I had the opportunity to visit Disneyland Paris when I was in Paris, France this year. I went there in the beginning of October and they decorated the whole park with Halloween decoration. It was one of the thing on my bucket list to visit Disneyland during Halloween month and I was glad that I was able to do it.

Here are 10 tips that you need to know for your Disneyland Paris trip:

Disneyland Paris is not in Paris.
It’s located at a town called Chessy, France. It’s about 32 km/20 miles from Paris, France. I think some people
don’t know this tiny bit fact and they are surprised when they get to Paris and have to travel outside
of Paris to go to Disneyland.

Train is the best way to get to Disneyland from Paris.
Getting to Disneyland from Paris is pretty easy. You just need to take the RER (Regional Express Network) train from Paris specifically Line A. This train’s last stop is Marne-la-Vallee station which is Disneyland’s stop.

Please note that you can’t use the regular Paris’ metro train ticket. You will need to purchase the RER ticket you can get it from the machine or the ticket counter at Paris metro station. I made a mistake of using the regular Paris’ metro ticket. The ticket opened the gate access to the metro in Paris, but it wouldn’t open the gate access in Marne-la-Vallee station.

Luckily, there was a nice person that works at that station who let me out. He told me that I was lucky, the fare inspector didn’t check tickets on the train because if they did, I would received 75 euro fine because I didn’t have the correct ticket. The RER train ticket is about 7 euro for each way so make sure you get the correct ticket.

Make sure you have your Covid-19 vaccination record with you
In Europe, they have the Green pass which will let you in to places because it will show that you are vaccinated. When you visit France from USA, you can apply for the French Health Pass. However, it will take them forever to approve the health pass. I applied 4 weeks before my trip and they approved it when I was in Paris on my last day. Luckily, everywhere in Paris and including Disneyland accept my CDC vaccination card. I just showed them my card and I got in just fine, so don’t forget to bring your vaccination cards.

Bring your drinks & snacks!
Disneyland Paris is just like other Disneyland resorts where food, drinks, and snacks are pretty expensive. I brought my bottle water and snack bars with me. They were lifesavers because I didn’t have to spend so much money for snacks and drinks. I bought lunch there which was a mediocre hot dog and coke for 10 euro. Unfortunately, food in Disneyland Paris are not as exciting as at other Disneyland resorts. They have all the American junk food such as hot dogs, burgers, pizzas, kettle corn, etc, but nothing really special.

Download the Disneyland Paris app
I highly recommend this app. It’s not perfect in any way but it’s so useful. You can see the wait time for each rides for both parks. There’s also a map. You can also see the wait time for selfie stations and location of selfie stations. It’s a very useful app.

Get ready to wait in long lines for Selfie stations
Disney is trying to adapt to life after Pandemic as best as they can. They created “selfie stations”. Specific Disney characters will be at specific locations and you can take selfies with them using your cellphones. There are also Disney photographers at some of the spots where popular characters (Disney villains, Disney princesses, Stitch, Mickey, Minnie, etc) are doing the selfie stations. You can purchase pictures that they take but they are too expensive for me. It’s 19 euro for one picture. I was happy with my selfies that I took with my cellphones.

I’ve waited about one hour ish for the Disney Villain’s selfie stations. They rotated the villains while I was waiting and they performed a small entrance number. It was entertaining but that one hour wait was long. I also was able to take pictures with Stitch (my favorite Disney character ever!) and the line for that was about half an hour long.

Disneyland Paris is not as big as other Disneyland parks
I saw the question about how many days are needed to spend time at Disneyland Paris and in my opinion, one day is enough to explore both parks. Walt Disney Studio Park is a small park and I only spent about 3 hours there (one hour of that was waiting in line for the Disney Villain’s selfie station). The Disneyland Park is not that big either. Everything is more compact to other Disneyland parks and also rides there seem shorter than at other parks. Also because of pandemic, currently they don’t have as much as visitors compared to before pandemic.

If you are just in Paris for 5 days or a week and want to visit Disneyland but only have one day, I suggest for you to just do it. One day is enough to enjoy Disneyland.

Dress appropriately for the weather
I was there in the beginning of October and it was pretty chilly. I wore my long sleeves shirt, a sweater, and my light rain jacket with my jeans. I was glad I did that because we had some short rain while I was there. My understanding is, rain is pretty common in Paris for all of the seasons except Summer so make sure you have a light rain jacket, hat, poncho or umbrellas. I don’t like to carry many things with me so light rain jacket and a hat were enough for me.

Make your reservation for Bistrot Chez Remy ASAP
This was the only thing that I didn’t get to do during my visit at Disneyland Paris, I didn’t get to eat the Bistrot Chez Remy restaurant. I didn’t know that I needed to make the reservation two months before my visit because they are so popular. If you are planning to visit Disneyland Paris and want to eat at the Bistro Chez Remy, you really need to make your reservation ASAP and hopefully you will get to eat there!

Catch the mini parades
During my visit in October 2021, there were no big parades because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, they have mini parades. One of them was the princesses parade (they were on a big float dancing and singing) & the other one was the dragon parade which was pretty cool because the dragon was spewing fire from its mouth. Seems like they have these parades in rotation for every couple of hours. If you loved parades at Disneyland parks, you totally can’t miss these parades.

I hope you find these tips are useful for your future trips to Disneyland Paris and even though I am in my 40s, I still love that Disney magic. I think you will love it too.