Disneyland Paris with a Toddler: Accommodation, Dining, and Top Tips 🇫🇷 🧞

Continuing where we left off with our trip to France, we get to the real reason we wanted to come. Disneyland

We are big fans of the Disney parks, Liz and I went to Disneyworld on our mini-moon after we got married and went do Disneyland California a few times as well. So now we cant to start getting to the International parks.

We stayed at a good neighbor hotel within walking distance, Hotel l'Elysee Val d'Europe. It's about a 15-20 minute walk to the park, but they also have a shuttle that runs about every 30 minutes. BUT check the schedule, there's like a 4-5 hour period in the middle of the day where the shuttles don't run.

The breakfast buffet was quite enjoyable, and I would recommend opting for it. A great advantage of staying there (apart from avoiding the exorbitant prices of Disney property hotels) is the convenient location. Numerous cafes and restaurants are just 1-2 blocks away from the hotel, and directly across the street is a complete mall with a food court, shopping, and more.

Disneyland itself was pretty good; it was nice having little food stalls, market style, around the park, and the rides are about what you would expect.

Parc Walt Disney is just okay and needs some serious work, which I guess they are doing. A large section of the park was blocked off by construction. Some of the best rides are in the Walt Disney side, but it's very small. The biggest win there for us were the Cars rides for Landon.

Given the park's size, it likely had more rides for toddlers compared to other parks. Landon and I went on several of them, but be aware that most involve spinning, which Liz doesn't handle well, so I had to go on all of those myself.

One of the greatest advantages Disneyland Paris offers compared to other Disney parks we've visited is the Baby Switch. This feature allows one parent to go through a ride line while the other stays with the child, even in the single rider line. After the ride, you request a baby switch pass, which you then give to your spouse, allowing them to bypass the entire line and go directly to the front.

Total game changer, and we also noticed this at Europa Park when we went. I'll have a separate post on that one as well.

Transportation

I discussed my views on Paris's public transport, but the train station for Disneyland is located right at the park's entrance—it's impossible to miss. That was our plan all along, but we couldn't determine which station the correct train departed from, and the only one we found was a fair distance from our hotel.

Therefore, we decided to book a private car transfer (we have started using Transfeero) since it was raining and we had luggage, among other things. The drive takes about 45 minutes, so if you have small children or several kids, I believe it's definitely worth it.

Food

The food options in the good neighborhood area are good and its also easy to get food delivered. I think even putting the price aside for the Disney hotels, the food options alone may make it worth it to not stay on propery. Disney just doesn't have much going for it.

If you want a quick break from the parks to eat and not go all the way back to your hotel, there are like four restaurants. We ate at The Royal Pub at least 4 times in 3 days. We had to escape the rain several times; the food there is actually pretty good, and the beer selection is also good. Also we love pubs.

Food within the park is what you would expect of a theme park. Mostly suggary snacks with the occasional savory thing. Not much protein.

Food delifery apps to ownload- Uber Eats, Deliveroo.

Key Points

• Consider staying at a good neighbor hotel. They are conveniently located with shuttles and are very walkable. They offer more affordable rates and better dining options.

• The train from Paris stops directly at the park, but a private transfer might be worth considering for convenience, especially with kids.

• Don't forget to bring rain gear! It rained heavily during our visit (late September), and this area seems to experience frequent rain. It's not like Florida's predictable one-hour afternoon showers; it rains all day.

• Parc Walt Disney is a half-day kind of park unless you really want to re-ride their rides.

• Military tickets can be purchased online; there's no need to get them from your base. They just check your ID when you go into the park.