2-Parks 1-Day Strategy for Adults Disneyland Paris

consultant

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
I've been to Disneyland and World in the U.S. many times and rarely wait in line longer than 20 minutes through careful planning. I am excited Paris has the paper ticket Fastpass system as that means we can give our tickets to one person an designate them as the "Fastpass Runner" which is a strategy that worked very well for us before.

Having never been to Paris Disneyland I'm wondering what the recommended park hopping strategy is. Are any of the Fastpass machines "orphaned" from the system so you don't have to wait to get one, or can you get a Fastpass immediately when switching parks or is the system linked up for all rides in both parks?

Usually the main strategy is to enter the park that will have the longest lines in the afternoon first and send Fastpass runner to one of the two most popular rides and then meet the group and the other of the two most popular rides to line up. After this, the most popular rides will have long lines so do a "second tier" ride that does not have long lines in the morning while waiting to get next Fastpass. I would guess DIsneyland has longer lines in the afternoon than Studios so switch to Studios when? 11AM? 12PM? And get what fastpass and ride what ride?

Definitely we will be in Disneyland at closing for the show and from experience in the last hour, ride lines go down because many children can't last that long. It is in that last hour you can ride many rides for a second time with little wait.
 
The main question I have left is, for 2 parks in one day with Adults, I've seen more writeups where people went to Studios park first. This seems backwards to me because I've read the Fastpasses in Disneyland for the most popular rides can run out as early as 11AM. But on the other hand, Disneyland is more popular so for people doing both parks, I think many will not have patience and want to go to Disneyland first then go to Studios in mid afternoon so we would be "following the majority" if that is true.

The other challenge we will have is we either want closer Fastpass return times, or as far as possible. The reason being we aren't going to leave Studios in the afternoon just to walk over and use Fastpass for one ride in Disneyland because that is our return time. So I guess the first one or two fast passes we get should be for the lesser popular rides so it will be a quick return time and then get the most popular ride fastpasses later hoping to get evening return times.
 


Oh yes, I forgot, it wouldn't be in "Disney Spirit" to turn away an unused FP just because you were later than the end time. They just check that it is after start time and same day.

So then the question becomes, if I decide I will skip Crush, doesn't it THEN make more sense to start at DLR, get 2-3 FP and ride 2-3 rides (I know Indiana is disconnected) and then head to Studio - I forgot opening isn't until 10AM so would more likely being heading over to Studio 12PM at earliest I am guessing.

I read many opinions that Crush is overrated. But maybe most of those are from people that waited 90 minutes? This is the same situation with Toy Story Mania in California Adventure. No FP. Line long all day. Very long line for short ride except right after rope drop. I am not going to center my intinerary around one ride!

Any suggestion for order of FP and rides after rope drop in DLR if planning to go to Studios at 2 hours after rope drop (12PM?)
 
One other question. If I am storing my ticket as PDF on my phone, do they give me a paper ticket on entry to sue for Fastpass machines?
 
When are you going? and are you staying at a Disney hotel? both of these will help with a suggested plan!
 


If you have 1 day, and have no interest in Crush, Rock 'n Roller coaster will be closed, Tower of Terror is the same as in DL before the layover and Ratatouille will come to Epcot soon. I would suggest to skip the studios. The only thing of interest (in my opinion) would then be the show Mickey and the Magician, but with one day, I wouldn't advise this unless you love shows.

Better to focus on the Disneyland Park. For fastpasses, I would go for BTM first, Peter Pan next, then Buzz, then Space, then Star Tours, then Indiana Jones (but this one you can get in the meantime as it's disconnected).
 
Crush is AWESOME. We rope-dropped it twice and also rode it single-rider once, so we didn't wait longer than 20 minutes. The best thing about it is that is absorbs almost the entire contingent of people entering the park, so most other things are a walk-on for a while. We rode RnRC three times, back-to-back-to-back.
 
You can definitely do all the rides of two parks with proper planning. A few tips:
  • Set up alarms when you can fetch a new FP. If you have a watch with an alarm feature, THIS is why it's here.
  • I would not hop from one park to another. Not because of the 30 minutes mentioned in this thread (the CM will override it by pushing a button, no questions asked), but because this wastes so much time you could have spent on another attraction.
  • Every day, the duty managers decide the “FP mix”: if set to 50/50, the Standby line will get as crowded as the FP line. There is no way you can tell, no one will know, but you WILL want to avoid getting on PPF or BTM too late when this happens. Hint: take these as FP first, if you can secure a spot before 11am for PPF that's perfect.
  • If you have access to EMT, use it for CC and immediately jump to Disneyland Park and ride PPF, BTM, and all the other rides in that order.
  • If you're not into parades, this is the time to ride PoTC.
  • If your return time to BTM is too crowded (like people spilling after the FP check), skip it and take the chance to do it later. Be sure to ride well before park close as the FP line might close earlier.
  • Between 12pm-4pm, ride only FP and rides with less than 20 minutes. This is the time to take selfies in front of the castle, Instagram-style, though I know this isn't the golden hour.
  • Be sure to sleep 2-3 days in a row before you go to the parks. If you're travelling from far away, this means do not go to the parks until you have adjusted to jet lag: you want to stay until the very last minute to enjoy faster lines.
 

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