Disneyland Paris 2012 Trip Report: Part 1
For the longest time, we were Walt Disney World snobs. Although we regularly vacationed elsewhere, we couldn’t fathom “betraying” our home Disney resort and going to those “other” Disney theme parks. More importantly, since we only visited Walt Disney World one or two times per year, we couldn’t imagine skipping Walt Disney World for a year and visiting Disneyland instead. Then, in 2010, we visited Disneyland for the first time because we were out in California anyway. We absolutely loved it, and immediately began eyeing the international parks, trying to figure out when we might be able to first visit one of those parks. (If you’re reading this trip report and have no plans to ever stray from Walt Disney World, we strongly encourage you to learn from our pre-2010 mistake and visit at least Disneyland if you can. If you are using it to plan a trip to Disneyland Paris, you might first want to read our Disneyland Paris Trip Planning Guide.)
Tokyo Disney Resort was the top priority, and in mid-2011 after the devastating earthquake, we noticed travel to Tokyo was really cheap, so we started planning. Towards the end of 2011, we began getting serious about our Tokyo plans for 2012, going as far as to book a room at the Hilton Tokyo Bay for Thanksgiving 2012. Alas, the plans would not come to fruition, as airfare prices skyrocketed from the $500 roundtrip low we saw in mid-2011 to well above $1,500 when it was time to finalize our plans in early Fall 2012. However, at the same time we were canceling that trip, we noticed airfare to/from Paris and London was reasonably priced, so we decided to call an audible and price out a trip to Europe that wouldn’t include London, Paris, and of course, Disneyland Paris. The trip was about the same price we’d pay for trip of comparable length to Walt Disney World at a Deluxe Resort, so we pulled the trigger.
Much like Japan, Europe does not celebrate American Thanksgiving. This came as somewhat of a surprise at first, since Thanksgiving is an excellent holiday that should be celebrated regardless of national relevance. Not celebrating Thanksgiving is like not celebrating the Fourth of July (wait…bad example). It’s just absurd! Joking aside, it ended up working out wonderfully to travel internationally over Thanksgiving: we had two weekday days off built into the trip, and there were no crowds anywhere due to the lack of a holiday in Europe.
The trip started with a flight from Indianapolis to Toronto. I know what you’re thinking, and I was just as shocked that Canada has airports as you are. I was also to find plumbing, and I was constantly on the lookout for stray moose in the airport, but didn’t see a single one. From Toronto, we were off to Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport in Paris via Lufthansa. I am not an airplane expert, so I don’t know the model of the plane, but it was great. The longest flights I had previously flown were Detroit to Honolulu and Detroit to Montego Bay, both of which were pretty uncomfortable flights. This flight was long, but it was completely bearable. Probably more pleasant than a (shorter) flight to California, actually! Sarah watched The Dark Knight Rises on her in-seat LCD screen during the flight; my screen was on the fritz, which was aggravating at first, but in retrospect, I’m glad it didn’t work. I slept pretty much the entire flight, which definitely would have happened if I could have watched movies.
When we landed, CDG lived up to its reputation as a zoo, and I was pretty glad we wouldn’t be flying out of there later. We made our way to the train station within the airport and were quickly out of the madness. Here’s where some better planning on our part probably would’ve been advisable. Prior to the trip, we had read about renting phones or renting international cards for phones. Having iPhones, this wasn’t really a possibility, unless we purchased phones. Instead, we planned on going without phones and only using WiFi when we could hop on a free network. This was an awful plan, and after our first bit of confusion at CDG, we bought a 120 MB international data plan from AT&T for ~$30. We would end up going over this, and paying $60. We could have purchased unlocked phones and international data much more economically.
We knew we’d be taking the RER rail a lot in Paris, and it probably would have been wise to plan the Paris leg of the trip, in its entirety, before the Disneyland Paris leg. That way, we could have purchased a multi-day RER pass, used it on consecutive days, then had no pass while in Disneyland Paris. Instead, we were doing a day in Paris (while staying in Val d’Europe near Disneyland Paris) then a few days in Disneyland Paris, then Paris, then London. This coupled with the location of our hotel out by Disneyland Paris made things doubly inconvenient the first day; CDG is in the same general direction outside of Paris as Disneyland Paris, but to get from CDG to Disneyland Paris via the RER, you need to go through Paris. The alternative is to take a direct airport shuttle that takes about a third of the amount of the time as taking the RER, but we needed an unlimited one day RER pass anyway for Paris that night anyway, so we just wasted time on the train. To make a long story (that has little to do with Disneyland Paris, anyway), we should have stayed in Paris that first night or, ideally, stayed in Paris the first several nights and then done Disneyland Paris. But we didn’t, and instead wasted a few hours in commute that first day. Lesson learned.
Despite taking the extra time, it was still too early to check-in when we arrived in our hotel in Val d’Europe. They let us drop off our luggage, and we had a couple hours to kill. We were really hungry, and although a couple places in Val d’Europe looked good, Disneyland Paris one stop away was too much of a temptation to resist. We didn’t plan on heading there at all that day, and we didn’t have park tickets so we couldn’t eat anywhere besides a hotel, but we figured it would be good to scope it out a day early. In the name of research!
Seeing new Disney resort complexes for the first time as an adult is pretty cool, especially as an uber fan. Outside the parks, everything is different, and it’s like you’re an explorer discovering uncharted territory (except in this case, someone already discovered and built on it, and hundreds of thousands have seen it before you, but still…). You had this sense of excitement as you hurriedly dart around, seeing things that aren’t even remotely familiar, yet have a familiar sense to them. It is really exciting, and it’s an experience that can’t fully be put into words. To someone who doesn’t “get” Disney, the experience probably is a non-experience, and this text probably seems like making much ado about nothing. However, I’m betting most readers of this blog will “get it,” despite my incoherent rambling.
We obviously had this experience in California in 2010, and it was cool, but not nearly as impressive. Obviously, once you get off Harbor Boulevard you’re on resort property, but it’s not really until you get into the middle of the Esplanade (and beyond into Downtown Disney and the hotel area) that you feel the sense of excitement. I had never thought of this until now (and this is a random place for the tip), but the far better lead-in to Disneyland Resort is definitely entering over by Disneyland Hotel and Paradise Pier Hotel and walking through Downtown Disney. Not that you should take the extra time and effort to go that way, but it would definitely be a better experience and there are only so many new Disney resorts you can possibly ever see, so maybe it’s worth the extra effort to really savor it.
Anyway, back to Disneyland Paris, exiting the huge train station there and stepping right into the resort was an impressive experience. The first place we walked (more like ran!) was towards the Disneyland Hotel. Once through security (very efficient with actual bag scanners), we encountered the Fantasia Gardens, which were gorgeous. The Fantasia Gardens are, more or less, a series of winding paths, benches, trees, and flowers all around a small lake in front of Disneyland Hotel. It was a really overcast day, but the scene still popped with the fall colors of the trees in the Gardens. In retrospect, I really wish I had taken more photos, but given the overcast sky, I thought it wasn’t worth it at the time. It would have been. Lesson learned for Tokyo.
Disneyland Hotel, despite its name, reminded us a lot of the Grand Floridian. The architecture firm (Wimberly, Allison, Tony, & Goo) that co-designed the Disneyland Hotel also worked on the Grand Floridian, so this should come as no surprise. Clearly, many design elements had been shared between the two designs. Both feature Victorian architecture, Clapboard style, and octagonal red roofs. The Disneyland Hotel is more compact than the Grand Floridian, and the Disneyland Hotel is an actual gateway to Disneyland Paris through or under which guests must pass to enter the park (making it cooler, in my opinion), but both are similar. I’m not the biggest Grand Floridian fan in the world, and although I thought Disneyland Hotel in Paris was cool, it elicited about the same reaction.
After years of seeing the vaulted ceiling resorts of Walt Disney World filled with huge Christmas trees at Christmas, it was also a little disappointing to see only a slightly oversized Christmas tree and gingerbread house that wasn’t life size at Christmas in a Deluxe Resort (equivalent). To Disneyland Hotel’s credit, though, the Christmas tree was very well decorated with a candy theme and nice color palette, and the gingerbread house also looked great. We spent a while exploring this area of the hotel before wandering upstairs to the restaurants.
The restaurants are accessible via a hallway that acts as a bridge, connecting the three buildings of the Disneyland Hotel, under which guests pass to get to the turnstiles. Throughout this hallway leading to the restaurant, and in the hotel in general, there was some great art of Disneyland Paris, beautiful clocks, and all around great decor.
After our trip I came across as a little “down” on this hotel because I thought it could use some TLC to really shine (which it could), but in looking back at my photos of the hotel, it really is beautiful. A bit overpriced, in my opinion, but since there’s no other hotel overlooking Disneyland Paris, there’s really no baseline for determining whether it’s overpriced. In any case, I was a little too hard on it. It was a very pretty hotel with a great location and excellent design…I’d certainly love to stay there if cost were no issue!
Inventions (not Innoventions as I kept calling it and accidentally wrote it here before correcting myself!), California Grill, and the lounge were all right next to one another upstairs. We had already planned on dining at California Grill one night after park closing, and it would take more time than we wanted to kill, so we figured we’d save that for later. We could do a quicker meal at Inventions, but it was more than we wanted to spend on a quick meal, so after a bit of going back and forth, we decided to head to another hotel for a quick service meal.
Instead, as we walked through the Disney Village, we passed Earl of Sandwich, and just decided to stop there for a quick meal since we would soon be able to check in to our hotel. This stung a bit, and made us feel like Americans who come to Europe and only eat at McDonald’s. Our first meal wasn’t some interesting local cuisine…it was an American chain. I suppose, at least, it was a good one!
It had actually been a few years since we last dined at Earl of Sandwich. We no longer visit Downtown Disney now that Pleasure Island closed, and Earl of Sandwich wasn’t opened when we last visited Disneyland. So Earl of Sandwich, which used to be a trip “tradition,” hadn’t been visited by us since 2008. Of course it was just as good as we remember, and it had free WiFi.
Nothing much else of interest happened this day, and realizing that there won’t be many photos or much of interest in this installment if I don’t add part of the next day, I’m going to skip ahead. (Subsequent installments hopefully won’t be this long, but I want to at least even out the text-to-photo ratio here a bit.)
The only other things we did this day are check into our hotel in Val d’Europe (very trendy hotel at a great price) and went into Paris.
The next day we got up early to make it to Disneyland Paris in time for park opening. That meant getting up early enough to take the rail for Val d’Europe to Marne la Vallee (it’s a 5 minute ride) and then hauling our suitcases from there over to Sequoia Lodge. It was about a 15 minute walk to Sequoia Lodge, but luckily we each only packed a carry-on bag since we knew we’d be lugging around our bags a lot in Europe.
We were able to check into Sequoia Lodge and drop off our bags this early, and we still had some time to kill before park opening, so we decided to use one of our breakfast passes (hotel accommodations include vouchers for breakfast in Disneyland Paris). Our friends over at CharacterCentral.net, who gave us lots of tips for the trip, had told us that breakfast at Inventions in Disneyland Hotel was far better than at any other hotel, and that for a small fee, you can usually use your vouchers from other hotels there. It sounded very much like a YMMV thing, but we figured it was worth a shot. We didn’t have a ton of time, anyway, so if it didn’t work, we’d just wait and eat in the park.
Inventions wasn’t very busy at this point, and the Cast Member at the podium outside told us that it was fine to use our passes from Sequoia there (and didn’t charge us anything). Inventions was a really cool restaurant, and clearly a ton of work had gone into collecting props for display and designing graphics for the restaurant. This was our first encounter with the meticulous attention to detail that is present all throughout Disneyland Paris. Here’s a look around the restaurant:
For a “free” breakfast, the buffet at Inventions was also really good. We didn’t realize how much better it was than the breakfast at Sequoia Lodge until the next morning when we tried their breakfast. Here’s some of what they had:
It was just about time to enter the park, so we quickly finished breakfast, snapped some final photos of the hotel, and left.
It was time to experience our 7th Disney theme park, Disneyland Paris. Of course it was again an overcast day, so I didn’t capture much in the way of photos. I’d say about 95% of our time in Disneyland Paris during the day it was overcast, so I only had a few windows for photos. I didn’t even have my camera out at this point because it was drizzling. The photo at the top of the post and below is one Sarah took with her Sony RX-100 (our review). Not exactly the most exhilarating way for a photographer to enter a Disney theme park for the first time, but I’m glad we at least have this one photo!
As soon as we walked into the park, we were immediately drawn to the castle. I have always loved Cinderella Castle and I find myself liking the quaint charm of Sleeping Beauty Castle more and more, but Le Château de la Belle au Bois blows them both out of the water. It’s by far the best Disney Castle at any of the parks. With the exception of the Enchanted Storybook Castle in Shanghai that is presently being built, I’ve now seen every version of Disney’s castles (Tokyo and Hong Kong feature substantial clones of the castles in Walt Disney World and Disneyland, respectively), so I feel fairly confident making this assessment. It’s majestic, yet quaint and charming. It’s whimsical, yet grand. It seems to contradict itself, yet it just works, and works very well. There are not enough castle-related superlatives to adequately describe the level of awesome found in Disneyland Paris’ Castle.
Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant is all of those things, with lush landscaping and quirky details that give it a sense of childhood whimsy as if it’s something you’d actually find in a forest clearing if you stepped into a fairytale. When Imagineers designed it to contrast the “real life” castles found throughout Europe, they did an amazing job striking this balance between a real piece of architecture and a whimsical setting more appropriate for unicorns and leprechauns (neither of which I saw, so I assume these creatures were down for refurbishment).
On top of its superficial beauty, Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant has several winding paths for exploration, and a few walk-through exhibits and shops. Easily the best of these, and the first “attraction” we saw at Disneyland Paris was the La Taniere du Dragon (or “Den of the Dragon”). I had seen photos of the Den of the Dragon before our trip, and they didn’t even begin to do it justice. This was so simple in idea, and so powerful in execution that it ended up becoming one of my favorite attractions at Disneyland Paris.
Basically, it’s “just” an Audio Animatronics dragon chained down so only a his neck, head, and tail can move. He also breathes and has some minor movements elsewhere, but those are the big ones. Even though only a few parts of him move, he’s still huge, so I assume he cost a small fortune to build. Whatever the cost was, it was worth it. The backstory of Castles are cool with the whole princess thing if you’re a little girl, but dragons (who are probably a close relation of dinosaurs, the greatest creatures to have ever terrorized earth) have universal appeal. The dragon gave that castle incredible amounts of street cred, as one can only imagine all of the awesome things that go on inside if they have a dragon chained down in the basement.
Explaining why a “simple” Audio Animatronics character is awesome is sort of like trying to explain why a mountain is awesome. It just is. If I had to muster up an explanation, I’d say it’s because of the sense of awe it creates in guests who see it. I am, unfortunately, well past the age where I believe the figures in Disney attractions are real. Yet, I stood in front of that dragon with my sense of disbelief suspended. Not to the extent that I thought a real dragon was down there (I didn’t need a change of pants after seeing him!), but in the sense that I was standing there in awe of the creature, rather than standing there examining the character from a technical and artistic perspective. Like I said, it’s difficult to explain.
We made regular stops to see the dragon later, so there will be plenty more photos of him later in the report. At that point, though, it was time to head back to Pirates of the Caribbean and Phantom Manor.
These were our first two attractions of the day, and both had lines. Pirates wasn’t too bad at only about a 15 minute actual wait, but our wait at Phantom Manor was 45 minutes. That’s the most we’ve waited for anything in a long time. We didn’t expect waits to be that long given that it was a slow season for the park, and the park had just opened. At that point, we were a bit worried that we may only be able to ride these attractions a couple of times during the trip.
My first time through any Disney attraction, I don’t take photos, so I have nothing from those ride-throughs. I’ll share my full thoughts on each of these attractions when I have photos to supplement, but for now I’ll tease this: Disneyland Paris has the best Pirates of the Caribbean, and Phantom Manor is incredible, but is so different than Haunted Mansion that a comparison isn’t really fair.
Next up was Fantasyland, where we were hoping to beat the rush to Peter Pan. Before that, we made a restroom stop near Toad Hall, which is a counter service restaurant in Disneyland Paris. It looked incredible from the outside, and although it wasn’t yet open for business, I decided to see if the building was physically open since I had some time to kill. Jackpot!
These photos of one of the coolest counter service restaurants I’ve ever seen seem like just as good of a way to end Part 1 of this trip report as any. Click here to read Part 2!
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Your Thoughts…
If you’re reading this because you’re planning your own Disneyland Paris trip and have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments. Share any other thoughts you have in the comments, too. We read and appreciate all of your comments!
Great trip report Tom! We’re actually heading to DLRP in just a couple of weeks during April vacation, so seeing all these great pictures is really helping to feed my feeling of excitement about the trip.
It’s hard to believe that my kids’ first Disney park experience was actually on a day trip to DLRP from Paris five years ago. Since then we’ve been to DLR and WDW numerous times (getting Annual Passes is such an enabler!) but DLRP will always hold a special place in my heart. My (at the time) 3-year-old and 5-year-old daughters went on Pirates twice with us on that trip, and I think they were too young to be scared 🙂 But overall, it’s a small world (or “moon and star ride” as my youngest referred to it because of the exterior) was the definitely the attraction that they enjoyed the most at the time.
I completely agree with your description about the pleasantly jarring experience of going to a new park and finding familiar-and-yet-different aspects. Of course, the fact that so much of DLRP is bilingual adds to that feeling. (I still remember being startled while waiting in the Buzz queue and listening to Buzz switch from English to French!)
For this trip, we’re staying at Disneyland Hotel for a couple of days, so I’m really looking forward to that. We originally booked through expedia.co.uk, but then after reading the forums I figured I’d try booking through a country-specific Disneyland site that had the best deal at the time. I’m a little nervous about it working smoothly when we checkin 🙂 but the price was hard to beat (roughly $1300 total for two nights at a Deluxe resort, and three days of tickets for four people).
Looking forward to your next installment!
I loved this trip report Tom, really looking forward to Part 2! I completely agree about DRP having the best castle and the best Pirates of the Caribbean. I may be biased as it’s our ‘local’ park 🙂 In a week, my husband and I are off to celebrate our first wedding anniversary there 🙂
Beautiful pictures Tom!!! I’ll admit, i’ve never entertained the idea of going to any of the international Disney parks, but WOW DLP looks beautiful!! so forgive me now my stupid American question……did they speak English in the parks? The few pics I saw of signs looked to be in English, but what about the menu’s and hotel signs? The only time I was in Paris, I was with a group of about 200 high school students, so yeah everyone was rude to us then! But we also had a guide so I didn’t need to speak French or know how to read anything.
Virtually every Cast Member in Disneyland Paris speaks English. We didn’t encounter a single one who didn’t, but I have heard that there are some.
All of the menus and signs are in English, too. There’s virtually no disadvantage to speaking English over there. Some stuff is only in French, but in most cases it’s music, and then it just sounds beautiful. In the case of the few attractions that are in French, it’s pretty easy to pick up on what’s going on without speaking French (e.g. Phantom Manor).
This part of the trip report was alright, but I assume all the good stuff comes when you get to The Walt Disney Studios? 🙂
Seriously, love reading your reports and have been looking forward to this one. We’ve visited DLP a couple of times and love the details of the park. We managed to do the guided tour on our last visit which was fantastic for pointing out all the little details, especially the ones hidden in plain sight that you can easily miss.
Our main gripe with the park is we are big character nuts and meet and greets tend to be a free for all which is just frustrating. Oh and being nudged in the back when ever a queue moved forward more than an inch. But then we’re English, we like to queue. Look forward to part 2.
That’s one thing I have noticed over the years on people’s photos from DLP, are other people on their photos with characters. Is there no CM controlling it all?? I’m afraid I am British, I do queue, but I am NOT having other people in my photos, so they will be told to back off!! How very rude!!
Obviously I’m saving the best for last with The Walt Disney Studios! That installment will be quite glorious…in one way or another…
We didn’t do any meet & greets because the lines were too long, but I did take some photos of meet & greet characters and never noticed the free for all. Maybe that has changed? (I really have no clue, though.)
Great start to the report, I’m looking forward to the next installment. I’ve only been to Walt Disney World, despite now living on the west coast. We’re now planning a trip to Disneyland for later this year, in large part to your trip reports. I have to admit though, the idea of a similar but different Disney park is a little unnerving. I guess that’s a leap you two have taken as well, and clearly it was for the best.
So where’s part 2? 🙂
No reason to be unnerved by the idea. Walt Disney World will always be “home” for us, but I have to admit that if I had to choose between a trip to Disneyland Resort or Walt Disney World right now, I’d choose Disneyland.
Jeez, Part 1 was just posted yesterday! These things take some time to write!!!
I totally agree on the fact that Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant is the most detailed and beautiful castle (I have been to Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World). The glass paintings are just amazing and the dragon WOW. I agree also in Pirates of the Caribbean, I thought it was bigger more spacious than the one in Orlando. As a fan of Mr. Toad, I really loved Toad hall, I wish one day I could go to California and experience that ride again I miss it so much!
Greetings from Italy!
First Spain, now Italy?! Wow!
Yeah, this post only begins to touch on the beauty of Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. I have some much better photos to come! 🙂
Greeting from Brazil too!
As a Brit who has been to DLP several times and stayed in the Disneyland Hotel I was amazed at the details in some of your photos that I have never noticed before – maybe its because my focus when we are there is usually on my children or maybe its because of the incredible light you get into your photos. When we go again in August I am going to slow down and really look around to take it all in! Looking forward to the rest of your trip report and hoping to see many more of your wonderful photos.
Since you’ve stayed in the Disneyland Hotel, care to share your thoughts on it? It might be helpful for readers to get a take that’s different than mine!
We stayed at the DLH on a February trip – the major advantage is how close you are to the parks i.e. right on top of the entrance to Disneyland Park! Even though the other hotels are only a 10-20 minute walk, when it is freezing cold it was great to step into the warm as soon as you are out of the turnstiles. We loved the hotel, rooms were very comfortable, plenty of room for 4 of us (and they do family rooms for 5 too). The breakfast is excellent with more choice than most of the hotels (similar to the Hotel New York), and we enjoyed the buffet at Inventions (didnt try the other restaurant/bar food). The only other hotel we have stayed at is the New York and we love both – DLH is very expensive, but if you are only going for a very short trip, if the weather is going to be cold, or if you want to go back to your hotel mid day for kids to nap etc the location can be worth the cost. Decor wise a lot of people dont think the HNY is very “Disney”, its a bit more grown up, but we enjoyed both and I guess its down to personal preference.
Thank you for this post. I loved reading it and I couldn’t agree more about the castle and the dragon. I think WDW is amazing, but for some reason, DLP has a special place in my heart. I think the Disneyland Park is a masterpiece of design. Imagineers only outdid Paris with Toyko Disney Sea.
I can’t wait for the next post.
We CANNOT WAIT to see Tokyo DisneySea. That’s like the holy grail for Disney fans, I’ve heard!
Tom,
I’m loving your trip report, I always enjoy reading peoples first experiences of Disneyland Paris which is our home away from home.
Fantastic photos by the way.
Awesome that it’s your home resort! How often do you visit?
Thanks for the report. It’s nice to see pictures of a “new” resort.
Until I see DLP in Paris, I’ll have to disagree with you about the “best” castle! Ate last visually, Cinderella’s win’s for me. (Perhaps it’s because DLP’s reminds me too much of the 1996 birthday cake castle at WDW.) Although having a dragon in the basement is pretty awesome. I wish Cinderella’s castle had more than a restaurant inside (and nice mosaics that are closed ~1/2 the day due to the stage show/fireworks).
Thanks so much for posting this trip report! I’m planning a potential DLP trip for September and have had a really hard time finding comprehensive trip reports. So so excited for this series.
Hey Tom,
Great first installment! I enjoyed every paragraph of it (considering I will probably never get the opportunity to go… that I am a closet WDW snob unfortunately… but hey, I am trying to break that). I have a question for you. My wife and I are friends with 2 couples that spent a few days in Paris last year and they said that the French seem very rude to American’s and even got the feeling that they despise them. Did you get that feeling while in Paris? And how did the “Disney Service” hold up to how they are in the states? Disney has by far the best customer service in the world concerning their CM’s and their attention to customer satisfaction but I am wondering if because the culture is different in Europe? Your thoughts?
Excuse me for my reply to you, but I would say a think. I think that your friends have all the reasons for saying that. It is said, also in Spain, that French people is very rude (I’m generalizing, I’m sure there are friendly french people somewhere). I don’t think that they are rude to americans, they are rude to our family (spanish) and others. You can’t expect to walk through Disneyland Paris and listen all the time: “excuse me, i’m sorry….” another example, if you are going into an attraction that involves a theater, in America it’s common that when entering the theater, the people go all the way down the file until every single seat is occupied. In French, they enter the theater and the first persons inside occupy the central seats… This is one of the main reasons I prefer Disney World than Disneyland Paris.
I agree completely my mom and I were there on 2008, we are italians, and we found so many cast members and also locals that were really rude with us. We got lost at some point in the metro and “no one” spoke english. Fortunately there was a nice old couple that even though they didn’t knew english they tried to help!
Another thing I noticed was that people didn’t do any line to meet and greet characters, and if you are an adult that wants to take a picture with a character parents will just impose their child in front of you in a big circle, without respecting any line like in WDW.
This is something I’ll touch upon in a later report, but we only had one experience that *might* qualify as someone being rude to us in all of France. Now, we have heard of dramatically different experiences from others, so YMMV.
The attitudes are definitely not the same. You won’t have countless Cast Members asking you how you are or telling you to have a magical day, but that didn’t bother us. The service is still very good, it’s just not as exuberant.
Hi Tom!
I’m following you from Spain, this is the first time I comment here. I have been in Disneyland Paris about 7 or 8 times in all resorts, except Santa Fe, and I have been in WDW about 7 times too (Broadwalk, Contemporary, Animal Kingdom Lodge, All Stars Resort, Wilderness Lodge and Port Orleans when it was French Quarter), and one time in Disneyland (California) at Disney’s Grand California
I agree in a lot of parts with you: Disneyland Paris has in my opinion the most impressive castle of all parks. The Pirates of Caribbean version here is spectacular and phantom manor (haunted mansion) incredible!
It’s true that Disneyland Resort is the most expensive hotel but I think that it requires at least one night to stay there and pay for the additional cost. The views to the park are incredible!
I’m so surprised about Earl of Sandwich, it is one of my favorites places to go at WDW for breakfast, you can have a good sandwich and cheaper if you compare it with the cost of some full breakfasts at the quick counter services at the resorts. The last time I went to Disneyland Paris Earl of Sandwich didn’t exist and I suppose, based on the photo that you took, that it is situated where Café Mickey was. So sad for the lost of Café Mickey…. but so happy of having a Earl of Sandwich here, in Europe! I will be in Paris on August, so I expect to go to Disneyland Paris at least 2 days and now I have one more reason to return 🙂
Although all the above, my favorite park is WDW, for me WDW is a world apart of anything, 4 parks, a lot of resorts, downtown disney (about 4 times the size of Disney Village…), 2 water parks… and first of all, where all the magic began. Too bad I’m so far and it’s very expensive every flight from Spain to Orlando, but still our family try to visit it every 2-3 years!
But I agree with Julie-Anne, I think that for europeans is cheaper a 2 weeks stay in WDW compared to a weekend in Disneyland Paris.
One of the downsides about the park of Paris (I don’t know if you agree with this, because you I think that you will tell us in the second part) in my opinion is cleaning and the people, less polite. But this aspects are not only differences between parks, I think that they are differences between the countries, France and United States.
I’ll be expecting you second part.
Anna
Anna,
Earl of Sandwich is opposite Café Mickey overlooking Lake Disney, so Café Mickey is still in the Disney Village and as not been lost. 🙂
oh really?? So I could go to both! Yupyy!! jiji Thx!!!
Hi Anna,
First off–thanks for the comment! It’s incredible to me that we have readers in Spain!
The Earl of Sandwich question was already answered (thanks, Jonjo!), but as for your question about people being rude, we didn’t encounter much of that at all, nor did we encounter messy parks. I’ll delve into both of these things in a later installment, though!
I’m so pleased you decided to post this trip report.
I too am a Disney World snob. You’d think that living in the UK we would have possibly visited Disneyland Paris first, but in all sincerity, 13 years ago when I worked out how much a week in Paris would be and compared it to a week in Florida, they worked out at around the same, so of course WDW won hands down. This of course was the beginning of mine and my sons love for WDW. We have our 5th trip booked for November, 3 whole weeks in our ‘Happy Place’, can’t wait!!
However…I’ve still always wanted to visit DLP. Son not so…again, a WDW snob, “it won’t compare, it will be full of British scum bags who can’t afford to go to Florida and it has a pink castle!!!” But just recently I have managed to persuade him. YAY! I’ve done my research and all I needed to say was “there’s a pirate ship and a dragon under the castle”…deal sealed, so we’re going next July. Our holidays to Florida usually take 2-3 years to save up for, we’re talking around the $4k mark (this includes other parks, not just WDW), I’m a single Mom, it’s a hard slog. DLP isn’t cheap, we’ll spend less time there as there isn’t as much to see/do, but it will fill a Disney hole.
In the meantime, I’ve been dying for you to post this. Can’t wait to read the rest and look at your amazing photos.
I can understand how a 3 week trip to Walt Disney World would cost you $4,000, but couldn’t you do a long weekend trip to Disneyland Paris for significantly cheaper? Chunnel cost is about $100, tickets are another few hundred depending upon what you get, and a nice hotel in Val d’Europe is less than $100/night. I believe that a 3 week trip in Disneyland Paris would cost about the same, but 3 weeks there would be serious overkill.
As for the WDW v. DLRP thing, I can understand why European visitors who generally take long holidays when visiting Walt Disney World would prefer that. There is, without question, much more to do at Walt Disney World. You can fill 3 weeks with all there is to do there, and in the nearby parks. Disneyland Resort Paris takes about 3-5 days to fully experience.
My preference for Disneyland and Disneyland Paris in comparison to the Magic Kingdom park at Walt Disney World comes down to comparing those three individual parks. The details and quality all around Disneyland and Disneyland Paris exceed what’s found in the Magic Kingdom. Attraction-wise, I also believe Paris and California have better line-ups, but it’s really the details that make the difference for me. If someone who doesn’t care as much about those “little things” were making the comparison, perhaps Disneyland Paris wouldn’t score so highly.
The downsides of Disneyland Resort Paris are the Walt Disney Studios Park and the some of the maintenance. I don’t want to get into these things too much now, as I’ll discuss both extensively later in the report.
Sorry I meant 4000 pounds, not dollars…I wish!!!
You’re right Tom, I could do DLP cheaper, but I can get more for my money’s worth in Florida, I suppose that’s one of the biggest pulls, plus, I have to say, you Americans sure know how to treat your tourists and your food is AMAZING and so cheap!! If I end up falling in love with DLP the way I have with WDW then I’m sure I’ll make the journey under the English Channel again, however, I’d still be thinking if I saved the money I’d be using I could go back to WDW sooner. It’s not all about the parks there, it’s the resorts, Downtown, the weather, everything!
Disneyland Paris does look beautiful. I have read other peoples trip reports from there and like I said, I do desperately want to go, but WDW will always be my first love.
And then there’s Disneyland…
Anyway, looking forward to the rest of your report.
Love, love, love the dragon!!!!! What a unique touch to the castle experience!
Great to see other pictures from Disneyland Paris. I took mine the last summer when me and my gf went there ( we also did London / Paris / DisneyLand Paris ).
Great trip, and Disneyland Paris really do have amazing theme and attention to details. I would say I still prefer many thing in Disney World ( even if both are really different, I like Haunted Mansion much more in the World ). But, I agree that even if similar, Pirate was better in Paris.
We didn’t go inside DisneyLand Hotel, and that’s something I’m really sad about. So great to see picture from the inside.
Cannot wait to see the rest of this and see what we also did and things we probably missed to.
Hey Tom, I also consider myself a Walt Disney World snob, but your description of your first experience at Disneyland Paris literally gave me chills. “You had this sense of excitement as you hurriedly dart around, seeing things that aren’t even remotely familiar, yet have a familiar sense to them.” Really capture the feeling for me – now, I’m dying to go! Cant’ wait to read through the coming trip reports!
Glad you enjoyed it. The thing about being a Walt Disney World snob is…there’s no reason to be one. Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World ranks dead last of the “Disneyland-style” parks we’ve visited for both Sarah and me (more on this in a future installment), and each of the other Walt Disney World parks really needs attention. Walt Disney World wins in terms of quantity over Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Resort Paris, but when you look at individual parks…not so much.
This was great. I am going to London and Paris at the end of May, although I am not going to Disneyland Paris, I am still pumped. Can’t wait to hear your take on some of the differences between Disneyland Paris and the American parks, i.e. Indiana Jones roller coaster, Space Mountain with a launch and inversions. I hope it isn’t too overcast there in May, I don’t think I am going to take my camera off from around my neck!!
I learned this later in the trip (a little too late), but even if it is overcast, TAKE PHOTOS! I took very few photos of Disneyland Paris in the fog, but when I got home and opened up the ones I had, I found them to be awesome, but in a very different way than the norm. Now I wish I would have taken more. I was so entrenched in the mentality that a daytime photo without a nice blue sky and puffy clouds is no good that I didn’t realize I had some cool conditions right in front of me.
I completely understand what you are saying about the impact even “simple” AA figures can have. While digital projections and effects certainly have their place and their own unique artistry, it is hard to beat the really-realness of a dragon right in front of you. There is something organic (for lack of a better word) about being in the presence of an AA figure that is simply different.
That’s definitely part of it, but with this dragon, it was something more. Unlike, an AA in Pirates of the Caribbean or Spaceship Earth that looks like a person and moves fluidly, but has plastic-y skin or something that makes them seem less than human, this dragon looked and acted EXACTLY like what I’d expect of a real dragon. His texture and movements were real, his size seemed about right…everything about him just seemed REAL, even though he’s not.
After seeing him, I sort of wish Disney had the Yeti in Expedition Everest in a similar walk-through experience instead of only being visible for a couple seconds. The Yeti seemed a lot like this dragon (when the Yeti worked), but you never really got the chance to fully take him in. Plus, if the Yeti were in a ground level walk-through experience, I’ll bet it would have been a lot easier to fix him!
Tom,
I loved the report. Can’t wait for part two. The photos from Toad hall were fantastic!
Glad you liked the first part…the installments only get better from here. Thanks for the comment!