Disneyland Paris – Disneyland Park

Ah Disneyland! It was so good to be back, after what felt like a lifetime since we booked this trip!

This was a very special trip for two reasons. The first time for Rich to visit Disneyland Paris, but the first time as a family with a Disney fanatic toddler visiting a Disney park. It’s really something you dream of. I’ve visited Disney World on many occasions as a child and adult with my family, Disneyland as part of our honeymoon and Disneyland Paris as part of a school trip. But this time, it was OUR time to take OUR little boy for his first Disney experience. And we couldn’t have been more happy about it!

The Park

Having visited three Disney resorts now – it’s hard not to compare. Each park so Disneyland (Anaheim), Magic Kingdom (Orlando) and Disneyland Park (Paris) is so beautiful and unique in it’s own way. The beauty we find from each park is from all of the similarities and differences to each other. They may only be small, but as massive Disney fans – seeing the parks play homage to other parks really makes you smile from ear to ear.

But without trying to compare too much, because it’s really hard not too. Disneyland Paris is probably the prettiest park we’ve seen. I mean, just getting to the entrance at the Gardens of Wonder is pretty enough, with the phoneminal floral displays (on our visit, it was very much a spring vibe, lots of pinks and colours that complimented the Disneyland Hotel).

From walking down Mainstreet and into each land, you can see how Disney have learnt what works, and what could be worked on more. From the original Disneyland, to developing Magic Kingdom, then adding in that European edge and extra beautiful detail to the Disneyland Park in Paris. It’s one of those moments, when you have to see it with your own eyes, to truly understand how Disney have developed each park.

The castle has just had a big refurbishment – which meant that on our visit it the castle looked brand spanking new – the pinks and blues stood out bright and vibrant, which looked great in the backdrop that was anything to do with the 30th celebrations.

One feature that I think makes this park stand out, is the attractions within the castle itself. Down below to the left of the castle you can find ‘La Tanière du Dragon’, which is a walk through experience to see the sleeping dragon – just note that it is very dark in here, so I would advise to only enter when empty so you don’t go bumping into other guests. And above, there is a walk through experience which is a Sleeping Beauty gallary (closed during our visit).

There are so many little extras that we loved about this park, that we haven’t seen in the other parks. Like an area in Adventureland dedicated to Skull Rock (big Peter Pan fan here – so very much appreciated), Alice In Wonderland maze, even the ‘secret’ passage way taking you straight into Frontierland from Main Street.

The lands

One thing that kept throwing us off in this park, is that Tomorrowland in the American parks is called Discoveryland in Disneyland Paris.

Discoveryland is where you will find all things space, like Buzz and Hyper Space Mountain. Fantasyland is all fairytale, like It’s a Small World (closed on our visit). Adventureland, you will see rides like Pirates, Indiana Jones and see Skull Rock. Frontierland is where you’ll find Phantom Manor and Big Thunder Mountain. There is also a play area that looks over to Big Thunder Mountain, it was really handy to visit here to let Dexter safely stretch his legs.

Character meets

We’ve always been one for making sure we meet characters. But this time, we made sure that we DID. We HAD to meet certain characters, because our little boy is totally obsessed with a few friendly faces.

The very first character we met (by chance) was King Louie – which Dexter had no idea who he was. He was slightly unsure, but he gave us all a great cuddle hug – a great way to start our Disney holiday.

Our first scheduled character meet was during a character dining experience at The Plaza Gardens – we met Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, Donald and Tiger, TWICE. It was a great way to ease Dexter into meeting his hero’s in real life. He was sat at his high chair, munching away on his food, then one by one met each character and you could see him slowly get more confident and more excited to see them. The high chairs are also super cute!

The ultimate character meet is obviously with the main man himself, Mickey Mouse. We entered the queue in Fantasyland (right near Fantasyland station) with a 5 minute wait as it just opened. However, we didn’t meet Mickey until about 90 minutes later…it was totally worth it. Dexter was in awe, he had loads of time with him. As soon as he gave Mickey a cuddle, fist bump and high five. Dexter was ready to play with him – THE SWEETEST THING EVER. As mentioned above, we had to wait 90 minutes with a toddler. That was kind of difficult. Dexter was asleep in his pram at the start of the queue, but as you enter the building, prams are not allowed. We had to carefully lift him out, and managed to keep him asleep on our shoulders for about 10 to 15 minutes. Rich then had to keep taking him outside for a run around, and explore Alice’s Curious Labyrinth to keep him occupied – because you can not expect a toddler to stand patiently for that amount of time.

Our very last meet of the holiday was with Winnie the Pooh – and this was by far was our favourite one. Dexter wasn’t the easiest child to have waiting in the queue because he just wanted to cuddle Pooh bear, so while Rich queued for us, I walked around with Dexter. Once we got back in the queue and Dexter was wriggling away to run up to Pooh bear – and once we let him loose. He legged it over to Pooh, gave him a massive cuddle, and muttered away to him, giving him more cuddles. It was so sweet.

Not a meet, but each morning once entering the park, we waved and blew kisses to both Minnie and Mickey from the Main Street railway station (and even from above, they both interacted with us). It’s the BEST way to start the day.

Food and drink

Going to Disney you know food and drink isn’t going to be cheap. But we definitely found certain things pretty affordable for a Disney park. We actually ended up resorting to buying children’s meals for ourselves to save a little money, but it was actually filling enough – if an adults meal cost around 17 Euros, and children’s was roughly 9 Euro.

Plaza Gardens Character dining was the first character dining I’ve ever done. It felt right doing it this time around now that we have a little one. It was perfect, as well as it being free from Dexter to eat here because he was under the age of 2. It felt so much more magical, because for the baby the magic is truly real. Aside to the characters, the food was delicious, even with the hefty price of 69 euros each. We did almost begrudge the price upon entering, but after the magical experience, delicious food, and meeting 5 characters twice (they also had so much time for Dexter too, it never felt rushed at all) it was 100% worth it. We would highly recommend and definitely do it again – next time hopefully for the character breakfast (the slightly cheaper dining option).

We tried out the Cafe Hyperion in Discoveryland with the ordering online system through the app. Which did work, but it wasn’t a fast collection like it told to you. We both got the 30th anniversary special that included a burger, large drink, 30th anniversary cake and fries for 20 euros each. It was all delicious, and filled a huge gap to keep us going. For Dexter, because it is a pricey gig in a Disney park, we just shared everything with him, so his options are always open (as well as a few snacks that I brought on holiday with us).

The Colonel Hathi’s Pizza Outpost quick service restaurant located not too far from Indiana Jones, was where we first realized that we could just purchase children’s meals to see us through a couple of hours. And I wont lie that seeing a Mickey shaped pizza sold it to me. This restaurant has great themeing, and lots of seating to choose from. When we visited it had just opened for the day. I would imagine if you’re stuck from finding somewhere to sit down and eat to try here.

Bella Notte in Fantasyland, was by far our favourite Quick Service restaurant we had. The food was delicious, so filling, and value for money for sure. We both went for the Lady and the Tramp spaghettis for 17 euros each. It consisted of a hefty portion of spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread (or a side salad), Tiramisu and a drink. We all loved it. Not only does all of the food look spot on, the restaurant is beautiful. Think Tony’s from Lady and the Tramp and that is it.

Hakuna Matata restaurant is another quick service in Adventureland that we thought offered a wider variety of foods. Whereas most offer the basics of burger and chips, here, it was more like chicken and rice. It felt like the healthiest quick service.

I don’t know if the champagne cart is on Main Street all year round or if it just a little extra for the 30th celebrations, but we treat ourselves to a glass of champagne each! We aren’t drinkers, but when in Disney. Why not?! So, having a champagne with a plastic champagne branded with the 30th celebrations comes with a price. 15 Euros each. But it was all part for the fun, it was something different. And I am a sucker for anything souvenir-wise, and we use our glasses frequently. If you are after this, the cart only appeared on Main Street mid-afternoon onwards.

We tried quite a few snacks throughout of the day to keep us going, like popcorn, giant butter cookies, beignets, cake pops and more. Apart from the giant Mickey butter cookie that cost 12 euros (it lasted though), most snacks cost around 5 euros – so it wasn’t as bad as we expected, we shared everything so it meant we all got to taste the goods!

Rides

We surprisingly got on absolutely every ride that we wanted to go on. Read below with how we managed to get on everything through single rider and parent swap passes.

We really enjoyed seeing the comparisons between rides from other parks. Like the different in queues in Haunted Mansion in WDW and Phantom Manor in DLP. Big Thunder Mountain in Paris seemed to have more darkness that the American parks. Hyper Space Mountain does loop-de-loops here in Paris and is Star Wars themed unlike the American parks. Disneyland has Tarzan Treehouse, where as Disneyland Paris has the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. The Molly Brown river boat is the Mark Twain river boat in Orlando. Indiana Jones is a show in Disney World, an indoor ride in Disneyland and an outdoor coaster in Disneyland Paris. And that’s just a few comparisons.

We did also miss a few rides that we love in the American parks, like Jungle Cruise and Splash Mountain, these are a must for us. But I love that parks have alternatives.

As a whole, our favourite Disney rides in general are Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean. And that definitely transferred over to Disneyland Paris too. We went on Phantom Manor 4 or 5 times, and the same with Pirates. Queue times really worked in our favour on this trip, so we just kept going on them. We cant get enough of them!

Parades and shows

You can read about the 30th anniversary parades and shows here – D-Light and Dream and Shine Brighter.

Illuminations is the fireworks display that follow D-light at 11pm. Which just seems so late considering the amount of young children who are in the park – and I’ve never really considered how late the firework displays are until we’ve had our own baby (trying to keep him awake, haha!). Nevertheless, Dexter lasted the entire day from a 7am start, two naps, to falling asleep 2 minutes before the fireworks concluded, by falling asleep in Richs arms. Probably the best response from your child having a full, fun day at Disney.

We liked Illuminations, but it definitely isn’t our favourite firework display we have seen from the Disney parks. Which I won’t go into too much because I know a lot of people like it.

We didn’t really make much effort to see shows with us travelling with a toddler who doesn’t like to be stationary. But we did manage to sit down at the Mickey’s PhilharMagic show. It was great to rest with some nice air-con, and Dexter surprisingly didn’t fidget once, he was in awe. We definitely recommend this hidden gem in Discoveryland (as its tucked away right at the back of Hyperspace Mountain). It is a 4D experience with lots of Disney characters involved including some familiar faces from Coco – this is what sold it to us!

Photo Pass opportunities

The difference between the American photo passes in both California and Orlando and Paris is vastly different. Obviously the concept is the same. But the opportunities definitely lack in Disneyland Paris. But you still get enough photos to make the cost of it worth it.

On this trip, we got between 50 to 60 photos, which is still an awful lot of photos. They were captured from a few rides, character meets and up-close to the castle.

When I say vastly different. Disney World obviously has 5 extra parks so naturally you will get more photos. But, just in Magic Kingdom alone, we have Photopass photos taken of us outside of the entrance, a few times up and down Main Street, at the castle, so many more rides, characters and just widely spread around the entire park. The California parks were the same too. We definitely came away with hundreds of photos. Lets hope Disneyland Paris gets like this because the park is far too pretty to miss out of this.

Single rider/ child swap

We are all saddened to the news of fast pass leaving us (still so devasted) it was the perfect way to do everything in the park. We were a bit apprehensive as to how we would be able to do as much with a toddler. But turns out between single rider and parent swap, we done everything, and Dexter went on every ride that he could go on.

Parent Swap was an absolute blessing for us. We managed to use this in both parks. It involved one of us jumping in a single rider queue (or normal queue, if there was no single rider), then after leaving the ride asking for a Parent Swap pass, then the other just joined the Priority Pass lane and voila! We both complete a ride (that was either to big for Dexter, or Dexter was napping) in less than 30 minutes! Rides that worked great with this especially was Big Thunder Mountain, Ratatouille and Tower of Terror.

We would always recommend (if you are just wanting to go on as many rides as possible) to try as many single rider queues. For years, we’ve done this with family at Walt Disney World and Universal – mainly if we have already done the ride together as a family, if we wanted to do it again, just jumped in the single rider queue (a lot of the times, we’ve been sat together anyway).

Overall

For a first Disney trip as a family. We literally had the best time ever! If you are apprehensive to travel with young children to Walt Disney World, visiting Disneyland Paris is a great alternative that you will not regret. We already can’t wait to be back for our second time, and are definitely planning on returning many, many times.

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