Staying in the city?

Hi! My bf and I will be in Paris this summer (early August) for 8 nights. We plan on purchasing 2-day park hoppers for DLP. Right now we are looking at booking accommodations very close to the Gare de Châtelet–Les Halles station for all 8 nights, because we would rather have one "home base" than split our stay between the city and DLP. We would likely go to DLP our first Wednesday, then again the following Monday- taking the RER A Line to and from DLP.

At first I thought this would be no problem, but I always am looking for first-hand advice/second opinions! Is this an ok plan? Or is it easier to stay closer to DLP? Thank you!

honestly a split stay is better. Stay in Paris for all the Paris stuff, stay at Disney for going to the parks.

When you stay off site you are at an immediate disadvantage regarding wait times. General public opening is at 10am BUT onsite hotel park guests will be in the park since 8.30am.

It is approx 1 hour travel time from central Paris.People start waiting in line for general opening around 9.15am. It will take about 10 minutes to get from the train platform to the security line. So in reality you are looking at leaving central Paris around 8am for a 10 am park opening time.

Then in the evening, in August Disneyland Paris will close at 11pm. The main fireworks and animation show projected onto the Castle will start at 11pm. This is because it does not get dark until that time in Paris in the summer. The show is approx 20 minutes long and it can take a good 30 minutes to exit the park after the show.

You will need to check the train times back into Paris. These trains are very crowded and again it will take you approx 1 hour to get back to your hotel.

There are 6 onsite hotel, the budget ones are Santa Fe and Cheyenne. All are walk-able to the parks and also have free shuttle busses. All onsite hotels have access to the early opening.

There are 6 partner hotels, located at the edge of Disney property. These do not have access to early oping and are not walk-able to the parks

some things you need to know about Disneyland Paris which are different to the American Parks

1. You dont have to book using the website for your country. Disneyland Paris has different deals and offers on the different country websites. Most of us regulars would advise AGAINST booking with the American site as it is by far the most expensive
2. The other country websites to check are
3. http://www.disneylandparis.ie/
   http://www.disneylandparis.co.uk
   http://www.disneylandparis.fr
   http://www.disneylandparis.de
   http://www.disneylandparis.it
   http://www.disneylandparis.be
   http://www.disneylandparis.nl
4. Disneyland Paris does not mail anything in the post. You get a confirmation email which you bring with you to checkin
5. When you book direct with Disneyland Paris you are booking a hotel and park hopper tickets package
6. Your park tickets are valid for both arrival day and departure day
7. You can book direct with Disney through any of the websites. When you book through the website you will pay the full amount at the time of booking
8. You can also book direct with Disney by phone. To call Disneyland Paris and not have to pay the international phone charges, just call the regular phone number for Walt Disney World in Florida and ask to be transferred to Disneyland Paris.
9. When you book direct with Disney by phone you pay a 15% deposit and the balance is payable 30 or 60 days before arrivial, I cant remember which
10. When you have booked you will get a confirmation email with your itinerary, you will need this email to check in
11. Once you have your confirmation number you need to go to the website / country you booked with, not the country you live in. You will need to create a new MY DISNEY ACCOUNT on that website
12. When you log in to your new My Disney Account you will see your itinerary. If you have a balance to pay you will see an online payment form.
13. To pay your balance you can either phone again or pay online

Wow! Thank you SO much for your advice @BadPinkTink . I will definitely be looking into splitting our stay up now!

@BadPinkTink this information is amazing, I had no idea! For a one night stay, the price difference between what I had been looking at on the English site vs. the French site is over EUR1000!

We are doing the reverse - we are staying at DLP and going into the city a few days. DH and I have been to Paris before, so the main reason we are going is to see DLP. But there are a few things I'd like to see in Paris and a number of things that we'd like to show our DDs. We figure a few days will do it.

(And with two nights free in our DLP package, it was actually much less expensive than a split stay would have been, given my DH's spendy hotel habit.)

Just what I was looking for @BadPinkTink! We will be there in April '19 and I think we may stay at DLP and day trip into Paris as well. I will definitely book thru the France site now.

BadPinkTink said:

honestly a split stay is better. Stay in Paris for all the Paris stuff, stay at Disney for going to the parks.

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I agree. A few years ago I spent 5 days in Paris proper and then 2 days at DLP. The travel time in between wasn't worth it to do it every day.