Disneyland Paris

[dragonwarrior]

Can I have your top tips for going to Disneyland Paris?
Our child is 5 yo and we are staying at The Disney Hotel....things like top rides for that age, what to pack and take with us (e.g autograph book), what time is the parade, are the light shows every evening, anything we absolutely should see, best value for money with the meal vouchers etc?

Thanks

I think top rides for that age depend on the child's interests and height. We went first time when DD1 was 4.5y and DD2 was 2 years old. At that age DD1 loved Big Thunder Mountain (which DD2 was obviously too short for) and went on it 20 times over 4 days! She also loved Ratatouille, Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear. She wasn't keen on Hollywood Tower of Terror. Some other rides DD1 was too short for (Space Mountain, Crush Coaster, Aerosmith rock n roller coaster, Indiana Jones).
Second time we went DD1 was 6.5y old (1.2m tall) and DD2 was 4 years old. Dd2 is much less adventurous than DD1, despite this we were keen to take her on Big Thunder Mountain, she went on and seemed to enjoy it but when we suggested all going again she didn't want to, she said she didn't like "the down bits". We didn't consider Tower of Terror for her! So on this visit the 6 year old loved Crush's Coaster and Aerosmith rock n roller coaster best (she still loved Big Thunder but these two took over as her favourite). DD2 who prefers gentler rides loved Ratatouille best, followed by Buzz Lightyear and It's a Small World.
Pack some fancy dress type stuff if your child likes dressing up, many princess dresses to be seen. The first time we went was at Christmas time (also stayed at Disneyland Hotel on that visit) and I was so glad I had bought and wrapped Frozen dresses for Christmas day for them as they were really excited to wear them to the Parks, having seen other kids dressed up on Christmas Eve. We also bought Pirates of the Caribbean hats in the shop you go through after the ride.
Check parade times when you get there, you can pick up a schedule just inside Park entrances. Fireworks / light shows are every night.
Depends on what meal vouchers you have (last time we had the Plus one I think?), I thought the best deal with them was for the Ratatouille restaurant. With the top tier meal plan probably Auberge de Cendrillon I guess. TBH we weren't too fussed about getting best value out of meal plan as we had it thrown in with the hotel booking last time and we just wanted to eat and ride and not waste loads of time sitting for meals. Check some specialist Disney forums for advise on getting best value for the meal plan.
Top tip: make best use of Fast Passes! Rides like Ratatouille you need to either go on first thing in the morning or get a Fast Pass - or do both as Fast Passes run out really quickly for this ride. Queues can also get really long for Buzz Lightyear and Peter Pan and Crush Coaster (the latter has no Fast Pass, but your child may not be tall enough). Queues don't tend to be bad even at peak times for It's a Small World and Pirates OTC so don't try to rush onto these early on, head to rides which get super busy with really long queues first thing.
Have fun!

Have you downloaded the app? It has queuing times for the rides which is really useful. Pick up a leaflet inside the entrance and check out all the times of the shows - they pack in loads of people so you don't need to queue up ages in advance and it's nice to have some stuff you don't have to queue for. Check out some of the smaller rides with short queues - my kids liked the fairy tale boat ride which you could pretty much walk straight on to. Pirates of the carribean and it's a small world we're pretty short queues as well.

oh one more thing I forgot to write, make your dining reservations for any table service meals before you go. My DD2 wanted us to eat at the Ratatouille restaurant but it was fully booked for the whole 4 days we were there as we hadn't made a reservation before arrival.

If you are driving consider taking snacks and drinks. We took raisins, biscuits etc to give kids for snacks. It's a few years since we did dlp but we did eat on ratatouille and that was lovely restaurant and my favourite ride.

Take fancy dress if you think your little one will want to dress up; also consider things like toys. We went to Florida last year and took toy story and star wrs toys we already had as knew my Youngest (3 at the time) would have wanted new toys so we had them ready, and light sabres!

My 3 also like the down time; there is play areas which they all enjoyed. Literally letting off steam after queues.

Parent swap is worth trying. One adult and child then swap parents and child gets to go on twice. We did this a lot as have 2 older ones and a smaller one, did it a lot at Paris and Florida.

If you have the photo mAker, it's great, if not conaider getting it As you get all the ride photos included and I think better character photos as they seemed to take more time than with your own camera.

With characters, get a timetable and plan as certain ones are only about a few times a day.

We hAve has character dining with cafe mickey and in the Disney hotel- I liked both, and everyone raved about how good the Disney hotel one was but it wasn't worth the extra in my opinion!

This guide is brilliant. Has restaurant menus, descriptions of the different meal plans and a description of each ride including how busy they get:

[http://www.dlpguide.com/]

Whoops

www.dlpguide.com/

Inventions restaurant at the Disneyland hotel is the only decent one in Disneyland imo.
Book restaurants in advance.
Nip back to hotel for a break before parade.
Fantasyland best land for that age.
Great tips on the dibb

Thank you all, has given me some good starting points