Planning for Disneyland Paris

[Totopez]

Hello friends!

We are planning a trip to Paris this summer (first week of July), and will of course do Disneyland Paris while there.

I know its perhaps not the best time of year to go, but it was the only option we had. After long discussions between the not so theme park-oriented part of the family and myself, we have agreed on a two day visit, and need some advice.

The family has never been to Disneyland before, apart from my visit to Tokyo DisneySea last year (by the way, thanks for the help on that one). We will most likely not be staying on site, we have the opportunity to borrow an apartment in Paris for free. Or should we concider staying on site, to be able to get in earlier?

 

To give you a picture of the family, there is four of us.

Myself, 38, action fanatic. Loves everything that moves. Altius, Citius, Fortius. Favourite coasters are Balder at Liseberg and X at SFMM.

Wife, 37, likes soft coasters, hates spinners. More kiddie rides.

Daughter, 9, 137 cm. Just like myself, loves all rides. Wants to ride all things that she is allowed to.

Son, 4, ~100 cm (never stands still long enough to be measured). Likes softer rides, mostly car-oriented. Has so far not liked any roller coasters, but only tried "Nyckelpigan" at Gröna Lund in Stockholm and another similar one.

So it looks like it will be me and the daughter trying to get all the big ones, and wife and son the small ones.

 

So my question is, how do we plan this?

When to go?

I guess all days in early July will be pretty crowded, but are any days of the week to be preferred?

What to do first? Where to use the Fastpasses?

Are there any of the "younger" rides that are worth using fastpasses for, or could the two more adventurous of us use all four passes? How many times will we be able to use the Fastpasses each day, if planned properly?

Does any of the attractions have a single-rider system? I used this very frequently in Tokyo last year, getting to ride Indiana Jones and Raging Spirits five times each...

 

I am pretty sure that you will be able to give me some excellent advice, thank you in advance!

[Groteslurf]

Hi,

 

If I'm not mistaken, kids only have to be + 96 cms (or even +92) to ride BTM. Although the tunnel might scare your youngest, you should try it out.

Again if I'm not mistaken, you have to be 140 cm to ride Space Mountain.

 

I have no experience at DLP early July, but crowds will indeed probably be large.

 

From Paris, it is at least a 30 minutes ride with the RER train to DLP. So if you would have a good and easy connection by RER from the appartement to DLP, go for that. Otherwise, I would recommend to stay on site.

 

Fastpasses :

'younger' rides : when you arrive at the park, get your fast pass for Peter Pan. The ride is extremely popular (while not really worth it) and has a dramatic capicity causing very long lines. If lines for Buzz are long, use your fastpass overthere too.

'bigger' rides :

BTM : normal line will be approx 90 minutes or more the bigger part of the day, so use fastpass.

Indiana Jones : fastpass if lines are long

Space Mountain : fastpass line enters the regular line at approx 15 minutes wait. So if lines are max 30 minutes, go in via the regular line.

ToT : probably long lines so use fastpass

Nemo : I think there is a fastpass line now too. Use it as capicity is not very high

R'n'R coaster : only use fastpass if lines are reaching till outside.

 

 

No single riders lines at DLP as far as I know.

 

Hope this helps

[manakin]

I suggest to use the RER, is perfect because you arrive under the park main entrance.

The most problematic rides are Crush coaster and Peter pan. While for peter pan you can make a fast pass, Crush hasn't this service. so, you must go to the studios before park's opening and try to go in line when the park opens.

for the rest, if you utilize well the fast pass system you won't find big problems

[manakin]

I suggest to use the RER, is perfect because you arrive under the park main entrance.

The most problematic rides are Crush coaster and Peter pan. While for peter pan you can make a fast pass, Crush hasn't this service. so, you must go to the studios before park's opening and try to go in line when the park opens.

for the rest, if you utilize well the fast pass system you won't find big problems

[jeronimon]

My insights: fast passes seem to be covered quite nicely by GroteSlurf.

(I just don't get which attraction he means by Nemo but guess it is Crush, which as Manakin says has no fastpass. Be at the gate of the studios when it opens and the waiting will not be to long for Crush (Spinning mouse))

 

If you don't stay on site, get there in time. If you can: aim for weekdays, the weekend is alwys more crowded.

 

Lenghtwise the numbers are:

Indiana Jones 1m40 (So maken sure your daughter wears her thick soles, high heels or cardboard in her shoes. In my experience a normal children's shoe could add about 2,5 centimeters. Be inventive.)

Space Mountain 1m32 (no problems there I imagine)

Big Thunder Mountain 1m02 so that will be a hit or miss with your son. But maybe he should pass on this one anyway. My son was 5 when he first rode it and although he liked the coaster, the covered lifthill is noisy (=makes a hell of a racket you could go deaf.). He did not like it at all, the racket that is not the coaster, because we rode the coaster four times that day. For reference: it was his 36th coaster at that time.

[Groteslurf]

My insights: fast passes seem to be covered quite nicely by GroteSlurf.

(I just don't get which attraction he means by Nemo but guess it is Crush, which as Manakin says has no fastpass. Be at the gate of the studios when it opens and the waiting will not be to long for Crush (Spinning mouse))

 

If you don't stay on site, get there in time. If you can: aim for weekdays, the weekend is alwys more crowded.

 

Lenghtwise the numbers are:

Indiana Jones 1m40 (So maken sure your daughter wears her thick soles, high heels or cardboard in her shoes. In my experience a normal children's shoe could add about 2,5 centimeters. Be inventive.)

Space Mountain 1m32 (no problems there I imagine)

Big Thunder Mountain 1m02 so that will be a hit or miss with your son. But maybe he should pass on this one anyway. My son was 5 when he first rode it and although he liked the coaster, the covered lifthill is noisy (=makes a hell of a racket you could go deaf.). He did not like it at all, the racket that is not the coaster, because we rode the coaster four times that day. For reference: it was his 36th coaster at that time.

 

I seem to have been wrong big time about the minimum lengths. It's 2 years ago I've been there and obviously my memory is letting me down.

With Nemo I indeed meant Crush (again memory problems ).

And when I was there 2 years ago they were testing the fastpasses on Crush and somebody who've been at DLP recently (an non-themepark addict), told me there was a fastpass on crush. But since it was a non themepark enthusiast who told me, he probably mixed it up with another ride.

[manakin]

well, you are right, some time ago they were testing fast pass on crush. I remeber, it was two summer ago. I tried to take a fast pass but it was crazy!! the normal queue was impossible and the fast pass queue was like the normal queue without fat pass. so they decided to remove this service for crush (this type of attraction wasn't made for use fast pass...)

[jeronimon]

Not helping totopez here, but they also tested a single riders line on Indiana Jones for a time.

They stopped testing, but I do not know if they will maybe reopen this.

[Totopez]

Short trip report. Disneyland Paris seems to have changed the system for fast passes, and you are now only allowed to have one valid fast pass at the same time, opposite to what was written earlier in this thread. A bit sad discovery when we got there, but it worked out fine anyway. I went directly to Peter Pan to get passes for the whole family there, and got a window in just 30 minutes. As the waiting time was only 20 minutes, the whole family rode it once and then gave the fastpasses to the wife and four year old son, who could then ride it twice more without waiting. As these two didn't want to ride so many of the Fast Pass-rides, me and the daughter could use all four entry tickets to get the fast passes we wanted.

 

The daughter and myself went on to BTM, got passes, did the Haunted Mansion, went back to ride BTM twice, went to Space Mountain, got a window in just 30 minutes, waited 30 minutes for Star Tours, rode Space Mountain twice and met up with the rest of the family for lunch. Before that we got FP for Buzz Lightyear. We ate at the mediterranean buffet located in the Casbah in Adventureland, Agrabah Café. Great oriental/mediterranean food, excellent value for money.

 

After this, son and wife got to ride Buzz Lightyear twice while the rest of us headed over to the other park. Got FP for ToT (60 minutes wait) and entered the line for Crushs coaster, also a 60 minute wait. After Crush, we did our two times at ToT, got fastpasses for Flying Carpets, took the tram tour, wife and son rode Flying Carpets, got passes for Rock N Roller-coaster, had icecream and said goodbye to wife and son, rode RnR twice, went back to Disneyland Park and did another two rides on Space Mountain, one on Pirates of the Carribean, one on Indiana Jones (which was closed most of the day with technical problems) and one final on BTM before heading back to Paris.

 

A great day, and I think that we were able to do 18 rides or so, in early July. Having double tickets of course helped us getting on many fast pass-rides, along with effective planning. We spent 12 hours in the parks in total, and both kids fell a sleep on the train back.