As I mentioned in my post on how to make the most of your trip to Disneyland Paris on a budget, we did DLP in one day. We had hopper tickets and so had to have a good plan of how we would approach the day. This is my complement post about our day, a ride guide and itinerary to help you plan your day trip. We spent 16 hours on site, it was a very long day and we had to get a bus and walk from our lodge on top of the DLP walking. My kids are older and so just about made it without complaining too much!
Our itinerary and ride guide for a day at DLP
This blog post is in order of the rides we did on the day, so you can follow our route or make your own up!
Because I read on the DLP website that the Disney Village opens at 8am, I thought we would be able to look around the shops before we went into the parks. However, this wasn’t the case. The shops open from 9am and only McDonalds and Starbucks were open in the village. We got the 7:20am bus from Villages Nature, which got us to DLP for around 7:40am. We then had to queue at the bag checks until 8am.
Once we got through bag checks and realised the shops were closed we went to McDonalds for breakfast.
9am – We got in the queue for Disney Studios. We chose to do this park first as it closes earlier than the main park. I thought we might not get on all the rides, assuming we would be queuing for hours at each ride, so we planned for that scenario. We were about 10th in the queue, so when it opened at 9:30am, we got through quickly and made it to our first ride by 9:35am.
Disney Studios Ride Guide
Being thrill seekers, we had circled all the big thrill rides from the DLP map. This was the order of the rides we did at Studios and rough queue times:
Avengers Assemble: Flight Force. This was the first ride we went on and almost walked straight on. The queue time was approximately 10 minutes. This was a huge hit for all of us, it is indescribable and a must if you like rollercoasters. It starts off with a GForce hit and plunges you into darkness, you do go upside down but as it’s dark you really have no idea where you are or what you are doing. The sound in your chair makes it really good too.
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. We queued for about 20 minutes to get on this. I knew what the ride was as I had watched the video, but I had no idea how it would feel. It honestly made me giggle so much, I couldn’t believe how much force it had. The kids loved it. It is quite dark in the lift, so you cannot really see what you are doing, but you can feel it as the lift goes up very fast and drops too. I was so surprised that a lot of smaller children were going on this, little dare devils!
Ratatouille: The Adventure. This is Isla’s favourite movie and was at the top of the list for that reason. It wasn’t everyone’s favourite ride but Isla just loved it so much that she could have sat on it all day. I thought it was so clever and really felt like I was in the set of the movie. I love the smells that you get as you go through the kitchens – very clever! We queued for about 25 minutes to get on this ride, it’s a popular one.
RC Racer. This ride looks very scary. Almost like a pirate ship ride but scarier. However, it didn’t feel as bad as it looked and we all really enjoyed it. The queue was about 20 minutes for this as there is only one car to ride in.
Cars Road Trip. We then walked around to the Cars Road Trip. I think the surprise you get from this ride is great and the kids loved it. I won’t spoil it. The queue was about 15 minutes.
We then stopped for lunch near the Ratatouille ride, we ate our rolls and crisps that we had brought with us. There’s a cute gift shop with Ratatouille themed gifts inside. We loved the Remy ears and I am gutted we didn’t get them now.
Every ride has a themed queue, staff with themed outfits waiting to help you get on and off the ride and then the rides themselves. Everything was just so well thought out. It really made me enjoy the rides more.
Disneyland Park Ride Guide
We got into the main park at 1pm. So we did all of the above rides in Disney Studio’s in about 3 hours. We started on the left hand side of Disneyland Park, Frontierland, as I couldn’t resist Big Thunder Mountain (which I think remains my favourite).
Big Thunder Mountain. This was one of the longest queues we did on the park, it was around 30-40 minutes. This ride is so good, the way it plunges into darkness and I love that it is quite a long ride too. It is a runaway train style ride that takes you from the queue to the middle of the lake. I loved it and all the details that went into the ride queue, did you notice the horse shoe imprints in the concrete to make it look authentic?
Indiana Jones™and the Temple of Peril. This was a new ride to me (I last went 20 years ago) and I was very excited to try it. I love Indiana Jones too, so the set up of the queue made me smile. There was something to see around every turn. The queue for this ride was relatively short, around 20minutes. The ride does an upside down loop, so the smaller children couldn’t ride this. It has a small train and is a rollercoaster that is quite confined, so expect lots of twists and turns.
Pirates of the Caribbean. This was a long queue time too, as the queue is in the dungeon it is quite dark. We waited around 30minutes. I loved this ride. You are in a bot, so it’s like a log flume type of effect without the huge drop and splash. I wish the flume/drop part was longer as they are my favourite kind of rides, but the 2 drops did not disappoint. It was so cleverly made, I loved it. The details around the ride were fab. Did you spot Captain Jack?
It’s a small world. You cannot go to DLP and not do this ride. The song gets stuck in your head! We didn’t queue for this ride at all. You get in a boat and are taken through lots of countries, all singing it’s a small world in their languages.
Star Wars Hyperspace mountain. I love the changes they made to this ride, it looked great and I love the Star Wars theme. We queued for about 20 minutes on this. I had forgotten what happens on this ride and it made me smile when we got off, it’s brilliant. It’s a rollercoaster in the dark, I am pretty sure I went upside down and there is a GForce starting element to it too. Great ride.
After that ride we took some photos as we bumped into one of my good friends and her family. So obligatory Princess Castle photos were needed! It was then around 4:30pm, so we popped into one of the shops near Hyperspace Mountain to have a look around (Isla was eyeing up what she wanted to buy later that day). We then walked up Main Street USA near the entrance to get our spot for the Parade, that finished at 6pm. Then we headed back to Disney Studio’s for more rides.
The kids wanted to go back on Avengers Assemble (5 minute queue) and Tower of Terror (20 minute queue), I didn’t go on this one again. It was nearly 7pm by the time they got off of Tower of Terror and we decided to go and eat, so we walked to Adventureland and had our dinner at Colonel Hathi’s outpost restaurant. It was yummy and I needed the carbs after all of the walking.
The kids favourite rides are Avengers Assemble, Tower of Terror, Hyperspace Mountain, Indiana Jones and Big Thunder Mountain. They are 13 and 11, over 150cm.
As the sun started to set we squeezed on more rides: Big Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, Hyperspace Mountain, Phantom Manor and one more go on Big Thunder Mountain. This took us up to 10:30pm. We nipped in to a few of the shops in-between these rides as Isla wanted a Stitch onesie and snuggly Stitch.
Phantom manor. This was unexpectedly good. We didn’t queue at all, it was dark when we went on it (which I thought would help with the spook-factor) you walk into the manor and are taken to a room that looks like the ceiling is getting higher and higher, I assume it has dropped you to a lower level. You then have to get in a moving car and you are taken through a series of rooms that are spooky. Did you spot the crying bride?
We got our spot for the night time shows, the Disney Electrical Sky Parade was just incredible, the way the drones all worked together blew me away. This show starts at 10:50pm, we got a good spot by the pavilion (near the entrance) and had a clear view. Well, clear enough with the iPads and kids on shoulders in front of us. The Disney Dreams! fireworks display then starts at 11pm and lasts for 20 minutes, it was magical. The final part of the show made me tearful.
We didn’t get to see any of the shows, and there are so many rides that we didn’t make it on. But we got on most of the rides that we circled on our plan and did our favourites 2/ 3 times.
Recap: So from 9:30pm to 11:30pm we did 17 rides in total, had dinner at one of the restaurants, spent about 30 minutes in various shops across the parks and watched the Disney Stars on Parade, Disney Electrical Sky Parade and the final Disney Dreams! (fireworks) show.
If we could do it all over again I wouldn’t change our plan as we got on most of the rides we wanted to. The only reason we didn’t get on Crush’s Coaster, Buzz and Peter Pan is due to the kids wanting to redo the Big Thrill rides they loved from earlier in the day.
