June 19, 2023

A note about Booking: When I was planning our vacation, I planned to do Disneyland Paris one day, then leave Paris the next day. It made the most sense to just stay at Disneyland Paris and leave Paris from there. When I tried to book a room for one night through the website, I only had the option of 2 days of tickets. Since I only wanted one day of tickets, I had to book each part separately. I believe it is a much better value to book the package, but that didn’t work for us. Also, since we only had one day, I bought the Premier Access pass. If we had more than one day there, it definitely would not be needed. However, it allowed us to do everything we wanted to do in one day in both parks, so it was worth it to us.

One More Note: A few days before we left home, we got an email alerting us of a planned protest taking place at DLP. We were told that we were welcome to change plans for a full refund. Since our schedule was locked in, we decided to just take our chances and change plans as it became necessary. We did not notice any issues until the evening (5:30pm) parade. We saw the protests on Main Street, and we were directed around it. We heard over the speaker that the parade had been canceled due to “unforseen circumstance,” which we assumed to be the parade. The strikers cheered at that announcement. By the time we were done with supper, the strikers had left the Main Street area. We didn’t see them again.

Today, we got up early and took the train from downtown Paris to Chessy. Luckily, it was a direct ride from the Les Halles station, right outside our Paris hotel, to the Chessy station. Disneyland Paris is right above the Chessy station.

We got to Chessy a little after 8:00am and we were checked into our hotel and headed to the parks by 9:00am. Because everything is so close, we were able to do this fairly quickly. From 8:30am-9:30am, there is early park hours for guests staying in the Disney hotels. We could not believe how empty the park was for those 15 minutes or so before it was opened to the general public.

We happened to be visiting Disneyland Paris at the end of their 30-year celebration, which meant there were some fun extras around the park. When we arrived at the park, we went to the left and started our day in Adventureland on Thunder Mountain Railroad. We loved it! It is so much different and more intense than the Walt Disney World (WDW) version. There were moments of complete black out. I also felt like it was longer than the WDW version. Unanimously, we preferred the DLP (Disneyland Paris) version to the WDW version. The other ride in the area was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, which is a roller coaster. We all went on it and thought it was pretty great, too. Phantom Manor, the DLP version of the Haunted Mansion, was temporarily closed, so we decided to hit it later. From there, we went into Fantasyland and went through the Queen of Hearts maze. This was a fun thing to do, with no ride attached. We did some other rides in Fantasyland, including Snow White, Peter Pan, Tea Cups, and Small World.

We then went to Discoveryland (like Tomorrowland). Discoveryland had Rides like Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, Autopia, Orbitron, and Hyperspace Mountain. Hyperspace Mountain is Space Moutain, but Star Wars themed. It is also faster and more intense. The dark is complete, and there are lasers throughout the ride. I wanted to close my eyes, but I forced myself to keep them open for the most part. Once again, this ride was preferred to the WDW Space Moutain. The kids also thought the Autopia was longer in duration than the Tomorrowland Speedway, and they loved having more time behind the wheel! After Discoveryland, we went back and caught Phantom Manor. We decided it we liked it as much as the WDW’s Haunted Mansion, but not more. It seemed a bit darker to me.

“Paris Dan” with his croissant and San Pellegrino

At this point, it was about 12:30pm, and we decided to head to Walt Disney Studios, which is very similar to WDW’s Hollywood Studios. A few rides at WD Studios are: Tower of Terror, Toy Story Parachute Drop, Avengers Assemble (similar to WDW’s Rockin’ Roller Coaster) and Crush’s Coaster. Kate and I tried Tower or Terror for the first time, and we both agreed it would be our last time. After that ride, I was done for the day. So I did not do the Spiderman ride or the Avengers Assemble Ride. There were food kiosks at WD Studios, much like stands at Epcot’s food festivals. I didn’t take many pictures at WD Studio. We left around 3:30pm. to go back to the hotel before dinner.

After we did everything we wanted to do at Walt Disney Studios, it was a little after 3:00pm. We stopped by some shops and made our way back to the hotel for a bit. After rest, we had dinner reservations at Walt’s Restaurant. Walt’s Restaurant overlooks Main Street U.S.A. and is designed to look like Walt’s house with Walt’s favorite foods. It was a prix fixe menu, offering a starter, main dish, and dessert. I love the idea of this restaurant, but it left a lot to be desired. The food was mediocre at a higher price tag (55 euros). We would not return to Walt’s Restaurant.

My first choice for a hotel was the Disneyland Hotel that overlooks Disneyland Park. You actually enter the park through the hotel . However, it was closed for construction. We picked the Hotel New York. It was the hotel next closest to the park and Marvel themed. Jack loved the theming. It was a very nice hotel, with an American feel. Beds and rooms were spacious. The hotel had a very cool skyline bar with fun drinks.

Of course, Kate had to get a new Loungefly bag as her souvenir.

We loved Disneyland Paris. It is definitely a park would we would return to if we were in Paris again. We could definitely tell it was a newer park, as everything was just a tad bit elevated. It was small enough that it was manageable. The food was good, the lines were shorter (even without Premier Access), and the crowds were less.