Disneyland Paris, anyone been lately?

[Monr0e]

We are going at the beginning of August. We have been once before pre covid and really enjoyed it. I have just learned there is now now fastpass for rides but you can pay for a Premier pass? This is something we haven't budgeted for and to be honest, I feel we have paid enough for the holiday, I begrudge forking out even more money to go on the rides we want to go on.

Has anyone been recently? Is it doable without paying out even more money? Our dc's are older so it is rides like crush's coaster and ratatouille they will be wanting to go on. Any tips on when these might be quieter with shorter queues?
Thank you

Hi. We haven’t been since before covid either, but if you’re staying in one of their hotels you’ll still get the magic time in the mornings. What we would do is do the busiest rides during this time before the gates open to everyone else! A quick snack for breakfast then eat properly once you’ve made the most of the magic time.

I don’t think it’s necessary if you take other measures. With older dc you can stay at the park until closing time, and rides gradually get quieter as the night goes on.
Also, both Ratatouille and Crush’s Coaster have single rider lines. If you don’t mind being split up, I’d definitely take advantage of these. Out of the two, the Ratatouille line moved far quicker due to it being a ‘three per row’ layout. Crush can be a little slow, but they’re still quicker than the normal line.
If you don’t plan to eat at a sit-down restaurant or a character dinner, eat a late lunch or dinner so you can avoid long waits for food and maximize the amount of time you get to spend enjoying the park. Or, even better, take your own picnic and eat whilst queueing.
Before heading to a particular attraction, check the wait times using the DLP app. Keep an eye on the app during the day, and if a wait time decreases significantly, head straight to that attraction.
During the parades, there are generally less people on the rides, especially in Fantasyland.

Thanks both. We thought we might do magic hours one day and generally yes, our days tend to start later due to the dcs being older!

We will probably be staying later in the evenings after a later start so will take advantage of rides going quieter then

It's really worth doing extra magic hours.
I just went with a teenager. We got up fairly early, went to the gym, for a swim, extra magic hours and on rides until it got busy, then went back to the hotel for a nap until it quietened down again.
We had a great time.
When it got busy though, the queues were quite long.
The studios close early and they're busy until they close, so it's definitely worth doing extra magic hours there as well as disneyland Park .

It's a shame they don't have fast pass anymore. I wouldn't have said premier access was worth it though unless you only had a day to spare.

The lion King show was fab, btw. Cirque du soleil style gymnastic stuff

I've not been recently but if you're going in august you've really got to go early. It's so much busier by 11am. We done it early with teenagers.
As PP have said if you're staying at on park hotel you can go home for a bit and come back in evening.

OP I definitely wouldn’t recommend getting to the parks on the late side. If you can drag your dc out of bed, get them at the turnstiles at least 30 mins before entry time.

You can always get up for magic hours, then go back to the rooms after lunch for a siesta to refresh for a late evening. You’ll avoid some of the heat then, too! Once it’s busy, it’s busy. Studios (where Crush/ratatouille etc are) close much earlier.

Not to put a downer on it but the park was at capacity when we went and the queues were pretty bad. it’s likely to be the same for the rest of the summer particularly with the avengers campus opening.

We got up early day for EMH and it made a massive difference doing early mornings. We selectively used premier access for my husband to do some bigger rides that our children couldn’t do. For the day we did stupids there was basically a stampede to crush but even during EMH it very quickly hit the 2 hours. You needed to be in at opening to avoid the build up. Eg we did Peter Pan with a 20 minute queue in EMH- ten minutes later the queue was 45 mins and was over an hour by 9.30.

if you do do premier access be aware the price varies. It was cheaper midweek than the weekend. We used it selectively for my husband. I can see though doing it for a family feels much more prohibitive. If I did it for anything I’d pay for crush as that would be the worst queue.

Here right now! We haven't needed to pay extra for the pass,
Did lion king show when the parade was on, so got in really quick.

Thunder mountain broke down for a bit, so everyone had to get off. Kept an eye on the app and as soon as it said opening soon, we got in the que. It opened straight after and we got on really quick.

After 4pm it seems less busy. So maybe try and do the big busy rides in the Early magic hour/ during the parade/ in the evening.

We went May half term - magic hours are your friends. No fast pass anymore just the paid for premier €13 euro each a ride.
crush’s coaster - you need to be at the gates 20-30 minutes before magic hours opens. Queue gets to 80 - 120 minutes within half an hour.

we have been before and it was busier than ever before.

Thanks again, looks like making the most of magic hours is the way to go

And keeping an eye on the app for the queue times

At the hottest point of the day, go on the Star Wars ride. The que is almost 100% indoors with the AC on.