ANOTHER Disneyland Paris thread - parade times/restaurant reservations

[Bear]

Hi - DLP (indeed theme-park)-virgin here and anally trying to sort out our schedule for our half-term visit so I won't end up fuming in every queue going, blood-sugar dropping due to inability to get a table to eat half-decent food.....

I want to make our restaurant reservations asap, but can't find out what time the Once Upon a Dream (Park) and Stars'n'Cars (Studios) parades are so we can eat round them. Has anyone just got back who could let me know when the parades start? Thanks.

Also we'd like to take the excursion to Paris one day - anyone done that and is it a bit long and therefore dull for DCs (7&5)?

TIA, Bear

here Once upon a Dream Stars 17:00 and Cars and Stars at 14.45 but they may change nearer the time so keep checking. We tried to eat around them, booked the Cendrillon restaurant and it was a disaster - the restaurant were short staffed and ran late. dc were too tired to eat properly and dd missed some of the floor show as her food arrived as it began. We went into Paris and it takes about 45 mins to Arc de Triomphe on rer - dc loved it( then 10 and just 7) and chose to spend an extra day there rather than at dlp !

brilliant - thanks - I searched everywhere and couldn't find that timetable

I'm worried about too-tired-to-eat burn out. If we get up and have our breakfast early so we make the most of Extra Magic Hours (which frankly I can't see us doing more than once!), then by the time our dinner reservations come, we'll be dead on our feet...

What we did was the early breakfast and into the park to take advantage of the early opening, did lots then wandered out of the park about midday just as it was getting busy, back to the hotel snack and siesta (and swim in pool one day), then back into the park refreshed for parades and then onto rides as the queues started to shrink again, kids went on surprisingly late like this (youngest is 6) and managed the extra hours every day.

thans DiooM, sounds like a plan. Here's how I think we'll play it - please feel free to pull this apart:

Up for an early breakfast and leg it into the park on 2 days to get our Fastpasses for Peter Pan and Buzz etc. Do a load of other stuff in the Park/Studios until lunchtime. We have free meals vouchers, so we use them for evening restaurants in the Park/Village - like Walts & Cafe Mickey -and lunches back at the hotel restaurant. Kids get a swim and a chance to watch Montana/Jonas trash, we get a brief siesta before we grab the parades, get dinner and stroll back to the hotel afterwards, happy and not too knackered.

Make sense?

Buzz is one of the rides that opens early so very small queue if you are in early. Peter Pan build up so definitely worth FastPassing.

Make sure you book the restaurants before you go otherwise you may not get convenient times - there is a phone number on the website.