Disneyland Paris With Kids

Taking on Disneyland Paris with kids is a big, magical, slightly chaotic day, and a little planning makes all the difference. We live in California and have done Disney plenty, so here is our honest take: how to get there, which rides work for little ones, where to eat, and what you can happily skip. For the rest of your trip, start with our Paris with kids guide, then see things to do in Paris with kids and our Paris family itinerary.

Disneyland Paris Holidays

Paris Disneyland is very similar to Anaheim Disneyland (we live in California so we have been to Disneyland a lot).  The park is a little smaller, fewer rides but not obviously so, and overall felt easier to navigate and get around with little legs.  If you are a big Disney fan or are in Paris for more than a handful of days, then a day trip out to the park may be worth your while.  Read on to find out how to get there, what the rides are like, the food at the park and our overall experience at Paris Disneyland.

Getting There

I was super focused on thinking we would need to stay near the park because the kids would be so tired after a full day and it would just be easier. BUT I am glad I put myself in check and did not move ourselves and our luggage out of Paris city center just for Disneyland.  It is surprisingly easy to access from downtown Paris.

It was literally a 40 minute metro ride from downtown straight to Disneyland, and we didn’t even need to transfer trains anywhere because we just walked to the metro station Châtelet Les Halles  (the largest station in downtown Paris, a few blocks from Notre Dame) which offers a direct route.  The A line of the RER system can take you all the way to Marne-la-Vallee station where the line terminates.  This station is a few minutes walk from the entrance of Disneyland and the cost of taking the Metro is very low.

The Rides

Hyperspace Mountain is the equivalent to Space Mountain in California with a few notable differences: it is Star Wars themed and it goes upside down.  Our fearless 7 year old was jazzed to jump on this as her first ride of the day…however it was not her favorite.  It was a bit of a rough ride, not as smooth as the one in California.

Star Tours in Paris Disneyland is exactly the same as in California.  The line you trek into the ride with all of the droids chattering away is a bit different, and the droids are all speaking in French which was fun, but similar non the less.

The inside of the “ship” is pretty much identical as well and I am pretty sure the rotation of routes you get are also the same as the California Star Tours, although we didn’t go on it enough times to experience all of the variations.  Again, other than a few safety notes being said in English, the space journey is also in French.

Thunder Mountain felt bigger!  The ride seemed longer and you get to go under the large body of water that the ferry ride goes around.  Overall it felt like an upgrade from the California version.

Pirates of the Caribbean was similar with subtle differences in the scenes along the route.  Same vibe but it was fun to see a slightly different version of the same story.

Buzz Lightyear was pretty much exactly the same.  Okay, there could be differences in the set up of blacklight monsters and space scenes but not that we were able to recognize.  This was our 3 year olds favorite ride that visit so we went on it like 5 times…

Autopia is essentially the same.  I did feel like the gas pedal was easier to push so the kids were able to drive with a little less effort.  The ride in California is also a lot older so that could be why the cars felt a little nicer here.

Phantom Manor (Haunted House): ok, so I forgot to get a picture when we rode this one.  Sorry!  Always one of our favorites in California, the Haunted house in Paris Disneyland, a completely different storyline.  There were ghosts of course but much of the story was in an old mining town, which was nice to experience a change up.  I did feel like the journey down to the ride was a bit less of a production than in California though.

Fantasyland in Paris was quite a bit different, with several rides we did not recognize.  The lines in this part of the park were significantly longer so after the carousel we decided not to hit any more of the kiddie rides to maximize our time.  There are about 13 attractions in Fantasyland Paris, I recognized It’s a Small World, Mad Hatter Tea Cups and Peter Pan, but the rest seemed different.  You can check them out on Disney’s website here.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril: we were not able to ride this one as the kids were not big enough.  It has the most strict height requirement of any ride in the Paris park.  It is supposedly a completely different ride than the one in California.  Instead of an adventurous Jeep tour through Indiana’s world it is a high thrill rollercoaster with dark turns.  Sounded like a lot of fun, but we will have to wait until the kiddos are older!

For a list of all of Disneyland’s current rides and more photos visit their website here.

The Food

The food is surprisingly terrible at Paris Disneyland.  Thats right, you read that correctly, the Disney park in one of the biggest food driven cities in the world has terrible food.  Who would have thought?  I had read about it previously, so I was prepared.  There is no cult favorites like the Dole Whip or giant juicy turkey legs to gnaw on.  Even the prepackaged candies at the carts were pretty bad.  Our 7 year old ate it anyway but our 3 year old gave it back, haha.

I read up on the best place to grab a quick lunch in the park so that is where we went.  The Lucky Nugget Saloon in Frontierland.  The food was mediocre chicken nuggets and french fries but I at least knew the kids would eat it.

They have higher end eating options around the park like at the Pirates of the Caribbean etc., but since I had read so much about how mediocre it all was I didn’t want to shell out the big bucks for mediocre.  Besides we, were heading back into Paris, where we could get some of the best food ever!

The Characters and Features of the Park

So the Imagineers were doing some restoration on the castle during out visit, so we got the temporary plywood version of Sleeping Beauty’s castle.  I’m sure it normally looks fabulous…

On the other hand, the Skull Island set up was really cool!

Of course the littles love the characters.  There were lots of places around the park for character meet and greets, some that I hadn’t seen at California Disneyland.  But of course they all will have the basic favorites.  Here are a few Kaida got to see while Viona went on some big rides with Daddy…

Mind you we were there during covid so there was no standing next to the characters for photos.  I am sure your photos post covid will look a lot different.  Just like at all of the Disneylands, you can pay the big bucks for an appointment for a photo op with Mickey or Minnie.  My kids don’t care about the characters so much so it has never been a priority for us.  We did get to see them coming out for the day since we entered the park right at opening.

I’m pretty sure my youngest was like “what are those things?” It least our oldest knew who Mickey was.  We also got to see them at the parade on our way out.

I don’t think we got to experience a full scale Disneyland Paris parade since we were there during covid.  It was pretty weak compared to what we have seen at other Disney parks.  If you are there in the summer keep in mind the sun doesn’t go down until after 10pm so they might not do any fireworks since it doesn’t get dark until after the park closes.

Our Visit Overall

We spent 10 days in Paris on this trip so a day trip to Disneyland definitely didn’t take away from anything we wanted to do in Paris.  The easy accessibility from downtown Paris and the fact that it was Viona’s birthday made it a no brainer to hit at least once.  Bonus that we were there during covid so there was a limit on capacity; therefore lines were short and we rode so much that we felt good about leaving around 6pm to go eat dinner back in Paris.

There is a second park, Walt Disney Studios Park, which is set up next door like California Adventure.  The Studios Park has a Pixar land and an Avenger land making it pretty cool for those kids (and Adults!) that like marvel superheroes.  You can purchase hopper passes too if you want to hit both.  For more info on that park, visit Disney’s website here.

I am glad we checked it off our bucket list.  I don’t know that I would ever go back now that we have done it.  But we also live in California with easy accessibility to the original and larger Disneyland park.  No matter what, anyone that goes will have fun.  I think it’s a matter of deciding if its worth squeezing into your Paris vacation.  If you really want to make it happen, add a day onto your trip before you book plane tickets so you don’t feel like you are giving up anytime in Paris.

Less than an hour later we were back in our apartment in the heart of Paris!!! Easy peasy!