Will I be disappointed with DLP??

[RoseBug]

Have to say, in all the DLP trips we've been on, we've never really noticed the smoking. We're not smokers ourselves and I don't like the smell at all, obviously I wouldn't allow our children to be arlund smoke so maybe we've just been oddly lucky?!

Oh I have - it has always been one of my bugbears about DLP. I am super sensitive to smoke and especially stroppy about anyone smoking anywhere near me but particularly anywhere near Rosebug. Our first few trips we noticed it ALOT; our last 2 trips not so much. This trip there were a few times where I got narky about it; the woman in the disabled Parade area sitting next to me and Rosebug and smoking when the whole area was empty; the guy behind me in the popcorn queue stinking my whole breathing space out and the "student" types smoking their joints walking past us. However - in 3 days that was the most I noticed and I simply can't ignore smoking.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

We are Disney veterans and Disney fans. We are heading to DLP this summer after a transatlantic Disney cruise and I'm a bit worried that I'll be disappointed. I hate smoking, dirty bathrooms, rude people ... And I keep hearing that Disneyland Paris has these problems and more. Will I feel the Disney magic there?

I think DLRP is something almost any Disney fan will enjoy - I think the imagineers have done some great things with DLRP - notice the details and the beauty and low and behold I do think some attractions are the best I've experienced and I have lived in Orlando and had annual passes for both WDW and DLRP. Expect the size and scope to be much smaller than say WDW.

Just as others have mentioned, you may have some cultural surprises - things just done differently than what you might be expecting - be open to differences and I think your trip will be very magical! Mine always have been!

Generally speaking I have found the CMs to be very friendly and helpful as well as people in general I have met at the parks. I tend to enjoy the table service meals more than the counter service ones - I especially find the buffets good value IMO. I haven't had any issues with the toilets at DLRP - but if you duck into one that is a problem just mosey on down the way and there will be another.

I am starting to plan my first trip to Disneyland Hong Kong right now - but if I were nearer I would most definitely take another trip to DLRP!
Shows like Dreams are absolutely great - enjoy the magic!

 

[DSNY4ever]

Since a lot of people are mentioning the smoking, is it any worse than when in the city of Paris? I am super sensitive to smoking regularly and I am pregnant right now and extra sensitive to the point that I will sometimes get a migraine headache or throw up . But we will be in Europe for two weeks (Paris for one). I am worried about the smoking in general for our whole trip, but I am assuming DLRP would be about the same as when we are in the city?

I will have to warn my husband about line jumping I guess. He would get really frustrated with that, well we both would, but I could see that eating him up.

 

[Christieand]

Since a lot of people are mentioning the smoking, is it any worse than when in the city of Paris? I am super sensitive to smoking regularly and I am pregnant right now and extra sensitive to the point that I will sometimes get a migraine headache or throw up . But we will be in Europe for two weeks (Paris for one). I am worried about the smoking in general for our whole trip, but I am assuming DLRP would be about the same as when we are in the city?

I will have to warn my husband about line jumping I guess. He would get really frustrated with that, well we both would, but I could see that eating him up.

In my experience, I can't say I have ever really had much of a problem with smoking at DLP. I really don't like it, but I can't recall ever being really annoyed because of it. There might have been the odd time where it got a bit frustrating, but I would just move out of the way! I can't speak about the situation in Paris, but from my point of view, I would say don't worry about it, because it's probably not as bad as you're anticipating. There will be people smoking outside of the designated areas, but it's easy enough to get away from them.

The queue jumping does get annoying, but you just have to let it go over your head! People must just think it's acceptable, so it's best to adopt the attitude of 'that's their decision' and leave them to it!

I think the best advice is to appreciate all the lovely things about DLP and ignore the odd situation that might make it worse because it's not worth ruining your own experience for the sake of a few people's behaviour.

Hope you have a great time!

 

[tennisfan]

Since a lot of people are mentioning the smoking, is it any worse than when in the city of Paris? I am super sensitive to smoking regularly and I am pregnant right now and extra sensitive to the point that I will sometimes get a migraine headache or throw up . But we will be in Europe for two weeks (Paris for one). I am worried about the smoking in general for our whole trip, but I am assuming DLRP would be about the same as when we are in the city? I will have to warn my husband about line jumping I guess. He would get really frustrated with that, well we both would, but I could see that eating him up.

I have never had a problem with smokers, I don't tend to notice anymore then if you were walking down the street. I hate smoking but at the end if the day providing they are smoking outside then I'm not bothered. I have only seen one person smoke in the queue years back and the CM told them to stop or strip out of the queue, they stopped

 

[Aust]

I have just had 2 days at DLP, after several visits to DLR (Anaheim).


I wasn't disappointed, although overall I do prefer DLR. DLR would be my first choice especially for a longer trip (I can easily spend 2 weeks there, but felt done with DLP in 2 days). However I'm glad I went.

Positives - the castle is beautiful, as is the rest of the park. Also I had no problem with the cleanliness of the parks themselves or the toilets I used.

A couple of the rides I thought were better than their DLR counterparts, especially Space Mountain.

Disney Dreams was great.

No issues with cast members or other people visiting the parks.

Negatives- smoking! I found people smoking in line more of a problem in Walt Disney Studios than Disneyland Park. But I still was annoyed with smoking in general in Disneyland Park. Is even worse though in Paris itself where I am today.

The food - expensive and not very good! Not a great deal of choice, especially in the parks, and Disney Village doesn't have a huge amount of choice either. We went to Rainforest Cafe one night and I was disappointed in it compared to the one in Anaheim.

 

[Keurigirl]

I thought I would come back to update my original question for anyone searching for answers to this question.

I was not disappointed, and in fact had a great time! I wished we had had more time to be there. It was too short!

I did not notice ANY line cutting, none at all. I also did not notice smoking and I am very, very sensitive and hate cigarette smoke.

I am glad I went in with lower expectations because we had so many surprises there, it was absolutely wonderful!

 

[DLPdaft]

I thought I would come back to update my original question for anyone searching for answers to this question.

I was not disappointed, and in fact had a great time! I wished we had had more time to be there. It was too short!

I did not notice ANY line cutting, none at all. I also did not notice smoking and I am very, very sensitive and hate cigarette smoke.

I am glad I went in with lower expectations because we had so many surprises there, it was absolutely wonderful!

thats great news - thanks for coming back to update us .

 

[cdsmiler81]

I thought I would come back to update my original question for anyone searching for answers to this question.

I was not disappointed, and in fact had a great time! I wished we had had more time to be there. It was too short!

I did not notice ANY line cutting, none at all. I also did not notice smoking and I am very, very sensitive and hate cigarette smoke.

I am glad I went in with lower expectations because we had so many surprises there, it was absolutely wonderful!

Fabulous!

C x

 

[rastuso]

I thought I would come back to update my original question for anyone searching for answers to this question.

I was not disappointed, and in fact had a great time! I wished we had had more time to be there. It was too short!

I did not notice ANY line cutting, none at all. I also did not notice smoking and I am very, very sensitive and hate cigarette smoke.

I am glad I went in with lower expectations because we had so many surprises there, it was absolutely wonderful!

I agree. We saw less line cutting than we normally do at DL. And smoking was not bad at all in DLP. It was much worse at German parks.

The restrooms were the equivalent of Six Flags, imho, and some were aweful. Then of course, there is the addition of female cleaner in the men's room, which is a strange European thing for sure.

The park itself is awesome, however, full of unique things. How ANYONE can say Asterix is better is beyond me. That place was pretty run down looking.

The food, as mentioned earlier is insanely priced, and of low quality. I mean really, $55 for a salad, and bowl of vegetable mush, and a skirt steak? The dessert was the only saving grace of Chez Remy, and sure didn't justify the cost, even for a Disney resort. The rest of the food was equally overpriced. Of course, you get the double whammy of "Europe" and "Disney", and think "hmmm, $15 for a hot dog and drink is quite a deal!"

-Jason

 

[LJH77]

Glad you had a good trip OP and weren't disappointed. I've been to the US parks and DLP lots of times and I have trouble comparing any them to each other including WDW and DL they are all different.

The first time we went to DLP was 1993 and the queue jumping was crazy! To the point where it got that bad we developed a saying at the wider parts of queues "keep the width" to try and block the space so folk couldn't get past! Haha! Although it has gotten progressively much much much better as the years have went on, it's no where near like it was to the point where I hardly see it happening any more. Or maybe i just know to expect it more in DLP so I don't notice it as much? It's defo a cultural thing, in some countries queuing is more accepted than in others. We like a good queue in the UK and the USA but not so much in Spain or France or Italy, it's just cultural nothing personal!

Also that leads on to CM interaction and perceived rudeness, yes defo, people in Europe are different than Americans so you can't expect the same reactions but it's really important to remember that Europe is a continent not a country. It's an area made up of lots of different cultures and languages all of which frequent DLP so maybe the cMs are less chatty as they aren't quite sure what language they'll encounter next, maybe their English isn't brilliant and they don't speak German or Dutch or Italian or whatever. I can't remember encountering any bad or rude cast members and most are very nice but different from their American counterparts. And actually I've found the WDW CMs to be different from the DL CMs as well!

Oh and watch out for the toilets across from BTM, they are always a bit stinky! Maybe it's the drains as most of the other ones are fine??!!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[Nickomi]

We've just got back from DLP.

With regards to smoking I noticed it in abundance around the park. Granted we never encountered it in any of the ride ques but it did get unpleasant at times.
The food is like school cafeteria food in places and vastly overpriced. Granted I expected inflated prices but was shocked at quite how much in some places.
For instance we stayed at the Hotel New York and the Buffet for 2 adults and 1 Child was the Equivalent of 81 euros. We did use our HB Plus vouchers here once and only once. Terrible food. Parkside Diner was dirty at meal times. Especially breakfast. We were in low season so I would hate to see it in high season. I think on the most part it was simply a case of the CM's being stretched so thin!

I'd say overall as our first trip we had a pretty negative experience but that is because some of the holiday felt mis sold as daft as it sounds. For what we paid we expected more.

In terms of Queing the que jumpers were out in force. and CM's did nothing to stop this when they saw them and most were pretty disinterested in problems.

 

[Ware Bears]

I thought I would come back to update my original question for anyone searching for answers to this question.

I was not disappointed, and in fact had a great time! I wished we had had more time to be there. It was too short!

Glad you enjoyed your time!

Of course, you get the double whammy of "Europe" and "Disney"

Sadly the days of Europe being cheap are long over, even for us in the UK.

 

[petals]

We are Disney veterans and Disney fans. We are heading to DLP this summer after a transatlantic Disney cruise and I'm a bit worried that I'll be disappointed. I hate smoking, dirty bathrooms, rude people ... And I keep hearing that Disneyland Paris has these problems and more. Will I feel the Disney magic there?

I haven't been to Paris since 2012 so maybe things have changed there now but when we went there was bottles floating in small world where guests just dumped their rubbish off the boat, the toilets didn't appear "dirty" but they were stinking!

I hate smoking and can normally smell it a mile off but it's actually one thing that I didn't notice in the park at all!

Rudeness omg it totally drained the magic, from CM's to guests, we had people push us off the footpath, take our seats in a reataurant when we were about to sit, skip queues for rides, character meets were a joke it was like a rugby scrum to meet a character and one CM in particular who was trying to get our attention one day stood at the far end of a shop shouting BONJOUR over and over at us. If it was me in my job i'd have been sacked for speaking to a customer like that but sure!

Saying all that I do think it's worth the visit at least once. Both parks are nice like just don't expect to feel any magic like you would in Florida. Florida almost oozes magic like

 

[aimathy]

I am sure plenty of people enjoyed DLP, but we didn't love it. We have been to Disney World many times, and Disneyland a few times and it's like comparing apples and oranges. I think perhaps, if you've never been to WDW or DL, and you live in Europe, then DLP is the closest most affordable Disney option. But it's not in the same league as the US based Disney parks.

My husband and I kept commenting on how this park seemed like "the park that Disney forgot" or "how is Disney ok with having their name on all of this". Now, it's not horrible, but it definitely, definitely lacks the magic of WDW. THe workers were disinterested to rude....everything felt like you were bothering someone....from asking directions, to getting on a ride.

The guests were far more rude in general. I know people complain about Americans and I've seen people be rude in WDW, but this was just different. Perhaps it's cultural (European vs. US) but there would be 2 people on line and all of a sudden 7-10 (not kidding!) family members of theirs would push through the ride line in front of everyone to "meet up" with them. This happened on no less than 5 lines we were in! I don't know what's up with that, but it was obnoxious.

Smoking is extremely prevalent, even on the lines where there's no escape, and not a lot of fresh air. Ick.

There were no healthy options to eat. WDW has tons of restaurants with salads, fruit carts, whole fruit....people like to complain that people in the US eat unhealthy, but there were honestly no ways to eat healthy in the parks. The only salad we could find was a caesar salad and if you didn't put the fatty dressing on, you basically had a bowl of lettuce and cheese.

Overall, we just felt that it lacked the magic that the other parks have in plenty. That being said, we had a nice enough time there and I would say it's worth seeing if you happen to be in Paris or have the time to fit it in from London and have some money to burn. But I would definitely go in with much lower expectations or you're likely to be disappointed.

Good luck!

 

[old lady]

The Disney parks in the United States are different from out of the country especially if you are American. There are overcrowding and rude people everywhere, not just at Disney.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

I thought I would come back to update my original question for anyone searching for answers to this question.

I was not disappointed, and in fact had a great time! I wished we had had more time to be there. It was too short!

I did not notice ANY line cutting, none at all. I also did not notice smoking and I am very, very sensitive and hate cigarette smoke.

I am glad I went in with lower expectations because we had so many surprises there, it was absolutely wonderful!

So glad you had a great time!

 

[cdsmiler81]

There were no healthy options to eat. WDW has tons of restaurants with salads, fruit carts, whole fruit....people like to complain that people in the US eat unhealthy, but there were honestly no ways to eat healthy in the parks. The only salad we could find was a caesar salad and if you didn't put the fatty dressing on, you basically had a bowl of lettuce and cheese.

Hmmm, that's strange - what time of year did you go?? I ask because we found quite a few fruit stalls the first time we went with DD - she was only 2 1/2 and loved bananas! It was late September.

C x

 

[lostatdisney]

All this is so helpful! My DH is taking me to Paris for my 50th (!!!) birthday, and bc I'm such a Disney lover, he knew I would want to visit DLP. Knowing all this information helps me adjust my expectations; I just plan to relax and enjoy the park for what it is. I think finding the differences in the parks will be very interesting! Being from Texas, we are very accustomed to friendliness most everywhere we go, but we can certainly handle people who are more reserved. As far as the line jumping, we will have a VIP FP, so hopefully it won't be as much of an issue. We will try to keep a good attitude about it all; hopefully DH will stay calm and not punch anyone haha!

Anyway, I'm very excited about seeing the French twist on my beloved Disney! We check in to Sequoia Lodge on October 21!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

All this is so helpful! My DH is taking me to Paris for my 50th (!!!) birthday, and bc I'm such a Disney lover, he knew I would want to visit DLP. Knowing all this information helps me adjust my expectations; I just plan to relax and enjoy the park for what it is. I think finding the differences in the parks will be very interesting! Being from Texas, we are very accustomed to friendliness most everywhere we go, but we can certainly handle people who are more reserved. As far as the line jumping, we will have a VIP FP, so hopefully it won't be as much of an issue. We will try to keep a good attitude about it all; hopefully DH will stay calm and not punch anyone haha!

Anyway, I'm very excited about seeing the French twist on my beloved Disney! We check in to Sequoia Lodge on October 21!

Hello fellow Texan (my family lives north of Houston - )!

I think you are going with the right mind set. I love DLRP - it is a really beautiful park - - hope you enjoy the magic that is all its' own. I think the Parisian setting lends itself to an even more magical ambiance.

As far as meals go, my advice is to take time to enjoy table service meals - this is a nice cultural note I appreciate at DLRP - the buffets are very nice IMO and for the price much more satisfying than counter service options.

Have a magical trip!