Disney Newport Bay Club Hotel Review
By Scarlett Shepherd
The Newport Bay Hotel at Disneyland Paris is a nautical Mickey Mouse themed hotel located a short distance away from the parks.
Location
The location of The Newport Bay Hotel is very good for anyone wanting to stay close to the parks. There is a regular shuttle bus service that can take you to and from the parks and the hotel. The other option is to walk the short distance along the side of the beautiful lake into the Disney Village, which then leads you into the parks. The walk takes around 10 – 15 minutes depending on your speed.
This is the view from the front of Newport Bay:
Theming
The theming of Newport Bay is brilliant. It has a 1920s Cape Cod Mansion theme which is very nautical. You can feel this right from walking through the front door and into the reception. This continues throughout the hotel into the resturants, facilities and rooms.
Although the theming of this hotel was beautiful and very high end, it felt more directed to adults as opposed to children. There were lots of Mickey Mouse touches throughout the hotel, and there was also a special meet and greet with Mickey and Minnie in their nautical outfits. However, I feel the theming of Santa Fe and Cheyane are much better for kids.
The Room
The rooms at Newport Bay are very big and spacious, much bigger than what we have previously experienced at Santa Fe.
The rooms are equipped with beautiful heavy wooden furniture that really helps to add to the 1920s theming. Our room had 2 good size double beds complete with Mickey themed head boards, which was a nice touch. The theming does not stop here though, as there was a Nautucal Mickey themed wallpaper that went around the top of the room.
The room also comes with a good size bathroom complete with a bath (which is brilliant for younger kids), along with the option to use a shower within the bath with a shower curtain. The sink was also located outside of the bathroom along with a rail for hanging clothes, which was perfect for allowing everyone to get ready quicker in the morning.
Although the room was very spacious and had great theming, it was very outdated. This was shown by the small and old TV and the general wear and tear that could be seen with scuffs on the corners of the walls and the wallpaper starting to peel in places. However, despite the room showing its age and being outdated, it was kept very clean.
The other thing to note with this hotel is the distance which some of the rooms are from the main entrance. We was in room 3394, which was probably the furthest room from the main entrance on the 3rd floor, taking up to 10 minutes to get to the room upon entering the hotel. When booking we paid for a standard room, however, given the distance that we had to walk from the hotel entrance to the room every day, I would definitely consider paying extra for a better location next time.
You can check out our full room tour video here:
Facilities
The great part of Newport Bay being a 4 star Disney hotel is all the great facilities that are included. The best of these was the massive swimming pool that is at this hotel. The hotel has both an indoor and outdoor pool, but we only checked out the indoor pool as it was a bit too cold outside.
The indoor pool is great fun, with water jets and waves coming on periodically. The pool is also huge, so there is plenty of room for everyone to have fun.
The theming also continues into this area, as there is a massive boat where people can stand if they don’t want to get wet, but want to be there with their family.
There are also lots of other facilities at the hotel that are great for kids such as a small area where they can sit and do activities such as colouring. This is located next to reception.
Resturants
There are two resturants located at Newport Bay which are the Yhat Club and Cape Cod.
We never ate dinner at either of these restaurants but we did have breakfast at the hotel every day.
For breakfast, both restaurants were always open and both serve the same buffet style food. There was always a great selection every morning of good high quality options. The continental selection was excellent with loads of pasteries, bread, pancakes, crepes, cold meats, cheese and cerial. The cooked breakfast options were not as extensive, and nothing like what you would find in the UK. On offer each morning was potatoes, bacon, chicken sausages, beans and scrambled eggs.
For lunch and dinner at the restaurants, there was a strong seafood theme to the menu.
Disney Hotel Perks
If you are staying at any of the Disneyland hotels then there are always plenty of perks that come along with it. Not only do you get to stay inside of that magical ‘Disney bubble’ and feel like you are in Disney 24 hours a day, there are also lots of great perks for hotel guests only.
The best of these is the Magic Hour! This is a dedicated 1 hour time slot every morning where only Disney Hotel guests are able to enter the parks for 1 hour before all the other guests. This is brilliant as it allows you to get loads of rides done in a short amount of time, and also experience the parks while they are much quieter.
Another benefit is the frequent and reliable shuttle bus service. Although other hotels outside of Disney do offer shuttle services into the parks, these tend to be far less frequent and often very busy. Staying at one of the Disney hotels means that there is a regular shuttle bus (usually every 10-15 minutes), or most of the hotels are also within a short walking distance.
Summary
In summary, the Newport Bay Club Hotel is a great option for anyone wanting to stay at a Disney hotel during a trip to Disneyland Paris. This hotel has a great upmarket theming which feels like you have been transported back to the 1920s. It is also close to the parks and has a pool on site which makes a great break and change of activity during your Disney holiday.
The only issue with this hotel is that it is starting to show its age, and is a bit overdue for a renovation. In our room there was areas of peeling wallpaper and scuffs on most corners, which when you pay a premium price to stay at a 4 star hotel I would have expected better.
Nevertheless, we would definitely stay at Newport Bay again, and would recommend it to anyone who is looking to stay onsite for their Disneyland Paris holiday.