I'm about two weeks overdue with this, and I fear if I don't at least start it now, it'll never happen, so here goes. I'll start with general impressions of DLRP, then compare/contrast with WDW for those familiar with WDW who might be considering a visit...
My wife and I traveled to Disneyland Resort Paris (DLRP) as part of a trip to Paris and London over Thanksgiving (which, oddly, Europe doesn't seem to celebrate). We spent three days in DLRP, visiting Disneyland Paris (DLP) for most of those three days, and the Walt Disney Studios Park (WDS) for a few hours.
Prior to the trip, I solicited a lot of feedback from various friends of mine who have been there, who helped immensely in the planning. Thanks to those of you who helped who are reading this!
I was a bit apprehensive about the visit at first, as I've heard of and seen a lot of decay (http://www.parkeology.com/2011/04/fading-star.html) in the past. Although I've never really followed DLRP too closely, this had always seemed to be what I have heard most about the resort.
However, we found cheap IND>CDG...LHR>IND airfare earlier this fall, so we decided to jump on the opportunity.
I'm very glad we did, as we did not notice much of the decay and assorted other problems that have been reported over the years.
Overall, DLP seemed like it was in excellent shape. I didn't notice any non-working effects in any attraction besides PotC, which sporadically was without its swinging pirate during our visit, and Mystic Manor, which was without its headless "Dreamfinder" Mayor for the duration of our trip. That said, I have never watched any ride-through videos of DLRP attractions, so other things could have been missing or not working and could have gone unnoticed by me.
Overall, maintenance/cleanliness seemed solid within DLP. There was some random moss in a few places where it shouldn't have been, but considering the weather in Marne-la-Vallee (MLV), this wasn't *too* bad. We also noticed some "tagging" in a few queues, which was disappointing. Outside of the parks, around the hotels and in the Village, cleanliness was worse.
The bigger issue, though, was lighting. DLP has a great deal of lighting, especially popcorn lights, and an inordinate number of these lights (except on the Main Street buildings themselves) were burnt out. I know there's some debate on the significance of this, but it was not a minor number of lights that were burnt out in some places. Not as bad as the Grand Floridian, but not just one or two here or there. It was bad enough that I couldn't read the lit marquee for the Plaza Garden Restaurant at night. At was also fairly bad on the Disneyland Hotel, which serves as a gateway to DLP. Even entire strands of lights on the brand new Christmas garland were not working!
Dining options were also pretty bad in DLP. We ate at Walt's and Blue Lagoon and our meals were so bad at each of these restaurants that we nixed plans for California Grill and Inventions (we still ate at the latter for breakfast). I've heard that dining at DLRP is just so-so, but these meals were truly bad, and I consider myself somewhat forgiving of Disney dining. If you go to DLRP, save your dining budget for (real) Paris, where the food is amazing just about everywhere.
After this, we ate exclusively at CS restaurants, and were pleasantly surprised by these (we heard burgers were universally awful at CS, so we avoided those). None of the restaurants served mindblowing cuisine, and there wasn't much unique fare, but it was palatable, and not too expensive. Toad Hall was the single-coolest CS restaurant I've ever experienced (it's better than Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland...really!), and the fish and chips were solid there. Other restaurants are similarly amazingly detailed, and are worth visiting just to see (we were able to step inside each of them before they opened, as the doors were unlocked). Restaurants were randomly closed on certain days, but apparently you can call and get a schedule. Earl of Sandwich is actually the best dining option (I know it doesn't seem right to go to France and then eat at an American chain, but all of the in-park food is American, and at least Earl is good and reasonably priced), and it has free WiFi.
So the tone of this might sound negative up until now...don't let that dissaude you from going. In general, though, DLP was incredible. It was the most detailed Disneyland-style park of the three I've experienced, and the only thing that prevents it from topping Disneyland as my favorite Disney theme park is the dining and the issue with the lights. The detail and artisanship of DLP is amazing. We spent an inordinate amount of time on Main Street, which is brimming with detail, and has multiple layers of storytelling (not the contrived type, either). Frontierland is the same way, and although Phantom Manor is a substantial departure from other Haunted Mansions, but it works (it's backstory is a tad more contrived, but still solid). Fantasyland is sprawling and beautiful ('it's a small world's' holiday overlay was disappointing, as was the set art in general...and I'm not really a huge Mary Blair fan). Discoveryland is a brilliant take on the Tomorrowland concept, and I loved the look of Space Mountain, even if the ride beat up my ears pretty badly.
I know I'm glossing over these, but I'll answer any questions you have about particular lands in more detail...
Disney Dreams is incredible and uses technology brilliantly. The story is sort of flimsy, but I appreciate that there is a story rather than a random montage.
DLP looks beautiful for Christmas, and even its 20 year old tree (I hear they're getting a new one next year) doesn't show its age too badly. The new Christmas Cavalcade is cute, but nothing special. Overall, Magic Kingdom and Disneyland both do much more for Christmas, but DLP is definitely no slouch.
What really impressed me is the layers and layers of detail wherever you looked. Shops, restaurants, queues, etc., were all designed with meticulous attention to detail. I can see why that park cost so much. The Castle is beyond incredible. The park is amazing.
Then, you go next door to WDS. That park is worse than DCA 1.0. I had heard bad things about it, and suspected people were exaggerating. They were not. The park is a mess in every conceivable way and needs some serious placemaking. We spent three hours there, and that was about 2 too many. Crush's Coaster was okay, but it's really overrated and probably wasn't worth the 30 minute wait we endured in its largely generic queue.
The stark contrast between WDS and DLP was really surprising. Toad Hall, alone, is probably more detailed than all of WDS. Hopefully the Ratatouille dark ride and its surrounding area will make things better...
We stayed in Sequoia Lodge at the recommendation of @marni1971 who said it was recently refurbished, and it was an excellent choice. I visited every single other hotel (but not the campground), and I definitely think we made the right decision. For a value resort, Cheyenne was pretty cool, but for the price and distance from the parks, you'd be better off staying in Val d'Europe and taking the train. (We stayed there our first night in a beautiful, brand new hotel for less than it would have cost to stay at the Cheyenne.) All of the other hotels besides Disenyland Hotel seem fairly dated (especially the distinctly-Graves Hotel New York). Hotel Santa Fe is downright creepy as many of the buildings are closed to the public as it undergoes a massive rennovation. DLH is pretty, but not pretty enough for its nightly price. So my suggestion here for anyone using this as a trip planning post would be Sequoia or off-site.
Disney Village is a mix of old and new. The World of Disney store is brand new, but there are several dated stores nearby.
As far as overall layout goes, DLRP is a mix of DLR and WDW. It's small enough that you can walk everywhere, but there are more hotels than at DLR. It's still much closer in nature to DLR than it is WDW.
A lot of people have asked me about Cast Members and other guests. In general, we found the French to be great. That said, I always made an effort to initiate every conversation in French, and concede after a couple sentences that I comprehend a little French and can't speak it well. At this point, most gladly spoke English. If you approach people and immediately start speaking English, don't expect the same results. Then again, how many of you are extremely pleasant to folks who come up to you and only speak another language? In our experience, the popular sentiment that the French are rude is a myth. If you're disrespectful to them, many will be rude. Isn't that true in any society, though?
In DLRP, almost every Cast Member can speak enough English to assist guests.
The CMs were definitely not as cheery as US Cast Members, but we didn't mind this at all. I'd rather have real enthusiasm than feigned enthusiasm, and at least you know that's what you're getting when you encounter an enthusiastic CM in DLRP. None of them were rude to us, but we also didn't hear many say "have a magical day!" Personally, this is something I don't need. I'd rather have an awesome park to experience than 20 people tell me to have a magical day. YMMV on that.
Another thing I noticed was that there weren't many strollers and I didn't notice a single ECV. I'm not going to open a can of worms by commenting on this, so I'll let it speak for itself...
Other guests were generally fine, too. There's a lot of smoking in the park. I've heard of guests walking on grass and throwing trash on the ground, but I didn't notice this. We went during a particularly slow season, so there was really no need to walk on grass.
This is already really long, but I think this is a good start.
One caveat I want to add before concluding is that although I pay close attention to detail in the parks, I know there were things I didn't notice. I know this because I've since looked at some DLRP forums (auto-translate in Chrome is such an awesome feature) and people have pointed these things out. Some, like the large apparatus that secures the garland strands, were so obvious that I can't believe I missed them. I'm sure there were some other things.
In closing, I think DLRP is often overshadowed by TDR, and I can understand that. But DLP is a really special park that's definitely worth a visit if traveling to Europe. The rest of DLRP is interesting, too, but nothing around which I'd plan a visit. A serious Disney fan could spend a ton of time exploring DLP, though.
EDIT: I forgot about the WDW comparison. This is already too long, but in DLP v. MK, DLP trounces MK. Hotel-wise and dining-wise, WDW is superior. Maintenance-wise, I'll give a slight edge to DLP.
