Disneyland Paris // Tips and Tricks to have an amazing day at the happiest place on earth // Ellie J

Hello, lovelies,

As you guys voted in my Instagram poll for this post here its as promised, my Disneyland Paris tips! I know I personally grew up eager to go however it wasn't financially viable for my family then. So although it may be shocking to some my first ever (*and only) trip to a Disney theme park was on 1st September 2017 as a present for my 17th Birthday. My first thing to note is I travelled with National Holidays and I would highly suggest it to anyone else who thinks the idea of going is too expensive and unattainable, I thought it was very affordable however we did travel from the north east of England to Paris by coach which is a full day of travelling which may not be the best option for those of you with young children if you would like a full post on this I will happily write one just let me know or message me on here or Instagram if there are any questions you have!  - I would suggest watching Sarah Louise Porters vlogs of her recent trip with them to get a better idea.

1. Use Park Apps

My first tip is to download either the Disneyland Paris app or the Park Pal app, this is just great if you want to fit a lot into your day, we only had two full days in the park, so this was great for us to find a way to get on the rides quickly. I used both however I felt Park Pal had a much more user-friendly interface and was better organized for finding wait times quickly.

2. Utilise Fastpass

One thing we knew before going to the parks was that we were going to need fast passes in order to get the most out of our two days in the parks. We personally were not as interested in bigger rides such as Rock N Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror or Indiana Jones (Btw Indiana Jones had a super short wait time anyway and we went at the busiest times of year!). However, we picked one ride from each park - Walt Disney Studios and Magic Kingdom that we knew had a long wait time. For Magic Kingdom, we picked Big Thunder Mountain and for Studios we picked Ratatouille. This cut two, three maybe even four hour wait times into 10/15 minutes.

3. Parades

My advice if you want to see the parade is to prepare to wait. We personally waited an hour before the parade started to get a place at the front of Main Street USA. This was a good sacrifice of park time as it meant we weren't struggling the floats or characters and it made character interactions so much better! I found when waiting it didn't take very long for the street to fill up - I spent the time editing photos on my phone and about 20 minutes into waiting I looked up and it was almost full. I would suggest for those who want to eat in the parks to do it during this wait as it will just speed up the rest of the day. As you can see in the photos below we had a great view of the parade. 

4. Disney Dreams // Disney Illuminations

This was where we failed to prepare, we went for food at Annettes Diner (which was incredible) however we didn't account for how much time this would take and when we arrived in the park an hour before the show begun it was already nearly full, so I would suggest going even EARLIER for this show as it was incredible even though we didn't have the best view. I would also suggest for those who want to miss the hustle and bustle and don't want to wait is to go to the end of Main Street to watch the show. Another thing I think I should add is that even the middle of summer it gets very cold very quickly at night time so bring extra layers!

5. Get the most out of pre and post parade time.

I almost forgot about this! When Stars on Parade had finished we definitely made that time up in the hour afterwards, we rushed (as much as we could with the crowds) to Pirates of the Caribbean where we completed the ride in half an hour with time to have a long look at the gift shop before our Big Thunder Mountain fast pass was ready to be used.

6. Younger Guests

For those of you with families or you just storybook rides like me, Fantasyland is where you are going to be spending most of your time. I found that rides such as Blanche Neige et Les Sept Nains (Snow White), Les Voyages de Pinocchio (Pinocchio), and It’s a small world to have some of the shortest wait times in the entire park. But again, I would suggest utilizing fast passes for Peter Pans Flight and Ratatouille. And for younger guests who are a bit startled by the rides, there are plenty of shows available to watch for this I would suggest looking at what shows will be one when you go for us it was Forest of Enchantment, Mickey, and the Magician and others but they change with each different Disney themed season.

Thank you so much for reading I hope you found this post helpful, I probably have left a few things out so if you do have any questions don't hesitate to message me on Instagram or comment here asking anything you want to know! I also would love to know if you want me to tell you guys some of the YouTube videos or channels I found helpful when planning my trip to Disney I can either to mention it on Instagram or put it in a blog post just let me know, 

Sending Love,

Ellie Xx

Question of the post: If you could visit any Disney park around the world where would you like to visit and why? Let me know your answer in the comments.  

My Answer: I really want to visit every Disney park (slightly unrealistic but still a goal) but I would love to visit Tokyo Disney as I love the design of the park and I think DisneySea has some amazing rides.