My trip to Disneyland Paris last week

[GMoney66]

My family and I travel to either Disneyland, or Disney World, each fall for a week and have done this for the past 10 years so we have built up quite a few memories from those visits. We have also vacationed for a week last summer, at the new Disney resort in Hawaii and, except form one terrible experience at a restaurant at Epcot, have always had a fantastic time. We just returned from three weeks in France and London, and had the opportunity to experience Disneyland Paris for the first time.
Europe is different overall, and the experience was different than what we were used to as well. It wasn't a bad kind of "different", just different. Cast members were extremely polite and nice, but one large difference, which could be attributed to watching the financial bottom line, was other than a couple of designated spots to meet characters, you never, and I mean, never saw any characters making their way through the park, and shows, and parades were few and far between, if at all. My boys are past the age that they want to touch and meet the characters, or ever care to take precious riding time out to watch a parade, but I found this peculiar? I think that this also made the atmosphere feel kind of quiet and strange.
We had a fantastic time riding the attractions which we know so well from here in the states and comparing the differences to Paris. Notably, Pirates has a unique western area in part of the ride, but the Haunted mansion doesn't have any "hitchhiking ghosts". We did experience some interesting jostling, and line cutting as we waited for Pirates, which might have caused a confrontation in the US, but it seemed the norm there, and we just kind of laughed it off and took it in stride.
Not wanting to vent here, I must admit that there seemed to be more mechanical problems with attractions than we have ever experienced on any previous Disney ventures. On one occasion we had waited for close to 45 minutes and were to be the next group on an attraction, when mechanical problems closed the ride, and because it was close to closing time, which was 7 pm, we were ushered out of line by cast members.
Overall, we had a great time, and would recommend visiting when the chance arises, but be aware, Disneyland Paris, is relatively small, it opened at 10:00 and closed at 7:00, and some of the rider height requirements were different, much to my youngest's angst! I would love to hear some other observations from people who have also visited there.

 

[HFJohnson]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Surprised to hear you say the park closes at 7pm though. We're well into the summer opening hours now so the Disneyland Park is closing at 11pm at the moment (the studios closes at 7 though). I guess you didn't get to see Dreams, the big nighttime show?

 

[Ms Poppins]

Welcome back.

I agree that the shows have gone now in the main park which is a shame - and you need to be in the know a little bit to figure out where the characters are going to be.

It should just have been the studios that closed at 7pm, the main park is open until 11pm. Did you wait to see Dreams at park closing?

Thanks for posting this - it sounds like you had a great time overall

 

[GMoney66]

Wow quick responses! I checked the park hours online while in France and the 7pm closing time wasn't listed? Somehow the concierge who helped us with our driver and park passes at our hotel in Paris, was aware of the closing time, so we weren't caught off guard. We kind of just figured that it was because we were there on a random Monday, which seemed pretty quiet there. My boys enjoyed having the Rockin Rollercoaster, as well as the tower of terror, at the same park as everything else! We kind of went last minute since we had an idle day following the Tour de France, so we made the most of it and had a fantastic time. I did find it strange, that many guests there, hop over the short fences and lay all over most of the grass landscaped areas. It looked relaxing, but seemed like the grassy areas were taking a beating.

 

[moorhunhe]

I've actually been experiencing more and more characters this year.
There are meets at WDS from 1pm to 3pm.

Around the Peter Pan attraction, you can find characters from the movie a lot lately.

And around the Alice in Wonderland maze, Alice, Mad Hatter, Tweedle-Dee, Tweedle-Dum seem to appear quite often now too.

No new shows or night time parade, due to Dreams

 

[BabyAriel]

I checked the park hours online while in France and the 7pm closing time wasn't listed

That's really strange as the hours for both parks are listed on the official site, usually a couple of months in advance.

Glad you enjoyed your day and I do hope you managed to see Dreams at park closing. I cannot wait to finally experience it in a couple of weeks

 

[Lisa_C]

We were there the same time - friends drove over for the end stage of the Tour de France and came with us on Saturday but sat at finishing line on Sunday......I can confirm the Disneyland Park was 11pm and Studios was 7pm. Times have been like that since May and are the same until beginning of September. I think maybe someone confused you as Dreams is on at 11pm every night when the park closes?? There is also EMH between 8-10am in the Disneyland Park. Totally sounds like you just had the Studios times :-/