year for 2 nights and 3 days. In order to keep cost down and make the most of the 3 days, we will be travelling by Eurotunnel but in order to make the most of the last day (i dont like driving at night) i want us to stay as late as possible at the parks before spending the night at a hotel or Bed and breakfast between DLP and Calais. Basically somewhere to sleep before setting off on the next day. There will be 6 of us travelling with 2 younger children 5 and 9yrs split in 2 rooms. Any ideas? thanks

Hi,
If you want to stay somewhere near Calais overnight it may be worth asking people on the Trip Advisor Calais forum.

www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum-g196659-i1090-Calais_Nord_Pas_de_Calais.html

It takes approx 3 hrs driving between Disneyland - Calais depending on traffic.

It's too early at the moment, but nearer the time you should be able to buy cheaper park tickets on FNAC website. They can be posted to the UK for about ? 14 or collected from a FNAC store in France ( there is one in Val D'Europe shopping mall close to Disneyland. )
Tickets currently only go up to the end of March.
You have to buy these cheaper tickets al least 5 days before visit.
Failing that, Attraction Tickets Direct are usually cheaper than the Disney website and post actual park tickets, not vouchers, so no need to queue to exchange them on arrival.