Making A Reservation Online VS Phone

After reading a few websites, and checking out a few travel reviews, Allison and I were prepared to get started on actually making reservations for our stay at Disneyland Paris.  One of the best sites that seemed to give a candid review of the hotels in the Disney Paris resort area is the Disney Tourist blog. Our first bit of research we focused on how important it was for us to stay on property VS staying off property.  Staying on property at Disney Paris has many of the same benefits that you get as staying on property at Disney World.  Proximity to the parks is the best advantage, since one of the hotels is actually part of the entrance to one of the parks.  There's also the extra magic hours, these allow you to come to the park early or stay late if you're staying on property.  The only real disadvantage is price, but since we're only staying at Disney for a few days, we figured it was worth the money.

We made a list of the hotels we wanted to stay at listing our preferred down to our least preferred.  Our first choice was the Sequoya Lodge, followed by the New York Hotel. We then went to the Disneyland Paris website ready to make our reservations.  The first thing we noticed about the site was that it doesn't really allow for any flexibility as far as staying at the hotel and getting tickets to go to the parks.  After a quick phone call we learned that if you're staying at one of the hotels the ticket is attached to the price of the room, and you can't separate it.  This is fine, most of the time, but if you're arriving late or have to leave early it might mean paying for a day at the park that you cannot use. So we adjusted our schedule, and proceeded. We managed to pick our first choice of hotel, the Sequoya Lodge, for the days we wanted, but every time Allison tried to pay, she got an error message.  The error messages were both nerve wracking and annoying, so Allison decided to call the reservation number to try and figure out what went wrong, this was the best decision of the night.

Allison called the reservation line and a lovely lady picked up the phone.  Allison explained the situation and instantly the lovely lady on the other end discovered that due to this error and our many attempts to fix it, we had booked the trip twice.  It took a bit of working through things over the phone, but it was fixed and our trip was locked down, but this wasn't the only part of the conversation.  While waiting for the mess to get cleaned up, the lovely operator went over some of the details of our trip with Allison on the phone.  She didn't really try to sell anything else, but instead gave us some valuable information. She informed Allison about all of the ride and park closures that would be happening while were there.  She also got into a conversation with Allison and managed to find out it was are anniversary trip.  She asked if there was anything else she could do to make our anniversary more special.  Allison told her that we liked extra pillows, which we do.

I'm not saying that we're going to get anything special when we get there, and there's no need really, but it was really nice of her to offer.  Allison actually stayed on the phone with the nice lady for a while, she was a fountain of information, and she really put us at ease about our trip plans.  We went from being fairly excited about this trip, to being really excited, all because of this lady on the phone.

Since the call we've received all of the notification that our problem has been fixed, and that our trip is ready to go.  After this experience my best advice to anybody planning a trip to Disney Paris is call to make your reservation.  The website is just not that great (either for reservations or for information), but the folks answering the phones are fantastic.  While the operators may answer the phone in French, many are multilingual, and so far all of them have spoken English.  Best of all, if Allison did try and communicate in French, they didn't stop her.  They would just slow down and let her practice her French.

Disney Paris An Overview

A little over a year ago I announced that our trip to Disney World was going to be postponed for a few years.  Just to bring you up speed Allison and I at the time lived in Greece and thought that we would be returning home soon.  As it turns out Allison got another assignment and we weren't going to be near North America, so we decided to push back our epic Disney World adventure till we got back.  Then, a few months ago it came to light that Allison and I would actually be really close to Paris France at the time of our anniversary, and we then thought it would be really cool to head to Paris Disney instead.  We did a bit of research, but only recently can we officially say that the trip is on.  So for the next few weeks' I'm going to write a bit about planning our trip to the happiest place in Europe.

If you're not familiar with the Disney parks in Paris, then today I'm going to bring you up to speed... or at least up to the speed that I am at.  The Disney park in Paris opened as Euro Disney back in 1992, but has since changed its name to Disneyland Paris.  The park was an absolute flop when it opened, and has continued to garner the reputation as being an economic failure.  Since I'm not an economist I'm not really sure if that's true, but as a tourist I can tell you that it's still open, and still updating attractions regularly.  Most people assume that the park consists only of one Disneyland like park, but that is also not true.  There are in fact two parks Disneyland Paris and Disney Studios.  There are also several Disney hotels (themed around American style locations) and a Downtown Disney place for entertainment and restaurants.

While the park doesn't have the history of Disneyland in California, or the sheer size of Disney World, it still seems like a pretty fun place to check out.  It has a few attractions that are unique to the Paris parks, and there are a few classic attractions found at other parks as well.  I assume that many of the attractions will be in French, but I also assume that they're going to try and bring in outside guests, so there'll also be a few things in English as well.  It doesn't really matter to us as Allison and I both speak French fairly well.

Our plan is to visit the parks in the spring for two or three days, this works with our Anniversary, as well as other plans we have in the area.  Since we don't live in Europe or North America, our planning is all going to be done from a long distance.  This is going to be challenging I'm sure, particularly with long distance charges and time differences.  Research wise I've found a few interesting websites on the subject of Disneyland Paris:

There's the official Disneyland Paris website.  It's OK, but lacks a lot of detail.

The best site I've seen is the Disneyland Paris Guide.  Other than the regular updates (the food menus are a few years old) I would say that this is a much better site to research your trip.  It's even more professional than the actual Disneyland Paris site.

Character Central is a great site for all the parks.  While it doesn't just focus on Disneyland Paris, it at the very least looks at it.

When you search the internet for Disney parks other than Disney World or Disneyland California, you really don't get much.  Maybe I'll change that, but probably not much.

As for videos online, I've come across one video that interested me, it's a copy of the official tourist promotional DVD from 2005:



So we're off an running, for the next few weeks I'll be talking a bit more about organizing our trip, what we expect, and what I've learned about this off the beaten path Disney park.

Epic Disney Update (Yet Another Twist)

It's been a while since I've posted anything on this blog, mostly because I thought that we wouldn't be going to Disney in another 2 or 3 years. It seemed like I'd run out of things to write about in that long time.  It's safe to say that we're not really planning anything for that trip as of yet.  But there's a twist, something new has come up.  Since we're not going to be anywhere near Florida for our anniversary, Allison and I started thinking about what to do anyways.  Then it occurred to us, why not see if there's another Disney park that could visit on our 10th anniversary.  As it turns out we're planning on being in the UK around the time of our anniversary already, and Paris is only a quick train trip away.  So it looks like we're going to have a bonus (maybe more awesome than epic) trip to a Disney park.

So for the next few months I'll be posting a few things about how we're planning our Awesome Disneyland Paris Adventure.  We're still trying to figure out the logistics at this point, but it's looking pretty good so far.

Is Star Wars Land A Reality?

One of the question marks I have about new attractions to Disney World is the possibility of Star Wars Land.  Since George Lucas sold the franchise to Disney, rumours have been flying around about the possibility of Star Wars Land.  Presently there are two Star Wars themed parts to the park, one is an attraction and one an event.

The attraction is fairly old-fashioned in concept in comparison with most modern theme park rides.  It is a motion simulator, called Star Tours, which takes you on an adventure through the Star Wars universe.  One interesting thing about this ride is that it was one of the first simulator rides of its kind, but there's a new feature to this ride.  Recently they've updated the ride to allow each experience on the ride to be different.  So each time you ride the Star Tours experience, you travel to different parts of the Star Wars universe.

The event, which takes place annually at Disney Hollywood studios, is the Star Wars Weekend.  Once a year Star Wars fans, as well as Star Wars celebrities, meet for a weekend dedicated to all things Star Wars.  There are special shows, exhibits, and meet and greets throughout the park.  It has become one of the staple events at Disney World and attracts many fans from all over the world.

At this point I've heard two different stories about what kind of expansion might be coming that involve Star Wars.  Some say that they're going to take out several attractions at Disney Hollywood Studios, and build a land from scratch dedicated to Star Wars.  Others have said that they may refurbish Tomorrow Land at the Magic Kingdom.  At this point I'm sure designs are in the works, and I can only hope that it'll be up and running by the time we go.  Allison has already made up an expression for what might happen if so, she calls herself a “Star Wars widow".

Where We Stand in The New Year

With our great life's change, the date of our Epic Disney Vacation has been delayed for a few years. Don't get me wrong, this trip is still going to happen, the change is not a financial problem, nor have Allison and I grown apart.  We've moved the date for great news, and we're not having kids either.  It's simply one of life's changes that make it geographically difficult to get to Florida for our anniversary.

The biggest change that comes with this rescheduling is the chance for a date (time of year) change as well.  The initial plan was to visit Disney World for our 10th wedding anniversary, so our date was fairly locked.  Now that we're not going to make that date for sure, we're more open to the idea of moving the time of year we're thinking of going.  September seems like a good month to go, and we could tie it into Allison's birthday.  We'll have to do a little more research on this topic now that the time of year is open.

Finally with this extension comes the realization that some of the new attractions that would not have been open yet, will be ready to visit.  The new Fantasy Land will be running at full steam, and in three years shouldn't be as busy.  Avatar Land should be finished by then as well, something I was a little disappointed that I thought I might miss.  Disney Springs should also be up and running by then, and that could influence our hotel choice, depending on what they open there.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with this blog.

Another Change Of Plans

So we thought that we would be heading to Disney in the summer of 2015, well that plan has changed.  Due to life getting in the way, our plans have been put off for about 2.5 years.  It has most to do with the fact that we wont be living in North America at that time, and the commute isn't possible.  I'm not sure what's going to happen to this blog for the next little while, but I don't think I'll be posting weekly.  I'm certainly not finished with this blog since I want to wrap it up with our visit.  I'm going to think about it and wait till the new year to make any final decisions.

Chris

Disney Vacation Club Point Buying, is It a Sham?

As you would expect, there's been a change of plans with our hotel yet again. Since the price of the hotel is the biggest expense of a Disney trip, you can imagine that a lot of thought has to go into it.  This change however is less about which resort we want to stay at and more to do with how we want to stay at it.  I read an interesting article about buying points to use in Disney Vacation Club (DVC) properties.  In other words, for a lot less money, we can stay at a DVC room in the same resort.

I should mention that this isn't as simple as it sounds.  There are a few differences between a regular room at Disney and a DVC room.  The difficult part of this deal is setting up the room.  To do this we have to arrange the purchase of DVC points from a DVC member.  Fortunately there are travel agents who specialize in this and can arrange it for us, but it involves going through third parties.  The other disadvantage I can see is that you will get fewer visits from housekeeping (or as they call it “mousekeeping”).  Frankly we're not dirty people, and I think we'll be fine with just one or two visits throughout our stay.

The advantages of using the Disney villas are pretty good.  The rooms are a little bigger, and include a small kitchenette in the studio suits as well.  The rooms are located within the Disney resorts and seem to include all of the perks that come with staying in a regular room.  Finally, the price is much lower than the standard rooms, we stand to save about 100 bucks a night.

I imagine that most people don't go with this plan because of the inconvenience that comes with setting things up through a third party.  I'm just hoping that there isn't some detail that we've missed that's going to mess up our plans.  It's a bit of a risk, but if it works out we'll save a few bucks.