Our honeymoon definitely wasn’t the traditional romantic
break you would imagine. With 2 small children, we decided it wouldn’t be fair
on anyone if we were to go away and leave them. So we decided (with the kind
honeymoon donations we received as wedding presents) now would be the best time
to go on our first family holiday abroad. And what better place to take the
kids than Disneyland Paris!
EuroDisney, as it was known, is celebrating its 20th
anniversary this year, making me feel really old as I actually went on a school
trip the very first year it opened. Having also been to Disney World in Florida
twice I was lucky to know the “lay of the land” so to speak!
As part of the anniversary celebrations (or perhaps due to
lower visitor numbers) Disney were offering free half board, so this really did
help make our minds up.
So here are my top tips for a successful and happy family
holiday in Disneyland Paris.
Stay overnight in
Ashford
As we live in the North of the country, we faced a
significant journey whichever way we went about it. We decided to drive down to
Ashford in Kent, where one of the International Stations is located. We booked into the Travelodge, which is only a 10 min drive from the station. Despite
waiting over an hour for a meal in the hotel’s bar in the evening, the room was
clean and comfortable, it didn’t break the bank and its location was perfect.
Book Parking in
advance
I paid in advance for parking in one of the long stay car parks at
Ashford. It was £20 for the week and gave me peace of mind. One thing to mention is that the office where you need to get your
ticket validated is on the ground floor of multi-storey car park and certainly
isn’t well signposted. However it saved faffing about with payment at the end
of our journey.
Fast Food is
surprisingly good!
The fast food in the park, whilst being extortionately
priced, was actually really good. Portions sizes were large, choice was
excellent and the food itself was hot and tasty. Obviously if you can avoid
peak times at lunch and dinner, the more chance you have of finding places to
sit. However there is a fairly frequent turnaround of people so finding a table
shouldn’t be too difficult. We went to Pizzeria
Bella Notte and Cowboy
Cookout Barbecue in the Disneyland Park and Restaurant
en Coulisse in the Disney Studios.
Find a good Spot for
the Parades
The daily parades are definitely something to experience.
That is when the true magic of Disney comes alive and you forget about the
amount of money you have spent to get there! We staked our claim on a spot
right on Main Street, virtually opposite Casey’s Corner (Hot Dogs), so we had a
view of the parade as it entered Main Street with the Castle in the background.
We had to sit there for over 45 minutes as the crowds will build an hour
beforehand and in the end it got very crowded and slightly uncomfortable. But
the view was excellent.
If you want to avoid the crowds, another good spot we found
was outside the Belle Notte Fast Food outlet. This is where the parade actually
starts and we found less issues with people crowding us in, plus there was a
wall behind us were plenty of people were able to get an excellent view. We
also had the added bonus of following the parade as it made its way through the
park to Main Street.
Rides at Night &
Fast Pass
I’m going to write a whole-nother blog post about the rides
themselves, but just two bits of general advice. If you can wait until late in
the evening to go on some of the more popular rides, you will find some (but
not all) of the queues are much shorter. For example, the Indiana Jones
Rollercoaster had just a 5 min wait time when I went on around 8:30pm. Also, we
found getting a Fast Pass was definitely the best idea for some of the major
rides. We were able to jump the queues for both Thunder Mountain and Star
Tours. Make sure you get them in the morning though.
Hold your Ground!
The stereotypes are true I’m afraid. Despite queuing (or “standing
in line” as Disney would have us say) being foisted upon the French, they don’t
seem to have any concept of the etiquette of queuing, so unfortunately you have
to do as the Romans do (or Parisiens) and stand your ground.
Don’t eat late
We didn’t really check to see how late the park restaurants
stayed open and thought 7:30pm would be a reasonable time to eat. However, at
Disney, virtually all the restaurants are closed by this point, with just a few
fast food outlets open around Main St.
Self-Serve Buffet –
Excellent!
We actually went to a self-serve buffet on our first evening
called Agrabah
in Adventureland. This was purely as it was the only place we could reserve at
that point. I doubt we would have actually selected this eatery ourselves, as
Middle Eastern food didn’t really appeal to us. However, we were pleasantly surprised
and delighted by the type of food on our offer. Both the kids loved the
selection and our eldest loved getting his own food and trying some new things.
I especially liked the “make your own kebab” option, although perhaps the hot
chilli sauce was a mistake!
When you’re fed up of
queuing…
The Swiss Family Robinson Tree, Caves and Walkways in Adventureland
are a lot of fun for exploring. Perfect if you can’t be bothered with queuing.
Also the Dragon’s Cave beneath the castle held a lot of fascination for our
eldest!
Hire a Buggy
After 2 whole days of walking, we decided to hire a buggy
for our eldest. Despite being able to walk fine, we felt it would save his
tired little legs. For €15 it also gave us another handy place to put bags and
souvenirs. The hire place was just at the top of Main St close to the entrance.
Don’t burn yourself
with Coffee & Tea!
I bought some hot beverages from Casey’s Corner whilst we
were waiting for the aforementioned parade. First thing to note is that in
France it is not automatically assumed you will want milk with your tea, so
make sure you specifically request this. Secondly, Disney have not designed
their cups very well for carrying and midway through my journey back to Main
Street, I was close to dropping the scalding hot containers!
