Disneyland Paris Oct 17 half term

[Mildpanic]

Thinking about half term hol to Disney.
USA is always going to be out of budget so never a possibility.
Is Paris something you would recommend? 3 dc, wide age variation.
Driving or train all way? Self catering or hotels?
All hints and tips are great fully relieved.

Ooh we're planning the same trip so I'm watching with interest! We're looking at trains (3 yo DS2 and planes seem like a really bad idea!)

Also have a 3 year old so hoping for some response.
Need all advice I can get.

No advice re planes/ trains ( we always prefer to fly) but definitely recommend hotels at DLP primarily for extra magic hours. These are times each day when the parks are only open to onsite guests. DLP we have found is much much busier than Florida and have managed to do 12 rides in 2 hours before general park opening and maybe only 4-5 in the rest of the day.

Some friends went in October half term and said it was crazy busy. 90 minute waits for rides. They loved the Halloween theme though. We have been at the end of August and May/June half term. August wasn't too bad for crowds but very hot. Summer half term was between spring and summer themed seasons but really quiet and apart from an hour for crush's coaster waits were between 5 and 20 minutes.

We had an annual pass which covered both visits and stayed off site. Still got magic hours but paid a lot less than DLP hotels, plus were able to sleep in a separate room to the kids. Depends how important being in an Disney hotel is but worth considering. Annual passes worth it if doing 3 days or more. Ours were just under £400 for a family of 4.

We're from Devon and drove the first time as the trip was added to the annual camping holiday. Second time we flew from Exeter and booked a private transfer from the airport. I'd love to do the train but it's so far for us.

We self catered and bought some meals at the parks. No problem with bringing your own food in. There I a massive supermarket in the Val d'europe mall one train stop from DLP. We stayed at the Adagio self catered apartments 5 minutes from the shopping centre and a free bus away from the parks. If you do drive annual passes include free parking.

We have been 4 times (and a further trip to Florida this year). We have been to dLp at Easter every time. Kids were 2, 4&2, 6&4, 8,6, 2 (and 10,8&3 for USA)
Twice we drove and twice we flew. dh prefers driving. We have stayed at sequoia lodge (x2), Newport and last time cheyenne. All fine, walkable to the parks and get the extra hours in Disney. Breakfast included and we take snacks for lunch (and drinks etc from home as pack the car) then have a proper dinner. Lots of people take "extra breakfast" for lunch so perhaps worth packing tinfoil or Tupperware!

We hardly spend any time in hotel so don't invest in Disneyland one.

We did find the queues in DLp worse than Florida though.

Get a photo memory maker as these are good. The cameramen put the photos onto your account and you can see them pretty quickly. They do take better photos.

We will probably go back 2018 to DLP as have said we will wait a while to go back to US. We love it.

We went for Oct 2016 half term with a 3 year old and 10 year old who both loved the Halloween theme.
We were very lucky weather wise; no rain and warm enough during the day to go out without coats. I imagine it would have been a lot less enjoyable had it been cold and wet all week.
It was very, very busy with long wait times for the rides. Our 10 yr old qualifies for a disabled access pass so we benefited from much shorter waits but, to be honest, I can't imagine our 3 year old (no disabilities) would have managed a lot of the queueing had we not had an access pass, we're talking 90 mins or more for a lot of rides.
We took the Disney Express direct which was very convenient and stayed in a DLP hotel. Again, convenient but not the cheapest way to go.

ThisToo, we're thinking about the DLP hotels, as you say it's convenient, and I don't really want to be staying miles away. DS2 will be almost 4 when we go, so I'm hoping he'll be ok with queuing. The plans so far is to get there for opening and head straight to the most popular stuff and hopefully beat the queue for that.

Summer would be no good for me - I can't stand for any length of time in the heat. I was hoping they did a Halloween theme for October so I'm pleased to hear that's the case.

We drove from north of England with a premier inn stop about an hour from Euro Tunnel. It was easily doable and cheaper than train. We stayed in the Disney Santa Fe hotel which was good because it was on site and cheap, but still great theming, just a bit of a cattle market at breakfast. I used trip advisor forum for planning which was really helpful but some real hardcore enthusiasts on there!