Any Canadian Disneyland Paris visitors out there?

mjhtvchick

Universal Fan-atic
Joined
Apr 10, 2012
Hi all, we are in the very early stages of planning a potential Disneyland Paris/Paris/London trip for late June 2019.

Right now, we are thinking an 8-10 day trip due to the Pound/Euro - CAD exchange being so terrible. Looking at flying into CDG (from Halifax), using Disney transportation to go to Disneyland Paris, staying onsite for 3 nights, take the train/metro/private car to Paris for 2 nights, then take the Eurostar to London for 4-5 nights, finally flying direct back to St. John's from Heathrow.

This is a first trip to Europe for us and we know that we are barely going to be able to scratch the surface with that timeframe but it really is meant to be an "intro"/"test the waters" trip.

In Paris, we will likely book a "hop on/hop off"-type tour one day to hit the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, etc.

In London, we want to do the Harry Potter studios tour, see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and see the major sights.

Any tips or tricks from any former/regular Canadian DLP visitors? Where do you usually book? I have seen mention here on the boards of using the UK site/Irish site, etc.

Feel free to chime in with any other advice, etc. on either the DLP, Paris or London parts of the trip!
Thanks!
 
Not sure if it's still the case, but tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child are really hard to come by!

It is now marginally easier to find tickets, but you have to book them way in advance. They also sell "last minute" tickets, purchasable within two weeks of show date, but they're priced for a premium (double the price). Band A tickets are £150 if purchased far in advance, which is not cheap, but non unreasonable since there are two shows and a total 5 hours of show time. Worth every penny, the show is AMAZING.
They also do a super sale every friday for next week shows at incredible prices (£40 for the two shows), but winning the lottery is easier.
 
Not sure if it's still the case, but tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child are really hard to come by! (And there are two shows), I really want to go and I've tried a few times (one time we were going to London and the other time was a potential trip just to see the show) and wasn't successful. Also, the studios tour is great, but it's not close to the city center. Just know that, getting there and back will take a good portion of your time, but's a really good experience.

Thanks! Yes, we are planning "a day" to do the studios tour to allow for getting back and forth.

When we checked the tickets website, they seemed to have plenty of tickets for that far out. We would be booking them as soon as we know our travel dates.

It is now marginally easier to find tickets, but you have to book them way in advance. They also sell "last minute" tickets, purchasable within two weeks of show date, but they're priced for a premium (double the price). Band A tickets are £150 if purchased far in advance, which is not cheap, but non unreasonable since there are two shows and a total 5 hours of show time. Worth every penny, the show is AMAZING.
They also do a super sale every friday for next week shows at incredible prices (£40 for the two shows), but winning the lottery is easier.

Yes, it is definitely a splurge but my daughter has been a huge HP fan for years so we definitely do not want to take any chances scoring "lottery" tickets! :)
 


Following! My daughter and I are planning to go France next April. We have a friend moving about 90 minutes north of Paris.

We hope to stay one night at Disney Paris and do two days there.

I have not done much research into this yet.

We will also be flying from Halifax. It will be our first time in France. Westjet started flying there in May. Hopefully we can find a direct flight.
 
Hi everyone! Some more Canadians here! We will be going to Disneyland Paris for the first time in about 2 weeks, but have been to Paris and London and WDW so hopefully have some useful tips to share! First off, from what I have read on the DIS, 2 days are a reasonable amount of time to visit DLP, especially if you have already been to WDW, so that is what we have planned. One day will be for WDSP in AM and DLP in PM (to see the fireworks there) and next day just DLP or again a mix of both. We will buy our tickets directly at the hotel once we get there, as advance tickets do not give us an advantage for Fastpass choices (the parks in Paris still have the old FastPass kiosks in front of each attraction like they did in WDW about 12 years ago, from what I understand).
We are staying at a new resort which seems wonderful and is now classified as a Disney Hotel (so you get the Extra Magic Hours): Villages Nature Paris, a beautiful, huge resort with lots of outdoor activities! Link is: http://www.disneylandparis.com/en/hotels/villages-nature-paris/
I suggest you allow yourselves at least 3 full days in Paris and same in London, as there is so much to see and do! The Louvre is more than a half day if you want to get some sense of it, it's huge (and same for British Museum)! Among our highlights in Paris were of course the Louvre and Eiffel Tour and Notre-Dame, walking along the Champs-Élysées and Jardin des Tuileries, but also the Sainte-Chapelle, as well as the Quai d'Orsay and l'Orangerie Museums (mostly paintings, notably impressionists), and a boat ride on the Seine. We did go to Versailles (we were 5 days in Paris when we went with the kids), but personally, I don't think it is a must and would skip it if pressed for time.
In London, we loved visiting the Tower of London, British museum, St Paul's Cathedral, Eye of London, numerous parks and walking around Notting Hill. We were there 4 days. We didn't have time to go see the HP studios, because the kids were still young and wanted to go to Legoland Windsor, which is what we did.
Whatever your plans/itineraries end up being, please remember to allow yourselves a bit of free time to just walk around and take in the scenery, taste some great food and discover some nice parks or shops or cafés that you will remember; it doesn't matter if you don't cross everything off your list!
There are some cards like the London Pass and Paris Museum Pass or Paris Pass'Lib that will cut down on your wait times and hassle of buying multiple tickets.
Have fun planning!
 


If you stay here, make sure you have a car! It's not on property! And I think there isn't a shuttle bus (at least there isn't from Davey Crocket, which is next door)

According to the DLP website there is a bus service, but it's public transportation, so not free of charge.
15 minutes by car, 25 minutes by bus.
 
Any tips or tricks from any former/regular Canadian DLP visitors? Where do you usually book? I have seen mention here on the boards of using the UK site/Irish site, etc.

I'm from the US, but I found the UK site had the best deal when I was booking last year. Try pricing out on a couple different country's sites, convert to CAD and see how it shakes out. It can depend on exchange rates which one works out best.
 
Maine here (close enough, right?) and we're just starting to look into a possible trip in June 2019. Would be our first time to Europe.

Found round-trip tickets from Boston to Paris in June 2019 for $570/ticket....seems good. Would like to see London too but flights seem like they'd be expensive.
 
Another Canadian here, but likely not as helpful. We were in Europe for the first time last year. We took a DCL British Isle cruise from Dover and spent 2 days before and 2 days after the cruise in London. We spent all our time in London to visit the tourist spots. If you're interested, let me know and I can give a brief review from our first time perspective. We didn't do the Harry Potter tour, but the one thing I would suggest is to book it as early as you can if you're interested. Sometimes, they sell out on tickets based on time of the year.

We are going to DLP for the first time this summer. So I won't be able to provide any personal review until we get back. However, I can tell you about our bookings. We did book online directly with the DLP UK site back last fall since they were having a good offer. Because it was done online, we paid in full. I do notice that they are not as responsive with emails as WDW or DL, so since we are staying at the club level onsite, I was able to get some information through the resort club emails.

Other than that, we made our dining reservations online (as suggested by a DIS poster on another thread). We also booked a private car service from CDG and not the Magical Shuttle (I believe that's the name of it). There is no actual ME at DLP. I believe they are all independent companies that requires payment.

I've been scouring this forum for advice and information as well as the DLP website and info. There isn't as much info as WDW has, so I do feel a bit less prepared that I like. But we are staying for 4 nights so I hope we are able to enjoy the parks fully.

Good Luck on your planning. :)
 
I've been scouring this forum for advice and information as well as the DLP website and info. There isn't as much info as WDW has, so I do feel a bit less prepared that I like. But we are staying for 4 nights so I hope we are able to enjoy the parks fully.

Good Luck on your planning. :)

If you Google for European boards or Facebook pages on DLP, you might find more information than on this American bases board as more Europeans travel to DLP than Americans it is helpful to speak French, as a lot of these pages are owned by locals.

But if there is anything specific I can see if I can help
 
If you Google for European boards or Facebook pages on DLP, you might find more information than on this American bases board as more Europeans travel to DLP than Americans it is helpful to speak French, as a lot of these pages are owned by locals.

But if there is anything specific I can see if I can help

Thank you. I'll do some searching.

We do know a little French...well Canadian French (our country's second language).
 
I hoped you would ;) but didn't want to assume.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't consider myself fluent....I studied French from Grade 1-12....then never again. I could help my children a bit through school, but definitely not capable of having a meaningful conversation anymore....let's just say grade 12 was a very very long time ago...However, we are exposed to French on occasion, but not enough to be fluent....I can, however, still remember our national anthem in French :upsidedow...but I'm pretty sure that won't be helpful when I go to DLP:lmao:
 
Thank you. I'll do some searching.

We do know a little French...well Canadian French (our country's second language).

« Canadian French » is to « French » as «North American English » is to «English »: same language, but with different accents and local expressions. One of the pleasures of traveling is discovering all this variety!
 
Fellow canadian here who used to work at Disneyland Paris and has been there quite often since.

Barbamama, Line 47 on the Pep's/Youmoov bus network is what will take you from Chessy Station to Village Nature in 25 minutes. Here is the schedule in french: "lundi au vendredi" is monday to friday and "Weekends et Jours Feries" is Weekend and Holidays. Village Nature is the hotel while Gare de Marne-La-Vallee Chessy is the subway and train station next to the parks.

https://www.you-moov.fr/IMG/pdf/peps-173537-fhete2017-l47-239x360-v2web.pdf

You can either pay the driver 2 euros per person to ride or buy at the station a booklet of 10 tickets for 14.90 euros. Depending on how long you stay and how many people are going, go with the booklet.

Fast pass as you noted is still the legacy system there. First come, first serve in the morning at the kiosks in front of each participating attractions. DLP does change things a bit with a strict 30 minutes window for return instead of an hour elsewhere. At Walt Disney Studios, Ratatouille is your first fast pass priority and then wait in line for a looong time for Crush Coaster. No fast pass there due to its miserable capacity and lines of 90 to 150 minutes are common. At Disneyland Paris, Peter Pan's Flight and Big Thunder Mountain are the highest in demand. Remember this: if your current fast pass is valid in more than two hours, you can take another one for a different attraction two hours later. If I get a Big Thunder Mountain fast pass at 09:05am and its valid at noon, I can get another one for Space Mountain at 11:05am.

Space Mountain over there is quite different. It features inversions, a launch inside an inclined cannon and very comfortable soft over the shoulder restraints. Be careful if you're tall or on the larger side: the restraint feature a sensor that detects if the restraint is down enough and you may need the cast member to push on it to be ok. RC Racer at Walt Disney Studios is a bit similar with very tight over the shoulder restraint combined with a seatbelt that buckles in it, but they modified one row to be more accommodating. Ask the cast member who assign you a row if in doubt. Crush Coaster use a tight individual lap bar and if you have long legs, cross your legs before pulling it down.
 
Thanks for all the great information! Unfortunately, we have decided not to include Disneyland in this trip after all. Trying to save a bit of money and simplify the trip overall.

I will definitely be back if we decide to try it out down the road!
 
Fellow canadian here who used to work at Disneyland Paris and has been there quite often since.

Barbamama, Line 47 on the Pep's/Youmoov bus network is what will take you from Chessy Station to Village Nature in 25 minutes. Here is the schedule in french: "lundi au vendredi" is monday to friday and "Weekends et Jours Feries" is Weekend and Holidays. Village Nature is the hotel while Gare de Marne-La-Vallee Chessy is the subway and train station next to the parks.

https://www.you-moov.fr/IMG/pdf/peps-173537-fhete2017-l47-239x360-v2web.pdf

You can either pay the driver 2 euros per person to ride or buy at the station a booklet of 10 tickets for 14.90 euros. Depending on how long you stay and how many people are going, go with the booklet.

Fast pass as you noted is still the legacy system there. First come, first serve in the morning at the kiosks in front of each participating attractions. DLP does change things a bit with a strict 30 minutes window for return instead of an hour elsewhere. At Walt Disney Studios, Ratatouille is your first fast pass priority and then wait in line for a looong time for Crush Coaster. No fast pass there due to its miserable capacity and lines of 90 to 150 minutes are common. At Disneyland Paris, Peter Pan's Flight and Big Thunder Mountain are the highest in demand. Remember this: if your current fast pass is valid in more than two hours, you can take another one for a different attraction two hours later. If I get a Big Thunder Mountain fast pass at 09:05am and its valid at noon, I can get another one for Space Mountain at 11:05am.

Space Mountain over there is quite different. It features inversions, a launch inside an inclined cannon and very comfortable soft over the shoulder restraints. Be careful if you're tall or on the larger side: the restraint feature a sensor that detects if the restraint is down enough and you may need the cast member to push on it to be ok. RC Racer at Walt Disney Studios is a bit similar with very tight over the shoulder restraint combined with a seatbelt that buckles in it, but they modified one row to be more accommodating. Ask the cast member who assign you a row if in doubt. Crush Coaster use a tight individual lap bar and if you have long legs, cross your legs before pulling it down.
Thank you very much!! Very useful info!!
 

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