To think there’s nothing ‘magical’ about Disneyland Paris?

[Wrappleschat82]

And it’s all just one big money making extravaganza. I guess if you can throw enough money at it then maybe the ‘magic’ comes more easily.
We are meant to be going in a few weeks and I’m hoping for a bout of norovirus instead! I was really excited when we booked it a year ago but gradually I’ve started to feel similar towards it as I do now to Christmas: one big money making load of crap.
I’m on the fb Disneyland Paris site and it’s full of adults crying over meeting a French woman in a mouse costume. Trip advisor speaks the truth - that it’s too busy, there’s no customer care, the only places you don’t have to queue for hours are the shops (cunning) and that generally it couldn’t be less magical.

I do wish I could stop seeing everything through the lens of ‘just trying to make money’ because now I’ve started it applies to a lot of things that are billed as ‘special.’ Dh was talking about taking the children to some Easter hunt thing with loads of Easter decorations in the gardens. It looks really impressive online. Then I just think ‘money making scheme.’

We didn't go for magic, we went for a fun holiday and some good memories somewhere child friendly, safe and easy. It delivered that for us. It's the first time we stayed in a hotel with DC and it was lovely to not have to think; I adore our walking holidays and self catering trips to Norfolk but for 5 days we had our food sorted for us and nowhere to go but the parks and pool. Foreign beach holidays aren't for me so DLP was a perfect package style holiday. We're going this summer holiday for 5 days with half board meal plan and it's costing similar to a comparable week in Majorca.

I don't understand the need for Instagram moments and grown ups being "wacky" either - we took a total of 4 photos, we were with our DC and too busy having fun. It doesn't have to be like that though!

I'm with you OP. It's my idea of hell. It turns out there is somewhere worse than DLP and that's Disney CA. Even longer queues.

I really enjoyed Universal on the other hand and Puy du Fou in France I thought was magical and amazing.

I don't judge others I just don't get myself despite wanting and trying really hard to love it. I think part of it for me is that it's too hyped up and it is just a theme park.

I really enjoyed Knotts Berry Farm and Universal too.

DS1 has been to Disneyland Paris but says he preferred Phantasialand in Germany.

My kids adored it and still talk about it over a year later, for them, it was magical and I am happy with that.

I am one of the most cynical people I know and only went to give my children a treat after a particularly awful year. We all loved it, probably me more than everyone!

YABU. You just have to close your mind to the money and suspend disbelief, and you'll have a great time.

It is what it is, you need to go with the flow.

I haven't been to Disney Land Paris for 15 years, but we took our children to disneyworld florida last October and had an unbelievable time.
BUT...... you have to go with the mindsets that your going to be silly and spend alot of money and cuddle people dressed in costumes etc to please tour kids. If you don't do this and embrace it you won't enjoy it.
My husband I could describe as Victor meldrew and even he enjoyed it. Its like being in a bubble away from real life for a bit. Embrace it and you'll love it

Another vote for Parc Asterix, fantastic place and easy to plan your way around with clear wait times around the park for the more popular rides

YANBU - I've never understood why you would go to France for an American experience. Visit Paris instead.

@GreenEggsHamandChips we didn't book direct. Also at the time we didn't have much help with anything regarding his diagnosis hence the much needed family break. It had been a stressful couple of years.

Now a few years down the line we better understand his condition and more importantly his rights. Helpful measures such as this would have made the journey A LOT easier.

As soon as you start to see just how deeply we've been conned by consumerism, you'll never look at anything the same way again.

I am a fairly hard-faced cynic but I've paid ££ for it twice and absolutely loved it. Will def be going again.

For me it's largely the 'magic' for DS (he was 3 on his first trip, just on the cusp of not really 'believing' in the characters but also sort of believing because he wanted to), and also the enforced fantasy of it all. I'm a single parent, I have a demanding job, too much housework, an endless list of boring shit which needs to be done, various worries about the way the world is headed, and I will gladly pay £££ to be flung into an absurd world where all of that feels so far away for a few days. I wonder whether some of that also applies to some of the adult fans who don't have children and get really into the whole Disney thing? I've had some other brilliant, adventurous, restorative holidays with DS, and DLP was also knackering in its own way, but there was something about how immersive it was which prompted an almost addicted response in me - I started planning our second trip almost as soon as we'd got back from our first.

Probably that need for distraction could have been met in other ways, and probably the 'best' thing to do with the same amount of time and money is to spend it actually addressing the humdrum stuff rather than running away to Disney, but it did me good and there are worse ways of getting that feeling.

Re: the customer service - I know lots of people rate US Disney miles ahead of DLP for this reason (I haven't been - not a keen flier) - but I'm much more comfortable with French customer service than American! I think actual rudeness is rare, it's just a more reserved culture and I get a bit awkward with people trying to jolly me up too much and shop assistants talking to me as if I'm a good friend, so it suits me better! I think DS is the same.

It's a rip-off for what it is (and keeping an eye on prices, seems to become more and more so all the time), but we'll definitely be going again once DC2 is a better age for it.

I've never understood why you would go to France for an American experience. Visit Paris instead

It isn’t an either/or type thing - it’s not as if you have ONE trip to France and can only do one thing

I went as a kid and liked it but I didn’t love it. My happiest childhood holiday memories are definitely not the theme parks. If I look back now what I remember most happily are holidays with cousins in the countryside, camp fires, learning to sail and learning to ski. So now when I’m going to spend money on a holiday with the kids I prefer it to be something less commercial and more about adventure and freedom or learning a skill that will lead to many adventures.

I was a cynical bitch as a child, I’d never have fallen for that in a million years.

This is me too! - I didn't have the kind of family who would ever go to disneyland, but just as well as I thought it seemed sinister and bizarre, especially the character costumes. Seeing ads of a child hugging a ginormous Mickey and being all excited and I would just think "how can you actually believe that's anything other than an overheated human?" (even as an 8yo :o)

But as a PP said there's nothing wrong with money-making enterprises, all of us have to make money somehow - people need paying jobs and businesses to employ them. It's only bad if something exists just to make cash and is shit. If you enjoy it enough to be willing to pay, that's a fair deal.

Some of which is a long winded way of saying - yes ugh consumerism, and also the 'right' thing to do is to strive for a better existence for our own families and the world in general, but to be brutally honest I'm tired and I'm able to shelve that discomfort and enjoy the bits of consumerism which gives me pleasure, on the whole.

Which is presumably how people manage to keep flying loads in spite of worrying about climate change, how people keep using Amazon in spite of 'valuing' local independent book sellers... it's wilful cognitive dissonance, isn't it.

I've never understood why you would go to France for an American experience. Visit Paris instead

No reason why you can't do both in one trip - it's an easy train ride from the gates of DLP to central Paris - which is another bonus.

But it's not an 'American' experience imo. DLP is very different to DWF. It's Disney with a European spin, and I found it quite charming, actually. Yes much smaller than Florida, but still a lot of fun. And we found it pretty good value when compared with lots of other family holidays.

I love the place tbh.

My children loved it and therefore so did I. Parting with my money for my children's enjoyment is something I couldn't get upset about.

Loved it so much we are off to Florida this year!

You'd honestly rather you all came down with noro?! Way bother going then?

We go multiple times a year for short breaks. We love it.

Plenty magical and the theming and rides are all top notch.

Sure, it can have it's problems/issues. But compared to the Merlin parks over here it's a different league.

And seeing the wonder on DCs face is worth every penny.

Went in 2008, so it may have changed? But it was so awful. Large groups of teens steaming their way to the front of queues pushing over little ones (DD was 4 at the time) to see Princesses etc. Little or no crowd control/security from Disney. Food was expensive beyond all belief, and once again bloody teenagers pushing their way in. Whole place looked a bit dirty and nothing like as clean as the Florida parks. All in all wish we’d saved the £1500 for 4 days, towards going to Florida. Would never go back.

Disney Paris was awful! We made it onto about 5 rides over the course of 3 days because if rediculous queues, everyone was rude, lots of queue jumping. Food was awful. Everything cost a bomb. Those people on the fb page are nuts, I don't get grown adults behaving like kids when it comes to Disney. Never again

It's probably really individual - I can see why some people love it, but Disney parks were never for me as a kid. I went to the Florida ones a few times as a kid between the ages of 8-12...and while it was good fun, whatever great memories I was supposed to get didn't happen - it's mostly a blur - and I don't really recall it being more fun than any other theme park or similar I went to as a kid (my brother was and still is rollercoaster obsessed so we went quite a bit). My most amusing memory was how it was added to the list of theme parks I 'got lost' in (I knew where I was so I wasn't lost - my parents losing track of me repeatedly when I wandered off was totally not my fault Heavens know how I survived to adulthood...).

I have far more fond memories of Kings' Island and Cedar Point (in what American theme parks I remember, those are by far my favourite - and I 'got lost' in both of them) and much more fun once an adult at places like Wicksteeds which my kids still talk about years on.

It can be hard to get past the expense and the feeling of being conned for many of these things aimed at kids/parents' wallets, especially knowing how few of the much touted 'memory makers' really had any lasting impact or memory for me and seeing what seemingly random things my kids seem to remember on these kinds of trips. I guess we just have to enjoy them for what they are in the moment and weigh the benefits of those (rather than the possibility of long-term effects) vs the expense and risks.

I don't see the issue with seeing something as it is while still accepting that your kids will love it. (Unless you were going to Disneyland for you, OP, in which case I don't really know what to say).

My kids love loads of stuff that is basically just commercial crap. I don't mind, I like seeing them happy.

It's not great. I love Florida but the Paris one is a bit shite. It's pretty small so doesn't have the same wow factor and I found lots of the staff very rude. The Americans just do it better.

YANBU, but I think you should have given it more thought before booking. It's always sounded like hell to me - queues, adults dressed as cartoon characters, plastic fairytale palaces, enforced fun, unpleasant rides, crowds, pressure to buy overpriced merchandise, hideous gender stereotyping, money worship, crap food. Other people's photos on FB look very grim but obviously I'm not a very fun parent.

If you'd thought of it before, you could have turned it to your advantage by generously paying for your dcs to go on a 'special' trip with Dad, Auntie Sue or whoever, while you had a peaceful weekend on your own, but it might be a bit late to pull out now.