What’s Paris like after only having done Florida?

[princess allie]

I love both WDW and DLP. We are on our 7th visit to Florida as we speak and we have been to DLP in excess of 20 times. We had annual passports for DLP for a number of years and found it easy to just pop over there during the school holidays. We generally stayed offsite, but have stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, Newport Bay and The Sequoia Lodge at various times too. They are both Disney, with some very similar parts to them, but they are also very different. I think you get back what you put in a lot of the time and we always go to both destinations with an open mind and a sense of fun. Some of our most magical moments have happened at DLP, I think it’s smaller scale allows for these things to happen, my DS being taken from the crowd to go and sword fight with Captain Hook when he was younger and dressed as Peter Pan and Buzz Lightyear running (yep, actually running) after DS and taking him back to his meet and greet area, bypassing the queue and interacting with him. All these things happened at DLP rather than WDW so we definitely feel the magic is there. Everything else, food, cm’s etc, are actually quite comparable imo.

[duchy]

I can be in Ebbsfleet in 10 minutes from home so DLP is incredibly easy for me and overall I find it a far better themed park overall but I don't compare it to WDW it's far closer to Disneyland CA in purpose and size.
Personally I like immersive ... and sunshine and overall prefer my Disney holidays with US style pixiedust so DLP for me ranks behind both WDW and DL. It's not better or worse, just different.

[johnnysharp2]

Originally Posted by martyn321

I find this interesting, do you think in off peak times they cut down on the snack options (we went 1st week of xmas theming and a lot of the little stalls where closed), literally all we could get was very standard items and a very poor (by disney standards) chocolate crepe in the village.

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Possibly, but we have mostly been to DLP off peak.
We have never found a problem with snacks at DLP. however that’s mainly from using the shops on Main Street and the Relay store at the train station.

It’s completely different for us in Orlando where staying in a villa pretty much all our snack and food generally is acquired by me driving and shopping at Walmart or Publix.

With our son being autistic and not necessarily one for shopping, it’s handy being at the DLH and being able to walk and buy some cakes, crisps, candy etc within easy reach.
So the circumstances for us are different, we make sure we get the brilliant Inventions buffet breakfast at the hotel and tend to keep some light snacks in our room.

We then have our tea somewhere like Toad Hall or Caseys.

[colin39]

French, all the rides are in french, the signs are french voices are in french. But wifeys prefers the castle 😁

[Gill H]

Originally Posted by martyn321

I agree with what everyone else has said, for us (please no one reply with "thats because its european and they have big lunches") that there is no way near the amount of cool snacks we where expecting having been to florida so often, it was a real let done (for us).p

Also - pause gourmande! omg, what a joke!

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Pause gourmande is gone.

Sorry to say it but it’s true. Snacking is just not part of French culture in the same way it is in the US. It’s how they stay slim despite eating all the wrong foods! French people tend to have long lunch breaks at work and eat full meals at lunch and dinner.

That said, there are the usual popcorn, crepes, doughnuts, cakes etc available. If you like Nutella you will never go hungry. And if you go at this time of year you will catch the food and wine festival (new last year, expanded this year). I haven’t been but from YouTube videos it looks fun. Obviously not on the same scale as WDW - I think there are currently about 8 stalls - but you certainly get plenty of opportunity to snack!

[877]

Originally Posted by colin39

French, all the rides are in french, the signs are french voices are in french. But wifeys prefers the castle 😁

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I didn’t even consider that the audio would be French 😂

[MissJRabbit]

Originally Posted by 877

I didn’t even consider that the audio would be French 😂

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A lot of the shows are half French and half English. Announcements are in French and English. Things like tower of terror and star tours are usually in French but sometimes in English. Phantom manor is mixed French and English, so is thunder mountain. You won’t struggle to understand or get on with everything.

[WhereIBelong]

Originally Posted by 877

I didn’t even consider that the audio would be French 😂

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The shows have English performances - times posted outside each show, when we were there there was one that had headphones for an English commentary...

The only ride that really "mattered" to us was Phantom Manor and I seem to remember having a piece of paper with the full story on somewhere...

[MOONCHESTER]

Originally Posted by HFJohnson

Sorry, just had to point out that that's not actually the case - the main park at DLP is actually bigger than Magic Kingdom (126 acres vs 105 acres according to a quick google search).

I agree with the other posters in that you just can't compare the two. Florida is amazing but I still love DLP and it will always be my home park. The main park is absolutely beautiful and several of the rides are better than their Florida counterparts (Pirates, BTM) and it's great that everything is so close together. DLP has it's flaws, there's no doubt about that, and I know a lot of people miss the american approach to customer service, but there have been a lot of improvements over the years and a lot of exciting stuff still to come.
E
For a great review of DLP search up Justin Scarred's vlogs of his visits and in particular Fantasyland where he focuses on all of the little details that make the park special.

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That's a great post and yes Justin knows his parks back to front!

[Tinkjon]

Paris Pros:
Rides are better - we go on WDW rides and think "oh, that's not as good as in Paris".
Ease of getting there & back
Smaller park, so a more relaxed holiday. We know we can fit everything in so don't feel as pressured, whereas Florida (for us) can feel like a bit of a military operation and a panic to get everything done. You can 'stop and smell the roses' in Paris.
Walkable from onsite hotels is a BIG plus.
Alcohol freely available
I prefer the food - whilst there are the ubiquitous burgers & chips, there is a lot of other really nice stuff.
The park is more attractive - the castle is so much prettier thank MK and you can actually go in it!

Paris cons:
Smoking everywhere (though restaurants are ok)
Pushy-shovey rude visitors
Rides break down more frequently in our experience (that could be coincidence)
Some of the main rides aren't there (I'm looking at you, Toy Story Mania )