FAQs about Disneyland Paris
Our family loves Disney and planned a day to visit Disneyland Paris during our vacation to Paris. I read a lot of mixed reviews, but felt confident it was something that our family would enjoy. It was a highlight of our trip and would definitely recommend visiting the park if you are vacationing in Paris. Below are answers to questions I received about Disneyland Paris.
Answering Your Disneyland Paris Questions
Did you make reservations before and why did you do only one park?
We did! I always work with Andrea at Pineapples & Pixie Dust. (Contact her here.) It doesn’t cost extra to work with a Disney planner, but it saves you time and supports their small business. She has planned trips to Disneyland, Disney World, a Disney Cruise and now Disneyland Paris for us.
Because of timing, we couldn’t do Disneyland Paris AND Walt Disney Studios Park. Disneyland is the bigger of the two parks in Paris, so that is what we decided to do. Many people recommended two days for Disneyland, but we didn’t feel like we missed much despite only having one day at the park.
How did you get there?
We took the train from Paris. RER A goes directly to Disneyland. Literally, there is a stop at the park. It was very easy and took about 45 minutes from our Paris AirBNB (in the 12th).
Before going to Paris I was a bit nervous about this, but the transportation is so good and easy in Paris. I was so glad that I did not pay for a bus or car service, which would have been very expensive. Public transit was great!
Did we stay on property?
We did not stay on property. It was such an easy train ride that I don’t think this is necessary, similar to my feeling that it is not necessary at Disneyland in California.
Was it as amazing as the states?
I think that is a hard question. It was definitely magical, like all Disney parks are magical. It had a similar vibe to Disneyland in California, not Disney World. It is smaller than Disney World. My kids said that it was their favorite day of our Paris vacation – ha!
How does it compare to Disney World?
Disney World is significantly bigger and more impressive.
Does it present “American Culture” in any particular way you found funny or interesting?
No, not really. I thought it was interesting that the Lion King live action show was sung in English. Many rides were in French or French and English. For instance, the Buzz Lightyear ride, Buzz alternated speaking in French, then English. The Star Wars ride was only in French.
Price and age recs?
My kids were 16, 13 and 9 when we visited and they all had a blast. I think it’s a good park with young kids too because it isn’t enormous. For the five of us, it was $450, which did include a pricing discount that was offered at the time. Pricing varies at Disney depending on the season and current offers.
Are fast passes necessary?
The fast pass situation is different at Disneyland Paris. You can pay for fast passes for all the fast pass rides or just per ride. We opted to do per ride because to do the whole thing for our family was going to cost $900 extra! Instead, we paid for just a few rides and the prices were $7-$12, per person, per ride. It wasn’t cheap, but it saved us a couple hours of waiting in line and since we were only there for one day, we felt like it was worth it. This is a helpful post about how it works.
Was there anything you liked better than Disney in the states?
Thunder Mountain is our family’s favorite ride in the states and it was even better at Disneyland Paris. I think we rode it five times!
Lines are significantly shorter at Disneyland Paris and it felt like we really got to do the entire park in less than a day.
I also loved the Alice in Wonderland section, which was so well done. You felt like you were in the movie.
Anything that surprised you?
Unlike the states, far less people were wearing Disney apparel. You also didn’t see nearly as many people wearing ears like you do in the States. We had to really look to find Disneyland Paris ears.
For more about our trip to Paris, click here to read our full itinerary and here to see our top 5 favorite things we did on our trip.