Euro Disney

[meenaghman]

Don't.. welcome to my worst nightmare... from the bag 'Nazis' at the gate checking for packed lunches to, the over priced shoot food, the never ending queues, the broken rides not running, the rip off price. Have been to Blackpool pleasure beach, porta ventura and in comparison Disney is overpriced, over crowded, and suffocating. .. and I've done it 3 times, once with wife/girlfriend as she was in 92, once with 5yrold and 3yrold (not too bad that time because there were petrol shortages all over Europe (tanker driver strikes in UK and France) so not too crowded, and once about 3 years ago with two teenagers and a 4 yr old.. what a mare...my 4 yr old later said best bit of holiday was going into Paris, riding on a double decker train on the RER, riding on a boat, walking up to second storey of the Eiffel tower and looking at the Gargoyles on Notre Dame and going to the Stade De France. All times I stayed outside the park. People who I've spoken to, including family, who stay in the park say its better (but I don't know whether that's to justify the extra expense).

 

[ColinJ]

We once supplied audio equipment to Disney and when talking to the Disney people, we discovered some of the elaborate safeguards they have for their child visitors. Apparently, the number one requirement is that under no circumstances can it be possible for children to see two Mickey Mouses/ Mickey Mice? (or any other character) at one time, nor see one disappear round a corner in front of them, and mysteriously reappear behind them in an impossibly short period of time. There is only one Mickey Mouse so he can't be in two places at once. They took it very seriously indeed!

 

[GrumpyGregry]

It's Disneyland Paris btw.

Went the year it opened as Euro Disney and we go at least every other year. Such was the impact of this on our now adult children that my eldest has just passed an audition to potentially go and work there as one of the cast this summer.

(over) Familiarity has built a certain level of contempt in my heart but I usually conquer my cynicism. Suspend your disbelief, surrender yourself to your inner child and you can have a wonderful, if obscenely expensive time. Terror Tower is brilliant and the cast put in effort to ramp up the tension on it. Rocky Roller Coaster is a great ride ruined for enforced Aerosmith. India Jones was better when it went backwards but can still make you feel really really sick if you time it so you can go on it 5 or 6 times on the trot without queuing.

We've always been spoilt rotten, as someone else pays for these trips, and have stayed in the Hotel Disneyland right over the park entrance, though we did once stay in the much more family friendly Hotel New York. My adult daughter and her boyfriend enjoyed the Newport Bay Yacht Club when they stayed there this summer.

Nights in winter when the Electric Parade is on are spectacular (and the rides are deserted when this runs and are usually so for the last 45 minutes of operating hours ime) and Chunder Mountain must be done at least once at night.

VIP Fastpass is a worthwhile investment if queuing isn't your thing, oh and it being Europe don't expect your fellow Europeans to understand anything about how we expect queues to operate, queue jumping, pushing past, and barrier hopping is rife and usually some Brit detonates as a result.

And I love It's a small world, and Casey Junior but my favourite of all is Pirates of the Caribbean, at night.

 

[Globalti]

Yep; scratched that particular itch a few years ago. We went independent, we booked a budget hotel room about two stops towards Paris on the RER because we'd heard that the prices were high in the resort hotels. We spent two days there and I remember there was some kind of preferential queueing system that allowed you to jump queues. The car stunt show was good fun, as was the disaster scenario train ride, which had a couple of kids screaming with terror. There was a lot of queueing and we wouldn't do it again but it was fun. Suspend your normal cynicism and go for the kids, it's not that bad!