Eurodisney ??

[MarkC]

Howdy. We have been to WDW 25+ times and Disneyland twice. We are considering a trip to Europe and will see Paris and the Black Forest in Germany. I suggested Eurodisney but my wife is concerned its similar to WDW and we'd be wasting our time. Has anyone been there, and how different is it from the US versions? How many days do you need? Our kids are out of the house so we could go in May or early June before schools in Europe get out. We'd find a time that isn't too busy. Thanks.

[Mickey'sGirl]

We made that trip last summer (two weeks in Germany and one week in France), and we could not talk ourselves into going to Disneyland Paris. It was ridiculously expensive, and we opted to see the sights instead.

Also, schools are not scheduled the same as they are here. Quite often they go to school into July, then have August off. Most of the tourists we encountered were North American, not European.

[AZ Disney]

My husband was there while stationed in France way back when and at the time he was not much of a Disney Fan. He tells me it's a one day park and very much like Disneyland but you are in France.
We went to France last year for two weeks. I love Disney, but I could not even imagine taking one day away from the the French Countryside, French Riviera or Paris. My two cents.

Hope you have a fabulous trip!

[MarkC]

Thanks. This is very helpful and great information. AZ Disney-- I just sent you a pm.

[Main Street Jim]

My wife and I honeymooned in Paris for a week - and spent two whole days just at the Magic Kingdom park in Paris.

The park is *gorgeous* compared to the Florida park. There's actually something to *see* inside of Sleeping Beauty Castle!

Frontierland left a little to be desired, save for Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor, but the rest of the park was very beautiful and much different than Florida.

The overall layout of the park is very similar, but, there's no Liberty Square.

The attractions may have some of the same names, but they're a totally different experience. For example, Thunder Mountain actually takes place on what would be Tom Sawyer Island at WDW's Magic Kingdom.

[Awesome_guy]

We did a Paris/Berlin trip and I'm very glad we made Disneyland Paris work. Paris is SO beautiful and I know there are many opinions out there, but I really looked forward to DLP and we had a great time.

It's totally doable in one day (we did two) and is just an RER Train from Paris (approx. 1/2 hour); the RER is from the Metro directly to the resort and is really reasonable.

There are deals to be found, too. If you end up going, park ticket prices vary like crazy! Both online and in the Paris region. Do some research and be aware, for two reasons: so you don't pay extra and so you don't wait in some pretty substantial lines just to get in on busy days (like ours!). We had tickets delivered from Paris Post Restante (General Delivery, where each La Poste will hold letter mail temporarily for picture i.d., i.e. a passport). It made me nervous thinking something could go wrong in the process, but it worked perfectly and we saved a ton!

Some of the perks/pros:

* The park is super ambient (and the castle too); there are some fun differences. ...Taking in the uniqueness. I kept thinking the colour pallette was kind of its own. Phantom Manor being in Frontierland. Small World had some flair. Partners statues being in Disney Studios.

* If you do one park, skip Studios and do the Parc proper. One major perk of the studios though is Crush's Coater, unique to Paris. They've also begun work on a new Ratatouille attraction. ToT (also in Studios) is similar to the California version, but you have an awesome view of the French countryside.

* Frontierland and Fantasyland are huge with some great theming and landscaping...and popular (noticeble from cowboy hats and woody costumes). Even Main Street seemed to have a bit of Western flair to it to me… appealing to what might be unique to a European visitor?

* Space. Mountain. 2. … and the fact it never really seemed that backlogged! So, so good! I was kind of into the Discovery Land spin-off too. I liked the feel there.

* The 20th Anniversary night show, which they seem to keep renewing, Disney Dreams. I'd seen some of the castle effects from WDW. I haven't seen World of Colour for the fountains (although much smaller) to compare. It was just SO WELL done, both in its bilingual story telling and how it was all sequenced with fireworks and sounds and effects. The fireworks were not crazy big I noticed, but ambient and fit so well with the rest of the show.

* Eating at Blue Lagoon. I'm glad we had a reservation. People coming for lunch were told they'd have to be back for dinner. I've never eaten at Blue Bayou so this was a nice recharge (to cool off and get away from crowds); really lovely meal.

* BTMRR is an island! It was great, it's SO popular though, we almost didn't get to do it. Even with Fast Pass (it was lined up like crazy).

* Hearing French! Peter Pan's "Ima...gi...ner" in lieu of "Here we go" made me smile.

What took some adjusting:

* It was hard not having a Splash to zip [a dee do da] down. That's a classic! Hard to know the Paris folks aren't experiencing that one.

* We had an awesome day and the park is awesome but things didn't always have a super ordered feel to them (especially with significant crowds). Attractions would have Fast Pass and Stand-by blend with no attendant (noticeably Indiana Jones Temple du Peril. We were very surprised to see people seeing the night show and parade right on the flower beds (not just the fenced of grass). I CANNOT imagine that happening in WDW. PoC was down and we were routed out the back with no real explanation or direction.

* Disney Studios, Discoveryland (tomorrowland) and Adventureland are quite small; as such, they don't have as many attractions or shows to pull people in. The flow of people then really gets impacted by parades finishing, etc. and by peak periods.

* I could be totally wrong but I didn't feel attactions sang-to-you quite as much (save Small World of course). Phantom Manor and Pirates seemed less song-focused. Maybe because nostalgia isn't quite the same.

* We did get everything done in our two days but it took some determination. The park was among the busiest I've experienced and of course new to me. There were some pleasant surprises for wait times... but in general we were not able to take in some of the fun slower parts of the day (Disneyland Train, Autopia, Main Street, just because it took so much to do the bigger attractions. Food in particular would get back-logged, although we did see many people enjoying their own brought food and quiet space.

* Folks were definitely passing up rather than passing back. We just had to let it go, and did. There's a different sense of queueing and waiting but at the end of the day we're all getting on and there to enjoy our day.

It all really depends on you, but you're that close! It's a park that brings out some strong opions, so why not make your own. Staying on-site is OUT OF THIS WORLD (we did the Marriott nearby), but the park itself is a great memory! We had a blast!

[MNNHFLTX]

My family and I went to France for 18 days last year in May. We spent six days in Paris, two in Marne La Valle (Disneyland Paris), five in the Alsace region of eastern France (drove over to Germany one of those days) and four in Normandy. We really enjoyed our time at DLP and (in my opinion) if you can spare a day or two, why not go? The parcs definitely have a different feel than their US counterparts, with unique attractions and twists on the familiar ones (for example, the Haunted Mansion--"Phantom Manor"--has a western theme and Space Mountain has an outdoor loading area and inversions!)

As far as costs, lodging at one of the onsite resorts is expensive, but included in the price are tickets and breakfast, so for one night you would get tickets into the parcs for two days. That said you can get even better deals if you stay off-site, which is what we did. We stayed at a hotel called Hi-Park Serris in a two-bedroom, apartment-style unit for about $95/night. It was a very nice set-up and lots of room for a European hotel. Many of the surrounding hotels are on the shuttle route and it literally only took five minutes to get from our hotel to the bus-stops near the front entrance of Disneyland Parc. As far as tickets, we bought discounted 1 day/2 parc Francilien tickets from the FNAC website and then picked them up at one of their stores (a combination music/ticket store, similar to Virgin). These tickets are marketed to residents of France but are open to all, regardless of country. I have heard recently that FNAC has started offering the option of printing e-tickets out at home. The only caveat to these tickets is that you have to buy them at least five days in advance of use and they are specific for the days you choose (therefore the discount may be greater on certain days). It's a bit more difficult for US citizens to find discounts for a DLP trip, mainly because DLP does not market to the US at all, but focuses mainly on the UK and other European countries. But it's still worth the time and effort and is certainly no more complicated than planning a trip to Disney World these days.

If you do go, I would suggest mid-week and avoid any Mondays that are considered bank holidays over there. Also, I would suggest scheduling your DLP time at either the beginning or end of your trip, as there is high-speed rail transport directly from Charles de Galle to/from the DLP train station. This made it extremely convenient for my son to travel back to the airport after our Paris/DLP stay, as he had to fly back home at that point, while my husband and I traveled on to our other destinations.

If you have any questions about anything I've mentioned in this post or other areas of France that we went to, feel free to PM me.