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I still can not get over the fact that we finally visited Disneyland. I have been waiting for this day since the day my big girl was born. I have been collecting outfit pieces for years and was so happy there. Miss it already and although I said that this trip will probably be a once in lifetime thing I am pretty sure we are going back when our littlest girl is about 4 years old (in my opinion the perfect age), cause I really want her to show everything.
Disneyland Paris Trip Recap
How to get there
We drove to Disneyland Paris. From our home it was about 8 hours to drive so we split it up in two days. We started on Sunday morning and I have made a hotel reservation in Saarbrücken for one night. It is about 4,5 hours to drive. We checked in and headed out downtown but it was a very ugly and boring city. I really do not recommend staying there for sightseeing. The next morning after breakfast we made the rest of the drive. It was about 3,5 hours. I would do it exactly the same the next time (if we are driving) cause we arrived before everyone was fed up of sitting in the car. Another upside is that we had a whole nights sleep and started in the Disney Parc around noon and no one was overly tired.
You have to pay for the highway in France but the system is really easy. Either you take a ticket or you pay your ticket. That´s it. There are no toll roads in Germany. It is free to drive.
Hotels
Everyone knows the Disneyland Hotel cause it also functions as the entrance of the park. You walk straight underneath through it. The most dreamy and beautiful hotel I have ever seen. But it is a five star location and very expensive. It would have cost us 2.000 Euro more to stay here for the same time and amount of people.
We stayed at the Newport Bay Club hotel, a very beautiful and rich in detail New England inspired hotel. It is the biggest hotel on the premise and has an east and west wing. You can meet Disney characters in the lobby and shop for Disney merch at their cute store. Everything is sailor themed and I really really loved it there. First time staying here.
We booked a double and single room with a connecting door and it was perfect for us. My husband and I slept in the bigger room with the two little girls and my SIL and our oldest shared the big bed in the other room. Perfect solution for everyone. We had space and two bathrooms and it was a really good decision. Also the rooms are much bigger than they look in the pictures. I had no problem to store two strollers in our room.
Disney Village
Security
If you are staying at a Disney hotel you need to pass security before entering the Disney Village. Same is for foreign visitors. If you are wanting to start your day during the magic hour I would suggest to get there early cause it gets crowded very fast.
Shops
They have a great variety of Disney themed shops from toys to jewelry and clothing. And the best is you can visit the Disney Village and spending some hours there without being a hotel guest and without having a ticket to the parcs.
Restaurants
We had three evenings to go out to dinner and we choose to eat at the Disney Village cause for most of the restaurants in the parc you will need a reservation and they are booked months in advance and it was also halfway to our hotel so when you are tired and full you only have a few minutes to walk back.
The first night we had dinner at a sports bar. It is a huge restaurant and you will probably get a table anytime you want to go there. I had the pulled lamb taccos and they were amazing. Super soft and juicy.
On night 2 and 3 we went to the Rainforest Café. Let me tell you about the coolest food spot I have seen in a while. It really is like a visit into the rainforest. You are eating between monkeys and elephants (only puppets of course) in the middle of the jungle sourrunded by trees and leaves and from time to time you can hear the thunder rolling in for a little rainstorm. Really really cool. A total must see if you ask me. My kids have been so fascinated, they asked to go there two days in a row. The food was really good and the service also, but it is expensive. We paid around 15o Euro for 5 meals with drinks which is a lot.
Main Street
Parades
A Million Splashes of Color – at 2, 4 and 7 pm.
Disney Stars on Parade – the main parade with all the princesses and side characters. Don´t miss it, it´s amazing!!!
Disney Tales of Magic 11 pm – the firework and light show around the Sleeping Beauty castle
Spots along the sidewalk fill up quick about an half hour before the parade. When you recognize lots of people sitting on the floor there will be a parade shortly.
Shops
Main Street holds the most shops at one place in all of Disneyland. You can get any kind of merch you can think of (after some rides like Tangled and Frozen ever after are exclusive shops with things you can only buy there).
One thing I will cherish forever (found this of course on Instagram) are the silhouettes I got cut from my little girl´s faces. There is a little corner shop on Main Street where you can get this done. Only takes a few minutes but the memory lasts a life time.
Food
Foods to try on Main Street – Definitely get the Mickey Beignet. It is the best treat I could find (filled with chocolate). There are many shop windows where you can get snacks, sweets, coffee and cold drinks. Around the corner on Main Street looking at the castle there is a little cart tucked away to the right where you can get a glass of champagne and you can keep the cup as a souvenir.
Parcs
Disneyland Park
Frontierland
We rode through Phantom Manor (at least 5 times during our stay) and saw some ghosts, had a Mickey Mouse meet-up at the secret spot under the cemetary. Rode the Thunder Mesa River Boat and ate a turkey leg at the Last Chance Café.
Adventureland
We rode through the Caribbean and saw some pretty scary pirates, met the Captain himself in front of his restaurant. Found a secret passageway through Aladdin´s story and met Vaiana after climbing into Robinson Crusoe´s treehouse.
Fantasyland
We spun around in Mad Hatter´s tea cups, visited Pinocchio, sailed through miniature Disney tales, rode the train and Lancelot´s caroussel and found out that it´s a small world after all. We met two amazing princesses (Mulan and Snow White) at the Princess Pavilion and found Snow White´s house as well as a huge and scary dragon under the castle. Walked through Sleeping Beauty´s story up in the castle.
We only did the Nautilus walk-through in Discoveryland. Totally ignored this one cause there wasn´t enough time.
Food
You can basically get something to eat everywhere. Not very nutritinous things or some that will hold you full long but still delicious. There are many quick dine restaurants you can just go in and order and take it away or eat it there. I have also spotted tons of food trucks in Fantasyland and also in the Adventure World so you will not starve but beware that most of these don´t open before 11 o´clock. Most of the food is very expensive. Our biggest expense might have been the food for these 4 days. So if you try to get through the day without buying tons of stuff (a coffee and a Mickey beignet is fine) snacks is the answer. I have brought a huge snack bag with us (was fairly easy cause we went there by car) and it lasted all of the four days. But we still got everything Mickey shaped cause I wanted to try it.
Restaurants with character dining like the Auberge au Cendrillon are booked up months before you even know what and where you want to eat, so if you are really interested in this you should probably secure your spot when you book your hotel.
Rides
Premier Access is a great thing if you don´t want to wait in long lines for your favorite rides. You can book a certain time slot via the Disneyland App and get in immediately. Of course this isn´t free and prices depend on the popularity of the rides.
The three most ridden rides with the longest wait times – I have seen everything from 45 to 100 minutes
Peter Pan´s Flight – Fantasyland
Big Thunder Mountain – Frontierland
Frozen Ever After – Magic Kingdom
Character Meet-Up
Virtual Lines
The Disney Princesses in the Disneyland Park as well as Anna and Else in Magic Kingdom can be met for photos and autographs but you must secure a ticket in the virtual line. There are two time slots throughout the day you can enter via the App but spots go fast and you´ll have about 5 seconds until it is fully booked. We were lucky three times and I still can not believe my luck. It was the cutest thing to see the excitement it their eyes to meet the Disney princesses.
Spontaneous Meet-Up with Open Lines
There are several places throughout the park where you can find at least two umbrellas. Here characters will appear unannounced throughout the day. We met Captain Hook this way. Super cool.
Scheduled Meet-Ups with Open Lines
If you are looking on the app you will find a lot of character spots where Disney character appear for certain times everyday. You can not book a meet-up here but you should be there about 20 minutes before (also depends on the Disney movie – Aladin was always full and we couldn´t get in line before it closed up).
You can collect autographs. Every character has its own signature and will write into your book. You could bring your own book or buy one in almost every store.
Adventure World
World of Pixar
Toystory Land
We met a toy story soldier and flew over Agrabah.
Ratatouille Area
The Ratatouille area around the ride was very french with bistros, french music and lots of delicious food carts. You could get quiche and champagne. The french way!!!
Cars and Finding Nemo was not on our bucket lists and also always super crowded with long lines.
Tangled Area
You can find the Tangled ride (which is a lot like the tea cups but of course Rapunzel themed) were you ride over the river in little boats and watch the lanterns in the sky. The music from the movie plays and it´s just so cute. In front of the ride is a beautiful photo spot overlooking the lake. Not crowded at all.
There is a very little shop in the area as well were you can get exclusive Rapunzel merch and of course to top it of there is a musical show with Rapunzel and Flynn. They act together to all the songs from the Tangled movie.
The World of Frozen
So now this was the main reason we went to Disneyland. I wanted to see the Frozen World. It turned out amazing and did not dissapoint. Definitely looks like you are standing right in front of the mountains. Feels very real and surreal at the same time.
Sadly there is only one ride – the World of Frozen ride. And even Magic Hour can not save you from the huge crowd and long lines to wait. I have rode it as a single rider to test it out if it would be for the girls and it was the perfect mix between ride and and story and I had to show it to them, but we didn´t get in under 60 minutes so I ended up getting Premier Access tickets over the Disneyland App. You pay and you will get a time slot to come back and ride immediately. It was 14 Euro for each of us. But also if you want to spend the money you need to act quick cause these will also sell out fast for the day.
Tipps and Tricks
– Disneyland Paris App is a must for everything you need to know like wait times on rides, character meet-ups, restaurant reservations and the parades
for Princess Pavillon / Anna & Elsa Virtual Line Tickets – you have 2 chances at 9:45 and 14:00 here / 3 chances at 8:45, 9:45 and 14:00 but if you want to enter you must be in the right parc otherwise it will not work
– Early Park Access aka the Magic Hour as Hotel Guests – you can enter at 08:30 and have access to a few rides before everyone else is allowed to go in
– Photo Pass – you get professional pictures from all the character meets and random spots photographers will pop up – this was 90 Euro once and the photo quality is impeccable, if you plan on doing lots of character and photo things this is totally worth it
– Entering through the right side entrance under the Disney Hotel safes a lot of time avoiding the main crowds
– Rain ponchos from home cause if it rains you will need them and they cost betweenn 13 to 16 Euro per person (I paid 10 Euro for 5 rain ponchos)
– Free water from the fountains in front or in the restrooms (clearly marked there)
– Hidden things and details are everywhere – don´t just run to your next destination, take a look around and take it all in
– we found a walk-through the Aladin story right at the side of Agrabah Café
– you will find the dragon underneath Sleeping Beauty´s castle (take a right into the dark room when you are walking around the castle) and also take the stairs up to see the whole story of Sleeping Beauty whimsically woven into carpets and painted window glass
– there are quiet and not so crowded ways of the main path between all the lands
– toilets are almost everywhere. If you look around you can´t miss the next sign. They are mostly clean, some don´t work and sometimes it can be very crowded but overall it is fine for the amount of people using the restrooms everyday
XO Kati
