Disneyland Paris 8th-11th March 2022

[Mi-Nigle]

Just came back from my first ever visit to DLP. Went for 3 nights (1x Sequoia, 2x Cheyenne) and 3 days on park with partner and 2yr old. We've had such a fantastic time. There was a lot of trepidation while booking when the total price appeared to increase with every click... however I've returned home without feeling ripped-off.

Both hotels exceeded expectations with regards to upkeep, theming and cleanliness. The parks overall have a good variety of rides (some repeats... Elephants/Carpets/Orbitron) and are exceptionally themed. Some areas/rides are showing their age but nothing ever felt or looked grotty like some attractions in UK parks I can think of. Forgetting one or two exceptions, the staff were welcoming, friendly and always made an effort to talk to our daughter (even if she had no interest in talking to them! ).

We were impressed with the food on offer. Half board got us a couple of really nice sit down meals (Manhattan and Silver Spur) and perfectly serviceable buffet breakfasts. I'd like to thank @Ian for his advice on food earlier in the DLP thread, it helped a lot. We also ate at a pizza place... for on-park fast(ish) food it was fine, nothing to complain about.

Good Stuff:

• Space Mountain - I know little of Star Wars but this bucket list coaster did not disappoint, I was blown away.
• Terror Tower - Just wonderful, terrifying.
• A really good number of attractions our 2yr old could enjoy (and my ride averse partner).
• The app was invaluable for queue time information and ride availability, though I did spend more time than I'd like looking at my phone.
• Flawless, quick and easy hotel check-in.
• Spoke to the concierge in Sequoia who gladly organised transferring our luggage to the Cheyenne for our subsequent nights there at no extra cost.
• Very frequent shuttles from the hotels to the park.
• It never felt like fasttrack was interfering with the standard queues too much.
• Ride operations were generally fast and well organised bar one exception.
• Hand sanitiser available at every turn.

Bad Stuff:

• Prices for food, drink and merchandise, but expected.
• The high number of unavailable attractions due to refurbishment. I know its got to be done sometime, but it was still a shame.
• Maybe this is a Covid thing but... there MUST be a better system for meeting Mickey... several Mickeys in separate secret rooms? Several Mickey "stations" around the park? I don't know but the 2.5 hr waits for him every day are hilarious.
• Releasing opening times/show times a week before arriving makes it impossible to effectively plan restaurant bookings, which you are encouraged to do 2 months prior to arriving. This completely screwed us over one night and it was miserable.
• I like a t-shirt as a souvenir but there were very few designs that appealed to me. Every design is HEY LOOK AT ME I'VE BEEN TO DISNEYLAND I LOVE MICKEY MOUSE. I prefer a more subtle design. I know it's personal taste, but I felt all their merchandise is purely designed to advertise the park as loudly as possible.
• The carousel operations were DIRE it was just painful to watch and queue for.
• Cars Road Trip was crap.

The last thing to note is the 30th Anniversary celebrations which were very enjoyable. I was at Disney Sea for their 35th event and I don't really remember much emphasis on it. I've got little to compare it to but the parades in Paris were better than I expected and the illuminations were worth sticking around for.

All in all a great holiday. I'm still physically exhausted, 67,000 steps, 70% of which carrying a child I will definitely consider going again if I ever financially recover!

 

[Ian]

Glad to hear you had a good time!

Manhattan restaurant is probably one of my favourite places to eat these days, along with Captain Jacks

Cars Road Trip was crap.

(But yes, it’s utter trash )

 

[AstroDan]

Glad you had a good time, DLP comes in for quite a lot of stick so it's great to hear that it's been somewhere that has gone well for you. There are some cracking set pieces in the main park especially, and with a food package - it's always a good bet.

 

[Mi-Nigle]

Manhattan restaurant is probably one of my favourite places to eat these days, along with Captain Jacks

Captain Jacks in on the list for next time. We saw it from the Pirates ride itself and were sold, nice menu too.

DLP comes in for quite a lot of stick

It does. I formed an unfair opinion of the place purely based on views expressed on this forum over the years. Last week I decided to go with an open mind and I’m glad I did. It’s a wonderful place. Maybe relative to other Disney parks or its own history, the stick is justified… but compared to the likes of Alton and Thorpe? There’s simply no contest.

 

[Benjsh]

Glad you enjoyed it.

We love going to DLP. My son turns 8 in a few weeks time and we've been with him 3 times already. He never shuts up about the place.

The main park is brilliant but needs a brand new E ticket ride adding very soon and personally I'd like to see another world class coaster added. Don't get me wrong BTM and Space Mountain are amazing but I feel there's room for another. Indiana Jones is awful in my opinion.

The Studios Park is obviously undergoing some serious changes right now but I'd personally like to see a lot more come. A Spiderman Web Slingers ride and the upcoming Frozen ride are obviously going to be popular but I really expected a lot more. Will be a real shame if the Star Wars land is shelved which it looks like it is.

 

[Mi-Nigle]

Couldn’t agree more. This holiday wasn’t about creds but I enjoyed getting my fix a couple of times, would have been nice to have more variety. It’s a shame I couldn’t do Rock’n Rollercoaster (a ride all my school friends had done… not jealous at all!!) but even with it open I would have liked something more up-to-date. I’d love to see a new in-house theme/idea but I expect from this point forward it’s movie tie-ins or bust.

 

[Benjsh]

Couldn’t agree more. This holiday wasn’t about creds but I enjoyed getting my fix a couple of times, would have been nice to have more variety. It’s a shame I couldn’t do Rock’n Rollercoaster (a ride all my school friends had done… not jealous at all!!) but even with it open I would have liked something more up-to-date. I’d love to see a new in-house theme/idea but I expect from this point forward it’s movie tie-ins or bust.

Rock N Rollercoaster really isn't anything special tbh. You haven't missed much there. It's a real head rattler too.

I had heard that it was possibly getting new trains with lapbars as part of the overhaul but this turned out to be false information. Seems like barely anything has changed about the layout and trains which for me is such a poor decision. Theming it to Iron Man will obviously create more hype but the coaster itself was never that good to begin with.

 

[evilcod]

Sounds like you had a great time! I've been a number of times pre-covid/kids but we are taking our little ones this year for the first time. What did you do about the long days with a 2 year old, she manage okay? Did you look at hiring one of their strollers, take your own or just carry?

Maybe this is a Covid thing but... there MUST be a better system for meeting Mickey... several Mickeys in separate secret rooms? Several Mickey "stations" around the park? I don't know but the 2.5 hr waits for him every day are hilarious.

Interesting, how are they currently running it? Queues are usually longish for him but not that length!
Mickey is usually in the Meet Mickey Mouse building where you queue past the old stage area and are taken "back stage" where they do have multiple different rooms to meet him.

 

[Mi-Nigle]

What did you do about the long days with a 2 year old, she manage okay? Did you look at hiring one of their strollers, take your own or just carry?

On the whole she did very well. We did Dumbo first (she'd seen Youtube vids and was very excited) where she got upset because she didn't understand why everybody in front of her could have their turn first... then after the (surprisingly short) ride she didn't understand why she couldn't just stay on. I was worried that this would continue the next 3 days but it didn't take her long to get it. Later we managed a 40min wait for Peter Pan with little issue.

I only noticed the hireable strollers on our last day when we were already crippled from 2 days of carrying her. I would have seriously considered one had I seen them earlier, I don't know what they charge though.

In hindsight, with regards to to the long days, I think we should have taken it a bit easier and sacrificed a bit of park time to travel between parks or back to the hotels or to have downtime. Squeezing in every last ride is a habit of yore and there's also the desire to get your money's worth. Gwen handled it well but she was tired at the end of the day.

Interesting, how are they currently running it? Queues are usually longish for him but not that length!
Mickey is usually in the Meet Mickey Mouse building where you queue past the old stage area and are taken "back stage" where they do have multiple different rooms to meet him.

That is very interesting to read. What you describe would have been so much better. He was in the Meet Mickey Mouse building but I have several issues with how it's run.

• Firstly, the opening times aren't advertised until it actually opens. I observed this the first two days so we knew when to go on the third, 10am.
• Secondly, it's advertised on the app as Mickey and the Gang. Gwen really wanted to meet Minnie so we thought this was a safe bet... alas it was Mickey and Mickey only. Minnie has her own separate "Fashion" meet (30th Anniversary outfit) in the studios park. We didn't do this due to a similarly long queue.
• Thirdly, (I didn't list this in my "Bad Stuff" list because I didn't want to touch on RAP... but here we go) how RAP (or at least what I assumed to be RAP) was handled was... irritating. Maybe more so because we'd just got to the front after Gwen had patiently waited 1hr 20mins and was on the cusp of a tantrum (I don't blame her) when they let 4 consecutive RAPs before us. One of them was a huge group of 10+ people who all wanted individual and group photos. Why don't they alternate RAP and the main queue? Why do they have to clear the whole RAP queue before resuming the main one? It took ages and everyone in the main queue who saw Mickey were ushered away after less than 60 seconds. God forbid you had camera issues.

There is one Mickey on the old stage and that's as close as you get. You're queueing to stand 10 feet from him, take a selfie and wave. Presumably this is for Covid reasons... fine... but I don't know why you can't do the separate rooms as you describe in a socially distanced way. A daily 2+ hour queue for a young persons attraction is unacceptable imho. Meeting Mickey has been a staple attraction in every Disney park for decades and the operation should be sooooo slick.

We left feeling bitter sweet. I'm glad Gwen got to see Mickey and she appeared to enjoy it but I was walking away with several ideas on how to greatly improve the experience.

 

[jon81uk]

Yeah it will be covid reasons.
Yes they could have used the smaller rooms and barriers to enforce the distancing, but I think they felt guests would be took likely to try and jump barriers or push kids through maybe?
I know in the USA there was pressure from unions regarding covid and performers so there could have been those issues in Paris too.

I think the regular non-distanced meets are coming back soon though.