[Closed] Disney Paris? anyone taken their kids - advice?

Been talking to friends recently about this - they went for a week with two kids for £600ish. They said it was great but that you should book food/everything you can in advance because it's a fair bit cheaper than just paying once there and it's pretty damn expensive otherwise.

Thanks Clubber

Just wondering if you can do it in a day? Or are you better chilling out a bit and taking two days or longer to do it properly?

They seemed to think a week was good - I would imagine that a day would just end up being hectic trying to see everything you wanted which when you add kids into the equation sounds like a recipe for tiredness and tantrums to me...

There was a thread about this recently.

Opps MF, thanks, will go search 😉

I worked there a decade or so ago when the new off-site hotels in places like Magny-le-Hongre were being built. That's not too long a bus ride away if it makes it significantly cheaper. You'd probably still want to get a bus from the cheaper disney hotels anyway as they're a fair few minutes walk out from the park.

I'd echo what clubber says about food - it was about £4 a pint when I was there, god knows how much it is now!

If you want to stay in Paris it's 40 minutes on the RER from Chatelet-les-Halles, direct to the gates of the park.

I'd say you could do the main park in a day and then studios on a second day. Can't think what you'd do for a week

Worst place I have ever been in my life.
Piped "jolly" music at ear-bending volume to force you to enjoy yourself.
Hour long queues full Europeans, who don't know how to queue. (I nearly punched some frottaging German while waiting for the Cars ride).
Hour long queues for 5 minute rides.
Crap, expensive food.
Beware of the evening parade. If you're in the wrong place there is no escape. They shut the exits.
It was also boiling hot when we went.

I'm shaking after having to relive that day.

DezB - Member

Worst place I have ever been in my life.
Piped "jolly" music and ear-bending volume to force you to enjoy yourself.
Hour long queues full Europeans, who don't know how to queue. (I nearly punched some frottaging German while waiting for the Cars ride).
Hour long queues for 5 minute rides.
Crap, expensive food.
Beware of the evening parade. If you're in the wrong place there is no escape. They shut the exits.
It was also boiling hot when we went.

I'm shaking after having to relive that day.

I feel your pain DezB 😉 but did your kids enjoy it?

I thought the whole experience was one of the most sinister things I've ever encountered. Evil brainwashing aside though, I thought it was OK. Food wasn't terribly overpriced, queues were fine for the most part. You're always going to have sneaky europeans pushing into the queue no matter where you go so you can either accept it or kick up a fuss. I just let them push in and then accidentally stand on their heel about five times.

As above though, stay somewhere that's not really close. Miles cheaper, much better quality and the transport links are good, it is France after all. We actually stayed in a camp side on the far side of Paris and got a coach trip in, it was fine.

I only got married after it was agreed that I would never, ever, have to go to Disney. Still very glad. I'm sure the children will love it.

We took out boys when they were 9 and 7, BEWARE, most of the rides, especially the good ones had height restrictions that precluded the younger one. So we therefore couldnt do them, which felt like a real waste of money !

If i were you id look elsewhere until the kids are a bit older, check out the disney site for details of the height restriction on the rides.

As for spending a week there, we'd planned on 2 days and had had enough having done everything at least twice by middle of the 2nd day. Even the kids were glad to get away and get un-disneyed by then.

[i]I feel your pain DezB but did your kids enjoy it?[/i]

My (singular) kid did not enjoy the queueing, did not like the food, but enjoyed some of the rides.
He also did not enjoy falling flat on his nose when trying to copy Daddy sitting on a fence... Not sure he remembers the place too fondly..

Hmmm I'm now wondering if I misheard/misunderstood our friends - maybe they didn't go for a week... must admit that I thought it sounded like a long time... must check...

We went twice last year despite me saying that we would never go back again.

The first time we tried to do too much as we had two parks for one day. I would recommend doing research on where you will eat before you get there as you can waste an hour hunting for a place to eat where everyone is catered for at a reasonable price. Add to that there was nothing to do with a 3 year old in the studios. The Toy Story ride was not open and it CLEARLY stated that on the guide map in tiny writing on one line in the leaflet, I then found out that Disney do not do refunds and I was starting to feel ripped off.

The second time we went we just visited the main park for the whole day and knew where to eat. We got there early and missed the worst of the bag checking. We also knew that most food places close before the park closes and we could eat outside in the retail park instead of wasting more time looking for food before the drive back to the campsite.

We had one of the best days ever and it was a truly magical day for our daughter.

We stayed in the Newport Bay hotel and did what everyone does which is to stuff yourself stupid at breakfast and smuggle out as much as you can. Food in the park is ridiculously expensive. We ate in the hotel at night because it's a long way to anywhere and after a day in the park your pretty knackered. Food was expensive but better than I expected and as it's a buffet it's another excuse to eat till you can't move.
We travelled on Eurostar had half in the park on arrival then 2 full days and another half day when we travelled home.
We went at Easter and although some rides had long queues, namely Finding Nemo and the Tower of Terror all in all it wasn't bad. for some reason the Rock and Roller had relatively short queues all the time and there were times we just walked straight on to it.
Our kids were 9 and 12.

We stayed in the Disney hotel last July for 5 nights, was expensive, but worth every penny to see the look on my 4 year olds face. The not quite one year old seemed to enjoy it.

Food in the village is both better and cheaper than in the park, cafe mickey was just tremendous. The kids will love it

I went there as a child not many years after it opened, and I really enjoyed it. We stayed in the Hotel Santa Fe. I remember eating a really terrible pizza in a big spaceship.

I been there a few time with the wife and kids (we go motor home touring in France). We're lucky as we can do our own food because the park food is expensive and the ques can be horrendous so good planning is the key but also the ability to be flexible if that make sense ?
One thing i would highly recommend if the WILD BILLS wild west show great show that the kids will love ! Expensive if you book the good seats but well worth it! (its a dinner show that can be found in the Disney village btw)

Ha ha, i remember going to the Wild Bills show as well. That was dead good.

[i]One thing i would highly recommend if the WILD BILLS wild west show[/i]

Ah! You've just reminded me of the good bits - that ^ and a car stunt show. We all liked that. See I'm not all misery 😀