Power Tour - Disneyland Paris 2 Parks 1 Day - Tips From First Timer from U.S.

consultant

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
There's already lots of information out there but I want to give back so I'll throw in my suggestions...

I tackle touring Disney Parks like I tackle System Analysis projects (LOL). It can be challenging but it always works out we rarely wait in a line longer than 20 min.

I had a group of 6 Adults (one was a first timer) so we got a 2-park pass and tried to cram in all the best stuff.

We left a suburb of Paris about 20 min later than planned and got off the Train right at opening. A critical mistake usually, but not so bad this time.

Tip #1 - We bought tickets online and come to find you can NOT exchange them for paper tickets at the park. You have to tour the park all day placing your phone to the scannner. This created several issues: (a) It's cumbersome to turn phone on, bring up ticket, and line up the code compared to a paper ticket, (b) if your phone battery dies, you can't access your ticket, and most of all (c) You can't designate a "Fastpass Runner" and give them all the paper tickets. A Fastpass Runner is a person that jogs ahead to get Fast Passes in another area of the park to save time of the entire group walking to a Fast Pass machine when you won't be going on any rides currently in that area.

We went to the "Voucher Exchange" machines and were told it wasn't possible to get a paper ticket printed. So print physical copies of your tickets BEFORE leaving and use those!

Tip #2 - Indiana Jones is skippable. The line for Indiana will be one of the shorter ones all day in DLP. There's a reason for that. The ride is mediocre. Probably one of the least enjoyable coaster rides I've experienced in a Disney Park. It is nothing at all like the underground, well-themed ride in California. It basically is a jerky, short, outdated roller coaster with minimal theming. The good news is the Fast Pass is "disconnected" from the rest of the system so you can get a FastPass before your next FastPass pickup time. I'd say this ride is worth 10 minutes max.

We got FP for Buzz Light Year, rode Indiana Jones, got FP for Indiana Jones (just cuz we could), then shortly after that our FP window allowed us to get a FP for Thunder Mountain. Then we left the park to go to Studios because (a) it was two hours before we could get a FP again in DLP and (b) anything we really wanted to ride in DLP by now had a long line due to the fact we didn't get there early enough for rope drop. (It's hard sometimes with a big group to make the group understand how KEY it is to be there for rope drop - they payoff as far as the rest of your day can play out is HUGE.)

Studios we went straight to Tower of Terror for a FP (Park Fast Passe systems are disconnected so you don't have to wait - a KEY insider tip) Also I found it interesting that everyone in my group had no idea you could use the FP any time after the start time, and the end time really didn't make a difference. This is KEY to knowing for a 1-day, 2-park strategy.

Ate lunch and then got in line for Rock Roller Coaster. A great ride. Worth up to 40 min wait. Upon leaving we got FP for Ratatouille as soon as we could.

Currently Studios is a mess. Lots of construction and park is small. If we didn't like Tower of Terror so much and/or didn't have a Disney Park Virgin we may have just skipped Studios.

We got a FP for Rock and Roll next and rode it a second time with FP. Tower ride, then Rat Ride.

Tip #3 - Unless you have lots of time or are with children, SKIP CRUSH - the line is too time consuming for the payoff in my opinion. Anything over a 40 minute wait in my opinion is not worth it unless you have lots of time to spare. It's a great ride I know but most Adults without kids with them would consider a 60,70,80+ minute wait not a good use of time for the payoff.

After Rat we headed backto DLP and got FP right away for Space Mountain, too bad no FP for Phantom Manor. We waited as long as possible for line to die down at Phantom while leaving enough time to ride our bucket list. So check this packed end to the day:

Big Thunder Fast Pass, wait 10-15 minutes, finished at about 8:30PM
Phantom Manor (35 min wait), finished at 9:15
Pirates of Carribean (many of the rides are better at night like Phantom and Pirates) 15-20 minute wait, finished at about 10:00.
Peter Pan - this was the only one on our bucket list we didn't ride (mainly we were to ride it for the Virgin to experience), Fantasyland closes at 10!
Space Mountain Fast Pass, wait 15-20 min, done about 10:30
Buzz Light Year Fast Pass, wait 15 min, done about 10:50 just in time for Illuminations, watched illuminations from end of Main to the right side for a few minutes (partial tree blockage but still good), fireworks not impressive (environmental concerns I hear), started walking back to beat the crowds

So as you can see in the last 3 hours, we rode 5 of the top 7 rides, 3 using Fastpass and 2 of the three using Fastpasses we got in the morning.

So we were able to ride all the best rides (for Adults) in both parks in 1 day with the exception of Crush, the 80+minute wait was just too ridiculous. We got back to our flat in the suburbs of Paris at 1:45 AM (after getting a late night snack at McDonalds in the village.) We left our flat at 7:50AM. That is one LONG DAY. My tracker said we walked 10.1 miles that day. About 8.5 was just around the parks! And we waited in line more than 20 minutes only 2 of the about 10 times we rode on a Tuesday in mid August with perfect (low 70's) weather.

This is what you call POWER TOURING - I'm in good shape but 10 miles walking on pavement was brutal at the end. We made no stops for sit down meals, just fast counter service and did not eat dinner to save time.

If we would have got there at rope drop we probably would have had time to ride a lesser ride to kill time, then get one more FP for Peter Pan in DLP before heading to Studios.

The funny part about this story is our group consisted of 4 in their early 20's and two 50-year olds. Only 2 of the 6 made it past 9:30 the rest went back to Paris early. The two 50-year olds were the ones that lasted - mainly because one of them had never been to a Disney Park so we grinded it all out to the very end!
 
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Congrats on such a nice planning!

I'm so sorry you couldn't print your tickets. It is sad they stopped this, as it was very convenient, for all the reasons you mentionned.

One more tip about the “FastPass runner technique”: when I tour the parks as a group, I collect all the photos of the park tickets. This makes fetching multiple FPs easy. I even go as far as adding the QR Code photos on a special album that I sync with my Apple Watch: this way I can claim a FP return, swipe right for the next ticket, claim a new FP return, repeat.

By the way, while you are correct the end time is not enforced most of the time, I wouldn't base my strategy on it. This is always nice is something happen and they let you in, though.
 

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