Let me just start by saying that the overall feel from the trip was that at 3yo she was too young to really enjoy most of the rides, she was scared in nearly all of the ones we tried and only really liked IASW and the tree house at Frontierland. Anyway, here goes:
We landed at CDG on March 14th, around 11.30pm and John from ezyshuttle was waiting for us at arrivals. No complaints with John, he was pleasant and punctual. We arrived at DH in approximately 40 minutes, and stopped at a mini market for water and milk. When we arrived at the hotel, our room was not ready (it was 12 and we had to wait 3 hours) so we dropped off our luggage and headed for the parks, in order to take full advantage of our first day. We met Mickey and Minnie at reception and my daughter was delighted to see them (minnie was chatting away with some hotel employee for a few minutes, which was a bit of a turn off, but otherwise they were fine).
The weather was out of this world on our first three days, very pleasant at 20-23 degrees. St Patrick's day was rainy and very cold, some 10-15 degrees lower, and our last day, Sunday, 18/3, it was better but rainy and cold too. Here are some brief comments on our room, restaurants and attractions, etc.
Disneyland Hotel: Our room (2 double beds), which was in the east wing, overlooked the park entrance and was very near reception. Very clean, very bright, lovely. Julien at reception had arranged for the room to be filled with balloons for our birthdays. Everything about DH was worth the extra cost, I have absolutely no complaints. The swimming pool was too small, I think, but I wasn't planning on spending time there anyway. We thought people walking outside the bar and restaurants barefoot in bathrobes just to use that swimming pool was awkward, but on the other hand it added to the family atmosphere of the DH. I recall the Newport had a bigger pool, but I may be wrong.
Restaurants: Wednesday, March 14 we ate at the Plaza Gardens and it was nice, much to my surprise as the reviews I had read were not particularly good. Good selection on the buffet, service so and so but I think we just had a moody waitress, not too busy. Thursday, March 15 we had lunch at the Agrabah and I must say it was disappointing and very limited selection of dishes. I would not recommend it. Thursday night we had a birthday dinner at Inventions, which is in my opinion by far the best buffet in the resort (I have been to most of them, including most hotel restaurants) and could easily stand out as a family restaurant in central Paris. Excellent food selection, good service, plenty of characters. My one complaint is we had to wait quite long for Minnie to bring our birthday cake, and when she finally came she only spent 15 seconds with my daughter, which I found disappointing, but most of the other characters were great with my shy little princess.
Friday, March 16, we had lunch at the Restaurant des Stars and I was unimpressed. There was no Remy trolley and the buffet was below average. A glass had broken near our table and noone could be bothered to pick up the broken pieces, although children were running around. My husband informed them and still noone attended to it until we left. I was very surprised!
Unfortunately, I was ill from Friday evening onwards, so we cancelled our other dinners at Inventions and we also cancelled Auberge de Centrillon lunch. We did go to the cowboy cookout for lunch and we didn't like it much. We found the food terrible, but my daughter loved the chicken (no idea why). On the other hand, the characters at the cowboy cookout were lovely and spent more time with us than at Inventions. The live music was nice too and added to the western atmosphere.
Attractions: I admit that having tried it now, I realize that my 3yo is too young to fully enjoy most of the toddler-suitable attractions. I suppose it's a matter of personality, she was too scared to go on most of the rides. We tried most of them on our first three days, because the weather was lovely and the parks were not very busy, St Patrick's day was a nightmare, packed full of people, so we only went on a couple of FP rides and waited for the fireworks (more on that later).
Peter Pan - I am not sure if there was a problem with the boats or if the ride needs refurbishment, but they were stopping and starting abruptly and even I got scared. This used to be one of my favourite rides, but this time it felt terrible. For my little one, it was too dark and she was frightened by the stops and turns which as I said were not smooth (I think they had some issue on our ride, my husband also thought it was very rough). She didn't want to try it again ("ever").
Buzz - Nice ride for all of us, she was too young to grab the "gun" but enjoyed spinning us around with the little handle. We went on it several times just to make some use of our vip fastpasses that were going to waste.
Casey Jr - Lovely ride and in my opinion very suitable for 3yo, but my princess thought it was too fast (!) so we didn't do it again. We would probably try it again, if the weather was better, because as the days went by she was more comfortable with the concept of being driven around at relatively high speed.
IASW - She absolutely loved it! We must have done it 10 times or more!
Snow White - She was not scared, but was not delighted. Just OK. She commented that the ride has too much evil witch and no dwarfs or snowwhite. I agree, I have been on it several times in the past and it never made an impression. I can't believe they don't have the Hey-ho mine scene emphasized in this ride...
Pinocchio - Same as above, she was unimpressed. Same for me.
Spinning cars - The spinning cars at DS were too fast for the little one and got us all very dizzy. It was my first time on it and I thought it was OK, not something I particularly enjoyed. Unfortunately, my daughter was very scared and she wouldn't go into the teacups, Dumbo, Alladin, Slingy Dog or Orbitron after this one
Pirates of the Carribean - The attraction was closed on our first days and very very busy on St Patrick's day, so we thought we would miss it, but we got one go on Sunday, our last day, and to my surprise my daughter enjoyed it. I think it's probably due to the fact that she got used to the whole idea of the rides, and I believe that if we could go again in, say, 2 months, she would probably be easier on all of the rides. Anyway, I always enjoy PotC and this time was no exception. Some small parts of the ride were discretely closed for refurbishment, and of course there was no Jack Sparrow (yet?).
TOT - SM - Always love them! Obviously we didn't take our daughter on either of them, but my husband went several times with his vip fastpass.
Playhouse Disney - She had seen the show online and was very pleased with it live too, although she doesn't speak English. We went to it twice. She even kept some of the leaves that fall during the show as conversation pieces when we got home.
Stitch live - We hopped into this one while waiting for the Playhouse Disney. We liked Stitch, but as my daughter doesn't speak English so she couldn't really follow.
St Patrick's pre-parade: We waited in the rain for 30 minutes to see the "pre-parade" at 4.10pm, thinking it would last until the main parade at 5pm, but it turned out it was a just a small band and a car with Mickey and Minnie. It was over in 2 minutes and we waited another 50 minutes for the regular parade to begin - which incidentally was shorter than I expected, probably due to anniversary celebrations coming up.
St Patrick's fireworks: They ran for about 10 minutes at closing time (10pm) and were fantastic, reminded me of summer closing time. Although it was slightly rainy, they did a great job with them and the Irish background music was lovely too.
Overall, on this trip we ended up with three VIP fastpasses and nothing to do with them... my husband went on SM and TOT a few times, but that was about it. I really wish they would open more attractions to fastpass...
Some tips for families with toddlers:
1. Little ones really enjoy character meetings, so plan some character lunch or dinner. I am sorry we missed the Auberge de Centrillon. By the way, breakfast at DH isn't really a character breakfast, the characters are near the restaurant entrance taking pictures but the lines are long and the photographer is rude (wouldn't let us take our own pictures, so we refused to buy his - I suspect our loss is bigger than his, but we didn't want to support such behaviour).
2. Bring a stroller, the ones on rental look very uncomfortable and you get to carry a lot of things on the stroller as you move around the park. It made our lives easier! We used a stroller lock when parking outside of attractions for our peace of mind, as Maclaren strollers are very popular and ours could easily be confused with someone else's stroller.
3. If travelling in early spring or autumn, bring clothes for all sorts of weather: we were looking to buy children sunglasses (there weren't any on sale in the parks at this time of year) and wore sunscreen on our first 3 days, and were using scarfs, gloves, ear muffs, umbrellas and the stroller's rain cover on the last two.
4. When you pack, bring essential medication for children but also otc medication for adults. I was impressed to find out that there is no pharmacy in the resort, so when I got ill and needed simple paracetamol or aspirin, I had to get a taxi and drive away from the resort to a local pharmacy to get one. There is a delivery service which costs around 20euros. I went to the first aid centre at Main Street and they just suggested I called a doctor as I had a low fever.
5. If you are unsure about the suitability of a ride for the little one, ask to baby switch and try it first. The rides I remembered before I had a child now seemed a lot faster, darker, scarier thinking about how little ones perceive them. And once you are on them with your little one, you can't get off...
6. If, like me, you like to bring souvenirs for friends and family, always buy a few extra pieces as there is always someone you forget. Remember to bring back a couple of park maps as souvenirs.
7. Shareholders' club membership comes in very handy for discounts across the resort shops and restaurants.
A final note:
On our last day, Monday 19/3, our flight left at noon so we didn't really want park tickets. We left the DH on Sunday afternoon and went to the Dream Castle hotel for 1 night, which saved us some 250euros. The Dream Castle hotel left a great deal to be desired: Our room was not ready when we arrived (at 4pm, although check in is at 3pm) although we were obviously only spending a few hours there. We waited until they found a room that was ready around 4.30pm and then had to wait for the shuttle until 5pm, as they wouldn't call the shuttle before we left our luggage in the room (which as I said wasn't ready, but still they didn't seem to care one bit). More importantly, when we went in the room (a long walk through a worn, dark corridor, dragging our 2 suitases and 3 bags because there was no luggage service and no trolley) we found a pill (medication of some sort) on the floor next to our daughter's bed, there was a used straw in the bathroom and dental floss next to the bathtub as well. The room was dirty, the staff was rude and indifferent (except for the person in the shop, he was fine), the room service food was inedible. Never staying there again!
That's about it. Not exactly as I planned or imagined, but a nice trip nonetheless. We will be going again in autumn 2013, already saving for a DH castle club room, and we will bring the newest member of our family too (now 6mo) - hopefully I will have a better review for everyone then
Meanwhile, I wish to everyone planning a trip soon a magical stay and declare that Disneyland Paris is - and I suspect always will be - my favourite destination!
