Have booked Disneyland Paris!! Help!!

[MegCleary]

What's the best way to attack it with two children who have never been to a theme park!

And how bad is the food? What's the best thing to do when you haven't booked a meal plan?

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I loved the food. We booked a meal every day including buffalo bill wild west show and the Cinderella princesses meal. Food really was excellent! We did dining plus so not burger and chips stuff, proper meals at nice restaurants.

Have you checked out the DLP guide website? It's great. Loads of planning advice, interactive maps, description of every ride, menus.

We had pizza (Mickey Mouse shaped for the kids) and burgers and back to caravan park for evening meals last year. Going back in Summer half term and going to take picnic lunch and do sit down dinners. The food was better than expected even at the budget end.

We're staying at the Adagio apartments but with annual passes so we get the magic hours.

Are you staying at a Disney hotel?

Don't try and do too much (it's a huge place) and do one land at a time. If you're staying at a Disney Hotel, you can go early. Not all rides are open first thing but you can get to the head of a queue! Use the fast pass system on the big rides - you skip the regular queue by booking a time slot and it's free! We stayed at the Hotel Santa Fe and like many others made up sandwiches with breakfast rolls to take into the park for lunch. I'd brought drinks and snacks with me. The food at the places we ate in the evenings was a bit overpriced but there's a lot of variety. Other tips - lots of kids dress up, if your kids are likely to want to then take costumes from home with you (the ones in the park are lovely but over sixty euro's). Buy an autograph book at home to take rather than spend €€ on site. You can download an app that gives you the waiting times on rides from the DLP site. Stay late & do some of big rides then - much smaller queues! Finally (!) the firework show is lovely - it does get rammed in front of the castle so pick a spot early. It's great - have fun!!

If you want to sit down to watch the parades you have to bag a spot pretty early. You'll notice people sitting on the main street kerb with an hour or so to go. As an adult I wouldn't worry about standing but your kids might not be able to see. Or you can wait at the gate where the parade comes out and follow it all the way down the street

Thank you, thank you. We are staying at the New York hotel. Thought it would be worth getting to the park early doors. I looked a bit at the guide after I found it post booking! The cost of the food shocked me. My two eat like birds the thought of paying that much for a meal they'd eat a third of it ....

The Trip Advisor DLP forum is excellent - have a look on there.

My top tips are:

1. Use the shops in the railway station at the entrance to the park. Much more choice at better value. If you're there for a whole week and have a bit more time, go to the Val d'Europe shopping centre (take the train or there may be shuttle buses) It has a HUUUUUGE Auchan supermarket.

1. The parades are worth seeing. Check the times on the notice board in main square, and get there in good time to get a viewing spot.

1. The weather isn't great, make sure you have appropriate clothes for standing around in the cold and rain (depends what time of year you're going of course).

1. Do not attempt to board the train that goes round the park at teh first stop.

1. The staff at Town Hall are really helpful and will help you with any special requirements.

The New York is lovely , there are lots of places where the food is ok . The breakfast at the New York is very good so if yours don't eat much you may well get away with breakfast / cake and drink at lunch / evening meal . It's really not that big , use fast passes and also use the extra hours in the morning .

The food is overpriced Meg but if they're picky eaters then the buffets are probably the best options (my daughter is v picky and the Hotel Cheyenne seemed to offer the best kid friendly variety). As Melanie also suggests, take snacks and drinks in. The food at the Princess lunch was particularly horrible (my daughter only ate the roll!) but despite the £££ and bad food it was a really lovely experience and my DD was completely star struck when Cinderella came over. You do need to book it in advance as people were being turned away at the door as its so popular!

Google Disney pin trading and get a load of badges off eBay before you go. My two loved it when we went, I bought 50 of eBay for about £25 and two lanyards. You get Rubbish ones but as long as they are genuine the staff will swap any with you. Really good fun and a great holiday keep sake.

If you can use phone data while away, I recommend the Disneyland Paris app, it's an interactive map of both parks and tells you info on all the rides and dining, plus current wait times for rides. I use it when I go so if I see a wait time drop for a certain ride I can go straight there.

For food, the table service restaurants are lovely but a bit pricey, but a lot of them do set menus which helps. The quick service places aren't amazing, but most of the cafes do standard sandwiches and things. Just outside the park in Disney Village (shopping and food ares between parks and hotels) is a McDonald's which is way nicer than UK McDonald's, and an Earl of Sandwich which does really nice sandwiches (cold and hot) for quite cheap, it's worth going there just for lunch.

If you get the train one stop away from the park to Val D'Europe there is a shopping centre with a supermarket where you can pick up a lot of snacks and lunch things, you're allowed to bring them into the park.

These are all excellent tips, thanks so much, we will be there early, I am assuming they have a left luggage facility or am I a fool?

If you're staying in a Disney hotel, then you leave your luggage at the Marne La Vallee train station (we were given a pack from a Disney check in stand at Ashford giving all details) at a Disney luggage area and they take it to your hotel for you - so it's all there at the hotel when you check in. You then go straight into the park for a couple of hours.

Inventions restaurant at Disneyland hotel is the best place to eat and plenty of characters come round. We ate there every night as th food elsewhere was pretty poor. Wherever you eat, book in advance or you could be waiting a long time for a table. Have a lovely time. I took snacks for the kids for the parks, biscuits, dried fruit etc.

We are flying and was then going to book a transfer to the hotel. Closer to the time I may ring and see what they recommend. I had an email today to bring as a booking letter, but do they send you tickets etc?

They don't send tickets ,you take the booking letter and pick up the tickets to the parks when you arrive , presumably if you fly you collect from the hotel on arrival ,they will then keep your luggage until the room is ready .

I agree 100% about inventions for dinner. Yes expensive but interaction with 8/9 characters at dinner is amazing.

I have spare maps. If you want one let me know and I will post to you.

Book your meals in advance as well. You can always cancel. Better to have booked than be disappointed. Always very busy.

If there isn't an airport transfer included, there is a transfer bus from CDG, but t takes the best part of an hour. We used the TGV both times we went and it was great, only took about 12 minutes-there wasn't any great difference in price when we used it either

Everyone always moans about the food at DLP on here but I thought it was great so did the rest of the group that went - really good standard. Get a meal plan, just makes it all so much easier.

nicki , I agree there are some decent restaurants . We go to DLP frequently and I must say that I've always avoided Planet Hollywood as years ago we had a not very nice meal there but when we go now that's where we have most of our main meals as they have by far the best gluten free menu . I've never been that keen on Inventions ,but I'm not really a buffet person and we are past the meeting the character stage but the Fantasia cafe in the Pink Palace is fabulous for an afternoon snack .

Flora we went to "Walt's" on Main Street for one of our meals and there was actually a lot of face pulling because it was perceived to be boring compared to other places we could go. We'd left it late to book so not much choice. The food there was really, really good, probably the best Chocolate Fondant I have ever eaten.

I wonder if maybe the food is rubbish in the more snack type places and that's what many are basing it on? The food was one of the best bits for greedy me

I think the fast food places are ok , pre being coeliac my dd said that the chicken nuggets at Caseys Corner are the best in France .

We didn't go there. Next time. My kids are chicken nugget fiends. I love DLP.

Go to Bistro Chez Remy! It's the new table restaurant by the ratatouille ride and its fab! Based on the film, lovely setting and nice set menus - we loved it but gets very busy so book beforehand.

Would definitely suggest booking any restaurants when you arrive, you can book them at check in at the hotel. If you just turn up to a restaurant you're likely to have to wait a while until a table is clear. Park Plaza by the castle is a good one, buffet with lots of choice and not badly priced, we also enjoyed Billybobs in the village for an evening meal.

Make sure you do the Disney light parade when the park shuts, it's great! Though again gets very busy!

Get the fast pass for the big rides, ratatouille fast pass tickets run out very quickly so head there at opening to get one! Also thunder mountain fast pass is worth it as the ques get really long.

The easiest way of getting from the airport to the hotels is in the Disney bus, you can pre book, it goes from literally outside the airport and drops you to your hotel door, and vice versa, about an hours travel time. And luggage can be left at the hotel when you check out until you leave, they have luggage rooms which we've always found very secure.