Extra tips and tricks for DLP?

[XoxoAmy]

Hi all - we are headed to DLP for the first time in mid-June. We are doing 2 nights and 2 days (really 1.5 days in the parks).

We will be staying in Paris for a few days first, and I have direct transportation booked through Prestige Paris car service, recommended by my travel agent. I know the train is quicker than driving, but we will have lots of luggage for our 8 day Europe trip, and from what I've read it seems that it will be annoying to travel on the train with tons of luggage. If I'm wrong about that please let me know!

I also wonder if there are other tips or tricks that you can share. We are super expert WDW visitors (AP and DVC), and I'm so used to using Mouse Dining for hard to book ADRs and other similar tricks. Are there similar things I can use for DLP?

I know the restaurant experience is generally different at DLP vs WDW. Right now we have Walt's booked for 5:30pm on the first night, and Remy's at 4:15pm on the second night. I'd love to move Remy's up a bit later somehow.

We plan to get the premiere access pass both days, as I hate waiting in line and want to see as much as possible in our short time.

I'd be grateful for any tips or tricks, or general: here's what you should know if you are used to WDW tips.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

Are you staying onsite at Disneyland Paris?

 

[Karin1984]

I would not add more table service meals, as they take longer in Paris than in the US. Even for themepark standards. So do not worry about that. You can stalk the app or ask on the day off at guest services or at the restaurants if later reservations are possible for Remy.
As dining is not a priority in Paris, there are no services (to my knowledge) to help with getting reservations. And just to add: Do not make dining your priority in Disneyland Paris. If you want great French cuisine, do it in Paris.
DLP has perfectly fine food, but it is themepark food and not on the level of the US parks. Keep your expectations low.

For general tips, what do you like? Do you want to do all the rides, all the shows and everything? Or more skipping the big rides and taking in the ambience?

Keep in mind that for certain shows Disneyland Paris has 'guaranteed access', for 15 euro p/p you will have access to the show at great spots.

 

[XoxoAmy]

Are you staying onsite at Disneyland Paris?

Oh yes - we are staying at the Disneyland Hotel

 

[XoxoAmy]

For general tips, what do you like? Do you want to do all the rides, all the shows and everything? Or more skipping the big rides and taking in the ambience?

Keep in mind that for certain shows Disneyland Paris has 'guaranteed access', for 15 euro p/p you will have access to the show at great spots.

We definitely want to do all the big rides - hence the premiere access passes (which are pricy, but I think will be worth it). We also like shows so I may do the guaranteed access for those as well. What are the best shows not to miss?

 

[SPINster]

First-do not waste your time waiting for characters. The character lines take so much longer than in the US parks. The outside characters also take longer to switch than in the US parks. We did suck it up to meet Mary Poppins, Bert, and the Penguins because you don't see them together in the US parks anymore. But burned over an hour on an outside line.

Ride Tower of Terror more than once, if you can. There are three different versions.

There are single rider lines on Remy, Parachute Drop, RC Racer, Crush's Coaster, and Hyperspace Mountain. The Crush's Coaster one moves very, very slow, I would not recommend. The others are hit or miss, depending on how many people are on line. The wait for RC Racer in general is soul killer, and the ride is less than a minute. It's the least worth it of all the rides IMO.

Hyperspace Mountain is best, I think, from the front seats, due to the fast launch. It's my personal favorite "Space Mountain" ride in all the parks.

I never love any of the stage shows in the parks, so YMMV. Mickey and the Magician was...fine? A good number of characters and songs. We only got online about 10 minutes before show time for the second to last performance of the day and had no trouble getting in, but I'm not sure what crowd levels will be like while you are there. I much preferred the parades/castle show, etc. I would make an effort to see the new Alice & Wonderland BMX show though, it looks fun.

Make sure you look at operating hours for attractions and food-some are not open for the full park hours.

 

[Karin1984]

We definitely want to do all the big rides - hence the premiere access passes (which are pricy, but I think will be worth it). We also like shows so I may do the guaranteed access for those as well. What are the best shows not to miss?

The two big ones with guaranteed access are:
Lion King - Rhythm of the Pridelands. Based on the animation, with the look & feel(-ish) of the Broadway show.
Mickey and the Magician - Mickey is a Magician's Assistant, trying to find his own magic, helped with some magical Disney characters. think Mickey and the Magical Map from Disneyland California.

Relatively new with guaranteed Access is Together with a lot of Pixar characters.
I am not a fan. But plenty of people who love it.

I personally love the Disney Jr. show - Dream Factory, I am not the target audience, but it does make me happy. Set in a factory one of the workers cannot find her dream. With the help of some Disney Jr. characters she finds it.

Furthermore, last week a new Alice in Wonderland show has opened as a replacement for the Stunt show. Looks specatular.

Then there is the hub-show, which is an okay show, however, it is more modern than the traditional entertainment WDW gets with
Mickey's Friendship Faire. There are several shows a day, so easy to see some bits and pieces when you walk around.

You probably will want to see the drone show based on Disney's Electrical Parade.

 

[XoxoAmy]

First-do not waste your time waiting for characters.....

The two big ones with guaranteed access are....

Thank you both so much! Super helpful! I am SOOOOOO excited about the drone show. I'm a child of the OG electrical parade in the 80/90s at DL and I'm obsessed with it.

I've been doing as much research as I can but I hadn't heard about the new Alice show, so thanks for that! Setting my expectations low on the food... it's more just to experience the parks (really the DL park; I've heard Studios is just ok, until the new land opens in 2025).

My plan right now is:

Monday
11:30 - check into DL Hotel (leaving Paris via car service at 10am). Fully expect our room may not be ready and that's ok.
Spend afternoon and evening at Parc DL.
Lunch - somewhere?
Dinner 5:30 at Walt's
See drone show and fireworks.

Tuesday:
Breakfast at Deluxe lounge at DL Hotel
Maybe hit a few early morning rides at Parc DL?
11:30-12: Early lunch/snack at Disney Village (shake shack?)
Spend 4-6 hours at Studios
4:15 - Dinner at Remy's
Probably head back to Parc DL for anything we missed or want to do again

Do I need more time at Studios? I've heard from so many that it's a half day park. I don't want to start there in the morning because we have the 4:15 reservation and I don't think we'll need to be there that long.

Any tips/revisions to this schedule?

We leave at 10am Wed. morning (even though we'll have a park ticket that day... sigh....) We're heading to London that morning. We have a car service taking us to Gare du Nord to get on the Eurostar.

Thanks again!

 

[SPINster]

Studios is very, very small, the problem is the rides there generally have a much longer wait. Though if you are paying for premier access, you won't have that issue.

The rides in the Toy Story area are fine, but certainly skippable if you have don't have time. The parachute drop is the best IMO. Remy is the same as in Epcot, except a mix of French and English. So one ride is probably enough.

In the Marvel area, Web Slingers is the same as California Adventure, and Flight Force was repurposed from Rock N Roller Coaster. They are both very fun, but personally I'd rather re-ride ToT and Crush.

I'd keep an eye on the wait times in the days leading up to your trip-in our experience the wait times at Studios plummeted in the last 2 hours, everything but Crush was a walk on. So it might be worth it to wait until later in the day.

 

[Woodview]

Back to post 1 You say you will have loads of luggage

So check your luggage travel weight per person

10 Kgs Overhead bin & 24 Kgs Hold weight per person

UNLESS you pay extra

So 1 small case and 1 large case & purse ( Lap Top) per person

 

[zavandor]

You'll love Walt's, it has very Club 33 vibes. Look around in the ground floor while you wait to check in, lot of Walt's stuff, like pictures as a child, Lily's etc.
Ask for a window table if available, if a cavalcade happens while you're eating it's a lot of fun.
Food at Remy is just ok, IMHO, but the restaurant has a fun concept and it's unique at DLP,.so I think it's a good choice.

https://www.dlptables.com/ can help booking table service reservations, but it has become very difficult to book restaurants or move reservations (I remember a time when everything was available on the day).

 

[Karin1984]

Thank you both so much! Super helpful! I am SOOOOOO excited about the drone show. I'm a child of the OG electrical parade in the 80/90s at DL and I'm obsessed with it.

I've been doing as much research as I can but I hadn't heard about the new Alice show, so thanks for that! Setting my expectations low on the food... it's more just to experience the parks (really the DL park; I've heard Studios is just ok, until the new land opens in 2025).

My plan right now is:

Monday
11:30 - check into DL Hotel (leaving Paris via car service at 10am). Fully expect our room may not be ready and that's ok.
Spend afternoon and evening at Parc DL.
Lunch - somewhere?
Dinner 5:30 at Walt's
See drone show and fireworks.

Tuesday:
Breakfast at Deluxe lounge at DL Hotel
Maybe hit a few early morning rides at Parc DL?
11:30-12: Early lunch/snack at Disney Village (shake shack?)
Spend 4-6 hours at Studios
4:15 - Dinner at Remy's
Probably head back to Parc DL for anything we missed or want to do again

Do I need more time at Studios? I've heard from so many that it's a half day park. I don't want to start there in the morning because we have the 4:15 reservation and I don't think we'll need to be there that long.

Any tips/revisions to this schedule?

We leave at 10am Wed. morning (even though we'll have a park ticket that day... sigh....) We're heading to London that morning. We have a car service taking us to Gare du Nord to get on the Eurostar.

Thanks again!

For day 1, go for a quick service in the park. I like Hakuna Matata, the Lucky Nugget, Cowboy Cookout. Other option is to skip lunch and just go for snacks.

For day 2: As you have such little time, I would eat in the park. We do not have Shakeshack. Disney Village has all table service restaurants and that's going to take more time than you have if you are a huge fan.

The Studios is at the moment not a full day park, unless you do all the shows. There is a big refurbishment/overhaul of the park going on, so be prepared for lots of walls.

Day 3, if you are staying at the Disneyland Hotel, you can still use an hour EMH for last minute rides. Go for EMH 8:30 - 9:30 and be back at the hotel before your car service arrives. You are staying Club Level? That will help to get your luggage without much of a wait.
Many head liners are open during the morning hours. Or just go around and enjoy the ambience, take your castle pictures with less people in the picture ;-)

Speaking of pictures, one thing I usually forget to mention: Photopass is not much of a thing in Disneyland Paris, so there are usually no photographers on Main Street or at landmarks. It does sometimes happen, but those are the exception.


Last tip I forgot, add ED92, DLP Report and Pixiedust.be to your Facebook account, they are the 3 biggest fan accounts and usually report well on what's going on in the park.

Just go with the flow, enjoy your time exploring a new park, you have Premier Access and you have a vague plan. That's all you need

 

[White Rose]

Thank you both so much! Super helpful! I am SOOOOOO excited about the drone show. I'm a child of the OG electrical parade in the 80/90s at DL and I'm obsessed with it.

We are going in sept to celebrate my 50th birthday, and our #1 goal is to see the sky parade.i was so obsessed with MSEP when i was a child, and even as an adult i just love it! When I was a kid, I got a 45 of it in 1980 when I was 6, and i played it every day for years.

There is some sort of separate priority access for the fireworks and the pre-show. We tried to buy it last night but I think it must be purchased closer to the trip. Look into that!

 

[Karin1984]

Hearing some negative reports about the new Alice in Wonderland show. Apparently people walking out before it ends.
But it's reported by a Dutch themepark channel which is famous for negative angles in their news articles. So grain of salt.

 

[XoxoAmy]

Back to post 1 You say you will have loads of luggage

So check your luggage travel weight per person

10 Kgs Overhead bin & 24 Kgs Hold weight per person

UNLESS you pay extra

So 1 small case and 1 large case & purse ( Lap Top) per person

Thanks for this. We are flying business class and will check 1 bag per person and have one personal item as carry on. Plus maybe one rolling carry on bag. It's just too much for us to do the train if there are stairs and no lifts at the station, etc. At least that's what I've heard?

 

[XoxoAmy]

https://www.dlptables.com/ can help booking table service reservations, but it has become very difficult to book restaurants or move reservations (I remember a time when everything was available on the day).

Oh thank you - this is exactly what I was looking for!

 

[XoxoAmy]

We are going in sept to celebrate my 50th birthday, and our #1 goal is to see the sky parade.i was so obsessed with MSEP when i was a child, and even as an adult i just love it! When I was a kid, I got a 45 of it in 1980 when I was 6, and i played it every day for years.

There is some sort of separate priority access for the fireworks and the pre-show. We tried to buy it last night but I think it must be purchased closer to the trip. Look into that!

Thank you! My travel agent is looking to purchase the priority seating for the fireworks show for us - 7 days before arrival. I love the MSEP song too - I run lots of runDisney races in the states, usually half marathons, and that song is at the end of my playlist; it's a great boost of energy during the race!