Disneyland - Paris
“Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever.” - Walt Disney
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1 - Children under the age of 3 enters for free.
2 - If you can, book one of the Disney hotels to gain the 1 hour earlier access to the parks.
3 - Pack snacks and food for the day in your back packs.
4 - Book a restaurant well in advance.
5 - Get a good seat for the parade.
6 - Use single rides to skip long queues.
7 - Download the Disney App.
8 - Plan your day and rides at the park in advance.
9 - The Thalys train has a stop at the front door of Disneyland Paris.
10 - Visit 2 nights and 3 days - this is enough time for the two parks and little ones.
Our destination? The magical Disneyland Paris – a place where every corner whispers stories of wonder, where fantasy knows no bounds and where the young and young at heart find solace in a world of imagination.
The first time we visited a Disney park was in 2018 at Disney World, Orlando Florida. This was before Amber was born and it was a magical place. It has always been our dream to take her to experience the Walt Disney Magic. In 2023, 5 years later we went to Disneyland Paris, this time with Amber. All of a sudden the castle looked so much different, because this time we looked at it through the eyes of a child. She might not remember all of it, but we will forever be grateful for the memories that we have of her first experience at Disney.
One of the first things that you have to remember as a tip for Disney is that if your child is younger than 3 years old, entrance for them is free. Our friends asked us if we would be interested in visiting Disneyland Paris for a long weekend seeing as our kids turned 3 later that year. This was an easy answer as this has always been a dream. The next step was to look at booking accommodation. We had to consider whether we wanted to stay in one of the Disney Hotels vs a hotel outside Disney. Even though the hotels are pricey, we decided that staying on the grounds would be the best option for our families. We booked a 2 night stay with 3 days of park access at the Disney Hotel Santa Fe as our friend's son loves the movie Cars and we knew this would be a dream come true for him.
Day 1
We made sure everything was packed the night before and set our alarms to leave the next morning at 4am from our home, as the drive was about 6 hours. This way we could ensure that Amber still slept a good 2.5 hours in the car before we reach our destination. We arrived at the Santa Fe Hotel at around 10am and checked into our hotel. The staff was super friendly and even gave us and our friends the two rooms next to each other with adjoining doors, so the kids could easily go between the two rooms. Each room had 2 double beds and the theme was all about the Cars movie.
-> TIP: The best benefit of staying in one of the Disney Hotels is that you get early access you get into the parks. You are allowed to enter the park one hour before it opens to the public. Therefore we decided the previous evening which rides were worth doing for adults that usually had long waiting lines. We visited them first and could quickly get all the grownup rides out of the way.
Disneyland Paris is smaller than Disney World, but considering our kids are still small this was ideal. The walk from our hotel was easy and peaceful between the other hotels. We headed for the Disneyland Park first as this is the idyllic park with the iconic Disney Castle. We were already blown away before even entering. The gardens were spectacular and the music and atmosphere transformed us into the magical world. Because we already had tickets we could enter quickly and easily. A nice thing to remember is that you are allowed to take a backpack with food into the park. This makes it very convenient spending the day in the park with kids without paying a lot of money on food. We also downloaded the Disney app before the time and this allowed us to see the waiting lines for all the rides, which made it easier to plan our day with the kids. We enjoyed the magical feel of the park and the kids were so excited, we had to promise them some ice cream later that day just to get them to take a nap. Late afternoon we headed for the Walt Disney Studios Park. About 2 weeks before our trip we made a reservation at PYM restaurant. This restaurant is inspired by Marvel’s Ant Man and has an all you can eat buffet. This was probably not the best food we have ever had, but it was a fun experience. We would suggest looking at the restaurants well in advance to make a booking, seeing as the 2 restaurants that we wanted to visit were fully booked.
Day 2
Our second day was a mix between sun and rain, but still we had so much fun and the kids could not believe their eyes for the majority of the things they saw, to be honest even as parents we were amazed. We also made time for the parade and tried to meet some characters. We were not that successful in the second venture as Amber was super scared of meeting and greeting the Disney characters. We headed back to the hotel late afternoon for our reservation at the hotel restaurant. On our walk back we walked through the Disney Village where we could buy souvenirs and keepsakes for the kids. The restaurant at our hotel La Cantina was Mexican themed and the food was delicious. We went to bed early that night as the kids were tired from all the excitement of the day and we were sure that their dreams would be filled with magic.
The famous quote of Walt Disney: “If you can dream it, you can do it” became true for us that weekend.
Day 3
Our last day we headed to the park again nice and early and made the most of it before heading for our car and started our drive back home. This time around we stayed over half way in a town called Lille on a horse farm as we knew it would be a long drive after a full day of excitement. There is so much that we can say about that weekend, but a blog is not enough.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would take a 2 year old to Disney. She really enjoyed it, and even till today she still remembers it and every morning when she wakes up and we ask her what she dreamt about her answer is: playing at the pink castle. It just goes to show that Disney is a magical place, it doesn't matter where you are in the world or how old you are.