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[2bigkids2weekids]

We went to Disneyland Paris in December 2016 for 3 nights. We flew over with Easyjet and stayed in Hotel New York. We were a family of 4 - me and my husband (both early 30s), 4 year old daughter and 1 year old son. It was our first time and it was magical.

The flight was quick, but it arrived quite late at night so we got our pre-booked private transfer (which was well worth the money), checked into the hotel, got the kids to sleep and ordered some room service. This was our most expensive meal of the trip for a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and a bottle of wine but we were hungry and wanted to celebrate getting there! The hotel was decorated beautifully and really put us into the Christmas spirit.

DAY 1 - Our first proper day started with breakfast in Hotel New York. Nice food, good choice, and we had taken the advice of many other people and  packed a couple of freezer bags, so we put a couple of extra bread rolls, cheese, ham and nutella in our rucksack along with the water bottles and cereal bars, crisps and biscuits we'd brought in our suitcase, got wrapped up warm and set off. Early magic hours was only 9-10am so we went straight to Disneyland Park, walked down Main Street, had some fake snowfall, saw the castle and the dragon, got super excited by all the Christmas decorations and took advantage of the quiet time to head straight to Space Mountain! Used the parent swap, we were both very wide awake after that thrill, so parked the buggies up and got to a few kids rides. The queues were pretty non-existent so early on, we did Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, Orbitron, and Dumbo the Flying Elephant then went over to the Mad Hatters Tea Cups. The kids were loving it, as were we. We got Fastpass tickets for Peter Pan which seemed to get a big queue very quickly. Then went off to do Its A Small World and see the Frozen Royal Welcome Parade. Elsa blew a kiss and made a heart gesture to my little girl and she almost combusted with pride! We then watched the Disney Christmas Parade which made me slightly emotional, it was amazing! We went to eat our snack food at a picnic table then went to Alice's Curious Labyrinth, which we all loved running about in, and then to Peter Pan's Flight. After all this excitement the kids were tired and both napped in their buggies so we went out to Disney Village to King Ludwig's Castle for their lunchtime special and gave our feet a rest. The kids woke up and got some lunch, then we went back to Disneyland Park. We did single rider at Indiana Jones using the parent swap, it took us by surprise! Then we went to watch the Disney Magic Parade which was awesome, and saw Mickey's Magical Christmas Lights switch on which was just beautiful. Then we went back to It's A Small World and to do Space Mountain again using the parent swap, then got some food in Videopolis and let the kids chill out and run about for a bit, before heading back to see the fireworks. We got a good spot near the Royal Castle Stage, we all enjoyed the show immensely, and a 7pm show was perfect for us as the kids wouldn't have lasted much longer, they were exhausted! We walked back to the hotel and got into our Disney PJs, and everyone fell asleep by 9pm.

DAY 2 - Our second day started with breakfast at Cafe Mickeys, we had booked this through the hotel concierge when we arrived and we got there at 8am. This was fantastic, nice food, not too crowded, decent prices, and we got to meet Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Chip and Dale. We wouldn't have queued in the parks to meet characters as we thought it would have been too frustrating and the kids wouldn't have appreciated it at such a young age, but the cafe environment was perfect to meet a few. We then went back to Disneyland Park for Early Magic Hours and went to the Carrousel, stopped by the castle and the dragon and then went over to Walt Disney Studios for 10am opening time. We went straight to Crush's Coaster but the queue time was already 60 minutes so we went and got a Fastpass for Ratatouille then went to Slinky Dog Spin, which the kids totally loved (although this was the longest queue we had to face, it was only 30 minutes but was hard to keep kids entertained, fair play to anyone going at busy times of year!) then my husband and I used the parent swap at RC Racer. It properly woke us up! We then went to Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop, I queued with my daughter and we went on it, then did the parent swap so she got to go straight back on with her dad. We got brownie points for that, she thought it was fab. It was then time to go to Ratatouille to use our Fastpass slot, both kids loved this although there were a couple of parts they were a bit scared at. We went to see Stitch Live to settle then down a bit, it was very funny, then my husband and I did the parent swap at Rock n Roller Coaster. The lady beside me screamed so much it made me laugh the whole way through. Loved this roller coaster! We were all hungry so went back to Disney Village to get the kids a McDonalds Happy Meal, which we took into Disneyland Park and got a good spot for the Parade at 5.30pm. The kids ate their meal in their buggies while we waited and then having front row seats for the parade made it so magical, the dancers came over to the kids, Minnie Mouse and Peter Pan blew kisses to our daughter who almost melted with happiness, it was fantastic. We then went back and did It's A Small World then went to Pinocchio's Voyage, and back to Space Mountain again using the parent swap. It was then time for the fireworks again although we were a bit further back this time so our view wasn't just as good, but both kids were sleeping anyway so we still enjoyed it. We then walked to Disney Village and got some food to take back to the hotel, got the kids into bed, ate our food and got the suitcase packed up.

DAY 3 - On our final day, we slept in. I had set an alarm but we were all so exhausted I decided to skip the Early Magic Hour and get an extra hour sleep. We got breakfast in Hotel New York, checked out, left our luggage and set off to Walt Disney Studios. Straight to Crush's Coaster but again the queue was 60 minutes long, even for single rider. So I went to get our Fastpasses for Tower of Terror while my husband took our daughter on the Rally Cars. We then noticed the single rider queue for Crush's Coaster had dropped to 30 minutes, so I queued while my husband took the kids for milk and a cookie and to listen to the live music band. The ride was great, lulled me into a false sense of security at the start then was totally fab. We did the parent swap and husband loved it too. We then took the kids on the Flying Carpets and decided to head back to Disneyland Park to do the rides we had missed. We went to the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, Pirates of the Caribbean, Casey Jr train, and Le Pays des Contes de Fees. We also got to see the Frozen Parade again. We had thought about heading back to Walt Disney Studios to use our Fastpass for Tower of Terror but we decided to take the kids to Frozen Sing-a-long instead and I am so glad we did. The show was amazing but even better, on the way there, they opened up Big Thunder Mountain a day early for a select few people to try it out. I've done the ride in Florida Disney World so I told my husband to get on it while I kept the kids, he loved it and it made it even more special because we thought it would be closed. After the sing-a-long we were all worn out, it was a busy couple of days. We had to get our taxi back to the airport at teatime so we went and bought a couple of gifts, got some food in Disney Village and headed back to the hotel for our journey home.

We had an absolute ball. We went at a great time of year - school term-time so not too busy, during the week so the earlier parade and firework times suited us perfectly, and we got to see the magic of Disney Christmas. It was amazing. We would go back in a heartbeat, the handiness of Hotel New York was great, and although it was busy in the parks the biggest queue we faced was 30 minutes, most were only 5-10minutes. Next time we may try the Princess Pavilion or more shows but with out two young kids we made the most of the rides and the parades as they wouldn't have been interested in sitting around for too long for the shows.

Some tips - use the arcades that run parallel to Main Street to get out of the park a bit quicker after the fireworks. Take snacks and drinks with you in suitcase as prices in the park are slightly crazy. Make the most of parent swap. Meet the characters in a dining environment, saves a lot of queuing time in the parks. And stock up on snacks and drinks in the shop at the train station, it is much cheaper than the Village or the parks.

Flights, tickets and hotel cost us about £900 for the 4 days/3 nights. We took £400 spending money and we did spend it all but that included buying some gifts and our return taxi. We could have spent a lot more money if we'd had it! And we are already saving again to do it all next year. What an experience, the Disney Magic has sucked us in!

[Zee79]

Nice report. You certainly got a lot done!
I first went to Disneyland Paris when it opened in 1992, took my hubby ( then boyfriend) in 1997 who was totally against Disney & he was like a kid in a sweet shop  he's goes on about not wanting to return yet he's only ever missed 1 trip since then! Deep down the Disney bug got him haha
We are going for New Year, spending a week there & can't wait, love the Christmas season.

[bad-pink-tink]

lovely trip report. Great to see you used the parent swap well, so many families just think the Parks are for kids and do the adult rides. You have shown that that both parents and kids can do age appropriate rides so that everyone gets a Disney experience

[BlackPearl]

Great trip report. Thank you for taking us with you on your journey