Disneyland Paris via Motorhome - any tips

[deb960]

Hi

We are thinking of going to disneyland paris with our 3.5 year old twins and just wanted some tips.

 

Firstly best way to get there, best route from the UK?

Secondly has anyone stayed on the camping car site at disney? How was it or did you stay at a nice campsite nearby?

 

Which pass did you get?

 

Any other useful tips would be good.

 

Thanks

Debbie

[Randonneur]

If you want the honest truth, I wouldn't bother to take small children there. We took our 8yrs old Grandson there at the end of August last year on the way back to the UK and found that most of the rides he couldn't go on because he was too small. Disneyland Paris is better for 11/12yr olds in my opinion. The parade is wonderful but unfortunately small children cannot see it for the adults trying to get to the front. We have said that we will go back in a couple of years when he is older and would get passes for a couple of days.

 

We stayed on the motorhome parking base with about 400 others but someone earlier on this forum said it has closed, how true this is I don't know, it could have been just for the winter months. We had access to Hot water, Showers and toilets and emptying facilities and I think it was 20€ per night.

[onecal]

 

Yes they are keeping the camping-car parking closed for safety or so they say. If you pay your €20 you can park overnight but it has nothing to offer and can be very noisy at night.

There is a very good site in Jableens, It is only 4 miles north east of the park, very close to ESBLY. It has a lot to offer , water sking on the lake pulled along by overhead wire rope. (safe for kids) adventure trails and a very large lake with beech.

There is a bus service every 2 hours to the park from the gate. The last bus home is when the park is closed.

when you get to park the train station is there for service to anywhere , Esp' Paris for a day.

At 3.5 the twins may just be a little young, so a one day pass.

If you want any more info on the above site give me a PM or you can look it up under Campingcar sites.

Regards,

Brendan

[LordThornber]

It's 4 years since I was there on a work related holiday (if that makes sense). My memories were of being exhausted at the end of each day, it was July and v warm.

 

Aching feet, very few, if any, proper places to sit down apart from in the expensive eataries. We were on a budget and apart from one trip to the obscenely expensive Planet Hollywood, we practically lived out of McD's which was the best value by far. Something Im NOT proud of admitting to. We were in a Disney hotel on B&B so stocked up like mad in the mornings.

 

The kids, (ages 12 - 15) enjoyment of it all more than made up for the shortfalls, particularly the show at the end of each night which had us all enthralled.

 

Martyn

 

 

[Basil]

Hi, although we have never gone to Disney (fortunately our kids did not have the desire) we have used a site Camping Paris-Est on the River Marne see

 

http://www.campingparis.fr/

 

the main advantage is that it is good for travel either way to Disney or Paris Centre. There is a bus that is every 10 minutes at the site entrance that goes straight to the local station (5mins) and you are in the centre of Paris in around 10 mins or Disney in under 20mins with trains very regular in both directions (by the way we are talking French transport here not UK!). Reasonable facilities on site but not as inexpensive as most French sites more on a par with sites near our Capital.

 

Bas

[Randonneur]

LordThornber - 2008-05-23 10:45 AM

 

It's 4 years since I was there on a work related holiday (if that makes sense). My memories were of being exhausted at the end of each day, it was July and v warm.

 

Aching feet, very few, if any, proper places to sit down apart from in the expensive eataries. We were on a budget and apart from one trip to the obscenely expensive Planet Hollywood, we practically lived out of McD's which was the best value by far. Something Im NOT proud of admitting to. We were in a Disney hotel on B&B so stocked up like mad in the mornings.

 

The kids, (ages 12 - 15) enjoyment of it all more than made up for the shortfalls, particularly the show at the end of each night which had us all enthralled.

 

Martyn

 

 

Martyn, I totally agree. I think one of the biggest problems with smaller children was the wait times for some of the rides because there are quite a few that don't have the "Quick pass tickets". The actual walking round is exhausting. We managed to take a picnic in and sat at one of the outdoor burger bar tables and managed not to get caught.

 

I would still maintain that taking children younger than 10 yrs is a waste of time and money and would be better served going to a Theme Park in the UK. I think it is the Parents that really want to go and it certainly is an experience but I would still wait a bit longer. But what would I know, our Grandson was 8 yrs old and although he enjoyed it he was very upset that there were not a lot of rides for him to go on.

 

Debbie

 

If you PM or email me with your full name and address I have a Park Guide in English that I can send to you.

[Basil]

A P.S. to my previous post, sorry I was interupted.

 

I meant to add that you can buy both bus/rail combined travel cards and Eurodisney entrance cards at the site reception. They are all very reasonably priced and at the time we were there they were offering discounts on the Disney entrance tickets.

 

Bas

[Mike Parke]

We took our grand daughters (ages 10 & 5) week after Easter. They thought it was "brilliant Granddad when can we come again?" We drove down via Lille , Arras, Peronne on RN roads and returned via 'Peage'. We stayed at a site at TORCy, some 30 mins drive from E. Disney. The site provides a mini bus (payable) to/ from site. We puchased 2x 2 day adult tickets & 2x2children tickets. The younger one could not manage many of the rides and the elder was very selective. We had no problem watching the parade getting into postion some 30 mins before it started. We took picnics but as the food was not prohibitively priced we will 'dine out' when we go again. The overall cost was 'ok' inasmuch as if you added it all up it was circa £600:00 inc. ferry, site fees, minibus, park admission, spending on gifts for girls, fuel & food en route & on ferry. The gift shops we thought were reasonably priced as well. We intend taking the girls again. 'next year' and , in due course, the other two grandchildren we they are older. The atmosphere of the place and the look of awe on the faces of the little ones makes it all worthwhile.

[Randonneur]

The other thing I should add is that if you book online it is a lot cheaper going through the French site than going through UK site. We found this out last August as we had to book another Adult ticket the week before, £35 if going through Uk site €35 going through French site.

[mikey72]

We first went when my kids were five and one, quite a few years ago. Now they’re bigger we’ve been there for the past year, on and off. And it’s just as much fun at any age.

Last year I bought five annual passes, (3 children now,- three girls, youngest eight, oldest fifteen now). Includes use of the car park overnight, and subject to a few excluded dates, free entry to the park.

The car park is still open for overnight stops, but it’s an aire, so you can use the coach water filling and dump facilities, and if you ignore the signs, as everyone does, the drivers shower block. (There were even hook up leads connected into the power points by some campers).

Water is not recommended for drinking, the coaches fill from it, but also flush the toilets on the coach with the same hoses, so make up your own mind. We used bottled water from the supermarket down the road to drink and put sterilising tablets in the onboard tank, and then used it for washing up.

Car park can be noisy, mainly from generators that run up until 1.00am, and start from 7.00am, but if you park away from them it’s ok. (They hog the shower block area). Some Disney music floats by as well.

My youngest went on every ride but one, there are height restrictions of 1m on some rides, and even 0.8m I think, but there are enough small rides to keep you busy. Have a look on the website.

Queues aren’t too long on the smaller rides, but they are there, so if they won’t queue it could be bad, having said that they do move quickly, and even without fast passes (which we had), you can get in quite reasonably.

It's quiet mid week, crowed on hot sunny weekends, so pick when you go.

Having said all that, it’s still great fun, you should go at any age, but I agree with the other posting, look on the French website for the prices that the French pay compared to the British!

Best route for me was the E15 all the way, (the A26 then A1). The toll is worth the time-saving, and the other roads start to shake my van apart over 50mph.