New Years Eve in the Magic Kingdom, Disneyland Paris

Basics

• Our Childs Age: 4-5

• Suitable For: All Ages

• Price: 2024

  • 700 Euro 4 nights 2 adults and 1 child with breakfast in Dream Castle

  • 15 Euro a night parking

  • 180 Euro per day 2 adults 1 child entrance to the park

  • 40 Euro per adult for a buffet and 20 Euro per child - decent fancier food not fast food

• Opinion on price: Represents good value for money. It’s amazing

I have been to Disney in the run up to Christmas as well as for New Years Eve, this blog is generic covering both periods, with the differences highlighted as they come up. My last visit was in the Christmas run up rather than NYE.

Getting There

To get to Disneyland Paris, well the options are endless. Train, flights, drive, coach. It is Paris (ish). Incredibly accessible to get to, whichever way you prefer and suits your budget. Notice I did say it is Paris ish. Disney is fairly far outside of the city. I think on the metro it took an hour or more from the Eiffel tower. It’s not an issue, you can get trains, metro and shuttles out, and probably there are some express services to get there, but do keep in mind, it is Paris outskirts and takes time to reach, albeit easily.

Disneyland General

Need I describe Disneyland Paris, or as I still call it, Euro Disney? It is an extremely large theme or amusement park, in fact it is two, with Walt Disney Studios forming one and Disneyland Park forming the other. As well as the Disney Village and the themed hotels all tagged onto the complex. Disney has been around for a long time, and they have plenty of experience and no doubt employ the best professionals in their field, and I can say, they do what they do very well. It is a magical place for any age. It is not cheap, but on the other hand it’s not wildly expensive, in my opinion it does represent good value.

The themed on-site hotels cater for differing budgets, although I am not sure there is much difference in rooms or services, it would seem you pay more to have a closer walk to the park. Disney village is I suppose what it says. It is an area you don’t need a ticket for but still must pass the security checks. There are the various bars and restaurants, cinema and other entertainment as well as huge souvenir stores. Once upon a time they had Buffalo Bills Wild West Show, which, the food was not great, the beer was so so, but it was always fun and I would recommend it if it ever returns. It’s a fun dinner show which young and old love.

Disney Studios is the smaller of the two parks, we didn’t have time this last visit to go there so cannot say much about it, they do seem to have nice shows and some rides. I read this is better for older children, but honestly looking at the map and rides, I am surprised by this.

Then Disneyland Park. An enormous theme park with 5 different themed lands as well as the main street. It’s no secret, and I would say the main negative for everyone, the queues. It’s Disney, I don’t know if they ever have an off season or quiet period. It is packed and the queues are extensive; you will be left waiting in line for rides for a very long time and this just naturally delays the ground you can cover.

On the other hand. You can spend several days at Disney and not go on a single ride and still love it. The shows they have scheduled and perform are amazing, the shows alone will fill your days, and for me represent total value for money during your stay. The characters that are around, the sights and sounds. We did the rides for our little one, though for me I would have preferred only the shows. They are that good.

The parades, evening shows, fireworks and New Year Spectacular are going to be in Disneyland Park, not in the Studios. It is therefore advisable that around 6ish, if you are in Studios and have a ticket valid for both parks, head over to Disneyland. If you have tickets only valid for each park, ensure you get over to see the night time shows at least once during your stay. You don’t want to miss the nighttime shows!

The Hotel

We stayed in Dream Castle hotel. This is a non-Disney complex hotel, but a hotel only catering for Disney guests, it’s an off-site hotel. So why did we stay here? I didn’t find the price of the Disney on-site hotels so bad, with the entrance to the park included I thought it was ok price wise, certainly the lower end hotels / or the ones with the longest walk to the park. Our decision to stay off site wasn’t really price driven. We stayed in Dream Castle due to the flexibility with the park entrance. Staying at a Disney hotel you are obliged to get the entrance, and in reality, you may be unlikely to utilise some of those entrances which effectively you are paying for.

In case I have confused you. Let me explain. If you book 1 night at a Disney hotel, hotel Cheyanne say. Included in the price will be 2 days entrance to the park. If you land at 3pm, get through customs and take the train to Disney, maybe, if you are lucky, you are checking in at 5pm, it could be 6 or 7 before you could physically be in the park, but you have a full day entry included, in reality you will never use that day, and only go the following morning for the full day. In our case, we stayed a few days, but would have lost the day when we arrived, and lost the day when we departed. If Disney ever allow you to book their hotel and remove the included tickets, with the option to select the days you go into the parks, and of course the price is reflecting this, we would certainly book on-site.

We booked Dream Castle as this allowed us to pick the days we enter the park (of course buying our entrance tickets independently), and represented better value by breaking it down this way, instead of having a complete package and days which never would have been used.

Dream castle is one of several hotels in the same sort of area just outside the park complex with regular shuttle buses ferrying guests to and from. It's perhaps less than 10 minutes by shuttle, and the shuttle runs nonstop every 15 minutes or so. The hotel has spacious nice rooms, ours had a double bed and a bunk bed for 2 kids. Large lobby. Small but sufficient lobby bar, a patisserie, there is a children’s play area with climbing frames, and I think there is a pool and gym. This is Disney! Unless you really stay for a long time, I would be surprised if you have any chance to be able to use the pool. We had a young child with us and were out, in the cold, walking from dawn to well into the evening and night. No chance to consider the pool. There is the breakfast room downstairs, and opposite this in the evenings is the restaurant. I understand if you book your room directly on the hotels website, parking is included, if you use a third-party booking website you need to pay the parking, which isn’t so cheap.

Because of the entrance flexibility we had with staying in Dream Castle and the ease of access to the park, I would likely stay here again and not consider the parks’ theme hotels – unless there was a great offer.

The breakfast in Dream Castle is good. They have a kids offering, which is not the healthiest choices, needless to say kids love it. Adults are fine, it’s enough. It is a big hotel and busy, with buffet style. Don’t expect to have a peaceful relaxed morning start. It is not a bad people watching place. I found it very impressive all the ‘teenies’ apparently seeing a trip to Disney as a fashion show – hoping to catch Mickey or Minnies eye perhaps?

We ate a couple of evenings in the restaurant in Dream Castle. This surpassed expectation. I liked the restaurant very much. It is again buffet style, but it is not busy, people are in the park or eating elsewhere, so the dinner is more civilised and enjoyable to sit and relax. I had expected criminally high prices which may have influenced my overall positive impression, due to it not being as crazy as expected, possibly I had a more favourable view. What I will point out, is we live in a high-cost country, so what was not so expensive for us, may not be the same if you are coming from a lower cost country. In any case, I found the price fair and cheaper than I had expected.

The food is, as I mentioned, buffet style, and it does not change much from what I saw from evening to evening. It means if you want variety, it is not a good idea to eat here each evening of your stay. The food they had on offer at the buffet was varied and delicious, many roast meats, quality cheeses, fish, vegetables, breads in all shapes and sizes, a kid's section with the typical kid style foods. It is making my mouth water jotting all this down. And don’t get me started on the dessert buffet! I could have missed the park and spent 12 hours trying to wade through all of that. The wine, ordered and paid additionally of course, I found to be of a high standard and fair price – both points, perhaps unfairly, shocked me.

If I recall, it was 40 Euro each adult, 20 Euro each child and 40 Euro for the wine – 2024 prices

The Park

This is the balance act with young children. Getting up early enough to have a full day in the park covering a lot of ground, while not disrupting their sleep so you/they have a horrible day due to being overly tired.

After breakfast, we grabbed our things and took the shuttle bus into the park. Jumping off the bus you follow the masses to the entrance and join the first of many queues that will await you. It looks like if you stay in the Disney themed hotels you may already have cleared security and not need to join this particular lengthy queue.

Past security, head to the Grand Hotel, the massive pink one, which doubles as the entrance. Show the ticket and pass through the turnstile. You’re In! You literally enter another world, a magical happy world of fantasy. The children’s eyes overwhelmed of where to look next, what on earth is going on, should they be happy or scared? Should you be?

It is exciting for them, I guess for the small ones it is a bit intimidating as well, but the magic takes over and relives them of their fears.

You will need the map, the app, and perhaps a plan having done a small bit of homework. Go with an idea of what you want to see and do. The rides, and the sites, for us we had no clue and just went to these ad hoc. But we did know some shows we wanted to see, and some must do things.

I bought a photo pass. And let me give you some tips here. The photo pass was 80 Euro. To buy each picture from a ride is about 20 Euro. In theory for a couple of days it is not such a bad deal. Here is my mistake. Unless you go on the big rides, and just about all of them, you will not get enough pictures for it to be value for money. Our child was a bit small for the big rides; he was 4 nearly 5. Many of the rides he would have been tall enough, but they would have been too scary for him, technically allowed on, but I know it made no sense to scare him and risk that, there will be another time, when he will actually enjoy it, it wasn’t that time. Big families with older children, planning on doing the big rides over a couple of days, it’s a good purchase. Families with small children doing the small rides, or a family only there for a day, I probably wouldn’t bother. For my 80 Euro, I got a 360 picture of us at Cinderella's castle.

We started to walk deeper into the magic kingdom. Out of the blue the Christmas songs start, fake snow is coming down. We go further in, children in awe everywhere, adults in awe, staff smiling and happy to help. Walking around aimlessly with no direction or purpose, just looking and seeing what there was. Over our stay we found Fantasy Land was probably the best for the smaller children. Each area had the rides for all ages; Fantasy Land seemed to have more of a concentration of rides the little ones to enjoy.

The rides and the themed lands, what should I say? Explore and you will see for yourselves. If there are specific rides you want to, or must, go on, it would make sense to buy a fast pass for the day or that specific ride. I think we waited 2 hours to go on Peter Pan ride which lasted maybe 90 seconds. Despite the queues being horrible and boring, you are still in this magical place and can enjoy the entire time there.

Dining

The lunch situation. This is challenging. This is where the app helps. If you are very well organised and disciplined with time, I think you can make reservations. If you are keeping it more fluid as we were, it is difficult to find a place. Be aware of the opening times and food styles. The first day we were in the park we had fish and chips in fantasy land at Toad Hall. We needed no reservation and there was not much of a queue. The second day in the park was a fancier, Moroccan, Middle Eastern style, buffet food in Agrabah Café Restaurant in Adventure land. I found the food good, atmosphere nice, calm enough and away from the madness, and the prices very fair. We didn’t reserve here either and joined a queue to be seated which wasn’t too bad, although we were having a late lunch and possibly avoided the main rush.

Toad Hall was perhaps 16 Euro for a fish and chips with soft drink. Agrabah buffet was the standard 40 Euro an adult and 20 Euro a child – 2024 prices

Dinner... We wanted to give our son such an amazing time, we hoped to get him into the Character Dinner at Plaza Gardens, so he could meet all the Disney stars. When you stay on a Disney hotel you get immediate access to make the reservation at the Character Dinner once you book your room. If you stay off site, you have to wait until 3 months before the date you wish to reserve and join the masses in a free for all to try to get a reservation. I read another blog which gave me this information, and I will give to you, that allowed us to have a reservation. I set up the online account, had the app. Had my booking/park entrance tickets recognised, I made sure I was fully set up, and understood the app, and reservation process in advance. Then on the day before the booking for my date was to become available, I waited up, I stayed up until midnight to make the reservation, refreshing the screen constantly from like 23:58 until 00:03. I would say, if you are not primed and ready to book at midnight on the 3-month before mark (the exact time frame Disney allow non hotel guests to make a booking), you will miss your chance. If I recall, by 00:06 all reservations for the Character Dinner had gone for the day we planned to go. I think I was very lucky to get the slot and I am grateful for the blog I read giving this tip, hopefully you reading my blog helps some of you.

Book the Character Dinner at the stroke of midnight, French (CET) time, 3 months prior to the day of your planned visit - basically, the very minute, and I do actually mean the very second, that Disney allow non Disney hotel guests to reserve the dinner.

If you do not get a place. I don’t think all is lost. You have a good chance on the day of your arrival or even the day of your desired dinner, to check the app and get a place. When I woke on the morning we were going in to the park, I checked the app and saw some available slots. For me, I felt more comfortable and pleased knowing in advance I had the spot than leaving it to chance on the day.

Guess what the food was at the Character Dinner? Buffet style! Its quick, easy and cost effective for the park. Again, it was good quality and decent food. Generally speaking, at the hotel for dinner, and lunch in the park, it cost 100 Euro for the 3 of us each meal. For the Character Dinner it worked out at 200 Euro, so double. It is Disney for dinner and with the stars. I thought the price was ok. The team ensure all the characters that are out that evening make their way round and see all the children, plenty of photos to be taken. For the kids, and I have heard many other adults say the same. This was possibly the highlight of the trip. If you can afford it, I do recommend this, and the late-night effort from Mum or Dad to book your places. I don’t think there is an age limit on this enjoyment or star struck feeling. Myself and my partner are middle aged and we were as excited as our son to meet Mickey and Minney, you almost do forget it is just a costume.

The Shows

Stars on Parade, this was the first show we saw. You get to see them all, all the famous faces, everyone dancing, singing. One not to be missed. It is likely to be your families first exposure to the cast, and really what Disney is about. The famous Disney crew dance and sing there way around the roundabout at the park entrance on Main Street. It is loud and in your face, but the forced joy allows the small children to forget any fear they may have, with big children, even mid 40 year old ones, taken in by it all. Welcome to Disney and the Magic Kingdom!

Lion King, while this is, I am sure, a long running show. At some point it will be changed for another show, it’s possible you don’t have the same show available when reading. It’s the Lion King story in about half an hour. The show is in the large theatre in Frontier Land. This theatre is enormous. The queue is a bit intimidating and there is fear you won’t get in, we had no issue and arrived about a minute before the doors opened. It is a full-on Broadway / West End production, you would pay your entrance fee alone to see a show like this in a theatre back home. It is compressed, not the same length as a full production, but the budget, cast, chorography, all of it is world class. We thoroughly enjoyed the show. Possibly it was my girlfriends highlight of the trip.

Let’s Sing Christmas, this show was relaxed and easy, you can drop in at any time, although mid-way through the show while trying to find a seat to watch, you do become annoying to others who are already settled in. It’s in the Videopolis Theatre in the Discovery Land. Which is also, maybe, the easiest and quickest place to get a bite to eat with a couple of choices of styles. Goofy, Mickey and Minney with all the others, run through a fun show for the kids, mainly the smaller ones, singing, dancing and being silly. This is probably a bit of a hidden gem and not given the attention it deserves. Like all the shows it is very professional and well done, this one is a Christmas specific show so something that really gives you that festive feeling, while many of the others are generic all year-round shows. You can grab some food, a drink and warm up if nothing else, with the show going on in the background.

Mickey's Dazzling Christmas Parade. This is I suppose similar to Stars on Parade with a Christmas twist, Santa is there and the characters are in Christmas outfits. Its loud, its bright, its cheerful and it's at night. Yes, it’s special. This is extremely well done. The street is busy as you would expect. I would say this should not be missed, and is a must see.

Disney Electrical Sky Parade. WOW. Watching this production and show/parade, I would say you really get a sense of value for money. It is the most impressive drone show I have ever seen. It is something to behold. I am lost for words to describe this. All I can say is go, do not miss it.

There is a difference at this point between going during the build up to Christmas compared to going over New Year. Our visit, this last time, was at the end of November, and we visited on the Thursday and Friday before December. Already on the Saturday as December started, the times had changed. For us and our 4 year old, we had the perfect timing for us. The Dazzling Parade started at 19:30 for half hour or so, and the Sky Parade came on at 20:00 or 20:15, essentially back-to-back. We could get away after the back to back shows, return to the hotel and yes it was a late night for our son, but it was manageable. From the Saturday in December and right up to New Year, the Dazzling Parade was starting at 20:00 and the Sky Parade at 21:30 (times are roughly correct, I can’t remember exactly), there was a substantial gap between the shows, while most of the rides finish at 18:00. We would have been left hanging around in the park, wondering or trying to get a table reservation, between the rides closing, the first show starting and the last show ending. Considering we got to the park at 10am in the morning - that's a really long day, and its in cold winter. Now, I use the excuse of my son and the challenge this would have been on him, honestly, I think the biggest challenge would have been on me. We certainly, in my opinion, caught the shows at the best time slots. The earlier pre-December times rather than the later December slots, with long periods in-between.

The Duration and Spare day

We had two full days in Disney and Disneyland Park, was it enough? Of course not. It’s so big there is always going to be plenty more to do, more characters to meet, more rides to go on, more shows to see. But two days was sufficient. It's tiring, it's cold, the days are long, and you are on your feet the entire time. For kids, depending on their age, it is a lot for them, as well as all the excitement they are handling. Our two days was perfect. It was just enough to be wanting more, and to leave satisfied having had an amazing time.

Our two days were only spent in Disneyland; we didn’t go to the Studios. Had we done 3 days, we would have visited the Studios, and I can say, high on my list would have been to see Mickey’s Magic Show.

What we did do on our third day, and was as exciting, possibly more for our little lad, was to go to the Eiffel Tower. He had seen pictures of it, it had appeared in cartoons, he knew about it and how it looked, it’s even on many souvenirs in Disney. We spent our third day (because we had the flexibility to choose when we entered the park) going into Paris and visiting the tower.

As with the Character Dinner. As soon as tickets went out to the general public for the trip to the top of the tower, I went online at the stroke of midnight to book our elevator ride to the top. General information - choose 'Summit' as the option on the website to get to the very top.

From our hotel, Dream Castle, we took the shuttle bus to the Disney Park, which is also where the train station is. Buying a ticket is not as simple as it should be, the French could make this more user friendly. Eventually you will find a way, there are counters as well as guides to help at the automated machines. We took RER A train from Marne-la-Vallée Chessy (Euro Disney) to Charles de Gaulle Étoile station then line 6 to Bir Hakeim, and walked the short distance to the tower.

It takes an hour or so to travel there on the train or metro and I suppose 10-15 minutes to walk form the station to the tower.

Get to the tower, take plenty of pictures, go through the security, have a toilet stop inside, and go up the elevator. It goes without saying, you will queue the entire time, but by now you are used to it. The wait is worth it, there you are, on top of the tower/world, with the views to enjoy, on this iconic monument. Hopefully you are thinking at this point 'life is pretty good'.

When our son saw the tower, he was so excited, he turns round and asks, hoping, “can we go to the top?”, the joy in his eyes was priceless. He was incredibly happy to get to the top; do remember the time of year we are discussing – at some point the chill did get to him, even an excited 4 year old feels the cold, and he asked to go back down. Not before having a good look around and I am sure thinking to himself this is great.

Our third day was more relaxed, with only the Eiffel Tower planned. What with the return journey into Paris and the queues to get to the top of the tower, it does somehow take all day in any case. And with the general traveling of this short trip, 2 full days in the park, it was enough for us, we didn’t need to see more in Paris, we will save the rest for another trip. Depending your children’s age, and your stamina, you may have more energy and desire to push things a little harder and see more. We had an amazing family time with all of us enjoying it as much as the other, we have some lovely family memories and pictures. Disney at Christmas/New Year is definitely a trip we would be pleased to go on again and would not think twice about booking it up – with a small disclaimer to this: while it was bitterly cold for us, it did remain dry, we had blue skies and sun for our trip, albeit cold. If it had rained and with being mostly outside with children for 3 days, I could imagine it changing the entire experience – you cannot plan the weather though!

New Years Eve Vs Any Other Day

I have been in Disney for both periods. There is very little difference. The park is clearly the same, the parades and shows remain the same. The big difference is the Grand Fire Work Display at midnight on New Years Eve / New Years Day. There will be a spectacular, and the park remains open until 2am. In terms of crowd and how busy it is. I expect you won’t notice much difference, but you are likely to find it a lot harder to get a dinner reservation. Seeing in the New Year with a no expense spared firework show over Cinderella’s castle with the Disney cast is going to be amazing, however, your gala dinner maybe chicken nuggets and a Fanta, and do consider the age of your child or children, and the late night, being outside, with the crowds to get through to go back to the hotel – either on or off site. For our 4-5 year old it would have possibly been not so enjoyable at this point, and would have gone on too late with no break or rest for him. With kids sleeping in push chairs, or with very early teens up, you're going to have a great time, just those toddler/infant years lasting until 12 might be hard.

The other point is as I mentioned before, but this already starts during the Christmas build up, the night time shows change schedule and come on later.

Conclusion

Disney and Paris costs a bit, however the Disney business model is fantasy, joy, magic and happiness. You do leave the real world behind as you enter the Magic Kingdom, for me it represented value for money and completely worth it. Our son loved it, if you can save up and go, you really should, this trip is for anyone of any age. Going during the festive period makes it just that little bit more special and magical - if that is even possible!

Take Aways

• Off-site hotels give flexibility on the entrance and maybe better value

• Entrance to the park prices vary on days of the week. Between Christmas and New Year is clearly peak and top price, outside of these dates and in the run up to Christmas the entrance tickets are cheaper if you avoid the weekend

• Book the Character Dinner at the stroke of midnight (French or CET Time!) 3 months before your planned date if you are staying off site and would like to do this – to ensure a reservation

• Do not buy the photo pass unless you are planning a couple of days or more in the parks and will do all the big rides

• Utilise the app for restaurant opening times and availability, as well as reservations

• Don’t miss the shows

• If you are staying in an off-site hotel, I expect for New Years Eve you have no chance to get into a restaurant, and even if you are staying on site, I suggest you are quick off the mark to reserves

• Accept you will be queuing

• If you must get the Mickey/Minney ears to wonder round the park with and to take silly selfies, buy them in advance online from a discount shop and pack them. They are 20 Euro a piece in the park, that’s getting close to 100 Euro for a family on ears!