Disneyland Paris Family Europe Trip Part 3

"This is no ordinary apple, it is a magic 

wishing apple,"  said the Evil Queen to

tempt Snow White. 

Never fear, Snow White was awakened by 

love's kiss and went on to have a wonderful

and delicious day at the park!!

Welcome to Disneyland Paris, the third leg on

our Family Europe Trip.  

Visiting Disneyland Paris was big on 

everyone's list, old and young.  My middle 

son has now visited all the Disneylands

except Hong Kong - California, Florida, Shanghai,

Tokyo, and now Paris.

Paris is such a delight because it is how you 

wish Disneyland was - uncrowded and reasonable 

lines, especially if you go on a weekday, and

about a third cheaper than in the US.

We have stayed a couple of times 

in the iconic pink hotel 

that is literally the entrance to Disneyland Paris 

before, when it was just the two of us, but 

it carries a hefty pricetag for 5 rooms.  We wanted 

to get the Magic Hours since Disneyland Paris is 

often open only from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm and we 

only had one day here.  

So we chose to stay in Disney's Santa Fe Hotel 

which was under150 Euros a night.  It has an

adorable Cars theme.

If you have traveled to Europe much you know that 

family sized rooms are few and far between. Disney 

gets it - two doubles per room.

The bathroom follows the Cars theme in an 

clever way.  Everything was so fresh and fun 

and almost looked brand new.

The hotel consists of multiple buildings and you 

travel down Route 66 to get to your buildings.

We took the high speed train from Charles De Gaulle 

airport in Paris to Disneyland.  It gets you there in 10 

minutes.  We happened to arrive just as Disneyland 

was closing for the night - around 8:30 pm and 

people were crazy trying to get on the buses to 

their hotels. 

 I knew we would be tired and hungry 

so I had called Disneyland Paris and made reservations 

for the La Cantina buffet dinner at our hotel.

 They were so 

helpful and accommodating for our large group.

It was the perfect meal after our steady high 

carb diet of pizzas and gelatos in Rome.  The 

meats for fajitas and tacos were delicious.

They even had a chocolate fountain.

No sleeping in!!

To get the most of our Magic hour and a half, we 

were at the park by 8:00.

I gained an appreciation for those tour guides who 

didn't ever let you sleep in - too much to see and do!!

When hubby and I have gone by ourselves, it 

is a much more relaxed pace, but I didn't 

want the kids to miss anything.

Baby girl turned 5 months old on the trip, and she 

loved every bit of it and just kept up the pace.  She 

was amazing and so were her parents, 

getting a stroller on and off the subway

 and into taxis, buses and Uber cars.

Yes, you can still find the Tower of Terror in Paris. 

Although I love the theme of the new 

Guardians of the Galaxy ride,

I have said that it contains a lot wilder drops 

and is a longer ride - a few drops too many for 

my stomach - and sure enough, riding the old 

ride proves it. 

They have two parks, 

Disneyland Park and Disney Studio Park.

The Price for both parks is under $100 -

 so there's another 

reason I love Disneyland Paris.  

We headed straight to the Ratatouille Ride with our 

early hours and walked right in.  The crowd was 

rushing to Crush's Roller Coaster, but that was a 

spinning roller coaster and none of us felt like our 

stomachs could take that.  

I love how Disney parks around the world take a 

slightly different theme and you find new rides like 

Ratatouille.  For those who are familiar with the movie, 

you are the size of a rat and being chased in the 

kitchens by the chefs.  It is a fun and clever ride.

The castle is huge and spectacular and you are allowed 

to go up the grand staircase to the second floor 

where you see the story of Sleeping Beauty depicted in gorgeous 

stained glass and tapestries.

Then you can even walk outside on the parapet 

and see Fantasyland 

and the castle rooftop up close.  Then you descend a 

spiral staircase.

But that's not all - exit the castle to your left and for this and you enter the lair of the dragon, a life-sized dragon sits at the edge of the 

water and occasionally opens its eyes and lifts 

its head and lets out a roar.  

The kids preferred Hyperspace Mountain to California's

Space Mountain.

Phantom Manor has a different and fun theme in 

where you are following a ghostly lady.

Beware Indiana Jones is a rough riding roller coaster.

There are several fun walk through experiences besides 

the Dragon's Lair, like Alice in Wonderland, 

a pirate's ship,

and Skull Rock (photo from Disneywikia.com).

The food is a lot of fun, as you would expect.

Of course they serve crepes since we are in France,

and the most amazing Nutella stuffed donut puffs.

 By the way, that poison apple was delicious!

We chose to eat at Chez Remy's - part of the 

Paris and Ratatouille portion of the park.  

Reservations are required, but the wonderful lady 

on the reservations phone line had no problem fitting 

twelve of us in.  We had 

eaten there before and thought the family would 

love the theme.

Of course, it is as if you are shrunken to the size of 

a rat, so everywhere you look there are charming details.

These are stacks of plates that are booths and the 

forks are coat hangers.

Drink umbrellas become table umbrellas and Christmas

lights are hanging lights.

We all chose a steak or chicken dish, but it was 

the desserts that blew us away.

The parks were in their springtime glory.  They had the 

most impressive flower display of anywhere we went on the trip.

We were lucky and our schedule fit a night where 

they didn't close at 8:00 pm but stayed open until 

10:30 and had fireworks (my favorite)!

For Disney fans, old and young, it is well worth 

a day spent in Disneyland Paris, and yes you can do 

it all in a day.  My son says Tokyo's Disney Sea needs 

to be on my bucket list - we will see if that every happens, 

but I am glad I could introduce the family to

Disneyland Paris.

Top Reasons to go to Disneyland Paris

So uncrowded

Better price

Spectacular Castle

Hidden Dragon

Unique rides

Unique foods

So close to Paris

Disney Magic

The final installment will be Paris.  I guess I saved 

my favorite for last - but really it was cheaper and 

faster flying direct into London and direct home 

from Paris.