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Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

What has happened to Disneyland Paris?

27 replies

samantha001 · 30/08/2014 17:38

Having been a regular visitor to Disneyland Paris with DS's over the past 20 years, I was really disappointed with what I found last week when I visited and wanted to find out if anyone else had the same experience and felt the same? In both parks many of the rides were not working completely or broke down during our stay, some parts of the main park were deserted as shows are no longer running, restaurants were also shut. The lack of maintenance has left the parks looking shabby and small elements of the rides, water showering you on one of the Big Thunder drops or the door on Space Mountain opening and shutting, no longer work. I also found many of the toilets had no hand soap and are not kept clean during the day, this is not very Disney!

OP posts:
PurpleAlert · 15/09/2014 23:27

Ok just got back last night. Went on Friday (arrived at 2pm) and left on the 5pm train on Sunday.

Had a fab weekend with DH and DDs (16 and 18) Weather great. Went on the Euro star and stayed in the Cheyenne which is about a 15 minute walk from the parks.

We used the Disney Express service which is where you drop off your bags when you arrive and they take them to the hotel for you so you can go straight in the park- I would highly recommend this- means you get longer in the parks.

We had standard half board vouchers- this was a bit limited as there were very few places left to book at the times we wanted although I suspect that if you just turned up you would get seated after a short wait.

Only about eight restaurants that you can use the vouchers in but there are others that you can top up the value of the vouchers but this is very expensive. We had a very average meal in the steak house in the Disney Village and for starters, a main course and a few drinks it cost 165 Euros- we paid 50 with the vouchers but it really wasnt the sort of food you expect to pay those sorts of prices for.

Word of warning-DO NOT go the the Silver Spur restaurant in Frontier land- they have a menu that is on the standard meal plan but the main courses are awful (probably the worst steak I have ever eaten...).

Also had pause gourmande snacks- there are only a few places that accept them- not the little booths but the counter service restautants- one in the Studios is opposit the Rockin' roller coaster and another on the corner of main street in the main park (near the Frontier land entrance). You can get a drink and a cake which is worth it as everything is astronomically expensive.

Breakfasts are good- if you are cheeky you can knock up a picnic lunch to take with you. (Loads of people seem to be doing this)

We were last there in 2001 and there is alot more there than last time we visited which was just after the studios open although a few things are looking a bit tired and the hotel definitely could do with a bit of a makeover.

Agree toilets not great but not the worst - they are fine at the beginning of the day but are not cleaned often enough.

Best rides (but not necessarily for younger ones)- Space mountain, Thunder Mountain, Rockin roller coaster (my personal favourite!)

A few scary ones I didn't like the look of but if you are brave- RC racers and Tower of Terror.

Violent and short (very fast and a very tight 360 loop) Indiana Jones

Other good rides (less scary)- Pirates of the Carribean, Ratatouille (go on the single rider queue if possible at peak times) Star Tours (although a little dated now) Studio tour has a few good effects. Soldier parachutes in toon town. Armageddon is fun but not for nervous children (DH took DD on this when she was 5 and she was terrified!) The turtle nemo ride looked good but huge queues so we didn't bother.

A few things were shut but nothing I was that interested in.

The Stitch presentation is fun (make sure you go in the English one or it will make no sense!) as is the Stunt car display.

There are loads more rides but were more for little ones which we were less interested in.

At busy times try to go around and collect the fast passes (they tell you a time to return)- well worth it-some of the queues were 90 mins this weekend and the fast passes took that down to about 15 mins. You need to do this fairly early as they do run out. If you are in one of the Disney hotels you can get into the parks early.

Oh and if you get a chance do stop to see the fireworks/ laser/ fountain display in front of the Fairy castle(10pm)- it really is quite spectacular!

I found all the park staff friendly and courteous although some of the French visitors were less polite...

Even with the odd irritations I still think it's a great place to visit- Florida is great but France is so much closer and totally doable for a long weekend (especially if the Eurostar is near by.)

plipplops · 28/09/2014 11:29

We went last summer, having been to Florida a couple of times. Were quite disappointed at the general maintenance (not all water bits running, weeds in flowerbeds, disgusting toilets at the end of the day, staff seemingly not bothered about actually filling all seats on a ride even though queues were big). DDs had a really lovely time though and keep asking to go back. We looked into it and it turns out DLP isn't actually fully owned by Disney, it's something like 20% owned by them. Think this explains a lot of the lack of Disney shine. Also it was soooooo expensive, pound for pound you really might as well go to Florida if you have the money (i.e. we spent £2.5K in 5 days at DLP, and £6K for 15 days in Florida). We'd never go back to DLP (but are off to Florida next month, hooray!!!!)

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