First Visit to Disneyland Paris - random thoughts and opinions.

[TrainsOfDisney]

Finally made it to Disneyland Paris! I’m a huge fan of Tony Baxter and the 90’s era of Imagineering so I’ve always wanted to visit.

While the parks are crowded for Christmas and New Years - all of the attractions were open and the parks were open late into the night.

The park can not be over rated - it’s absolutely beautiful! The scale and framing through the park is on a whole different level - so much thought and planning went into this park.

If you are concerned about visiting a French speaking country - don’t be - all of the CM’s speak English and French and many of the attractions and shows are in both languages. I was a bit timid talking to CM’s at first - and that soon went away.

I stayed at Hotel Cheyenne - it feels like a moderate resort at WDW to me - loved the theme of the resort and so many little details that have long vanished at WDW like custom themed room keys, luggage tags, soaps, etc.

I did miss live atmosphere entertainment- no dapper dans, marching band, piano player, etc. But that was partially made up by the excellent theatre shows - Lion King, Pixar, and Mickey & Magician which are all very impressive - lovely staging and lighting.

i was sad that the riverboat is not steam powered - but any riverboat is better than none! (Hint hint).

Steam trains are nice - loved the Grand Canyon and Pirates scenes. They have a unique process for boarding the trains - it’s a bit odd and not very efficient - making the train more of an attraction and less of actual transportation in the parks. Still great to ride behind steam and I loved how there were several places to see the train from within the park.

Drone Show was amazing!!!!! Only got to see it 2 of the 4 nights because of wind but my goodness - the electrical parade in the sky is so cool! Illuminations is a good show - only basic low level pyro but they use what they have very well. I’m glad I got to see it.

I absolutely loved getting to experience catastrophe canyon again! I miss it so much - it still makes me smile just like it always did as a kid. I rode it 3 times!

I rode all the major attractions (even Indiana jones which my back told me I shouldn’t!) - everything was in good shape throughout the park - a little chipped paint in parts of fantasyland but that was pretty much it.

Any specific questions feel free to ask - for trip planning or specific attractions.

 

[Disneyfanatic30]

do cast members speak some English I know in Tokyo and Shanghai it will require a translator a lot also what was the etiquette like and how was the food?

 

[Kevin_W]

do cast members speak some English I know in Tokyo and Shanghai it will require a translator a lot also what was the etiquette like and how was the food?

All CM's we've interacted with have pretty good English. I'm not sure what you mean about etiquette; similar to anywhere else in the world: be polite, treat people with respect, wait in an orderly fashion, etc.

 

[HauntedPirate]

do cast members speak some English

all of the CM’s speak English and French and many of the attractions and shows are in both languages

 

[Disneyfanatic30]

I should say what is the culture like?

 

[marni1971]

I should say what is the culture like?

European !

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I should say what is the culture like?

Biggest thing I noticed - Europeans don’t have the same spatial awareness. Crowds in America will get into your space some at the parks but in Paris (other places in Paris too…) they will just run right into you and think nothing of it.

Oh… and the French like to smoke! There are many smoking areas in the park and it’s not uncommon to see smoking along the pathways.

The CM’s at Disneyland Paris speak both French and English - it’s not a little English. It’s crazy impressive how easily they change from one language to another.

Food is typical Disney - often expensive for what it is and some hits and misses. The fish and chips at Toad Hall (counter service) were surprisingly good!

 

[Aramar]

Disneyland Paris hires the Cast Members all over Europe. There are a lot of Spanish, Italian and British Cast Members in addition to French employees. Sometines the employees speak better Englidh than French. You will hear many languages spoken around the resort and language is not a problem.

 

[AndyS2992]

Glad you had a great time

 

[RobUK]

Sounds an amazing time!

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Fondly remembering my trip and thought I’d share some photos!

 

[Giwreh]

Disneyland Paris hires the Cast Members all over Europe. There are a lot of Spanish, Italian and British Cast Members in addition to French employees. Sometines the employees speak better Englidh than French. You will hear many languages spoken around the resort and language is not a problem.

The staff have the languages they speak, mentioned on their name badge. So, it's easy to find out. (This is also the case in the Efteling theme park.)

 

[Giwreh]

Oh… and the French like to smoke! There are many smoking areas in the park and it’s not uncommon to see smoking along the pathways.

Many years ago, smoking was still allowed everywhere outside, including the queues. Ashtrays were fixed alongside in the queue... Later, multiple signs "no smoking in the queue" replaced the ashtrays. Nowadays, dedicated outdoors "smoking zones" got installed. With kind of a small fence around it, to keep it a bit out of sight. (SAME manner can be found now in Efteling theme park, Pairi Daiza animal theme park and many others, all over Europe.)
Still smoking out of those areas, happens. The thing is: the difference in rules for generally smoking on the street or smoking 'on-the-street-in-a-theme-park' is not logically understood.

 

[Giwreh]

I did miss live atmosphere entertainment- no dapper dans, marching band, piano player, etc. But that was partially made up by the excellent theatre shows - Lion King, Pixar, and Mickey & Magician which are all very impressive - lovely staging and lighting.

This is mostly weather related. As you visited in wintertime, it's normal there would not be street/outdoors entertainment, as it's a real comfort and health problem for the artists. More: if they have to run from rain, snow, hail.. at most unpredictable times, it's unwise to program any of such performances. The winter problem just does not exist in California and Florida. So, comparing at that level is a bit useless.
Similar topic : "Why is there no Jungle Cruise in Paris?" Simple: climate as well. The animals could be animatronics, but the tropical jungle is (must be) real... and would not survive a winter. So, wisely, there is none.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

This is mostly weather related. As you visited in wintertime, it's normal there would not be street/outdoors entertainment, as it's a real comfort and health problem for the artists.

that doesn’t really make sense - if they can run the parades they can also have outdoor atmosphere entertainment.

 

[DLR92]

I wanna go there someday!

 

[Robbiem]

This is mostly weather related. As you visited in wintertime, it's normal there would not be street/outdoors entertainment, as it's a real comfort and health problem for the artists. More: if they have to run from rain, snow, hail.. at most unpredictable times, it's unwise to program any of such performances. The winter problem just does not exist in California and Florida. So, comparing at that level is a bit useless.
Similar topic : "Why is there no Jungle Cruise in Paris?" Simple: climate as well. The animals could be animatronics, but the tropical jungle is (must be) real... and would not survive a winter. So, wisely, there is none.

I think cost cutting has a role as well. The park was built with sheltered areas like the gazebo in town square, the souk, or the stage in videopolis for performance and several cast members still have outside jobs in winter with suitable costumes and rotation to keep them warm. Florida might not have winter cold but it does have lots of rain. Cutting the entertainment saves money in off peak times.

Jungle Cruise was dropped as you say because of the landscaping but also because other European parks had their own version and Disney didn’t want people to think that they were copying the competition. I think this might be why big thunder is so epic as well, lots of European parks have runaway train coasters but nothing like the scale of big thunder.

 

[wdrive]

This is mostly weather related. As you visited in wintertime, it's normal there would not be street/outdoors entertainment, as it's a real comfort and health problem for the artists. More: if they have to run from rain, snow, hail.. at most unpredictable times, it's unwise to program any of such performances. The winter problem just does not exist in California and Florida. So, comparing at that level is a bit useless.
Similar topic : "Why is there no Jungle Cruise in Paris?" Simple: climate as well. The animals could be animatronics, but the tropical jungle is (must be) real... and would not survive a winter. So, wisely, there is none.

Wishful thinking, Excluding the current Music Festival season that’s temporary find me some street/outdoor entertainment at anytime of year since Covid. Maybe the Main Street citizens who are gone again I believe?

The park had numerous permanent musical acts that never returned after covid.

 

[marni1971]

Wishful thinking, Excluding the current Music Festival season that’s temporary find me some street/outdoor entertainment at anytime of year since Covid. Maybe the Main Street citizens who are gone again I believe?

The park had numerous permanent musical acts that never returned after covid.

We live in hope they’re spending money on the revamped castle stage for a reason. Though in all fairness since the 30th the amount of regular daytime events on the parade route has been surprising.

 

[wdrive]

We live in hope they’re spending money on the revamped castle stage for a reason. Though in all fairness since the 30th the amount of regular daytime events on the parade route has been surprising.

Yes absolutely, and you’d hope so! But I was talking more of the small scale musicians around the park than large scale shows.