You might think that if you’ve sorted out your park tickets, your hotel and your travel, you pretty much set for your Disneyland Paris trip. Right? Well… maybe not. There’s some things we think you should also have for when you arrive in Disneyland Paris, to help your trip go as smoothly as possible. And we’re sharing them here so you can head into your Disney Paris holiday fully prepared!

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The Disneyland Paris app on your phone

I know that no one wants to spend a holiday staring at their phone. But to make the most of your Disneyland Paris day, then having the Disneyland Paris app could really help you out!

The Disneyland Paris app can hold all the information for your trip – including hotel and booking reservations, your park tickets and more. But its functions go well beyond that! Here’s other things it can help with:

• Up to date wait times for rides
• Meeting times and locations for characters
• Booking virtual queue spots for characters
• Maps of the parks to help you find where you’re going, and essential services like toilets!
• Mobile order in the quick service restaurants that offer the service
• Making, changing and / or cancelling table service dining reservations
• Show times for the theatre shows, parades and night time spectaculars
• Opening hours for attractions, restaurants and shops (note that many don’t open for all of the park opening hours!)
• Updates on attraction temporary closures
• Buying Premier Access for the rides and priority viewing spots for the shows
• And more!

So as you can see, the Disneyland Paris app is a handy tool. And in some cases it’s an essential tool – virtual queues for the character meet and greets are all managed through the app (I think in theory you could ask at Guest Services for help but it’s certainly the most inefficient ways of going about things!)

We’re not suggesting that you spend all day looking at your phone – but there’s no doubt that the app is an extremely useful tool. We’d recommend that at least one member of your travel group has it on their phone, if not multiple people (in case of tech blips on the one phone – it can happen!). And we’d recommend downloading it before you arrive too – not only does this mean you can see details about your booking and make things like dining reservations in advance if you want to, it also means you can get used to how the app works, and that you’re not relying on the Disneyland Paris WiFi or your own mobile data to download it once you arrive! (And if you’re from outside of France, the mobile data involved could be very expensive!). If you look in the App Store you’ll see quite a few different apps called Disneyland. Disney differentiate between them by the picture of the castle, but just in case here’s what the Disneyland Paris app icon looks like:

If you download it before you go and play around with it a bit, then you’ll be able to hit the ground running once you’re in the parks!

Mobile power bank

Even if you don’t use the Disneyland Paris app that much on your Disney Paris trip, chances are you might be using your phone for other things like keeping in touch with your group, taking photos and videos, entertainment in ride lines, and more! And that can all take a toll on your mobile battery… You wouldn’t be alone in finding your battery has drained during the park day.

Disneyland Paris have anticipated this, and do have phone battery packs that you can rent in the parks. But we think it’s probably more efficient (and certainly cheaper!) to take your own! One we recommend is the Anker Power Bank – this is a smaller and lightweight battery pack but it can charge up a phone that’s low on battery very well! If you get a battery pack like this though remember to pack a cable. We travel with a multi-way cable – this means that we can use it to charge our phones and other devices too. If you have a lot of devices in your group that are going to have a lot of use, you might want a larger power bank like this one from Anker. It’s a bit heavier but it can charge a lot of devices without running low on power itself!

Finally, if you’d rather not worry about wires and your phone offers wireless charging, then a wireless power bank could be helpful. Ken really likes this one from U-Green and uses it a lot when we’re in the parks!

A mobile power bank gives you the peace of mind that if you phone runs out of battery during your Disneyland Paris park day you won’t be left stuck in the parks!

Dining reservations – especially if you’re on the meal plan

If you have no intention of eating a sit down meal or buffet at a restaurant at Disneyland Paris, you can probably skip this point. But if you’d like to sample any of Disneyland Paris’ many table service restaurants then this is for you!

Disneyland Paris offer an array of table service restaurants – from buffets, to highly themed experiences, to more towards fine dining. While some restaurants are more popular than others, all of them can get fully booked at busy times in Disneyland Paris. Some of them will get fully booked even at quiet times in the parks, like Downtown Restaurant in Disney’s Hotel New York, the Art of Marvel. And the reason for that is that some restaurants have limited capacity, and that Disneyland Paris hotel guests can make their restaurant reservations when they book their trip, typically up to a year in advance. Yep, a whole year! Which means even booking six months out, you might still struggle to get into some spots. So if you’d like a table service restaurant book them as soon as you possibly can. Aside from Downtown, the most popular spots are the character dining restaurants so it’s good to lock down bookings for them as soon as possible.

This is particularly important if you’re travelling to Disneyland Paris using one of their meal plans, which is something offered to guests at Disney’s owned hotels to pre-pay for some (or all!) their meals in advance – we did a recent blog on the new meal plans if you’d like to check that out! Meal plans are based around you eating at table service restaurants for lunch and / or dinner. But having a Meal Plan does not guarantee you any dining reservations or access to restaurants – it’s up to you to sort that out, and if you don’t make them and therefore can’t use your Meal Plan to its full potential then, in Disney’s view, that’s on you!

Not making dining reservations in advance doesn’t mean you’ll be completely stuck. Often the Hotel restaurants (with the exceptions of Downtown and the restaurants in the Disneyland Hotel) can be booked with relatively short notice, and if you’re staying at one of those hotels speak to your hotel concierge about making bookings – sometimes they may be able to fit you in even if restaurant reservations are showing as fully booked online. (But there’s no guarantee). Also, at some of the in park restaurants you may be able to get relatively last minute bookings if you’re happy to eat at an off-peak meal time (so say mid afternoon from 2.30 to around 4.30). And most of the restaurants in Disney Village don’t take bookings anyway so walking up here you’re in the same boat as everyone else – just note that many of them also don’t take the Meal Plan, so if you’re using one make sure you know where your plan is accepted in advance!

Of course quick service meals are also going to be available – no bookings are available or needed here (although with the long queues they can get at times you might wish that they were!). So you won’t starve for sure – but if you really want that sit-down meal experience, get those bookings in as soon as possible!

Good, supportive and broken in shoes

One thing that comes with Disneyland Paris for most people is a LOT of walking and a LOT of standing. Days of 20,000 steps plus are not unusual here, and that’s a lot more steps than most of us do in our day to day lives. Your feet and legs are going to get tired and achy. But they’re more likely to get achy (or downright painful) if you don’t have the right footwear!

This is not the time to worry about trendy shoes, or pretty shoes. What you should be wearing is shoes that are comfortable, supportive and well broken in. Trainers (Sneakers to our American friends), tennis shoes and similar tend to be the ones that most people find are comfortable. If you are getting new trainers for your trip that’s great, but make sure you wear them at home and break them in first! Otherwise your probably heading straight for a blister or two, even if ultimately the shoes end up being super comfortable – it takes a while for your feet to adapt to new shoes, and forcing them to adapt over 20,000 steps is not the way to go!

People’s feet are so individual I can’t really recommend one perfect shoe for everyone. I have found the Hoka Clifton 9 trainers very good for the parks coupled with some specialist in-soles, but I recognise they’re on the expensive side and might not be for everyone. What’s most important is making sure you get something that works for you. And make sure you give the shoes a trial run on a longer day before you get to Disneyland Paris – just in case you discover those shoes that are great for a short walk round your town aren’t so great once the step counts start hitting the 10K mark!

On the note of feet, regardless of your shoes, we also recommend taking some blister plasters with you – just in case that all that walking still ends up with a blister even with great shoes! A painful blister can make a park day miserable, so a blister plaster means that you should be able to keep going and not let it derail your Disneyland Paris trip!

Rain gear

Disneyland Paris is in Northern Europe, which means its weather patterns are not dissimilar to those that are here in the UK. Which means really the only predictable thing about it is that it’s unpredictable! Even in the height of summer, Disneyland Paris is no stranger to rain, so having some sort of rain gear on hand can be a great help to make sure no one in your group ends up too wet and miserable!

The type of rain gear you take might depend on the time of year you’re travelling. If you’re heading to Disneyland Paris in the winter, then your winter coat might also be waterproof – result! If your winter coat isn’t waterproof though, or you’re travelling at time of year when a full coat might be too hot, then having something you can throw over the top can be helpful – whether that be a rain coat, or what a lot of people like to pack – ponchos! Disneyland Paris do sell ponchos, but they’re a bit expensive for what you get. For a better quality reusable poncho you might want to try this one from Frogg Toggs – it’s on the more expensive side but people praise it a lot for its durability! If it’s something though that you can’t see yourself using again then maybe something like these disposable ponchos might be better. Personally I prefer a rain coat to a poncho, and something like this pack down coat can be a good option.

You might prefer to use an umbrella. Again Disneyland Paris sell these but you’re paying a premium for them! Umbrellas can be really helpful if you’re travelling at warmer times of year and don’t want to feel like you’re getting slowly cooked in a rain jacket or poncho – or if you just don’t want to feel the rain on your head! Something smaller you can pack down and maybe pop in a park bag might be better, and if you’re travelling in the summer you might also want an umbrella to help keep the sun from beating down! That’s why we like something like this umbrella – it’s windproof, strong, compact and can keep off UV rays as well as rain!

It might be that your trip to Disneyland Paris will not see any rain – it’s possible, especially in the summer (although if this year is anything to go by you might get a heatwave instead!). But even in the summer storms and showers can pop up, and we recommend having something on hand so you’re ready for whatever the Paris weather throws at you – be it rain or shine!

At least an outline plan for your Disneyland Paris park days!

You could just ‘wing’ a trip to Disneyland Paris – turn up with park ticket in hand and see where the day takes you. And if you’re a repeat or frequent visitor this might work. But for most guests they’re looking to experience as much as possible in the parks and Disney Village – and heading in without a plan could mean missing out on some of the best experiences, or things that you really wanted to do.

I’m not suggesting you have a minute by minute plan of your Disneyland Paris days. Some people try that type of planning and find that the plan soon becomes derailed by one of many factors – unexpected ride closures, longer queues than planned, shifts in show schedules, people in your group being distracted by other things, and more. So I don’t think you should over plan either. But what I think you should be going in to Disneyland Paris with at least an ideas of your group’s top priorities. What attractions matter the most? Any must do places to eat? (If any are table service restaurants I refer you back to my meal bookings point above.) Are you going to fit in any shows? I’d recommend heading into your Disneyland Paris trip with at least the following:

• Number of days you plan to be in the parks (and pre-bought tickets for them – you can book them on the Disneyland Paris website!)
• How you plan to get to and from Disneyland Paris from your accommodation
• What days you plan to spend in each of the two theme parks (especially if you don’t have a ticket that allows you to hop between the parks on the same day)
• The top attraction priorities for each member of your group – depending on the size I’d recommend 3-5 for each person in your group. Once you know these then roughly allocate them equally across the multiple days of your trip so you know to focus on getting those must-dos done first. Anything else after that is a bonus.
• Where you’d like to eat (and having bookings in place where needed)
• If you’re planning to see any shows, and what days you’d like to do them (that includes things like the parade, seasonal calvacades and the nighttime spectaculars).
• If you’re planning to do full park days, or have days where you take breaks, lie in or leave early for some rest! (You might find yourself forced into breaks if you don’t plan them just by the tiredness level in your group!)
• If you have anyone in your group with special requirements – for example little ones with a sleep schedule, folks who may not be tall enough for certain rides, or disabilities in your group you need to accommodate (how this is done depends on the disability of course!). Knowing in advance means that no-one is going to be disappointed if there are attractions they can’t go on, or if some people need more rest than others. (I’m one of those people and we factor it in!)

To do this then a bit of pre-planning is really needed. Where’s the best places to go for information? Well (bit of a humble brag here!) we think you’ve found one of the best places already by reading our blog! Magically Different Mouse exists to help folks with their Disneyland Paris planning, and you’ll find a wealth of information on here to help you plan your trip. We’d also recommend you visit us over on our YouTube channel, particularly if you prefer visual content over written, as we share a lot of great information on there too! (And it might help with the visualisation of some of the attractions, food etc). Other than that, the Disneyland Paris website is also a really good source of information, as is the app (remember my first point above?!). Have a look, read up on attractions and dining, and create your semblance of a plan. Yes you’ll almost certainly need to tweak it as you go along – the unexpected can and does happen! But at least you’ll have some structure to your trip, and know that you should be able to accomplish your group’s must dos.

Hopefully this will help you feel more prepared for your Disneyland Paris trip! I haven’t gone into detail of everything might want to pack for your trip, but if you do a search here on our blog you’ll find a number of posts recommending what else you might want to bring. I’d also recommend you check out our Amazon storefront too for our product recommendations curated into ideas lists. You’ll also find a lot of information here on our website on things like making your Disneyland Paris booking, information on the hotels, packages and more. If you’d like to ensure you don’t miss future blogs do please subscribe below – you’ll get our future blogs sent straight to your email, and you’ll get a free copy of our Magically Different Guide to Disneyland Paris Attraction Accessibility (otherwise £3). It’s perfect if you or anyone in your group has medical conditions, sensory differences or otherwise to plan for! And if you’d like to support our work, do please consider leaving us a tip. Thank you!