Paris-London 2018 Day 3 Part 4: Disneyland

I love disneyland <3 So whichever Disneyland I go... it will still be more or less an enjoyable experience.

A lot of people compare disneylands to help them understand what one is like to another. I would liken this to be very similar to HONG KONG disneyland actually. In terms of the fact that there isn't much rides... the space is small... yeah it is similar.

But one thing it does excel in, is the merchandise. I think this is only Disneyland that I bought so much merchandise without regret, the rest I would always just get a keychain for memory sake. Here I really wanna get EVERYTHING from clothes to accessories because it is so cute.


That was really what I enjoyed most about this Disneyland actually. Shopping. Since I was with my parents who can't really ride on many rides and I'm not an adrenaline junkie myself, I didn't really look out for the rides, since a lot of them require a long wait also.

So! Let's go to disneyland~

We decided to go anti clockwise from the main Street, entering Discoveryland first.

We were super disappointed that Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast closed just days before we arrived in Paris, so we couldn't ride it :(

We also got very confused by some of the shows, thinking that they were screening but actually they weren't. Ah well. This turned out to be just a dining place with lots of benches to sit

We rode the Star Tours ride which was really mild and safe but uses 3D glasses so a bit giddy haha. Everything was in French of course.

We also queued to take a picture with Dath Vadar omigosh. Really in character. He pointed at us to tell us to keep quiet. Haha so cute.

We finally rode this car thingy called Autopia. Er waste time la. Just drive only haha. And we queued 20 minutes for it.

After that we went to It's A Small World in Fantasyland, because that's a classic ride we cannot miss. I haven't done a lot of research comparing the same attraction across different parks but I really enjoyed this ride as always. The queue was 15 minutes.

We then went to ride a new ride called Les Voyages de Pinnochia. Queued 20 mins but it was soooo not worth it. Just like that lor, show the different Pinnochio scenes... But maybe coz I'm not into Pinnochio that I really am quite bored by it.

After that for some reason due to timing we had to try to rush back to Main Street to take a picture with Donald Duck because he would end his photo shoot at main Street at 4pm. But aiyo. I should have queued up for more characters. It was so fun to stand in the queue (AND in the rain) in order to watch Donald interact with everyone. He is really like in character and would hug and fuss over those who prove they are loyal Donald duck fans wearing merch and if they come by with Micky or Minnie he makes a fuss and writes in the autograph book that Donald is number one. Haha super worth it but characters are scattered across the entire park so plan!

We soon got hungry so we ate at this place that sells fish and chips. I'm so sorry we didn't get the exact name of the restaurant but it is within Fantasyland, pretty far back near the border of the park. It is also near the Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride. The fish and chips here was affordable and I think quite worth it!

Please remember that the restuarants do close quite early at about 5pm ish, which was the time we finished our meal soooo please make sure you have an early dinner OR ELSE you will be left hungry and queuing for the few remaining and perhaps overpriced restuarants. 

At 5pm it was time for the parade omigosh the floats are really pretty?!

Worth it but it was really short... within 10 minutes all the floats passed by us le.

There are also smaller (?) parades that happen throughout the day. So do check those out too. They are not as impressive as the floats la but still fun. Quite clearly from the pathetic pictures below I didn't bother to snap much

At the base of the beautiful castle....

Lies a ferocious dragon. That growls and snorts and roars on loop. Hard to take pics in low light. Camera enthusiasts please have a go lol

Like this, there are actually lots to see at Disneyland and I really enjoyed taking photos with my Sony RX100 Mark ii. 

I watched Coco on the way to Paris and I bawled like a baby. Really loved the show a lot and was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a lot of merch for Coco. But there was this Coco canteen/eatery at Frontierland. Quite new so I don't know if you might see it on the maps

As the day grew longer the queue for the rides got longer as well. Couldn't ride this Big Thunder Mountain Ride because the queue was 60 mins long urgh. I cannot leave my parents alone for so long

Something I found especially interesting is that Disneyland Paris has a fast lane for those with disabilities/those who are enabled differently. I think it's really nice that the entire park is equipped and ready to make the park experience an enjoyable one. 

Here are some snaps of my food that was not so impressive hahaha

And thank you for reading so many parts to my trip to Disneyland Paris! It has been so fun! :D

Paris-London 2018 Day 3 Part 3: Disneyland Paris Things to Note

I didn't want to take away any attention from all there is at Disneyland Paris so I'm gonna make this post separate.

(1) Variables throughout the year for Disneyland Paris
CHECK THE FOLLOWING PLEASE

1. Daylight hours (how many hours of sunlight are you going to enjoy)
2. Weather
3. Any train strikes
4. Any closures of rides and places (we kena plenty on our day there. My Buzz Lightyear sobs)

(2) Water dispensers
They are available throughout the park, but not exactly everywhere also. So when you see one do refill your bottle first. But it also means you need not lug a huge canister of water over to Disneyland, or constantly pay for overpriced and expensive bottled water

(3) Tourist Information

While we were looking around the place and taking photos, Mom found a tourist information center with people queuing up. It's a standalone, sheltered space in the middle of all the gate entrances and the train station exit.

Image Source

We actually went to ask if we can buy Musee D'Orsay tickets here and we could. So we got the hardcopy ticket straight away. Other tickets for other museums can be bought also, which I think is very convenient to help you skip the lines since the line at this Tourist Information Centre was so much shorter than any of the lines at the museums. The lady recommended the museum pass which again, wasn't worthwhile for us. 

(4) Grab a map, but note the places to eat

One thing I wish the map contained was information about places to eat. We had to decide on where to eat by wandering around and this was quite a tough feat.

The maps were in different languages and the English one was good enough to explain briefly the rides and whether it was unsuitable for say.. pregnant women, people with back and shoulder ache etc.

(5) About the Parks

There are 3 different names you will hear. One is Disneyland Park, another is Disney Studios and the last is Disney Village. 

Check out the map over here to see the areas in which they are located.

Disney Village can be entered into without any cost. You just need to do a bag check, and you can enter Disney Village. At this place, you can eat expensive Disneyland food.... buy Disneyland candy apples and candy floss, and access FIVE different shops with Disneyland merch. And whatever you can buy at Disney Village is more or less repeated in the main park.

Which means that you do not have to even have a park ticket (for either Disney Studios or Disneyland Park) in order to get all the merch and eat stuff. 

So. I'm gonna do that next time. Spend my day at Disney Village and go home woohoo.

The bag check for entering Disney Village also has the shortest queue. Your welcome.

We did not buy tickets for Disney Studios because I did research and thought it was too much of a bore. And sure enough.... 

THE LINES WERE SO LONG in DISNEYLAND PARK BY THE LATE AFTERNOON.
Like if I queued for everything there is no way I could finish everything by the end of the day. And why would I queue 60 minutes just for a ride. Aiyo.

We could only go for like.... 4 rides, before we concluded that everything was a worthless endeavour due to the waiting time.

(6) Make the most of the rides there
So. In the early early morning, a lot of rides are not crowded, once we entered it was just a five minute wait. But as the clock started to get closer to noon, the queues started getting longer and longer, up to 20 minutes. And then even later in the afternoon like 5pm it became an hour wait.

So according to the website, you can go directly to the ride you want, press a fast pass ticket from one of the little boxes and it will allow you to come back at a later time to enter the fast pass queue rather than the main queue. These do run out though.

This is also the main reason why the queues get longer later in the day, because the fast pass riders are the ones actually making the queue longer and longer.

Each park ticket only allows you to grab one fast pass. So if you go to one and you get a timing of like... 5pm which is the time of the main parade, wah then you too bad already. Really.

I didn't bother with this because I wanted to stick to my family throughout.
But we were a bit suay, the Pirates of the Carribean ride closed the moment we got there for unknown time of maintenance. Like. We really walked to the entrance of the ride then they go and put barriers up. Sianz.

At the main street though there is this very useful sign that you can have a look at how long the rides are... but I didn't take a picture of it so sorry.

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Hope you find these tips useful for your Disneyland Paris trip! :D There are a lot of blogposts out there talking about how people spend multiple days at Disneyland Paris but to be honest... 1 day for the adults is good enough :>