DLP - newport bay club, christmas - what to do??

[fayeg]

Hey guys,

Im having MAJOR disney withdrawal symptoms and theres no way were gunna be able to afford WDW for a couple of years (as we really wanna stay in a disney hotel next time). We decided to do a little trip to DLP only for about 2nights, 3days. We are desperate to stay in newport bay club as both have been to DLP before and really like the look of it (well we'd prefer the disneyland hotel - but NO CHANCE :wink ) - We havent got loooadsa money to spend so were probs better off staying at one of the more budget hotels maybe? We plan to go at some point during the first two weeks in december.

However - We havent got a clue where to start - what sort of price should we be paying each? How much spending money (in sterling) do you think we will need for three days? Is it really that expensive to go there? are the french really that bad? is it really going to be that unbearably cold?'

eeek! pweeeeeeese help us, im desperate to book this trip - anything to cheer me up at the mo

thankyou

faye x

[faeristar]

hi, i went xmas 2003, it was bitterly cold but wrap up and stop for hot drinks often and you will be fine, the fake snow etc really puts you in the mood, i cant really recommend the newport as we hated it !!i have stayed at the disneyland hotel, cheyenne, newport and we are going to book sequia for jan 2006, i would save some cash and book a cheaper option, i have had tons of recommendations for the sequia , the cheyenne is also v good but its a bit more kid orientated...the french are ok, its not florida but they are fine, we have been 6 times and are going again so it isnt that bad...its disney after all !!!

if you travel on selected dates in jan you get i night free, so maybe the disneyland would be an option if you booked the cheapest package in jan and got extra night free as jan is sooo much cheaper ( and quieter ) anyway ??

good luck xxxxx

[stace]

Hi,

I have been to DLP 3 times and always stayed in the DIsneyland Hotel it is so magical. We always book accomodation seperatly throught Cresta or Disney Direct and flights through Easyjet I priced up for us with easyjet from Liverpool at begin of december and it was £57 each. For the hotel it would probably cost about £700 for both of you, but beteween 11-20th December there is 4for 3 night offer at disneyland hotel or 3for2 at the other disney hotels.

We find the Disney Hotel great in the winter as you can go back whenever you want as it is directly at the entrance to the park.

[fayeg]

thankyou so much, that reply has really helped - I hope you dont mind me asking, why is newport bay not very good? Also, is it still all christmassy in Jan? obviously we would much prefer to go when its cheaper and quieter but I think its kinda gunna be my christmas present from dbf ;) so will probs still go in dec anyway. We did also think of sequia lodge - it does look lovely. Its about the same price as newport bay though isnt it? My dbf stayed in the cheyenne last time he went and didnt like it too much - and if its child orientated - we defo wouldnt like that. Do you know what sort of prices we should be paying? We are really not sure and they seem to vary - it seems like the £300 mark each is the norm, but this seems quite expensive :eek:

thankyou for any help you can give :)
faye

[feathersonline]

We stayed at the Newport Bay once and didn't like it - our room was about 12 miles away from the entrance, down loads of corridors. Although the room itself was great - it was just too far away after walking round the parks all day - we much prefer the Sequoia Lodge...

We've also never had a problem with the French, and didn't think DLP was too expensive either.

Whichever hotel you choose, you'll have a wonderful time..:wink :D

[stace]

Hi,

Just read another thread saying that Tesco Club card points can be used with cresta and are worth 4 times as much. So if you stayed at Disneyland Hotel at £700 it would only cost you £175 in club card vouchers or you can use just some points towards it. (IE 2.50 gives you £10 cresta vouchers)

I have friends who stayed in Newport Bay and they said it was lovely and there are other threads on this site which say they prefer Newport Bay to Disneyland Hotel, each to their own I guess. I love Disneyland Hotel so I can't comment.

Also I don't think its any cheaper if you go in Jan and I prefer to go before christmas as its more special. If you go in december in the cheapest price band and also get a free night offer you should get a good deal - for disney anyway.

When we have been at begin of december it is quiet apart from the weekend so if you go midweek - which will also be cheaper you should be fine.

[KittyKat]

We have stayed at both Newport Bay Club and Sequoia Lodge and we definately preferred NBC. At NBC we paid for a standard room and got a 5th floor direct lake view. At Sequoia Lodge we paid for an upgrade and had a 2nd floor oblique lake view which we could only see though the trees - I really thought it was stretching it calling this a lake view. We paid just under £400 for NBC and just over £500 for Sequoia Lodge both for 3 nights/4 days (also Sequoia Lodge included a couple of character meal bookings). Kids were free both times so cost charged was for two adults.

Kitty

[isanda]

We are one of the families that prefer the NBC over the DLH. When I asked my kids which hotel they wanted to stay in for our January trip they both wanted to stay at NBC. Reasons.....well, the NBC has a much better pool (great when the park hours are reduced in the off season), we thought the DLH pool was a disgrace for the flagship hotel. We have always received better rooms at NBC, with better views and sometimes with a working balcony. We found parts of the DLH grubby and the staff not as helpful as those at the NBC. When we once asked if we could have a table with a bench seat in the restaurant because our DS (aged 3 at the time) had fallen asleep, we were told that they were a restaurant and not a bedroom and would not help. She then proceeded to take us to a table right in the middle of the restaurant with small wire frame chairs just to make sure we were very uncomfortable. The TV in our room did not work and it took us 4 attempts to get it fixed and 2 days to get it fixed. The only plus IMHO is the DLH proximaty to the parks, but we actually enjoy the walk around the lake and through Disney Village, its part of Disneyland Paris' magic for us.

[fayeg]

wow, lots of mixed posts - although all very helpful, im really not sure what to do now eek! im defo certain that i want to go midweek though - although Im not sure dbf's work wil be all too pleased about this :confused2, im going to look into prices today as well - does anybody know any good websites to try, or is it best to book through disney or a travel agent? Im so sorry for all the questions - i just really have no idea? :blush:

thankyou sooooooooo much for all the help so far :angel:

faye

[stace]

Theres not really any websites where you can get prices online only disney direct for the hotel price only you could look on teletext but the companies on teletext only use what the travel agents use so will probably still give you more or less same price. Cresta is normally the cheapest company to book with, you can ring them direct on 0870 161 0910

[BevS97]

If you want a budget trip, what about the Holiday Inn? It's not a disney hotel but it;s very very nice, the pool is lovely, and it's a lot cheaper than either of the 2 you are considering.

[goodevans]

Hi Faye !
I understand your dilemma! Sometimes you can get confused with too much info!

We went to DLP,staying in the NBC, last Xmas for 3 days(Christmas eve,Christmas Day and Boxing day).

It was very expensive at that time and we really would have preferred to have gone early Dec'(or late Nov'even)but were constrained by school holidays-something you won't have to worry about for a while yet!!

The cheapest brochure for us was DLP's direct own one! Surprisingly!! So do get lots of brochures and compare carefully.

Unfortunately i have thrown my brochure away but I'm sure that when we've been before (kids smaller then and we did take them out of school!) there were 4nights for the price of three offers going during Disney's Xmas season(which starts November sometime and runs till about Jan'9th).Sorry I'm a bit vague here but can't remember precise dates(damn I knew I should have kept that brochure!!)

I thought the NBC was very nice and so did the kids (13 and 16) but DH didn't like the theming! The only downside was that the Reception area and Check in were always jam packed!! This was probably because we we there at their peak Xmas time though.
We'd paid extra for a lakeside view,which while nice i wouldn't do again as most mornings we were up and gone before it was bright outside and then back once it was dark!! OK you could still see lights on the Lake etc but not really worth the upgrade.I think the NBC itself looks wonderful with all its lights on at night but the Hotel New York benifits from that view rather than the NBC occupants!! To be honest it was its posh,imposing exterior which made me want to stay there!

We have also stayed at the DLP Hotel and while we loved itthere it has now become out of our price range!! Mind you must agree with isanda above the pool is tiny and very disappointing!

We have always found it very cold there in winter and rain gear is a must (disney ponchos will do) but DO wrap up warm especially while standing waiting to see the Parade! We bought some disposable handwarmer pads off of ebay and they were great! A hat is very important to keep warm too. Hark at me Mother Hen...........cluck,cluck!!

I must admit we didn't like some of the French people in the Parks!! Very rude when queuing and pushing in front of us 3mins before Parade when we'd got our spot 40 mins earlier!!Another tactic I noticed would be to try and "smoke us out" of their way by edging next to us fag in hand and blowing smoke in our faces!!French cigs have avery unpleasant smell!! One man even rested his camcorder on top of my sons head from behind!! Perhaps its just me but I HATE waiting for Parades because of all this aggro!!
Its not just the French either some Brits and Americans are just as bad. Having waited in Florida for nearly an hour to get a spot in the front I was very annoyed when a woman with umpteen kids arrived at the very last minute tried to push in front and exclaimed loudly about it being for kids and adults shouldn't be in front!!Needless to say we didn't move!!

Sorry hun I'm getting off the point and probably boring you!!

Spending money is a hard question-how long's a piece of string!!
If you want to get away from fast food it can be expensive but worth it!

I'd avoid Annette's Diner-expensive what is basically fast food!
The Rainforest Cafe too-very disappointing compared to Florida and Very expensive! We went for a wonderful meal at the Auberge de Cendrillion(spelt that wrong!But it means Cinderella Restaurant!) and it only came to very slightly more!! This was for a wonderful 3 course top class French meal compared to distinctly average pizzasand burgers at RFC!!

The Blue Lagoon-very romantic( but then so is Cinderella's),nice food so worth considering but pricey!

For nice meals at the places I've mentioned for 3 days yes you could spend £100-150 (if you drink too).Obviously you could spend more if you've got expensive tastes(lobster etc!!).

Sorry to have gone on and on! You must think this woman's got nothing better to do ! Actually I've got a huge pile of ironing awaiting me!! What joy!

Anyway good luck with your plans I'm most envious-Xmas at home for us this year while we save for WDW next!!

Hope you and DBF(what a couple of sweeties you both look-AHH!!) have a wonderful trip and it would be interesting to know what you decide to do.

Jan
X
PS Could you help me by telling me how you got such a large clear picture as your Avatar?? When I tried (actually my son tried!) to put ours on we were told it was too large and when we tried to reduce it it all went fuzzy! Any ideas? Thanks!

[fayeg]

wow jan that was such a fab reply :) thankyou soooo much! U should not have kept appoligising for 'going on' thats crazy talk - it was so helpful!! Now all we need to do is book!, hopefully i can persuade dbf to do it soon hehe! When you said about £100-150 was probably all that would be needed - was that just for eating then? I think that sounds really reasonable (although - yes I do have a passion for lobster as it happens, so it might end up being a bit more ;)). The disneyland brochure (direct from them) that you mentioned is fab - we ordered it a couple of weeks ago, and yes it does seem alot cheaper than a fair few places we have looked at so far.

Anyway, im sure il be asking many more questions as the weeks go on (if we ever get round to booking that is ;)) and im sooo grateful for all the help people are kindly giving!!

With regards to my avatar, i just compressed the pic using microsoft office picture manager and it seemed to come out quite well and still quite big - however, ive been trying to update it to a different pic for weeks now and every pic I compress seems to be coming out really small and fuzzy - sooo annoying!!

thanks again

faye

[goodevans]

Hi Faye,
Yes that figure was just for food really.Continental breakfast is included with stays at Disney Hotels so thats if you have a light lunch(sandwich,burger,snack type)and then a decent dinner each evening.Of course you could do it the other way around and book your proper meal at lunch time and have a "snacky"dinner. [ In fact do check opening hours of restuarants out as at this time of year they often do not open at evenings inside the Parks] As park passes are included there's mainly only drinks,alcohol and souveniers left to budget for. Unless of course you want to venture further afield to shop at Retail outlets or go sightseeing in Paris.We've never managed to find the time yet to do these things!

Remember that there's nothing to stop you visiting other Disney Hotels for a nose around so do pop into the "Big Pink One" for a look ! Especially if its very cold outside!

Thanks for the advice about the avatar I will get my son to try for me.
Jan
x