23 Best Disneyland Paris Tips You Should Know For An Amazing Trip

Planning a trip to Disneyland Paris and looking for practical tips to help you? This article will show you all the best Disneyland Paris tips you need to know!

There are lots of superlatives that truly describe the beauty of Disneyland Paris, but one that easily comes to the top of my head is Magical.

The minute you enter this dream world, it’s like entering your own fairytale blanketed with magic everywhere you look. I still remember my first time visiting Disneyland Paris and even now, after multiple visits, I still get that same magical feeling.

From the enchanting songs, the perfectly dressed characters, the beautiful displays, and not forgetting Mickey, everything flows well together to create a breathtaking sight!

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As you plan to visit the most beautiful and happy place in France, there are a few things you should know to make your visit even more enjoyable, especially if you’re visiting Disneyland Paris for the first time

As a Disney-obsessed person, I’ve picked up a number of Disneyland Paris tips over the times I’ve visited that I am sure you’ll find helpful, even when it’s not your first visit.

Ready to have a fantastic time on your visit? Here are my best tips for visiting Disneyland Paris.

Before You Go, Here’s How To Plan Your Visit To Disneyland Paris: Practical Quick Tips

• Before going to Disneyland Paris, make sure that you have already bought this 1 day Disney entry ticket to avoid wasting time in lines or this multi-day entrance ticket if you plan on visiting for more than one day. Ps. Do not buy the tickets on the day of your visit as they tend to be much more expensive.
  
  
• Take advantage of the extra magic time by staying at one of the Disneyland Paris Hotels. You can stay at Relais Spa Chessy Val d’Europe if you’re on a budget, Disney’s Newport Bay Club for a luxury mid-range stay (this is actually where I stayed when I visited Disney), or Disney’s Hotel New York® – The Art of Marvel for a luxurious stay. All these hotels offer a free shuttle to Disneyland Paris and are 10 minutes away from the park on foot.
  
  
• Unfortunately, things can and do go wrong when you travel. World Nomads offers coverage for more than 150 activities as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation, and more. If you’re considering travel insurance for your trip, check out World Nomads.
  
  
• You’ll also need sunscreen, comfortable walking shoes, and a refillable travel water bottle.

Best Disneyland Paris Tips for an Amazing Trip

Here are the best tips on Disneyland Paris that will help you enjoy your visit to the max.

1. Understand the Different types of Tickets for Disneyland Paris

First on my list of Disneyland Paris tips for first timers is to examine the different types of entry tickets.

You should know that there are various types of tickets, and understanding them and what each offers will ensure that you purchase one that is right for you. To give you an idea, below are all the options available to you.

Disneyland Paris 1-Day Ticket: This entry ticket allows you to visit Disneyland Paris for one day. When buying the ticket, you can choose whether you want to spend that one day in one park or both. Yes, Disneyland has 2 parks — Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios. >>> Click here to purchase your Disneyland Paris 1-day ticket <<<

Disneyland Paris Multi-Day Entrance Ticket: Unlike the one above, this entry ticket allows you to visit both parks for either 2, 3, or 4 days depending on how long your visit will last. Please note that these should be consecutive days from the day your trip begins. >>> Click here to purchase your Disneyland Paris multi-day ticket <<<

Disneyland Paris 1-Day Flexible Ticket: This ticket is perfect if you want to be flexible. As the name suggests, you don’t have to have a fixed date for your visit, unlike the above tickets. The ticket is valid for 1 year from the date of purchase so you can visit any time you feel like and you can have access to either 1 or 2 parks for 1 day. >>> Click here to purchase your Disneyland Paris 1-day flexible ticket <<<

Which ticket should you purchase? This entirely depends on what you want, how many days you want to visit, and if you want to visit just one park or both. So, choose one that suits your personal needs.

2. Book Your Disney Tickets Online in Advance

After knowing the exact type of ticket you need, you should book it in advance!

This might sound like a no-brainer but you’ll be surprised by how many people spend hours in queues just to buy tickets.

By buying your entry tickets online, you not only save time you would have wasted in queues but they’re also sometimes cheaper.

As an example, if you buy tickets on the day of your visit (even if you buy them online), they’ll be almost double the price you’d have bought them for, say 1 month earlier. You can purchase your Disneyland Paris ticket from here!

3. Visit both Parks

As mentioned above, Disneyland Paris has 2 parks. Disneyland Park which is all about magic and fairytales and Walt Disney Studios Park which highlights the biggest movies from Disney, Marvel, and Pixar.

While visiting both is a little more expensive than visiting one, I recommend visiting both to get a glimpse of both sides.

Before, Walt Disney Studios Park didn’t have a lot of attractions but new attractions have been added recently to make it worth your while.

However, if time and budget dictate visiting only one, then you should visit Disneyland Park and leave out Walt Disney Studios.

4. Download the Official Disneyland Paris Mobile App

As Disney says “Your mobile is your Magic Wand”, so before you visit Disneyland, make sure that you download the free Disneyland Paris app.

This app does much more than just show waiting times for attractions. You can make reservations at restaurants, see the times for parades, and get personalized recommendations for rides to go to throughout the day.

The app will also be your handy guide by showing you walking times from one attraction to another, and if you need to purchase Disney Premier Access (more on this later in the article) or order food, you can do all that at the tap of the button.

5. Expect long lines

Being a magical place as it is, you can expect long lines! Over 12 million people visit Disneyland Paris annually, meaning that over 30k people visit every day.

Of course, this depends more or less on the time of the year, but this amount of people calls for patience.

For popular rides in Disneyland Paris like Big Thunder Mountain, Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain, Star Tours, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, etc., you can expect waiting times of up to 1 hour.

If that happens, the only thing you can do is to be patient since you can’t visit Disney and not do those rides.

6. Take Advantage of the lunch hours to ride on popular rides

One of my best tips for Disneyland Paris is to go to popular rides during lunch hours. Between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM, the number of people at rides will reduce as they go to have lunch.

Instead of adding to the crowds at restaurants, do the opposite and go to popular attractions and you might just reduce the wait time in half.

7. Avoid visiting on the Weekend And school holidays

While still on tips for Disneyland Paris to help you avoid the crowds, another useful one is to visit during the week and not at the weekend.

This is because many people who work Monday to Friday usually take weekend trips from Paris and other nearby cities to Disneyland. This is the same for other school and bank holidays.

If you choose to visit during the week, you may want to avoid Wednesday too as most kids in France don’t go to school on Wednesday.

8. Get to the park as early as possible

Disneyland Paris will always be crowded but one tip to help you beat the crowds is to arrive as early as possible.

If you’re sleeping at one of the Disney hotels, then this shouldn’t be an issue as you’ll have the magical pass, but if you’re not a resident, arriving early is the best way to guarantee you ride on popular attractions as early as possible.

Currently, both parks open at 9:30 AM, so make sure you’re already there by at least 8:30 AM or 9 AM to be the first in the security queue.

9. Take Advantage of the Extra Magic Hours

One of the best Disney Paris tips is to take advantage of the Extra magic hours by sleeping in a Disney hotel.

While the parks open at 9:30 AM for everyone, those who stay in Disneyland Paris hotels get a magic pass that allows them to enjoy the park before the crowds arrive. Depending on the time of the year, this can be either 30 minutes or 1 hour earlier.

With the magic pass, you can easily ride the popular attractions that are usually crowded before the crowds arrive.

In the same way, magic pass holders also get to enjoy extra magic time at the end of the day. As the park closes to everyone else, people with magic cards can stay for an additional 30 minutes to enjoy a little extra magic without the crowds.

To get a magic pass, you’ll need to stay at a Disneyland Paris hotel. My 3 most recommended Disneyland Paris hotels include;

• Relais Spa Chessy Val d’Europe: This is great for budget travelers. You can check rates and availability here.
  
  
• Disney’s Newport Bay Club: This is for mid-range budget travelers. This is actually where I stayed on my last visit. You can check rates and availability here.
  
  
•  Disney’s Hotel New York® – The Art of Marvel: For a luxurious stay, you can’t go wrong with this hotel. You can check rates and availability here.

10. Make reservations at restaurants in advance

If you plan to have lunch/dinner at one of the best Disneyland Paris restaurants, especially at the table-service and all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants, then you’ll need to make reservations in advance to be guaranteed a spot.

Most of these popular restaurants book up pretty fast that sometimes you’ll need to book 2 months in advance before your visit.

You can easily make a reservation through the Disneyland Paris official app or even make adjustments to it.

11. Consider bringing Your own Food/Snacks

As you’d imagine, restaurants at Disneyland Paris are quite pricey! If you don’t want to spend on food or you just can’t justify the price tag attached to it, consider carrying your own.

The best thing is that Disney allows this so you won’t be in any trouble.

12. consider doing character dining

While still talking about food, you may want to consider character dining. If you don’t know what this is, character dining is a unique experience where different Disney Characters visit you at your dining table to have fun with you.

This is specifically fun if you’re visiting with kids as they’ll appreciate being up close and personal with their favorite Disney characters.

Character Dining is at specific restaurants so you’ll need to check the official website to see which restaurants and characters are on for the day.

13. Leave your Disney costumes at Home

One of the Paris Disneyland tips many first-time visitors don’t know is that dressing up in costumes for adults is not allowed. Children below the age of 14 years are however allowed to dress up in costumes.

This helps reduce confusion, especially with kids who may find it hard to distinguish who the real Disney cast member is and who is just playing dress-up.

However, if you have a t-shirt, cap, or bunny ears featuring Disney characters, you can wear them.

14. Find out the character meet & greet schedule At your hotel

One of the perks of staying at a Disneyland Paris hotel is getting up close and personal with Disney characters at hotels.

These hotels usually hold meet and greets at different times so if you want to be part of it, confirm with your hotel to make sure you don’t miss it. I mean it’s also part of the magic of Disney.

15. Take advantage of Disney Premier Access

Why waste hours in queues when you can just ride your favorite attraction with no lines?

Since Disneyland Paris phased out the old FastPass system, it has since introduced Disney Premier Access which allows fast entry to rides without using the general long queues.

How does the Disney Premier Access exactly work?

There are 2 types of Disney Premier Access — Disney Premier Access Ultimate and Disney Premier Access One with the former offering more perks and of course, more expensive.

With Disney Premier Access One, you get fast-track entry to only one attraction in the park and you’d need to book a time slot beforehand. When that time comes, you just walk straight to the fast lane. You can only purchase it through the app and only on the day of your visit.

On the other hand, Disney Premier Access Ultimate allows you to ride each available attraction once and you can just go the fast lane any time you want without booking a time slot. It is also purchasable through the Disney app though you can do it either in advance or on the day of your visit.

One thing you should note, however, is that you cannot use the Disney Premier Access on every ride but a few and usually the most popular ones.

Some of the eligible attractions include; Crush’s Coaster, Big Thunder Mountain, Ratatouille: The Adventure, Star Wars Hyper Space Mountain, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and more.

16. Skip the Lines By Opting for Single Rider Queues

Another one of the Disneyland Paris tips and tricks to help you save some time in a rather crowded park is to take advantage of the single-rider queues.

If you’re not familiar with it, it comes as a result of a group of people (single party in Disney language) leaving one free seat.

For example, if a ride has 4 seats and the boarding group has 3 members, the cast members will add the 4th person from the single riders queue.

This service is a great way to ride your favorite attractions fast given that you don’t mind not riding with your family or friends.

There are several attractions with single rider queues, so if you want to take advantage of it, just join the short queue with the sign single riders.

17. Make a checklist of the Rides You Don’t Want to Miss

Disney can be incredibly overwhelming especially if you don’t know where to start. It has various rides and it’s normal to want to ride them immediately but that just doesn’t happen.

In fact, chances are high that you’ll not ride all the attractions in the park! However, to make sure that you stay organized and do not forget any rides, I recommend creating a checklist.

This can be as easy as using a notepad on your phone with all the attractions you want to visit and removing any that you visit.

18. Visit Disneyland Paris at least once during the seasonal Celebrations

Disneyland Paris is incredible all year round but it takes its magic to the next level during seasonal celebrations, so if you can, be sure to visit during one.

Yes, it will be a bit more crowded than usual but in my opinion, this is one of the things you should experience at least once.

The seasonal celebrations you can look out for include;

Disney Enchanted Christmas: Starting from mid-November to early January, Disney becomes Santa’s most beautiful village. From stunning Christmas decor, Christmas trees that shimmer in beautiful lights, and Christmas-themed parades to Christmas musical shows, Christmas in Paris is not complete without experiencing the fairytale of Christmas at Disney. You can read my post on how to visit Disneyland Paris at Christmas!

Disney Halloween Festival: If you’re more into Halloween, then Halloween at Disney is one that you won’t forget. Usually from the beginning of October to the beginning of November, Disney puts on a display of chilling decorations that even non-Halloween lovers will fall in love with. You’ll also be able to attend the best Halloween parties at Disneyland Paris.

19. Plan to Visit Disneyland Paris for 2 days if Possible

I know most people treat it as a day trip from Paris which is totally doable, but if you can visit for 2 days, which means spending 1 night at one of the Disney hotels or at the campsites close to Disneyland Paris if you prefer camping, then do it.

With 2 days, you can dedicate one full day to either park which gives you a higher chance of enjoying a wide array of attractions.

If you choose to visit for 2 days, this is the Disneyland Paris entry ticket you’ll need.

20. You can get to Disneyland Paris from both CDG Airport And Orly Airport

Looking for tips for going to Disneyland Paris? Here is another one you might find useful.

One of the most frequently asked questions about visiting Disneyland Paris is which airport one should fly to.

The simple answer is any that makes sense for you depending on where you’re flying from. Both CDG and Orly airports have a direct Magical shuttle that takes you from the airport to the park.

Taking the Magical shuttle is the easiest way to get from these airports but if you intend to use trains, then CDG might make more sense.

To use the magical shuttle, you’ll have to book your spot in advance which you can book from here.

You can also check out other ways to get from CDG to Disneyland Paris. If you’re coming from Paris directly, then you can check out my article on how to get to Disneyland Paris from Paris.

21. Avoid Driving to Disneyland Paris if You Can

While still on the Disneyland Paris travel tips, one thing you should avoid is driving a car.

At first thought, this might seem like the easiest and most comfortable way to go to Disney, especially if you plan on extending your France road trip but it would be a mistake.

First of all, finding a parking spot can be a nightmare, and that coupled with the high parking fee makes it unworthy.

To give you an idea, parking a motorbike costs around €25, a car costs €30, and campervans cost €30. Of course, if you’re a guest at a Disney hotel, then parking will be free.

22. Wear Comfortable Walking Shoes

One of the best Disneyland Paris tips I can give you is to wear comfortable shoes. You’ll walk A LOT for the entire time you’ll be in Disney, so it’s paramount that you wear comfortable shoes.

This will be the wrong time to bring new shoes if you don’t know how walkable or comfortable they are.

Instead of boots, opt for sneakers, or running shoes, but definitely no heeled shoes.

23. Carry a Reusable Travel water bottle

One of the things to pack for Disneyland Paris is a reusable travel water bottle. Just like Paris itself, Disneyland has several drinkable water fountains all around the park to get free water.

Besides saving money on water, you also reduce plastic wastage which is a win-win situation in my book. This is my favorite travel water bottle that you can buy if you don’t have one already.

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Final Thoughts on The Best Tips for Disney Paris

Disneyland Paris is no doubt one of the most enchanting places in France, but it can be a bit overwhelming if you don’t know what to expect.

But with these true and tried Disneyland Paris insider tips, you’ll be able to plan your trip well, right from when you start planning your trip to when you reach the park.

NEVER TRAVEL TO PARIS WITHOUT TRAVEL INSURANCE

One of the biggest mistakes you’ll ever make when planning a trip to Paris is to forego Travel Insurance!

You might think that it’s expensive, but when you think of how much it will save you when you lose your valuables or even get sick, then you’ll know that it’s NOT that expensive!

Unfortunately, things can and do go wrong when you travel. World Nomads offers coverage for
more than 150 activities as well as emergency medical, lost luggage, trip cancellation, and more. If you’re considering travel insurance for your trip, check out World Nomads.

More articles to help you plan your trip to Paris.

• Best Things to Do in Paris in March
• How to get from CDG to Paris
• Best rooftop bars in Paris
• How to get from Paris to Versailles Palace
• Things to do in the 16th arrondissement of Paris
• Best night tours of Paris
• A complete guide to the 20 arrondissements of Paris
• Best Souvenirs from Paris
• What is Paris famous for
• Fun things to do in Paris in November

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