May 2019 Paris and DLP

lorenni

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 27, 2012
Just returned from a trip to DLP and wanted to share our thoughts.


We stayed in the 5th arrondissement for four nights, then at the Disneyland Hotel for two nights, then went to the 11th arrondissement for our last two nights in Paris. We spent two and a half days at DLP - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning.


Hotel - very nice and reminded us of the Grand Floridian. The convenience of being right at the front gates was fantastic. Our package included half board, and we found the breakfast buffet plentiful with a lot of variety. No complaints at all.


The parks - loved them. We found ourselves commenting over and over again how this or that was better than the Florida version:


  • Phantom Manor: better than the FL version, better on the outside, and better on the inside
  • Big Thunder Mountain: better than the FL version, the ride is smoother and literally twice as long
  • Small World: better than the FL version, the ride looks fresher (even though the FL ride was recently refurbished) and CANADA had its own little place with little hockey players!
  • The attention to detail is amazing - the theming is everywhere and seems so much more thought out. From the pirate ship to the dragon in the caves under Sleeping Beauty’s castle - we were constantly impressed.
  • Hyperspace Mountain - not as good as FL Space Mountain. It seemed more herky-jerky than Space Mountain. Even our seven year old passed on a second go at this one.
  • Alice’s labyrinth - our son loved this. Nothing comparable in FL.

Most other rides were about the same, comparing between the versions at DLP and the versions in FL. We are DVC members and have been to all of the FL parks many times. We have not been to the CA parks and so I can make no comparisons to those.


We haven’t been to Toy Story Land in FL yet, but we loved TSL in DLP so we are hoping they’ve done as well in FL. We enjoyed the Remy ride (totally get the comments about the screen beginning too high up, making it hard to forget you’re in a ride). Also enjoyed Crush coaster, though it’s a wicked short ride for the wait. We only did that one once.


Popcorn buckets and refills are more expensive, but the popcorn buckets themselves are much better! The standard bucket has a strap, and the lid is attached with a hinge. Much better than the US and cruise ship standard design. This DLP bucket will be our park bucket from now on. Popcorn choices were regular and sweet (like kettle corn). We only had the sweet, which was very good.


Loved going back to the paper fastpasses! I had forgotten how nice Disney was before I had to have my phone in my hand every five minutes to schedule everything. Sigh.


We had very minimal crowds, by design. We went mid-week, during a non-vacation week. Crowds were definitely higher on the Friday, but that was our “extra” morning and we had done literally everything by then, so it didn’t bother us. The roads were noticeably smaller during the extra magic hour in the mornings.


I have celiac and I did NOT inform any servers anywhere at DLP, having read about the horrible frozen allergy meals. I tried to make smart choices, and aside from one headache and a bit of rash I managed the week just fine. Obviously not a suitable option for those with life threatening allergies.


For Paris itself, we visited the Botanical Gardens, Sacre Ceour, Eiffel Tower, Luxembourg Gardens, Catacombs, Arc de Tr, etc. We got two day passes for the Batobus, which we used quite a bit. We did encounter large yellow vest demonstrations with riot police on our first day, right outside our apartment, so we watched from the forth floor until the rally had ended and they had all marched past. They happened again the second Saturday, but not anywhere we were. Damage from prior yellow vest demonstrations is apparent in various locations, but especially along Champs Elysees where entire blocks of shops and restaurants have broken windows.


Happy to answer any questions anyone might have
 

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