Disneyland Park, Paris Review

Overall Rating

The good points are the well done themes and great facades. Once you enter the Disneyland Park for the first time, you will enjoy the magic instantly. With the castle just at the end of the main street, you get the feel of Disney Magic. It all looks great.

Even during off-season, queues are the worst thing. Not the fact that you have to wait (pretty standard with most themeparks), but with the in-efficiency of the people and the systems it gets annoying. Compared with the US Disney park, it's not as commercially exploited, however, bring your own food and drinks to cut down on cost and fat.

When coming over with kids, be sure to first look at what's provided. Disney Studio's is not for the youngsters, Disney Park is. The map and program you get is not giving all the info you'd like to have: there's no description of what things are and what to expect. When first entering the park, there's a big 'wow' factor. At the end of the day, we at least thought of it as being small, not very diversified (Dumbo, Carpet Ride, Orbitron are basically the same, it only looks a little different; Cars is similar to the Tea Cups you see in other parks). If you have ever been to De Efteling in the Netherlands, you will immediately see the difference in quality and diversity. Peter Pan's Flight is bumpy, simple, short timed and if your child is not that big, it will not see much of what is shown (compare it with Efteling's Droomvlucht, 'dream Flight'). The Pays des Contes de Fees is really not something to be in a queue for. The little circus train, however, is fabulous. The Robinson tree and the Adventure Isle is amazing and will surprise everyone. The wild west theme of Frontierland will also amaze many. But, here again, if you have to wait for a trip on the riverboat, it's not that exciting. True, Big thunder Mountain is fantastic, but not for the smaller children. Big disappointment are things like Aladdin's Passage and Flying Carpets. Not well executed and fairly simple. Nevertheless, visiting Disney Paris at least once is a must. Not always do you get to speak English and be understood. Efficiency is the one big thing that's annoying: getting onto the Studio Tram Tour is a drag. You get the feel you are waiting for the people working at the park. And if your wait is rewarded with a very short ride with basically one magic moment, you leave feeling a bit, well disappointed. For the money you pay to get the entry card for both parcs, I'd say it's a little over priced. My suggestion: go to Disney Paris first, later go to De Efteling.