Tour plan at DLP for French bank holiday weekend

[ernierich]

How do you tour Dinseyland Paris?

Can you recommend a good plan - or post one up . I'm quite lost on where to start...

Many Thanks

 

[DLPdaft]

unless you will only be at DLP for one or 2 days total, you really don't need a tour plan, DLP is compact and everything in the resort is walkable distance .

What dates will you be there - school holidays? weekends? high season? midweek etc?

 

[jothp]

Are you staying onsite and when are you going?

 

[ernierich]

Our plans haven't been finalised yet, but we are planning on having just under three days there.

We are planning on going in November around the 11th for three nights. So it doesn't leave us much time, it straddles a weekend AND a bank holiday in France...I think we need a plan.

We're not styaing onsite, planning on staying at the Dream Castle.

Any ideas, folks??

TIA

 

[Ware Bears]

What are the ages of people in your party and do you like the thrill rides?

Are tickets included in your stay at the Dream Castle?

 

[ernierich]

We're a fairly large age range 1, 10, 38, 40. I know dd(10) will want to do some of the thrill rides (so do I!)

Our tickets are not included, we are going to buy them separately.

Any ideas, anyone?

 

[DLPdaft]

ernierich I'm amended the title of your thread to include a bit more detail - hopefully you'll get some ideas from folk who are used to going to DLP at the busiest times of the year (as to be honest, it would be my worst nightmare )

 

[ernierich]

Thanks.

Anyone?

 

[jothp]

My tips would be

Try to have a character meal at cafe mickey to avoid wasting time in the parks queuing for characters. There is also a meet and greet in the Disneyland hotel at 4pm on some days which could be a good way to meet people but i can't tell you much more about it because I have never done it.

When you are going to the studios make sure you are there about half an hour before opening and go straight to ride either crush or toy story playland rides depending on your priorities as queues for all these rides get very long and none have fastpass. In the studios you can use fastpass for TOT and RRC (flying carpets also has fastpass machines but I have never seen them open). The shows in the studios are very high capacity so are a good thing to do when it is very busy without having to wait.

In the Disneyland park some rides in fantasyland and discoveryland are open for EMH to hotel guests and dream pass holders before they open to the general public. Use fastpass to ride wherever possible and maximise the number of fastpasses you can get by getting some straight away at park opening and then get more as soon as you can. We find that a lot of the queues go down slightly during the OUDP. The easiest rides to get on are normally le pays des contes des fees, small world, teacups, carousel, pirates, phantom manor, riverboat.

Hope this helps a bit

 

[ernierich]

Thanks.

Are the fast passes the same as Disneyworld? Will I be able to use them past their expiry time? (I know they won't let you use them before your window)

Thanks.

 

[jothp]

Hi, you can normally only have one fastpass at a time. There is a time printed on the bottom of the ticket to tell you when you will be able to get another one. I have never tried to use one after the expiry time but seem to remember reading that it is not possible. There might be someone else along who knows better.

 

[ernierich]

Thanks for the fastpass info.

Any other hints and tips for touring DLP?

 

[Ware Bears]

I've always managed to get on with a fastpass after its expiry time (did it twice last week) but I've read on here that others have been refused so it's not something I'd recommend.

Have you considered buying annual passes instead of tickets? If you're going for 3 nights you'd need 4 day tickets which won't give you admittance into the parks until 10am. Dream annual passes will give you admittance to Extra Magic Hours (EMH) at 8am which is bound to be on if its a French public holiday plus you'll get 20% discount on shopping and 10% discount on food (both counter and table service) amongst the perks. Anything you can ride in Fantasyland and Discoveryland in EMH will benefit you later on in the day. Have a look at the details here and there's also been a couple of threads recently where people have bought discounted annual passes from French companies online.

 

[ernierich]

We've decided to go a week later to avoid the bank holiday.
Thanks for the info about the annual pass.

Yet another question - do the parks have extra magic hours every day?

 

[Ware Bears]

They have them every day in busy times, see here. At less busy times they may only have them at weekends and a couple of days in the week.