DIsneyland Paris November 2023
So, this trip was originally for July 2023 staying at Davy Crockett’s, however we decided to push this back as we had not long got back from Rome.
We had Davy Crockett’s booked for £1438.94 and then decided to change this to Newport Bay Family Suite with half board food with a total of £1888.07 for November. As this would give us more room. Rubi then stated she wanted to stay at the Santa Fe Hotel as this was cars themed. So, I contacted Attraction Tickets to see what the cost would be for either the Family Suite or two rooms. We managed to get two rooms with 3 people in one room and 2 in the other with FULL BOARD food for £1817 for 5 people for 2 nights 3 days with the two park hopper tickets. We ended up getting a refund of £71 which we then used to pay for a hotel the night before we arrived at Disney to maximise our first day. Attraction tickets were so accommodating and change our booking without any issues. They really are great!
We chose to go on the ferry. We used DFDS this time as they had a discount on for Blue Light card, so it cost £138.60 for a 4-day return. We left at 6am and arrived at the ferry port about 11am ready for our 12:55pm crossing. DFDS put us on an earlier crossing. We opted to share a couple of meals aboard and they were really nice. We had a chicken and mash meal and then a chicken tender meal.
We took a leisurely drive to our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Premiere Classe – Troy directed us to their sister site which was about 2 miles down the road. The hotel was nice and secluded, and the room was massive. We had a family suite that fit all 5 of us in comfortably. We paid £82.80 for 1 night and then £1.90 taxes at the property. This hotel was a 16- minute drive to Santa Fe.
We arrived at Santa Fe for 8:30am to get our park tickets and check in. We knew our rooms would not be ready so went straight to the main park for 9am. We used the shuttle to get to the bus station then straight through security to the main park. This was the kids first time back to DLP since 2018. We did have an amazing trip booked for 2020 staying in the DLP hotel (the pink one) but COVID made us cancel that trip. (We used the refund to get married instead)
We were greeted by Mickey and Minnie as they stood over the railway bridge, and we finally felt like we were home! We walked down main street together straight towards Phantom Manor.
As we were full board, this meant we did not have to pay for any meals. We utilised this by splitting the meals by room. So, one room had 2 adults 1 child meals and the other had 1 adult 1 child meals. This meant we got to eat at more places than we would normally and share the meals between us. Across the 3 days we ate lunch at Hakuna Matata, Colonel Haiti’s, Bella Notte, Au Chalet De La Marionette.
We had evening meals at La Cantina and Chuck Wagons. Layton and Rubi ate their own body weight in ribs and wings. Troy had a meal from Suzy’s Wok Station in Chuck wagons. The food, as always, was amazing.
We went back to the hotel about 5pm to check in to our rooms. We stayed in the Sally Section of the resort. Which was next to the bridge that connects to Hotel Cheyenne. It was easier for us to get the shuttle bus to Cheyenne and walk through than get the Santa Fe Shuttle and walk down.
The parks were relatively quiet due to going between Halloween and Christmas Season. We managed to get on all the rides we wanted to get on. Big Thunder Mountain in the dark is a must. That view of the Castle is something else! Rubi and Troy did Indiana Jones in the dark too and said it was so good.
We even managed to do meet and greets with loads of Characters. We met Goofy & Max, Mary Poppins & Penguins, The Queen of Hearts, Tweedle DEE & Tweedle DUM, Jack Skellington, Captain Hook, Genie, Donald & Daisy. This may have been the best interaction as Layton had a Donald backpack on and Donald got so excited. The character interactions are an amazing experience, they really do know how to make you laugh and smile.
We made use of the Extra Magic Hours and got on CRUSH’S Coaster and Web slinger. Both awesome rides. Me and Rubi also went on RC racer. My absolute favourite ride in studios.
On our last day we used the extra magic hour to ride Hyperspace Mountain twice and Peter Pans flight as these both get long wait times. We all had a meal at Colonel Haiti’s then went back to Santa Fe got in the car and started our long journey home. We were about 50km away from Disney when Rubi realised, she had left her Airpod (just the left one) in the room. Unfortunately, we could not turn around as we would have missed our ferry. She was devastated. We did try and get customer service at Santa Fe, but it was useless. I still haven’t had a response nearly a year later.
There was a lovely storm brewing as we got closer to the ferry port and the crossing was horrendous. You could physically feel the boat dipping into the wave before crashing through it. They had to close the restaurant and shop as items were being thrown from the shelves and smashing. Poor Rubi and Ellia did not feel well at all. This cemented to me and Troy that ferry crossings were no longer going to be our method of transport.
It was a super amazing trip with so many memories made, and we can’t wait to do it again.