In my mind, the Paris parks don;t have to be as good as the US parks- hopefully they'd be different and enjoyable in their own ways.
That's a great mind set.
Bad news first: the park is currently a mess. Literally. The crown jewel of the park, Big Thunder Mountains, is closed and this means that the whole Frontierland is impacted with walls along the whole lake. And overall the number of closed attractions is depressing. I let my annual pass expire (I live in London), but I will go anyway only for the half marathon otherwise this year I would have skipped it. If you can, wait until 2017.
True: maintenance is not very good and general manners have a lower standard. Tolerance to smoke is different in the EU (but it's changing, I think).
Interaction with the CMs is often quite limited, but it's normal if you think about it. In the US you can expect every guest to speak english, in DLP there are visitors from all over Europe with their own language. So a CM wouldn't even know which language you speak unless you speak first.
But that said, I think DLP is a great park and it has its own charm. It's very interesting to see all the differences and how it has been adapted for Europe.
I have visited WDW, DLR, TDR and DLP, so my comparisons are based on those.
I think DLP has the best Fantasyland all over the world. And it's very nice that it has different architecture inspired to European countries, with the French, German, UK and Italian areas. It also has the best future-land area: in the other parks, Tomorrowland shows how future was imagined in the fifties, so looked with today eye it lost most of its magic. Discoveryland at DLP instead shows the timeless story of the future imagined by Jules Verne, it's like living in one of his books and in this sense it is eternal.
And it has the best Frontierland: it has a great story flow if you have the time to appreciate it, showing the different time stages of the conquer of the old west.
Unique (or different enough from the US versions) attractions in the main park:
- Bit thunder mountains: hands down the best version in the world and best attraction at the resort (unfortunately under refurbishment until the end of the year)
- Alice in Wonderland's labyrinth
- The Sleepping beauty castle (pretty walkthough in the castle and underground cavern with a dragon)
- Space Mountains (the name is the only similar thing, it's a much more intense ride)
- Nautilus (skippable walkthrough)
- Phantom Manor (the first half is similar, the second half is unique)
- Indiana Jones: it's a small roller coaster with one inversion and not the DL ride, unfortunately
- Afternoon parade
- Dreams. You must see it. It competes for the best Disney night show.
Unique in the studios:
- Cinemagique: an hidden gem. If you love cinema you'll love this
- Ratatuille: this and cinemagique are the two reasons to buy park hopper tickets
- Crush and Coaster: a very nice and well themed (inside, outside it's awful) spinnig coaster
- Toy story play land: a collection of flat rides, nice but not great
- Stitch live-or-whatever-it's-called (like Turtle talk, but with Stitch as the main character)
- A new show with Mickey that I've not seen yet
- Armageddon (bleah, worst attraction in the world, a waste of time)
Overall I'd say that for a Disney fan there's enough to spend at least a day just to enjoy the different and unique attractions, But you can spend easily 2-3 full days if you have the right expectations.
But Paris is just 45 minutes away and Paris is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. With load of things to do and see. Frankly, to an American I'd suggest to spend at least 3-5 days in Paris before thinking about going to DLP.