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[excitedmumma]

Hi Everyone,

I have just booked to go to disneyland paris 1st-4th February 2018 with my partner and our son. who is 5. has anyone been in February? is it busy?

We are staying at the Disney Cheyenne Hotel. Now thinking it may have been a mistake as seen mixed reviews now? can anyone offer advice here, should i change or stay put. have booked a room with 2 doubles, is this spacious enough?

also we have booked with the free half-board deal on at the minute, ive read this is only a quick counter service in the park? has anyone had this before. can i upgrade to hotel breakfast, if so how much and is it worth it?

Then with regards to the lunch/dinner vouchers does anyone know where exactly these can be used on the free half-board? and if they can be used to the value anywhere and make up the difference? also any recommendations on musts for eating?

ive booked the BBWWS for saturday night and lunch at inventions on friday afternoon. now rethinking this and think might change lunch to the sunday before we leave and the BBWWS to thursday evening when we arrive if possible to give 2 full days at the parks? ideally would love to get into paris for the Eiffel Tower also if possible but disney is the priority of course. whats everyone's thoughts?

how much spending money also would people advise? i have a free 100euro gift card to use in shops and restaurants.

Lastly, any tips, must-sees and general advice?

Thanks so much ...

[jamesds]

Cheyenne has had quite a lot of refurbishment recently and, when I was there in May, I thought it was really nice. It's the first time I've stayed at a Disney hotel in Paris (I've stayed in them in Florida before) and we'll be going back to Cheyenne for our next trip. It's not the closest to the park, but we still walked it rather than getting the bus every day.

I've only tried the quick service breakfast once and it wasn't great (I had it in Café Hyperion which had massive queues - not sure what other options there are). We tended to stick to McDonalds honestly. Next time, we'll probably just try to use the vouchers to get pastries or something to use as snacks later in the day.

I think you can use the main meal voucher in any of the buffet restaurants, so Plaza Gardens or Agrabah Cafe in the main park. I really like Plaza Gardens, though it gets busy so it's worth booking to avoid the queue (you can book from your hotel reception). I think you can use the face value of the voucher anywhere, though.

[DC]

Welcome to the forum.

I have just booked to go to disneyland paris 1st-4th February 2018 with my partner and our son. who is 5. has anyone been in February? is it busy?

Jan-Feb are probably the months with lowest crowds. Nevertheless you booked for weekends which can get more people.

We are staying at the Disney Cheyenne Hotel. Now thinking it may have been a mistake as seen mixed reviews now? can anyone offer advice here, should i change or stay put. have booked a room with 2 doubles, is this spacious enough?

I stayed at Santa Fe and couldn't care less about the room. It was spacious, quiet, clean and comfortable but in the end it was just a place to sleep.

also we have booked with the free half-board deal on at the minute, ive read this is only a quick counter service in the park? has anyone had this before. can i upgrade to hotel breakfast, if so how much and is it worth it?

I had the same offer (counter service for breakfast) and IMO it could be better. My GF didn't like the burger and thought of saving it to eat during the day. She didn't knew that the day she planned to do that, I upgraded for breakfast with characters. Btw I totally recommend upgrading if you like meeting characters.
You can only upgrade for your hotel breakfast but it's on a day-by-day basis. If there's room at the hotel restaurant they let you upgrade (you pay something like 6€ pp). Otherwise they won't let you. Cheyennes' restaurant is currently being refurbished but I don't know if you're being affected when you're going.

Then with regards to the lunch/dinner vouchers does anyone know where exactly these can be used on the free half-board?

Standard half-board? Agrabah Cafe, Billy Bob, Restaurant Des Stars, Plaza Gardens and the restaurants of Santa Fe, Cheyenne and Crockett. The voucher is worth a drink pp and buffet style all you can eat.
If you use it in other places you'll have to pay the extra plus the drinks.

and if they can be used to the value anywhere and make up the difference? also any recommendations on musts for eating?

Yes, if it's standard half-board your voucher is worth 28€.
I recommend Auberge de Cendrillon (very expensive), Walt's (try to book at the same time as the parade by a window, you'll be eating while seeing the parade), Agrabah Cafe and  Bristot Chez Rémy for the themes, decorations and food (Bristots' is excellent).

ive booked the BBWWS for saturday night and lunch at inventions on friday afternoon. now rethinking this and think might change lunch to the sunday before we leave and the BBWWS to thursday evening when we arrive if possible to give 2 full days at the parks? ideally would love to get into paris for the Eiffel Tower also if possible but disney is the priority of course. whats everyone's thoughts?

You can use your meal vouchers to help pay for the BBWWS.
I booked 4 days and thought of going to Paris one day. Forget it, 4 days weren't enough for me to see everything in the parks (I'd say I did 90% of everything there was to see/ride).
IMO leave Paris for another time. It's 1h by train each way to the city so you loose 2hours while having spent quite some money for a day of "Disney time" that is going to waste. For the same amount of a day in Disney you might spend a few more in the city.

how much spending money also would people advise? i have a free 100euro gift card to use in shops and restaurants.

Me and my GF spent around 100€ in small gifts (several pins, postcards, Christmas decoration and candies) but we don't have kids. The park can be quite expensive. There are toys/peluches/Lego sets that are actually way cheaper outside the parks (Lego sets were 30% more expensive inside the park!). You could buy your kids some gifts before going and pretend you bought them at the park.
Also bring your own candies/crackers/etc.

Lastly, any tips, must-sees and general advice?

-Bring bottles, there are drinking fountains all over the park.
-Check the restaurants times and plan your day accordingly. When you check-in they'll ask you to book all your voucher meals. Do that before you go so you can have more flexibility (I didn't knew about this when I arrived and had to book for times I didn't want because the restaurants were getting full).
-Ride Tower of Terror as many times as you fancy. It's going to be rethemed for Guardians of the Galaxy next year.
-To enter into Frontierland, I recommend getting on the train at Main Street USA, ride it into Thunder Mesa railroad station and start exploring that area all the way to Phantom Manor.
-Look for hidden Mickeys - decoration in shape of Mickey's head, for instance, 2 small plates above a big one on a wall - wherever you go, pay attention to the music and sounds everywhere.

[excitedmumma]

Thanks both for your input very helpful,
In regard to the parks do you think it's best to have a plan before we go or just go with the flow, want to fit in as much as we can but with having a 5 year old not sure if we will keep up.

[DC]

It all depends on you I brought a list of things to check out and tips and managed our time around our restaurant reservations, some show times and Fastpass times. We missed some shows but never stressed about it because we knew we had time later to see them. The rides and walking around, we just went with the flow.

[excitedmumma]

 brill thanks going with flow probs best. ! It's all so exciting waitin to tell my son on Christmas Day he has been asking for a year to go so he is going to be over the moon just want to make it perfect for him.

[jamesds]

Yeah, we normally have a list, but don't plan things too much. For rides, we keep an eye on the queue lengths on the app, and use that to figure out where to go next. You can plan around meals and shows, but rides can have long queues, break down or get temporarily closed due to rain or whatnot, so it's hard to plan too much in advance.

[chere]

Hallo Excitedmumma,
IMO, take a light "umbrella" stroller, it could be very useful for your child and for you, children get very tired and can get some rest sitting on the stroller during transfers from hotel to parks and back, from one park to the other, watching parades etc days can be longer and you can take more advantage of, if he/she can get some rest. Also useful for your bags
Have fun!
PS take a lock for the stroller

[excitedmumma]

Thanks chere. Had thought about this. Guess it makes sense to have one.

[chere]

In our experience, it has been veeeeery useful. You can also hire one, but they're quite expensive, don't look comfortable and you cannot take them outside the parks if I remember well so unusable to go back to the hotel, to go around the village, etc

[loupenny]

We were there in February this year and I'm not going to lie... it was busier than our July trip. BUT that doesn't mean that yours will be, we were there about a week later than you're going which was the start of the British half term AND a very large percentage of rides were down for maintenance or had breakdowns (which concentrates the crowds and queues). I have heard people mention on here that Feb 2017 was uncharacteristically busy and just in case it is again, these are our die-hard queue avoidance tactics!

Get in early, like get there before EMH even opens which will be more achievable now that they have changed the times!
Get little rides done in fantasy land in the morning because these rack up serious queues and you'll almost certainly want to do them with the little one.
Once rope drop has happened... Get those fast passes!!
Plan your morning around your fastpasses and what you want to do, then around 11ish we normally start to feel those queues building up!
The middle of the day is the perfect time to watch shows, eat lunch in a nice restaurant or go and take a nap at your hotel and recharge your batteries!
Personally we don't watch the parade but you'll notice that there is a mass exodus after the parade finishes, so this is when we return to the parks for reduced queue times! We are refreshed from our break and everyone else is tired and heading off to crash in their hotel (or go home).
Studios we find is always the best in the hour just before it closes, we have walked onto Ratatouille many times in the past just as the studio is closing.

Be sensible during your day and make sure your little one knows that you might not do something RIGHT NOW but you'll do it at some point... why queue for 2 hours to meet Mickey at 1pm when you can queue for half an hour and meet him during EMH?

Enjoy your trip and make magical memories!