DLP newbies please help

[mummyroo1]

Ok this is all terrifying! I am a Disneyworld Florida obsessive and have our next trip booked for next year but we are having a year off this year to save some money! ha ha so been looking for a super cheap break for around £1000 so we get abit of a break and have managed to get 5 days offsite hotel, ferry and 2 days of 1 park 1 day ticket for my budget so we are going. Disney tickets booked for 27th and 28th August. I am excited but also daunted by the prospect of queues. We have never queued more than 25 minutes for anything in florida (always at peak times as stuck to school hols) through careful use of early morning hours and fast pass. So the thought of heading to Paris blind and ending up in lots of huge lines and getting nothing done fills me with dread, my boys are spoiled and they definitely look to my expertise as the planner. So please please can I pick your brains, what are your top tips for making the most of 1 day in each park. We have booked tickets through attraction tickets direct and get real tickets I believe and have downloaded the app but that's as far as I've got. What is the deal with fast passes? can I get them? what should I be trying to fast pass? My boys are 7 and 11 marvel loving speed junkies but appreciate all things Disney so will also enjoy the tamer Disney style rides. What are the best rides?
What about food? do I need to get reservations. We might splurge for one sit down meal, which would you recommend? what are your other food hints? obviously as we are supposed to be saving money and have 2 weeks at Animal Kingdom lodge with dining booked for next year any money I can save on food would really help. We will have our car to drive to the park, I assume parking costs a tonne.

Any hints very very gratefully received.

[Guest]

Parking is €25 per day, are you staying in a hotel with free shuttle or one near the RER train line? You could take the train to the park instead of parking.

It’s going to be busy at that time of year, with lots of rides with considerably longer queues than 25 mins. But with planning you can certainly make the most of it.

Download the Disneyland Paris app now so you can take a look at the map and familiarise yourself with the park and also have a peek at the queues times so you can set your expectations for waiting times.

The park gates will open at 9.30am (both parks) even though it is advertised as 10am so aim to arrive for before then to make the most of the day - especially in the Studios.

In the Studios Park head for Crush first thing - it’s a good Coaster and gets long queues with no fastpass option.

Fastpass wise I would recommend you fastpass Ratatouille in the Studios and Big Thunder Mountain, Buzz and Space Mountain in the Disneyland Park.

There are other rides with fastpass including Tower of Terror and Rock n Rollercoaster that maybe worth a fastpass depending on how long their queues are.

If your kids are Marvel fans don’t miss the Marvel shows in the Studios Park and also watch Mickey and the Magician, it’s great.

Also - character meets in the Studios Park are being trailed by an app where you must prebook. Have a look at previous posts on this forum for the Lineberty app for more info. Character meets at the Disneyland Park are regular lines as normal.

You can download the weekly programme from the Disneyland Paris website to give you a heads up on show times to plan your days, it’s a weekly programme but it’s unlikely to change much between now and the end of August so it’s a good guide to start planning now.

Food wise it might be nice to book a sit down meal/buffet on your Disneyland Park day to break up the day since the park will be open until 11pm and it’s worth staying to see Illuminations so it will be a long day.

It depends on your budget - you could go for a character lunch in the Disneyland Hotel for around €65 for adults and €35 for kids (plus drinks) at one end of the scale or a buffet in the Plaza Gardens or Agrabah Cafe for around €34 with lots of options in between. Definitely book your meal ASAP if you do decide to have a sit down meal.

Hope that helps!

[LOU LOU DISNEY]

All of the above!
Just want to say we are there at the same time, we arrive 26th -30th, DDs10th birthday is on the 27th & we have inventions booked in the Disneyland hotel with Mickey & the gang! It’s expensive but that’s where she has picked for her birthday meal.
If you want to save money on food, bring what you can yourself & I recommend eating in the new Italian Vapiano, it’s just outside the studios park on the right hand side past the world of Disney store. Lovely fresh pizza, pasta etc made while you wait & cheaper than park food. There’s also a five guys next door.

[Peter H]

Not adding much to what is above but would recommend reading some trippies and watching some trip videos to get an idea of the lay of the land.

[skstorm]

Just got back - the Marvel show was really good but gets full quick so be there early for it I would say at least 45 mins if not longer. If you are planning a sit down meal they last about 2 hours so bear that in mind especially if you are on a budget. We did one on the last day and were literally chomping at the bit to try and get out as we were running out of time. If time is an issue maybe think about sticking to the quick service.

Queues for characters are long and take a while, if you are looking for captain america or the meet and greets in the studio you will need the lineberty app and its rubbish - very difficult to get time slots - complain, everyone else is. We had time slots for captain america twice and the system crashed as soon as I went to select them, luckily the cast member had seen it and let us in anyway. We booked the breakfast with characters which got us to meet a few without queuing but the interaction was very bad and they were gone in a shot!

Photopass is not really worth it.

Its not Florida but it was still really good and we enjoyed it although everyone agreed we missed our magic bands! :-)

[mummyroo1]

Thanks so much. I have a reservation at the buffet restaurant Plaza Gardens at 4.30 pm (that's all I could get) on our Disneyland park day. Do you think that will take ages? We figured as will be wanting to stay to fireworks we should have a sit down at some point to get some rest but 2 hours is unacceptable to me! It will likely mean us missing the parade (we certainly wont be able to get any sort of prime viewing position. Is the parade worth seeing? from the route it looks like if we don't watch the parade but are out of the restaurant we will be cut off in the space mountain and buzz area, which wont be a bad thing, but do the queues go down during the parade? Our boys are pretty fussy eaters but if there is a decent burger place in the park we might just change to QS. Can you get seats reasonably well? Is there a show we can see to get some rest in the Disneyland park. I've spotted the Mickey and the Magician show and I'm assuming the marvel show is also in the studios park. It feels weird, I'm so used to advising others on how to get the most from their holiday and knowing where everything is and how everything works, it feels decidedly weird being the clueless one again.

[nursetina]

Plaza gardens is buffet so you can be as quick as you want, however the parade is 5.30 so that might be a bit of a rush to eat and get a decent spot. I really would recommend the parade as in my opinion it's the best ever with some fantastic interactions. Could you change your booking to either earlier or later? The self service restaurant in studios do good burgers, however five guys in the village are the best!
I second visiting vapianos, next to five guys, fresh pasta, reasonably priced.
Definitely fast pass big thunder mountain, space mountain and Buzz. You can normally do pirates in around 30 mins or less. Yes it will be busy but if you plan the day you will manage everything.
Enjoy, it's great there.