Disneyland Paris
On the 18th December we managed a great deal of half price and kids under 12 stay and play free! The flight was over so quickly, and the Disney coach transfer was easy to find and dropped us off at our hotel door.
We stayed for four nights at Disney’s Newport Bay Club Hotel and had a lovely room on the Admiral Floor overlooking the lake. The hotel was lovely. It had a really nice pool and the staff were very friendly. I had read negative reviews on trip advisor so was a little worried but we were hugely surprised! It was so much better than we had expected. The room was large enough for the four of us. Disney characters visited the hotel lobby each morning for photos, two different characters each day. Definitely get up early for breakfast, anytime from 8am onwards is hectic! Before then it’s not so bad.
We enjoyed walking from the hotel, along the lakeside to Disney Village and on to the Disney Parks. It’s about a 20 minute walk. There was also a road train which ran around the lake for a charge of a few euros each. Alternatively the free Disney shuttle bus was frequent, every ten minutes or so between our hotel and the entrance to the parks.
Guests staying at the Disney hotels have access to Disneyland Park from 8am, two hours before the general public. Although only certain rides are open for these two hours but there is a programme to tell you which. We took advantage of this as there were no queues and we got to go on some of our favourite rides during those two hours – several times!
If you obtain an Easypass from hotel reception, you can use this in the Disney parks to purchase items and have them charged to your hotel bill. You can even have shop purchases delivered to your hotel so you don’t have to carry shopping bags around! I’d say this is a great idea as most UK banks charge a few pounds on foreign transactions. If you keep using your card, those charges add up but by adding everything to your hotel bill, you just pay one charge.
We had a lot of fun seeing the characters throughout the day and meeting for cuddles, photos and autographs. A programme advised of the times and locations of the character meet and greets and the parade. At most attractions there is information estimating the queuing time, if it was too long we went back later. There is also the Fastpass service on some rides which books you a time to return and ride.
Christmas at Disneyland is fabulous! It was even snowing (fake snow) at times! There is an extra Christmas Parade which has toys, elves, Santa on his sleigh and a huge Christmas tree and the main street is decorated beautifully. There is also a Santa village where you can visit Santa. However the only thing we didn’t like was the queuing time to see Santa - two hours!
We also spent a day in Disney Studios and then another day at the Disney Park, but later in the day went to Universal for the parade then back to Disney again. The great thing with the tickets included in the holiday is you can do this, change from park to park. Every day we hired a pushchair from close to the entrance as our three year old was tired from all the walking! And it was great to hang our bags on! It was twelve euros a day.
A large percentage of the rides’ queues are undercover as Disneyland Paris is in Europe with European winter weather being the same as the UK! We found it best to go to Disney Studios Park on the day it rained as there was lots to do indoors with shows and theatres.
Disney are currently offering Disney Dreams, a night time spectacular show centred around Sleeping Beauty’s castle with music, fireworks, laser shows and projected images onto the castle. When we were there it began around 6pm. It was amazing!
We did the character breakfast which was very good. I would highly recommend booking in for this! We had six characters visit during our breakfast and it was lovely as they come round each table and spend time letting you arrange to take photos. The buffet breakfast is also very good with a good choice of food.
During the evenings, we ate at the hotel twice, mainly because it was convenient but I would recommend eating out. It’s expensive to eat in the hotel so you may as well eat in a restaurant and get a better choice of places! To avoid queuing, eat lunch early – before 12 is best. A few times we made the mistake of going at peak times in search of food and standing in long queues, even at McDonalds!
One experience I would definitely recommend is Buffalo Bills Wild West Show. It’s a cowboy and Indian’s themed show with appearances from Mickey, Minne and a few others. My children were amazed with the real horses and cattle. It was very entertaining and even our three year old loved it and didn’t get bored. There are two shows and it includes a dinner with a children’s choice and drinks. It’s not daily, and it’s often full so pre-book this.
On our last day, we checked out, handed our luggage in at the concierge and then we went into the Disney Park again for another day and collected our luggage at the time our transfer coach was due back to the airport (which was hourly).
We are already planning our next trip! We would definitely go again at Christmastime, but we’d love to also go when it’s not so cold too! A stay at the Disneyland Hotel would be the ideal hotel at Christmas as it’s the closest to the park gates – not as far to walk if the weather is snowy, raining or cold in December! For a stay in the summer, we’d definitely stay at the Newport Bay Club again as it has an outdoor pool.