Disneyland Paris how can US folks book and get any deals?

Let's see, I am going to Europe to go to Disneyland???? Why? You are allotted only a small amount of time in your time bank, use it wisely.

Yes I know most people are in two camps when it comes to Disney. Either love it or hate it. (Maybe most are actuallly in the tolerate camp) The people that live in my house fall into the love camp. They have drank the Kool-aid. Since this trip is with the family including two of the younger set this is a group trip. Most of the trip will be tours, musuems, and other activities. I hope two days will be at Disney. I think it is a fair use of our time and I personally would also love to see Disney Paris. Hope that answers your questions Jerry in CA. If anyone has any ideas on how we can get some good deals there I would love to hear them. Thanks.

@Jerry - careful! You don't know the whole story. Aside from the fact that they may just like the Disney experience, there can be any number of other reasons. In my case, we went there on the back end of an 8-night trip to the Loire Valley - partly because we are Disney fans, but mainly because we were using it as an incentive/reward for our seven-year old daughter who had been so patient and well-behaved through six days of chateaux, shopping, wineries, etc. It all comes down to personal likes/dislikes! I'm not proud to admit it, but I have been to a (gasp) Burger King while in Europe, but it was because I had been leading a group of high schoolers and after 6 days of local cuisine, they wanted an American fix! By the way, LA, don't expect the same sort of Disney experience that you may have in Florida. James may be able to expand or contradict based on his experience, but we didn't quite perceive the same level of service/warm-and-fuzziness that we have on NUMEROUS trips to Florida. Guess it's a French thing! <GRIN> I'm not saying don't go, I'm just suggesting that you be forewarned!

First, I'd like to apologize for the abuse you have or will receive for committing the "crime" of wanting to visit an amusement park while you are on vacation:) Euro Disney is Europe's most popular attraction and well worth your time. The good news is that the Euro Disney folks have now reintroduced a US web site that allows Americans to book packages again. Simply head to: http://us.disneylandparis.com and you should be able to enjoy some of the same deals that UK residents get. Be advised that there are two parks at the EuroDisney complex with separate admission: Disneyland Paris (which is Magic Kingdom type park), and Studios Park (which is a scaled down version of the one in Orlando). They are both worth a visit, the latter has more of the high-adrenaline rides like the Tower of Terror and the Rockin Roller Coaster. Enjoy your visit!!!!

Thanks M.Schneider and Jonathan. I knew I would get a lot of abuse for asking the question on this forum. On other forums I get abused when I say I am going on a RS tour. It just depends where you are. Yes this trip to Disney is going to be the start or end of our trip in Paris of which most is a RS tour and time in Paris with the kids. Thanks for the info on the US site. They are not yet allowing checkin's for our dates but the UK site is. I am hopeful they will open up before all the rooms are gone for our time. Maybe we might get the offer they are getting. 25% off the room rate. I have heard on other forums it is not the same as the US Disney and found out it is not even the same company that owns them. We still want to go. Some rides we heard are actually better. Pirates being one of them.
Thanks for all the advice.

You're very welcome LA. The parks are indeed run by a different entity, and aren't as efficient as the their US counterparts. But having been to the Disney parks in Tokyo and Hong Kong, the US parks are inferior in terms of service to the Asian parks...so everything is relative I guess:) But most Disney fanatics agree that architecturally the DL Paris park is the best of the bunch; Cinderella's Castle is stunning!

Michael is spot on about the Castle (make sure you go in the dungeon if it is open). The rides that I thought were better than in Florida or Anaheim were Pirates (darker and a little scarier), Space Mountain (based on Jules Verne's Journey To The Moon and more like Rock N Roller Coaster in FL), and Thunder Mountain (the tracks move during the earthquake and the dark areas are darker). Also, I liked being able to drink wine in the park which you can't do in Florida. If your kids are up for it, another park that offers more of a French experience is Parc Asterix - about 30 miles north of Paris, it is based on the Belgian comic books that take place in France (i.e. Gaul) during Roman times. They have more of a focus on roller coasters than Disney. Their website is at http://www.parcasterix.fr/en.

My husband and I (fifty-somethings) went to Disneyland Paris on our first trip to Paris two years ago. We are Disney fanatics and really enjoyed it. We took the train out from Paris, which is really easy. Then on our last night, we stayed at Disney's Hotel Cheyenne on our last night because it is so fast and easy to get to the airport from there. One thing to be aware of is that the hotels (at least the low end hotels) are not on par with the ones in Florida. It might make a good start to your trip because after being in Paris a while, it's kind of jarring to go to Disneyland. It has such an American feel. But we still had a ball and enjoyed seeing how the park differs from Disneyworld and Disneyland in the US. Sorry I can't tell you how to get a good deal. It seemed very expensive to me.

There's really no such thing as a 'great package deal' like in Disneyland or Disneyworld. We're constantly getting onslaught with e-mails offering discounts to the other two parks, but rarely get them from DisneyParis. A great way to save money is stay at one of the local hotels right off the Disney hotels. There's a few chain hotels with great rates, plus you may be able to find something at the Thomas Cook there (we got a random, special deal there once). I've found that booking your hotel and tickets separately are better price-wise than taking the packages offered on the DisneyParis website.

That worked a treat James - only one piece of 'unsolicited advice', must be a first.

Thanks for all the helpful info. I want to claify I understand Disney is expensive. Currently the UK site is offering 25% off the room rate but US types can not take advantage of it. On the US site you can not even get a room for the dates I want to visit yet. (It is late Nov.) I was only asking if anyone had found a way to do this in the Disney system. Honestly I think Disney is missing the boat by not promoting to all the thousands of US folks that go to Paris each year. I understand they might not need their business. Thanks

How's your French? Because any of the deals that come up in French are available to everyone. Right now, if you click that your language is French and you're from "Ile de France" you will find an offer for 30€ tickets for weekk days and 40€ tickets for week ends. (Billet Eté Francillien.) There's also a current promotion where you must book by July 10th and receive 20% off room and children under 7 are free. In the past, people have booked packages through Expedia. I have no idea if this is still available. Like others have mentioned, be prepared that this is NOT the same Disney experience as you'll find elsewhere. We were huge Disney fans. Lived 1000 miles away from WDW, and yet had annual passes at one point. (I'm providing that for background for what comes next) So it seemed natural that when we moved less than an hour from DIsneyland Paris we would buy annual passes. A month ago, we let those passes expire - despite being offered 18 months for the price of 12 if we renewed. It is hard to find the "magic" there. We still had good visits, but never a magical visit like the ones we had at WDW.

LA – We returned from a 9 day trip to Paris in April and on the 2nd to last day we took our 8 year old to Disneyland Paris. Dina is correct in "not so magical" as the WDW in Florida, but Disney none the less. Lines are very long and the dragon under the castle was closed for renovations so were most of the rides. The height restrictions are much different in that my son could not ride the Indian Jones Ride because he was too short. We started with the Hollywood part 1st because there is a new area of Toy Story rides. If you choose to stay in Paris and take the RER to DLP, you can buy discount ticket at the Disney Store in Paris or at the Customer Service desk at the CDG airport. Good luck and enjoy.

I have gone TWICE (gasp) Once on Christmas Day (which was very fun, lots of parades, families out etc..) and once on a random visit. IMHO the park is visually stunning, much nicer then anything in the US. I would skip the Studios. It was also visually stunning.. as in "ugly" "Gee honey, look at all those big box buildings" :) Go to the park and enjoy. Try to eat as little as possible. How you can be in France and serve food that bad is beyond me but.... Vacations should have something for everyone. If your kids want a dose of Disney go. Heck, Rick even has it as a "day trip" in his book!