We’ve returned from our 10 days in Paris, including an extended stay at Disneyland Paris. It was my first time at the resort, although Melissa had gone quite a few years ago while in school. I’m not going to list how many years ago because we are young at heart! Getting to my 9th and 10th Disney Parks was a dream come true and, naturally, I came back with some thoughts. In this post, I’ll share my initial impressions about Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios Park.

Obviously, we’ll have plenty more Disneyland Paris content coming soon. There are attraction rankings to write, itineraries to make, restaurants to review and so much more. Not to mention, I would like to talk about Paris itself. Before we get to all of that though, it seemed like starting with a few general thoughts would be a nice introduction into the resort. Jumping into a review of an average counter-service spot felt less festive. I don’t want anyone to think that Wandering in Disney isn’t festive!

So, why seven impressions? Is it because I used to wear that number in youth baseball? Is it because I couldn’t think of 8 or didn’t like the list sitting at 6? Is anyone actually asking these questions? I’m guessing probably not, and there’s no real reason for seven. They were the biggest takeaways I had without getting into hyper specific thoughts. These aren’t listed in any particular order, despite my love of ranking things. I did start with the two parks before tightening the scope. Enough with the prelude, let’s get to the meat of this post before I try to fit in some French saying that I think loosely connects this blog post but actually doesn’t.

Disneyland Paris is the Prettiest Castle Park

This is probably my biggest ‘hot take’ of the seven impressions but I’m not actually sure how hot it is. Disneyland Paris is undeniably beautiful. That starts even before entering the park’s gates, as guests walk down the steps toward the Disneyland Hotel. There are fountains and gardens posing in front of the Victorian grandeur. Once inside, Main Street frames the beautiful Sleeping Beauty Castle (Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant). That castle sitting atop the hillside, with articulately cut trees and a dragon beneath it is reason enough to claim the prettiest castle park moniker but the park’s beauty doesn’t end there.

Frontierland and Adventureland have a gorgeous design, with Big Thunder Mountain (which was sadly closed during our visit) sitting on an island. A little further into the map is Adventure Isle – a Tom Sawyer Island-esque area that sets up Pirates of the Caribbean. Even in the shrunken Fantasyland and Tomorrowland footprint, Disneyland Paris has sightlines and artistic design in mind. Frankly, sometimes that takes away from the efficiency of the park. But if the theme park experience is all a show, then Disneyland Paris is set on being the best looking one there.

Walt Disney Studios Park’s Abysmal Reputation is Correct, Especially Right Now

I won’t beat around the bush, Walt Disney Studios Park is terrible. When I eventually get around to updating the 2025 Park Rankings, this will finish in last place by a wide margin. Currently the park is in even more disarray than usual, with more construction walls than Epcot or Hollywood Studios ever put up. At the moment, Walt Disney Studios Park is little more than a street with Avengers Campus on one end and some Pixar stuff on the other. It’s ugly to walk through and the attractions are hit and miss, with an emphasis on miss.

This wasn’t unexpected to us. In fact, I was eager to see how much of a disaster this park was akin to not being able to take your eyes off of a crash. But after about a half day of roaming around that place, fitting in all of the attractions, I was frustrated by it. Thankfully, some help is on the way in the form of a Frozen Land. There’s other attractions in the works too. But a complete makeover is necessary. This isn’t DCA 1.0, at the moment it’s worse.

Iconic Takes on the Classics

Disneyland Paris will feel very similar, in terms of attraction rosters, to Magic Kingdom or Disneyland. The park doesn’t have the originality that Tokyo Disneyland does in that way. But where it differs is in some absolute bangers in attraction iterations. Pirates of the Caribbean is outstanding, the only version of the ride that can measure up to Disneyland’s original. Phantom Manor is a fascinating adaptation of the Haunted Mansion story. Hyperspace Mountain is far more thrilling than what we’re used to, complete with an outdoor launch. Heck, even WDSP gets in on the action with a few tweaks to Tower of Terror. I’m not saying any of these are better than the original versions but they are close and it’s fun to see respectful, well made changes.

Shows are Alive & Well

Stage shows are back, baby! Well, probably not in the American parks as they don’t seem to be emphasized very often anymore. But they are an absolute highlight of Disneyland Paris. That starts with the recent addition, The Lion King: Rhythms of the Pride Land. This is somewhere between the Broadway version of The Lion King and Animal Kingdom’s Festival of the Lion King. It’s among the best theme park stage shows we’ve ever seen. We were completely blown away by it to the point of making sure we went back to see Rhythms of the Pride Land a second time.

Other highlights included Together: A Pixar Musical Adventure at the Studios Park and the nighttime spectacular Disney Tales of Magic at DLP. The latter is a drone, fountain and fireworks delight while the former was another showcase in live entertainment talent. Seeing all of these made me miss having more stage shows in the American parks. They are a key to the Disneyland Paris experience.

The Food Needs Some Help

We had one fantastic meal at Disneyland Paris in Walt’s Restaurant. Two other meals were pretty good! We did okay overall. But the counter-service at the parks need a complete overhaul. For one, Walt Disney Studios Park only had two of these restaurants, which makes for a capacity nightmare. Disneyland Paris has more but they close at weird times and the food we had at a few places was not good. This is another case of the reputation being accurate but it’s so strange to me. Paris is one of the best food cities in the world and the parks wouldn’t have to do much to be at least average. The parks in Anaheim and Tokyo manage to pull that off, I’d like to see Disneyland Paris aim for the same.

Both Parks Aren’t Afraid of Getting Spooky

You know what I wasn’t expecting? The amount of skeletons we saw in attractions! I mean, Pirates of the Caribbean was always going to have them. But Phantom Manor has an extended graveyard scene. Snow White (Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains) had a surprising amount of skeletons for a Fantasyland ride. Thunder Mesa, which is the de facto Frontierland, is a literal and metaphorical ghost town. And I haven’t even mentioned the terrifying girl character in Tower of Terror! Suffice to say, Disneyland Paris isn’t afraid to make things a little spookier.

There’s Great Infrastructure That Needs to be Utilized

My other big area of surprise was just how well Disneyland Paris is setup to be a massive vacation destination. The resort has more hotels than Disneyland Resort, and they’re beautifully built out. There’s a train right to the resort for those not staying on-site. Bus stations are plentiful and there’s plenty of room for everything to be supersized. But the area that’s not ready for this place to become the next vacation kingdom is the parks. They need to be built out a little more and utilized better. Disneyland Paris is almost there, just in need of another hit ride or two. We’ve already covered this, but Walt Disney Studios Park has a long ways to go. What’s clear is that the resort has extreme potential! Seeing if Disney is able to fulfill that potential in the next decade will be really interesting.

What do you think of Disneyland Paris? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below. We’re excited to bring you more content on the resort in the coming weeks and months! Planning a Disney trip? Check out our Travel Guides to help you along the way! Thank you for reading Wandering in Disney.  Please subscribe to the blog and like our social media pages, all of which you can do on the right side of the page. Have a wonderful day!