Come give me wisdom of Disneyland Paris!!

[lisad123]

Travelling with my two girls who both have autism, and dh in few weeks.
Tell me all I need to know. Which restaurants are quieter, best times for swim, anything and everything. I'm excited but so worried it's going to be too much.
We are travelling by Eurostar

Be careful with the vouchers. At cafe mickey they have a monetary value, you can't just order anything...we had to pay 20euros extra. The waiters don't tell you this even though we had the vouchers clearly visible when ordering. Funny that. other restaurants were ok and had special menus for the vouchers or you could order anything.
At the McDonald's in Disney village, they have self service keypads by the door. In English. You choose, pay and then go to collect. Avoids massive queues! Very useful when we were in a rush. Avoid the fast food in Disney Studios...massive noisy queues, horrid food.
Take dress ups with you (65 euros for a buzz costume!)
if you want something specific, got to the big Disney store in Disney village and send DH ahead to scout out the merchandise whereabouts. Saves tantrums going in every store, and they have many many stores.

Oh and Newport bay is a continental breakfast nothing cooked available...but there was plenty of it. Although ts pretty soulless.

Definately only cold continental breakfasts at Newport Bay, still it is more than enough, and our DCs seemed to make a competition out of getting the most unusual and varied breakfast

We didn't have a problem with the vouchers, but we always showed them upfront to the waiter before ordering. Children under 3 stay free, and so do not get vouchers. They used to give them a full children's meal free when eating with a family with vouchers, but now only give a plate of chips or a bowl of dry pasta, so this is worth bearing in mind if you have small children.

We used the vouchers a couple of years ago and never had an issue as long as you stick to the "grade" of restaurant the vouchers cover - we never had to pay any extra.

Take tat, lots and lots and lots of tat, hand it out periodically as you wander about, the place is one GIANT shop with a few rides.

The second time we went, I took lots of disney themed bits and bobs.

I know which our vouchers cover and will have to upgrade with money if we want cafe Micky or most others
Which we had known when we brought them, as would have likely liked to go up a grade.
Will pack dressing up stuff ( but will check with girls as they hate the scratchy dresses).
Will buy books for signing, and boxes/bags for lunches.

I viewed a meal at cafe mickey as a chance to meet several characters for pictures without the hussle and bustle (they go round each table) so in my view it was worth it for that.

We took Mickey and Minnie mouse ears on headbands. I got them in the UK disney store for £4 each, they cost over twice that price to buy in DLP. He also took his buzz lightyear suit and some disney Tshirts that I had bought in the disney store sale in the UK.

"a few rides" we spent two full days doing the shows and rides with the priority pass (so no queues) and while we did most of the rides, we could still have happily filled another day.

I did find the shop a bit disappointing though as I felt they all tended to repeat themselves. I would have preferred a princess shop, a toy story shop, cars shop, etc etc, rather than having loads of random stuff, the same in every store. There was less choice in the shop than I expected. DS still managed to come home with a fair bit of swag though!

The show are magnificent. I was just going to start recommending them, but I realise I know nothing of the effects of autism, so what is great to me might not be to you.

There is a good website, www.dlrpmagic.com . It gives descriptions of all the shows which may help you in deciding what's good for you. That said, I was thinking the show Animagique is fab, but then thought how dark the auditorium is during the show, and this website doesn't seem to highlight this. Then again I don't know if this would even be a problem for you?

Perhaps you could look at the descriptions of the shows on the website, and maybe post the ones you like the look of, so we could describe them to you to see if they could be an issue for your DDs.

HTH

Thank you all do much, there was so much I hadn't consider!!
I now have a suitcase of tat including, dressing up outfits minus the scratchy stuff, wands and glow sticks. A case full of food for snacking on, Tupperware pots and sandwich bags. My friend went last week and has posted me a map with loads of advice on which rides are best (she knows my girls very well). I have Disney toys and activities from pound shop and even rucksacks
We currently have the Disney cd on with sing along book. The girls are very excited.
Have booked a table seat on eurostar and will book restaurants when we arrive and r
Try to upgrade room