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[Mike-Evans]

Hi all,

Probably asking popular questions, but I'm struggling to find all the answers....

We are heading to DLP over the easter weekend, arriving on Friday 3rd, departing Sunday 5th, and staying in Santa Fe.

What do you recomend we do with my son who is 8, also my daughter who is 4?

For the daughter we would like for her to have the princess makeover, if someone who done it can advise on this, also what do you get, and how do you book?

Also, spending money, we plan on eating out each evening, although we have booked a slot in Mickeys diner on the saturday, what sort of spending money do you think is enough for our visit, I will be taking £700, but my wife thinks thats no enough?

Thanks in advance

[NICKYMOUSE]

My daughter did the makeover last March. I highly recommend it. You book at the boutique in Disneyland Hotel. It's on the second floor but if you ask at reception they will point you in the right direction. I'd advise you to try get an early appointment so that your daughter is made up as early as possible. The CM's and characters really make a fuss of them when they have been transformed!! The makeover consists of (or consisted of when we did it) a dress, accessories, make up, hair and photo shoot. I recommend you buy a photopass as I guarantee you will want to buy all of the photos of the makeover.
Your son may like to meet Spider-Man, he's available to meet at the studios. Plus I recommend stars in cars for lots of character meets (also in the studios).
Regarding spending money, it really depends on where you plan on eating. Some restaurants are fab but very expensive. If you plan on character dining for example, I think you may need more.

[stifle]

These are really wide open questions A lot depends on your preferences as DLP has something for everyone!

To get the bad news out of the way first... it's going to be busy and you can expect a fair amount of queueing.

With the exchange rate I expect £700 for 2 nights/3 days will be fine.

Café Mickey is a really good choice with kids and well done on booking a reservation as it's invariably chock-a-block. Make sure you don't miss your slot

Attractions that are often popular for a party like yours include Peter Pan's Flight, Casey Jr: Le Petit Train du Cirque, and Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast. If they tend to scare easily then steer towards anything in Fantasyland plus Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing and the Disneyland Railroad. On the other hand if they're confident (and over 1.02m tall in some cases) then Big Thunder Mountain, Star Tours, and Pirates of the Caribbean may go down well.

Over at the Studios, don't miss Ratatouille, L'Aventure Totalement Toquée de Remy. Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin, Flying Carpets Over Agrabah, and Cars Quatre Roues Rallye are middle of the road choices. Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop is fun too – if you've got two adults travelling then put one in the single rider queue and the other with the kids in the standard line, and the former might be able to take some photos of you. The parachute seats are in rows of 3. Going up the "scare scale" we get Cinémagique, Studio Tram Tour, and Armageddon Les Effets Speciaux. After that you are decidedly into big thrills with height restrictions at 1.02m applying for the Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror (a drop ride), 1.07m for Crush's Coaster (a decidedly turbulent spinning roller coaster) and 1.2m for Rock N Roller Coaster Avec Aerosmith and RC Racer.

Are your kids fussy eaters? If not, it may be straightforward to just dive into the nearest counter service restaurant when they're hungry. There are several excellent table service options around the parks but you would be well advised to book reservations.

Finally, I don't know much about the princess makeover but NICKYMOUSE's post should cover it – or you can check with your hotel concierge.

[littlebitofpixiedust]

Cafe mickey is a firm favourite 
But if I were you id look at inventions character buffet in the DLH you can Pre-book lunch or dinner with characters the Disneyland Paris reservation number should be on their website. It's a little more expensive here than cafe mickey but the atmosphere is great, foods a good selection and character interaction is amazing.

The Santa fe hotel is great too in my opinion, recently stayed there and considering I've also stayed in all other on site hotels including the 4/5* I was pleasantly surprised. It clean, great cars theming lovely staff. Definatley would re-visit.

Ratatouille in the studios park was ques of 80-120 mins constantly on our half term visit. So I'd advise you to get there at opening of the park and dash towards it. Its an amazing ride! But even with fast pass it was near on impossible to get fast pass tickets for this when we last visited.

Cars stunt show in studios is fantastic too, animagique is brilliant (and so I've heard closing in the future) so don't miss it's by far best kids show!

You get extra magic hours as your a Disney hotel guest so get an early breakfast slot and head to the parks for 8am Peter pans flight gains huge ques so there or dumbo are good rides to start.

Casey junior and storybook boat ride (I call it) opens at 10 at the back of fantasyland sort of behind tea cups left of small world near the old mill. This area is dead when opening and even at half term week we had 3 rides without leaving our seats every morning getting here at 10 

Enjoy your trip!

[Mike-Evans]

Thanks for your replys all 

I agree that the money could soon go depending on what we buy and how we spend etc. and the eating could take a large percentage of it.

As we are booked into Mickeys Diner on Saturday, this will be our eating out for that evening. On the Sunday evening we plan on eating out somewhere nice aswell, and Im thinking for the 4 of us, we are looking at ~£100 per evening?

As we arrive mid afternoon on the Friday, we will probably just have a McDonalds, to try and keep the costs down.

Plan to fill up at breakfast to try and last the majority of the day, then just have a sandwich etc. to last until evening.

I'll spend sometime over the next few days studying the parks and rides to create a plan for the trip.

We are travelling with Ferris and crossing on a Ferry from Dover, if anyone has also done this?

[stifle]

£100 should cover a dinner from the set menu in most of the sit-down restaurants (not character dining though).

[AlmostThere...]

Hi! we have been twice with the kids, the last time being October half term.  They are 5 and 7 years.

The queues were pretty much all quite long when we went, but get fast passes early for must do ones, and I would say ratatouille definitely and Peter Pan, the latter being a definite favourite! Other hit rides for us were autopia, and it's a small world.  We also saw a princess, which your daughter ( and son for that matter!) might like, although we gave up a morning to queue so as your stay is shorter it's quite a big time investment!  My kids wanted to do tower of terror...which we did do....and thoroughly regretted!  It's an excellent ride in the fact that's it's terrifying, but it scared the kids s**tless, I had no idea it would be so scary! 

We stayed for 4 nights 5 days and too, £1200 spends, and came back with about 400, so 700 should be fine, although we stayed at davy crockett so made packed lunches and cooked indoors one evening.

The first time we went we drive via the ferry....be warned, we had a delay of about 3-4 hours going over and about 2-3 coming back.  The last time we did le shuttle.

Hope this helps!

[jayney69]

We go the week after you, arrive Monday 13th, leave Friday 17th.  I'm planning on taking £1000 for the 5 days, but I've booked premium half board vouchers for dinner, so just have to find lunch and spends.  I hoping that will be enough!