Itinerary Advice: Paris/Normandy/Disneyland

uncpauper,
Best of luck at Disneyland on day one. You know yourself and your family best regarding jet lag, etc. If you are coming from the US East Coast it is possible. Re day 2 (Sunday), I would definitely take a train to Bayeux (maybe catch a nap on the train), but there will be a train change, and that day may be mostly lost to check-out, travel, and check-in, leaving you only one full day in Normandy. If you get there early enough on Sunday you may be able to see the not-to-be-missed tapestry, and maybe the cathedral. That leaves a full day to take a tour of the DDay sights. If you get there too late on Sunday, take a half-day tour on Monday and spend the other half in Bayeux. Stay a second night in Bayeux and leave for Paris as early as you can on Tuesday morning (day 4). That leaves you Paris to enjoy for the rest of your trip. (A mid-stay from Paris to Bayeux for one overnight wastes a lot of time with the backtracking. Your first idea seems best to me.)
Be sure to check out your trains and connections from DLand to Normandy. See SNCF website to plug in some of your travel.
Bonne chance!

Hitting Disney on the day you arrive in Europe (assuming you’re coming from North America) sounds like hell on earth to me, and I love Disney. I would start in Normandy and plan to spend two nights there. Do the tour on your full day in Normandy. If you have the energy and interest, you can see the tapestry the day you land. Or you could go to the museum, although it’s generally better to be outdoors to help you stay awake.

Spend the next five days in Paris.

On your last full day, take an early train to Disneyland and enjoy the park. Spend your eighth night there. Then the next morning, you have a quick and easy train ride to the airport.

uncpauper,
Carroll has a great suggestion!

I agree with the above, make Disneyland your last full day and night, and easy hop to CDG on getaway day...

Frankly, I think you are splitting up an 8 day trip a little too much, especially in November with much shorter daylight hours. Assuming your kids have never been to Paris, I would devote the entire first week to Paris, and then do Disneyland on the last day, or make it a day trip from Paris during that week...and depending on how early your Sunday return flight to US is, I would consider spending the final night at a CDG hotel...

Thanks to all for your input so far!

I actually did originally consider Carroll's suggestion. My concern is doing the Normandy full day tour the day after arrival. On our last two international trips, we all crashed hard that first night, and getting up and going early the next morning was tough. I'm a little concerned my kids won't absorb as much on the Normandy trek in that part of it...

And yes, point well taken about splitting it up too much. Normandy is a lot to add, I know. It's easy to say "we'll save it for the next trip" but realistically not sure when that would be.

We're still considering the whole thing, and I do love the idea of a week in Paris. But my older son in particular is very interested in WW2, and having visited Dachau and the beach in Anzio, Italy, I think it would be a nice continuation of his real-world experiences. Nothing is set in stone though, so I truly appreciate all of the feedback!

If you want to do it ALL, I think Carroll's suggestion makes it the easiest. I do get your reservations on the first full day overload, but I think that could be mitigated by how you act on your arrival day. Try to stay awake, wander about the town, pop into the cathedral or even do that tapestry museum if you seem up for it. I think a smaller town like Bayeux might be calm enough to not overload you on arrival and allow you to grab an early dinner (probably 7ish?) and head to bed afterwards. If you get in bed earlier, in theory you should be able to sleep more....but you know your family the best.

I had the same concern as you about the D-Day tour on your first full day. Ideally, starting in Paris would be the best, because you would have more flexibility as you adjust to the time change. The problem is that it’s tough to squeeze in two different places after Paris. Honestly, I would forget Disneyland if it were me. Normandy is something special and a wonderful experience for kids, especially your son who has the interest. You can do Disney in the US. I’m a bit of a Disney freak, but in a short trip to France, I’d skip it. Now if your kids are dying to go… Well, that’s tough one.

Thanks, Carroll! Very good points, but the trip is part of a “double digits” birthday for the youngest and Disney is a must-do :-) We’re excited to compare the parks in another country! But that’s why I also figured we’d do it first on what’s otherwise sometimes a throwaway day. We’ll power through and enjoy what we can, then move on!

We are now giving some consideration to dropping Normandy though, and saving for a future trip when we can spend more time there. I’m not sure where we’ll land on this, because I do think it will be very meaningful. But I can also absolutely make a case for a whole week in Paris, as others have said. So I continue to appreciate all of this feedback as we evaluate!!

I can appreciate having Disney as a must-do, but is a Disney hotel a must-do? Disneyland is easy to visit as a day trip from Paris. That's what most people do.
If you really want to stay at a Disney hotel, and do not want to do Normandy with jetlag, you could do CDG -> Paris -> Normandy -> Disneyland -> CDG.
Normandy to Disneyland is not hard; the RER A to Disneyland is a 7 min walk or 1-stop metro ride from St Lazare station where the Normandy trains arrive.

Balso makes a good point, I do love me some magic, but I am doing DLP from Paris this summer. Just make sure you are able to take advantage of the bonuses of staying on property, like EMH and the like, if not, then staying in Paris and just making it a long day might be easier logistically. I am sad we don't get EMH this time, but we will make it work!

Definitely good points. One challenge is that in November, the park closes pretty early on the weekdays. We certainly could do it as a daytrip, but I’m not exactly sure what we gain by doing so since we’d spend the entire day in the park anyway.

And frankly, staying at Disneyland is cheaper than staying in Paris :) So that’s another reason we were looking at the package this way.

Very good point about using the benefits if we do stay on property. The 1 night stay includes 2 park days (whether you want it or not!) so we thought we’d go Saturday, go back for a few hours Sunday morning if desired, and then head out.

Balso, thanks for those logistics in the train from Normandy to Disneyland. In whatever direction we choose, that’s helpful info to have!!

Those 2 park days were definitely in my mind thinking about the benefits.....if its cheaper (and especially without the FP or LL like thingy I can't remember the name of), then having more than just one day might give reason to do it (as I would lean toward getting the pass if I was just going one day, but if you had EMH for two-it would be a REALLY early morning that first day)......

Ah yes, I hadn’t even gotten as far as considering the ride strategy. Definitely a factor in the 1-day cost. With the bonus 2nd morning, we could hit anything we don’t see the first day. My kids are troopers when it comes to Disney :-)

The 1-day tickets and hours aren’t yet released for November, so I’m speculating based on past info that suggests it could close at 7pm. That’s why I’ve been stuck on going on a Saturday. But if the parks are actually open until 9 or 10 midweek, that could change our plans!

Going to Disneyland on your first day sounds exhausting to all of us who are now older, (maybe Disney'd out!) don't have young kids, etc. But, you have a bday kid who wants to go to Disney Paris, so go! Our son and his girlfriend just went to Tokyo Paris. and since they both grew up in LA, it's not like they haven't been to Disneyland hundreds of times. And my son was at first reluctant to "waste" a day in Japan, but they said it was fun to see all of the differences and not feel the pressure of "we must see/ride everything." Your kids aren't toddlers, (which would be difficult) so I'd just go with the attitude that we go and explore, and when we are all too exhausted, we leave!

I would imagine if you took the all day WW2 tour as your first stop, you would have two kids who would only want to sleep in the tour van, and be too tired to listen because taking in all of that information is wonderful, but sort of puts you in a lull if you are tired and jet lagged.