THE ULTIMATE DISNEYLAND PARIS TRIP REPORT

Be prepared....this is a very long report. Sit back, grab a cup of coffee (or beer, I won't judge) and enjoy!!


A LITTLE BACKGROUND:
If we haven’t met already, allow me to introduce myself! My name is Jenn and I live just outside of Toronto, Canada. I’m married with two kids, DD (13yrs) and DS (10yrs). I have been going to WDW since I was three years old. I have honestly lost count of how many times I have been to the most Magical Place in the World. In 2015, we made our first visit to Disneyland in California and loved visiting a park that was both new to us, yet familiar. Beyond the usual Caribbean vacation, we have twice visited my in-laws in the Azores (a group of islands owned by Portugal in the middle of the Atlantic). If you haven’t heard of the Azores, stop now and google it! It’s a beautiful place and definitely worth a visit! All of those vacations aside, we have never been to mainland Europe so this was going to be a new experience for all of us.

Our plans for this vacation included three nights at the Disneyland Resort Paris (DLRP) and then we would move to downtown Paris to spend another three nights before flying back home.

Back in February of this year, I booked a package on the Disneyland Paris website for October. I figured this was going to be a once in a lifetime trip, so go big or go home! We booked a three-night package at the Disneyland Paris Hotel which gave us 25% off our hotel room and park tickets and a free half-board meal plan (meaning buffet breakfast in our hotel and dinner somewhere around the resort for each night of our stay). Staying at the Disneyland Paris Hotel also entitled us to the “Premium” half-board dining, which basically meant we could pick from a “premium” section of the fixed price menus.

Just like at the American Disney parks, don’t forget to book your dining ahead of time! I found on the DLRP website which restaurants we could make reservations at with our dining plan and made the call 60 days ahead. That call turned out to be a wee bit complicated. I spoke with one man (in English) to make one reservation (the Wild West Show I wanted), but then he transferred me to another woman to book the other two. That was a hilarious “Franglais” conversation as I spoke a strange combination of French-English and she did the same. The conversation ended with me asking for confirmation numbers and her saying I didn’t need any. Uh oh. Well, I guess we would cross our fingers and hope our reservations were all set.