Paris cheaper than Anaheim?

You can fly to France to say bonjour to Mickey Mouse and dine on ratatouille with Remy at Disneyland Paris for hundreds of dollars less than it costs for a week of fun at Disneyland — all without the help of any pixie dust.

Visiting Disneyland for a week in June is more expensive than flying to Disneyland Paris during the same time period, according to an analysis by a pair of Fresno TV news stations.

Is it really cheaper for Californians to visit Disneyland in Paris than Anaheim? Anything is possible when it comes to once-in-alifetime travel bargains. As you might expect, the Disneyland Paris deal comes with several twists — but more on that in a bit.

Two adults can fly from Los Angeles to Paris and visit Disneyland Paris for six nights for less than it costs to take a similar trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, according to NBC affiliate KSEE and CBS affiliate KGPE.

The Fresno TV news stations compared the side-byside vacations at the two Disney resorts on June 1218 with a hotel stay bundled with theme park tickets. The final tab: $3,700 for the Disneyland Paris package, compared with $4,600 for a similar Disneyland package — a $900 difference in favor of flying to France. That’s a big chunk of cheese, even for a mouse.

Hotels were priced based on the cheapest available rooms — $325 per night for the Hotel Santa Fe at Disneyland Paris, compared with $540 per night for the Paradise Pier Hotel at Disneyland.

The Disneyland Paris package added “parkhopper” tickets good for seven days in the parks. The Disneyland package allowed admission for five days — but only to one park per day.

A flight for two from Los Angeles International Airport to Paris Orly was found for $1,500 with Magic Shuttle bus service available between the airport and the parks in France.

“This pricing was not consistent and varied depending on the days selected, but the fact remains that sometimes it may be cheaper as a Californian to visit Disneyland Paris than it is to go to Disneyland in Anaheim,” according to the KSEE/KGPE story.

Flying to France to see Mickey Mouse might make more sense if you live in Fresno. The metropolitan area in California’s Central Valley lies outside the zip codes that qualify for Disneyland’s Southern California ticket discounts, which slash admission costs for locals during the offseason winter and spring months.

There were two big caveats left out of the KSEE/ KGPE story and only become clear when you comb through the supporting documents. The Paradise Pier Hotel just happens to be sold out of its cheapest rooms on the dates in question, and your flight to Paris will be on an airline you’ve likely never heard of.

Standard View rooms at the Paradise Pier Hotel were unavailable, so KSEE/ KGPE chose the next cheapest Premium View room at the “seaside-themed retreat.” That bumped up the price from $440 to $540 per night.

Compare that to $325 per night in the “Cars”-themed Standard Room in the Hotel Santa Fe at the Disneyland Paris resort and that more than makes up for the cost difference between the Anaheim and France Disney vacations.

The other thing KSEE/ KGPE didn’t spell out: Disneyland Paris-bound visitors would be flying aboard the French Bee airline out of LAX.

Haven’t heard of French Bee? That’s because the startup carrier doesn’t begin service to LAX until April. The low-cost, longhaul airline is based out of Paris Orly airport with service to only four destinations: San Francisco, New York, Tahiti and the Dominican Republic. The airline’s entire fleet consists of five Airbus A350s, with another plane on the way.

French Bee is advertising $303 flights between LAX and Orly — at least half the cost of other airlines — as a way of introducing the carrier to the Southern California market. The flights considered for the KSEE/KGPE trip were slightly more expensive — but still under $400 each way. Additional taxes and fees cost nearly as much as the flights.

The KSEE/KGPE deal requires vacationers to be within driving distance of LAX — but not so close that Disneyland’s Southern California discount makes more sense. Of course, once you’ve made it to LAX, you’re just a short drive from Disneyland if you want to tack on a visit to the Happiest Place on Earth at the beginning or end of your Disneyland Paris adventure. Obviously, that would eat up a big chunk of the cheese you just saved.