Tips and information to make the most of your trip
Parks and Rides
Disneyland Paris is made up of two parks, located within walking distance of each other.
The main park, Disneyland Park, is the biggest of the two parks and is divided into five smaller areas: Main Street USA, Frontierland, Adventureland, Fantasyland, and Discoveryland.
The second park, Walt Disney Studios Park, is the smaller park which is divided into three area: Front Lot, Toon Studio, and Production Courtyard.
With over 40 attractions, shops, interactive character experiences and shows Disneyland is a magical place for all ages.
Restaurants
Disneyland Paris has 75 restaurants and cafes across both parks, the hotels, and the Disney village.
There are a huge variety of cuisines on offer suited to every taste. As well as this, there are a range of fast-food places, cafes, fancier restaurants, and meet the character meal experiences to suit all budgets and schedules.
View restaurant options here.
Meeting the characters
Disneyland Paris is home to all of your favourite Disney characters. Character meet and greets are located all around the park.
It is a magical experience getting photographs and autographs with the characters, however like everything at Disneyland, the queues can be fairly long.
Once you get to the front of the queue have your camera and autograph book ready to capture the magic.
There are also various opportunities to arrange meet and greets during dining experiences.
Tickets and packages
There are many different ticket options and packages to make the ideal trip for you.
You can decide whether or not you want to have the flexibility to visit both parks, as well as flexibility of dates. There will certainly be the right fit for you and your party.
There are also various add-ons to make the most of your trip including meal plans and photo passes.
View all ticket options here.
When to go
I don’t think there is any ‘wrong’ time to visit as it is busy all year round. That being said, it will undoubtedly be much busier during the peak times of school holidays, weekends, and seasonal events.
The quietest time to visit are mid-week (Tuesday to Thursday) in January – March, from experience of going in February, it is still busy with fairly long waiting times. I think that’s just something that you need to be prepared for before you go.
Disneyland Paris is a magical place to be during Halloween and Christmas as the parks are festively decorated for the occasions. This does make it a much busier time.
(Photos above: the smaller Walt Disney Studios Park)
Getting there
It is very easy to get to Disneyland Paris from anywhere in Paris due to the main train lines in close proximity to the parks.
Disneyland Paris is about 30-45 minutes away from the centre of Paris on the train.
There is a metro station at the entrance to Disneyland Paris with trains running continuously throughout the day for ease of transport.
There is also a main train station at Marne La Vallee which is roughly 13km to Disneyland Paris. The train lines also travel to the airport and takes around 1 hour 30 minutes.
My experience and advice
I have been to Disneyland Paris twice, in February and in June. It was extremely busy on both occasions so I’m not sure which month to recommend on that respect. I’m sure it is busy all year round. The weather in February was understandably cold and a bit frosty but it was dry. June, however, was very wet. It rained torrentially the whole time. The weather in Paris in June is typically warm so I think we were just a bit unlucky with the weather, but it did mean that many of the attractions were shut.
On both occasions, I purchased the tickets that allowed you to go between the two parks and I spent about 80% of my time in the main Disneyland Park. While I enjoyed the Walt Disney Studios Park, if I went back, I would probably save some money by buying the one park ticket only. Simply because the main park has many more attractions so I would spend more time exploring that.
I would recommend researching the rides before you go so that you can prioritise your time. The parks are very busy so it’s good to go with a rough idea of what you want to see and do so you’re not wasting your time.
If you think you will want to buy some of your ride photographs or you are travelling in a large group, I recommend buying the PhotoPass+. It allows you to digitally download all photos from the rides, attractions, and character experiences to print later. This may seem like a lot of money to begin with but if you’re planning to buy the individual photos, it will work out cheaper to buy the pass so that you can access all your photos.
The shops on Main Street are open up to an hour after the park closes. I recommend you do your shopping, as well as the shops in the Disney Village, after the rides are closed. This way you are able to have the best of both worlds by having time for both shops and rides.
The Disneyland Paris parade takes place every day, usually at 5:30pm. To get a front row spot I recommend choosing your spot in advance and just waiting, waiting around may seem boring but Main Street fills out very quickly before the parade. If you arrive at 5:30, the likelihood of you being squashed at the back with a bad view is fairly high.
I do believe that Disneyland can be the happiest place on Earth, just make sure you plan ahead for queues and how busy it will be and I am sure you will have an amazing time! It is one of my favourite places in the world - full of magic.
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