Bonus Post: Disneyland Paris Resort Overall Review

Since I really need to get done talking about Disneyland Resort Paris and move on to all the other vacation things we did, I figure I will give as a bonus today my overall resort review.

TLDR version: Liked it enough, probably wouldn't bother going again.

The Disneyland Resort Paris consists of two parks, a Disney Village shopping and dining area, and a cluster of Disney (and non-Disney) hotels, located on the outskirts of Paris, about an hour from the center of the city on the commuter railroad. Ross and I got to experience a taste of all these parts across four-days-three-nights.

Disneyland Park parallels Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom, with a main street leading to a castle in the center and Western, fantasy, adventure, futuristic areas filled with the expected rides. Overall, however, I would say that there are less attractions in this park than in its counterparts. Compared to the Magic Kingdom, there's no Splash Mountain, no Winnie the Pooh, no TTA, Carrousel of Progress, Stitch Escape, Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor, Jungle Cruise, Magic Carpets of Aladdin (which in Paris is in the Studios park), Tiki Room, Country Bears, Hall of Presidents (though that would be pretty useless for international consumption), Philharmagic... And there are very few different attractions to counteract that. There's a Storybook area as similar to Disneyland, the walk throughs of the Nautilus and Aladdin, Captain EO is present, and the Indiana Jones roller coaster. The walk through attractions are cute, but... The Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril roller coaster was a little disappointing. It's well-themed as a ruined temple, but has less story or exciting sights than, say, the Matterhorn. It's telling that this was a unique attraction but we only bothered to ride it once. The twinned attractions like Buzz Lightyear, Phantom Manor, etc., were a toss up as to if they were more exciting or fun than the WDW version, with several being less comfortable. Again, Space Mountain: Mission 2, a very different Space Mountain, we only bothered to ride once, due to it being rather uncomfortable with the head-shaking. We ended up spending more time on the dark rides like Phantom Manor and Pirates, which were well done.

I had similar feelings about the Walt Disney Studios Park. There were less rides than the WDW counterparts, but in this case more were unique. The Toy Story Playland rides are fairly standard rides, but well themed. (Generally, I would say the theming was a strong suit of the parks.) The stage shows were cute but a little dinky feeling. (We did not go to Lights, Motors, Action, as it's identical to the WDW version. I have to assume that it is similarly exciting.) The true gem was Crush's Coaster, which is a unique ride that is very enjoyable. It's got the longest lines in the park, but no Fast Pass!

Overall, I felt that the parks just did not have enough to do for us. Park hours were short when we were there, but the crowds were low. Taking those two factors, we could have experienced both parks to our satisfaction in two full days. I'm not saying that we could have ridden every ride and seen every show in that time, but we could have tried the unique attractions and experienced a very satisfactory selection of the other best rides and shows with no problems in that time frame. Across the four days we were there, we could have spent about 32 hours in the parks, but we only spent about 19 or 20 and were satisfied. Yes, part of it was the cold weather, but I think we only skipped about 2 or 3 hours on account of cold.

The parks were lacking in a few other areas. Maintenance seemed to be an issue. Most headliner rides were down repeatedly. We waited a few days to ride Space Mountain, for example, since it was down frequently. I felt a little more understanding about the outdoor rides since the weather was cold, but a lot of these were indoors! But really, the weather was not unusual, they should know how to handle it. Also, a lot of effects (dolls in small world, etc.) were broken. We saw one effect that worked during the first day then broke and wasn't fixed for the rest of our stay. There's also no evening entertainment. I like evening parades, but they don't have any, and fireworks are special occasion only! Bummer.

The Disney Village area is rather small. I thought that the food prices were rather high. (The shopping was pricey too, but hey, that's Disney.) But I would say overall the area was satisfactory. We did have dinner at Earl of Sandwich, which was both cheap and good. The food we had in the parks was also pretty tasty.

We stayed in the Hotel Santa Fe, one of the cheapest hotels. I would give it passing marks. It did look a little bit beat, but it was clean. We had a little trouble with our hot water, but they handled it for us well. Overall, I would say the crew members were not quite as peppy as their WDW counterparts, but were at least somewhat in the spirit of things... The breakfast at the hotel was a little chaotic, but the food was completely satisfactory. Croissants and pain au chocolat were the highlights. The bus service to the resort was frequent enough, but part of that is just the small size of the resort. The package price was also right. For two adults for three nights and four days including park hopper tickets was $620. The tickets if bought alone would have been close to $500! The more expensive hotels did look nice, some of them have indoor pools with slides and water features. I am glad we stayed on property, just for the convenience and package pricing!

In the end, I am glad I went, but I do not think I will make an effort to go again. If I happen to be in Paris for four days and people wanted to go on a week day, I would go. If Ross and I go to Paris again for other reasons, I would consider tacking on an extra night to stay at DLRP. Particularly, if I could attend for a special event, such as Halloween or Christmas, that would be an added incentive, though I think the crowds could be unmanageable during certain events or seasons if you were unlucky. But overall, one visit was enough to satisfy me. There are a few attractions I adored, but in general I found the resort lacking in that department. The maintenance is subpar. The food, crew members, and hotels as far as I experienced were at least acceptable and sometimes good. The above average part was really the theming, from the dragon's lair under the castle to the Jules Verne inspired Discoveryland.

As a final note for people trying to decide whether or not to go, here's my suggestions: If you happen to be in the Paris area for three or four days anyway, and you are curious about it, go. On a weekday, preferably. If you are a Disney lover who is going to be in Europe anyway and can get away with two extra days of vacation, then go. Getting to Paris from pretty much anywhere in Europe will be less than $200 round trip per person, and could easily be much less depending on where you are. From Milan, I did it with a $70 plane flight to head to Paris, and took a first class $70 train back. Prices should be similar from pretty much anywhere else, quite possibly cheaper if you book well in advance and get a good deal. Or fly open jaw, entering Europe by your primary destination and leaving from Paris, and only having to take one extra trip inside Europe. I would not, however, plan a special trip just to go to the Disneyland Paris Resort. It's not worth the plane fair and time zone adjustment when you could just go to the more complete destination of Walt Disney World in Florida!

OK, I think I am done now!