Disneyland Paris - any experts around?

[littleoldme3]

We have a trip booked for the start of the year. I’ve been once but not for 14 years. First time travelling with our child (will be 4).
Can anyone familiar with DLP have a look at our plans and see if they would recommend changing anything/adding anything please 😊

Sat: land at CDG late morning. Still trying to decide between TGV or hire car to get to DLP.
Staying at Newport Bay “room only” for 1 night - planning to swim, shop then eat dinner in Disney Village.

Sun: move stuff to Marvel hotel where we have 4 nights/5 days booked with half board meal plan. Leave luggage there and head straight to park, grabbing a quick breakfast somewhere.

Meals booked:
Sun night - Downtown
Mon late afternoon - Royal Banquet
tues late afteroon - PYM Kitchen
wed night - plaza gardens

Last day will be Thursday and we’ll be leaving the park at 2pm to head back to the airport.

Will this give us enough time to do everything at a leisurely (ish) pace? Any tips and tricks you’d recommend?

Yes I would think so. Not been for a few years now but we used to go for a similar amount of time.
Staying in property means you should have the early and late park entry included.
You might be able to get your luggage transferred from hotel to hotel as they are both Disney hotels. The certainly do it in Florida so I would check if they do in Paris too. That way you won't have to waist time taking it yourself.

Warning though there is a lot of construction going on at DLP atm. So be prepared for it.

We had two full days at DLP with a four year old and it was crazy busy but we did manage to do everything we wanted to between 9am and 8pm each day.

Four days will definitely be enough. We did the main park on 1.5 days and Pixar the last half day.

You will need a buggy if you don't already have one, that's my only advice.

We stayed in Sequoia. Remember they have character meet and greets in the AM at each hotel.

We did the character breakfast and lunch with princesses which worked out infinitely better than queuing for those characters. We queued over an hour for Minnie and, whilst it was lovely, it ultimately wasn't worth it.

@notanothernamechange24 That’s ok, I’ve seen all about the construction 😊 It’s the last chance we have to take advantage of non term time pricing so just going with it 😅
I’ll double check with the luggage transfer too - although, I think we can pretty much walk past Marvel from Newport and leave our luggage so hopefully should be easy enough 🤞🏼

@Anguauberwaldironfoundersson Thanks 😊 he hasn’t used a buggy since he was 2 but I managed to get a Baby Jogger dirt cheap second hand so I grabbed it and have it ready for our trip 👏🏼
I don’t think he’d have the patience to wait for character meets but is obsessed with Mickey so I’ve booked the Royal Banquet so we know that meeting is covered because I’ve read that the queue to meet Mickey can get pretty ridiculous!
Planning on doing our Wed in Studios so we’ve booked PYM for food mid afternoon. Might end up doing magic hour until after food in there then heading back to the other park but we’ll play it by ear and see what DS is interested in 😊

We were there earlier in the year. The trains are so easy to use, reliable and direct to the park so I’d recommend getting the train. We didn’t use it as we did some days in Paris before going to DLP but I’m sure there’s a luggage drop off point at CDG which takes your luggage straight to the hotel for you.

Just googled and there isn’t a Disney drop off at CDG so ignore that but definitely get the train

4.5 days is heaps of time, we did 2 days the first time and just one the second time. In the main park Mickey is usually on the balcony looking down on main street when you enter the park at opening time. He stands on the train station and waves at everyone, but you have to turn around and look back or you would miss him. He is also usually in the gazebo to the left of the entrance to phantom manor from about 10am. We waited about 20 mins for him there, but that's only because he went off for a break not long after we joined the queue. Minnie and Goofy are also usually found doing meet and greet with short queues by cowboy cookout restaurant. The unadvertised meet and greets have the shortest queues, the ones listed on the app always have longer queues. I think you can get info on the unadvertised ones from town hall. Make use of magic hours, you can get loads done in that time. Also eat Mickey shaped pizza at Colonel Hathi's outpost, this is also available at pizzeria Bella Notte in fantasyland, but the queues are invariably longer at that restaurant. Chez Marianne shop in the studios has Disney themed macarons at the moment. The shows are great in the studios, you need to queue particularly early for the Frozen show or pay for priority access. Priority access for the fireworks is great if the 4 year old can last that late.

Take the train. It's really quick, easy and cheap. Car is a waste of time and money.

@TotheletterofthelawTHELETTER @MinervaMcGonagallsCat Thank you! Training is our preferred option but it looks pretty tight for timing when we land (as the TGV appears to have a big gap in service during the middle of the day) so we were just looking at alternatives.

@TeamGeriatric Thank you! This is great 😊 We’re hoping to be able to take it all at DSs pace so wanted to make sure we had long enough and could make the most of the pool etc too.
Planning on booking priority access for the fireworks for one night hopefully. Just haven’t decided when yet. DS is usually sound asleep by 7.30 so I have no idea if he’ll make it but we’re hoping to try and see them one night 🤞🏼😊