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8 Tips for Your First Few Hours at Disneyland Paris
You have made the early start and got that first good hour in. Here is how we stop the morning turning into one long queue when everyone else arrives.
Let the rush happen
When normal park opening arrives, a lot of people head straight for the biggest rides. If you have already had a really good first hour during Extra Magic Time, you do not need to follow them.
This is the point where we are happy to change pace. Grab some food, have a breather, look around or change the plan completely. You have already earned a head start by getting up early, so there is very little point immediately rewarding yourself with an hour-long queue.
Let everybody else rush towards the obvious attractions for a while. The park will settle, wait times will move around and you can decide what makes sense next rather than simply following the crowd.
Why it helpsYou protect the benefit of that early start instead of immediately giving it back by joining the biggest queue.
Take a breakfast break
If you have been up early and spent your first hour on rides, around 9:30 can be a brilliant time to stop for a coffee, croissant or another snack.
You are taking a break at exactly the point when thousands of new arrivals are heading towards the attractions. Rather than joining that first surge, sit down for a few minutes, refuel and enjoy the fact that you have already achieved something with the morning.
For us, this is one of the nicest rhythms at Disneyland Paris: get the useful early hour done first, then have breakfast while everybody else is trying to get started.
Why it helpsYou rest and refuel while the biggest arrival rush is heading in the opposite direction.
Do not ignore the other rides
At normal opening, a lot of day-ticket and off-site guests naturally head for the headline attractions. That can create a really useful window elsewhere.
This is when rides such as Star Tours or it’s a small world can sometimes have very short queues because they are not necessarily the first thing everybody is aiming for.
Do not get fixated on the same two or three big attractions just because they are the ones everybody talks about. Look across the whole park. A 10-minute queue for something you enjoy is often a much better use of your morning than standing for an hour because the ride at the top of your list is suddenly busy.
Why it helpsYou can keep doing attractions without following the same crowd towards the biggest queues.
Go in the shops
Main Street shops can be much nicer earlier in the day because most people are still thinking rides, rides, rides.
Use that quieter period to have a proper look around without the daytime or evening crowds. You can actually see what is there rather than shuffling through a packed shop at the end of the night.
And if you see something you want, remember it and come back later. There is no need to buy it at 10am and carry it around the parks for the next twelve hours.
Shopping does not have to take over the morning. Ten relaxed minutes while the queues are peaking elsewhere can be a much better use of time than joining the rush.
Why it helpsYou get a calmer look around the shops without sacrificing useful ride time later in the day.
Plan while you queue
If you do want to keep going ride to ride, use the queue you are already in to decide what comes next.
Do not wait until you walk off an attraction and then stand around checking the app. While you are waiting, look at current wait times, choose your next attraction and start thinking about lunch or anything else you need to fit in.
We always try to stay one step ahead. The plan can still change, but having a likely next move means you can walk off one ride and start moving straight away instead of losing another ten minutes deciding.
Why it helpsQueue time becomes planning time, so you spend less of the day standing still between attractions.
Set alarms for character queues
If there is a character meet you want that uses a virtual queue, check the booking time for that day and set an alarm on your phone for a few minutes beforehand.
Be logged into the Disneyland Paris app, make sure the people in your group are already set up correctly and have the relevant screen open before the booking window starts.
When we are waiting for it to open, we stay on that booking area and refresh or move in and out of the page until the option becomes available. You do not want to spend those first few minutes trying to remember a password, add somebody to the trip or work out where the booking screen is.
Get the admin out of the way before the day starts, then be ready when the queue actually opens.
Why it helpsPopular virtual queues can move quickly, so being logged in and ready removes avoidable delays when the booking window opens.
Check the other park
Do not forget you have two parks to play with.
If wait times start climbing where you are, open the app and see what is happening in the other park. Sometimes the pattern is completely different, and changing parks can transform the rest of your morning.
The walk between Disneyland Park and Disney Adventure World is quicker than you might think. You are not committing to a major journey across the resort, so do not be afraid to move if the other park suddenly looks much better.
We would rather spend a few minutes walking between the parks than spend an extra hour standing in a queue just because we decided we had to stay where we started.
Why it helpsThe second park gives you another set of wait times and options when the morning starts getting busy.
Explore
Disneyland Paris is such a magical place, and it is so much more than just the attractions.
Do not spend the whole morning thinking only about the next ride. Explore Adventure Isle, go through the caves, climb the treehouse, wander the Main Street arcades and actually look at the details around you.
Sit on a bench for ten minutes and watch the world go by. Listen to Main Street. Walk through an area you normally rush past. Some of the best bits of Disneyland Paris do not have a queue at all.
That is especially useful when the headline waits are high. Rather than feeling as though the morning has stopped being productive, use the busy spell to enjoy the parts of the parks that people miss when they are racing from ride to ride.
Why it helpsYou still get a proper Disney experience even when the rides are busy, and you notice much more of what makes the parks special.
