Be Our Guest at Disneyland Paris

When you're some of the biggest Disney fans, you've seen 2 of their 6 international locations, and you're an hour away, what do you do? You go,of course!

But how does Disneyland Paris stack up to the stateside parks? And how do you make the most of your time visiting a place that has to compete with the majestic history you're surrounded with in Europe.

​Here's our take on getting the most of your Disneyland Paris visit!

Where to stay?

We chose to stay at a Disney hotel to capitalize on the on-site perks - proximity and Extra Magic Time. Disney has a plethora of properties, including 6 Disney hotels within walking distance of the parks and 2 Disney Nature hotels which are set further out and require a car to access. Disney also has a variety of Partner Hotels in the area that provide shuttle buses to the parks and may offer a little lower price per night of your stay.

We wanted some place that we could maximize our time at the resort and at the same time feel like we were getting an experience worth the price. We chose to stay at Disney's Newport Bay Club, a hotel right onsite and walking distance to Disney Village. Anyone familiar with the Walt Disney World set of hotels, Newport Bay is the equivalent of Yacht & Beach or Boardwalk, taking you back to a time of living on the water and enjoying the luxuries of full scale seaside resorts. The hotel is beautiful, just as her sister properties here in Orlando; and massive - we stayed on a wing that was quite a hike to get to, but that was located directly next to the indoor pool.

Deciding what you want out of a hotel is what works for your family. All Disneyland Paris hotels offer all-you-can-eat buffets and adult lounges on property, but not all have a quick service option for dining. We would have loved to have some of those conveniences, like an on-site restaurant for snacks on-the-go and a fridge in the room to store leftovers (or in our case, milk). Closest proximity to the park is the Disneyland Hotel, which would allow easiest access to the two parks and Disney Village. If you rather skip on big meals and have a fast option for food, then Disney's Hotel Cheyenne and Disney's Hotel Santa Fe both offer Starbucks on property, but are a little further out from the parks. Hotels with moderate pricing but with proximity to entertainment, Disney Sequoia Lodge & Disney's Hotel New York (currently rebranding to the Art of Marvel) should be considered. And if neither of those are in your price range, there are a host of offsite options, but you lose the perks that Disney gives you, like Extra Magic Time to enjoy attractions before the general public.

Disneyland Paris has also already started to implement extra security measures like scanning all bags (and people) before entering the hotel, which I applaud. It was our first touch of reality with the world we live in today; but it was welcome to see a proactive approach to make sure the magic isn't compromised.

Amount of Time? 

This is all up to how much you want to do. We wanted the experience so we chose to end our trip here and wind down with some fun Disney days. We booked two nights because we wanted to enjoy two full days in the park. We arrived early enough to enjoy one park, leaving our bags with the porter and able to get settled in to our room after we finished our day.

The parks are located a walk away from the hotel, passing through Disney Village complex and then with a fork in the road to decide which way to go. The set up is very similar to Disneyland California and very convenient for anyone wanting to experience everything in one day. They have some of the big name restaurants they do stateside, like Rainforest Cafe, Planet Hollywood and McDonald's, but also have unique concepts like Annette's Diner (ode to the original Mouseketeer) and a character filled Wild West stage show at Buffalo's Bills. ​

If you want to spend any time checking out the night-time entertainment, there warrants an extra night just to enjoy a dinner show - and use that extra day to book an excursion to the surrounding area. Disney offers tours to chateaus and small countryside villages to get a taste of the beautiful region outside Paris that hosts their parks.

Disneyland Paris also offers great package deals that may also be worth skipping a stay in Paris and opting to make the commute to the city instead. We had considered this option when we found a package that would allow us to stay on property for 5 nights for the price of 3. The package also included tickets and granted children free admission - so ultimately we'd be getting a 5-day ticket & 5-night hotel stay for the whole family for the price of two adults on a 3-day package. One rate also included club level room, which would give you exclusive check-in and access to the club lounge, with refreshments and light appetizers served all day. In hindsight, the offer was too incredible to pass up - but we did, because we also knew we wanted to indulge in our first time in Paris. But someone wanting to shop savvy, it is every bit worth searching for a package like this!

Which Ticket to Get? 

Absolutely buy tickets ahead of time and snag them on a deal, as they'll also be cheaper online than at the park. We had pre-purchased tickets off the Disneyland Paris site as they were running a deal that got Adults in for the price of Children tickets and we couldn't pass that up!

​There are two parks to choose from, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios. We opted to purchase a 1 Day Ticket for each park and completely immerse ourselves in that park. And personally, we felt like a day in each park was more than enough time!

The tickets are sold on an attendance calendar so depending on when you visit, the cheaper it is (weekdays early in summer run cheaper than weekends or late summer). The parks also operate on hours depending on season, with Walt Disney Studios Park closing earlier than the original. During our stay, Walt Disney Studios closed at 8pm on weekends and 6pm on weekdays, so we opted to do the newer park first to maximize our weekend day at the park. Disneyland Park remained open until midnight either day. Since we had one park tickets and we wanted to capitalize on our energy and the late hours, we opted to save Disneyland for last.

Walt Disney Studios Park 

Walt Disney Studios is the newer park, and reminiscent of Hollywood Studios in Orlando.  It houses two of the newer attractions, Crush's Coaster and Ratatouille, which were our main objectives to see.  Just like Disneyland, Paris still has the old FastPass distribution system - you don't have a limit to how many you get in a day and you can get your next one after the distribution window on your ticket opens up (which is usually at the ride time).  So if you're lucky and get a FastPass for the exact hour you're in (which is possible), you can also get another pass within a few minutes and ride back to back line-free rides.

​We made our way in and went directly for Ratatouille since we wanted to all get on a ride together and this one was it.  We got our FP and proceeded to ride other attractions in Pixar Place, an ode to Disney-Pixar films like Cars and Toy Story. There we spun on Luigi, had a Slinky Dog Dash and then made it back over to experience  Ratatouille. The ride took us on a 3-D adventure in a mouse's point-of-view through the restaurant featured in the movie and the streets of Paris - it was adorable and left the kids squealing! ​

We caught a few other attractions we didn't have back home, including Disney Junior Live which had different cartoons featured than they do in Orlando, which was exciting for the kids to see!  We also rode the underwhelming attractions of Armageddon and the Backstage Tour. The one thing we had high on our list to see before we left for the day was the coveted Mickey and Magician show, which was fantastic!  Housed in a theater, this is a production including live singing and stage effects - it was amazing to see the caliber of show that Europe delivers and really can speak to the level of performance this culture relishes in. 

Disneyland Paris

The park itself is overshadowed by the Disneyland Hotel, so upon approaching it, you see the beautiful grounds of their flagship property, but no sign of the iconic castle.  You pass under the hotel into the ticket turnstiles and only after crossing the official entry of the railroad station do you see Sleeping Beauty's castle. 

The park is very reminiscent of Disneyland California, in its simplicity, attention to detail and accessiblity of attractions.  It goes back to a simpler time when things weren't as rushed and the experience was greater than the exposure.  It had all the classic rides you expect at any of the flagship parks, with enhancements like HyperSpace Mountain (which was unfortunately closed for maintenance during our visit). The park had also just celebrated its 25th anniversary, so it had a sense of grandeur still in the air to celebrate such an event.  

The details are so clean and crisp, but it did lack a little of the magic you find back home.  We tried to pinpoint what, and couldn't place our fingers on it until after we left  - atmosphere music.  We're so used to having music ushering us along and making the pace for our walk, that we failed to notice that the parks didn't have much.  You heard the faint music from the attractions as you passed by, but as you walk between lands, taking in the park and existing in the moment, there's no soundtrack to live by.  Us spoiled Disney kids really fail to see how wonderful something so simple as this is.   ​

The parks also operate on the classic FastPass distribution system, much like Disneyland California.  They do have limited attractions offering passes so waiting in lines may be inevitable. But the parks do not nearly have the waits that the stateside parks do, outside the more popular attractions which beckon visitors.  It's absolutely worth waiting in line for those, and even more so for waiting for the shows.  The performances here are all live and it is incredible to see the magic of that experience come to life.  It is also worth noting that all shows are done in a mix of English and French  dialogue, so it makes for a truly memorable experience to get a bit of each culture combined. 

I could go on for days about our trip there, but I will let the pictures do the talking instead.  If you ever have the opportunity and are even a bit of a Disney fan, take the day trip out here.  You can take a metro from central Paris which will drop you off at the end of Disney Village and within a two minute walk to either park.

Any other tips? 

• A day trip out here is absolutely feasible from Paris. The Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy train stops right outside Disney Village's gates, making it for the most accessible route to the parks. You can do both parks in one day, granted skipping some attractions, but if you don’t want to see everything this is the route for you!

• ​Disney Village starts to open up roughly at 730 in the morning and not a minute earlier. There were only two quick service options there, so we opted for Starbucks just to ensure we had some conveniences the kids craved (like chocolate milk).
• Buy food in Paris to bring with you, especially if you won't have access to a car here.​ We didn't find a huge variety of options for the kids who love to snack - we ended up having to feed them chocolate and pastries on-the-go (of course, they didn't mind). Just having the convenience of apple sauce, some fruits, and MILK (especially) on us would have made a difference in planning meals.
• Disneyland Paris' Extra Magic Time hosts limited rides per park, which we failed to see prior to arrival. Walt Disney Studios includes the two new rides, whereas Disneyland itself is limited to a princess meet and greet and attractions in Fantasyland, all of which we have stateside. Crush's Coaster had an endless line and constant breaks (it seemed to always be on a delay for maintenance), so unfortunately we never made it on. So major tip going in, if you don't get a two park ticket (like us) and don't have two full mornings, make it a point to get into the park you prefer the Extra Magic Time.
• If your budget allows, splurge and stay at the Disneyland Hotel. There's something to be said about a once in a lifetime experience and this kind of trip feels like it. Plus, even though we weren't far, the proximity of this hotel to park is worth the extra. It'll also save on the exhausted traveler walking AND you can have breakfast in the park; we were not told the park would have venues open for breakfast, so had we known we would've dined there!
• ​​We were in the park before its early park opening time of 8 and on a rainy Monday, which meant we got a unique experience as they dropped the ropes to open the attractions - we had the park (almost) to ourselves. It was eerie and magical all at once, to relish in the streets and see the details without the crowds, an overwhelming experience to think of the exclusive access we had that so many covet. We absolutely realize how blessed & fortunate we were to be right here, right now. So if you can, stay at least one night, even if it is just to get pictures like this ...

Any Disney fan will agree, it is definitely worth the experience to see how cultures influence each of their parks worldwide. The parks are very similar but yet so unique in their own way.  It brought us so much perspective to ride the Small World an ocean away and listen to the words with true relativity to our time here. ​

If visiting Disney is on your bucket list, make a stop here, its worth it.  It's incredible to see what one man with a vision was able to create, all with one little mouse - that has changed the way the world experiences happiness.