After just returning home from my 2017 Disneyland Paris trip, I ask myself is it possible to go to the most magical place on earth, have the best experience ever and then come home back to reality I hear you ask? No. No it is not possible. I'm still in complete Disney mode watching movies, going through my holiday photographs and planning a new trip in my head. I figured since i'm fresh from a new trip and have lots of tips that could help, I better share them here. So here are some tips and info on how to get the full Disneyland Paris experience.
My trip to Disneyland Paris was from Thursday the 28th of September until Monday the 2nd of October. This was an ideal time as I was celebrating my birthday on the 29th of September. We stayed on-site in the Hotel Santa Fe, and had park tickets for all five days. For only having two parks, five days seems like a long time but the key is to spread out your trip and don't rush everything on day one!
TIP ONE: Bring your own birthday badge!
Like I said before, I was celebrating my 19th birthday while in Disneyland Paris. I know that in the American parks they hand out celebration badges like lollipops but they were not available in Disneyland Paris. Fortunately I was prepared enough to bring my own from home - and Mickey sang me a happy birthday song because he noticed it! Little things make a big difference to your trip. Otherwise they don't offer too many birthday things! You can order cakes and extras when you first book your trip online though!
TIP TWO: Take advantage of the meal plans!
When booking, if you can add a meal plan option to your trip I would highly recommend it. When staying - we had the half board meal plan added into our visit. This included one breakfast voucher and one lunch/dinner voucher per person per day. I'll go more into the restaurants and food we had in a different post but in terms of value for money it is definitely worth it.
TIP THREE: Fastpasses!
This is something we wished we had figured out earlier on in the trip. The fasspass kiosks usually sell out on big rides within a couple of hours in the morning. Always get your fasspasses early for rides such as Big Thunder Mountain, Ratatouille: The Adventure, Tower of Terror and Hyperspace Mountain. Most other rides only reach up to 30/40 minute queues a day but these are the attractions that can reach up to 120 minutes. Also if you're used to the ease of your Disney Magic band then you may be in a bit of a shock! Growing up I have the earliest memories of my sister and I running with our paper tickets to the fastpass kiosks to get the best times - although you don't really have to run, you will have to walk to the attraction to check the fastpass times to ensure you get a good one! For newer rides such as Ratatouille: The Adventure, we arrived at 8am to see that all fastpasses had been sold out - so definetly check the newer rides for fastpass times first!
TIP FOUR: Crush Coaster!
I cannot stress this enough - go straight to crush coaster in the Walt Disney Studios Park. There are no fasspasses for this ride and although it is constant moving and over quick - the queue reaches up to 60 minutes within the first few hours of opening. On our last day, we were in the queue at 8am and still in a 30 minute line - due to this we only got to ride it once but wish we got to experience it more. (Also note - the ride is fun but if you are a bit of a scaredy cat like me - ask if you can ride front facing. If you like thrills - ride it backwards facing.)
For me it was a complete no-brainer to stay on site at a Disney resort as we weren't going into the city of Paris and we were just going to the Disneyland Parks. If that is your plan, I highly recommend it. It was really easy to walk from our hotel (Disney Hotel Santa Fe) to the parks as it was a nice 10 minute walk. Another point is the security checks - the security check to get into Disney Village takes literally 10 seconds whereas coming from the train station/bus station takes about 10 minutes which isn't handy when trying to get in early. Also staying on site allows you to take advantage of the extra magic hours and get on some rides early!
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