A family trip to Disneyland Park and tips I couldn’t find myself

A while ago, we went to Disneyland Park by car – dad, mum and two little adventurers aged 4 and 7. I prepared the trip responsibly and, although there is a lot of information, I will mention the main points that I would have liked to have found myself.

1. Two-day ticket.

If you are travelling with children of different ages and with different levels of fear, I recommend buying a two-day ticket. We did that, we didn’t have to rush or skip anywhere. This would not be an issue if we were going with, for example, two teenagers, neither of whom are really interested in swinging around in circles on a horse. Which seemed cool to our four-year-old.

2. Water.

Although we took backpacks full of water bottles, we realised that there are plenty of places in the park where you can fill up. It is true that it may have a slightly unusual taste (similar to chlorine), but it is safe to drink. And it will allow you not to carry heavy water bottles around all day.

3. Extra batteries.

The opposite is true for power sockets, so make sure you have extra batteries as we had to save our phones for the evening.

4. Food.

The prices are the same throughout the park, which is great because you can choose whether you want to eat in the Pinocchio restaurant or the Spiderman restaurant.

5. Healthy snacks.

I was expecting a wider and healthier choice of snacks, as most of them were ice-cream, popcorn, hot dogs, biscuits, cakes, cotton candy, chocolate-covered fruit etc. Of course, that’s where 4 Seasons freeze-dried fruit, freeze-dried berries and other healthy snacks and drinks came to the rescue. I’ll tell you more about that later.

6. Top tip

In my opinion. Before you go, download the Disneyland app and follow the ride queues a few days before you arrive. The app shows you how long you have to wait in line in real time. Then select the rides with the longest queues and find out what’s there and get an opinion on whether it really seems worth waiting 2-3 hours, only to rush to queue for them when you enter the park.

As soon as we entered the park, we didn’t know where to go, everything looked amazing, we started queuing and then discovered that some rides always have fast-moving queues, while others always have a 1-3 hour wait.

On the second day, we were smarter (and at the same time dumber) and only after entering the park did we rush to the rides with the longest queue on the first day. What we didn’t do, and what I recommend you to do, is to find out what the attraction is. Since we liked all the attractions, we didn’t think twice about this ride, which had a 3-hour queue since the park opened and didn’t get any shorter as the day went on. We waited patiently and happily, because after all, if everyone is waiting, it’s probably worth it.

We wait patiently for all those hours. We enter a square room where we are greeted by a beautiful princess and a photographer standing in front of her. She smiles kindly, talks to the girls, gives them a hug and invites them to take a photo. After the photo is taken, we leave the room and see what happens next. And then we see “EXIT”, where we can buy our photos for 15 euros each. I won’t lie, this was one of the biggest disappointments for both me and my husband. The situation would be better if our girls were crazy about princesses.

Of course, they were happy and pleased to see Beauty, because they didn’t realise that we had lost a quarter of a day to this. It was comforting for us too, because their happiness and joy was the purpose of this trip.

So, the purpose of the trip has been achieved, and it is truly a magical place for children and adults alike, where everybody returns to their childhood and forgets their chores and worries. So, without going into all the praise for this park, I would like to wish everyone to visit it at least once in their lifetime, and if you have any specific questions or want more advice, feel free to contact me.

Laura