Disneyland Paris - anyone been with a toddler?

[MrsWood]

We would like to take our 2 year old dd to Disneyland Paris for a weekend (sometime in early September when school starts as it might be quieter then.)
I've looked at their website but it's difficult figuring our whether or not children her age will have enough to do there.
Can anyone help? Thanks

A big yes. There are lots of toddler friendly rides, the characters are wandering around the park and the parades are fab. We first visited when dd was 2 3/4 & she was a big disney fan & loved it. We went back with her & ds for his second birthday, he was not even remotely into disney (more Thomas, Bob etc)but he loved it as well. Have a look at www.disboards.com & scroll down to the dlp section for loads of great info

dd enjoyed the rides (Dumbo, Magic carpets, Peter Pan, teac Cups , It's a Small World, Casey Junior etc) , the parades and the princesses, Buffalo Bill's but was a bit spooked by the oversized characters and Pirates of the Caribbean.

yes, we took ds1 there for his 2nd birthday, and he and we loved it. lots and lots to do.
but if you do want to go on the rollercoasters then take more adults along, so you can take it in turns to be with buba

Excellent - all I needed to hear - absolutely can't wait now! Thanks for everyone's input, much appreciated!

Oh, by the way, any accomodation recommendations before we book?

She will love it, we took dd just before her third birthday and she was overwhelmed.

I will never forget watching her face light up during one of the princess parades as she shouted "Mum its Snow White. It really is."

Alhough she found some of the rides a bit scary, wailed her way around Peter Pan. But she loved the its a small world ride, she still sings it now.

Enjoy. We are off to Efteling Park on Sunday.

We went in the easter holidays with ds(5 next month) & dd was 19 months, i really wasn't expecting to get much out of dd but she loved it!

She loved the parades & the characters & had a whale of a time having dinner with Mickey & co.(this was great)

She went on all rides that didn't have age restrictions including Armagedon(in the studios!). In fact she is so obsessed now by anything remotely disney, it's really made an impression on her!

We stayed in the New York, which was a lovely hotel but there weren't many children there.

I can't recommend the disboards websire strongly enough. We've stayed at Sequoia, New York, Newport bay & Hol Inn. Staying atExplorers this time. Depends on your budget. The explorers, Hol Inn etc are cheaper as there are no Disnley Characters there but they're new & really lovely & not to far. As the little one is only 2 you could easily stay at one of those & save some money & you must have a character meal. We always do brakfast at Cafe Mickey & have had lunchat Lucky Nugget Saloon. Think we'll try the tea party this time!

A tip regarding the buggys you can hire.

They don't recline, so sleepy toddlers can be a bit uncomfy, You will need a credit card or quite a bit of cash for a deposit. I didn't realise and hubby had wander off to meet up later .

Also they all look the same and people tend to wander of with any one. Not great when they have your credit card details and you have no buggy to return .

I read another Mums tip was to get an unused nappy and smear some melted chocolate on it and hang on buggy, guaranteed to put any one of taking your buggy.

Tip for bigger rides and toddlers desperate for pees in queue.

They do whats called baby swap for two parnets. Once you get to the front of the queue one goes on and one stays with baby/ toddler once they return the other parent goes on.

If you have been queuing for ages and kid needs pee either get them to pee in a cup (didn't work for us) or if you can make it to the front speak to the staff and they will usually let you return to the front. (Depends on the way the ride is accessed.

If there are two of you and you have to leave the queue make sure everyone sees you leave (be noisy/vocal so when you push back in they know you are returning. French and Germans don't seem to have the same respect for queues that the British do anyway. (no offence intended.)

we were not impressed.

I thought it was just a big shop, the same shops repeated in every themed area to get as much money as possible out of parents who had already paid so much to get in. the princess castle, aladdin,etc were just exhibitions/windows and shops at the end of it. no activity there just looking. the characters meant nothing to a 2y old who knows the fimbles, bob the builder and cbeebies stuff so I was relying on the fun of going on the rides. bad idea.

For the price and the number of visitors, they do not provide enough rides. the queues were enourmous and a 2y old has no concept of waiting in the queue so we only went to a couple and i thought people were mad to wait all that time and unfair to their smaller kids.people end up spending half of the time there queing.

in the end in my opinion is a big fast food and a big disney shop full of merchandise. sorry but I could not believe the amount of money people were spending on so much crap, sorry if i offended all the disney fans

My 2 year old could have been anywhere really. she nejoyed the carousel and the freedom of runnung around. dont need to go so far for doing that

give me legoland anyday. more rides and less aggressive marketing.

i will never go back.

It's kind of good to hear negative experiences as well - queues and too many people are my biggest concern - little one can be quite impatient, so not sure how she'd be with long queues, hence me wanting to go when all kids start school - mid September to be safe. Is that a better time?

Make sure you check when the French holidays are and if you can do a mid week this is best. Queues aren't too bad then.

Yes there are lots of shops but you don't have to go in to them all.

I'm sorry but I get that magical feeling ( not in the new bit though). It really depends what you 2yr is like will they recognise the characters, will they scream their heads off on every ride, will they get really tired and cry all afternoon, will they want everything out every shop, will they be terrified by characters.

We went in December with ds who was 2 1/2 and ds 7mths. We had a brilliant time - loads to do with small children. However I would agree with those that recommend exercising caution about getting too close to the characters - we had an (expensive) nightmare Character Meal with our eldest - Disney seemed to bring out all it's scariest characters that day - Captain Hook etc....memorable but not for the right reasons! There are lots of old threads on here with useful info about DLP and I also found the disboards site useful. We took a bicycle chain with us to secure our 2 (!!) buggies together and that worked fine to keep them safe while we went on a ride or two. Stayed at the Davy Crockett which was brill for littlies - it's self catering. You will have a great time .

We took DD at 18 months and she actually loved it. She had no knowledge of Disney beforehand at all. There is so much to see and do - lots of bright, colourful stuff; lots of flashing lights and lots of fun. She loved all the characters, and was running to get on any ride that she could go on. Infact she loved it so much we took her to Florida last summer (at 2y 4m) and we are calling in for 4 days at DLP at the end of our holiday in France next month. She is addicted now. LOL!