You’ve done the planning for Disneyland Paris. You know your top rides, shows, and food. You’ve got your must meet list of characters. You’ve researched your hotel and know exactly what amenities it has. And then you arrive – surely everything is going to be perfect now, right? Well, I hope so! But the reality is that there’s a lot of unexpected things that could happen while you’re in Disneyland Paris that could threaten to derail your trip. But if you go in prepared, you’ll find it far more easy to bounce back. In this blog we’re sharing common occurences that could cause issues on your Disneyland Paris trip, and how to roll with the punches to keep the magic alive!

Issues occuring before your trip

Our aim in this blog is to focus on those things that can occur while you’re in Disneyland Paris. However, there’s no denying that there could be things that delay your trip before it even gets going!

Bad weather can cause travel delays. Industrial action can ground planes and delay trains. Traffic delays can lead to missed flights, ferries and connections. Illness in the family can mean that people are too sick to travel. Honestly, there’s quite a few things that go wrong.

Of course everyone hopes they will avoid such issues, but sadly things happen. Our advice in these situations – firstly speak to Disney (if you’ve booked through them), or your travel agent. They may be able to work with you to rearrange your trip. But the biggest recommendation we have here is to get travel insurance – that way if the worse happens at least you won’t be out of pocket! There’s a lot of different travel insurance firms out there so you should be able to find something that meets your needs. We recommend Staysure, particularly if you have medical conditions as they can supply insurance that will cover issues arising from these at a reasonable price. Click on the link below to arrange cover with them, and enter code SEP20 at checkout to save 20%! (This is an affiliate link – if you make a purchase we receive a small commission at no extra cost to you).

Click here to buy travel insurance with Staysure

Why’s that attraction closed?!

The most likely issue you might encounter while in Disneyland Paris is an attraction (show or ride) being closed. Generally speaking there are a few main reasons for closures:

• Planned refurbishment – as the Disneyland Paris parks are open year round, it’s sometimes needed to take rides down for a time in order to give them a spruce up. Closures for refurbishment can vary from a couple of days to several months!
• Weather – If an attraction is outside, the weather is a likely candidate for closure. While most rides will stay running in the rain, they won’t be able to run if it’s torrential rain, super windy, storms in the area, or if it’s too icy. Sometimes they can even go down if it’s too hot! The good news about weather closures is that generally speaking they don’t last too long – only as long as it takes to make the ride safe to use.
• Technical difficulties – Disney attractions involve a lot of moving parts and tech, and if you think about the number of times you may have to restart a laptop or phone because the tech throws a funny five minutes it’s no wonder that sometimes bits on Disney attractions will break down. Where this happens Disney will try to get the ride up and running again as quickly as possible – unexpected closures that last more than 1 day are very rare.
• A guest has done something stupid – sadly this one happens more often than you think! The rides are constantly monitored for safety so if a guest does something daft (like standing up in the ride vehicle, leaning out the ride vehicle, climbing out the ride vehicle, or dropping something on the track) then the ride will have to shut for safety purposes.
• Show closure period – this one is unique to the large theatre shows. Periodically they will all have periods where the show goes ‘dark’ for a few months – often this is to train new cast, refurbish the set, tweak the show and more. It’s not unusual to find 1 or 2 of the shows closed on a visit. Also in the case of Alice and the Queen of Hearts in the Studios Park, this only runs seasonally May to September.

So there’s a few things that can happen! In the vast majority of cases an attraction being down is due to a technical issue or guest behaviour that can be sorted very quickly, and it’ll be up and running after a short period. But if you have your heart set on experiencing a ride at a particular time, or you’ve left this ride for your last day, then it can really through a wrench in your plans if you get there to find it’s shut! There’s a strategies we recommend to manage this:

• Check the Disneyland Paris website for ride closures before your come – most ride refurbishment closures are announced weeks if not months in advance. Checking before you come means you’ll know what’ll be closed for your visit, and you can plan around it (and set expectations in your group accordingly). The website will also share show closure periods.
• Have a good weather app on your phone, and check it – decent weather apps (like Accuweather) have hour by hour coverage, allowing you to see bad weather approaching each day. If your app is saying there’s going to be torrential rain in the afternoon, hit any outdoor rides in the morning! That way if they close later you haven’t missed out.
• Have the Disneyland Paris app on your phone to check ride status – if you find a ride is temporarily down, you have a couple of options. You could lurk near the ride to see if it reopens soon – not a bad strategy but we wouldn’t recommend spending too much time doing this as you’ll waste time you could spend doing other fun things in the park! But keep checking the app, as it’ll show when the ride reopens. You can also ask Cast Members at the ride about how long the closure is expected to be but don’t be surprised if they don’t know, the ride cast members aren’t maintenance so they might genuinely not know how long an issue will take to sort out.
• Keep an eye on attraction opening hours – some attractions open later or close earlier than the park as a whole. Make sure you check the ride’s opening times to ensure you don’t miss out!
• Make sure you follow Disney’s rules for the attractions – you can’t plan for other guests being idiots sadly. But you can make sure you’re not among their number! Ensure that you and everyone in your group stays seated on rides, that hands and arms (and any other body parts) are kept inside the ride vehicle, and that hats, glasses and other loose items are removed to prevent them flying off. And keep a good grip on phones or other items you’re holding! (A wrist strap isn’t a bad idea).
• Have back up plans – a ride being down is a pain for sure. But one ride should not make or break a Disneyland Paris day – have back up options and be prepared to pivot. Some flexibility is required when dealing with the Disney parks! If a ride is down for a day (and you have more than one day in the parks) then prioritise it for your next day. And if you have must dos in your group, prioritise them first so hopefully you fit them in before a ride goes down.

Where’s Mickey?!

Ah, character meet and greets – the blessing and bane of any Disneyland Paris trip. Meeting characters can be a wonderful experience but it can also be stressful! Especially as a lot of folks seem to think they’ll be able to bump into characters wandering the park for a photo and autograph – sadly this is extremely unlikely as the characters get mobbed by people.

The Disney characters can be very popular and get long lines, and it’s not unusual to get to a meet and greet at the time stated in the app, and find that it queue is already full! It can also sometimes happen that a character does not appear at a stated time, although this is rare – usually it’s because the weather means it’s unsafe for the characters to come out (particularly very hot weather!). Sometimes the locations for character meet and greets can shift – either on a temporary basis (e.g. moved under shelter on very rainy days), or for a longer period (their usual location is under refurbishment). At the time of writing this is happening with the Mickey Mouse meet and greet location in Fantasyland. As a result guests can join a virtual queue to meet Mickey outside Phantom Manor in Frontierland, or stand in a typical queue in Studio D in the Studios Park.

And speaking of virtual queues, this is something else to navigate! A lot of the most popular character meet and greets are now by virtual queue. This means that you need to join a queue via the Disneyland Paris app. Queue slots are dropped at 9.45am and 2pm each day, and you need to be in the park to join the virtual queue. And you need to be quick – queue slots go in seconds! To get ready to join the queue, go to the Map icon in the Disneyland Paris app, select list and then swipe over to characters. Select the character whose queue you want to join. You should do all this before queue times drop. And then the second the clock clicks over to 9.45am or 2pm, hit join queue! Virtual queues are partly a matter of speed, and partly a matter of sheer dumb luck. We have heard that it’s better to use your own phone data as opposed to the park WIFI to get a quicker connection. The characters part of virtual queue are subject to change so keep an eye on the Disneyland Paris website or app so you know what to expect on your trip!

So how do you manage the problems with meeting characters? Here’s a few tips:

• Prioritise! – Meeting characters can be time consuming, so you might want to pick a couple to focus on. Or if characters are a big thing for your group, plan in that it’s likely going to take some time.
• Check the app – This sounds boring but character meeting times and locations can and do change, so don’t rely on what you looked up last week to be accurate! Always check the Disneyland Paris app so you know when they’re scheduled to appear, and where. (And if! Sometimes characters just don’t make appearances on certain days).
• Get to meeting spots before the meeting time listed in the app – When meeting a character with a typical standby queue don’t turn up during the meeting time listed on the Disneyland Paris app as you might find the line cut off already! Instead arrive before the meet and greet time to ensure you get in line.
• Ask a cast member – if you get to a meeting spot listed in the app at the right time for a character and no one shows up, typically there’ll be a cast member stationed there to say if it’s moved or been cancelled. Don’t be afraid to ask!
• Prioritise getting Priority Pass slots if you qualify – For those with the Priority Pass for the differently-abled, you are able to get return times to visit characters with a standard stand-by line. But these slots are limited and go quickly – head to the meet and greet location first thing to get on the list! Note that Priority Pass doesn’t work on the character meet and greets with virtual queues.
• Ensure all your party’s tickets are linked in the app, and are showing as in the park before joining the virtual queue – to qualify for a virtual queue all your group need to have tickets on the app and be shown as being scanned into the park. Sometimes in the morning entry chaos tickets can show as not being scanned in properly – so double check before virtual queue slots open up to save any delays.
• Research virtual queues – check just before your trip which characters are on virtual queues, and prioritise accordingly. You can only hold one virtual queue at any time so don’t expect to get in several each day, you’ll be lucky to get one or two!
• Check out the parades and shows – For some, just seeing and waving at the characters is enough. If that’s the case for your group make sure you see the parade, seasonal calvacades and stage shows like Mickey and the Magician – they’re opportunities to see a lot of characters in one hit.
• Book a character meal if you’re able – if someone in your group is desperate to meet characters, particularly the princesses, you can probably save a lot of stress by booking a character meal where you can meet a lot of characters at once.
• Never promise a certain character – although it’s more than likely you’ll be able to meet Mickey and Minnie on any given day, try not to promise anyone in your group that they’ll definitely get to meet a particular character, just in case you struggle to get a virtual queue or a character just isn’t available for your trip.
• Check out our previous blog on meeting characters for more tips and tricks!

I can’t find my favourite snack…

The food menus in Disneyland Paris offer a wide range of goodies to enjoy, and a lot of people have favourites. However, it’s not unusual to come back on another visit and find your previous favourite treat has gone AWOL!

Why? There’s a few reasons for this. One is that a lot of snacks are introduced seasonally, like for Halloween, Christmas or special seasons like the recent Music Festival. Once the event is over, the snack bows out! It may or may not return the following year – it’ll depend on whims of Disney I’m afraid. Another reason is that Disneyland Paris are often refreshing the menus on their restaurants and snack carts. This can be for many reasons – demand, availability of supplies, or just to keep things fresh or seasonal! And a reason that we’ve run into more than once, a lot of snack and quick service locations have funky opening hours! Some (like the Enchanted Arbour in Disneyland Park) seem to only open at peak times. At other times a place’s closure might be for refurb, or simply based on Disney’s expected crowds and staffing demands. And even if a place opens, it might have very short opening hours. So it might be your favourite food is technically available – you’re just not able to get it!

So how to cope with the food blues? Here’s some tips:

• Check menus of restaurants and snack stands on the day you plan to visit – Most restaurants and snack stands have menus on the Disneyland Paris website or app. While they don’t always keep these strictly up to date, it’s at least a good idea of what’s available where on the day you want to get it!
• Check opening hours – On the day you plan to visit a particular spot, look it up in the Disneyland Paris app. If it’s open that day it’ll have opening hours near the top of the page, make a note of them so you don’t miss out! If there’s no opening hours then it might be the spot just isn’t open that day I’m afraid. Particularly keep an eye on the opening hours for spots in Fantasyland – a large part of the land closes in advance of the evening fireworks, so it’s not unusual for the food spots to close early as a result.
• Check nearby – if you had a favourite snack at a spot and it’s not there any more, do a quick check on other snack places nearby. If it’s something popular Disney will often move the location. For example when Overland Trail Cafe got its recent Doritos makeover, the turkey leg that was served here moved to Last Chance Cafe nearby. There’s no guarantee this’ll happen, but it’s worth checking.
• Bring favourite snacks with you – if you’re relying on a particular snack for someone in your group and know they’ll struggle to eat anything else, consider bring some favourite snacks from home into the park with you as well. At least that way they can get over their disappointment by eating something yummy!
• Get must have snacks earlier in the day – If you want a particular snack don’t leave it too late to get it – as well as avoiding the restaurant potentially closing for the night you’ll also be able to grab it before it runs out.
• Have back up options – as with attractions, when it comes to food be prepared to pivot if need be, so have some back up options in mind just in case.

Where’s that bit of merchandise I wanted to buy?

Disney merchandise has become a staple of visiting any Disney park around the world. Some are so well known they’ve almost got a cult following at this point – Minnie Ears, Spirit Jerseys, Pins and Loungefly bags to name a few. But what happens when you can’t find a particular item of merchandise you’ve set your heart on?

Like with food items, pieces of merchandise can come and go in the parks. Some are released for special seasons. Some are unique to particular locations in the parks (like the rather viral crystal wands from the Merlin shop in the castle). Some stick around due to demand, others are phased out for newer items. Not every piece of merchandise will be offered in all Disney parks around the world. And with very popular items, they can and often do sell out!

Here’s some tips for working around this:

• Look at the Disneyland Paris shopping Instagram channel before you come – that will give you at least an idea of what items are currently available in the shops (although obviously it doesn’t showcase everything!)
• If you’ve seen photos of items of merchandise you like, check how old they are and where the picture was taken – it’s not unusual to see photos of pieces of merchandise floating around a long time after they were for sell! Plus people can see pieces of merchandise for the US or Asian Disney parks and assume they’ll be able to get it in Disneyland Paris too. But that’s not always the case!
• If you see something you really want in the shops, buy it – don’t wait until later or the end of your trip in case it sells out. If it’s worth over 50 euros and you’re staying in a Disney hotel you can get it sent to your resort gift shop to save carrying the item around all day.
• Make sure to check all the shops – while a lot of merchandise is duplicated between shops, not all of it is – so if you can’t find it in one shop, be sure to check others. (And there are plenty of shops available).
• Ask a cast member – if you’re in a merchandise location and can’t see the item you’re looking for, or they have it but not in your size, ask a cast member – they might be able to check if it’s in stock elsewhere.
• Check the Disney Store website – some parks’ merchandise makes it way to the Disney Store website, which means you can buy it online and get it sent straight home! You never know, you may even get it cheaper.

What do you mean I can’t go that way?!

Those of us who have been to Disneyland Paris a few times will have tried and true paths we use to get around, and even those that haven’t been before normally get set routes in their head they can follow. So it can become a bit of a shock if you find you can’t currently go where you planned because a route is closed!

Generally speaking there are two reasons for path closures in the resort. One is refurbishment – this has particularly been an issue recently in the Walt Disney Studios Park with all the work taking place there for Disney Adventure World. When refurbishments close areas generally speaking Disney are very good at getting up construction walls and signposting alternative routes, although not always. The other main reason is areas of the park closing for shows or parades, notably the nighttime spectacular Tales of Magic and the daily Stars on Parade in Disneyland Park. Where this is the case the paths will normally be blocked by cast members who will direct people where to go. Where this happens it’s because of safety and to ensure guest flow – cast members don’t want people walking in front of parade floats or in launch areas for fireworks, and they also need to keep people moving around the crowds trying to watch the shows.

Here’s a few tips for managing when your well trodden paths become suddenly inaccessible:

• Check parade and show times – even if you’re not planning on watching the parade or Tales of Magic, knowing what times they’re on can help you plan accordingly for where they are in the park
• If you want to see the parade or Tales of Magic, prioritise it – having areas of the park closed can make it awkward for you to get to preferred viewing spots for the parade or Tales of Magic, particularly if you’ve paid for the priority viewing areas and need to get to them. Simply put, if you’re planning to see the shows invest the time in to make sure you’re in position well before time! If you want ideas of where to go to watch Tales of Magic, see our previous blog. And this video shows how to access the priority pass viewing area for Tales of Magic.
• Listen to cast members – if an area of the park is blocked or a path closed, typically a cast member will be there to direct the flow of traffic. Listen to them! Don’t push past them. They’re trying to make sure everyone gets to where they need as quickly and as safely as possible, they’re not trying to make your life difficult. And if you’re unsure how to get somewhere, don’t be afraid to ask a cast member. Typically they’re more than happy to help!
• Look for signs – if construction walls are blocking a path, look for signs around it providing directions. Disney don’t always get it right with how clear the signs are but it should help you navigate the blockage! If you’re still not sure, again ask a cast member and they should be able to point you in the right direction.
• Be patient and plan extra time to get places – Rushing to a dinner reservation or similar at the last minute only to find your path blocked can be a frustrating experience for sure! As such we always recommend that you leave extra time to get where you need to go just in case the unexpected happens. And please be patient. It’s not the cast member’s or other guests’ fault that you’re running late, and closures aren’t there just to annoy you. Take a breath and suss out your alternative, and you should be on your way again in no time.

Why can’t I use all the amenities at my resort?!

The Disneyland Paris hotels offer a lot of amenities for guests (discover more in our hotel overview blog here!). So it can be frustrating if you’re looking forward to a certain amenity only to find it not available on your visit!

Like the theme parks, the hotels are open year round and as a result they’ll inevitably need to close parts of them periodically for work. The most common victim of this are the hotel pools, which need regular closures for maintenance (much more so than say the shops or restaurants). Finding something closed isn’t a lot of fun, but there’s ways you can prepare!

• Check the hotel page on the website before you book – a lot of amenity closures are announced on that hotel’s web page well in advance, so make sure you check this before you book to avoid inadvertantly hitting the closure of something that’s important for you.
• Open any emails that arrive from Disneyland Paris or your travel agent – where people have booked a hotel stay before the closure of the pool, say, was announced, typically Disney will contact those guests via email to let them know, and inform travel agents so they can contact guests too. Typically the emails will include an apology and details of what you can do instead (for pool closures for example guests can often use pools at other Disney hotels).
• Talk to Disney – if you discover that an amenity that you really wanted isn’t available for your stay, get in touch with Disney (or your travel agent). Note that you’re not likely to get a free stay or financial compensation for the inconvenience! But they can work with you to perhaps transfer you to a different resort if that’s appropriate and the resort has availability. There’s no harm in asking, but remember to be polite to who you’re talking too; I can promise you it’s not their fault the pool is closed!
• Check hotel amenities before booking – I’ve seen a few cases online of people getting upset they can’t use amenities simply because the resort they booked never had them in the first place, and they didn’t do their research to find out! A common mistake is assuming that Hotel Santa Fe and Hotel Cheyenne have pools (they don’t), that Hotel Santa Fe has air conditioning (it doesn’t!) and that Davy Crockett Ranch will have transportation to the parks (the expectation here is that guests will use their own cars). If you know exactly what your resort offers then you can’t be upset when you arrive!
• Don’t assume you’ll be able to use the amenities at other resorts unless Disney have specifically said so – Generally at resorts amenities are only for guests at that resort. So don’t expect to be able to rock up and use the gym, pool, or character meet and greets unless you’re staying there, unless Disney have specified that you can (so if your pool is closed and they’ve said you can use others for example).

I thought I had more time than that…

I’ve mentioned already attractions and restaurants can have more limited opening hours than the parks at times. But sometimes people are caught out by the park opening hours themselves!

The Disneyland Paris parks don’t keep the same opening and closing hours year round. The hours vary depending on the time of year and the expected crowd levels. It’s not unusual to have the parks closed at 7 or 8pm at off peak times in the winter, compared to far longer hours in the summer or around big holidays. Also, very occasionally the parks will close early for special events like private firm hires of the park, or cast member or annual pass holder parties.

I’m not going to bullet list this one because the solution is simple – check the park hours! And keep checking them too, they can change. Go in knowing how long you have, that way you can’t be disappointed!

So there we go – some of the biggest things that can derail your Disneyland Paris trip, and what we recommend to manage them. Anything you’d add? If you like our blog please subscribe to our blog below – you’ll get our blogs directly into your inbox, and a free copy of our overview of Disneyland Paris attraction accessibility (which is £3 otherwise). And please come visit us on our YouTube channel too! And finally if you’d like to support our work, do please consider leaving us a tip – it helps us keep this website and our videos going. Thank you!