Tell me about DLP!

[Guest]

I just think it’s more expensive now. We have paid £2000 for 2 adults 4 nights at Newport Bay ( and £2300 for son, DIL and GD) and £1600 for flights from Newcastle. If they could have gotten the time off work in school holidays we would have gone to Florida, but sadly they can’t.

[Gill H]

Originally Posted by myaquarium

We have paid a lot more for half term October
£2300 for 4 nights 5 days park. 3 adults.
Have we been ripped off staying in the hotel with toy story theme. Think it’s a budget one. Price offset by £40 Eurostar returns each.
Still much cheaper than our planned trip to Orlando. But probably overpaid.
Also do we have an option to upgrade to annual pass.

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That sounds astronomic. We are 2 adults and have only once paid a 4-figure sum for any DLP hotel - and that was the Disneyland Hotel (thanks to a surprise payout from the PPI fairy!)

The Cheyenne is lovely (it's like a real Wild West town with some Toy Story touches) but it's very much a value resort.

Tickets that come with a hotel stay have no monetary value, so you can't exchange them for an annual pass. To be honest, annual passes are currently very reasonable, so the better option would have been to buy annual passes ahead of time and book at the annual pass rate. If you stay more than 4 nights in a 12-month period, they pay for themselves.

For example, we're going for 3 nights in November staying at the Art of Marvel hotel, for £700 for 2 adults at the annual pass rate.

We've used Avios to pay for our flights so they cost a total of £36.

We will book airport transfers through RS Transports - round trip for 76 Euros.

We'll add on a dining plan which will be about £300 for the two of us. That covers buffet breakfast and a 3-course meal at most of the restaurants.

[MrsBC]

That was a fab price for the Marvel hotel Gill!
I'm so glad we booked earlier in the year and got a good price for Newport Bay too, prices seem to have quadrupled at the minute!

[myaquarium]

Sadly it won't be once bitten.
No holidays for over 2 years and roughly works out £830 per person for 4 nights including travel.
Will take it on the chin.
Also be looking into the annual pass situation. Sounds good value.

[Gill H]

Originally Posted by myaquarium

Sadly it won't be once bitten.
No holidays for over 2 years and roughly works out £830 per person for 4 nights including travel.
Will take it on the chin.
Also be looking into the annual pass situation. Sounds good value.

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You are advised to buy them before November, according to someone I know with, let's say, more knowledge than I! So you could buy them during your stay but you would need to know you were going back at least once within 12 months, and probably twice to get the value out of it.

To put it in context, our first trip with our annual passes we stayed offsite at the Ibis Val d'Europe, which is literally opposite the Val d'Europe RER rail station. It cost £200 for 3 nights - Ibis are basic but clean and safe, and the staff were lovely. The station is one stop on the RER from DLP and the journey took 5 minutes. There is a huge supermarket in a big shopping centre right next to the station. So you could stay offsite and even do some self-catering very cheaply.

But you won't really know until you go whether you would get the value out of the annual passes.

[Dolphin9511]

Ive just booked to stay 2 nights in the Newport Bay Club through hotels.com in July 2022 - it was nearly £400 cheaper than the price that Disney was quoting for the exact same deal - including 3 day tickets - so I would suggest checking that too

[MariaLynda]

Great saving. I had a look and there is a £50 saving if i book on hotels.com or expedia as against the prices direct with disney.

i cannot decide between SL or Newport! decisions...

Does anyone bother adding on a dining package with it? I see you can do just breakfast, half board or full.. is it worth adding something? I do fancy having the buffet breakfast, especially if they are good?!? x

[Gill H]

Originally Posted by MariaLynda

Great saving. I had a look and there is a £50 saving if i book on hotels.com or expedia as against the prices direct with disney.

i cannot decide between SL or Newport! decisions...

Does anyone bother adding on a dining package with it? I see you can do just breakfast, half board or full.. is it worth adding something? I do fancy having the buffet breakfast, especially if they are good?!? x

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If you like a big breakfast and are planning a sit-down meal (either lunch or dinner) then the dining plan is a real help.

Breakfasts are costly if you don't have a dining plan. And restaurant prices are scary.

We mostly spend our evenings in restaurants as there isn't much else to do once the park closes. We've booked the Manhattan, Downtown and Steakhouse. The dining plan gets you a 3-course meal from the Plus menu (assuming you book Plus level, which is what you'll be offered staying at most of the hotels). Or a buffet from any of the buffet restaurants.

If you want to eat a la carte you can use the voucher towards the cost, but you'll have to pay for your drink.

If you are the sort of people who just want breakfast from Starbucks and a burger later on, there's no point. But IMO the counter service food at DLP is not great, service is incredibly slow and the food is often not hot. I would rather spend a couple of hours every evening with a good steak and a glass of red.

[MariaLynda]

Thanks for the info Gill, really useful and something to think about. We don't normally do big meals in WDW but for a short break like this it may be nice to indulge.

[Gill H]

There really isn’t anything else to do in the evenings. And the French don’t rush food, your dinner is your evening’s entertainment!