By: Jenny Fisher PoTW Travel Advisor
My husband and I traveled to France in 2023 for a wedding outside of Paris. While we were making plans we decided that it was a no brainer to go to Disneyland Paris for their 30th celebration. But how do you even get to DLP from Paris?!?! It's located about 45m east of the city of light. Me being a very boastful Metro aficionado decided to figure It out...by watching other peoples blogs on how to get there. Google Maps is def your best friend and was helpful in navigating the Metro. All of the Metro signage very clearly had DLP labeled for the trains and we only needed to change from a Metro train to a larger train which will drop you literally right at the Disneyland Parks. The Chessy station is the final stop on the train so you can't miss it.
Upon entering the park you will pass through the Disneyland Hotel which was still under construction when we were there. It opened it's doors again to guests in January of 2024. I have drooled over videos of it and would love to plan a future stay. The day we were in attendance was a sold out day. This naturally made me nervous as a WDW regular I started having panic feelings of it being packed in with all the europeans, and immediately began rethinking not buying Disney Premier Access (this Is the Lightening Lane of Europe). This was not the case at all. There were lines but they were not excessive by any means. We also did not come to the park with a WDW mindset of trying to cram everything into a day. This is the beautiful thing about DLP in that it has a Euro feel and things don't feel as chaotic and rushed.
DLP and Walt Disney Studios, yep two parks, are a very different feel. These parks are very spacious with physical space but have more of an amusement park feel. I had known this coming in from information I have read over the years about the parks, that the style is very different and food can be a problem (more on this later). In all it did have some great Disney magic but was very different in both good and not so good ways.
One of the highlights was of course the castle. Unlike the States you can actually enter Sleeping Beauty's Castle and walk around it, ouuuu lala! The upstairs of the castle depicts the SB story through stained glass windows and tapestries. I mean they do have to compete with Versailles, so what do you expect?!? How great is this that you can walk through the castle though? All I ever wanted to do when I was little was go into Cinderella's Castle but all I got was a dang mosaic. I now love that mosaic but it really was a downer as a kid. So if you have a kid who want's to see the inside then pack up and head to Paris! There is also La Taniere Du Dragon where you can visit the dragons lair below the castle. This was under renovation while we were there so no pics on this trip.
Since this was a first trip to DLP we wanted to hit the most important attractions, so naturally we headed to Small World hahaha! There was reasoning behind this choice in that DLP had just renovated this attraction and it had recently reopened. It was really delightful hearing the song in french. And really most of the attractions were in french because we were of course in France! This was by no means a hindrance from enjoying the park at all. Also, almost all of the cast members spoke at least some English. We also very much enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean because it is a much longer attraction at DLP than the WDW ride. This was also where we attempted to try to have a sit-down lunch and learned that advance reservations are a must at these parks. And now we come to my food rant about DLP. You can expect to drop a very pretty penny on table service in the parks. Most table service is a pre-fix menu and prices start at 45 euro for adults. As our hunger grew we checked food carts and even here the options were not super plentiful. They did have my old faithful, popcorn. This was in kettle corn form which was a welcome option. There are some carts that have pastries but they paled in comparison to the ones we had started the morning with in the city. We found that much of the quick service was burgers and bbq, which was not what we wanted to eat in France. By mid-day, we were so hungry and sick of trying to find the golden egg of DLP dining, that we broke down and ate a burger. This was also after entering Walt Disney Studios and checking a few other table service restaurants. To give myself some credit I did make dining reservations at PYM Kitchen, but the calendar on the DLP site was euro-based and the week started on a different day, booking FAIL! So be prepared ahead of time for where to eat.
A huge highlight from our trip was the entertainment. The day after our DLP trip the cast members from entertainment did what the French to best and went on strike. I'm so glad I was able to see them preform the day before because that just gave me a deeper appreciation for their reason for striking. The shows at DLP are hands down the best. We wre able to catch the parade and this thing was an event. The floats come up Main Street, park, and the character get off and dance on the street and in the gardens in front of the castle, like WHAT?!?! This was not a dinky wave at characters as they drive by, this was an all out event. One of my biggest regrets were not being able to catch any of the live shows while we were visiting knowing how good a parade was. This should 100% be a priority on anyone who's visits list.
As a Hunted Mansion fan I was very much looking forward to Phantom Manor at DLP. My kids and I have watched a few things over the past few years about the differences in the Haunted Mansions at all the different Disney parks. PM was very high on my list for the differences in storyline. The ride itself is very similar with the cars still being "Doom Buggy's" but the storyline is extensive, I mean extensive. As the story brings in this whole western theme you can imagine that Frontierland is a large part of this park. This was not super exciting to me being all American and all. Instead of hitting the ol' west I headed for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. You see I'm a HUGE Indie fan and thought this ride would be a good idea. I even looked at it before I rode and said, "hey that seems rough" but I still rode it. Just do yourself a favor and skip this one unless you like being concussed.
We did work our way over to Discoveryland not to be confused with Tomorrowland. The biggest attraction in this land was Hyperspace Mountain which is an indoor coaster like the other Space Mountains, but this one has a Star Wars theme, goes upside down, and has a fast launch. It was a fun coaster but the Star Wars theming was not very significant other then to sell souvenirs In the gift shop. Which brings me to another point in that there was not a ton of merch. I love my Disney Parks shopping and came VERY prepared to drop some money but only walked away with a shirt. Kinda disappointing and seems like a bit of a miss.
In the late afternoon we made out way over to Walt Disney Studios which was a very short walk next door. We did visit Avengers campus and rode Spider-man W.E.B. Adventure (all in French:) This park does have Toy Story and the original Remy ride. I do wish we could have explored a bit more but needed to head back into the city for wedding things.
That's a wrap for Disneyland Paris!
Have questions about Disneyland Paris or booking a Disney vacation? Reach out to me on Insta @seawitch.adventures.travel
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