A Trip to Disneyland Paris? Pros and Cons

[stalkingmickey]

It will be end of June or Middle of July when I want to go. I can take a train from London right to DLP from what I read. This may be what we do. Just go for day and not even stay overnight there. Take train back to london end of day

 

[Spike-in-Berlin]

@
Joey Jurado

It would take too long because it seems as if the last comment was written years ago.
To make it brief, there were at least two possible locations in Spain examined, both near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, one near Alicante if I am right. In opposite to the French the Spanish authorities would have accepted, that English would have been the language in the park, not French AND English. The weather in Spain would have been much more appropriate for Eurodisney because the climate there is arid and warm through most of the year, comparable to the southwestern USA. Paris is an oceanic climate, humid and cold, if you travel there after September and before May, the possibility of rainy weather is very high. My GF was there five times before we met and it was raining four times. Not the typical central Florida daily 30-60 minutes downpour on an otherwise warm and sunny day, no it rained for days and it was cold.
Spain is the country in Europe with the largest number of foreign tourists, for Germans for example it's the favorite travel destination since the 1970ies but it is also a very popular destination for tourists from the Netherlands, the UK, Austria etc. So it would have been the ideal addition to a trip to Spain, just like most tourists to Florida at least stay for a few days at WDW and most visitors of southern California visit DL. We visited the south western seaboard of Spain twice in the last two years, came back from the last trip one week ago. If there would have been an Eurodisney in Spain we would have always included it in our vacation itinerary.
Also the Spanish are far more hospitable than the French and I am sure the CMs in Spain would have been more comparable to the friendliness of the CMs in WDW and DL.
So to sum it up, the climate, the culture, the friendliness and hospitality and the location in the most visited country in Europe! would have made a Disneyland Spain perfect.
Enjoy your first trip to WDW, have a magical vacation.

 

[peep]

It will be end of June or Middle of July when I want to go. I can take a train from London right to DLP from what I read. This may be what we do. Just go for day and not even stay overnight there. Take train back to london end of day

I wouldn't recommend the direct trains to Disney if you only want to do a day trip. You'd be arriving at the resort about 2pm and having to leave about 5pm. Unless you go for one of the indirect services (change at Lille or Paris) it might be worth you looking into at least making it an overnight stay. Play around with the Eurostar website to see what options you have. Obviously late June and July are peak months to go so Eurostar prices will be sky high and that's if they have any seats left.

If you do go, have a great time.

 

[Joey Jurado]

@
Joey Jurado

It would take too long because it seems as if the last comment was written years ago.
To make it brief, there were at least two possible locations in Spain examined, both near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, one near Alicante if I am right. In opposite to the French the Spanish authorities would have accepted, that English would have been the language in the park, not French AND English. The weather in Spain would have been much more appropriate for Eurodisney because the climate there is arid and warm through most of the year, comparable to the southwestern USA. Paris is an oceanic climate, humid and cold, if you travel there after September and before May, the possibility of rainy weather is very high. My GF was there five times before we met and it was raining four times. Not the typical central Florida daily 30-60 minutes downpour on an otherwise warm and sunny day, no it rained for days and it was cold.
Spain is the country in Europe with the largest number of foreign tourists, for Germans for example it's the favorite travel destination since the 1970ies but it is also a very popular destination for tourists from the Netherlands, the UK, Austria etc. So it would have been the ideal addition to a trip to Spain, just like most tourists to Florida at least stay for a few days at WDW and most visitors of southern California visit DL. We visited the south western seaboard of Spain twice in the last two years, came back from the last trip one week ago. If there would have been an Eurodisney in Spain we would have always included it in our vacation itinerary.
Also the Spanish are far more hospitable than the French and I am sure the CMs in Spain would have been more comparable to the friendliness of the CMs in WDW and DL.
So to sum it up, the climate, the culture, the friendliness and hospitality and the location in the most visited country in Europe! would have made a Disneyland Spain perfect.
Enjoy your first trip to WDW, have a magical vacation.

great points! definately agree with you! thanks!

 

[Ansley]

All,
I'm new to this group, but definitely not too Disney parks as I've been to every Disney park in the world 3 times or more, except for Tokyo . ( :-( Sad because I hear Tokyo is amazing, and I've been to Disneyland Paris 4 times.) I think I can offer some good advice and tips on Paris. My visits to Disneyland Paris were in '98, '02, '03, and '13. First, Disneyland Paris (the park) is in some ways my favorite Disney park! Why you might ask? It is the most beautiful of all the Disney parks, I could spend half a day just wandering the grounds! The resort as a whole is pretty good too, but I must admit I have not stayed in one of the Disney Resorts in Paris. I have dined at quite a few restaurants and all of them were quite good!

A little background on me so you get my perspective. I didn't grow up going to Disney, and I'm about to turn fifty, however when I met my wife in the early 90's we started going. We are definitely big fans. However, we love ALL amusement parks big and small, we are in 2-3 rollercoaster clubs at any given time. I've visited about 160 parks in about 15 countries, maybe more. I do love roller coasters and thrill rides, but equally love amazing Disney quality attractions, I'm also a big fan of Universal Parks.

The other thing I like about Disney Paris is some of the different takes on attractions. IMHO they have some of the overall best versions of some Disney rides. (except Tokyo...because I haven't been there). FYI, I've also been to Disneyland Hong Kong three times. Quick note about Disney Studios Paris, which is easily my least favorite single Disney park, but it is still good, has some great attactions and has improved quite a bit. Disney Paris Resorts attractions that are better then their counterparts, or just different and cool!:

Phantom Manor - I absolutely love the theming of this ride. The house and surrounding area are top notch! The ride itself is very similar, but I just love the experience.
Pirates of the Caribbean - Wow, wonderful theming again, and all around the attraction! A top notch ride with amazing setting.
Space Mountain - Completely differnet sem-launched roller coaster. Think Rock n' Roller Coaster type trains with a launch (mild) uphill OUTSIDE the mountain then you dive in. The ride is thrill and has 3 inversions. However, don't let that scare you away. Great theming, fun ride, more thrilling then others..

Other rides. Most every other ride is on par with the other Disney parks, usually the theming and detail is greater. It's a Small World is very much like the Disneyland CA version. They have a Pooh ride and others in Fantasy land. The have several of the rides in Fantasyland that Magic Kingdom is lacking, but are at Disneyland.

The castle is far and away the biggest and most beautiful! The dungeon underneath is very cool, plus there is an upstairs with stained glass windows I think.. memory a bit fuzzy. The Islands in Adventureland are extremely well done, as is the entire park for that matter!

I was spoiled because the my first two visits were so cheap compared to the USA, the dollar was stron in '98 and in '02. Plus, in Europe theme parks are typically less expensive in comparsion to other things.

If you want go the budget route, simply take the RER train out to the parks, I did this 2 days in a row on the first 3 visits. Still had a great time. However, you can find very nice Hotels very near Disneyland Paris that are very reasonable. We spent a bit more and got a bargain deal at a Marriort Resort right next to DLP last year.

Things I would recommend.
- We did a park tour years ago, not sure if they still offer them but it was reasonable price and was very enjoyable. There were only 3 others in our group, so we had 5.
- Walt's Restaurant on Main Street is good. Also there are some good places in the Downtown Disney like area, I remember a German restaurant that had great steaks!
- Try to at least try all the attractions, many have very nice unique small touches even the ones that are almost the same as the ones at other parks.

Disney Studios -
First visited only 3 weeks after the grand opening in '02. Was very disappointed, it was the opposite of the Disneyland park ... small, plain, and only 9 attractions to start. The good news is that it is now much better. I really like the park as a whole, the Tower of Terror is like the one in CA, the Crush's coaster is very good, and the new Toy Story land is not bad. It also has the original quite good Moteurs de Action show. The RnR coaster is a bit different, but still very good. There's enough to keep us interested. The two unique French shows of Animagique and CineMagique are also entertaining!

I love Disney Paris and could not imagine a visit to Paris without visiting Disney.

Ted

 

[Ralphlaw]

Our thoughts on DLP:

The park is beautiful.
The castle is the best of all the parks.
The CMs range from very good to somewhat rude.
The hotels are abominable. Stay off-site.

We just returned from DLP, and these are my thoughts:

The MK park is beautiful, but Studios is barely worth a walk-through at this point. Nothing unique.
The castle is indeed beautiful, and the dragon is very fun.
The night-time castle show is the absolute best we've ever seen.
The CMs were very good for us.
The hotels are quite nice in my opinion. No problems--no serious criticisms.

The MK park is filled with little surprises, like trails all over and nooks and crannies to lose yourself in. Overall, a beautiful experience. Specifically:
1. Space Mountain is the roughest ride I've had at any Disney Park. Truly shaking.
2. The Adventureland and Frontierland caves and pathways are wonderful. Alice's Labyrinth was great.
3. The food wasn't nearly as bad as people say it was. One critique of the food was that later at night, food places start closing down, leaving few options, and those few options had very long lines.
4. There seems to be too much America there. Each hotel is named after an American place (Sequoia, New York, Newport Beach, Santa Fe). Back when the park was built, Europeans were fascinated by America--not now. In my opinion, an overhaul of the American names might be smart. Americanisms are simply not as enthralling for Europeans as they once were. We stayed at eh Sequoia, and it could easily be changed to an Alpine theme, for example.
5. To that end, the castle show features French Disney films, like Hunchback and Beauty and the Beast, more so than elsewhere. This is smart.

Again, a very fun trip, but I don't have a huge desire to go back anytime soon.

 

[216bruce]

We just returned from DLP, and these are my thoughts:

The MK park is beautiful, but Studios is barely worth a walk-through at this point. Nothing unique.
The castle is indeed beautiful, and the dragon is very fun.
The night-time castle show is the absolute best we've ever seen.
The CMs were very good for us.
The hotels are quite nice in my opinion. No problems--no serious criticisms.

The MK park is filled with little surprises, like trails all over and nooks and crannies to lose yourself in. Overall, a beautiful experience. Specifically:
1. Space Mountain is the roughest ride I've had at any Disney Park. Truly shaking.
2. The Adventureland and Frontierland caves and pathways are wonderful. Alice's Labyrinth was great.
3. The food wasn't nearly as bad as people say it was. One critique of the food was that later at night, food places start closing down, leaving few options, and those few options had very long lines.
4. There seems to be too much America there. Each hotel is named after an American place (Sequoia, New York, Newport Beach, Santa Fe). Back when the park was built, Europeans were fascinated by America--not now. In my opinion, an overhaul of the American names might be smart. Americanisms are simply not as enthralling for Europeans as they once were. We stayed at eh Sequoia, and it could easily be changed to an Alpine theme, for example.
5. To that end, the castle show features French Disney films, like Hunchback and Beauty and the Beast, more so than elsewhere. This is smart.

Again, a very fun trip, but I don't have a huge desire to go back anytime soon.

We also just returned from DLP and I agree with much of the above. The Studios is really a hodge-podge of attractions and settings from HS in Florida and CA in Anaheim plus a few others. It can be skipped without missing much if you've been to it's US counterparts.
DLP itself is absolutely beautiful and comparable to DL at it's peak. So many little attractions that are fantastic such as the Dragon under the castle, the Canal Boats and Casey Jr.- both similar but better than those in DL. A completely different storyline in "Phantom Manor". An OK "Pirates" and a personal favorite of walking through the "Nautilus", complete with squid attack! "Dreams" is the BEST 'castle show' in any park. Period-no debate!
The downside- very spotty weeds all over the place that'll be next to an immaculate flowerbed. Lots of areas needing paint touch-up and my main gripe- much of the park was closed, but still listed on the map- several train stops, the Chapparal Theater, the ranch in Frontierland, all the popcorn carts and food stands (except for maybe two), Captain EO and others.
Another weird thing is the rides load VERY slowly here compared to WDW and DL and the place is only using half of it's load capacity to get folks on-board, and this on a summer weekend no less!
In sum, been there, saw it, it's beautiful for the most part but it really would have been better off somewhere in Europe with a better climate, more enthused group of cast-members and managed better. I sort of liken the park to Lindsay Lohan- at one point it was full of promise, beautiful and loveable. Now, it's a little rough around the edges and fallen into disrepair and some bad habits.

 

[HolleBolleGijs]

There have been quite a few comments about restaurant hours. Isn't that a European thing? Or at least French? It's certainly not limited to DLP. I've only been to Europe a few times (and will be going to DLP several times when I study in Paris in a few months), but I know things aren't open all the time like they often are in America.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

There have been quite a few comments about restaurant hours. Isn't that a European thing? Or at least French? It's certainly not limited to DLP. I've only been to Europe a few times (and will be going to DLP several times when I study in Paris in a few months), but I know things aren't open all the time like they often are in America.

No, many DLP restaurants are simply not open for most of the year, likely to save on labour and supply costs. That this is continuing into the busy summer season is not good. I've seen pics of the long lines on twitter.

Like the 42 ticket booths out front, DLP was overbuilt for dining capacity. I can understand why in the dead of winter not all of them would be open, but now? They mostly all should be.

 

[Ralphlaw]

We only had problems finding food later at night. I suppose Europeans might be more tolerant of long lines. Nevertheless, the food was pretty good, especially the counter service. Two places in the Adventureland area, themed on Lion King and the elephant from Jungle Book, were very good. The problem was simply that they closed rather early. Some of this might be a concerted effort to get people to go out to the Village area. Who knows?

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

After visiting the parks for the first time today, I have to agree with some of the negative comments here. In addition, I'd like to add a few of my own:

-Does anyone else find guest behavior at DLP to be...different? For starters, people were smoking everywhere (which I understand is very French/European, but it seriously impeded my enjoyment of Disneyland). One of the worst things I noticed was a little girl defecating on the ground in Frontierland - her parents were watching and didn't seem to care.

-I felt disadvantaged not being a fluent French speaker (even though I know some common words and phrases), since quite a few cast members couldn't answer my questions in English (such as "can I add days to a ticket").

-There aren't enough words to describe how bad WDS is - it basically combines the worst attributes of DHS, Universal, and pre-refurb California Adventure. The star attraction (Crush's capacity crisis coaster) would feel right at home in Universal, as it's housed in a boxy, oversized warehouse. And Studio 1 probably tops Sunshine Plaza as the worst Disney theme park entrance of all time.

-While Disneyland Paris is beautiful, it had a surprising amount of dead space and ugly finishings (such as the walkway from Fantasyland to Discoveryland). Frontierland was largely a collection of dead ends, which was also frustrating. And Discoveryland, for all the hype surrounding it, is rather hideous. The bronze just doesn't work if it isn't carried through the entire land (with Buzz Lightyear serving as the most egregious contrast).

-Disney Village is also hideous, with a weak selection of shops and restaurants - Earl of Sandwich was my saving grace. Even the hotels look awful on the outside, with the exception of the Disneyland Hotel. It's like all the money went on Disneyland Park/DLH and everything else was scrapped together.

This should sum things up - I arrived at DLP around 12:30pm and was planning on staying until nighttime. I ended up boarding a RER train back to Paris around 4:15 and couldn't wait to leave. No other Disney destination has made me feel that way before. Even Universal Orlando offers a more compelling product (albeit less pretty than Disneyland Park).

 

[HolleBolleGijs]

I think it's funny how polarized the discussion about DLP can be.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Some photos from today:

The walkway from Fantasyland to Discoveryland

Inside Studio 1 - the park has a Brown Derby!

...it's a food court.

Crush's show building is really no different from Despicable Me/Transformers at Universal.

Walt is pointing to Studio 1 and telling Mickey what a mess it is.

Cheap knock-off of Yacht and Beach Club (except more ovepriced)

Cheap knock-off of Wilderness Lodge (I know Sequoia opened two years prior, but that's still what it looks like):

Disney Village makes the current DTD construction site look pleasant, IMO.

 

[croboy82]

About crush, the only explanation I have is to keep the "theme" of a film studio park. But obviously it doesn't refelct on other parts of the same park haha That was indeed lazy.

About the food, that is very much true. I just read last week on twitter that they had 3 (!) restaurants only open in the main park.

 

[Disneysea05]

I think it's funny how polarized the discussion about DLP can be.

It is interesting. Then again, less than 4 hours at any Disney destination is hardly enough time to have a significant experience beyond an initial impression. I wouldn't rely on that to make a decision.

I am very much looking forward to my next Disneyland Paris trip in the fall!

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

It is interesting. Then again, less than 4 hours at any Disney destination is hardly enough time to have a significant experience beyond an initial impression. I wouldn't rely on that to make a decision.

It's enough time to walk across both parks and Disney Village, ride some of the top attractions (including Big Thunder, Pirates, and Phantom Manor), check out 'bonuses' such as the Dragon's Lair, feel constantly suffocated by secondhand smoke, and be shocked by the ugliness of the entire property outside of Disneyland Park. Sorry, but those things don't change with more time.

I know there are still plenty of things I need to experience, such as Space Mountain (which I'm very excited about), Ratatouille (we'll see), Crush's Coaster, and Disney Dreams (even DLP's dissenters seem to recommend this show), but that really doesn't change anything about the Studio park's major flaws, the prevalence of smoking, or the ugliness that plagues most of the resort. Those reasons seriously detract from my desire to spend time in DLP, and I'm sure others would feel the same way. (The attendance numbers for WDS already reflect that.)

 

[216bruce]

With so many folks saying similar things, I guess I'm glad it wasn't just me. One last thing- can we all pitch in, hire a kidnapper and get Walt's "Partners" statue out of WDS and put it in DLP where it belongs. He really is pointing at the exit and saying "get us the heck outta here".

 

[Tink28]

Wow, beginning to wonder if I have made a huge mistake in booking a trip to DLP, you all know how to put a person off going!

 

[HolleBolleGijs]

I know there are still plenty of things I need to experience, such as Space Mountain (which I'm very excited about), Ratatouille (we'll see), Crush's Coaster, and Disney Dreams (even DLP's dissenters seem to recommend this show), but that really doesn't change anything about the Studio park's major flaws, the prevalence of smoking, or the ugliness that plagues most of the resort. Those reasons seriously detract from my desire to spend time in DLP, and I'm sure others would feel the same way. (The attendance numbers for WDS already reflect that.)

There would be a lot of angry Europeans if smoking rules were as restrictive as they are in US parks.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Wow, beginning to wonder if I have made a huge mistake in booking a trip to DLP, you all know how to put a person off going!

Personally, I'd say it's still worth going and seeing the place for yourself, especially if you already consider yourself to be a fan of the Disney parks. That said, I would've loved to see some of these negatives brought up when planning my own visit to DLP (such as the smoking everywhere), as I probably wouldn't have bought a 4-day ticket (plus an extra ticket for yesterday's visit) knowing how these factors would affect my experience (seriously - when you're in line for a Big Thunder Mountain fastpass and the people in front of you light up some cigarettes, you can't escape if you still want to ride).

The main negatives I've read about DLP have been rude cast members, pushy guests who don't respect personal space, poor maintenance, and basically everything about Walt Disney Studios. I can't say all of those are true (from my own experience - yet), but I still found the overall experience to be seriously lacking compared to WDW and DL. That's why I think it's better to be warned, so these things aren't a complete shock.

There would be a lot of angry Europeans if smoking rules were as restrictive as they are in US parks.

I certainly understand that, which is why I think it's something that visiting Americans should be aware of. Even walking down the streets of major cities (such as Paris), I find it fairly easy to 'dodge' smokers or hold my breath until I'm far away from them. In DLP, however, the crowds are packed close together and you're often forced to be near these people (such as when waiting in line). There's literally no way to escape the secondhand smoke, and it was a huge distraction for me - it's worse than simply being in a European city.