Disneyland, Paris, Paris > Reviews > Vive Mickey!!

Author's product rating:   

Prices	Average
Transport links	Good

Advantages:	Great Family Fun
Disadvantages:	Expensive, too much fast food

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

We braved Disneyland Paris in March last year. Three kids (4 if you count me!), then aged 1, 7 and 10, and 2 adults. Although the train station into Disneyland is smack bang in the middle of the Park, Studios and Village, we decided to go by car. Which by the end of the journey was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

We opted for a 3 night, 4 day stay. Luckily as it was March, everyone seemed to have a 'kids go free' special offer on, so that cut the price down a bit. When we booked we also booked a character breakfast for all of us (5 or 6 characters wander round the cafe as you have breakfast, to have photos etc) - the kids ate free too, also a special deal on.

We sailed from Dover which was included in the package deal, and it took us about 3 1/2 to 4 hours to arrive at the resort, with a couple of wee stops on the way. The roads in France are much better than in this country. Not only are they better maintained, but they also seem realitively empty!

We stayed at the New York Hotel which is a 4 star. After checking in early, as our room was not quite ready we were able to leave all our luggage with the bell hops, all neatly tagged with name and room number, to start our adventure.

They say the hotel is only a short walk to the park, but it seemed to take forever! First we pass through Disney Village. Full of restaurants and gift stores to tempt you in. We went straight in and bought an autograph book and pen each for the kids and postcards. More about the autograph book later, but I must say that it is a MUST HAVE for the kids!

We wandered in to the Park and decided on the first of 5 'Lands' we were going to visit (Frontier - western, Fantasy - Fairytales, Adventure - pirates/adventure, Discovery - Spacey & Main Street). Frontier Land was first. Home of Big Thunder Mountain rollercoaster. My eldest and I queued for well over an hour and a half. That was BAD, but the ride was GOOD. Quite wide seats so it was able to take me and my eldest 2 quite easily at once. They do do a buggy watch system eg one parent goes on the ride while the other stays with buggy, then can swap over without all that queueing again! Another good thing is FastPass - you get a pre-timed ticket in the morning and join a separate shorter queue between your alloted time - saves alot of queueing.

Be prepared for fast food heaven! There are a few restauranty type places to eat in each of the 5 lands, but mostly do something and chips! And the whole place is dotted with hot dog and baked potato stalls - by the time we returned home all of us, including the kids, were yearning for fresh fruit and veg!!

We had our character breakfast at Cafe Mickey situated in the Disney Village. The kids enjoyed having their photos taken with the characters and having them sign their autograph books. The food however was not the best we had tasted - scrambled eggs were runny, bacon all crispy and distorted in shape and the sausages??I presume they were pork! But hey, the kids loved it and that was all that mattered.

Many characters wander round the park, and if you are lucky your kids can get a photo and an autograph in their book. It takes a lot of time, especially when your children who have been queueing for ages suddenly get pushed aside by other parents who then shove their own kids at the character or the character decides hes had enough and goes off, waving back at the unlucky kids with an inane grin on their face!

Fantasy Land is great for parents with toddlers and pre-schoolers as it is jam packed full of rides for tots and tinies - Peter Pan, Dumbo (V V V popular), Tea Cups (V V V excellent), Sleeping Beauty etc. Only downside is that all the narration is in French, so when the kids turn to you and say "What?" just hazard a guess from the various animated models around you to explain what is going on! Oh and prepared for the annoying 'Its a small world after all' song to be spinning around your head FOREVER!!

Walt Disney Studios is a separate park to the main one. Its good, but I feel not as good as the other one. The main attractions are Stunt Show (which I heard from my son and partner was good), Studio Tour Tram ride and Rock'n'Roll Rollercoaster.

We took our 1 year old on the Tram ride as we asked a helpful 'Cast' member if it was suitable. BIG mistake. All was going well until we came to the flaming truck. We stopped. Things caught fire. Tram started to rock from side to side. Toddler started screaming his head off! Thousands of Litres of water came over the top of the tram to put out flames and off we go again on our trip. He did however squeal with laughter on the Flying Carpets over Agrabha ride later in the day.

All in all we had a super time and the whole trip cost, including spending money, ferry, 4*hotel, breakfast, character breakfast, petrol, lunch and supper about £1500

So, we had a great time apart from:
Expensive gift shps dotted everywhere you turn
Fast food

Few tips:
Wear comfortable shoes - alot of walking
Take plenty of film for camera
Take a bag of apples, extra nibbly type food
Take a pac-a-mac - avoid expensive plastic poncho purchases
Wear a disney hat/t-shirt - helps to get characters to sign book
Avoid the cheese sauce on baked potatoes

I would definately go again...........anyone got space in their suitcase??????