Leaning towards Sequoia Lodge-GF room. Mostly because I am concerned about safety and would prefer our door open to an inside hallway and we be in the main building. Is my understanding of the set up correct?
I have stayed at Santa Fe and standard room in Sequoia Lodge. While both of these are blocks separate from the main hotel building, they have inside corridors, not outside. They are like apartment buildings, with a main front door and inside corridors. The room doors open to an inside hallway and there are both stairs and elevators.
There are also standard rooms in the main building of Sequoia Lodge. These are cheaper than Golden Forest Concierge / Club level but more expensive than the standard rooms in the Lodges.
Newport Bay is the largest hotel. Depending on your room location there may be up to a 15 minute walk from your room to the restaurant / lobby/ reception / other hotel amenities/ exit to Lake Disney area.
Fastpasses- I read the GF rooms give you one extra. For the other ones, do you just go up to the ride, and get you Fastpass for your later return time? Like WDW used to be before magic bands and prebooking FP?
The GF rooms have the Hotel Fast Pass. This is a printed voucher which you get at check in. The vouchers are 1 per day per person in the party. They have the lead persons name ( the person who is on the hotel booking) the name of the hotel and the date on which they can be used printed on them. They can be used ONLY on rides which have the regular Fastpass and they can not be used between 1pm and 4pm.
The regular Fastpass, yes you are correct, it is like the old legacy paper Fastpass from WDW. However there are fewer Fastpass rides in
Disneyland Paris.
These are the rides which have Fastpass
Main Park
Big Thunder Mountain
Buzz Lightyear
Indiana Jones Roller coaster
Star Tours
Space Mountain
Peter Pan
Studios
Flying Carpets Over Agrabah
Ratatouille
RocknRoller Coaster
Tower of Terror
Our group tour ends on 11 June 2019 and will be leaving from CDG. Could we travel to CDG with our group and then get the Magical Shuttle to DLP? Are there other options to travel from Paris to DLP?
Correct, yes , get yourself to CDG and you will be able to get Magical Shuttle. They have their own designated ticket and departure point, which is located in the corridor which links Terminal 2E and 2F on the arrivals level. When you arrive at CDG, just go to the arrivals of either 2E or 2F, whichever is easiest for you. You will then see the signs for Disney / Magic Shuttle.
You can book your Magic Shuttle tickets online and you will get an email confirmation. You then show this at the departure area and you are good to go. Do not worry about the time you book the buss for. As long as you have a ticket you can get on the next departing bus. On My last trip in February 2016 I arrived at the departure area earlier than the time I had booked for and I was able to get on an earlier bus than was on my confirmation email.
Other options from CDG are private car service or the TGV train. The TGV train only takes 10 minutes but it has a limited departure schedule from CDG. Also when you arrive at Disneyland Paris you need to take the free hotel shuttle bus from the train station to the hotel.
Both Magic Shuttle and private car service will bring you direct to the hotel front door. Magic shuttle is the least expensive option to get direct from the airport to the hotel front door.
The travel time between CDG and Disney is approx 1 hour depending on traffic. You get on the motorway at CDG and then after 40 minutes to 1 hour take an exit off the motorway for Disney. Both the private car service and Magic shuttle take this route. Delays can occur if there is an accident or broken down vehicle and the motorway gets shut down from 3 lanes to 1 lane.
It's too far out for us to know what time the group flight will be leaving. Would 3 1/2 days allow us time to see the parks and village?
Yes 3 and 1/2 days is perfect. Thats usually what I do. The studios is really a half day park and Disney Village is half the size of Downtown Disney in California.
Just remember that if you book a hotel and park ticket package direct with Disney you will get park hopper tickets for both your arrival day and departure day as well.
Dining- Would not be booking a dining plan. It does not make sense for us. But it does not look like I would need to book any TS we decided to do way in advance?
I have never used a dining package. I pay as I go in both quick service and table service. TS and character meals can only be booked by phone, 60 days from arrival. I usually do ADR for 1 or 2 TS as I like to structure my days. I would advise doing ADR the week before you leave for Europe, as some of the more popular ones like Walts, Captain Jacks, Chez Remy, Character meals may book up fast. To do ADR from America without the international phone charges, just ring the phone number for WDW in Florida and ask to be transferred to Disneyland Paris Dining Reservations.
Crowds- We would be there weekdays. What are crowds like 11 June-14 June (approximately)?
Weekdays are less crowded than weekends. Some schools in Ireland have holidays in June, UK schools do not. You can search online for the different European school holidays but in general that should be a good time
