1-Day Walt Disney Studios Park Itinerary

If you’re planning a visit to Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, our 1-day itinerary provides an efficient plan of attack for the second gate to Parc Disneyland in France. In this, we share FastPass strategy, optimal attraction order, where to eat, and other tips & tricks for making the most of your day at Walt Disney Studios Park (WDSP).

One thing that’s conspicuously absent from this Walt Disney Studios Park Paris touring plan is places to ‘stop and smell the roses’ and savor the details. We are keen on that in our other itineraries, including our 1-Day Disneyland Paris Itinerary, but not when it comes to WDSP. If you’ve read other posts about Walt Disney Studios Park, you know that we aren’t particularly keen on this park.

In fact, we used to question whether it should even be considered a Disney theme park at all. While great strides have been made in improving the substantive attraction offerings at Walt Disney Studios Park, a lot remains to be done (but good news–there’s a $2.5 billion project that will fix all of that…by 2024, so not exactly helpful if you’re planning a trip to France right now).

As such, we view visiting Walt Disney Studios Park as akin to a military operation that you should execute with surgical precision. Get in, get down to business, and get out as quickly as possible, spending the rest of your day in the far superior Disneyland Paris. (This is why we recommend the Park Hopper or “2 Parks” option in our Disneyland Paris Park Ticket Info & Tips guide.)

While you might think this means you can mosey into Walt Disney Studios Park later in the day, spend a few hours there, and head back over to Disneyland Paris, we’d caution against that approach. Treat the getting in part like a tactical operation, rope dropping the park to hit its headliners before the crowds. Even though Walt Disney Studios Park is not a good theme park, it does have a nice collection of attractions, and several of those are very popular.

Crush’s Coaster – This spinning indoor roller coaster is the most popular attraction in either park that does not have FastPass. That means it’s imperative that you arrive at rope drop and race to Crush’s Coaster.

If you enjoyed it the first time through and the line isn’t yet long (under 30 minutes), feel free to do Crush’s Coaster a second time to start the day. The line will become prohibitively long later in the day, so it’s a now or never kind of deal. While there is a Single Rider line at Crush’s Coaster, we’ve found its efficiency to be hit or miss.

Ratatouille: the Adventure – This relatively new trackless dark ride shrinks you down to the size of a mouse to race around the streets and kitchens of Paris with Remy and friends, and is quite popular. Start by grabbing a FastPass for Ratatouille: the Adventure.

If the wait time is under 30 minutes (hopefully it’s still more like 15 minutes), you might also want to do the ride via standby. The queue is interesting, and this will give you a chance to see it in detail. Single Rider is also an option for fast boarding, but it’ll be an option later, so skip that for now. (Single Rider bypasses the interesting areas of the queue, for what it’s worth.)

Toy Story Playland – While waiting for your Ratatouille: the Adventure FastPass, head over to Toy Story Playland. We can’t say we’re huge fans of this land, which is the weakest of the Toy Story-themed lands.

The one attraction we do enjoy is RC Racer, which we’d recommend doing first. Whether you also want to do Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop or Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin is your call, but we’d skip them unless the waits are really short and you still need to kill time until your Ratatouille FastPass is ready.

FastPass Fun – Before it’s time to use your Ratatouille: the Adventure FastPass, head over to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and grab your next FastPass.

Then, double back and return to Ratatouille: the Adventure and do that. It should be close to lunch-time now, too…

Bistrot Chez Remy – Walt Disney Studios Park has 5 restaurants, which is very few by theme park standards. Only one of those restaurants is actually good, and thankfully, that lone option is really good. As we wrote in our full Bistrot Chez Remy Review, this is arguably the best restaurant in all of Disneyland Paris (and is even good by real-world France standards). Bistrot Chez Remy is popular, so we highly recommend making reservations in advance, or going to the restaurant podium as soon as Bistrot Chez Remy opens.

If for some reason you’re unable to score a table at Bistrot Chez Remy and still “need” to eat somewhere at Walt Disney Studios Park, we’d recommend going to cheap counter service rather than throwing good money after bad on table service or buffet. Avoid burgers, which is advice we wouldn’t normally give. (It’s not great, but Blockbuster Cafe is a decent option for a filling meal that is fairly safe.)

Tower of Terror – After lunch, you should be able to redeem your Twilight Zone Tower of Terror FastPass. Do that on your way to the next stop…

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith (For now…) – At the very beginning of the year during the D23 Expo Japan, Disney announced that this ride would be totally reimagined as a high-speed, hyper-kinetic adventure where guests will team up with Iron Man and their favorite Avengers, for the first of several Marvel rides to come to France.

We’re surprised work hasn’t started on that yet, and it would seem Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster won’t close until sometime in 2019. If it’s still open when you visit, grab your third FastPass over here, or do the attraction via standby if the line is short enough.

Mickey and the Magician – There are several stage shows at Walt Disney Studios Park, and this is by far the best of the bunch. In fact, we would go as far as to say this is the best attraction at WDSP. This show follows Mickey Mouse on his quest to become a magician, with musical vignettes from popular Disney films interspersed among the loose plot.

You might need to do this before the previous two entries on this list depending upon showtimes. We’d recommend getting in line at least 20 minutes in advance. Even though Mickey and the Magician has a large theater, it’s incredibly popular.

Other Shows ‘n’ Stuff – This entry is really for those of you who made the grave error of not purchasing the “2 Park” (Park Hopper) tickets, and are now stuck at Walt Disney Studios Park for the rest of your day. We feel your pain.

There are a few shows and longer attractions that are options at this point. These include Marvel: Super Heroes United, Armageddon: les Effets Spéciaux, the Studio Tram Tour, Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show, Disney Junior Live on Stage, Stitch Live, and whatever seasonal shows might be occurring during your visit. We aren’t huge fans of any of these, but the Studio Tram Tour and Marvel: Super Heroes United are the best of the bunch.

That’s A Wrap! This might sound like a lot to do, but if your day ends with Mickey and the Magician, you’re skipping all other shows and rides, which is what we’d recommend doing. On a good day, you can be done with Walt Disney Studios Park by 3 or 4 p.m. That’s the perfect amount of time to bounce over to Disneyland Paris!

For the basics of planning a visit to Disneyland Paris, check out our Disneyland Paris Trip Planning Guide. Want to see more photos or read about Disneyland Paris in agonizing detail? Check out our Disneyland Paris 20th Anniversary Trip Report or our Disneyland Paris 25th Anniversary Trip Recap! If you’re visiting other places in France, consult our Paris, France City Guide and Posts About France on TravelCaffeine.com, our non-Disney blog.

YOUR THOUGHTS…

If you’ve been to Walt Disney Studios Park, which rides would you recommend prioritizing? What are your favorite WDSP attractions? Anything you’d do that we skipped? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!