Family Fun in Disneyland Paris

Have you ever attempted to drive 6 hours with 4 kids in the back of the car, excited, bored, tired? No? Well we have, and that is how our Disneyland trip began. So we decided to catch the Eurotunnel as there was so many of us, 5 adults and 10 kids, yes we are completely crazy. We decided to drive quite late at night and then wait for our early train, now as we live in somerset, this was a 3 hour trek, but once we arrived, the terminal at Eurotunnel was very clean and a great place to stretch our legs and get a well needed coffee and breakfast. Our train was quick, I was surprised, I wasn’t quite sure how it worked, but we just drove onto the train and away we went, once we arrived the other side, we went on the second 3 hour trek to Disneyland.

As there was so many of us, we stayed at the Davy Crockett ranch in 3 Trapper Tribe Cabins. This site is exactly 6 minutes from the park (yes we timed it, I mean who doesn’t) and it really easy to get to and back from, pretty much one road. The cabins were basic but had everything we needed, 2 bedrooms, one with a double bed and bathroom and one with 3 single beds and a extra one should you need it, again with their own bathroom. Then there is a kitchen, lounge and a balcony with a BBQ. You also get your own parking right outside the cabin, so after a long day there isn’t miles to walk back to your room, this made such a difference. The site has its own indoor swimming pool which was really big with a slide and hot tubs etc, plenty to keep the kids busy, they also have a restaurant, bar (saloon) and an arcade. There is a mini golf course and a park (which my son decided to leave half his front teeth in after face planting the slide, yay) There is also a nice shop, one side sells Disney merch and the other side sells food and drink supplies you may need for your cabin.

Now the parks, we haven’t been to Disneyland since 2019 and I was a bit nervous but we needn’t have been. We drove over and parked in the main car park, with staying at Davy crocket, and all the other Disney properties, you can get extra magic hours which gives you an extra hour in the morning, if you make use of this, you can park closer to the entrance, but be warned, its still quite a walk from the front of the car park to the entrance to the parks. There is security to get you through to the Disney village which is right before the entrance to both parks which is reassuring.

We started our Disney trip with going into the Walt Disney Studios, no real reason at all, other than it was a Sunday and we thought it may be quieter. This is the park that houses the infamous Tower of Terror, of course we had to ride this one, im sure both my sister and sister in law will confirm this is the scariest ride, they have point blank refused to ever ride it again. We rode Ratatouille and a couple of the toy story rides, but we couldn’t get onto Crush Coaster, so random but this ride is ALWAYS so busy, and I mean over 2 hours wait, not a chance. You can buy a fast pass for it, but its 16euros per person, and honestly, I could buy a whole meal for that, no thank you. Now the main Disneyland park is the pinnacle of Disney trips, this is because this is where you will find the castle, the beautiful pink Sleeping beauty castle, its so pretty and I may even say its my favourite (don’t tell Disneyworld, I couldn’t cope with the disappointment).

This park is MUCH bigger than the walt Disney studios, is has a few different lands, Discoveryland, Frontierland, Adventureland, Fantasyland and Main Street. Each land is themed for that Specific design. Now the rides here are epic, especially Hyperspace Mountain, this was a firm favourite, and I can honestly say we could have just kept going round and round on this. Another favourite was Big thunder mountain, now if you’ve been to Disney world youd know they have a Big thunder mountain there too, but the one here in Disneyland paris is FAR superior, its so much quicker and honestly hilarious, especially when it catches you off guard. We rode as many rides as we could, including Buzz lightyear Laser Blast, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Tours, Indiana Jones, Phantom manor plus more. But the absolute bit that made us all a little weepy was the 30th anniversary parade, all the characters singing and dancing around, music, floats it was just so special, the kids faces made this so incredible. We never managed to see the main parade, but the 30th anniversary one, being a limited one we felt was worth waiting for.

The pièce de resistance was the Fireworks, we got a place over near Discoveryland as its quieter and there is space to get away from the hustle and bustle which was important with the kids. This show is so beautiful, but it always throws me when they start singing the Disney songs in French, I wanted to be able to belt out the classics. We ate at a couple of places during our trip, we had Buffet in the restaurant at Davy Crockett on the first night, this was Crocketts Tavern, that was fab, we enjoyed it, although slightly bizarre, still nice. We also ate at the rainforest café in the Disney Village, this was ok, quite pricey and nothing special but did the job and we all ate there. Then we had snacks from multiple different pop up places, these weren’t too bad prices, the best snack id say was the Jalapeno poppers from a stall behind Hyperspace mountain, and also the sandwich from Earl Of Sandwich in the Disney Village.

So overall it was a great trip, we took lots of snacks into the parks with us to help save money and bottles of water, which we just put into our own backpacks, they don’t allow cool boxes etc but they defiantly allow snacks and that saves a lot of money for the kids.

My Top tips:

Buy the photo pass (if you get it as part of your package before you travel it’s a little cheaper) Make the use of the extra magic hour, it will save you time on busy rides (don’t waste it on crush coaster though, this was 120 minutes DURING magic hour) this meant other rides were much lower, like TOT and Ratatouille which was great. Definitely take snacks with you, its expensive in Disney, a couple of treats here and there are ok but not all the time. Be careful with your bags, pickpockets are rife. Be prepared to stand your ground in queues, some of the French don’t like to queue so will openly queue jump. If your going In the summer, take hats and fans, it gets so hot in the queues, lots of them are outside. And lastly, HAVE FUN.