Disney Part 2

see all photos »

After arriving in Calais we drove down to Paris taking a couple of days to meet people who are interested in buying the camping car.

Last time we were in Disneyland we bought an annual passport as we knew we would be coming back. The passport is especially good for camping cars as it allows free parking saving EUR 20 a day.

Our first full day in Disney was a ‘triple whammy’

The carpark itself is massive – there were probably 100 camping cars there but it looked virtually empty. There are showers, toilets, water and waste water points – the only thing missing is electric hook-ups! The only ‘complaint’ was that it was pretty hot at night parked in a big tarmac carpark.

see all photos »

Our first full day in Disney was a ‘triple whammy’ – It was hot, probably the first hot weather of the summer, it was a Saturday and it was the Fete Nationale, or as it’s known outside of France, Bastille Day. Predictably the park was heaving!!!

We met up with our good friends from La Chapelle Blanche and had a very tiring but quite enjoyable day. The queues for most of the rides were horrendous and picking quiet days is recommended – if you can find them.

As we stayed for 5 days we found some days better than others – Monday was probably the best day, and the quietest we found was early evening after some late afternoon rain cleared the park ;-)

Some general comments:

We found the Studios to be smaller and more manageable than the main park, particularly for a short stay. The car show is excellent and the ‘tram’ ride is good too. The Nemo roller coaster looked good but we never saw the queue drop below 1 hour so didn’t try it out. This is a good place to see a parade as you can easily get a spot.

The Studios is only open until 7pm but the main park is open until 11pm. This is good and bad as things like the main parade happen quite late at night.

The good rides in the main park were Space Mountain, the Indiana Jones ride and Buzz Lightyear. Jays favourite ride was ‘It’s a small world’ which we did about 5 times! He also liked the cars that he got to drive. Even after 5 days we still didn’t do all the rides but this was more a factor of the queues and the kids.

Some bad points:

The food is very expensive, which is expected. What is not expected is that it is absolute rubbish and that you have to queue forever to get served. I strongly recommend bringing your own food.

There is a distinct lack of Disney characters wandering around and when they do appear there are huge queues for photos with them.

Getting in was a hassle as the system for getting through the gates is incredibly slow even though it is automated.

We had a good time and I would say 3-5 days is about right for both parks and depending on how much your kids can do in a day.

Dave.