Knowing that it gets busy and there’s a lot of ground to cover, and that Caitlin would require lots of help in terms of mobility… we booked Monday-Thursday, term time in the autumn-winter season. It’d be quieter, we’d be in no rush and as long as we did everything we wanted to once, we’d be sorted.
We prepped the kids ahead of time – youtube videos of what to expect, realistic expectations of what they may be able to achieve in a day, what the busy and chaotic periods were likely to look like. All quite essential for going anywhere with these two.
Everything was set to be a good time, and it was.
We had a nice hotel, and room. We had our full board plus plan for food, so there was no stress about that and the kids had realistic expectations as to what they’d be able to ride. The queues weren’t too long, we had extra magic hours because we were staying in a Disney hotel. It was extra magical as it was all decorated for Christmas and also extra magical Christmas shows.
I am not going to sit and reproduce information that’s widly available and ever changing; everything you need to know about the hotels, dining plans, park hours, rides, shows etc. is avaiable from the Disneyland Paris website, or for a more thorough “user produced” guide, the DLP guide website has lots of good information.
What I will say is, despite their young ages, we have some quite “adrenalin” loving children. For nostalgia and a bit of fun they loved the Slinky ride in the Studios, but actually we came away with the realisation they like the fast rides; Crush’s Coaster and Thunder Mountain were their favourite rides (though, Caitlin’s sesnory issues with loud noises meant that certain parts of these were a little bit of an issue), they loved the feeling of wooshing about. My little speed freaks!
In terms of shows, the Illuminations and parades were definitely spectaular, and Mickey’s Magical Christmas lights, but really the experience they loved the most was the Moteurs Action Stunt Show, it really captivated them from start to finish. And has them begging for more visits to more motor-based stunt shows (I don’t mind, quite the fan of Freestyle MotoX, rally cars and stunt shows myself so, happy to roll with that).
We didn’t do any character breakfasts, or meet and greets as Caitlin says she loves it, but every inch of her shows otherwise. And I am still very on the fence about what is animal cruetly, so we didn’t attend the Buffalo Bills Wild West Dinner show. We did, however, beat the crowds and watch fireworks from our room
All in all, a good experience, perhaps one we’re more likely to keep as a memory of a good time than repeat. But an experience we’d recommend and treasure none the less.
You can find our review of the hotel here, of the travel experience here and of our food plan here.
A Pleasant Chaos 