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Disneyland Paris tips / recommendations

Off for a few days there soon and looking for any tips and recommendations for when on site (travel and accommodation already sorted).

Got 2 seven year olds for context.

Any rides to definitely avoid? - won't like anything too fast / scary, and I'm not sure the kids won't either :-)

Any places to eat recommendations? Any any general recommendations on how to eat for a few nights without the need for a 2nd mortgage

Thoughts on the evening shows, split of different parks and time needed, things they might like best etc

Any other thoughts or advice gratefully received

In addition - anyone who has been with kids with additional needs, how did you find it etc?

thanks

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Comments

  • It's great. Food quite expensive, but the Buffet near the Aladdin bit is really good, and so is the blue lagoon restaurant in the pirates of the Caribbean ride (great ride BTW). I'd give serious thought to booking a few restaurants before going. Pain in the arse, but that's what everyone else does. If they like characters, go to Cafe Mickey. Queuing for them in the park wastes hours. There are two bits - the studio bit, and the Disneyland bit. At least do a day in each. The Studio has the hotel of horror, some rollercoasters (the Aerosmith one is ace), and an Armageddon "ride" which is cool. The main park has four areas, a sort of western one (ghost house is fun, so is thunder mountain, though it keeps breaking down), the future zone, which has a really good buzz lightyear ride with laser guns... your lads will love that... and space mountain (you won't like that by the sounds of it). There's the fantasy zone which is mainly for little kids with "it's a small world" and Pinocchio, peter pan.... not white knuckly scary, but a bit creepy! then there's the zone who's name I can't remember... but that has the pirates of the Caribbean, and the excellent Indiana jones ride. Basically, spend time wondering round and taking it all in, it's really well done and your kids will love it. The shops are shite. In the evening, take it in turns with the Mrs to go back into the park on your own and smash it.
  • edited March 2018
    After taking our 8 year old last year, would say that 7 is just about the right age to start taking them (it's a long day)

    She was ok with most of the rides but one that freaked her out a bit was the Pinocchio ride. It looks pretty tame from the outside but a bit like a ghost train inside. You'll know which roller coaster rides your kids will be ok with but the Hyperspace Mountain is fairly full on and goes upside down. The runaway train is great.

    Didn't do the Wild West show but by all accounts is very good (we're doing it when we go again at Easter). Food is expensive but not as bad as I thought it would be. There are plenty of restaurants just outside the main entrance gates, where the wild west building is.

    Managed to do most of the rides/things we wanted to do in the 4 days we were there but as I said, it's a long day.

    They do fast pass tickets for the popular rides, you get your ticket stamped with a time slot, usually a couple of hours or so after you check in and you come back and go straight to the front of the queue. However, you can only do one fast pass at a time, so pick the ride you really want to do.

    If you need to chill out for a bit, go to the Disney Junior studio as they do live shows every 90 minutes or so and is a good opportunity to flop out for an hour while the kids get involved.

    Quite a bit to do other than just the rides, Alice in Wonderland maze etc so you don't have to spend all your day queuing up!

    If the kids can stay awake, the light and firework show at the end of the evening is worth catching at least once.
  • My other half painted a lot of stuff for the Star Wars and Ratatouille rides.

    Therefore definitely give those a go.
  • After taking our 8 year old last year, would say that 7 is just about the right age to start taking them (it's a long day)

    She was ok with most of the rides but one that freaked her out a bit was the Pinocchio ride. It looks pretty tame from the outside but a bit like a ghost train inside. You'll know which roller coaster rides your kids will be ok with but the Hyperspace Mountain is fairly full on and goes upside down. The runaway train is great.

    Didn't do the Wild West show but by all accounts is very good (we're doing it when we go again at Easter). Food is expensive but not as bad as I thought it would be. There are plenty of restaurants just outside the main entrance gates, where the wild west building is.

    Managed to do most of the rides/things we wanted to do in the 4 days we were there but as I said, it's a long day.

    They do fast pass tickets for the popular rides, you get your ticket stamped with a time slot, usually a couple of hours or so after you check in and you come back and go straight to the front of the queue. However, you can only do one fast pass at a time, so pick the ride you really want to do.

    If you need to chill out for a bit, go to the Disney Junior studio as they do live shows every 90 minutes or so and is a good opportunity to flop out for an hour while the kids get involved.

    Quite a bit to do other than just the rides, Alice in Wonderland maze etc so you don't have to spend all your day queuing up!

    If the kids can stay awake, the light and firework show at the end of the evening is worth catching at least once.

    We took our two grandsons a couple of years ago and Dave's comments above sum it it up for me.

    We did do the Wild West show and it was very good and as DM says you really should do the light & firework show at least once.

  • edited March 2018
    There is a McDonalds there, but generally the food is very average and very expensive for what it is. There is a Five Guys as you walk towards the car park between Disney Village and Disney Studios and in the Disney Village a Rain Forest Cafe and Planet Hollywood. We went in December and I think Cafe Mickey had stopped doing characters walk throughs. My advice is do McDonalds a lot if you are on a budget and it can get busy at peak lunch times.

    The Moteurs Action stunt show is decent if you havent seen it before (Disney Studios). 7 Year olds will love the Rattatouie ride which is very clever. My tip on that is go via the single riders queue. You won't sit next to your family but you will be in the same group of cars and it only takes 5 minutes and you will be wearing 3D glasses and won't talk to teh person sitting next to you. If one of your party isn't, you can just wait for them at the end.

    Pirates of the Carribean has some water shutes but they are not massive and 7 year olds should love. They should also like the Star Wars and Buzz rides in the future zone as well as the Haunted mansion ride. The Peter pan ride is ok for 7 year olds and they will enjoy small world. They will also like the cars which they control the throttle but are steeredon rails. Probably more for 7 year olds in the main park - Crush Coaster is good but it is a roller coaster - upside down etc... if they are not into that. The studios ride is a bit old but worth it for the flood and fire scene and this is often pretty empty.

    In the studios there is an animation show, where at the end of it they show you how to draw a disney character. This is quite fun to instill some family rivalry in who can draw the best one. Find out the time of the parades in the Disney park - the best place to view the parades is where they exit the park near the front of the park. If you go through the indoor shopping bit along main street - the left one if you are heading towards the park entrance and exit, you should find a less crowded spot to view parades as you get out in the open.

    Hope this helps.
  • the fast pass tickets don't actually costs anything additional - we only realised after we'd been there.

    we went Friday - Sunday, definitely do as many rides as possible on the Friday (we didn't queue more than 15 mins for anything) however on the Saturday the queues were 1 hour+ on everything......we did Disney on the Friday and then the Studios on the Saturday and watched all the shows (we definitely think we made the right choice)

    we managed to stay Saturday night for the fireworks which were amazing, loads to do including the parades which my kids loved.

    we had a 'character' dinner on the Friday evening - total rip off.

    stayed in one of the hotel's served by the shuttle buses about 10 mins away, should've eaten there really.

    rides wise, 'It's a small world' took me back to my childhood and is great....also the Buzz lightyear one is a must, will queue whenever for that - but it's well worth it.

    do the bag drop thing at the station when you get there, they then take your bags to your hotel for when you check in and you can go straight in the parks, same when going home, put them in at the station to then collect them before the train home
  • One to put on the 'might be too fast for the kids' list would be Crushers Coaster (finding nemo) in the Disney Studios park.

    Dont take the piss, but I shat myself going round on that in the dark, getting spun left right and centre.

    My boy is 9, and has been going to various Disney parks since he was 3. He has always gone on rollercoasters as soon as he was tall enough - and he loves the mine train in Paris.
  • edited March 2018
    If you are staying at one of the Disney hotels the park opens early for you - it isn't all open but it is a chance to do Peter Pan, Buzz, Dumbo, the Carosel etc... with no queueing. The light show at the end of the day was pretty good. In previous years we did once then went on the rides whilst this was on for other days, but last time they shut off all the rides and closed the park (the bits leading to the rides) to everybody bar those who had a special wrist band. I don't know how they got them, maybe they were disney hotel guests or maybe they bought special evening tickets, or maybe it was just a Christmas thing, but this threw us a bit as we were planning to go on Pirates of the Carribean as we know it gets empty then and couldn't. It would be worth checking that out in advance.
  • Just stay away from Snow White AFKA. We need you back here to sort out the prediction league. :smile:
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  • we're going in mid May, so tips are welcomed here
  • If anyone in your group has mobility issues it should mean you can get to the front of queues - you might need a letter from your doctor to confirm. Disneyland can confirm what's needed.

    Both my daughters are disabled and it was a godsend not to have to worry about access and queues.
  • edited March 2018
    Fast pass is good - you can only do one fast pass ride at a time. On busy rides there will be fast pass machines - you let the machine read your ticket bar code and it will print you a fast pass ticket for that ride with a range of times you can use it. Usually a 20 minute window. There will still be queues but these will be shorter. When you have used the fast pass tickets, you can get new ones for another ride.
  • If anyone in your group has mobility issues it should mean you can get to the front of queues - you might need a letter from your doctor to confirm. Disneyland can confirm what's needed.

    Both my daughters are disabled and it was a godsend not to have to worry about access and queues.

    yes, we will have this (to be honest we would not be able to do any queues without it)
  • Unless you all like and will get through a full scale breakfast, skip it and stop off for a coffee juice, muffin etc at one of the little cafes on Main Street. Otherwise you're really just throwing money away. And it gets you into the rides etc quicker.

    My sensible grandkids declined to go on Space Mountain. I went on out of nostalgia for when i took my own kids to Florida. Mistake. The Paris ride is a lot more white knuckle. I swear you need a crash helmet....the amount of times it threw my head against the side of the seating area.
  • More so if you have little kids, but you can get a special pass where one adult goes on a ride, picks up a ticket, and then the other parent goes straight to the front. Can't remember it's name though, but it's great for the scary rides the kids can't go on.
  • Planet Hollywood, Rainforest cafe and some saloon type restaurant near the boat are awful. Overpriced shite. Macdonalds is crap but it’s cheap and saves you a hell of a lot. If you can buy drinks and stuff from outside the resort then take those in as again they are a proper rip off inside. I would personally go into the studio part of the park as I think you only need half a day in there as it’s smaller.and a day and a half in main park. I know you said your not into rides mate but if your tall enough go on the tower of terror or whatever it’s called, absolute quality.
  • Rainforest cafe is good on that you will be desperate for vegetables after days of eating grease
  • Nicholas said:

    Planet Hollywood, Rainforest cafe and some saloon type restaurant near the boat are awful. Overpriced shite. Macdonalds is crap but it’s cheap and saves you a hell of a lot. If you can buy drinks and stuff from outside the resort then take those in as again they are a proper rip off inside. I would personally go into the studio part of the park as I think you only need half a day in there as it’s smaller.and a day and a half in main park. I know you said your not into rides mate but if your tall enough go on the tower of terror or whatever it’s called, absolute quality.


    No chance
  • Everything is expensive. Once you get past that notion and watch the kids absolutely love it you’ll enjoy it too.
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  • Not last year, but in some previous years when we stayed for three days (my wife loves it), I brought one of those travel fridges and had buffet food in a coolbag in the car. We had some nice buffet meals in the room on the cheap and only had one expensive meal in the park and some McDonalds. The meals in the room were delicious and the best meals we had there.
  • edited March 2018
    I think we went about 3 times when the kids were little, and I’m looking for an excuse to go back now there grown up, any spare room AFKA?

    Prepare to come back absolutely knackered, up early, up late, pretty full on, as others have said once you get your head round the prices, just don’t think about it too much.

    I did the rock n roll rollercoaster on my own as the kids were too small, I’m still recovering!

    I hope you have a fantastic time, I loved it, I think we stayed in one of the hotels on site, so it was easy to get into in the morning, we did the Disney breakfast with the characters, again not cheap, but it’s sorta thing that you do when you’re there.
  • Off for a few days there soon and looking for any tips and recommendations for when on site (travel and accommodation already sorted).

    Got 2 seven year olds for context.

    Any rides to definitely avoid? - won't like anything too fast / scary, and I'm not sure the kids won't either :-)

    Any places to eat recommendations? Any any general recommendations on how to eat for a few nights without the need for a 2nd mortgage

    Thoughts on the evening shows, split of different parks and time needed, things they might like best etc

    Any other thoughts or advice gratefully received

    In addition - anyone who has been with kids with additional needs, how did you find it etc?

    thanks

    Avoid the french
  • Also, if your kids like Star Wars, they’ll love it. There’s a massive Star Wars store, I think if I’d gone there as a kid my head would have exploded. I could have spent a fortune as it was.
  • edited March 2018
    End of Jan we had 4 Days 3 nights, Wednesday to Saturday, Eurostar tickets, Disney New York hotel, Full Board (Brekkie, any Lunch, any dinner, any restaurant, **all 3 course meals and a drink), Wild Bill Show, and a £100euro gift voucher to spend on site in the shops.

    Full TOTAL cost was £1300 , 2 adults and a 6 yo

    The food vouchers alone could have totalled £1200 for the four days.

    All Staff were brilliant through out the park and couldn't do enough for you. Even the professional photographers who take your photo with the characters take a photo with your mobile and not even the hint of wanting a tip.

    Brilliant place and would go again
  • We went about 18 months ago with the three grandkids, they absolutely loved it. We stayed on the site for 4 nights. Agree the fireworks are pretty good, considering they have a display most nights. Me & the Missus were absolutely knackered after though.
  • edited March 2018

    One to put on the 'might be too fast for the kids' list would be Crushers Coaster (finding nemo) in the Disney Studios park.

    Dont take the piss, but I shat myself going round on that in the dark, getting spun left right and centre.

    My boy is 9, and has been going to various Disney parks since he was 3. He has always gone on rollercoasters as soon as he was tall enough - and he loves the mine train in Paris.

    My 7 year old (now 8) nagged me all morning to go on that (Crush's Coaster). I told her it was probably too fast for her. Eventually I got so sick of her sulking about it I took her on it. Didn't hear another peep out of her all week as it frightened the shit out of her.

    Ratatouille is a great ride (Studio's Park), everyone will enjoy that, plus Pirates of the Carribean, Small World. If you can get to see the Stunt Show in the Studio Park do it, it's brilliant.
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