Disneyland Paris!!!

Ooohhhh...Hhmmm...Never been...First taste of Disney was in 2001 at DL in California...Did nothing for me...It was good but not jaw dropping...Then my friend went to DLP in 2004 as we went to WDW the same year..He came back and swore it was a waste of time and money..His little girl aged six enjoyed it but he and his wife were not impressed on lots of counts..Anyway we had a ball at WDW in 2004 and he joined us in 2006 and loved every minute...I had a look at prices for this year before rebooking WDW and wasn't impressed...So the moral of my story is.."If it's working, don't touch it"...So I've never been and never will as I think WDW in Florida has all the magic I need, wrapped inside one big magic bubble..But I sincerely hope you have a great time..As far as research goes, surely DLP has a fan base web site.?

Check out DisneyTouristBlog. Tom Bricker has several trip reports about DLP, plus his photos are awesome.

I ditto what finngirl said...great site

Cheers..But it's too expensive and I can't speak French...Come on...Mickey with a French accent...LOL...Ooh La La..

I agree with Phil that the castle is possibly the prettiest one of the bunch and Phantom Manor is pretty cool.Also thunder mountain is miles ahead at Paris. RnRC however is a very poor cousin of its Florida namesake and overall the park doesn't seem as nice as in 'merica.
A really nice touch though is the walkway behind the shops on main street.

Well we have been to DLP 12x now and we love it, in many ways we prefer it to WDW!

Apart from anything else, I can get 3 trips to DLP for what it costs me just for the flights to WDW from the UK, so I don't feel under such pressure if we have a less than perfect day. King Fergus, it doesn't have to be expensive at all, just before Christmas we went (2ad+2ch+1infant) for 5nts 6days onsite at Sequoia Lodge with half board+ and park tickets included for PS980, plus PS300 in travel from Yorkshire. Last March we did it even cheaper at PS380 for 4nts/5days at the Santa Fe plus travel, though that was only B&B and park tickets, not half board.

Also I don't go to Disney for hot weather, I hate the heat and spent most of our last WDW trip in the shade as I couldn't cope, so the weather at DLP is perfect for us.

Yes it is smaller, much like DL California and everything is within walking distance if you are onsite. The Disneyland Parc is by far the prettiest of all the Disney parks, the landscaping and the castle are particularly beautiful (and believe it or not is bigger than MK). The Studios are small and do need more, but it is expanding slowly, nevertheless the shows are great.

Regards hints and tips:
Go upstairs at the castle to see the Sleeping Beauty story in the stained glass windows
Go under the castle to see Merlin's dragon
Explore the caves near PoTC
Explore the graveyard near the exit to Phantom Manor
Climb in the fort at the entrance to Thunder Mesa (there is a whole back story to Frontierland that is brilliant and pulls everything together including Phantom Manor which has a different storyline to WDW)
BTM is much better at DLP, as is PoTC and ToT. We also prefer IaSW at DLP.
If you are onsite set the alarmm clock on the room phone.
Meet the characters at the Disneyland Hotel, outside Inventions in a morning from 8-10:30am, often different characters to the ones you will see in the other hotels, also if you go in for EMH in the morning it is easy to nip back to the DLH to see characters. Also Thursday>Sunday at either 4pm or 5pm (varies according to park schedule) there is Descent of the Stairs, this is a great time to see characters, hardly any lines and plenty of time so lots of fun, last year Goofy was playing with our youngest and running off with her beaker as he had no queue, spent about 10mins with us being silly.
Get one of the special pain au chocolat with nuts on (assuming you're not allergic) from the Cable Car bakes shop
Best CS meal deal in the parks is at Backlot/Blockbusters Cafe.
Take in the detail in Toy Story Playland

Can't think of many more right now, but have a great time.

Well one week this year in July was going to coast us just under PS3000 for three adults. That's tickets.flights,accommodation..For two weeks ( actually 13 days..12 nights ) staying at WL and flying with VA ( all 23kg luggage..meals..free drinks..ME bus ) PS4.504...I've only been to France once on hols..Just didn't do it for me..A bit like Abu Dhabi..went to visit relatives once...My thoughts...Lots of sand..sea..way too hot sun..( 40+ ) Big buildings..Camels..and slave labour...Been once and got the T- Shirt to prove it...But I remember having a heated discussion ( notice I didn't say argument ) on a old Disney fan base, with a women from California..She swore DL was the dogs b......Well you know what I mean..I suppose it's just as well there's more than on Disney destination to visit, or my favourite bubble would be bursting..LOL..

P.S. Our return flights with VA from Manchester for 3 adults were PS1.874.00.... If you can get three trips to DLP for your entire family for that price, then you indeed have a magic wand..LOL..

Walts is an amazing place to eat expensive but the food was great. king Ludwigs was fun and cheapish. I was quite negative going to DLP last year but really enjoyed it. Tower of Terror is better and crush coaster was fantastic. Downsides are people smoking and queue barging but you tend to ignore it. King F Mickey Mouse speaking Cantonese now that really is something to hear French sounded quite OK

Now I'am having nightmares...That's like Mel Gibson trying to talk Scottish...William Wallace would have his head off...LOL..

I totally get that we all have different tastes in holidays, I have worked in Abu Dhabi and had no desire to return for a holiday. I am however desperate to return to Tokyo and would be happy to hear Mickey talk Japanese .

I did say what I have paid for return flights for my family would get me 3 trips to DLP, not your flights, ours flights cost a bit more for 5 of us. I have the advantage at DLP cost wise that since children under 7 are always free and I have 2 children under 7yrs, so only pay for 2 adults and 1 child, plus I only book with 40% off and never go in the summer holidays, May half term or October half term are our favourite times as long as they don't coincide with French school holidays. Lastly, we don't fly to DLP, that would double the cost of our trips and I hate CDG airport, we prefer to drive and go through the tunnel.

I can fully believe that DLP is a beautiful place, however the smoking thing puts me right off...Hate the smell of it..Yuch..

Me too. I found the whole park to be dirtier than the US parks, probably due in large part to the smoking.

Space Mountain is great there!! Also, Planet Hollywood was the best place we ate (shocking b/c in the US, I am not a fan). I would advise skipping the tex mex buffet. The beignets are REALLY good!! Highly recommend them, I stopped everytime we passed the shop on Main Street. YUM!

We had a lovely steak dinner at the silver spur steakhouse. The food was good and the price was decent, even in Euro, for Disney. Although it was funny, the waiter really tried to talk us out of getting our steaks done medium rare, as "you Brits do not like your meat as rare as we French do". I thought it was an interesting generalization, made even more interesting by the fact that we aren't British.

I forgot some tips!

In WDS in Studio 1 on the right just before the drinks/cake cart, there is a lighting board and you can play with it, it changes the lighting over the shop entrance opposite. This is DD operating it last December...

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Also, after the art of animation show there is a drawing lesson, this is a must for us, but you don't have to go through the show, you can just go in the exit by the Art of Animation shop and find out what time the lessons are. The hot tip here is that before the lesson starts go up and ask the illustrator running the class if you can have their picture at the end. They will sign it and let you take it home. We now have 4 original signed pictures to go along with our feable efforts.

Other tip for the Studios to avoid the queues for Crush, be at the WDS gates before 9:30am when they open, we were there at 9:20 last time, but it should be quieter for you next week. As soon as they open the gates run for Crush, officially it doesn't open until 10am, but the last few times we have ridden and been off and in another queue before 10am. We normally do RC Racer next, Toy Story Parachute drop then get FP for ToT and/or RnRC.

Animagique and Cinemagique are excellent shows and unique to DLP.

In the main parc, golden rule is DDF - Do Dumbo First! On EMH we alternate between Fantasyland one morning and Discoveryland the next, in Discoveryland do Orbitron first.

If you are onsite and staying in moderate or value, then try for breakfast in the parks one mornng, works really well for us to have a 9:30am breakfast in the park, we get in for EMH at 8am, do everything while it's quiet and as it gets busier due to AP holders and late sleepers arriving go and have breakfast, then are out of breakfast in time to run for first FP at 10am and get on another ride.