Discussion
We went in June this year - my advice... Don't bother. Massively overpriced and the kids will enjoy a day out in a park in the UK just as much.
Watch out for rude Spaniards.
Take your own food and drink - every outlet on site, apart from the mini-mart in the RER station, is only there to take your money at obscene mark ups.
Watch out for rude Spaniards.
Take your own food and drink - every outlet on site, apart from the mini-mart in the RER station, is only there to take your money at obscene mark ups.
We had a spell in September this year, in the New York.
It has the best location but Newport Bay is nicer. NY is too dark although the breakfast is better, ie you get crispy bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, potatoes as well as all the usual continental breakfast malarkey. You can get a long queue / wait to get into the breakfast though. The bar is fine, but the diner restaurant is utter garbage, inedible on the night we went in.
However I will never darken the Disney doorstep again. In the park, attractions were shut for refurbishment which is fair enough this has to be done, others were just shut, and others just kept breaking down and you'd be kicked out after queuing. Some that kept breaking down we never actually saw them working.
The cafes and restaurants were only half open, and if you'd got half board as we had it was sometimes a struggle to find something edible. Everything is top price, eg a bottle of water 3 euro, cheapest we found was in Starbucks at 2.60 but less than a Euro in the Esso station at one of the hotel entrances, not sure which Santa Fe / Cheyenne I forget. 2 euro for a small packet of crisps / potato chips? wtf???
However all the shops designed to part you from your money were open.
Truth is Disney was always a big money making machine but the balance between the attraction side and getting money out of people is totally out of hand. Of course some say that the terrible exchange rate is not Disney's fault, which of course it isn't, but I know typical European price levels and have never encountered rip off prices like these.
Honest opinion, stay away.
It has the best location but Newport Bay is nicer. NY is too dark although the breakfast is better, ie you get crispy bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, potatoes as well as all the usual continental breakfast malarkey. You can get a long queue / wait to get into the breakfast though. The bar is fine, but the diner restaurant is utter garbage, inedible on the night we went in.
However I will never darken the Disney doorstep again. In the park, attractions were shut for refurbishment which is fair enough this has to be done, others were just shut, and others just kept breaking down and you'd be kicked out after queuing. Some that kept breaking down we never actually saw them working.
The cafes and restaurants were only half open, and if you'd got half board as we had it was sometimes a struggle to find something edible. Everything is top price, eg a bottle of water 3 euro, cheapest we found was in Starbucks at 2.60 but less than a Euro in the Esso station at one of the hotel entrances, not sure which Santa Fe / Cheyenne I forget. 2 euro for a small packet of crisps / potato chips? wtf???
However all the shops designed to part you from your money were open.
Truth is Disney was always a big money making machine but the balance between the attraction side and getting money out of people is totally out of hand. Of course some say that the terrible exchange rate is not Disney's fault, which of course it isn't, but I know typical European price levels and have never encountered rip off prices like these.
Honest opinion, stay away.
I think your kids might be a bit small to appreciate it, but if you do decide to go there is quite a bit of information on these two sites:
http://www.dlp.info/
http://www.dlrpmagic.com/guidebook
and a list of rides that will be closed for refurbishment can be found here:
http://www.dlrpmagic.com/calendar/closures-refurbi...
although if only usually tells you for the next two months.
I stayed at the Hotel Cheyenne which is onsite and has a wild west theme. This is probably the most fun hotel for children and is only a very pleasant 10 minute walk from the park along a river and then through the Disney village.
As for tips, at the breakfast buffet, there are rolls, cheese, salami and ham and we along with most others people used these to make their lunch, so make sure you take some sandwich bags to put them in. The cheapest place for soft drinks and snacks is the shop at station which is between the two parks, you can even pick up beer quite cheaply for the evening. As for the cheapest places to eat, there are a McDonalds and a Starbucks in the Disney village that aren't much more expensive than in the UK. All of the sit down restuarants are pricey and expect to pay £25 per head just for a burger and a drink.
When staying at the Disney hotels you can get into the parks early on some days (see details of the extra magic hours on the websites above) which gives you time to do the most popular rides whilst before the big queues later in the day. Also take adavntage of the fast passes to beat the crowds.
Although I've been to the Florida parks I still enjoyed it and I think some of the rides (Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor and Pirates of the Caribbean) are actually better than the Florida versions.
Oh and try and avoid weekends or school holidays as it's busier than ever as fewer people can afford to go to America these days, so are going there instead.
http://www.dlp.info/
http://www.dlrpmagic.com/guidebook
and a list of rides that will be closed for refurbishment can be found here:
http://www.dlrpmagic.com/calendar/closures-refurbi...
although if only usually tells you for the next two months.
I stayed at the Hotel Cheyenne which is onsite and has a wild west theme. This is probably the most fun hotel for children and is only a very pleasant 10 minute walk from the park along a river and then through the Disney village.
As for tips, at the breakfast buffet, there are rolls, cheese, salami and ham and we along with most others people used these to make their lunch, so make sure you take some sandwich bags to put them in. The cheapest place for soft drinks and snacks is the shop at station which is between the two parks, you can even pick up beer quite cheaply for the evening. As for the cheapest places to eat, there are a McDonalds and a Starbucks in the Disney village that aren't much more expensive than in the UK. All of the sit down restuarants are pricey and expect to pay £25 per head just for a burger and a drink.
When staying at the Disney hotels you can get into the parks early on some days (see details of the extra magic hours on the websites above) which gives you time to do the most popular rides whilst before the big queues later in the day. Also take adavntage of the fast passes to beat the crowds.
Although I've been to the Florida parks I still enjoyed it and I think some of the rides (Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor and Pirates of the Caribbean) are actually better than the Florida versions.
Oh and try and avoid weekends or school holidays as it's busier than ever as fewer people can afford to go to America these days, so are going there instead.
Gachet said:
When staying at the Disney hotels you can get into the parks early on some days (see details of the extra magic hours on the websites above) which gives you time to do the most popular rides whilst before the big queues later in the day.
Our experience was that only 2 sections of the park were open early, and only limited rides in those areas.A complete con.
Puggit said:
Gachet said:
When staying at the Disney hotels you can get into the parks early on some days (see details of the extra magic hours on the websites above) which gives you time to do the most popular rides whilst before the big queues later in the day.
Our experience was that only 2 sections of the park were open early, and only limited rides in those areas.A complete con.
The list deserves to get nominated for a award for fiction.
Yes two of the three listed were boarded up and closed.
There were about 7 or 8 others that were just closed, there was another that we never saw working, everytime we got there people were being turfed off after queuing. We were turfed off Buzz Lightyear when it broke down. Tower of terror there was a major shuffle about of queues when one of the lift shafts malfunctioned so queue time was lengthened. It's a small world the queue time was the longest I've ever seen it, not because of the number of people, but because the manning had been reduced and the staff were on communist action. Studio tours, there was only one tractor and trailer train outfit running when we queued, and one trailer was not in use. Queued an hour. I think they'd taken the other tractor to be refilled or something. Wifey wasn't amused when I made the gag Captain Slow made on the Veyron race on Top gear when they were filling the plane, something about the French being a set of communists.
Restaurants were also shut, and in some of them your feet stuck to the floor and the tables felt sticky too. yuck.
Agreed with comment by puggit about the early opening times and limited things going on, we only made that mistake once when we first went when Miss FiF was very small. There are only so many times you can ride the teacups before somebody pukes.
OP's kids are too small to appreciate it anyway imo.
To be honest I dont think the kids are going to get a huge amount of value out of disney, I would be inclined to wait a few years until they are 4 and 6 and do the whole florida deal.
Have been to disney both in the states and france more times than I can remember and would always choose the american option as the better choice, far more to do, and quite possibly not a whole lot more expensive if you pick the right time to go
Have been to disney both in the states and france more times than I can remember and would always choose the american option as the better choice, far more to do, and quite possibly not a whole lot more expensive if you pick the right time to go
Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff