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[stormflm595]

Hi all,

Every time I've been to Disney before we've flown but as I'm a very nervous flyer I find that the day before I'm too stressed to be excited and then on our last full day in the park I'm again stressing too much to truly enjoy myself. So this time, I'm thinking to take the Eurostar. Does anyone find this a cheaper option than flying when considering other expenses on top? I mean, traveling to London (from Sheffield) and possibly booking a room either side of the trip close to the train station?

We'd have to drive to Manchester airport to fly as well as pay for the Disney transfers.

I don't mind paying a bit extra to keep me settled but if we'd save more than a £100 then I'd consider it and use the year to try and get over my fear of flying haha!

[rocker]

I think you should seriously look in to the Eurostar.  SOOO convenient compared to a bus/taxi or train from CDG airport. 
Also, if you're willing to do a long day, you can get an early train from Sheffield to connect with the 10.14 direct train from StPancras to Disney.  & the same going back, you can get a late service back to Sheffield.  No having to travel around London either as Sheffield & Disney both go to St Pancras

Trains from Sheffield to London will be expensive during the week as it's peak time, but if you travel to Disney on a Saturday or Sunday, then you can pick up a cheap fare that time of morning. 

You can buy through tickets from Sheffield to Disney or as two separate legs.  Separate legs may be cheaper, but if you are delayed on the 1st leg of your journey & miss your connection, then you have no entitlement to go on a later train on the second leg. 

Check out http://www.seat61.com/  this man is the GOD of train travel so explains it better than me.

Also, for £30 a friends & family railcard will bring down your UK travel costs by 1/3, so worth considering.  In fact there is a promo at the mo so the railcard is currently £24 with the code
see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/railcard for details

[dlpowl]

Hi there!  I'm in Sheffield too and we have done the Eurostar a couple of times but we've had a couple of delays and then last time the train stopped, underground, and we had to wait there for well over an hour.  It was boiling hot, there were bored/tired/hungry crying children everywhere and quite frankly, it put me off permanently.  We then decided to drive and use the Eurotunnel instead and we've never looked back!  Is driving not a possibility for you?

We absolutely love driving to DLP for many reasons.  It's cheaper and you are going on your own terms.  Even if the train is held up, you're not trapped in a carriage like sardines, you can get out of your car and walk around.  (We have never had a hold up on the Eurotunnel though).

When you go in the foot passenger Eurostar, you usually arrive around lunch time so by the time you've sorted your luggage and got your tickets sorted, you've missed an awful lot of park time on your first day.  The same goes for your last day, you have to leave the park early to get your train.   This is another reason we like to drive.

This is what we're doing on our next trip, just to give you an idea... Leaving Sheffield at 7am, driving down to Folkestone to catch the Eurostar around 12.30.  Arrive in Calais about 40 minutes later, drive down to the F1 hotel just outside DLP (cheap hotel, cost us about £40).  We should arrive at the hotel at about 4pm (it's only a 3 hour or so drive from Calais).  Out for dinner somewhere (loads of places locally), back to hotel, good nights sleep, up early, go to Disney hotel for 7.30am, collect tickets, arrive at park for 8am for the start of Early magic hours.  We are leaving the park about 6pm on our last day, to catch the 9.30pm Eurotunnel back, then driving straight back to Sheffield, probably get home about 2am.  The Eurotunnel cost me £133 return.  Bargain!  Obviously, you've got fuel costs but our car does about 60mpg and is diesel so it's very cheap!

The drive from Calais down to Disney is soooo easy.  All dual carriageway, very little traffic (it's nothing like the M1!) and like I say, we've never looked back and we wouldn't go any other way.  We get full use out of our park time, it's cheap, we really like being together in our own little space (the car!) where we can chat, sing, laugh, eat etc without having to worry about disturbing others.  We also don't have to think about carting our luggage from A to B to C or fitting everything into a suitcase.  We just chuck the stuff in our car and we're off! 

If you wouldn't want to do the drive all in one go, there's plenty of choice of hotels in the Ashford area which is only 15 minutes from the Eurotunnel terminal.  We stayed in the Travelodge when ours were little but now they're a bit older and we don't have nappies and bottles to contend with, they're fine to do the journey in one go.

Hope you have a wonderful time!

[Zee79]

We do it similar to dlpowl. We always went by coach to DLP until my mother finally gave in to my brother & agreed to try driving. We've done it ever since, can't get her to go by Eurostar or fly. We drive from the north east & stop near Folkestone, we then get round about the 7am train in Calais 35mins later & a 3hr drive depending on traffic you are in Disney. its a fairly straight drive with one toll costing around €20-25, rough guess incase if inflation we've paid €20-21 the last couple of years. We then leave the park late afternoon getting roughly the 8:20 tunnel back then stay in a hotel for the night just to extend the holiday even longer so not back to reality as quick  Depending in how long you go for depends on cost of tunnel, within  5 days you can get a saver return but you can choose whenever you come back, we normal get really early or later trains because they work out cheaper. I don't think we've paid anymore than £140 return & it goes on car size not passengers so we take my dad's 7 seater & then my brothers car- 11 of us its £280 return. This year we've been lucky with booking a package we've got the tunnel for £118 return for 1 car (only 6 of us going this time)
We love it, kids get their own travel bag with food, sweets, drinks, activities in (eldest is now 13 & she still loves it) plus DVD players to watch Disney DVDs    its all done at our pace & the kids love going on a road trip 

Have a great time.

[stormflm595]

Thanks for your replies guys!

See I've driven once and I hated it haha I'm very impatient and I have awful travel sickness. I remember having to get my dad to pull over all the time so I could be sick at the side of the road! Felt awful the day after cause of it! Haven't considered it since and I doubt my partner would want to drive as his car doesn't do too well on long trips. I'm such a fussy traveller haha also, even with a sat nav he always takes the wrong roads so it'll probably rake us double the time by the time he's had to redirect himself :p so driving isn't really an option!

[dlpowl]

I'd personally stick with flying from Manchester then, I just found the whole Eurostar thing a real bind.  If you live near London it's fantastic but when you're doing a two legged journey both ways, it's long, it can be expensive and just plain old tiresome!   But that's just my view from my experience of it.  It wasn't any different to flying really because the check in and the queues and the security and the passport control etc, was just like an airport but instead of it being a 35 minute flight, it was a 3 hour train journey!  Hahaa! 

I've known lots of people who use the Disney shuttle bus service from the airport and they like it.

[fiyero]

 Don't live as far away but would always choose Eurostar over flying. You can get off the train, go up some stairs and literally see Disneyland, you don't get that with flying!

[Disney Matt]

I think it depends on where you are in the country. Being in Scotland it would be a train to London for me, a possible night in a hotel the day before too & then the cost of Eurostar on top of that.
For that reason I fly, its cheaper for me & makes more sense.

Everyones situations are different
So weigh up the options & costs & go with that feels right

[stormflm595]

Thanks all for your advice! I'm going to weigh up costs nearer the time but as I have about 10 months until I can book I have plenty of time to save any costs. Never done to eurostar before and it sounds a dream just getting off and being there and not having to wait around!

[polar vixen]

Never flown but done eurostar. Drive from middlesbrough to Dartford the day before. Caught first morning eurostar at ebbsfleet at Disney for 12. Get off and see the village. Absolutely love it! So easy and no f fuss with luggage etc

[samuelvictor]

The Eurostar is massively convenient anbdstress free, so even if it works out slightly more expensive, we usually use this method. If you book it far enough in advance to get the cheaper tickets it can work out cheaper than flying.

[stormflm595]

Thanks all! Will be going for the Eurostar due to the majority of positive feedback! Now to decide whether to catch it from St Pancras or drive the extra and go from Ashford :p

[daddyof2]

If you're driving, isn't ebbsfleet more convenient? Be mindful of the return journey too, as a painless/stress free return journey is almost as important as getting there

[rocker]

Thanks all! Will be going for the Eurostar due to the majority of positive feedback! Now to decide whether to catch it from St Pancras or drive the extra and go from Ashford :p

Good choice.  Make use of the left luggage at the park & you can be through the park gates 15 minutes after stepping off the train 

[stormflm595]

If you're driving, isn't ebbsfleet more convenient? Be mindful of the return journey too, as a painless/stress free return journey is almost as important as getting there

It depends where we decide to catch it from. if we go for Central London, we'll just get the train from Sheffield the day before and day after, using one of those small hotels right by the train stations as a stop before another longish journey If we go by Ashford we'd probably just drive to the Travelodge in Ashford and stay over before jumping on. We'll probably end up staying in CL to be honest as it means we can get there early on the Sunday and maybe do a bit of London sightseeing for the day!