I’ve hinted at this on the website in a few posts but the anticipation is growing, everything has been booked and now it’s time to dedicate a full post to the subject – we’re going to Disneyland Paris! This has been in the works for a while, as the city of Paris has been at the top of my list to visit and visiting new Disney Resorts is also top of mind for this site. In this post, I’ll write about our upcoming trip and detail some of the differences in planning for Disneyland Paris relative to the US parks.

An easy place to start is the draw of the trip. We go to Florida for Disney World. Anaheim is Disneyland. But Paris is Paris, and visiting new theme parks is important to us but takes a backseat. It’s a comfortable backseat, we aren’t throwing it in the very back of a 7 person SUV. Heck, there’s even seat warmers and cupholders back there. The city itself is riding shotgun though.

I’ve romanticized the City of Light for a long time now. Epcot’s Impressions de France certainly played a role in that, as did the atmosphere (and a few meals) at Chefs de France. Between the art, museums, history and dining scene there isn’t a shortage of things I’m excited about. Enjoying The Louvre and Notre Dame is important to us but so is leaving plenty of time to walk along the Seine and duck into cafes on a whim. I’m just as interested in sitting beside the Eiffel Tower with some coffee for an hour as I am to go up inside of it. I don’t think these leisurely feelings are unique to me but they are Parisian, or at the very least European.

Comparing my planning for this trip to the first time we went to Japan couldn’t be further apart. Full day itineraries were built for Kyoto and Tokyo where this trip is more focused on getting tickets to a few places ahead of time and then going with the flow. I’m sure when we arrive in a week, I’ll start planning out the days more intricately. But I want to keep some of it open. I think that has to do with where we’re going. Also, there’s a chance I’m just tired. January was a long month.

As for Disneyland Paris, those details have been planned out a little more. We’re staying at Sequoia Lodge on a 2 night, 3 park day package. Booking any of the resort hotels is surprisingly difficult unless you’re booking a package. We were hoping to book an extra night at one of the other Disney hotels for the sake of reviews but they are at least double the price when booking them without also purchasing tickets. That’s if they’re available in the first place. I thought that was a little bit confounding but they must be selling out enough hotel rooms going that route?

Knowing we would want an early start on our first day with theme park tickets, we’ve also booked a hotel the night before at a hotel in Val d’Europe. That should make the first morning quick, efficient and much cheaper than one of the aforementioned Disney hotels. I’m eager to try out both spots and will eventually review them on the site.

We’re in France for 10 days and opted for our 3 days in Disneyland Paris toward the back half of the trip. Crowd levels looked better in that timeframe and we wanted to go to the parks during the week. I’ve been able to reserve a couple of restaurants inside Parc Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios Park. Like Paris, I’m trying not to overload our days there because we will be running around trying to fit in every single attraction. As usual, Disney Tourist Blog and Touring Plans have excellent planning tips.

These loose plans have left us excited and curious. I’ve never been to Europe and am excited to amend that. Melissa has been to Paris, and Disneyland Paris, about 17 years ago but doesn’t remember much from the trip. We’ve spent so much time dreaming about going here that it feels surreal to have the trip be a week away. We planned this all in the last few months.

Speaking of, this is a reminder that travel doesn’t always have to cost as much as you think it will. We booked our round trip airfare from LAX to Paris using Delta flight miles. Our hotel in the city for 5 nights looks great but is only around $700 total. Other nights were booked with other credit card points. Before we factor in food (which we do plan to splurge on in several spots), the trip will be just under $2,000. I’ll throw out the caveat that we do get to be more flexible than most and it’s just the two of us, but that’s really cheap for 10 days in Paris that includes 3 days in theme parks!

I don’t say that to brag or anything but more as an encouragement to go see the world. I record a travel podcast (that’s not Disney focused) called Trip it to Me with my best friend, Shelby. On about half of the episodes we plan itineraries for places we want to go in the world but haven’t been. Our very first episode that we recorded 3 years ago, I talked about Paris. Realizing that so much time had passed without me getting there definitely spurred our trip on. Once I realized how attainable getting to Paris was, a dream was a reality pretty quickly. As we’re a week away, we look forward to telling and showing you all about that reality on this website. Like always, thank you for following along. It means so much to us!

What would you like to hear about from our trip to Paris? Let us know in the comments! Planning a trip to a Disney Park? Check out all of our Planning Guides to help you along the way. This site has discount tickets to help you along the way. If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!