* ~** ThemeParks megathread **~**

yellow hen

@dodge and @fdevine, thanks for those replies. I love the look (and price) of the Davy crockett ranch but as the kids as so small, I think we'll be grateful to be able to go back and forth to the room during the day. Breakfast prices are bananas ...what do you all do for food? The 2yr old will need to eat earlyish so self catering would be ideal? Is there such a thing? Or what do other people do?

XsApollo

Was there in July , and a few years ago for New Years.
2 nights is a short amount of time, you need 3 nights ideally.
You can spend a full day in Walt Disney studios and 2 in the main park.
We went half board plus the second time we were there and had nothing the first time, just breakfast in the hotel which was rubbish.
Spent a fortune on food the first time.
Half board is well worth it.
You get breakfast in the park and a meal in the park in some of the restaraunts or the village, I wouldn't go again without a meal plan, seems expensive if not on offer but you will definatley spend a lot more if going without it.
We were in Cheyenne and sequoia lodge,
A tip there is a petrol station down the road from sequoia and Cheyenne or beside the Santa Fe.
Stock up there for drinks and plenty of snacks for the park , you will need them and they are much cheaper there.
Also if it's cold we got the kids some skiing suits, the one piece ones which kept them warm and snug all day.

mayo pixiebell

Just wondering what did you do re:food for kids under 3. Did you pay for a full portion or where the restaurants ok with you sharing your food?? My wee fella is fussy and wouldn't eat much but it doesn't give any info for under 3s in DLP

XsApollo

I'm sure it's fine you can share with a toddler, they have kids options in all the restaraunts.

We got meal plan included so had a meal for them anyway, so I usually ate what they didn't :-)

Also there are sit down at a table restaraunts and then their are canteen style where you order and go to a table anywhere they are mainly chips and hotdogs or burgers and drink ,they don't watch who is eating and who isn't.

mayo pixiebell

XsApollo wrote: »

I'm sure it's fine you can share with a toddler, they have kids options in all the restaraunts.

We got meal plan included so had a meal for them anyway, so I usually ate what they didn't :-)

I got a half board but don't think it includes under threes so that's why I wondering

XsApollo

mayo pixiebell wrote: »

I got a half board but don't think it includes under threes so that's why I wondering

Oh ok.
Don't think there would be any problem sharing.
You can order a side dish of chips or potatoes or rice also.

yellow hen

XsApollo wrote: »

Was there in July , and a few years ago for New Years.
2 nights is a short amount of time, you need 3 nights ideally.
You can spend a full day in Walt Disney studios and 2 in the main park.
We went half board plus the second time we were there and had nothing the first time, just breakfast in the hotel which was rubbish.
Spent a fortune on food the first time.
Half board is well worth it.
You get breakfast in the park and a meal in the park in some of the restaraunts or the village, I wouldn't go again without a meal plan, seems expensive if not on offer but you will definatley spend a lot more if going without it.
We were in Cheyenne and sequoia lodge,
A tip there is a petrol station down the road from sequoia and Cheyenne or beside the Santa Fe.
Stock up there for drinks and plenty of snacks for the park , you will need them and they are much cheaper there.
Also if it's cold we got the kids some skiing suits, the one piece ones which kept them warm and snug all day.

Ok so we're looking at booking Sequioa. EVen though I can see the prices for the half board, it won't let me book. Coincidentally just how expensive is it to eat there? And what sort of food is breakfast? The half board is £35stg per adult per day - seems very extravagant for a bit of breakfast and lunch. The 4yr old would be £24stg :eek::eek::eek:

naughtysmurf

We'll be traveling with older kids, planning on heading to Val d'europe on a few evenings for evening meals for hopefully better choice, quality & price & picking up breakfast stuff in the supermarket there, from what I can figure the breakfast options onsite are limited/poor, is this correct?

I'm not familiar with DLP dining plan but for WDW buying the dining plan would rarely be less expensive than paying out of pocket

mayo pixiebell

XsApollo wrote: »

Oh ok.
Don't think there would be any problem sharing.
You can order a side dish of chips or potatoes or rice also.

Great. Side dish of rice is good actually. Thanks

XsApollo

mayo pixiebell wrote: »

Great. Side dish of rice is good actually. Thanks

Well that depends on the restaraunt,
I think the pirates of the Caribbean was that type of food,
Other restaraunts are steakhouses so chips and stuff.

XsApollo

yellow hen wrote: »

Ok so we're looking at booking Sequioa. EVen though I can see the prices for the half board, it won't let me book. Coincidentally just how expensive is it to eat there? And what sort of food is breakfast? The half board is £35stg per adult per day - seems very extravagant for a bit of breakfast and lunch. The 4yr old would be £24stg :eek::eek::eek:

I'm not sure what breakfast is like in the hotels now that you have to pay, maybe it's different now.
But when it was free it was like a continental breakfast, bread , fruit , Nutella.
The breakfast in the park in the morning on the half board was.
Tea, coffee or chocolate + plain or chocolate croissant + bacon and egg sandwich thing + a juice.
The kids was similar minus the bacon egg if I remember correctly.

I think it could of been 14.99 or 17.99euro for the breakfast if you were paying

Breakfast closes at 9.30 I think in the parks so you need to be up early to get there.
I actually went down myself 2 mornings and brought the food back to the room.
Because we would of been late.

Dinner was starter main and dessert and drink.
They were meal options for halfboard choice is limited in each restaraunt but I remember the price was near 40euro per person.

Depends what you want to eat really.
There is nothing under 10 euro in the park.



Bottle of Coke or water is 3.50
Popcorn or taytos 5 euro , 3.50

The days are long so you will be eating 3 times a day, breakfast ,lunch, dinner.

What we did was
Break fast in the park with voucher , then some food for lunch in one of the chipper style food places, costs about 14 euro for chips burger or hotdog and drink.

And then used the voucher to sit down in a restaraunt for dinner which was needed as you will be glad to sit down and relax :-D

You probably wouldn't need half board for a 4 year old , both mine didn't really eat much of theirs.

fdevine

yellow hen wrote: »

Coincidentally just how expensive is it to eat there?

I did a previous post on restaurants/food options

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=104332136&postcount=1078

Breakfast in any of the hotels, besides Davy Crockett Ranch, is a continental buffet style. The majority of people will help themselves to bread rolls, ham, cheese etc. at breakfast and use it for lunch in the park.

The DLP website has the bulk of the menus available to view online, except the buffets which vary but I believe have a wide choice.

Alternatively the Auchan supermarket in Val d'Europe is 5 minutes away on the train if you want to stock up on treats, snacks & lunch stuff.

irishfeen

Just back from Madrid including a visit to the Warner Brother Theme Park - €38 for bus transfer and entry into the park.

Very impressive place, it was still busy (now only open on Sat/Sun) but nothing like. Some amazing rides, still recovering from a few but there was a great atmosphere there!

Well worth the visit!

dwainec

Does anyone know any sites or operators doing the best deals on Disneyland Paris. Should I stay in a hotel at Disneyland or one a bit away and avail of a bus?

Also should I book a package with hotel flights and tickets or book them separate

Any help of advice appreciated

Skyfloater

Have you searched this forum, this one comes up regularly.

fdevine

dwainec wrote: »

Does anyone know any sites or operators doing the best deals on Disneyland Paris. Should I stay in a hotel at Disneyland or one a bit away and avail of a bus?

Also should I book a package with hotel flights and tickets or book them separate

Any help of advice appreciated

This thread has plently of booking advice and more. There is a search thread function at the top.

To get you started.......

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=104791239&postcount=1095

Moreilly

dwainec wrote: »

Does anyone know any sites or operators doing the best deals on Disneyland Paris. Should I stay in a hotel at Disneyland or one a bit away and avail of a bus?

Also should I book a package with hotel flights and tickets or book them separate

Any help of advice appreciated

book on the disney french website (.fr) i booked flights with aerlingus and the hotel with disney paris website everything came to €720 for 2 adults and two kids total for 3 nights 4 days....

saggycaggy

Moreilly wrote: »

book on the disney french website (.fr) i booked flights with aerlingus and the hotel with disney paris website everything came to €720 for 2 adults and two kids total for 3 nights 4 days....

Well done that's brilliant-what time of year are you going?

bajer101

As per the last couple of posts, there are very good prices on the French and Belgian Disney sites for dates in the February mid-term. Crazy differences.

fdevine

bajer101 wrote: »

As per the last couple of posts, there are very good prices on the French and Belgian Disney sites for dates in the February mid-term. Crazy differences.

As I noted previously it's wise to do your research on this. Not disputing the .fr or other regional sites can be cheaper at times but not always the case in my experience.

We are just back from a 4 night, 5 day stay (1-5 November) and both the .ie site and Breakaway were c. €1000 cheaper than the .fr site

yellow hen

fdevine wrote: »

As I noted previously it's wise to do your research on this. Not disputing the .fr or other regional sites can be cheaper at times but not always the case in my experience.

We are just back from a 4 night, 5 day stay (1-5 November) and both the .ie site and Breakaway were c. €1000 cheaper than the .fr site

Agreed. I think the important point is that you should price compare all sites. We got ours about €400 cheaper on the german Disney site*

*it'll probably turn out that I booked a weekend at Butlins instead as my German is more than a little rusty.

ncmc

As above, price around the different Disney sites, at the top of the page, you change the language from English and it will give you the option of selecting a different country. I did a lot of pricing for me recent trip and the best deal I got was on the French site. The Uk and Irish site tend to have the same deal as each other, but with the exchange rate it's normally a bit cheaper to book through the UK site. The French and German are the other sites that seem to have good deals. The layout of the website are exactly the same so it's easy to book even if you don't speak the language.

In my experience, the non Disney hotels don't work out much cheaper when you consider that you have to buy tickets on top of the hotel price. If you would consider renting a car, we stayed in Davy Crockett Ranch, it's a Disney property but about 10 mins driving from the park. It's very affordable. They have two bed cabins, so lots of space for families and a super pool. Parking is free at the hotel and also in the parks and you can avail of extra magic hours and other Disney perks.

The Davestator

Spent the weekend at Portaventura, Salou.

Far better for grown up kids and adults than disneyland paris and much less Queues compared to this time last year in Paris.

Well worth a visit or a day trip from Barcelona

Damien360

The Davestator wrote: »

Spent the weekend at Portaventura, Salou.

Far better for grown up kids and adults than disneyland paris and much less Queues compared to this time last year in Paris.

Well worth a visit or a day trip from Barcelona

It’s a great place but the queues can be brutal when the weather is sunny. If you get a misty/drizzle day, it’s empty and we managed to do all the big rides 3 times with no queues.

Food is also better than Disney Paris. Transport with public buses is really good also.

Markdmd

Hi I'm travelling to Orlando to Disney world for a week . Just wanto to know if the meal plan is worth it for 300 odd dollars and also is the area safe to walk around at night I'm staying in the resort . And is there shopping outlets close to the resort

naughtysmurf

Markdmd wrote: »

Hi I'm travelling to Orlando to Disney world for a week . Just wanto to know if the meal plan is worth it for 300 odd dollars and also is the area safe to walk around at night I'm staying in the resort . And is there shopping outlets close to the resort

Personally I don't think the meal plan is worth buying, we had it 'free' as part of a Disney package earlier in the year, it's a little restrictive, just buy your food as you need it would be my advice

Disney World is an area of 50 square miles, it has its own transportation system, use that to get around if no car, it's very safe, outside of the parks you won't do a lot of walking

The nearest outlet shopping is the Premium Outlet on Vineland, you will have to drive, Uber or taxi, many others also a bit further away from the Disney area

Markdmd

naughtysmurf wrote: »

Personally I don't think the meal plan is worth buying, we had it 'free' as part of a Disney package earlier in the year, it's a little restrictive, just buy your food as you need it would be my advice

Disney World is an area of 50 square miles, it has its own transportation system, use that to get around if no car, it's very safe, outside of the parks you won't do a lot of walking

The nearest outlet shopping is the Premium Outlet on Vineland, you will have to drive, Uber or taxi, many others also a bit further away from the Disney area

Thank you for the reply just one more question is it possible to fill up 7 days alone in Disney? Thanks again

naughtysmurf

Disney World alone is four theme parks + two water parks so you will easily fill a week, in fact you won't get everything done, are you traveling solo, family group, ages?
Which Disney resort are you staying at?

Markdmd

naughtysmurf wrote: »

Disney World alone is four theme parks + two water parks so you will easily fill a week, in fact you won't get everything done, are you traveling solo, family group, ages?
Which Disney resort are you staying at?

A couple both in our mid twenties just wondering as well is there much of a night life on the resort or is Disney springs the placend to go for that . We are staying at the all star resort

naughtysmurf

Markdmd wrote: »

A couple both in our mid twenties just wondering as well is there much of a night life on the resort or is Disney springs the placend to go for that . We are staying at the all star resort

No, nothing in the way of nightlife in the resort, you'll be heading to Disney Springs for nightlife, its a pretty big area, to be honest I can't really tell you about the late nightlife there as we've had kids in tow, certainly there are bars, restaurants, shopping, cinema complex, our favourite is the House of Blues, you can sit outside while a band play on the porch there are also other live music options, nice area to stroll around

The free Disney buses will run from resort to Disney Springs every 20mins or so, they may not start running to DS until 4pm, not sure, an Uber ride will be approx $12

I recommend you do a little planning if you haven't already done so, as you are staying onsite you can book three fastpasses per day, 60 days ahead of your visit for the length of your stay, this is important for some of the top attractions like Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom which currently has very long standby times but is a must do

You need to set up a mydisneyexperience account in order to do this, download the app to your phone, Disney has decent WiFi, I'd also book restaurants well in advance especially the popular ones, as a Disney resort guest you can reserve a table 180 days in advance of your stay

You can just go with the flow & book nothing in advance but I wouldn't advise it, here is a link to an excellent resource for all things Disney

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/