Disneyland Paris.. my head is melted!

[Ladybird11]

Booked flights and 4 nights in the Kyriad hotel near Disneyland Paris for April as my girls main Christmas present. Intention was to buy park tickets for the 2 days we will be in the parks (rest of the time in paris). My AIBU is... AIBU to wish I'd spent more, paid over the odds through an agent, booked a package thereby paying for days of passes for DLP that we wouldn't need if it's only just have been simpler?!

Our hotel offers breakfast but (the Disneyland Paris for Brits FB page has melted my head) I've read that to avoid paying 85 billion euros for dinner, meal passes should be bought.. and meals booked in advance.. and scheduled meals, attractions, etc to make the most of queues, light shows, parades.. oh dear goodness it's so complicated!

Can I not just buy passes for 2 days entry (best value?), and go with the flow? It seems no one goes with the flow and it's managed to the last minute..

Please regale me with DLP go with the flow is possible stories!

We have just come back from a 'go with the flow' break.
We did have a meal plan because it was included free.
We booked one restaurant...Chez Remy. It was ok...the scenery is the draw, rather than the food.
The rest we booked an hour or two before we wanted to eat.

There are a few food stands that you can get a lovely hot waffle covered in Nutella, or a crepe, or a pretzel or whatever for under €4 to keep you going.
It's fine to take food in.

Be sure to watch the end of night show on the castle...it's really great.

I love Disney...hope you enjoy.

I just booked Disney for next Easter (via an agent) for 4 nights/5days today, could have done with this thread yesterday!

We have booked into sequoia lodge but meal plans aren’t available for next April yet. We were thinking of going half board, getting breakfast and evening meal with that and doing one of the counter service places in the park for lunch. From this thread that still seems like a good plan but interesting we can get the train to a market to stock up on snacks etc as we were a bit worried about spending all our cash on food!

Got back from Disney last week & I’d recommend just going with the flow. If you book anything, book dinner for about 6.30pm, allowing plenty of time to eat & for you to get back in time to see the 8pm fireworks show- I HIGHLY recommend!

Also, I don’t know if any pp have mentioned it but definitely download the Disneyland Paris app- it gives you live updates of queue times for rides, showtimes, park map etc. It is really useful if you’re going with the flow as it’s constantly update with live info.

No sympathy, try organising 14 days Disney/Universal for 9! Last time it became military, this time we're being a bit more relaxed. If you want the big rides, character meals etc then you have to book, when we used to go to Florida in the 80s, 90s you could just turn up for a meal but now it's all a bit more regimented, although there are still a lot of more casual places.

Im on aforementioned fb page and it can be a bit... intense im going in november and staying in an offsite hotel our first night then onsite hotel the other nights. Im going to go to the auchan hypermarket and get snacky stuff as dont want to humph snack packs in my case. I have a meal plan included and ill book inventions one night and a character breakfast but apart from that im just going to enjoy my holiday

We always go with the flow at Disney Paris. The only meal we've ever pre booked there was a character breakfast. We often eat at Macdonalds in the Downtown Disney area, and always visit a local supermarket to stock up on snacks and bottled water.

I love Disneyland Paris, we have been 3 times and never booked meals in advance. Yes it's pricey but not outrageous imo. Just go with the flow and have a great time.

@Pearlsofmadness which particular app is it that you use? I have searched Disneyland Paris on the App Store and there are a few to choose from.

They love a meal plan and a schedule on that page, ringing and booking restaurants 3 months in advance

We had a meal plan but only because we got it free with the booking but didn’t pre book anything, breakfast we had at our cabin (Davey Crockett) and lunch and dinners, we just walked in and waited until tables were free.

We had 3yr old DS in June and managed fine. A good tip though is take plastic drinking bottles and a one of those concentrated squeezy squash, fill your bottles up at the water fountains, a squeeze of squash and free drinks. Otherwise it’s like €3/4 for a fizzy drink

If you want a less panicky group, join Daniel Potters DisneyLand Paris Advice - much nicer over there

Get the Disneyland Paris app on your phone for timings. I disagree with the negative comments about the park and I’ve been to Florida/California. The main park is very similar to both of these and you’ll have a great time.

If you did want to eat in one of the popular in park restaurants, they do recommend you book but when we went the first time all but Bistro Chez Remé and the Blue Lagoon (now Captain Jack’s) we’re available and that was Easter weekend. We booked Captain Jack’s 3 weeks before.

were not we’re!

@Grandadwasthatyou If you type in Disneyland Paris, it’s the first one that comes up & is called Disneyland Paris with the R in a circle next to Disneyland. It’s the one that has 4.5k reviews on the App Store.

That’s on my iPhone though, not sure about other devices.

The food at Disneyland is 99% totally shit... it's an a bit of an affront to be turned away or queue for ages when it's so poor but if you are fine with restaurant hopping to find somewhere that's fine.

@icebearforpresident hope you can get some good advice here too then! Great to see common sense prevail here...! Not expecting gourmet food and as I said we will only eat at the parks on 2 days and spend the rest of the time in paris.. looking forward to it!

www.dlpguide.com

Found this.. looks useful..

The app we used was Disneyland Paris, the one with the picture of the castle on the icon. It was very useful for the queue times and saved having to carry a map too.

We went with the flow last October when we went, and we did do a bit of scuttling across the park for the rides that had a 5/10 min queue time

We didn’t have a meal plan - just breakfast, but had no problem with any of the restaurants, possibly because we were eating at 12 and 5. I think most people tend to eat later but my kids are always hungry so that worked well for us. The Earl of Sandwich, Rainforest cafe and Planet Hollywood were all fine - about €40 for the 4 of us in Earl of sandwich for sandwich, drinks, and cookies

I've been 3 times. Each time we stayed in a campsite nearby and spent one day at DLP and one in Paris. We have always taken picnic lunches in. For dinner we ate at Cage Hyperion or the pizza place (Colonel Hatha?). They are the cheapest options though expensive for what they are.

Be warned if you are travelling into Paris from Marne-la-vallee. Last summer I found the train tickets much more expensive than I remembered. We bought them on the day at the station so I'm not sure if there's a cheaper advance option.

@minniemousse that's good to know. Will look into trains before we go..

I'm going for the 3rd time next Easter and staying off-site. Last time we stayed at HNY and had the premium meal plan and it saved a lot of money compared to the walk up price for Inventions and princess dining at Auberge de Cendrillion. This time i'm just going to book one dinner at the Agrabah middle eastern restaurant. I've done Inventions numerous times and my kids are very small eaters to pay a walk up price of 50 euros a head. Last year I booked at the earliest available times and even then time-slots were limited. Lots of people without pre-boooked reservations were being turned away at Inventions when I was there

Have been to DLP loads of times when the DC were younger, had annual passes for a couple of years as FIL lives in France so we go quite often. Have never bought a meal plan, actually a lot of the food on site is pretty poor so we usually schedule our days so we eat our main dinner elsewhere.

@tillytrotter1 Orlando is far easier to organise the system there of dining plans, online booking and fast pass system is basically just getting to grips with mydisneyexperience

DLP is a mish mash of vouchers, phone booking and paper fast passes.

That said for both the only meal you need to definitely book is character ones. You won’t go hungry with all the quick service options. DLP advantage is 3verything is walkable it’s easy to get to the village area where the restaurants are

DLP FB groups are all there to help their members - some FB groups are big, some FB groups are small but they all have the same aim.
In my experience of visits since '92 it really depends on what time of year you are visiting, how many are in your group, the age of your group, what time you want to eat and where you want to eat.
If you want burger and chips for 2 adults at 5pm on a Wednesday during term time then that's great, go with the flow, but if you want a table
for 4 at Inventions in school holidays, at 8.30pm when Illuminations was on at 8pm, then I'd make a reservation.
Ultimately it's your choice and no one is telling you that you have to plan with military precision, common sense should prevail - just don't be one of those moaning Minnies (pun intended), if you don't make a reservation and then you can't get what you want x

We’ve been loads. Meal plans are a waste of money - the food is not good.

• download the app before you go - it has show times on and you can get a feel for queues.
• buy tickets before you go - €99 on the door each!
• eat at Earl of Sandwich in the village or Cowboy Cookout BBQ in the parc. The food in the studios is awful. Save your money for a delicious slap up meal in the U.K.
• take drinks and snacks with you - you’ll save a fortune. We drive so take them from the U.K. If you’re not driving use the shop in the train station for crisps etc.
• not all rides have fast pass. You can have one fast pass per ticket at a time or within a 2hr window of time (from when you got the fast pass) the fast pass ticket tells you when you can get the next one. The machines are next to the rides and labelled. Fast pass is most worth it for Big Thunder Mountain and Ratatouille. Other fast pass rides don’t get such massive queues but if you can get a fast pass do so as it frees you up to do something else
• crush’s coaster always has massive queues and no fast pass - go last thing for shortest queues.
• the shows and parades are surprisingly good - Mickey and the Magician is really good. Get there at least 30 mins before showtime
• queueing for characters is mind numbingly dull and can take forever. Only do it if it’s been a life long dream or you’ve nothing else to do!
• if you do one thing an hour you’re doing really well.

Have a brilliant time!

Great post Handbag! 👍🏻