We just got back from a really fun trip to Disneyland Paris with the kids, my mother-in-law and my brother, who was in Paris for work and managed to stay with us for a few days. In December we started planning this get-together to celebrate our son's 7th birthday and we bought the tickets, booked an apartment and started putting together the itinerary for this family trip.
Our Passages
We buy flights with companies low cost Vueling and Transavia for February 5th (Lisbon – Orly) and February 9th (Orly – Lisbon), paying around 400 euros for the 4 of us, just with backpacks. Unfortunately, Juju got sick the week of the trip and we thought it would be more responsible not to travel on Wednesday (the 5th) and bought a ticket for the following day with EasyJet. We ended up going on February 6th, arriving at Orly Airport at 9pm and returning from Paris on February 9th, around 1:30pm, which meant we missed the days we were going to visit Paris. It was for a good cause!
Our Hosting
Since there were 6 of us, we thought it would be better to get a 3-bedroom apartment so we could all stay together and save money. I thought all the hotels were really expensive!
We chose to stay in Val D´Europe, which is a recommended neighborhood for families who want to go to Disney, because it is one train station away from the parks and has a huge shopping center with many shops and restaurants nearby. I think it took us a maximum of 2 minutes on the train from our station to Disney's Marne-la-Vallée Chessy station, so I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to be close by without paying a fortune.
This is the train line from Paris to Disney and the whole ride takes about 35 minutes:
Our apartment was the Danube apartment Disneyland. I found it on Booking and despite some communication issues with the host, I thought it was a good deal. We paid 770 euros for 4 nights (I had booked from Wednesday to Sunday, but we ended up only getting there on Thursday), with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a well-equipped kitchen and a spacious living room. We walked no more than 5 minutes from the apartment to the train station and we really liked the building it was in. I think it's a great option for families who want space.
Some photos:
Our Itinerary
Celo and I have been to Paris twice – you can read more about it here 4 days in Paris and Versailles and 3 days in Paris and Disneyland – so we didn’t care about taking the kids out of school for many days to see the City of Lights. We thought about spending only 2 days in Paris, which would be Wednesday and Thursday, and 2 days at Disney, which would be Friday and Saturday, with the return on Sunday. However, however, nevertheless, however… lol… our Juju got sick and we ended up not flying on Wednesday and buying another flight for Thursday night, so we lost the two days in Paris and only had the two full days at Disney.
So, our travel itinerary consisted only of tours inside the two parks, but if we had two days in Paris, we would definitely take them to the Eiffel Tower, the Luxembourg Gardens, Notre Dame, the Petit Palais, the fabulous Grand Epicérie, the top of Galeríes Lafayette to see the view of the city and we would stroll calmly through the streets and delicious restaurants of the city.
Anyway, these plans will now be left for a future trip. Now let's get to the details of Disneyland Paris! 🙂
Disneyland Parks
For those who don't know, Disneyland Paris has 2 parks, Walt Disney Studios Park and the Disneyland Park. Celo and I visited both in 1 day back in 2016 and I told everything in this post 1 day at Disneyland Paris when we didn't have kids yet – but I can already tell you that it was a very different experience from this one with our puppies.
The tickets and passes we purchased
This time we bought tickets to go to 2 parks in 2 days, Friday and Saturday, and on both days we visited both parks. You can leave and enter the parks as many times as you want, so keep that in mind when you plan your days there. We bought the tickets at Disney's official website and we paid this here in total, as we purchased PREMIER ACCESS ULTIMATE for just one day (Friday):
The PREMIER ACCESS ULTIMATE passes allowed us to go to several attractions without having to wait in line and without having to schedule an appointment. The only downside is that you can only use the pass once per attraction that offers this option, but I think it was worth every penny because we skipped a lot of lines and it was freezing cold when we went.
We downloaded the recommended application from the official website to have the park map, the list of attractions, the show times, the waiting times in the queues updated in real time, the tickets and the PREMIUM ACCESS passes and off we went!
Attractions visited
Friday – 02/07/2025
On Friday, we made sure to arrive early because it was the first day at the park and we had purchased the PREMIER ACCESS ULTIMATE pass to skip the lines for the most popular rides. We wanted to make the most of this privilege! We started with Disneyland Park and we went straight to the DISCOVERY LAND area, where we went to the attractions in this order:
- Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast – a not-so-radical but well-made laser toy
- Orbitron – planes that rotate around an axis
- Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain – roller coaster in the dark
- Autopia – carts on a track that don’t leave the “track”.
Some photos:
The children complained a bit about being cold – it was 4 degrees! – and hungry, so we went inside. Bella Notte Pizzeria, we ate Mickey-shaped pizza, put on another layer of clothing, rested and I went back to the beginning of the park to buy the damn Minnie balloon that Juju saw as soon as we entered the park and wanted to buy, so I tried to wrap her up, but in the end she didn't forget...lol. 10 euros for the balloon, but it made the girl happy for the two days at the park! I recommend it because it is one of the cheapest items in the stores and it helped us locate the child and the stroller in the middle of the park.
After this warm break, we went to one of the attractions we were most looking forward to, because it is a true classic: It´sa small world We barely had to wait in line and everyone was enchanted by the dancing and singing dolls from all over the world. It reminded me of my childhood when I went to Disney Orlando! I recommend it to everyone.
We then went to the attractions of Peter Pan's Flight and in the Pirates of the Caribbeann, as both had the Premier Access Ultimate option, and then we went straight to the Walt Disney Studios Park to continue with the attractions with a special queue.
We walked a lot – holy baby carriage for the kids! – and finally arrived at the roller coaster. Crush's Coaster, from Nemo, which I remembered loving when I went to Disneyland with Celo alone. Juju slept in the stroller with her grandmother and when we left, we met them in the Ratatouille area for a snack. At this point we separated into 2 groups – the radical boys and the calmer girls – and they went to the The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Avengers Assemble and we walked around the shops, ate snacks at the kiosks and then met them to go to the Spider Man WEB Adventure. We left a little disappointed, I confess, and went on the ride Ratatouille which is simply lovely!!! Everyone loved it and I highly recommend it!
We decided to head back to Disneyland Park because it was getting close to dinner time. Parade with Disney Characters (5:30 p.m.) and we wanted to get a good spot. We saw that the main street was already getting crowded and I thought it would be a good idea to head towards the Castle, but then I regretted it and came to the conclusion that it would have been better to stay right at the entrance of the park, because all the characters would be passing by on the street there too. We ended up staying in a not very good spot, but it was magical to see all the animated characters singing and dancing and my children enchanted by everything! I was even more enchanted and I thanked God a thousand times for this unforgettable moment.
When the parade was over, we were feeling cold and thought it would be a good idea to visit some stores to buy souvenirs for the kids. My brother made sure to buy Elsa for Ju and Toy Story soldiers for Paddy and they were very happy!!
Tiredness and hunger set in and as most of the restaurants seemed full, we decided to have dinner in a huge pavilion in the Discovery Land area, the Hyperion Coffee. It was hard to find a table, but we found one! I think everyone else thought the same thing we did… we needed a warm place to spend the next 2 hours until we saw the light show at 8pm.
Just before the show started, we went out to watch it right near the entrance to Discovery Land and it was super peaceful. We noticed that it had rained while we were inside, but luckily we saw the show without having to stand in the rain! The lights projected onto the castle and the fireworks going off behind it were so beautiful. We all loved it and it was sooo worth the wait!
We left the park feeling exhausted, after all it had been almost 12 hours of fun, we took our beloved train to the next station and in less than 5 minutes of walking, we were at the apartment.
A memorable day, my people!
Saturday – 02/08/2025
We woke up without rushing, had breakfast at the apartment, packed our snacks for the park and caught our train again to go back to Disney, after all we bought tickets for both days. Since we didn't have the PREMIER ACCESS ULTIMATE for this day, we left the attractions that didn't make sense to go to the day before, since we had this fast pass.
We went straight to the Walt Disney Studios Park and since the boys wanted to go on the more radical attractions, we split up to avoid any confusion.
Me, my mother-in-law and Ju went on the rides The Flying Tapestry, Four Wheels Rally Cars and Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin and the boys went in RC Racer. We met up later and all went together on the Cars ROAD TRIP, which is a silly ride but with a fun moment for an hour, but we were unlucky that our car was broken so it wasn't that exciting.
We had lunch at the kiosks and the boys went to the queue for Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop and the girls went back to the Disneyland Park. We entered the Sleeping Beauty Castle, which left a little to be desired, and then we went to Lancelot's Carrousel, which had almost no line. Then we were in a huge line for the ride Snow White and we left there super disappointed. It's definitely not worth more than a 5 minute queue there, it's so silly and fast.
The boys met us and we went to the famous Mad Hatter's Tea Cups, a classic, right? We all got dizzy and then we walked to the main street because it was time for the Character Parade and this time I wanted to get a good seat with plenty of room. My brother and husband decided to buy the fast pass for Indiana Jones, since Paddy wasn't tall enough to go, and then they met us on the main street. The parade was beautiful again, just like the day before! We ate croques monsieurs and they were very tasty. 🙂
We left the parade and went to our last attraction of the day, the Phantom Manor, or haunted house, no line and no fun to be honest. We left the park after and went straight to Disney Village to buy some souvenirs before catching our train back to the apartment.
We stopped at the restaurant The Diplomat which is inside a hotel and we ordered French food and wine to end the day with a flourish. We then walked to the apartment and packed everything up to return to Portugal the next day.
Sunday – 02/09/2025
We woke up without rushing, ate our delicious breakfast and checked out of the apartment a little after 10am. Since there were 5 of us and we needed to go to Orly airport – my brother had to go the other way – we thought it would be better to take a BOLT and go straight there than to take public transport with transfers. Our flight was around 1:30pm, so it was just in time.
Another successful trip with wonderful memories!!! Thank you, God!
