With just 2 days in Disneyland Paris, we were keen to make the most of our time. Staying on site at Newport Bay Club, meant we were entitled to Early morning magic hours between 8.30am and 10am when the parks officially open. This post covers our 2 day Disneyland Paris itinerary.
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Is 2 days in Disneyland Paris enough I hear you wonder? If you’re visiting for the parks and entertainment and not worried about relaxing or spending time in your hotel pool, then yes 2 days is plenty of time to enjoy everything.
Visiting Disneyland Paris is magical for the whole family, and perhaps if you’re thinking of visiting Paris with kids, you may consider adding Disneyland Paris to your trip itinerary.
**This itinerary mentions Fastpasses, and I have decided to leave the information in the post despite the removal of Fastpasses at Disneyland Paris. The itinerary still gives you a good idea of how to spend a day in the Disney parks with or without using the new Disney Premier Access service.**
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Day 1 At Disneyland Paris
We decided to visit Disneyland Park on our first day. With a quick breakfast at McDonalds because it was the first restaurant we spotted on our way into Disney Village, we arrived into the park around 8.40am. Walking through Disney Village gives you ample choice to grab a quick breakfast, and visiting early means less queues.
I had made sure that we had the Disneyland Paris park app downloaded onto my phone, as even though we hadn’t made a plan, I was using it to check the wait times of the rides.
Related Post – Charles De Gaulle to Disneyland Paris
Our initial thoughts were to make our way to Big Thunder Mountain, however it was having technical difficulties. Our next choice was Hyperspace Mountain, however this was also having technical difficulties.
Quick lesson learned, especially if you’re a first time visitor to Disneyland Paris is to have a few back up options in mind. Check out the park maps on the app to become familiar with the layout of the parks if possible. This will save valuable time during extra magic hours.
Know before you go – Disneyland Paris height restrictions
Our third choice was Peter Pan’s flight as for some reason this ride attracts very long queues throughout the day. We entered the 20 minute queue and whilst waiting, I realised that Hyperspace Mountain was back up and running.
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The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party is always a firm favourite Disney ride, so we took the short queue opportunity to ride this one next.
Walking back past Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, we spotted a 20 minute standby line (which had dropped from 60 minutes not very long ago). This was enough for us to join the queue at 9.50am.
Fastpass has now been replaced by Disney Premier Access and would be chargeable to beat the queues.
It started to rain at this point, so after a quick visit to the nearest shop it was time for Hyperspace Mountain. The plan was then to visit Frontierland afterwards to collect a Fastpass ticket for Big Thunder Mountain.
We ended up walking back and forth across Disneyland Park a little, but meant we secured a Fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain for 1.20pm. The time now was around 11am, so we decided to make the most of the morning and do all the attractions in Fantasyland. We managed to complete them all by just after 12pm.
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Fantasyland is where you find the majority of the family friendly rides at Disneyland Paris. You’ll find It’s A Small World, Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups, Peter Pan’s Flight, Lancelot De Carousel, Dumbo The Flying Elephant, and more.
Getting hungry, we went to Pizzeria Bella Notie for some lunch. We knew the park prices were expensive but we shared a pizza, garlic bread and drink for €15.99. This filled a nice gap and the food was delicious. Not all of the restaurants in the Disney parks are open all of the times. We spotted handy signs letting us know which were open, which depend on demand and park capacity.
This made the restaurant super busy though and it took ages to get our meal. We were almost too late for our Fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain. Glad we made it!
Related post – Ultimate Disneyland Paris packing list
Close by we decided to experience Phantom Manor and Pirates of the Caribbean as the wait times were short, before deciding to return to our hotel for an hours rest. Visiting Disneyland Paris in October did mean colder temperatures. Being close to our hotel was also a great bonus to be able to walk back, warm up or rest without losing too much time in the parks. There are plenty of reasons to stay in an onsite hotel.
Refreshed, we made our way back into Disney Village for our reservation at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. This was 90 minutes of great fun and good food as you watch Buffalo Bill tell his story. Sadly this dinner show experience has now closed at Disneyland Paris, however fingers crossed something just as exciting will take it’s place in the future.
A good alternative for a great dinner experience is Annette’s Diner, a 1950’s style diner restaurant. As we arrived late in the evening, we ate at Annette’s on our first evening.
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Back into Disneyland Park for Illuminations at 10pm which was when the park closed when we were there. Illuminations is always at park closing time, so this will depend on when you visit during the year. Leaving the park with be busy if you choose to leave straight after Illuminations have finished.
A little tip is to walk through the shops and take the time to browse. You could even walk through the Liberty Arcade, or Discovery Arcade. Both of which run alongside Main Street, and are well worth a stroll even if you’re not trying to leave the park at the end of the night.
A trip to Disneyland Paris is very different from a trip to Disney World with how days are planned. However we were amazed at just how much we got done on our first full day.
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Day 2 At Disneyland Paris
On day 2 we were up early again ready to visit Disney Studios at 8.30am. Breakfast this morning was at Starbucks in Disney Village, which we actually preferred. We spotted a great deal as well in Starbucks. The bottles of water / soda are one Euro cheaper than if you buy them from the food stall or in the parks.
Disney Studios is having a lot of work done to it, so we knew it wouldn’t be a full day park. We started early to make the most of the big rides with the big queues.
Even at 8.45am in the morning Crush’s Coaster had a 90 minute wait. There is no Fastpass available for Crush’s Coaster, but for us as a family, it wasn’t worth it.
Instead we enjoyed a 10 minute wait for Tower of Terror and a 20 minute wait for Ratatouille. We enjoyed these rides far more than spending our morning queueing.
Being October, it’s been cold. By the time we had ridden the Studio Tram Tour: Behind The Magic, and watched the amazing Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show, we were in desperate need of warming up.
**2022 Updates** Studio Tram Tour and Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show are now permanently closed in preparations for Marvel Land, The Avengers Campus.
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To avoid the queues we decided to eat outside Disney Village at Five Guys, and whilst we beat the queues, I wasn’t overly impressed with the food in terms of value for money.
We decided to go back into Disneyland Park as we enjoyed this so much more, and revisited some of our favourites with low wait times from yesterday. We also made sure we rode Pirates of The Caribbean again and watched Mickey’s PhilharMagic 4D show.
Being Halloween time, we experienced the Halloween parade during the afternoon which was great. Even standing near Sleeping Beauty’s castle, we found space without being too crowded.
We were in desperate need of some warming up, so we made our way back to the hotel for a little while before venturing back out to Disney Village for dinner.
As we hadn’t booked anything, we decided to eat in Planet Hollywood which operates on a first come first served basis. We arrived just before 7pm and we timed it perfectly as the restaurant filled up quickly around us.
The meal was tasty, yet expensive, but we were prepared for it. With all of us shattered, it was time to return to the hotel to pack for our early start in the morning to make our way back home.
I have learned a few things from our 2 day trip to Disneyland Paris that I hope will help anyone thinking of going in the future (and us for when we return).
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- If you are staying in a Disney hotel, consider the Compass Club / Forest rooms as you may actually get some good use out of the perks. I didn’t think we would, but in hindsight I think we would have.
- Take your swimming costume for the pools. This is a great way to rest up, and whilst you may think you’ll be in the parks all day, tiredness will set in.
- Don’t pick a restaurant to visit straight after a parade as they appear to get very busy around these times.
What would your Disneyland Paris itinerary look like?
Why not discover some additional great places to visit in Paris if you’re extending your stay in France. If you’re wanting to save money on accommodation, why not discover some of the campsites near Disneyland Paris.
Wow you certainly packed alot into your two days there, but yes it looks very cold, totally different to Florida. We have never been and I often wonder whether we will ever book a trip there x
We went in November when my biggest was little and I remember how cold it would get. It sounds like you packed a lot in x