Disneyland Paris - All your Questions answered

This week we have a review of Disneyland Paris. Our guest reviewer this week is Christine, who is part of a family of 4 – Mum and Dad in their 30’s with two kids aged 6 and 3 years. Christine is a blogger from https://mousetravelmatters.com Christine and her family are Canadian. They however lived in Germany for a time and were situated about 5 hours away from Disneyland Paris, so were able to go regularly.  ©www.mousetravelmatters.com Christine and her family have traveled to Disneyland Paris many times. Disneyland Paris consists of two Disney Parks - Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park. There is also a shopping district called Disney Village.  I asked her some questions and these were her responses: Where do you stay in Paris? In Disneyland Paris we have stayed at a handful of resorts; Disneyland Hotel, Hotel New York, Newport Club, Radison Blu and Explorers. Christine's Hotel reviews can be viewed here. Without a car, I suggest for guests to stay on-site. It’s the best experience and you have a far better chance of someone speaking proficient English. There is a train that goes from downtown Paris to the Disneyland Paris station, which is about an hour. Many readers have said they did Day trips to Disney, and vise versa – many have done day trips to Paris on their day off from the parks. ©www.mousetravelmatters.com ©www.mousetravelmatters.com Comments on Disney Hotels? Transport to the parks etc Transportation at the parks wasn’t really an issue. If we stayed off-site we used the free shuttles. If we stayed on-site at the Disney hotels  we walked to the parks. From the off-site hotels, they each have their own shuttle. Some run every 30 minutes, some every hour. Some have a giant lunch break in the middle of the day so that is something to consider when booking. The bus drivers take a 1-2 hour lunch break and the buses aren’t running during that time. They do post a schedule so if you want to head back for a break, know when the last bus is and schedule your day accordingly. These are for the off-site hotels. I don’t believe the on-site buses have a mid-day break. On-site, there are a handful of hotels that are walking distance and have  moderate rates. There were buses running but considering guests have to walk half way back just to get to the bus station, it was hardly worth it to us. Some of the budget on-site hotels are a little further away and may require a bus, depending on how tired the children are.  Unlike the American parks, it is not required that strollers are taken down before boarding. But other guests seem to push and jump the queue like no one is there so I would avoid the bus during peak return times at all costs. Can you recommend Disney Character dining? We did Character dining with Inventions, Plaza Gardens, Chez Mickey’s and Auberge de Cendrillon. They were all pretty good. Plaza Gardens was our favourite, since we are partial to breakfast. I prefer breakfast character meals because they are before park opening and we aren’t missing too much park time. The food is a standard American breakfast buffet. The restaurant has a good feel about it, but it’s the characters that I like the most. I know the food, I’m not worried that someone in our family won’t like something. I am a huge fan of bacon and Europe doesn’t really do American-style bacon that much. At Plaza Gardens they are the standard Disney characters, and gender-neutral – it’s not all princesses or all Peter Pan. Both boys and girls will like Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse. Inventions, was our least favourite. The characters were a little too unique and we were hoping to cross off some of the standard characters off our wish list. The characters we have seen at Inventions were the Cat from Pinocchio, the Penguin from Mary Poppins, Mice from Cinderella. Nothing that I would pay money to see. The food was also too different to my tastes, and my picky 2 year old wanted nothing to do with it. The restaurant was fancy and so was the food. We just aren’t fancy people.    What were your favourite rides and why? My favourite ride and show was Ratatouille and Mickey and the Magician. Mickey and the Magician is coming to Walt Disney World soon, but it is a stage Musical and Illusionist show. Mickey wants to be a magician and various Disney characters appear to show him how it’s done. There is lot’s of singing and dancing. It’s amazing.  Ratatouille is a trackless, 3D ride based off the movie. The car is called a “rat-mobile” and we are essentially shrunk down to the size of a rat and we run around the restaurant with Remy. It’s very popular and Fastpasses usually sell out before noon. The aim is to ride Crush Coaster then line up at the Ratatouille Fastpass kiosk at rope drop. Ratatouille Ride ©www.mousetravelmatters.com The kids loved Dumbo. Our oldest child liked Star Wars and Buzz Lightyear. Our youngest child had no idea what was going on. Hubby liked Hyperspace mountain but since the kids were too young to ride, he went alone. Sucked for him in that sense, but at least he was able to take advantage of the single riders line and rarely waited longer than 15 minutes to board. Hyperspace Mountain is the renovated version of Space Mountain. I have never been on it myself, too scary for me. Hubby has done both versions. Hyperspace Mountain is now in the theme of Star Wars. He preferred the Star Wars version of Space Mountain as he's a huge Star Wars fan.  I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to rides, so I was more than happy to do all the kid rides. Hubby did the bigger ones while the kids napped in the park (we don’t believe in heading back to the hotel for naps until it’s uber required).  Star Tours Ride ©www.mousetravelmatters.com  Hyperspace Mountain ©www.mousetravelmatters.com Rides that were scary for the kids? Recommend? The kids were a little wary of Peter Pan, only because it was so dark (Peter Pan is the same as in the US).  Crush Coaster was a little fast for the oldest but he seemed to have a great time, just didn’t want to do it again. Big Thunder Mountain was another fast one that he enjoyed, but refused to ride a second time. There wasn’t much that they were allowed to do (required height) that they didn’t want to do. In general, if it doesn’t have a height requirement, it’s safe to say the kids will love it.  Did you do a Park Hopper ticket? How easy was that? At Disneyland Paris, as long as you haven't purchased a single day ticket - all tickets get you into both parks.  As the Parks are so close to each other, you literally walk out of one park, down the road 50 feet and enter the next park. It’s not difficult at all to do a Park Hopper. Fireworks? How were they? The fireworks are pretty cool. So far, only the main park (Disneyland Park) has a big show each night. And the queues start about 2 hours before the show, depending on how crowded it is that day. During peak season, definitely 2 hours before. Since it’s a light/video show with fireworks, one does want to be close to the front to see it well. Where did you eat at Disneyland? Recommend?? Or ones you don’t?  We tried to eat at new places each time but we did end up having our favourites.  Casey’s Corner is a great place for hot dogs. Beware, Europe doesn’t do relish. We learned this the hard way. Café Hyperion is another good one for basic burgers and nuggets. There is a stage near the sitting area and they put a show on every once in a while. Cowboy Cookout BBQ is pretty great. Captain Jack’s, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, the Character meals; Auberge de Cendrillon and Plaza Gardens. Our family also didn’t like Earl of Sandwich. I keep hearing that Earl of Sandwich is the best place to have breakfast but I can’t figure out why. When we went the one time, they had fruit in a bowl, croissants and eggs with bacon. That was all they served for kids. Mind you, Europe doesn’t do breakfast the same way America does so even the chain restaurants have to change their menu’s accordingly. The service was slow, the sitting area was dirty, and it just wasn’t very appealing. It was cheap, though. I have to give them that. But you get what you pay for, the kids were hungry within an hour. Café des Cascadeurs in Walt Disney Studio’s was great too. I loved their Caesar salad – it’s hard to find a good Caesar in Europe. Not sure why. Rainforest café was great.  Planet Hollywood was essentially the same thing as the Rainforest Cafe, just overpriced and had less for kids. It was also very crowded (from all those adults avoiding the kids). How did you cope with Jetlag? We lived nearby so there wasn’t any jetlag. But when we do fly to North America, we try to keep them up until their bedtime, and they sleep hard the next day. I would suggest if the difference is more than a few hours, to have a calm first day and don’t expect to do much in the morning. Definitely stay late the night you land, you will need something to keep you awake.  Queues and Lines? Tips? How did you find them versus the kids? Queues aren’t that bad. There are a few rides, like Ratatouille and Crush Coaster that can be long, but many have Fast Pass options available. Just hit them up first thing in the morning, or buy them (see section on FastPasses below) if you want more than one at a time. For the kids rides, the queues are worst in the afternoon, after nap time. So hit those during the morning, then parades, early lunch and more kids rides while everyone else has lunch. More shows and parades while the park is busy in the afternoon. Finish rides in the evening just before the fireworks.    ©www.mousetravelmatters.com Photo above: Outside of the parks. Disney village is off to the side and is the major route to the parks from the bus stop and a few onsite hotels. This angle is looking towards the lake, which has Newyork hotel and Newport bay hotel on either side. Crush Coaster, Walt Disney Studios ©www.mousetravelmatters.com FastPasses? Disneyland Paris has still the paper Fastpass. No need to pre-book anything. However, they have recently added the ability to purchase Fastpass packages – this is different than Walt Disney World Fastpass purchases, as they are only for certain Fastpass eligible rides, not all of them. And you are limited to how many rides you get, based on the package you buy. In Disneyland Park, I would recommend Big Thunder Mountain, Star Wars and Buzz Lightyear. The others can easily be ridden during Extra Magic Hours (EMH) or later in the evening. Hyperspace Mountain has a pretty fast single rider line, so I would skip Fastpassing this one and just going the single route.  In Walt Disney Studios, Ratatouille for sure. Rockin’ Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror are very popular. There aren’t many Fastpass available rides and the rest of the park is mostly shows. Did you do the PhotoPass option? I bought PhotoPass each time we went, but only after the fact. We counted how many photos were taken and how many I really wanted to print, and did what was cheaper. Having a blog meant I would want to have a legal digital copy to share with my readers so PhotoPass ended up being cheaper in the end. I liked that it came with 2 fobs and a lanyard. This way I was able to share it with other people and maybe save a few Euro.  How did you find getting around Paris ? Did you do any of the shopping outlets? We didn’t do any of the shopping outlets, no. Figured we had already spent enough money as it was. But, the next town over did have a great outlet that everyone raves about called Val d'Europe  and it does sound like I could have purchased some of the same souvenirs for significantly cheaper.  What do you love about Disneyland? I loved that there were more rides, but the footprint was smaller. The kids could walk and not be exhausted at the end of the day because they spent most of their day queuing up or riding, instead of walking to all the rides.  I loved that there were so many unique rides at Disneyland Paris, and it wasn’t just a mirror image of Magic Kingdom. You can read more about the unique attractions in Disneyland Paris ©www.mousetravelmatters.com Thanks to Christine’s family for their review of Disneyland Paris! You can read more of Christine's blog posts on her website: https://mousetravelmatters.com and you can follow Christine here: www.pinterest.ca/mousetravelmatters/pins/ www.instagram.com/mousetravelmatters_ www.facebook.com/mousetravelmatters/  www.twitter.com/MouseTVLMatters  More blog posts from Christine: Disneyland Paris Introduces New Paid Fast Pass Options PhotoPass at Disneyland Paris FAQ  Unique Attractions to Disneyland Paris Disneyland Paris for Wimps - Scary rides to avoid Disneyland Paris Height Restrictions A guide to the hotels in Disneyland Paris You can also subscribe directly to this blog. I publish weekly, on a Wednesday  Subscribe to Theme Park Travel Guide by Email Until Next week, K.J  Return to Home Page This site may contain affiliate links. When you click on a link, we receive a small percentage of an affiliate sale without any cost to you. Thank you for your support! 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