Disneyland do's and don'ts

The happiest place on earth. The land where all your childhood memories come flooding back. The land of queues...huge crowds and price tags.

What a way to open eh? This half term holiday I took my third trip to Disneyland, this time as the adult who has to budget, plan and look after the kids we are travelling with, I saw a very different, still magical but different side to Disneyland Paris. Over the 3 days we spent there we definitely thought of some hints and tips that we would follow, if, there was a next time. 

1) Set a budget. 

With two holidays booked this year, including Disney, a new house, house decorating and general life to live, we were probably crazy for even considering going away...twice. But if you have read any of my other incredibly ad-hoc blogs you will know I love to travel and frankly have had a few difficult years and so felt like we deserved some fun. We choose to stay at the Explorers hotel, which is a Disney partner hotel. I stayed at this hotel in 2008 when my family went for the 15th anniversary. With two kids who have never been abroad and a partner who is a bit of a nervous traveler we decided somewhere a touch more familiar would work best for us. (more on this later) This hotel was more budget friendly for us, another reason for the choice. The hotel is great for kids with an arcade, outdoor play park, swimming pool and soft play area, it ticks all the boxes. Breakfast is included so no worrying about forking out for a breakfast; two picky eaters may or may not eat. We budgeted approximately 500 euro for our 3 days. This to us sounded extortionate when we have budgeted just slightly more for our 2 week holiday in July...however be warned, 500 euro in Disney will not go far. We made it work but my advice is budget slightly extra for unexpected purchases, tolls if you are driving and just as a bit of a buffer. The 9 euro tub of popcorn was purchased...it had a nice box with 25th anniversary plastered on it. I caved....and then ate the popcorn while two kids were distracted by the parade.  

https://www.explorershotels.com/en/

2) Consider your travel plans

We choose to drive...the whole 9 hours (including the tunnel) much respect to my dad for being the driver on all those childhood holidays. I was near dead by Folkestone. Be aware that if you have booked a particular time for the tunnel crossing, you should only aim to arrive 45 minutes before your time slot. On both of our journeys we were a touch early. They will let you board the earlier tunnel or the later one, which was a nicer surprise than having to wait. When driving in France a few tips other than driving on the right...wrong side of the road. We choose to drive along the A roads which is the quickest and easiest route. These are toll roads, the toll costing approximately 21 euros each way. When you enter the Sanef toll you take a ticket and then pay when you reach the opposite end. Be aware that if you come off the toll for some services they may charge you a partial charge, we were charged 9 euro to come off and enter a service area at Flixecourt only to find we couldn't get to the sought after McDonalds. We ultimately decided that these weren't really worth the hassle. There are plenty of services we just planned the journey so we only bough petrol in the UK. The one thing we wish we had known was that when we booked into our hotel we were given a card which I didn't read until the last day. It would seem that if you stay in a Disney partner hotel that you can present said card for access to Disneyland parking. If you don't fancy the shuttle buses which run approximately every 20 mins then this might be an option.  The final tip when it comes to travel, be aware that you will probably be at a stand still around London and it might be worth anticipating this if you are driving home. 

https://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/home/

Just in case you didn't know when driving in areas surrounding big cities in France cars are required to have an emissions sticker on their car. After a discussion with a work colleague who has family in France we both discovered this is due to city rules that if air pollution is higher only certain cars are allowed to drive. We bought one because part of our journey brought us within the city zones. It was pretty cheap at 4 euro. Be advised a week before is not enough time for the sticker to arrive. Although I was told if you carry the receipt in your car that is sufficient if you were to be asked. I will link the website below.
https://www.certificat-air.gouv.fr/en/

Fairly straightforward, fill in the information using your cars registration document.

3) Food and Drink

I won't insult anyone's intelligence, we all know that food and drink will cost a small fortune in the park itself. Again we would recommend that you fill up on breakfast and perhaps bring a packed lunch or some snacks into the park. As we had our car we drove to the near by Casino supermarket in Marne la Vallee which was great. We were able to buy bread, fruit, some chocolate etc which saved some pennies during the day. We also bought water from Lidl and had plenty stocked up in the car.  I would say this is a bit unnecessary for in the park, useful in the hotel. We found pretty quickly that there are water fountains scattered all round the park itself. Bring a water bottle or flask and fill up as you need. If you do buy food in the park Casey's diner on Main street is really good and although we didn't eat there the fast food counter in Discoveryland does a menu starting at 13 euro.

4) Download the app 

I'm sure there's some logic to how you should navigate Disney area by area...we didn't do that at all. In fact the way we chose where to go had no logic at all. This was partly due to the Disneyland Paris app, which was great. The app itself allows you to see what time shows are on throughout the day, what rides are closed and the wait times. We simply looked at what we wanted to go on and then worked out which rides we should attempt first by the length of the wait. Queues are inevitable, Fast pass is always available if you don't want to wait at one of the kiosks near the ride itself.

5) Find a good spot.

If you were like us and wanted to stay and watch the parades and fireworks, be warned; ground space fills up very fast for a good view.  At the minute the theme of Disney is pirates and princesses, with hindsight we should have waited a few more weeks and taken advantage of the marvel superhero events, but school holidays are what they are. The parades runs a few times a day. The songs will be ringing in your ears by the end of day one. The evening parade is definitely worth seeing but as I said it would be worth finding a location and marking your territory, so to speak at least an hour before it starts. The same with the fireworks which are beautiful and completely worth it to see how memorized the crowd were. The effects were truly enchanting. The main parade starts at 5pm and fireworks start at 11pm. 

Final Thoughts...

All in all we had a really lovely trip, would we do it again? Possibly not but only because we might want to do America when the kids are older. Also if I'm 100% honest I would probably prefer lying in the sun somewhere. The tips above worked for us, they might not work for you and I'm sure everyone has individual plans and budgets in mind. If we were to do it again we have both agreed we might not drive but take the train straight to the park. Since the kids had never been away before I think we were a little overcautious about how they would handle it all. They were pros. We also said we would probably spend a little more money and stay in a Disney Hotel instead. Purely just for ease of access. We might even make use of the fast pass.

Rides worth the queue

1) Space Mountain (Discoveryland)

2) Star Wars: The Adventure continues (Discoveryland)
3) Ratatouille (Walt Disney Studios)
4) Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith (Walt Disney Studios)
5)Twilight Tower of Terror (Walt Disney Studios)
6)Peter Pan's Flight (Fantasyland) This was just really pretty
7)Alice's Curious Labyrinth (Fantasyland) This was just a lot of fun for us with the kids