Disneyland Paris in school holidays

[lulurose]

After a pretty hard year I've decided to book 3 nights away at EuroDisney. Our dds will be 2.5 and 4. As we are teachers we will have to go in the holidays and were thinking of the end of July...I have a few questions but would love any tips/advice:

1. The best hotel on the site
2. Facilities/shops to buy supplies, our dd2 has type 1 diabetes and we need to have access to healthy lunches, fresh milk etc..
3. General business...will it be too jam packed to move in July? If so I might go during a quieter school holiday.
4. What are the queues like in July for the smaller preschooler type rides?
5. How does a fast pass work? Is it worth getting?
6. The names of the best/healthiest cafes/restaurants to eat at.

Thanks a million

LR x

sorry, hotel wise we want something mid priced , near the park, swimming pool, will need fridge in room for fresh supplies/storing insulin x

Thanks...I think! I am a Disney cynic but know my girls will love it...anyone else been during the school holidays? Is it better mid week than weekends in the holiday or is it the same?

1. I liked the feel of the seaside one I forget the name? They are all similar food and facility wise just different themeing.

1. Shop at train station and gargae behind one of the hotels good for cheaper snacks, but I think there is a supermarket place nearby now???

1. we went in long weekends in Feb etc so freezing and not too big queues, dread to think of it in high summer.

4.?

1. Fast pass works by putting your normal park ticket through the machine at certain selected rides, you get a print out showing what time to come back, fast pass lane queue gets priority and gets you too the front quicker, worth doing if any kind of a queue. You can decide at the time, you don't have to book or decide in advance.

1. Are you joking , bagettues sold on the street from stalls seem the best choice, buzz light years pizzas OK if you avoid the one with potatos on it, I thought it was mozzarela.

Don't recall a fridge in Sequoia. Food could be a big issue for you so be aware, are you driving as supermarkets are off site iirc ? You may find some of the affcilaited , non Disney hotels, better suited to your needs. Fastpass comes with the main pass if you stay in a Disney hotel - you put it in a slot by the ride and it gives you a time to return and join a shorter queue rather than wait it out.

btw we went over a Ascension Weekend (European holiday) and it was busy especially to eat in the evenings and queues for Dumbo etc were long. Best advice is to get there at opening (you get in earlier as a Disney guest or if you have breakfast in the park) and do the most popular rides asap or watch the parade one day and use the time for rides the next.

1. Stayed at the Newport Bay, was OK. Can't remember if there was a fridge in the room, sorry.

1. Don't know.

1. We went in February and it was busy enough then. My friend went the last week of August and said it wasn't too bad as lots of European schools are back by then. Studios was good for absorbing big crowds into shows.

1. Don't know.

1. Definitely worth using Fast Pass once you've got your head round how they work. Needs some explaining to small children why you go up to the ride and then don't get on!

1. Didn't rate food much at all but sure you could hunt down some info. Try www.thedibb.co.uk which is full of info despite the scary signatures...

Also, if you do decide to stay in a Disney hotel make sure that you book a Fantasy Land breakfast - this does not cost extra as it is the same as the buffets at the hotels but it means you are in Fantasy Land as the park opens and get the chance to go straight on a few rides.

thanks all, am thinking twice about going in July now. We are in London so thought we'd get the Eurostar...

Eurodisney if fab - I was a complete sceptic til we took dd's 2 and 5 there a couple of months ago. BUT I would avoid the summer holidays like the plague - when do your schools go back? As the first week in September is much quieter than july / august apparently.

We've just had two nights at Eurodisney - we got back New Years Eve.
It was busy, but we still went on lots of rides and the fastpass thing was excellent. the only ride we really wanted to go on but didn't because of the queue was the Nemo one but that may have fastpass by the Summer, as I think it is realtively new.
We stayed in the New York which is one of the priciest but right next to the parks.
it had a mini bar fridge.
The food is all pretty similar(not that heakthy), although there are some other places (not disney) like Planet Hollywood and Rainforest cafe, but you can't book those which, as we discovered is a nightmare.
We booked cafe Mickey for one night which is excellent for meeting the characters. We paid extra for a character breakfast the next morning and that was a complete waste of money. We saw loads more characters just booking for a normal evening meal.

sorry to hijack but are there many rides suitable for a 3 year old? I had always imagined there wouldnt be much they could go on!

We went last year over May half term. It wasn't too crowded at all (but we didn't go over a weekend, so fewer French day visitors) and the queues for the rides were very bearable with a 4 yr old. We did queue for ages for the Dumbo ride and for quite a long time for the teacups so pre-school rides are v popular. We fastpassed rides like the Buzz Lightyear ride - it's very easy; you get the ticket from a machine near the ride itself. The weather wasn't great but worth it to be there when it seemed a little less crowded than I think it might be in summer.

We stayed at the Sequoia which has a decent pool but there was no fridge in our room. I think the superior rooms did have them though. We really liked the look of the Newport Bay or whatever it's called and fancy trying that next time.

The food is terrible, health-wise. We booked Fantasyland breakfasts each day, which means you eat your breakfast at a restaurant in the park itself before it opens to everyone else (I would really recommend this - great to get into the park ahead of the rush) and it was a typical continental breakfast - cereals, rolls, meats and cheeses, fruit, etc. But apart from that it's all fast food. We ate in the hotel restaurant each night which had a much healthier choice and was less busy and noisy for exhausted ds than the cafes in Disney Village.

Bodiddly,
there's plenty for a 3 year old to go on. My ds2 is only 2 and we went on quite a lot together.

thanks nimnom

We went to DP 2years ago in March children 4 and 2.5, it was verry cold ( there was a cold spell here as well). We had a great time.

New York New York ,rooms good,was closest to park other than Disneyland Hotel ( over entrance of park) i think there was a fridge, but I am sure if you contacted hotel they would put one in room as a special reqest for medical reasons, wherever you decided to stay at ( well I would like to think they would).

Healthy Food difficult to find, but one thing we did which helped was order breakfast to our rooms, it mean't we had a totally relxing breakfast and we ordered fresh fruit, which we could let children snack on as and when. Thye always served lots of fruit, ham, fresh rolls - so we made up a little packed lunch (sshhh) .

We did try to get healty food and went to the rainfirest cafe, this was just ok, nice place, food not that great, more of the same really, fisn h chips, sausages ad chips.

The golden arches (MCD's) was the best at least you could get carrot batons etc.

I would not worry too much about it being busy, Disney know what they are doing as far as dealing with crowds and there is always so much going on - parades, shows.