Finally, reporting on our April 2025 Gate 1 Travel, Tulip Time River Cruise with the addition of Paris, and the time we added to visit Disneyland Paris has come to an end.
All that’s left to do is wrap up everything Disney. We love breaking things down into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Truthfully, most of our reviews end up being mostly good, sprinkled with some bad (usually not really bad), and we rarely have anything truly UGLY! So here we go.
Random Weird Stuff
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was a 1966 spaghetti western starring Clint Eastwood (the good), Lee Van Cleef (the bad), and Eli Wallach as “the ugly”.
The Good
Not surprisingly, there was lots of good stuff. We really enjoy Disney Parks, and overall Disneyland Paris was so much fun for us after a very long trip.
Getting There
While we chose a private transfer from our hotel in Paris, getting there by train couldn’t have been easier.
Disneyland Paris offers The Magical Shuttle from both Orly and Charles De Gaulle airports directly to the Disney Resorts, Parks and Partner Hotels.
You can also request a special adaptive transfer vehicle for those with mobility issues. You can request it up to two working days in advance. See the Disneyland Paris website for more information.
You can also take the train from the center of Paris to Disneyland Paris in about 40 minutes. The Marne-la-Vallée Chessy station is within walking distance of the Disney Hotels.
Disneyland Hotel
We LOVED the Disneyland Hotel; it was worth the cost for us, with such easy access to the Parks. Literally, everything was just steps away. For us, being able to head back to the room and nap, change, or just chill was perfect.
Beloved Disney Attractions
For us, it was fun to see some attractions that we’re not used to in WDW.
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey and Snow White’s Adventures are old-school dark rides, nothing fancy. While they still exist in Disneyland California and Tokyo Disney, they’re not in WDW.
Additionally, we really enjoyed Alice’s Curious Labyrinth. Shanghai Disney is the only other park to have a version of this fun maze.
There are also a few other attractions like Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Small World, and The Phantom Manor, which appear in other parks in much different versions.
Another absolute favorite was The Dragon’s Lair! Do not miss this under Sleeping Beauty Castle!
Hands down, our favorite ride was “Ratatouille”, we rode it multiple times.
The Bad
A few things fell into the “Bad” category. Nothing was horrific; we didn’t find them up to the Disney standards we are both accustomed to.
Extra Magic Hours
As guests of a Disney Hotel, we were able to enjoy Extra Magic Hours at both parks. Disneyland Park was okay. We actually got to ride Peter Pan with NO WAIT, which never happens at WDW!
However, at Disney Adventure World, only three attractions were open during Extra Magic Hours. Crush’s Coaster, one of the three, had a sizable line right away, and the attraction went down as fast as it opened. Stuck in the middle of the queue and having already invested nearly thirty minutes in line, we waited, and it took almost an hour.
The Food
Having lived directly behind WDW, Mark having been a Cast Member for a while, and having been Disney Vacation Club Members for several years, we’ve eaten A LOT of food at Disney Parks.
We never go in with super high expectations. Boma, before they dumbed down the food, was a favorite, as are several places in EPCOT, especially during Food and Wine Festival.
Thinking, “This is France, the food HAS to be great,” is a big mistake. While we only ate midday at a few buffet options and some snack filling in, we were sorely disappointed. Agrabah Cafe Restaurant in Adventureland was the lone standout.
Cast Members
Sadly, we had high expectations for Cast Members at Disneyland Paris. Yes, we know that while many speak English, quite a few don’t. That wasn’t the issue.
We found a good number of Cast Members to be pleasant enough. We found very few who really got the Culture and were fun, friendly, and engaging. Unfortunately, we found too many who were only going through the motions and didn’t seem excited about where they were working.
Coming from Florida, things seem different. We’re used to interacting with Cast Members who transitioned from Disneyland California for the 1971 opening, others who started with the opening of the park, and still others who are either second-generation Cast Members or grew up in and around Disney Culture.
This just felt different.
The Ugly
Ugly may be too strong a word, as there was nothing truly ugly about Disneyland Paris. The grounds and theming are for the most part gorgeous!
What surprised us most was the lack of maintenance and upkeep. On several attractions, we saw rusted poles and fixtures badly in need of TLC; we repeatedly found lightbulbs that had not been replaced and even trash cans that would never have been so badly neglected in other Disney Parks.
For Mark, having worked overnight shifts in the parks for private events and media shoots, he was used to seeing Maintenance Cast Members take care of these types of things.
Our Final Thoughts!
Go, enjoy Disneyland Paris, and especially the new attractions which were being installed during our visit.
It’s worth the time and investment. We truly had a blast and are glad we added this portion to our time in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
For Chuck, who had been to Euro Disney during its first year, it was a chance to revisit some experiences and to create new memories.
We enjoyed ourselves, but it was most likely a “one and done.”
What’s Next?
Up next, join us for a spectacular trip starting in Istanbul, Türkiye, and cruising to the Greek Isles, Montenegro, Croatia, and Slovenia, and wrapping up with a few days in Venice!
