Magical! (Disneyland Resort Paris)

Member Name: tinkabubble

Product:	Disneyland Resort Paris
Date:	13/10/09 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great experience - a real must for those of all ages!

Disadvantages: Can be expensive, and there should be less smoking

Disneyland Paris, just the words make me all excited! I've reviewed both the main park and the studios park here, as there didn't seem to be any distinction between the two in the product list. However, I've put sub-headings so that you don't have to read the whole review if there's just one aspect you want to know about, as this could get quite lengthy!

Booking

We stayed at the Disneyland Paris Camp Davy Crockett for our stay, and so our tickets for the park were included in the package. However, individually tickets are about 37 euros per day, which gives you access into both the main park and the studios park. If you are a day visitor, you'll also need to take into account car parking expenses, which are free for those staying in a Disney hotel. At the moment, P & O Ferries also have a promotion where they are giving a free day ticket to the Disneyland Paris park with crossings to Calais.

The Website

Booking on the Disneyland Paris website is a pleasure as it is simple and informative and accompanied by nice atmospheric music and sound effects! The most difficult thing is finding the best offers and getting dates where you can combine them - this can be quite confusing and frustrating!
The prices on the website were, if you go at the right times, very reasonable and you also have the option to add transportation, such as Eurostar or a P & O Ferry crossing. However, I found these additions quite expensive, although if you have a child under seven, there is sometimes an offer where they travel, stay and play free, which means they don't have to pay travel, hotel or park entry costs.
If you go with Eurostar through Disney, you can also have your luggage taken straight from the train (Eurostar goes straight from London to Marne Le Valle, which is the on-site train station right outside the park gates) and are also met by Disney characters, which is less stressful and a nice touch if you have the money!
Over Christmas, the main offers with Disneyland Paris are kids under 7 stay and play free, plus free meals for guests, although times like Halloween, Bon Fire Night and Christmas seem to be more expensive (you can go on Christmas day, but this is apparently very expensive!), as are half term and summer holiday times.

Arriving At The Park

If you are a day visitor or are staying at the self drive hotel Camp Davy Crockett, you will arrive to the park by car and use the car parks, which are free for those staying in a Disney hotel, otherwise I think it is about 6 euros. The car park is vast and you need to try and get there quite early in order to get a good parking spot, which is more important on the weekends really as these are very busy (and can make queuing inside the park horrific also), otherwise you'll have quite a long walk before you even get to the park. However, there are moving side walks which take you from the car park to the park and make it less tiring, especially for youngsters.
If you are staying in one of the other hotels, you'll be able to walk to the park or get a free Disney shuttle bus from your hotel to the park bus station, next to the car park, from which it is simply a short walk in to the park.
You'll notice already a great atmosphere at the beautifully presented park, with water fountains to drink from, leaping fountains, a floral display of Mickey's face as well as a clock on the Disneyland Hotel, which forms the entrance into the park, along with vendors selling Disney balloons and small name engraved flags forming the paths leading up ton the park entrance, all before you even get in to the park!
There is a bag search before you get to the ticket booths, and you're not supposed to picnic in the parks, but from my experience, they don't bat an eye at picnics in your bag and are more concerned with more serious contraband.
After the quick bag inspection you arrive at the ticket booths and purchase or show your ticket to gain access; there is always someone to help if you have difficulty.

Finally, The Park!

I won't go in to details of all the individual areas of the park, as there are separate reviews on each of them specifically, however, at Main Street USA, you can take the Disney Railroad, which takes you around the entire perimeter of the park, giving you the option to get on or get off at the various lands, which are: Frontier Land, Fantasy Land, Adventure Land and Discovery Land. Each of the lands has a different theme with different adventures and rides to discover!

My Top Ten Rides


10. The Flying Dumbos (Fantasy Land) - Family friendly

9. River Paddle Boat Steamers (Frontier Land) - Family friendly

8. Disney Railroad (Main station on Main Street USA) - Family friendly, though there is a dark tunnel

7. The Haunted Mansion (Frontier Land) - Was quite dark and my five year old nephew was quite scared, but it depends on the individual.

6. Run Away Mine Train (Frontier Land) - Probably not the best for very young children.

5. It's A Small World (Fantasy Land) - Family friendly

4. Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast (Discovery Land) - Family Friendly ride which is similar to a ghost train except that you shoot at the targets with a little light beam gun.

3. Star Tours (Discovery Land) - Is a bit erratic and jolty

2. Peter Pan's Flight (Fantasy Land) - Family Friendly

1. Pirates of the Caribbean (Adventure Land) - Quite poorly lit and has two smallish dips.


Other rides included Indianna Jones and the Temple of Doom and Space Mountain, however, we don't have the stomach for these and so I can't really comment! Certainly not for the little ones though, where as most of the other rides are fine. Finally, there are also the Mad Hatter's Spinning Tea Cups, Alice's Curious Labyrinth (a simple maze), the Carousel and The Adventures of Pinocchio. Finally, check out the dragon underneath Sleeping Beauty's Castle!

For busy days and popular rides, there is the option to use your ticket to get a 'Fast Pass' which gives you a designated time to go on the ride so you can just queue jump to the front! You can only possess one fast pass at a time though.

Parades and Shows

Once Upon A Dream Parade - The first parade that we saw was the Once Upon A Dream Parade, however, as it was a Sunday, it was uncomfortably crushy and busy; you have a much better chance of seeing the parade in all its glory on a weekday. The parade itself is fabulous; always accompanied by magical music, each float has a theme and is usually divided into two films, for example, in this parade there is one float which is half Peter Pan and half Mary Poppins, and each float has appropriate music for its film.
As well as the characters on the floats, which sometimes get down and interact with the crowd. For example, when I was there, there was a little girl dressed in a Cinderella dress and the 'real' Cinderella came over and shook hands with her, made a bit of a fuss of her, which was nice. As well as the main characters, there are also dancers walking in between the floats.
The music is quite loud from the various speakers along the par, so everyone can hear the music, adding to the atmosphere, and people start to line the parade route a good half hour before it starts. It is cordoned off and supervised so that people don't get too close to the floats, but you can sit on the curbs and take pictures, film, etc. We found a good place to watch from was the Main Street USA train station.

Electric Lights Parade - Also in the winter months, as it goes darker earlier, there is the electric light parade, which is truly something to behold. Pretty lights! Although it can be quite cold so wrap up warm.

Honey I Shrank The audience - We really enjoyed this show. It's basically a 3D show based on the film Honey I Shrank The Kids, where the audience are taken into a room where on stage they witness a demonstration of the shrinking machine. Of course it all goes wrong and the audience are inevitably shrunk where they encounter some nasty incidents! I won't reveal too much, but it is interactive in the sense that you feel a part of the experience, definitely worth seeing. However, the queuing time was quite ridiculous and then once you get into the attraction, there is first another room where you are subjected to about 20 minutes worth of Kodak (the attractions sponsor) advertisement. The attraction seems to be shown in English for every performance with audio for those speaking different languages.





Characters

Last time we went to Disneyland Paris, in September 2009, there were far more Disney characters hanging around than I had ever noticed before, which was nice. There are designated photo opportunity points throughout the park where characters will be at a scheduled time. We saw Mickey and Minnie, Tigger and Pooh, The Queen of Hearts, Alice, The White Rabbit and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and Captain Jack Sparrow amongst others.

Shops

There are many shops in the park where you can buy souvenirs, costumes, autograph books and trading pin badges, etc, as well as hats and other items which you might find yourself needing on unexpectedly cold/hot days.


Cafes and Restaurants

From the very expensive to the less expensive (none are cheap!) there are a variety of restaurants to eat at, for example Buzz Lightyear's Pizza Planet and the Videopolis (where there is also a cinema showing old Mickey Mouse cartoons) in Discovery Land and Cowboy Cookout Barbeque in Frontier Land. There are many, many, many more catering for all different styles and tastes. However, we had fish and chips (I know, how daring of us!) at the Toad of Toad Hall restaurant in Fantasy Land, and they weren't cheap, but they were really horrible, but that was few years ago now. The Blue Lagoon restaurant always looks lovely too; dining there, you get to see all of the boats going through the Pirates of the Caribbean ride as you're on the shore of the canal, if you will, which is nice, and you get service from people in pirate era costumes. It's quite dim and the restaurant is in atmospheric candle light. I would love to eat there one time, although I believe it's very expensive, but I bet it's an experience!

There are also numerous fast food vans around where you can buy snacks and drinks.

Finally, there are stylish ice cream vans dotted around the place and Ben and Jerry's ice cream parlours on Main Street, where you can also buy drinks and cakes, etc, and sit outside if you wish.

Disney Studios Park

You'll need to use your ticket again to get into the Disney Studios Park, but no more bag searches - yay! As you enter, you go through an indoors area which has a sky and the 'Hollywood' sign at the end with little beam lights shining over it. The theme of this park is, of course, movies, and the atmosphere here as you walk through the indoor area is amazing. There was a swing band playing when we went, and there are cafes and shops in there.



Rides

Then when you emerge from this area, there is a statue of Mickey and Walt infront of another 'Hollywood' sign and you can see - eek! - The Tower Of Terror! I can't think of anything worse than free falling a hundred feet in an elevator, but different strokes for different folks I guess!
But we gave that a miss and headed straight for the studio Tram Tour. This takes you around memorabilia from films like Pearl Harbour, as well as a collection of cars from films, such as Cruella Devil's car. There are also some movie affects you get to experience along the way, which I won't spoil, but they are impressive, although there was fire which scared my nephew a bit.
We also went on the Pixar Cars ride, which is like tea cups and saucers, but in cars, and they spin you around quite fast! But you can see a model of Lightning McQueen and Mater there, and the queuing area is done up like radiator springs (Flo's Diner) and they even play the cars soundtrack - nice touch.
My nephew also loved the Aladdin's Flying Carpets, which like the flying dumbos, just take you around in a circle and you can choose how high you want to go and can also tilt your carpet forwards and back. They seat four.
The rollercoaster here is the Rock n Roll-a-coaster, which blasts you around while blaring Aerosmith down your ears apparently. Sounds like good fun!
And the new addition is Crush's Rollercoaster, based on the Finding Nemo film, but we weren't totally sure what it entailed as it was enclosed, but from reviews I've read, it's not as tame as you might think. If you like roller-coasters, I'm sure it's very good though.


Shows and Parades

The big parade here was the 'Stars in their Cars Parade', which has popular Disney characters, such as those from Toy Story, Monsters Ink and Mulan, but in cars rather than on floats, and again, people line the streets for this.

Moteurs Action Stunt Show Spectacular is a fantastic stunt show with villain cars chasing a hero car as the audience join a huge film set to witness the filming of stunts for a new movie. A must see (pyro technics are very hot so don't get too close to the front and be aware that small children may be frightened by the fire - there's quite a lot!)

Stitch Live! - This was a big favourite with us. It's a new interactive show where Stictch actually appears on screen before the audience and is able to communicate with them, with the help of his human assistant. It's amazing how they achieve this, ut Stitch can pick out people in the audience and ask their name and repeat it back, and have conversations with them. Very humorous! Children can sit on a special carpet together at the front, but many are wary of this, although they have more chance of being spoken to by Stitch there. The plot is that the audience must help Stitch, who has got into trouble with the intergalactic authorities!

Cinemagique and Animagique - Cinemagique is a very good production starring Martin Short. It is basically a film in which a man finds himself passing through several different movies from different times with disastrous consequences!
Animagique is something similar except with Donald Duck and Disney films!

Armageddon - This is another interactive thing where the audience pretend to be actors as you experience a meteor hit! A bit scary for youngsters, but not actually anything frightening, just pyro technics, etc.


Characters

Here we saw Sully patrolling, amongst others, especially Winnie The Pooh characters. There is a designated Monsters Inc area where you can have your picture taken with a model of Mike in front of Boo's door and test out your screaming abilities on the scream-o-meter! Which is fun if not a little noisy!


Cafes and Restaurants

Again, not cheap, but there are ice cream parlours and presumably restaurants, although we never used any here, so I can't really comment!


The Disney Village

Again, a very atmospheric place, especially at night! Here there are shops, restaurants and even nightclubs (you don't have to be staying at Disney to go to the village). You can eat at Planet Hollywood (you can see famous handprints ad signatures on the wall outside) or the Rainforest Café (look out for the alligator outside; it literally made my nephew jump into my mums arms!) or there's always good old reliable, MacDonald's! There's also Annette's Diner, where there are shows on.
You can also go to the cinema here or go and see Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, where you get a dinner as well, but it's VERY expensive. Some of the food though is cheaper if you book before you go or get food vouchers.
There are many gift shops and some arty shops.
There seems also to be shows outside, not to mention a new hot air ride, where you are taken up in a giant tethered balloon to get what I imagine would be an amazing view!

Disney Advantages

Other than those mentioned, I would like to add that, although they have a no picnicking policy, we ate out own sandwiches in both parks and no one said anything to us, just as they didn't seem to be bothered by people having picnics in their bags. However, there is also a designated picnic area just outside the parks, which looked nice too.

There is something for everyone here, and adults love it as much as the children do, many chasing characters around for pictures, etc, so it really is a family holiday! Prices there are not cheap, but it isn't necessary to buy much if you're organised enough.

Very nice and friendly staff who are amazing linguists!

A great, magical atmosphere!

Always people to be seen sweeping up litter; it doesn't stay around for long

Plenty of toilets everywhere!

Plenty of water fountains also where you can get a free drink.


Disney Disadvantages

In my opinion, there was too much smoking going on around the park. I think considering it is children orientated, there really should be a no-smoking policy, or have clear smoking designated areas. However, people weren't allowed to smoke indoors or in queues. But still, I can imagine it would be easy for a child, or anybody, to get caught by a lit cigarette in the business of the place.

The prices are extortionate really, and I feel they would sell much more food if it were a bit cheaper, although many people still end up buying food any way.

That's it really! It can seem harsh that they don't let people on to the grass areas, but I guess they want to maintain that pristine appearance they have, and you can't really blame them for that!

Summary: A great family holiday