Disneyland Paris

When we went to Disneyland Paris a few years ago we travelled from Ashford. This is what I book many of my customers, so this year I wanted to travel from Ebbsfleet so that I had another departure area to compare. We stayed the night before at the Holiday Inn Dartford and went to Bluewater that evening for a meal and shopping. We then drove 15 minutes the next morning to Ebbsfleet International which is a lovely quiet station with toys for the children. It’s very well organised. I find going by Eurostar easy as you leave the car, get on the train and a few hours later you arrive into the Disney area - so simple.

We always upgrade our Eurostar to Standard Premier which is the first class of the Eurostar. The difference is you have bigger seating, most have a table and it includes light breakfast on the way out and a light meal with wine or beer coming home. If you can do the upgrade I personally would. It costs more but we think it’s worth it.

This time we stayed at the Disney New York and apart from the actual Disneyland hotel itself the Disney New York is the closest thing to it. We really did enjoy this hotel and the fact that it was closer. We had a lake view room which looked onto the skating rink and the Disney New Port Bay hotel was on the other side of the river (this is the hotel we stayed in last time we went). The breakfast was very nice and the dining area was also lovely. The pool closes at 10pm so there’s plenty of time for swimming here too.

We stayed ‘half board plus’ which meant we had a choice of 21 restaurants to have either lunch or dinner in, which included restaurants in the parks, Disney Village and hotels. We ate at Restaurant Des Stars in the Disney Studios which was a buffet style. It was very good food and this is where Remi from Ratatouille often hangs out. We also ate at the Park Side Diner in our hotel which was also a buffet and was good food. All of the buffet restaurants have a good choice but will always be very busy so you are best to book your restaurants a day before you want to dine in them. The hotel concierge desk will happily help you. Prepare to queue and wait for tables if eating at any kind of burger restaurant. The meals here were also good but the wait can be annoying. Expect to pay about 42 euros for a family of four for a burger lunch (for two burger meals, four chicken nuggets and two chips each for the children). A large hotdog is approximately six euros and coffee is about four euros.

Going before September 2013 means that you will get to see the 20th anniversary lights and firework display over the Cinderella castle and this was amazing! This is on at 8pm each night and included in your Disney package.

Although it wasn't busy, the queue times were approximately 25 to 40 minutes and I know this is nothing compared to going in peak times. Use the fast track where possible as this will help you plan things better in order to fit rides in.

Last time we went we stayed for three nights and we found that two nights was long enough for next time we went. This is what we did and for us this was a perfect amount of time. You can still easily get everything done and see everything is this time (This will depend of the time of year you go as going in peak time will mean more ques and therefore you may want longer here) If staying for three nights or more I would advise taking a trip into Paris which you can do on the train which is right at the Disney Village (see photo of how close you are from the Eurostar and train terminal) and break it up a bit. This will depend on family size of course and if you have fitted things all in, if going for 4 nights then a trip to Paris I would definately recommend.