DLP and more! Share your advice that I may or may not listen to

Here’s the story. Sometime last year we finally got passports and started dreaming of where to use them first. We also had DD30’s wedding coming up and a postponed from 2020 NYC trip that we needed to use the credits for so international travel would have to wait. Then a few months ago our CM DD says “did you know I can get us into DLP for free? And get hotel discounts?”

So here we are, wedding is over and paid for. NYC trip was taken and fantastic. I find myself in the very, very early stages of dreaming, researching and pre-pre-planning.

What I think I do know:
1-We want to see Paris too! DLP is just the excuse and gateway to international travel for us. Give me all the museums but at the very least I must see the Lourve, Musee de Orsay and Musee de L’Oarngerie. Also would love some architecture in there like Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower.
2-We would most likely be going the end of May 2023.
3-We can probably dedicate 2 weeks to this trip. If I’m going to be on a plane for over 10 hours I’m staying for a while!

And some other thoughts. DD has some internet stranger friends she would love to meet in real life. They are going to school in Liverpool. I would love to see Liverpool and London.

So my first of many questions:

Would 2 weeks be long enough to hit London, Liverpool and Paris? Or am I crazy and trying too hard to do it all?

Other than some trips to Mexico and Canada by car we have never left the country.

Please share with me any advice, tips, and anecdotes about international flights, DLP, Paris, London, Liverpool and any other crazy things I could add onto this!

I’m putting this is WDW so I get the most eyes on it, especially @sanstitre_has_left_the_building since he has the most correct advice of all!

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This is coming from someone who used to spend complete summers in France. (My dad lived there and I spent my summers with him.)

You get to see a lot more of real Paris if you don’t spend two weeks running all over Europe. However, the question is, do you want to immerse yourself in one city and DLP or do you want to have a little taste of three different cities and DLP? Only you can tell.

I have a particular love for France, so if it were me, I would choose just France. However, you are not me, and you should be happy about that.

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I think my problem right now is we don’t even know the answer to this question! :rofl: We will though as I start the real planning and decide what is more important to us.

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Liverpool is a great place to visit and if you end up there I would love to come and meet you - I am less than an hour away by train in Manchester. I can’t help with the rest though :joy:

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Okay looks like Liverpool is on for sure now :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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If Liverpool is like a 1-2 day side trip I could see it being doable. I’ve only been to the UK once and we spent 10 nights between London and the Lake District and felt like we still didn’t see half of what we could have. I think 2 days Liverpool, 5 in London, 5 in Paris and 2 at DLP woud be a crazy busy, but doable trip.

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Well, I was spoiled by having so much time as a resident in France. It makes me prefer not doing touristy things.

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I agree with that!! It’s fab :wink:

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if you want to include everything, you need 3 weeks. 1 week for Paris. 1 week for London. 3 nights for Liverpool, 3 nights for DLP (in no particular order :sweat_smile: ).

In Paris, you need to skip l’Orangerie, nothing to see. After / before the Louvre, you can wander around Les Tuileries.

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I was in Paris last summer and will be in London next week (am in Scotland currently). My personal travel preference is to go deep in one area rather than gloss over many areas. But I have younger kids who I prefer not to move around many times and I know other people vacation differently so I’ll just tell you what we did.

We did 7 nights in Paris, 3 nights at DLP and then another 7 nights in Macon, France. If you want to do both Paris and DLP I would really try to make sure you can do the full week in Paris. We definitely did not see “everything.” Notre Dame is still not open but we did a lovely Seine tour that had a great view. The Musee D’Orsay was one thing that did not make my list but I really wanted to do it. Don’t skip the Louvre and Montmartre was my favorite spot.

London I have been to many times and we will be there for 8 nights and I struggled again to fit “everything” in. If you want to also do Liverpool maybe you could do a really long day trip? I’m guessing it’s about a 2 hour train ride?

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I am enjoying your trip report! It looks fabulous and hope to make it there someday too!

Thanks for your suggestions. I’ll probably change plans several times before we leave.

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Thank you for this advice. I’m adding it to my research :grin:

That is just the park between the Louvre and l’Orangerie. You can continue on Place de la Concorde and you’re right at the bottom of the Champs Elysées. 2km of Champs Elysées and you will be at the Arc de Triomphe. If you buy a ticket to get on top of it, you’ll have one of the most beautiful view of Paris.

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Okay there is day 1 planned!! :grin:

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Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. I am 43 years old and I spent 35 of them in Paris :slight_smile:

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Oh wow! Yes I will be reaching out! Thank you!

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If you did decide to do it all, my suggestion would be to book a train between DLP and London. The Eurostar does this in under 4 hours, and drops you in central London. So actually saves you time vs airport queue times, transfers and so on. I think there are about 3 direct trains a day at peak times.

You arrive into St Pancras station which is actually quite a nice area to stay with good tube links to get round, and would leave for Liverpool at Euston station which is an ok walk from st Pancras for the 2 hr train journey, and again, the train drops you close to the centre, so you could walk and public transport after that.

Best website for planning train travel in the U.K. is trainline which lets you book tickets and seats.

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Let’s talk about weather. What is Paris like in May/June? I’m sure it’s at least nicer than Florida in May/June! :rofl:

Also international flights. This is probably a dumb question but are the seats the same? If so how do you survive 10+ hours?! The 4-5 to visit family is pretty hard.

Paris is nicer than Florida 365 days a year! May/June will be fantastic weather. You’ll probably need to be prepared with some layers and rain gear but hope it will be sunny.

You can definitely find all types of seats on international flights for alllll types of budgets! All depends on how much you are willing to spend. We are less than 10 hours from Europe but have always flown economy and survived! (Although my kids walked through business class this week and said, Mom next time you should get these seats!)

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For flight seats, my go to website is seat guru. On their website, you can see seat pitch and width for each airline, which makes a big difference to amount of comfort. then when you have picked your flight, you can see a detailed map of good and bad seats. I use it what ever flight class I’m in.

Honestly though, for 10 hours, I would book the cheapest, then just keep reminding myself how much extra it would have cost to sit in business. I try to do day flights if I’m in economy, as then I plan for films, lunch, nap, film, snack etc, and the time goes ok.

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