Euro Disney - tips?

[smellyfeet]

I am taking DD to Euro Disney later this week - just me and her. Staying at Thomas Cook Explorers Hotel.

Anyone have any tips about the parks, the hotel, local supermarkets or cheaper places to get food?

Go to the Shows, the food is included in the price. The Wild West show is brilliant. We ate on site the whole time we were there.

Have a couple of drinks bottles and stock up on drinks and pastries at breakfast. Food is very, very expensive. I also took some drinks and snacks for the hotel room.

It is great fun and worth being there at the end of the day as the queues get shorter.

Hi we will be there at Easter. We're not staing on site and want to go in the for the day, me and 6yr old dd. Should we get a ticket for 1 park or 2? I'm guessing the 1 park will have enough entertainment for the day. Also what times are the parades? And where re the least filthy toilets?

I found the site www.dlrpmagic.com really helpful.

There's lots of great information including the current park schedule which will give you some idea about the parades though the schedule is published every week. When you get there the current Park Schedule is freely available just inside the gates and at the hotels.

We ate breakfast in the hotel and secreted rolls and ham for lunch from the breakfast room - take some sandwich bags! (Naughty I know). We supplemented this with cereal bars and snacks and drinks that we'd taken with us to make a cheap lunch. We ate at any one of the mid range hotels in the evenings which was pricey - family of 4 about £80 per meal with just one small drink each. This was in 2010 so could be dearer now. Book your meals before you go or as soon as you get there as places fill up fast.

Apparently there are supermarkets and restaurants not far away at Val d'Europe which are much more reasonable though we never made it there.

If I was only going for 1 day I would personally get a ticket for just the main park only (Disneyland Park). I really liked the studio park but you can't do them both in one day.

Park Tips

Fast passes are free! Choose what ride you really don't want to miss and put your park entry ticket in the machine by the ride. Collect your fast pass ticket and return at the correct time - normally a half hour slot - and join the fast pass queue. You can't hold multiple fast passes so choose wisely. Your next fast pass can be chosen at the start of your allocated half hour slot usually.
Not all rides have a fast pass facility and some rides that do will have run out of fast pass tickets by midday.

If you get early entry to the park (extra magic hours) use it. Most of the rides that are open early can have queues of an hour later on.

Anybody who is going with a couple of adults and children should ask a cast member about babyswap. It's not publicised very well but allows both adults to ride separately but without queuing (and making your children queue) twice.

Take some food bags to breakfast with you.

I also took a bag of apples, pack of cereal bars, etc in suitcase so I could take food for 'lunch' into the park/studio (along with out bonus breakfast items) and then have a main meal later on.

Top tip - don't call it EuroDisney. It's been Disneyland Paris for many, many years now .

Thanks for the tips, it was fantastic and had fantastic weather.

faeriefruitcake - the Wild West Show was brilliant. DD really enjoyed it, I thought she was going to freak at the horses. We had ringside seats. When we go again (I want to go now!) will try and get the Mickey Cafe character meetup.

I smuggled pastries out and we did share a kids meal and some nuggets. The fast food is not cheap and surprisingly not bad for fast food.

I took snacks for the queues, but DD cotton on to this and was telling me she was hungry before we left the hotel (was after hulahoops!). I also took the Nintendo DS for the queues after waiting 2hrs for the Princess Palace on the first full day we had there.

mrudagawa - I would just get a ticket for the main Disney Park if I was going for 1 day. If at all possible avoid Sat and Sun. We got there Thurs and the queues were OK, it was totally packed by the weekend. The parade in the main park was at 5pm last week. The toilets were unpleasant but not totally disgusting. They have those toilet seat covers available and take wipes!

And take a water bottle, you can fill up on water in the drinking fountains they have