Treat Yo'Self - an Aug 2025 TR to Disneyland Paris

[Araminta18]

Hi everyone! My husband and I recently got back from a very quick 2 night 3 day (but really 1 full day and 2 half days) trip to Disneyland Paris, so you know I have to do a trip report! (If i'm in the wrong forum, sorry - just let me know ). This was actually our third time at Disneyland Paris - isn't it amazing how that "once in a lifetime" trip turns into the first of several? To be fair we really did think it was once in a lifetime the first time back in 2022 but then Trevor changed jobs to one that has him traveling a lot more, and occasionally those travels turn international. Anyways, let's get this party started!

The details:
who: me and my husband Trevor
when: Fri Aug 22 - Sun Aug 24
where: Hotel New York - Art of Marvel

Introductions:
I'm Tiffany, I'll be your ghost host for this trip report. I'm a librarian by education, but I currently do federal records management, since records management is where the pay is (compared to libraries at least ), and I gotta pay for Disney! Favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty, but I also love Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel. Favorite rides at Disneyland Paris: Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor, Hyperspace Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

My traveling companion is my husband Trevor. He loves Star Wars and Marvel, but has grown to love Disney--his favorite characters are Boba Fett, Vader and Stormtroopers, and on the non-Star Wars side, Grumpy. His favorite rides at Disneyland Paris are Big Thunder Mountain, Hyperspace Mountain, Web Slingers, and Avengers Flight Force (brb, getting a divorce cause Phantom Manor didn't make his list).


Ok, so context for this trip! Trevor's been on a work trip to Germany for several weeks, and he had a three day weekend coming up and so we decided that I'd come out for a week or so to see him and that since we were already in Germany, we may as well go to Disneyland Paris. (I may or may not have done but definitely did a stopover in London to see Evita with Rachel Zegler which was FANTASTIC but anyways). I do want to call out that this was not even my idea - of course I'm on board but TREVOR suggested it. I think that means he's completed his Disney adult transformation? Anyways, since we knew we didn't have days and days, we just decided to go low-key on this trip, doing the rides we love and taking it slow (foreshadowing...). I did book us the fireworks viewing area for our first night, and then I booked us a super fancy dining reservation on Saturday night, but otherwise, completely unbooked! We also decided to stay at Hotel New York for Trevor - we did Disneyland Hotel last time so only fair we do the hotel he likes better this time.

This is definitely going to be a shorter report than my most recent one - definitely way fewer pictures. But honestly still a lot of pictures. And by now, my standard disclaimer: I got burned by the whole imgur pictures not embedding thing, so now I just embed my pictures directly in the posts, but there's a limit of 10 and if you are at all familiar with any of my previous trip reports, I include a LOT of photos. a LOT. So there will be a LOT of posts...sorry!

 

[Araminta18]

Table of Contents

So Bright and Early - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 1)
From Thunder Mesa to Corona - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 2)
Is That StarLord? - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 3)

 

[Araminta18]

So Bright and Early - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 1)​

Friday morning, bright and early, we got up and got ready to take the train down to Paris. Our train was at 6:56 am, arriving in Paris at 10:38 am. It seemed like a good idea when we booked it but getting up at 5 am...woof. Rough! Not our favorite thing. And then I was flying home out of Paris while Trevor was going back to Germany, so we had all my luggage, and so we decided to get an Uber XL. Which didn't show up. For like 20 minutes! We finally just canceled and requested a regular uber and figured we'd hope it was big enough for our luggage. It took nearly 10 minutes to show up which was making me nervous cause I like getting places - especially traveling places - early. We ended up making it with about 10 minutes to spare, which wasn't nervewracking at all. Not at all.

But it was fine - we made it and even had just enough time to grab some egg mcmuffins from the McDonalds in the train station - the one time ordering from the counter was faster! There was a line at the kiosks so i just went to the counter and the lady took my order and handed me the ready made egg mcmuffins - brilliant. I walked up the platform to Trevor just as the train opened the doors for boarding. Phew!

We were very excited to be on our way.

The train ride was uneventful - we arrived in Paris, managed to take the metro and the RER train, and by 11:45 ish, we were at the train station there at Disneyland Paris! We had booked ahead of time the Luggage Express, where you could drop your bags at the train station and they would give you your park tickets, so you could go directly to the park and they'd take the bags to the hotel. With our short time, that seemed like a good option. Though it did take us a little bit to find the Luggage Express counter - since we arrived on the RER and not on the high speed trains, it was a bit less easy to spot than the online directions indicated. But we found it, dropped our bags, got our park bag all situated, and off we went to the parks!

It was basically noon, so we were headed to Disneyland to get lunch.

I made us take all the selfies.

Also I assumed that it being noon we'd have no wait at the turnstiles - hahahahahaha. It wasn't a long line, but it was a little line, and of course the people we were behind were confused as to what they were supposed to do - I swear it's like people's first day on earth going through the turnstiles. BUT! We made it in, and off to the Market House Deli on Main Street for lunch! There's nothing like walking down Main Street for the first time on your trip.

It felt like a very crowded day - no idea if it was or not, but it felt like it. It could also have been just the fact that it was 12 noon and everyone wanted lunch all at the same time. We divided and conquered - Trevor got in line for the food and I stalked the area for a table. It was probably a 10/15 min wait for food, but it worked out cause it took me that long to find a table (it was cutthroat!). But we got one outside, enjoying the lovely weather and the music loop and the people watching. And what did we get for lunch?
I got the ham and cheese toastie aka croque monsieur, of course!

This is delicious and it was piping hot. Trevor doesn't like it 'cause he doesn't like melted cheese but he's weird.

Trevor got the Mickey sandwich, which apparently this is the only picture of it I took:

Poor Trevor - this was not good. He wanted the one with ham but they gave him the veggie one instead, which he didn't realize until about 1/3 of the way through (he kept thinking the meat was further in... oops!), and with the crazy line he didn't want to go back to get the right one. And the sandwhich had been made yesterday, so the bread was a bit dry (though it's pretzel bread so Trevor liked that) but everything else was a bit soggy. Poor Trevor! I did try to give Trevor some of the ham from my sandwich but he said no (cheese hater). HAVE PROTEIN TREVOR!

But we did have a dessert: chocolate hazelnut brookie with cream and chocolate.

This was pretty good - I didn't love the actual nuts but the flavor was good, and it was moist not dry. The little Dale was so cute! And yummy.

While we were eating, we were looking at wait times and guys - it was weird! I was expecting Crush's Coaster in Studios to have the longest wait, but the longest wait at the resort was Orbitron (their version of Astro Orbiter) - 80 minutes! Crush's Coaster was 75 minutes. The other big rides were all about an hour, or a bit less, but there were other weird things: Cars Road Tour was 25!!!! Which should never be - that thing has so much capacity, crazy. but only 35 for Remy. We were so confused. Phantom Manor was 15, so we figured we'd go over there after eating (I'd already bought us a Big Thunder Mountain fastpass for 1 pm). Also the Main Street Vehicles were out running, so that was fun to see.

We finished up at around 12:40, so off to Frontierland we went - but first, selfie!

Over at Phantom Manor, the wait time had jumped up to 25 minutes and it looked every minute, if not longer (like the whole queue was full). So, we decided to treat ourselves and bought the fastpass for immediate use, which meant we basically walked on.

Look at the view!

So gorgeous. We even got to see Big Thunder go by, which was awesome except for the bit where the water effects look to have been turned off (where the coaster goes very near the water and the effects make it look like the train goes into the water a bit.


Then we were into the antechamber:

I love this ride!

 

[Araminta18]

From Thunder Mesa to Corona - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 2)​

More Phantom Manor!


I so love this whole theme with the bride and the Phantom...just wish the Phantom wasn't her dad cause #creepy.


So good!

Also Trevor is still not home, so while I have his pictures, I don't have his videos so no hitchhiking ghosts video! I can hear the sadness from here.

We walked around Boot Hill for a minute or two, but then it was time to ride Big Thunder!! There was a bit of a line, but not horrible. And we asked for and got the back row - yay!!


The ride was fantastic as always - seriously, this is the best Big Thunder and it's not even close. The tunnel under the island...just top notch.

This is like my first Disney trip since...probably ever, actually, where I haven't bought the photos. Really though this was a tactical error - we weren't sure if we'd have enough photos to make it worth it, so I figured we'd buy it at the end if we had enough photos. But since we didn't go to the counter to have them add our ride photo to the account, they couldn't find it and so we couldn't buy it. Oh well! Pro tip: if you're not sure if you want to buy it, add it to your account so you have the option. Anyways! I did kind of get Mike Wazoswkied but you can see Trevor pretty good there in the back.

We got off the ride at 1:45, and it was time to head over to Fantasyland: DLP was having a Music Festival, and as part of that, Flynn and Rapunzel came out and danced, and that sounded like fun, so we were heading over to catch the 2:15 show.

This was the area, but I made a tactical error - off to the right they had seating for adults and kids, but I figured we could just stand and have a closer view. I mean, I guess we did have a closer view but everyone was standing in front of us so despite getting their like 25 min early, our view wasn't great. Oh well! The people in front of us were sitting when we got there and made the decision, but then they got made to stand up closer to the time. Dang.

It was still fun - Flynn and Rapunzel danced to most of the songs from the movie, and they interacted with the kids and played hide and seek, and just were super fun to watch.


That's Rapunzel hiding behind the umbrella.

And at the end they posed for pics all around, so even we got a good pic:

So yea, a fun show, just a shame I made the wrong decision about not sitting down. Though standing there on the fence meant that Trevor got to adopt some kids - one of them pushed in front of him to stand against the fence, and then another, and then another, and then even the mom tried to push in front of him but Trevor didn't let that happen. LOL

 

[Araminta18]

Is That StarLord? - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 3)​

Next up, Hyperspace Mountain! I'd bought the fastpass, cause treat yo'self. We weren't gonna wait in no lines! Well, except for the short line for chocolate covered strawberries! As we were walking over to Discoveryland, they had food stands up by Small World and one of them had chocolate-covered strawberries which is my favorite DLP treat.

Delicious.

Oh, I'd also gotten us a virtual queue spot to meet a Marvel superhero over in Walt Disney Studios, and that was coming up soon so we figured after HyperSpace Mountain we'd head over to Studios to meet the character.

As we walked up the fastpass stairs for HyperSpace Mountain, we got a semi-good view into Lightspeed Lounge:

See the stormtroopers up there? That's the Lightspeed Lounge. We were on the fence about trying it - you'll have to see how tomorrow goes! (Foreshadowing.... )

Space was a pretty short fastpass wait - I just don't like how early the fastpass line merges with the regular line. But it was only about 5/10 minutes.

Though when we got assigned a row, I couldn't fit! I've definitely gained weight in the last year so Trevor and I had a system where he wouldn't strap in until he pushed on my harness to make me fit, but even with him pushing it didn't work! I didn't think I'd gained enough to not fit on the ride so that was not my favorite thing. But they had me get off and then they put me in row 9, which I guess must be a larger seat or something, because then I did fit. Phew!

Such a fun ride.

As we got off, it was time to head over to Studios to meet a superhero! Though as we walked out we saw people on top of Space Mountain, which was kind of odd - I assume maintenance of some sort? Kind of ruined the forced perspective illusion LOL.

So off we went to Studios. Honestly we'd ridden every ride in Disneyland that we wanted to except Pirates, so we were feeling pretty good.

I do love the ride posters you pass on the way in and out of the parks.

Over at Studios, we enjoyed being able to walk through the backlot/building/whatever you want to call it instead of being funneled off to the side by construction walls. Over at the Superhero Training Facility, they must have been backed up or something - we ended up having to wait 30 minutes. Crazy! But who did we get?

StarLord!

This was a pretty good meet and greet - we talked about his songs (and he even sang some of them!).

Superhero pose!

Talking and laughing.

It was fun - I just wish they handled the logistics better so you didn't have to get a virtual queue and then still wait 30 minutes.

But, once we got off, Flight Force was only 10 minutes so we decided to ride that! It ended up being more than 10 (about 15/20 minutes), but not bad. And then we got the second row, which was cool.

So fun! It was 4:30 when we got off - the only other thing we had planned was wanting to be at the fireworks viewing area at like 9 pm, for a 10:40 show (i wanted to get a front row spot so we could sit down. ), so we had a while yet. What to do next!

 

[zanzibar138]

Ooh I've been hanging out for this one! Here and very much looking forward to ALL the photos!

And nevermind Trevor not picking Phantom Manor as a favourite... not liking melted cheese may be grounds enough for divorce if you ask me

I'd either totally forgotten about the chocolate-covered strawberries or not realised they were available last time. Definitely going on the list for treats to try!

 

[Araminta18]

Ooh I've been hanging out for this one! Here and very much looking forward to ALL the photos!

And nevermind Trevor not picking Phantom Manor as a favourite... not liking melted cheese may be grounds enough for divorce if you ask me

I'd either totally forgotten about the chocolate-covered strawberries or not realised they were available last time. Definitely going on the list for treats to try!

Welcome!!! Ask me all the questions - happy to answer anything I can

I know, him and cheese....he's a weirdy LOL

Oh yes, the chocolate covered strawberries are my fave - this is the first time I remember seeing them in Disneyland though. There are permanent (I think permanent?) stands in Disney Village right across from McDonalds that have them, and then if the food booths are set up in Studios by Remy's, they have the strawberries too. So yum!

 

[Araminta18]

Characters All Around! - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 4)​

As we walked off Flight Force, trying to decide what to do, we saw folks lining up around the circle there on the ground, and we know what that means - something with a character! So we lined up too. And shortly after, guess who came out?

Captain Marvel in her little Avengers vehicle thing!

There was no show or anything; she just came out and then went around the circle meeting and taking pictures with folks. We were pretty close to where she started so not a bad wait at all. Though there was this one little boy that was like 3 or 4 groups past us that could not wait - he kept rushing up to Captain Marvel and interrupting other people's meets. The first time I get it - kids are excited, but he did it 4 times! And the mom just like wouldn't grab him - the CMs had to gently push him away all 4 times. Good grief - those poor CMs. But we got to meet her -


So fun! If you're in Avengers Campus, keep an eye out for CMs and character attendants - they don't have times or anything published for any of this but if you keep your eyes open you can catch shows or impromptu meets.

We decided to do Webslingers next, but I ducked into the ladies room and Trevor went up to see who was meeting at the dedicated character spot up at the front of Avengers Campus:

Character from Fantastic Four who looks like a rock whose name I do not know. Cool though! Trevor didn't want to wait - he often just likes to see the characters out and about.

Anyways, Web Slingers! The plan was Web Slingers, then Crush's Coaster, then Tower of Terror, then food. We bought the fastpass for Web Slingers and walked right in to the pre-show, and then there was not very much of a line after the pre-show, which was pleasantly surprising. I did notice some fun sticker theming on the boxes as you wait to board -


We had a great ride - we were paired with two other guys who seemed...intense. In the first two rooms/areas the other two guys smoked us on the score, but then I started catching up, and then I ended up getting the highest overall score in the car!! Trevor didn't fall too far behind either (he was yellow with 138000 and I was purple with 209100)

We ended up getting 7th best this hour!!

Had to take a picture

Afterwards we spent some time in the gift shop, though as we were looking around I noticed that Iron Man was out -

 

[Araminta18]

Round and Round & Up and Down - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 5)​

One more Iron Man pic -


We finally bought all the stuff we wanted in the gift shop (Trevor was deciding on a backpack and a couple other things ), it was time for our Crush's Coaster fastpass!

I love this sign.

We did notice that most of the seagulls were broken - in the loading area they have seagulls on top of one of the "buildings" doing the "mine mine mine" and while the sound was there none of the seagulls were moving, sadly. But then it was time to get on! And if you remember my almost not fitting on Space, it happened here too. I almost didn't fit - Trevor pushed me in and it latched but it was very close. Good thing I'm back trying to lose weight!

It was a fun ride, as it always is - a great combo of dark ride and coaster. It's not worth the long wait, but if you have the money to splurge on a fastpass it's worth it.

Next up - Tower of Terror! As we were heading over there they had these statues up in the center area, including a Hercules one!

I assume this is setting up for when it becomes Adventureland? I think there was an Esmerelda one but I may be making that up.

At Tower of Terror, we walked right into the pre-show:


That's Trevor's fancy new backpack he bought (says Avengers Campus ).


See the words at the bottom? "Come With Me".... creepy!

I thought this was Trevor's first time riding but apparently he rode last time we went, but neither of us remembered. Oops!

We got a great drop sequence, and the little girl was trying to save us and get us out of the 5th dimension. I do love how they randomize the story aspect there - sometimes the little girl is trying to help and sometimes she's being super creepy.

We're there in the middle on the left side aisle.


Now, time for dinner! We liked the Super Diner last time so we went there again for the shawarma.


Last time we shared the shawarma but we liked it so much this time we were not going to share.

This was still delicious, though the hummus had a strong bean taste - like I know hummus is beans but it doesn't usually have a strong bean flavor. Still really good though.

 

[Araminta18]

Best Food Truck Ever! - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 6)​

We also got the Fantastic Four strawberry macaron:


This was a big and thick macaron, but also yummy. It did turn our mouth blue but what can you do.

As we left, we noticed the food truck right across the way - Trevor got intrigued by the theming and I got intrigued by the treat! So I got the treat:

The Liberty Lollipop: Vanilla ganache, hazelnut almond caramel insert. This was fine, mostly just tasted like the standard Disneyland Paris mousse. But how cute is that?

Also the theming is awesome:






So neat!

At this point it was about 7 pm, so we wanted to head to the hotel, drop our stuff and then come back to our fireworks viewing. As we headed out of Studios, there's these "windows" that look like you're looking into the actual Walt Disney studios -

All sorts of fun things in the windows - dumbo and the dancing elephant from Fantasia... Nice little touches - there were a bunch more but I didn't take all the pictures.

 

[Araminta18]

Disney Village Has the Best Legos - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 7)​

We were walking through Disney Village to get to the hotel, so we of course ended up doing some looking and shopping. They really have lovely artwork above the shops.


And the Lego store had awesome legos out front!



Trevor ducked in and took some more pictures:


I love this Iron Man taking off!

We did buy a few things but shortly we were at the hotel! We stopped at the front desk and got our room number, which ended up being in the same wing as we were at before (back in 2022), but instead of the ground floor on the 3rd floor (2nd floor if you're European ), and in the Thor hallway this time. So we got to experience the elevators for the first time!

The New York skyline in the elevator mirror - so cool.

And as you'd expect from a hotel with "Art of Marvel" in its name - lots of art!

 

[Araminta18]

Will We Get a Good Spot? - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 8)​

I love this piece of Mighty Thor:


And then we were at our room! It was VERY similar to the room we were in on our last day in 2022 (see more room pics here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/c...d-paris-sept-18-23-2022.3901442/post-64488738 ), but still nice.



The room is nice and big, and the bed is super comfy. When we first walked in the little chair next to the bed that I didn't take a picture of was folded into a rollaway bed. We didn't realize it was a chair so we called and were like "hey can you please come get the rollaway bed? we don't need it" and then they came and just folded it back up and then put the cover on it (in like the messiest way possible LOL. But we dropped our stuff and switched shoes and got jackets/spirit jerseys and off we went!

We did do a quick stop in at the Disneyland Hotel because I wanted to look in the gift shop there - I remembered I'd seen a thing online about how they were selling a legit stained glass mini-replica of one of the stained glass windows from the castle and I wanted to look at. It was like 2000 euros so I wasn't going to buy it but I wanted to see it. Though when I told Trevor about it he misheard me and thought I'd said it was a couple hundred euros so we was more like...why wouldn't you buy it? We were both very confused - me as to why he was encouraging me to spend thousands of euros and him as to why I wasn't going to buy something for a couple hundred euros. ANYWAYS, we got there and found it!

Isn't that pretty? It's probably 2 feet tall? I'm bad at size estimating but it's smaller.

Oh 1790 euros - not quite 2000 but still a lot. When Trevor saw the price that cleared up the confusion!

They also had this lovely print -

I wish they had a postcard size cause if so I probably would have bought it. But they didn't. Oh well!

It was 9:06 pm and we were heading out but Trevor - of his own accord, I love this man - plops down in this little throne chair and told me to take his picture:

Trevor's King of the Castle!

We made our way into the park and over to the fireworks area - it was about 9:15 when we got there, but it worked out great, as we managed to get a spot right at the rope at the front, no one in front of us!

Slightly off to the side - there were probably about 3 or 4 spots left to our right when we got it so just in time! We had like an hour and a half til the show actually started which is indeed kind of ridiculous but *shrugs*. Trevor was a bit tired so we decided he'd stay with our spots and then I'd go off to find us some snacks. I really wanted the garlic bread that I'd gotten on previous trips but the places that had it were closed, so I ended up heading over to Colonel Hathi's Pizza Outpost. No mobile order unfortunately. There was kind of a bit of a line - It ended up taking me about half an hour to walk from the fireworks spot to the restaurant, get the food, and walk back. I ended up getting Onion Fritters which I forgot to take a picture of but which were delicious - Trevor didn't want to try them but that's ok. I also got him a small Ben and Jerry's - it was cookie dough ice cream which is his favorite:

 

[Araminta18]

Nighttime Spectacular! - Friday Aug 22, 2025 (part 9)​

And then I got the chocolate and almond cake things:

These were good too - Trevor wasn't a huge fan but I liked them.

We just hung out, enjoying the fact that we could sit down, for the next 40 minutes. DLP does announce that the want everyone to stand up but I decided that since we were front row and were not taking up any more room sitting than we were standing that we'd stay seated. #sorrynotsorry And then the show started! Trevor filmed it but I don't have his video yet, so all the pictures instead.




Being so close meant we could see the projections really well, which was nice.


Hunchback! That's the rose window from Notre Dame projected on the castle entrance.

They also had lots of drones in this show:

Being this close did mean that some of the drones were blocked but small price to pay.

The drones are a rose, and the petals drop and fall down as projections on the castle. So neat!

Overall I liked the show a lot, but the Electric Sky parade drone show was better, and as a nightime show, it's still not as good as Happily Ever After. But overall a great show and we had a GREAT view for it.