A Must-have Guide to Plan Your Trip to Disneyland Paris

A visit to an Amusement Park like Disneyland Paris always gives a lasting impression and the fondest of memories to cherish for the rest of the life. Known for its rides, live-action movie sets and real-life depictions of favorite Disney characters, Disneyland Paris is a non-stop fete that has a lot of elements to amuse everyone from children to the older people.

Let’s dive into the insights and get acquainted with know-hows of Disneyland Paris.

Disneyland Paris has two parks viz: The Walt Disney Studio Park and Disneyland Paris. For a packed itinerary, we recommend Disneyland Park over The Walt Disney Park, given the fact that Disneyland Park has 40 attractions and The Walt Disney has mere 15 attractions, which necessarily does not require much planning. Also, Disneyland Park is detail-oriented with quintessential attractions.

There are many factors like events, weather, crowd, etc. based on which a visit to Disneyland Paris can be planned. Disneyland Paris organises and celebrates a plethora of events throughout the year like the Halloween in October and Christmas in November and December, in addition to other events like Marvel Summer of Superheroes and Season of the Force: Star Wars.

There are various other impromptu events, food and wine festivals happening throughout the year. You may want to consider these while planning your visit. Winters in Paris may be snowy and freezing, which may lead to non-operation of some rides in Disneyland Paris and hence it is better to consider this while planning your visit, especially from December to February. If by chance during this season you happen to be amid the Disneyland Paris then you can always compensate the consequences of adverse weather by embracing the picturesque surrounding and capturing some awesome pictures.

For maintenance purposes, some attractions might be closed on the day of your visit. You may check this beforehand by enquiring the officials or visiting the official Disney website. Irrespective of the Crowd level, you would be able to explore the park in two or three days.

Considering the geographic location of Paris, the Park would often be inundated with a large number of crowds from Europe. For those who detest crowd or crowd phobic visitors, should consider this aspect to avoid out-sized crowd levels.

Journey to an exciting place is exciting in itself. Well, let’s find out how you could reach Disneyland Paris. For those who visit from outside Europe or for that matter from distant places within Europe, should choose flying as the best mode. Disneyland Paris is conveniently accessible by planes, as it takes only 10-min train ride from Paris's CDG airport.

In case if you are travelling from Paris, Disney Parks are accessible at approximately 45 minutes train ride from Paris's city centre. Hop on the neaten RER train at a reasonable cost. And don’t worry, you won’t miss your stop as the last stop is Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy, which is at a stone throw distance from Disney Paris.

The opening and closing time of parks for visitors vary according to the time of the year. You may check the park timings for your planned date of visit on the official website of Disneyland Paris. Here you may also check the availability of your favorite rides and other attractions. The parks also have an extra magic time.

The price of the tickets at Disneyland is higher than the price of online tickets. Always book your tickets online, a day in advance to be on the safe side.

There are a variety of options to choose from while buying tickets. If you are purchasing a ticket for multi-day, then the chances are you pay less. With this, you can enjoy unlimited access for two days for both the Walt Disney and Disneyland parks.

To access only your favorite rides and wind up your exploration of the park within a day, you may go for a one-day ticket. This ticket may have other offers, like on a few days, and you may avail the adult ticket at child ticket’s price. You may also purchase a day-dated ticket with the shuttle that allows you to board the shuttle from Paris and includes entrance to the Disney Parks.

You can also try the Fastpass, a secret system that allows you to save time in queues of the most popular attractions and maximises your fun time at the park. The Fastpass is a small paper card that comes at no extra cost and is issued to those with Disney Park admission tickets valid for the same day. The Fastpass distribution is subjected to the availability of services and tickets. The Fastpass services do not allow you priority access over other Fastpass holders and do not guarantee immediate access to the ride either but for sure significantly reduces the wait-time.

Fastpass is not valid during Disneyland Paris’ special or private events. There are various versions of the Fastpass to cater to different needs of the visitors. To have fun to the fullest, we recommend you get the Unlimited-all-attractions Fastpass.

Fastpass is available only for below listed rides:

- Big Thunder Mountain, Frontierland

- Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, Discoveryland

- Indiana Jones, Adventureland

- Peter Pan's Flight, Fantasyland

- Star Tours: The Adventures Continue,Discoveryland

- Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain, Discoveryland

- Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith

- Ratatouille: The Adventure

- Flying Carpets over Agrabah, Toon Studio

- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Some of these attractions may be unavailable on the day of the validity of the Fastpass and without notice Disneyland Paris may replace the unavailable attraction with other attraction of its choice, equipped with a Fastpass lane.

Having checked-in the hotels, now let’s stroll past and ride on the heart of the Disney Parks– the attractions. Disneyland Paris has a lot to offer for all age groups. There is no scope and space for disappointment for anyone.

Disneyland Park has five magical arenas, namely Fantasyland, Discovery land, Frontierland, Adventureland, and Main Street U.S. And all the 40 attractions are strategically placed across these areas.

This place hosts the attractions dedicated to Disney Classics. Few of these attractions are listed below:

Le Château De La Belle Au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty Castle): This is the iconic pink castle that is truly a gem to behold. While taking a walk inside and outside of the castle, you can view the different views of the park and view the castle from different angles respectively.

La Galerie De La Belle Au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty Gallery): This attraction is inside of the Sleeping Beauty Castle that depicts the story of the sleeping beauty with artefacts and other displays.

La Tanière Du Dragon (The Dragon's Lair): It is a simple attraction that has an uncanny warren and underneath the castle, a dragon made of beautiful pieces of animatronics. The entire atmosphere is designed in a way to get the children and few adults nervous.

Peter Pan's Flight: This is one of the most popular rides and also one of the longer-wait rides. It's a dark storybook ride where you will set sail in a flying ship and go through the story of Peter Pan. To ride this, better you go early morning as it often has never-ending queues.

Alice's Curious Labyrinth: Similar to Alice, you can wander in your wonderland and make your way through this hedge maze, filled with entities of Alice in wonderland, capping in the Queen of Heart’s Castle. This Castle provides astounding views of Disneyland Paris.

It is the interstellar region of Disneyland Paris. A must-do for all Star Wars fans. Listed below are attractions from this land:

Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain (Space Mountain Mission 2): This is a must-do ride for those adrenaline seekers and Star Wars lovers as it propels you into your outer space adventure. The ride is exciting as it has inversions too.

Star Tours: L'Aventure Continue (Star Tours: The Adventures Continue): This is a modern version of the classic simulator ship where you will board the ship and blast off through the galaxy into the star wars universe. You can hop on this ride again and again as there are 60 different mission combinations.

Les Mystères Du Nautilus (The Mysteries of Nautilus): This is a unique walk-through attraction of the Nautilus submarine from Jules Verne's novels. Although it takes five minutes to go through, you may get more insights to appreciate if you spend more time here.

Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast: If you love shooting challenges, then it is a must-do for you as it is laser shooting ride.

An ample space with great views that depicts a unified tale of the fictional city of Thunder Mesa. Below listed are few of Frontier land attractions:

Big Thunder Mountain: This is a milder form of a roller coaster that is the most comfortable and exciting. This is one of the most popular rides; hence, you need to be an early bird to get the worm.

Phantom Manor: It is a construal of Haunted Mansion. No sooner you lay your eyes on it, and it appears creepier and spookier than its counterpart– the magic kingdom version.

Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing: If you wish to take a view of the scenery of the Frontierland, then here you may board the riverboat Molly Brown that will take you on a 20-minute ride.

For all the lovers of Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Aladdin and Princess Jasmine, this exotic land is specially made for you. It is complex, yet beautiful. Few attractions are:

Home to La Cabane des Robinson, it is a great spot to get lost as even the map cannot be a means of rescue for you.

Indiana Jones: It is an uncomfortable yet exciting Roller Coaster ride based on Indiana Jones Movies. Kids love this high-speed train ride across the jungle.

Pirates of the Caribbean: It is a spooky attraction, which may after sunset, blur your awareness of whether you are inside or outside.

This is a depiction of the main street USA, which primarily consists of shops and food stalls. Disneyland Paris version of this makes it unique with two galleries behind the shops.

These are not listed as attractions, but they are must-do essentials to bypass the crowd. The liberty arcade depicts the story of the statue of liberty. Discovery arcade includes exhibits of technological advancement in the 19th century.

Ratatouille: The Adventure: It’s exciting as it magically shrinks you into the size of your favorite chef rat.

Tower of Terror: In this, you take a tour of the notorious Hollywood Tower Hotel. You get in the haunted elevator and take the 13-floor dive into the twilight zone.

The other rides based on Toy story movie are RC Racer, Toy Story Parachute Drop that drops you from the top of the parachute, and Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin, which allows you to hop on the slinky dog and takes you on a crazy ride while the dog tries to catch his tail.

Hush!! That was a sweeping exploration providing an enriching experience. But hold on, apart from these attractions, there are some more toppings mentioned as follows:

Disney Illuminations Show at Disneyland Park: An incredible show with animations projected into Sleeping Beauty’s castle. It is a night-time show with majestic fireworks. This is the last show before the Park closes.

Disney Junior Live on Stage is a great show especially meant for kids of age seven & below.

Disney Stars on Parade, where Mickey and other Disney stars pass by on fabulous new glides, including a fire-breathing dragon.

Dining and Wining is a bit expensive at Disneyland Paris.

Disneyland Paris brings to you 68 dining options. Out of which 28 are at Disneyland Park, five at Walt Disney Studios Park, 17 in Disney Village, and 18 at the hotels' area. Although most of these are quick service, the rest accept either online or offline reservation. There are several restaurants with fast food menu like pizza, burgers, Mexican food, etc. There is a provision of both Combo menu and a la carte.

Agrabah Cafe – This is at Adventure land, and it provides a buffet with Arabic influence. The design resembles Epcot's Morocco Pavilion. Reservations recommended.

Captain Jack's - Fine and innovative restaurant, as it is a Ride-side restaurant just next to Pirates of the Caribbean.

Inventions: You can enjoy your buffet here while interacting with the classic Disney characters.

L’Auberge de Cendrillon: Similar to Inventions but does not provide a buffet; instead, it features a menu.

Disneyland Paris does not impose to buy food and burn your pockets, and you can always bring your food. It has a plethora of pretty decent bars. A good bar crawl always involves food, and that makes it an expensive crawl as far as Disneyland Paris is concerned.

Each hotel has a unique cocktail and beer offerings. The prices vary between the bars.

Finally, to make it an enjoyable experience, be smart and follow these tips while planning a trip to Disneyland Paris:

Disneyland Paris has an extensive hotel area that is home to six Disney hotels viz: Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe, Disney’s Sequoia Lodge, Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne, Disney’s Hotel New York, and Disney’s Newport Bay Club. All these hotels are 5-15 minutes walking distance from Disney Village– a small shopping stretch adjacent to the park; whereas other two hotels namely, Disney's Davy Crockett's Ranch and Villages Nature Paris are located remotely from the park. Disney's Davy Crockett's Ranch is a place where you can have your cottage and adventure imprints right when you step outside. And Villages Nature Paris resort is specially designed for families and has five themed areas, including the Aqualagoon, one of Europe’s largest water parks. The price per night is around 100-200 €.

Depending on the time of the year, the cost of staying in the Disneyland hotel may alter between € 500 and € 800, and that of Disney’s Newport Bay Club may alter between € 200 and € 400.

For fans of Disney characters, there is no better place to stay in than the Disney hotels as these hotels offer you a chance to meet your favorite Disney Characters closely. But always check this possibility before your check-in the hotel.

Hotels near the airport are less expensive than those inside the Disney arena. So for flyers, it is always more beneficial and feasible to choose airport hotels as the park is reachable by a 10-min train ride from the airport.

You may also choose to stay in Paris and take a day trip to visit Disneyland.

Disneyland Paris never ceases to amaze its visitors. Hence, although both the parks can be seen in two days, it would be a smart decision to spend two nights and three days to gain full, rich experience of the parks. Also, Walt Disney Park does not require more than half a day and at the max one day to explore. It is worthwhile to experience the Disney property for at least a night despite its expensive status.

All the resorts would require you to pass through security in transit to the parks. Disneyland Hotel may stand an exception to this.

Hotel prices are likely to vary, and it would be appropriate to check in advance, the offers and the rates of the hotel before you check-in the hotel. This may save your significant resources, which you may consider later for squandering over other entities or activities.

In a nutshell, booking a package through Disney will be more cost-effective than booking your tickets and hotels discretely.

Pack your bags and get ready to fall and immerse in love with this stunning destination of Disneyland Paris with trip.com.