It can be super exciting once you realise that you want to go on a DisneyLand Paris Holiday. I mean, you’re going to meet Minnie and Micky and that’s enough to get excited about!! And there’s so much to consider – When to visit, how long for, which hotel, on site or off site and how to get there?!? The questions are endless and for such a special trip to somewhere so magical, its got to be done RIGHT!
Aside from the above, there are also SO much more to think about and some points I never considered when visiting first time round. We have booked our third trip to DisneyLand Paris and took into consideration lots of extras to help make our trip a better one. SO I thought I would write down my ideas, tips and advice to help anyone else that is thinking of booking a trip to DisneyLand Paris with these tips BEFORE booking!
Disney Land Park
1. First things first when booking any holiday is WHEN. Yes, when booking a beach holiday you may be considering travelling in the warmer months but with a Disney holiday there’s a lot more to consider. For one, always check the brochure to see the calendar year ahead and what dates are noted as super value, value, moderate or high. Even if you travel in peak season but ARRIVE on a super value day, you pay super value price for the whole of your holiday. You may notice that if you play around with your booking (The last two holidays we’ve used Magic Breaks) that the price of your holiday can increase or decrease dramatically by changing your dates by one day!
Disney Land Paris Brochure Dates 2018
2. Leading on from the first point, means that you may want to consider visiting in a certain season depending on what the celebration is during that season. For example, if you are an avid Star Wars fan, then it is crucial to visit between Jan – March as this is when Season of the Force season takes place. We are choosing to visit for the Halloween Season again so we’ve ensured we are travelling on the correct dates to include the whole celebration for our trip.
3. Finally my last point of when to travel is ensuring you consider when France have annual or school holidays. This can mean the DisneyLand park and Walt Studios can be heaving and whilst its nice to have some atmosphere, the last thing you need is to visit at a time where you cannot get on the rides as the queues are so long!
4. It can be a lengthy process when choosing WHERE to stay for your holiday. One big consideration is to decide if you want to stop on site or offsite. I have always found the prices of staying onsite to be better value and easier for us as a family as you can walk to the parks without having to get a shuttle and with two pushchairs, it’s a no brainer. You also benefit from having Extra Magic Hours which means all hotel guests (and Annual pass holders) get an extra hour in the parks each morning of their stay from 8.30am – 9.30am. This is a great way to get a good few rides in before the park fills up! Having said that, Disney do not open all the rides during this hour. For the Disneyland Park, rides included were Peter Pans Flight, Dumbo, Mad Hatters Tea Cups, Le Carrousel de Lancelot. Peter Pans flight can get busy and so this is a great one to go on first thing. Walt Studios will open most of Toy Story Play Land as well as Crush Coaster and Ratatouille. The latter two are a MUST when visiting in Magic Hours as these rides are not really doable without a Fast Pass in normal park hours.
Enjoying Mad Hatters Tea Cups at Disney Land Park During Early Magic Hours
5. Carrying on from WHERE, it’s now time to search the small print and check if there are hotel closures or maintenance work being carried out. We first visited in 2016 and were made aware of some maintenance work being carried at our hotel as they were in the final stages of renovation (New Port Bay) which was fine and was very minimal and did not affect our stay at all. Also, if you choose to stay in a hotel with a pool, check POOL CLOSURES. It can be that the pools are either closed for refurb, refit or maintenance and if your only visiting for a short period of a few days and wanted to make use of the pool facilities then you’ll no doubt be disappointed when you arrive.
Newport Bay Hotel
6. Leading on from closures, make sure you check RIDE CLOSURES TOO. Rides need to be maintained and refurbished and sometimes they can be closed for just a few days at time (unless they have having a major refit then it could be months). When we first visited in 2016, DisneyLand Paris was having a huge enhancement program and we only found out after we had booked our holiday. It meant that a whole section of the DisneyLand Park was closed off and we did not get to see Frontier Land at all!
My crew outside Sleeping Beauty’s Castle
I wanted this post to offer some insight into the ‘extras’ you have to consider when booking your Disney Land Paris holiday – not just your bog standard ‘how to book’ but more about the hidden elements of what to consider before you book your Disney trip.
I hope its been a help to some that are booking or are thinking of booking. If there are any other hints or tips that I’ve missed, please drop them in the comments below!
Please also check out my Top Ten Tips for Visiting Disney Land Paris!
Hi and welcome to The Willow Tree. I’m Michelle, also known as Shel and I am a mama to three beautiful crazy kids – I have two handsome boys and a wild and wonderful girl.
I really wanted a concrete place to share my love for travel, in particular Disney and offer my readers a chance to gain some knowledge around what we love to do as a family of 5.
I share our family adventures which include days out, travel advice and tips, holiday reviews, restaurant visits and of course, our love for Disney, including Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World.
Life is about creating memories, and here we are sharing them with you
xoxo
What a super informative post! Definitely one to bookmark for any future planning trips!
Thanks!
These are great tips, and it’s so good to know that changing dates a little can save you a fair bit of money too! I really want to take my daughter there so this is really helpful!
It really can – for this year there was about £300 different between one day!
Really helpful points! Hopefully one day we’ll be in a position to book disneyland for the kids! x
Thank you! x
Some great points there to think about!!
I bet there’s loads more to consider!
Everyone seems to be going to Disneyland at the moment! I’m so envious! What a great guide – I’m definitely going to be using this next year when we’re hoping to go xx
That’s great! I hope you get to go! X
Really helpful post! I’ve only been to Disney once and it was as a day trip from a short break I was having in Paris. I was childless at the time so a lot easier to arrange!
Thank you! Yes theres a lot of planning when taking children but I am sure there is without too – just a different style of planning! x
Great post and I wish I read it a few weeks earlier as we have recently booked Disney Land Paris!! We too have booked for Halloween as my girls love halloween, I can’t wait!! #globalblogging
This is super helpful advice for my folks as we’re booking our Disneyland Paris trip next month. Can’t believe about the closures but definitely something to bear in mind! #AnythingGoes x
Great advice, I have only visited Disney in Anaheim, CA and Orlando, FL, but I think that your advice can be used for most locations.
Yes I bet it could! 🙂
Some great tips, we have to consider the direct train dates too as that is how my other half likes to get there ;0)
Yes another point to consider! 🙂
My kids have been asking to go to Disneyland, thanks for the tips. I’ll definitely be checking out the super value dates if/when we do get round to going. Thanks for sharing with #bigpinklink
That’s great!
These are great tip, I can’t wait to visit with our girls! #triumphanttales
Ah exciting times!
These are some great tips! We love going to DLP. We met there in 2005, got engaged there in 2009 and have been twice with our little boy. Planning is definitely key!
Ah how lovely such special memories!
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Some fab tips X #thursdayteam
Thanks!
Wonderful to read some before ideas for a change. Don’t forget comfy shoes, my feet and legs hurt so much when we went!
#sharingthebloglove
Gosh yes I live in my trainers every time! Good point 🙂
This is really handy. We hope to take little man next year. I have to be honest though I’m not a fan of Disney at all, so I just hope his excitement works it’s magic on me!! Thanks for sharing with #TriumphantTales, please do come back on Tuesday to celebrate our 1st Birthday, we have a surprise in store!
Ah hopefully you’ll go and be converted! See you Tuesday!
Great tips! We are hoping to go this year and although I have been before, it was 8 years ago almost and things have definitely changed! #bigpinklink
Ah I Hope you get to go! Yes it must have changed so much!
Great advice! I would love to take my girls, I just need to persuade my husband. Thank you for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
Ah get him to watch some disney vlogs he may be persuaded!
This is really useful – I desperately want to take the kids to Disneyworld, but the expense is too much to consider for a few years, so Paris is looking like a good option. I had no idea about the closures, I’d never have thought to check! Thanks for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
There a lots of options for a cost effective holiday to DLP so it’s worth a look! Thanks for having me!
Brilliant tips. I really want to visit here with the kids some day so am bookmarking this! Thanks for sharing with #fortheloveofBLOG
This is so useful! I would love to take my kids to Disney but we are confined to school holidays so there isn’t much I can do about the queues. I would love to go during the Halloween time. It always looks so amazing in pictures.
Thank you for joining #ThursdayTeam
Going between Monday – Friday is quieter than weekends even in school hols! 🙂
[…] age to appreciate the magic of it all. I thought this was a really eye opening post from Michelle: Things To Know Before You Book Your Disneyland Paris Holiday. As well as advice on timings and hotels, there was so much there that I’d not considered […]
We’re debating whether or not to visit Disney this year so these tips are really helpful right now! #sharingthebloglove
ThTs great! I’d say…go for it!
We’ve just booked for October this year too and are already so excited! #SharingTheBlogLove
Oh wow exciting! See you there!
So much information here! I have just opened a savings account so that we can start saving for a Disneyland Holiday and I’m avidly collecting information like this. #blogcrush
How exciting!
Thanks for the tips #sharingthebloglove
Glad they were of help!
Great blog! I haven’t been to Disney since I was a young lad. It’s a trip I’m definitely looking to do with my kids and these tips are really helpful to get me started. Kind regards, Luke.
Glad you found the post useful!! Thanks for reading 🙂
No thank you for sharing! It was an absolute pleasure to read 🙂