DISNEYLAND PARIS AT CHRISTMAS?

[unicorn]

Thinking we may do it this year as dd is desperate to go!
Has anyone been at this time?

• does anyone know of any good deals at the moment?

We went last year, mid November, just after xmas season started and it was FAB. Dd is 5 1/2 and it was ds's second birthday. Stayed in New York hotel (we were lucky enough to win the hol on Mumsnet!). Weather was just like here, we had warm and raining one day, rest was cold but sunny. Jenny insisted onwearing her Snow White dress with no coat over it, so she had tights, track suit bottoms and long sleeved t shirts on under it and she was fine! Ask anything you want.

Fab prize!!How long did you go for? (we're thing 2/3 days)are there lots of additional costs?.. would you recommend the hotel?

We went last year the week before Xmas. So we saw Father Xmas but the girls really prefered Winne who was standing at the front of the queue! We didn't stay in one of thier hotels we stayed at a nearby Novotel. This meant that we could take a day off in between visits. The afternoon parade is good, the night time one is spectacular but late. The girls really needed the rest day after 12 hours at the park, and about 5 visits to sleeping beauties castle to see the stained windows. Fantasty land for our nearly 6 and nearly 3 was really good. But if your DD is going to want dressing up clothes visit the disney store in the UK before you go, especially during one of their frequent sales. You'd get better value for money and I think better clothes. We limited our 2 to 1 souvenir each at the park and that worked well as they chose something good each rather than a lot of tat. Husband says get a map as soon as you go in and then make plans!

Hotel was lovely, and not too far to walk. Have also stayed at the Sequoia which is a bit further away. We chose this one as it was the cheapest with a pool. The pool was nice, but no shallow bit which I was a bit surprised at. We only used it once and that was because we felt that we should, we really wanted to spend what little time we had at the hotel having a rest! The pool at the New York was not very good. Just like a 'local pool' but there was a huge jaccuzzi (you could get about 20 people in it!). Have you been before? Check out these websites www.disboards.com & www.dlp-guidebook.

We did new year there last year and had a fantastic time. To keep the costs down we drove and stayed at the Davy Crocket ranch. The log cabins were nicely laid out and you collected breakfast from a little hut in the morning, which the children loved doing - they went for it for us - was only 2mins walk away but they felt very grown up. Big box of croissants, jam, butter plus a couple of french sticks!

The swimming pool at Davy Crocket is the best of the hotels we have stayed at at DP (the new York hotel pool is awful as its 5' deep and only my husband could be sure of manageing the children as I was too short to stand and could only swim so didn't feel confident with a 3 year old non-swimming child in the water.

The Davy Crocket pool has waterslides, lazy river etc as well as a proper shallow end, it is also indoors which is good.

You drive to DP from the DC ranch (takes about 10 mins) and parking at DP was very good and an easy walk from the entrance. Nearer than any of the hotels on site except for the disneyland hotel.

I would thouroughly recommend it - we stayed for 4 nights and enjoyed every minute of it.

ooooh getting excited!!
Theresa- no we haven't been at all yet...(how long would you say is needed?)
Soapbox like the sound of the Davy Crockett.. Weatherwax.dd has virtually every dressing up dress known to mankind (well Disney that is!)

How much do you reckon.. have just called for a quote and it's around a thousand (2 adults 2 kids.. and that's euro star!)which seems a bit much...

I think we paid about £800. But... we had saved up our tesco deals vouchers and I got £400 of Bridge travel vouchers for £100 tesco ones as part of their deals book. So the break only cost us £400.

We had 3 adults and 2 children.

If staying at the Davey Crocket you have to take your own car - can't go on Eurostar.

We've been to DLParis 4 times but never at Christmas. We've stayed at two resort hotels, Newport Bay and New York - both great and Davy Crockett Ranch, the latter being the best if you have a larger family and you can't all fit in one room. The cost of any of these included the Disney pass plus breakfast. We also once stayed at the Novotel @ Marne le Vallee, which was basically furnished but clean and a 20 minute drive to park, this is obviously a cheaper option, but I'd recommend staying at the resort if you can afford the difference. They have their own website where you can check availability and offers for the time you want to go, look well in advance, they get booked up quickly. BTW it's great, I'm sure you'll all love it. HTH

Hu Unicorn,

We went to disneyland at the end of March. We stayed in New York Hotel and it was fantastic. We thought the pool was fine, we just made sure ds had his arm bands on and he managed no bother. We used the pool everyday so it was good. We flew from Gatwick out to Paris and then got a taxi to the hotel although it was expensive. On the way home we used the bus and it was fine to get us to airport.

We definately would love to go back as we all enjoyed it so much.

I'd say 3 or 4 nights would be ideal. Take the dressing up outfits if you've room as I think it gets the attention of the characters. If you're flying, there's a shuttle from the airport to the hotels. Very easy to find the stop, it costs about 15 euros each (I think) and takes about an hour,maybe less. I personally didn't think there were really many extra costs. Obviously there's food, ashamed to admit we ate largley at McDonalds unless having a character meal. Breakfast at Cafe Mickey is an absolute must, can't remember how much it costs but it's not outrageous. The breakfast is a fab buffet, you can stay as long as you want and some great characters come to see you. A little more expensive but also really good was character lunch at Lucky Nugget Saloon. We also got birthday cake with it as well. Shops are FAB. I'd try and visit them without the children if poss as they'll want everything. My dd is usually really good in shops but even she was reduced to tears by the fact that we weren't going to buy her half of the stock! There's lots if up to date and impartial advise on the www.disboards website.
There's a brochure (can't remember which one)which lets you book hotels without transport package, (or you could probably do this direct with dlp) you could then try & get cheap Easyjet flights. We reckon that's our cheapest option as we're too far North for Eurostar. Unfortunately I don't think £1000 sounds over the top for a few nights. The first time we went we didn't do much advance research and it cost about £1400 with Thompsons for 3 of us flying from Newcastle in early July (ie before school hols) & that was 2 years ago

Were going in a few weeks and staying at My travellers explorer hotel , which is very good value and a 10 min free shuttle bus ride away. Its recommneded by Disney and has very good facitlies. Water slides and a creche near the restaurant. It seems more geered up to kids than some of the Disney hotels. We manged to get the eurostar with air miles weve saved for several years!! I think it would have been £1000 for the whole package 2 adults and one baby: Room/ breakfast/five day park pass/Eurostar. I would reccomened the Disboards site for general info. Heres a link to the Disneyland Paris section Disneyland discussion board here

sorry didnt read them all and saw that Theresa already mentioned dis boards!!

Were going for 4 nights and Ive done a planned chart for each day as theres 11 of us inc kids all under 5 yrs.Weve also booked park restaurants for during the day as we have a 30th birthday celebration and also my birthday. So the 1st afternoon is spent at the hotel as travelling will knock them all out. Next day in the park and back at Hotel for early dinner then back at park 7:00 for Princess parade and late late night for fireworks at 11:15. Next day Disney Studios for 1/2 day then back at hotel for rest, then Movenpicck dream castle hotel for buffet dinner. And so it goes !!!

I think you can work it for all types of budgets. Be warned that the food in the parks can be expensive. Most proper table service sit down meals are around £100+ for a family of 4 as kids meals are about £8 each alone. But there are snack, deli style or buffet places also.

My mum has a book we have been using for tips I will ask her what it is and post for you.

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thanks all.. great advice..
thanks Galaxy too.. didn't expect it to be that busy... may reschedule a bit.. nothing def yet anyway.

Like Catan we didn't find the queues too bad - we went at New Year. I think it may depend on the age of your children as ours are younger and so like doing the baby rides which may have had shorter queues.