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[JAYNEYJAY]

Hello we are a family of five me and my hubby, son age 14, son age 13 and daughter ages 9.

We are taking the children out to disneyland mon sept 19th till fri sept 23rd as this week two of them will be having their birthdays that week. Its a taol surprise and as far as they know they are going to the isle of wight !!.

this is what i have planned anything can be changed and cancelled so would like any advise you can offer.

Sun 18th september travel down from south wales to dover stay over night in premier inn oppisite the ferry terminal
costs £70 with breakfast. the reason we want to stay here and go by ferry is to keep up the pretence  of going to the isle of wight ....

mon sept 19th :wake up have breakfast and catch the 9.15am ferry .... costs £45 .....while  on the ferry  i have bought some scrabble letters and this is when  and how the children will be finding out that we are not in fact going to isle of white but that we are off to disney !!  ....hoping to arrive at out hotel mid afternoon we are staying in the val du europe hotel in an apartment costs £288 for 4 nights  choose this as doing this trip on a bit of a budget and like the thought of being close to a huge shopping centre to enable us to make our own breakfasts /take in snacks to the park etc etc  once we have arrived planning on doing a little food shop for this reason then heading up to the disney village that evening for a meal and a look around as we have bought tickets for disney 3 days for the price of two days cost £470 for the five of us  and they kick in on tues 20th .

Tues 20th daughers 10th  birthday  so heading into disney for the day !!!!!!!!!  looking for suggestions of what we can do to make her birthday extra special ?? places to eat etc etc

wed 21st today we will be doing the studios  again any advice on where to eat etc etc 

Thurs 22mnd sons birthday he will be 15 .....will be using our last day of tickets to enjoy both park and may be re do fab rides ..but again would like to treat him to someone nice to eat .

Fri 23rd ...will be leaving to travel home on the 2pm ferry back to south wales .....we are looking for suggestions on where to stay half way between getting off the ferry in dover and south wales ...we would like an over night stay somewhere ...then plan on staying in this area and doing something on the saturday with the children .


thanks so much for reading .....feeling very excited and cant wait to reveal the surprise to them all please how does this trip sound to you all ?  will take all comments and advise you can offer also first time in husband driving so any driving tips greatfully received  too

Many thanks cant wait to hear your replies 

[daddyof2]

I'd recommend you read the dining section and look at the menus on the dlpguide site before making too many decisions. There's no definitive answer on where's "best" to eat, but your children are old enough to enjoy some of the table service restaurants with good theming - walts, blue lagoon in the main park and Bistrot chez remy in the studios. Character dining isn't dirt cheap but is fun for all ages so consider cafe mickey, inventions and auberge de cendrillon. You can ask for birthday cakes in most of the restaurants. I will repeat what I always say - if you want to eat somewhere in particular on a particular day, book in advance.

[dlpowl]

Hi there,

Have you actually telephoned Disney and got a quote?  Or have you already booked your ferry, hotel and park tickets?

The only reason I ask is that your park tickets and accommodation are costing you over £650 and that's before you start buying food.  And you're only getting 3 days in the park.

I've paid £1080 for the same time of year, for 5 of us, staying at Davy Crockett, and we are there for 7 days and we got the half board meal plan thrown in free and they offered me a free ferry crossing too!  So all I will need on top of my holiday cost is a bit of spending money for merchandise and the odd snack.   Staying offsite doesn't always work out cheaper, especially of they're still doing the free half board meal plan.  Even one meal out at DLP for a family of five is going to cost at least €100, unless you want to eat a sandwich or McDonald's.  It is very expensive to eat out so when Disney are giving you free meals included it's a real money saver.

If you haven't already booked then I would definitely ring them 0800 169 0737, and just check it all out.  Xx

[polar vixen]

I second that. good adVice

[JAYNEYJAY]

No we havent rang disney but thats a great deal that you had including all your food and a free ferry too ...I will deffo take a look ferrys not booked yet anyway and the hotel can be cancelled as booked on booking.com thanks so much for the advice .

[polar vixen]

also ready to play around on disneylandparis.co.uk you can easily see alternative hotels etc.  sometimes the more expensive hotels actually work out cheaper!  but you do have top phone up to Book yup get the free ferry too.

[dlpowl]

I would definitely ring them, they are really good at finding the best value deal.

Staying onsite also gives you perks such as the early magic hours which allows Disney hotel guests access to the Disneyland park at 8am, 2 hours before it opens to the public. 

When you're staying in a Disney hotel, the day you arrive is the first day of your park tickets so your plan to stay overnight in Dover before is ideal.  Get a really early ferry and then you've got approximately 3 hours to drive to Disney when you get to France.  As for driving, it's so easy, it's all motorway and they're not busy at all, it's not like here.  Even in the mornings when people are going to work, the roads are absolutely fine.  Remember to consult the AA website though because you have to carry certain safety equipment in the car for France such as a high vis jacket for every passenger and a warning triangle etc. 

I know you plan to go by ferry but if your budget will stretch, have you considered the euro tunnel?  We've done both, we did the ferry first, but then we used the euro tunnel and I've never looked back!  It is soooo easy and so quick - 25 minutes!  It is more expensive, we paid £130 return, but it's worth it to me because it's so much quicker and simpler than the ferry.  We are on a budget but I still turned down the offer of a free ferry from Disney - that's how much I love the euro tunnel!  Hahaaa!   I was sceptical the first time we used it because I didn't know what to expect but I wish we had done it from the first trip instead of spending nearly 3 hours on a swaying ferry.   For us, it's the difference between arriving at Disney at 10am on our first day (we would be in the park by 11am) or arriving at 1pm (and getting into the park at 2pm).   It also means we can stay much later on our last day - we leave around 7pm to catch a 11pm eurotunnel.   So as well as being simpler and quicker, using the eurotunnel equates to at least another 6 hours in the parks which we wouldn't have if we were going on the ferry.   Just something to think about because it's stuff like this that you don't realise until you've been.

With you having 3 kids (like us), Davy Crockett ranch will probably be your cheapest accommodation, it's about a 10 minute drive away, but it has a pool and the cabins give you more space than the hotel rooms and they have 2 bathrooms which is a plus!  I don't know about your kids, but mine have a talent for all wanting to use the toilet at the same time so having 2 is great!

If you have the half board meal plan, you get a breakfast bag each morning which has stuff in like milk, cereal, baguettes, jam etc, basically a continental breakfast.   A great tip someone gave me was to take your own breakfast stuff with you to France and then take your Davy Crockett breakfast bag into the parks with you and have that for lunch instead!  You're not allowed to take massive picnics into the parks but they know it's your Disney breakfast bag and they will let you take it in.  So if you bring cereals, fruit, brioches (or whatever you like for breakfast) with you from the uk, then the breakfast bag covers your lunch which saves you money and saves you making sandwiches every morning to take with you.  Also, take snacks if your kids eat them, such as crisps and fruit etc.  There is a supermarket but it always seems a waste of precious Disney time to me, I'd rather take it with me in the car and not spend my holiday time in a supermarket when I could be meeting Mickey!

Hope that all helps and that you get a good price from Disney.  Come back and let us know what you do! x

[JAYNEYJAY]

the eurptunnel is only working out at around £30 more than the ferry so we may now do this instead i rang disney for a quote we had a quote for the davy crocket ranch , free ferry and half board for the 4 nights plus 5 days of tickets for the parks at £1248.

I added up our diy plan and its £968 for the hotel, tickets (buy 2 days get a day free) so 3 days of tickets, ferry, and overnight stay in dover .

so a difference of £280 ......which would be half board for the 5 of us ..so yep its a great deal, a fab deal really  ..my main concern though is we are doing this on a very tight budget and with me booking sepreate is that im am recovering from 2 major operations and im off work at the moment(I am a nurse) ...so at least i can book things and pay for them as i get the money with disney and with it being this close what sort of deposit would i cbe looking at and how soon would it need to be paid

This is the only thing putting me off booking ....as with the diy plan we dont pay the hotel till we get there  and like i said can book and pay for other things as we get the money xx

Any advice ?

[dlpowl]

We are going on 11th sept and have to pay our balance by 3rd July so if you're going on the 19th sept then your balance would be due around 11th July.

I know what you're saying about paying the hotel on arrival but another way to look at it is that you'll also have to find all your spending money at the same time too.  At least if you've paid for all your holiday by 11th July, the pressure is off because all you've got to find is a bit of spending money for things you might want in the shops.

If you can, I'd really try to book with Disney because of the free half board (which I forgot to say also includes a teatime treat of a hot or cold drink and a snack every afternoon - this is a nice little pick me up and again, it saves you money).  We've been to Disney both with and without the half board option and when you're a large family, on a budget, it's an absolute nightmare trying to find somewhere to eat that's not going to break the bank.   The standard buffet restaurants work out at over €100 per family and there's no way we could afford that every night so we end up with sandwiches or McDonald's, which gets very tiresome and is obviously, seriously unhealthy!   I really can't stress enough how thankful you will be for those half board meal vouchers - and don't forget you can visit the more expensive places like Cafe Mickey (where you meet characters) and Bistro Chez Remy and all you pay is the difference between the value of the voucher and the total cost of the bill.   We could never afford to eat at these places without the free half board.   If you want to eat at cafe Mickey though, ring about 2 months before and make a reservation as it gets very busy, as do all the table service restaurants.  You need to book them all in advance if you want to eat in them.  We are doing Chez Remy and Cafe Mickey, but eating at the standard buffets all the other nights for which our vouchers will cover the total cost.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, if you can get out of bed early and get to the park for 8-8.30am, you can get to meet some characters and go in some rides before the parks get busy.  This is another great perk.