We got unlucky in Newport Bay. We were the second last room from the end. You don't realise how big that hotel is until you've dragged your suitcases that far.
Not only that, but the design of the lifts is stupid. Everyone goes in from the car park level. But the restaurants and exit to go towards the parks is the next level down. That's fine, until you have a pushchair, and realise there is only 1 small lift between those two floors. The queue for that lift isn't short.
I also found the queues on a morning to get through security for magic hours was long, that is the same regardless of which disney hotel (excluding disneyland hotel obviously). If you go in other times the queue is gone.
We were only there for 2 nights, so it wasn't that bad. We paid for half board meal plan and maximised it for character dining.
Our holiday itinerary from Sept, feel free to pinch some ideas.
night 1 - ferry - Newcastle to Amsterdam (Hull- Rotterdam is another option but was more expensive this time. It was cheaper last time)
day 1 - drive to Paris, stopping at a mcdonalds just south of lille for lunch and to charge the car. Get to Campanile Val De France, drop bags and get the bus to Disney, do a bit shopping, and get some food at the rainforest cafe
night 2 - stay at Campanile Val De France - cheapest hotel we could find locally.
day 2 - drive to disneyland hotel, checkin is after 2pm, but park tickets are valid from that morning, so leave stuff in the car, and go to the Disney Land Park. This is why we stayed off site to start with. Had we stayed in the Disney hotel the first night our park tickets would have been valid while we spent a good chunk of the day travelling. Come back out for character dining at La Table de Lumière with princess character dining about 6. Go back to the park for the fireworks. Since it's so close we could pop backwards and forwards very easily. We even called out to do a couple of royal encounters with some princesses
night 3 - stay at disneyland hotel
day 3 - studios park, coming back for character dining for tea at the royal banquet for mickey mouse etc calling in for more princess meets before and after.
night 4 - stay at disneyland hotel, daughter went to bed, so we took turns popping to either thrill rides or shops before parks close. Very quiet as everyone getting their spaces for fireworks
day 4 - fill in whatever we missed or wanted to redo at the parks, mostly Disney Land. Get on the road about lunch time to drive to Beekse Bergen in the netherlands
Night 5 - Beekse Bergen safari hotel, we got there just about in time to see the Giraffes etc outside our hotel room. Get a pizza delivered and have some chill out beers on the balcony to chill after a busy 3 days
day 5 - swimming then drive safari followed by a nice meal
Night 6 - Beekse Bergen again.
day 6 - spend most of the day in the main zoo, before getting in the car to drive back to the ferry
Night 7 - ferry back
From living up in the North East having done flights and ferry I would pick the ferry every time. Having the car and space for bringing stuff back, plus taking a child through security when they are strapped into a car seat is far less stressful. Just my opinion and what I have found works well for us.
years ago we were sat in a bar in Vegas and got asked if we knew Elizabeth from Birmingham... And they weren't on about the Queen. Assumed they just thought the UK was one little village.
