First trip to DLP for family from USA -- August 2021

Hunnybee

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 26, 2001
Hello!

I am new to this board ... my family (DH, me, DS (21) and DD (18)) is taking a special trip next August to Paris, specifically for Disneyland Paris, of course! ;) We will be staying at Newport Bay Club for 5 days... we'll do park passes for all 5 days but some of our time will be spent exploring Paris. When we're done there, we are taking the train to Amsterdam for a few more days. Our heritage is Dutch, so we're anxious to check out where our ancestors came from. :)

I just saw the thread about "First Time to Disneyland Paris"...I will have to read through that!

My first question for starters is can anyone recommend a YouTuber to watch for Disneyland Paris info? We have our favorites for WDW and DL, but have no idea who to watch for Paris.

Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks so much!
 
You can check out FreshBaked! (Californian-based) and their trip to Paris. Theme Park Worldwide (English) has also some trips to Paris
 
I also second Themepark World Wide, I love his vlogs and his upbeat personality. Legglife mainly does Disney Cruises, but they also did a trip to Paris.
DLRP fans is good for general videos throughout the years.

Good onride videos you can also find on SoCal Attractions 360 on youtube.

For social media, I would go for ED92 (mainly French, their website is also in English), as they have daily reporters in the park. It gives a good idea of the daily entertainment and special merchandise. Pixiedust is a second, but due to covid they do not have as many reports as they used to.
 


And as a Dutch person, I would suggest, do not stay in Amsterdam. Better go to The Hague, Leiden, Utrecht, less touristy and the same famous Dutch houses.
 
Karin1984, we already have reservations at a hotel my son stayed at in Amsterdam when he went with his high school...but I'll have to take a look at the other areas you suggested. I grew up in Holland, Michigan and now live right next door in Zeeland, Michigan...so, we have seen plenty of the architecture around our towns. I think we just want to be in the actual place! I also worked at Windmill Island in high school where I dutch danced and gave tours of a working windmill that was given to our town by the Netherlands. My folks have visited the Netherlands 3 different times and have suggested other cities as well. It's good to have a native's perspective though...thanks, I appreciate it! :)
 


We visited in September 2020, staying at Newport Bay Club, and posted some just-for-fun videos to YouTube that are publicly available.
 
We stayed at Newport Bay Club summer 2019, mainly because of the pool for our young teen boys. The walkway on the left side of the hotel towards their Downtown Disney was closed and had us walking around the much longer right side of the lake. We were all up for walking over to the parks and we came back for mid day breaks But, I did leave with knowing that I will ALWAYS suggest for a first timer to stay at the Disneyland Hotel for proximity. That is were we will stay for sure the next time!
 
I hope your enjoy it and remember it's a different experience... Enjoy the larger size and the walk through attractions.

I think pixie dust is good. I won't watch theme park worldwide because they have allegedly been involved in ignoring horrible illegal things to happen to people.

Enjoy your trip.and if you have any questions please ask the forum!
 
IMO and I know everyone travels differently, but I think you might find that 5 days for the parks is going to be a LOT. I'd probably do 3 max and spend more time in the city. The parks are pretty small. Beautiful and so charming, but small. Be prepared for a little bit of a let down as far as the resorts go. It's a strange feeling to me. It's not what you're accustomed to. Now I've only been in the DL hotel, but it didn't have your usual Disney vibe. It felt like a knockoff I guess you'd say? A little beat up or rough around the edges for Disney. I kept thinking that Disney was Disney no matter where you went, but the only way to describe it, is that it doesn't feel like it's actually ran by Disney. If that makes any sense?
 
IMO and I know everyone travels differently, but I think you might find that 5 days for the parks is going to be a LOT. I'd probably do 3 max and spend more time in the city. The parks are pretty small. Beautiful and so charming, but small. Be prepared for a little bit of a let down as far as the resorts go. It's a strange feeling to me. It's not what you're accustomed to. Now I've only been in the DL hotel, but it didn't have your usual Disney vibe. It felt like a knockoff I guess you'd say? A little beat up or rough around the edges for Disney. I kept thinking that Disney was Disney no matter where you went, but the only way to describe it, is that it doesn't feel like it's actually ran by Disney. If that makes any sense?
It's now the last of the hotels that will have a refurb. People are saying it's going to remain shut so it's completed for the 30th. I would book the new hotel. The rooms look amazing and the area around it is nice. I think 5 is over doing it. But it depends on your vibe. If you want to watch the world go by then do 5. Each land has alot more detail than Orlando. I would say 2-3 is the perfect length tough. Paris itself is not my vibe, to dirty and American influenced lol! I prefer London or Rome but it's less touristy areas and food locations are stunning.
 
IMO and I know everyone travels differently, but I think you might find that 5 days for the parks is going to be a LOT. I'd probably do 3 max and spend more time in the city. The parks are pretty small. Beautiful and so charming, but small. Be prepared for a little bit of a let down as far as the resorts go. It's a strange feeling to me. It's not what you're accustomed to. Now I've only been in the DL hotel, but it didn't have your usual Disney vibe. It felt like a knockoff I guess you'd say? A little beat up or rough around the edges for Disney. I kept thinking that Disney was Disney no matter where you went, but the only way to describe it, is that it doesn't feel like it's actually ran by Disney. If that makes any sense?
In Paris they are just hotels, a place to sleep. Not a place to spend a lot of time for most guests, so no need to spend much money on decor. The hotels wouldnt sell out faster or fill up more if they were resorts.

I think one of the most common mistakes by people visiting from the US is to expect it to be the same as the US. There are is many cultural differences, that it changes the feel of everything.
You cannot ask a Frenchman to be more American or the other way around ;)
 
In Paris they are just hotels, a place to sleep. Not a place to spend a lot of time for most guests, so no need to spend much money on decor. The hotels wouldnt sell out faster or fill up more if they were resorts.

I think one of the most common mistakes by people visiting from the US is to expect it to be the same as the US. There are is many cultural differences, that it changes the feel of everything.
You cannot ask a Frenchman to be more American or the other way around ;)
Nope not at all. I would actually hate it if it were like the US. It's more the vibe you get. That unexplainable thing that feels like Disney. If you go expecting that, you'll be disappointed. I think for me, this is what keeps DLP a side trip to Paris. That and the fact that I'm not going all the way to Paris to do American stuff. I'm all about staying in the tiny hotels and riding the metro all over the place and eating street food. I've been a couple of times and haven't even done the Louvre or been up the Eiffel Tower. I'm fine with just walking by them. We had the most fun wandering Pere Lachaise cemetery. Another misconception is that every place has good food. The best food is the street food and bakeries. The little brasseries and bistros that we tried every night were average to bad. We'll keep trying until we find one worth going back to though.
 
We went to DLP a few years ago (seasoned WDW and DL visitors). Very different! There is no Disney bubble there. The food is terrible. Overall it feels more like an American Theme park than a Disney experience.

You do NOT need 5 days. It's in the middle of nowhere so there is nothing else around it to do. Maximum 3 park days would do absolutely everything. It's really neat to compare the rides though. Thunder Mountain is amazing!!!
 
We went to DLP a few years ago (seasoned WDW and DL visitors). Very different! There is no Disney bubble there. The food is terrible. Overall it feels more like an American Theme park than a Disney experience.

You do NOT need 5 days. It's in the middle of nowhere so there is nothing else around it to do. Maximum 3 park days would do absolutely everything. It's really neat to compare the rides though. Thunder Mountain is amazing!!!

DLP has changed quite a bit since it was fully taken over by Disney in late 2017. The whole park has been freshened up and I think its a bit harsh to say its more like Cedar Fair or 6 Flags. I agree the food and staff (not all) are terrible, but it's unique in many ways. 3 Days is perfect.
 
I agree with others that 5 days isn't really necessary. We had 5 day tickets on our last trip and only used 4 days, one of them being our arrival day so more of a half day in the park. It was a package with an extra free days incentive, so we didn't feel too bad about not using one "free" day.
 
We were there in August 2019...

DLP has changed quite a bit since it was fully taken over by Disney in late 2017. The whole park has been freshened up and I think its a bit harsh to say its more like Cedar Fair or 6 Flags. I agree the food and staff (not all) are terrible, but it's unique in many ways. 3 Days is perfect.
 
I think you can do the parks in 3 days but when my child was younger I am glad that we went for 4 so we could go back and nap in the afternoon.

They used to offer a more expensive room but it would include free breakfast and then afternoon snacks and drinks. It is like their version of the club level. We loved it and thought it was worth the price. We got one free FP for each day.

The food isn’t great but I had decent bar food in the lounges of the hotel. Earl of Sandwich was good and so were the pizzas from Vapiano. You might just want to take some snacks
 

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