Disneyland Paris Trip Report 2022

In this Disneyland Paris trip report, I will be sharing more about our experience visiting over the June half term. We went on a road trip to France, travelling again on the Eurotunnel Le Shuttle, and stayed at an Airbnb halfway between Disneyland Parc and Paris. This was our first time back since our previous Disneyland Paris summer visit, and a lot has changed since then! Find out how the trip went and what to expect visiting in our Disneyland Paris Trip Report 2022.

Disneyland Paris Trip Report

30th Anniversary Celebrations

Disneyland Paris has been celebrating their 30th anniversary, with special shows and experiences kicking off the festivities in early 2022. You can still see the fantastic parades, shows and experiences created specially for the Disneyland Paris 30th Anniversary until 30 September 2023.

Check timings for the fantastic daytime character parade, Dream and Shine Brighter, and the new nighttime drone light show, Disney D-Light. Keep an eye out for the stunning, unique Disney character sculptures in the Gardens of Wonder between Sleeping Beauty Castle and Main Street U.S.A.

Dream and Shine Brighter

Character parades came back with a bang at Disneyland Paris in 2022! As part of the 30th Anniversary celebrations, Disneyland Paris launched a new 15 minute show, Dream and Shine Brighter, which is on at least four times each day.

Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Daisy, Donald and more feature in colourful parade floats. The Dream and Shine Brighter parade starts start from Main Street U.S.A.

This Disney character parade and show was one of our favourite parts of this DLP visit! If you can’t make it to the big afternoon character parade, this is a great way to see many of the Disney characters.

Dream and Shine Brighter finishes with a lively performance in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle! The characters descend from the parade floats and join the amazing Dream and Shine Brighter dancers at Central Plaza.

Remember to check the schedule for the Dream and Shine Brighter character parades for the day you are visiting. You can do this on the Disneyland Paris app, by scrolling down to “Shows”. The times for Dream and Shine Brighter will show up on the list for Disneyland Park.

Check park ticket prices and latest offers at Disneyland Paris

The first parade is usually in the late morning, between 10:45am to 11:15am, and the last parade is typically in the late afternoon, between 3:55pm to 4:10pm. Dream and Shine Brighter is part of the Disneyland Paris 30th anniversary celebrations and you can watch this special parade and show until 30 September 2023!

The main Disneyland Paris character parade, Disney Stars on Parade, is on every day at 5pm and starts from a gate near the it’s a small world attraction in Fantasyland.

Sleeping Beauty Castle Gardens of Wonder

Another special addition for the Disneyland Paris 30th Anniversary celebrations are the unique sculptures in the Gardens of Wonder between Main Street U.S.A. and Sleeping Beauty Castle.

The gardens are decorated with innovative character displays, several twirling beautifully in front of the castle and offering different experiences during the day and at night.

Premier Access

FastPASS has been replaced with a paid for service, Disney Premier Access, to skip the queue at top park attractions. It is a great option to maximise your time at the parks, especially if you are only visiting for one or two days and during peak season.

There are now two options available to purchase: Premier Access Ultimate and Premier Access One.

Disney Premier Access Ultimate is a multi-attraction pass that allows you to ride each of the 14 listed attractions one time, whenever you want, on that day. Costs vary depending on the season, from €60 per person on low season days to €190 per person on peak season days (€120 for mid-season, €160 for high season).

Premier Access Ultimate is available to purchase on the day or in advance, via the Disneyland Paris app or website or through the Disney holiday experts, as long as you have park tickets linked to your account.

Disney Premier Access One is a one-attraction, ad-hoc pass that ranges in cost from from €5 to €15 per person per ride, depending on the season. You are allocated the next available time slot to join the fast lane.

Select rides at Disneyland Park with Disney Premier Access available include Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, Peter Pan’s Flight, Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, Autopia, Orbitron and Star Tours: The Adventure Continues.

At Walt Disney Studios Park, you can book Premier Access for Ratatouille: The Adventure, Spider-Man W.E.B. Adventure, Crush’s Coaster, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Avengers Assemble: Flight Force.

The most common way to purchase Disney Premier Access is via the Disneyland Paris app. Premier Access Ultimate can also be purchased in advance online or through the Disney holiday experts. Premier Access One can only be purchased on the day, once you have entered one of the parks, via the app or in person at the Disneyland Park Guest Services.

The Premier Access purchases are linked to your park tickets, and you will be issued QR codes to be scanned at the Premier Access station at the attraction.

We ended up paying for Disney Premier Access One to skip the queues at Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue and Crush’s Coaster. For our family of four, visiting over the June bank holiday weekend, this was a total cost of €192 (€48 per person).

Disneyland Park Attractions

In this part of the Disneyland Paris trip report 2022, I will go through which Disney attractions we went on during our two-day visit. On this trip, we stayed off-property this time, which I will go in more detail about later and we booked 2 Day – 2 Park tickets. The 2 park tickets allowed us to move between Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park during the day.

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On our first day, we arrived just in time to watch a Dream and Shine Brighter parade making its way down Main Street U.S.A., which was a great way to start our Disneyland Paris visit! After the show, we moved through the crowds to our first stop: Frontierland.

Phantom Manor

Our first Disneyland Park attraction on this trip was the iconic Frontierland attraction, Phantom Manor. The story behind this haunted mansion is that it was once home to one of Thunder Mesa’s founding families.

Phantom Manor is a dark ride that combines a walkthrough portion with Omnirover (Doom buggy) vehicles. It is a family-friendly ride, although young children might find certain moments unnerving, such as when the room plunges into darkness and screams can be heard from inside the mansion.

Our kids were 4.5 years old (Miss A) and 8 years old (Little T) on this Disneyland Paris trip and they both enjoyed the Phantom Manor ride. We found it more spooky fun than terrifying, but it is definitely not for children who get scared easily or don’t like the dark.

Big Thunder Mountain

As you might remember from the previous Disneyland Paris trip report, Big Thunder Mountain is our family’s favourite attraction at Disneyland Paris. We usually make it a point to go there first, but there was very long wait in the regular queue and at least an hour until the next available Disney Premier Access One slot. We made the booking and in the meantime, went to Phantom Manor.

When you book a Disney Premier Access One time slot, you get a one hour window to check in for that attraction, for example, between 12pm to 1pm. We found that Premier Access One slots went a lot faster on this trip, compared to the last time we visited, which was not long after Premier Access was first launched. I would recommend checking attraction wait times and Disney Premier Access availability once you have entered either Disneyland Park or Walt Disney Studios Park.

Big Thunder Mountain is a thrilling mine train roller coaster ride and always great fun! Definitely one of the best attractions at Disneyland Paris, and worth booking Disney Premier Access.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Next stop on our first day was Adventureland. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride is also a family favourite, as well as another one of the best Disneyland Paris attractions.

The animatronics and scenery are so well done in this ride and it is great fun! Bonus: Pirates of the Caribbean has fairly short wait times compared to many other attractions.

Sleeping Beauty Castle

After going on the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, we made our way through Fantasyland. The original plan was to go into Alice’s Curious Labyrinth, but the queue was very long that afternoon. We decided to try again the following day and instead carried on towards Discoveryland.

The late afternoon Dream and Shine Brighter show was on, at the other side of Sleeping Beauty Castle, which meant that the main path to Discoveryland (past the it’s a small world attraction) was temporarily blocked. We took a detour through Sleeping Beauty Castle while we waited for the paths to open up again.

At one point as we made our way around Disneyland Paris, we tested our strength pulling at the Sword in the Stone in the Sleeping Beauty Castle courtyard. You’ll find the Excalibur monument on the Fantasyland side of the castle, just in front of King Arthur Carousel.

Star Tours: The Adventure Continues

Star Tours: The Adventure Continues is a Star Wars-themed, 3D experience through the galaxy. It’s become one of Little T’s favourite Disneyland Paris attractions! Guests go on a Starspeeder 1000, piloted by C-3PO, and you do feel like you’re part of the action!

The Star Traders shop, which is just outside the Star Tours attraction, is full of Star Wars merchandise, some of which you can’t find elsewhere in Disneyland Paris or Disney Village.

There are build-it-yourself light sabers and droids, character costumes and helmets, homeware, Star Wars clothing and plenty more. The build-it-yourself Droid Factory is a great way to make your own small DLP souvenir. The droids cost about €11 each and are put in a blister pack when you pay.

Alice’s Curious Labyrinth

While we spent most of the second Disneyland Paris day at the Walt Disney Studios Park, we started the day at Disneyland Park for Alice’s Curious Labyrinth. This is a brilliant walkthrough and maze, unique to Disneyland Paris, and a must-see attraction during our visit.

Famous magical creatures of Wonderland are dotted around the maze, with fun surprises along the way.

The vibrant Queen of Heart’s Castle is in the middle of maze.

Climb to the top for wonderful views overlooking Fantasyland and Sleeping Beauty Castle.

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Walt Disney Studios Park Attractions

The rest of our second day at Disneyland Paris was spent at Walt Disney Studios Park. Our visit was before Avengers Campus opened in summer 2022. We look forward to seeing that new area of Walt Disney Studios Park and the new Marvel attractions, shows and restaurants the next time we visit!

The Front Lot at Walt Disney Studios Park was decorated with Disneyland Paris 30th Anniversary signage. When we visited, Disneyland Paris’s Food & Wine Festival, Le Rendez-Vous Gourmand, was on at Walt Disney Studio Park between June and October. More on the Le Rendez-Vous Gourmand later on in this post.

Animation Academy

The unique hands-on experience at Animation Academy is great for all ages and one I’d recommend trying during your visit. A talented animator, speaking in both French and English, teaches guests tricks and techniques to draw a simple Disney character.

Simply drop-in for a class, which run every 30 minutes. There are limited spaces, so you might have to wait a while until a place frees up. We arrived in the middle of a class and waited about 40 minutes altogether to join the next one.

Cars Race Rally

We went on Cars Quatre Roues Rallye for the first time on this visit. It is a Cars-themed, high action spinning ride, unique to Disneyland Paris and geared towards young children. It’s a lot of fun, a bit surprising as the car jerks around and spins erratically.

Ratatouille: The Adventure

One of the top attractions at Walt Disney Studios Park, Ratatouille: The Adventure typically has a long wait time. This was one of the attractions where we booked Disney Premier Access One to skip the queue. At the time, Premier Access for Ratatouille: The Adventure cost €12 per person.

Ratatouille is a fun ride and has become our favourite so far at Walt Disney Studios Park! It is a 4D trackless ride experience, with guests riding in a rat car being chased and scurrying about a kitchen.

Crush’s Coaster

Our last attraction for this visit to Disneyland Paris was Crush’s Coaster. On this roller coaster, guests ride in a spinning turtle shell. The ride starts off slowly, moving through memorable moments from Finding Nemo, then there is a sudden drop and lots of spinning around wildly through the darkness.

Crush’s Coaster is entirely unique to Disneyland Paris and one of the most popular attractions at the park. The queue is always very long! If this attraction is on your list, it is worth booking Disney Premier Access.

Disneyland Paris Restaurants

In this part of the Disneyland Paris Trip Report, I will share what we ate while at the parks. While on our last trip we stayed on property at the Disney Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel, this time we stayed off property in a pet-friendly Airbnb (more on that later in this trip report). For that reason, we only ended up having lunch at Disneyland Paris.

Cowboy Cookout BBQ

In the Disneyland Paris restaurants post, I go through the many options for buffet, table and quick service restaurants across the theme parks, Disney Village and Disney hotels. One of our favourite quick service restaurants at Disneyland Paris is Cowboy Cookout BBQ at Frontierland.

Cowboy Cookout BBQ serves barbeque chicken, sausage and rib plates in an expansive, Wild West barn themed setting. The food was good, but it took a very long time place our order at the counter, more than 30 minutes. Once our order was placed, it was fairly quick for our food to be ready to pick up.

Le Rendez-Vous Gourmand

On our second day, which we spent mostly at Walt Disney Studios Park, we decided to give it a try to have quick bites for lunch at the Disneyland Paris’s Food & Wine Festival, Le Rendez-Vous Gourmand. This food festival is typically on at Walt Disney Studio Park between June and October.

Chalets between the Production Courtyard and La Place de Rémy serve up lunch, quick eats and desserts from various European countries including Spain, Belgium, Greece and Italy.

Popular food items at Le Rendez-Vous Gourmand chalets include Belgian frites and waffles, Spanish paella and Greek gyros. There are also several chalets, at La Place de Rémy near the Ratatouille attraction, featuring local specialities from the regions of France.

It’s a fun way to try different foods and in some cases, save money compared to eating at the quick service restaurants. Be prepared, as always, for long queues at some of the popular stands!

Airbnb near Disneyland Paris

On previous trips to Disneyland Paris, we stayed on property, at Disney Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel and Disney Newport Bay Club. For this trip, we opted to stay at an Airbnb holiday rental, since we were travelling with our German Shepherd puppy, Rex. We found a lovely pet-friendly house in Lésigny, tucked away in the south-eastern Paris suburbs, about a 20 minute drive from Disneyland Paris.

The Airbnb rental was a spacious, four bedroom house, well-stocked with everything we could possibly need for our long weekend stay. It was conveniently located a few minute’s drive from a grocery store, but there weren’t any restaurants or shops within walking distance from the property.

We made the most of the spacious garden, outdoor dining area and BBQ grill, especially with the gorgeous weather we had during our visit in early June. The kids loved that the garden had a slide, swing and trampoline!

The Airbnb had two bedrooms with double beds and two bedrooms with single beds.

We appreciated the extra touches for families with young children, including a dressing rail with princess dresses. One of the bedrooms had a shelving unit full of toys and books. And it is always makes things easier having a well-stocked kitchen for making our own meals during our trip.

One of the pros of this Airbnb rental was its convenient location. The house was located halfway between Disneyland Paris and the Paris city centre. We spent two days at Disneyland Paris and a day trip to Paris, which was a 45 minute (with heavy traffic) drive away. Other pros were the enclosed outdoor space and that it felt like a home away from home.

Staying in accommodation off Disneyland Paris property was the best option for us travelling with our dog. While Disney Davy Crockett Ranch (15 minute drive from the parks) is dog-friendly, the cabins do not have enclosed outdoor spaces and there is no shuttle service.

The con of staying off-property was being 20 – 30 minute drive away. We missed the convenience of being a short walk or shuttle bus away from the Disneyland park entrance. We find that it really helps to split the day up, especially with young children, and go back to the hotel for breaks.

I hope you found this Disneyland Paris Trip Review helpful! Read on for more tips and inspiration to help plan your next visit to Disneyland Paris;

Guide to Disneyland Paris Attractions

Disneyland Paris Best Restaurants

Hotel Review: Disney’s Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel

Hotel Review: Disney’s Newport Bay Club

Disneyland Paris Trip Report 2021

Pin for Later – Disneyland Paris Trip Report 2022