Disneyland Paris 2018
We took the kids during the Halloween Half term and opted to drive with a ferry crossing. There was us 5, my niece and her boyfriend. We drove to Dover and stayed at the Premier Inn East terminal for 1 night. This made it easier to travel the next day. The rooms were comfortable, and the ferry port was a 3-minute drive. It took us about 4 hours to drive from home. We took the first ferry out at 7am. Arriving at Calais roughly 9:20am with 3-hour drive ahead of us.
This was all booked separately. I booked the ferry via P&O Ferries. This cost around £98 return for 3 days. 1 Vehicle 7 passengers. We made sure we had all the right travelling requirements for France (see Tips for France). It’s a relatively easy drive on 3 motorways. A26, A1, A104 and One road is a toll road. I think we paid 21 € each way. This has since increased.
We booked via the Disneyland Paris website and opted to stay in Sequoia Lodge as this had a pool to use on the evening when the park closed. We had adjoining rooms. Each room was a standard twin with 2 double beds. The theming of the rooms was Bambi. We had the half board meal plan which allowed us to have Breakfast and Dinner. Hunters grill was open in the hotel for breakfast Who doesn’t love cake for breakfast. But they also offered hot items and continental as well as a pancake machine. We ate here one of the nights. Hunters grill is a meat themed restaurant. They are buffets for all meals and cater for everyone. We also ate at La Cantina in the Santa Fe hotel, which is always one of our favourite places to eat. They are a Tex-mex themed restaurant.
Included in the cost was our 3 days 2 park hopper tickets. This meant we could go freely between both the main park and studios. The time we went as extremely busy with que times exceeding 2 hours restricting what we managed to do ride wise. This was also including using our extra magic hour (see Disneyland Page) Also, the kids’ heights went against us as they were all quite small. We did watch all parades and fireworks. The Halloween parade was amazing, Rubi was so engrossed she didn’t realise a performer was so close to her and jumped back scared. She did laugh afterwards. Ellia and Layton both dressed up for the evening fireworks.
The pool at Sequoia Lodge was good. We didn’t need to book. We showed our magic pass and went straight through. Lockers were free and towels were provided. They had a large pool with a slide, jacuzzi and outdoor pool. The kids loved the slide, so did Troy.
Our favourite Lunch menu was Hakuna Matata’s. We had the Kebab meal, the chicken tenders and the meatballs with rice. (these are old menu items that have now changed). These were roughly 14-17 € per meal and included a drink. There were entertainers playing the drums outside the restaurant which the kids absolutely loved, they even got photos with the cast members.
The parks were decorated with Pumpkins and Scarecrows and all things Halloween. It was so pretty.
We got the later ferry home arriving back in the UK at about 6:30pm and drove home.