How We Did the BEST 2 Days at Disneyland Paris in the Half-Term Holidays

I am bursting to tell you about the most epic trip my son and I just had – the BEST 2 days at Disneyland Paris in the February half-term holidays. It included an easy Eurostar journey, a cosy stay at the Moxy hotel (right near the parks), and a rollercoaster of Disney excitement from start to finish. And, oh my gosh – the rides! I let my 13-year-old pick all his favourite things, so there were plenty of thrills, chocolatey snacks and loveable characters in both parks. In this post, I will spill the beans on every ride, restaurant and magical moment we enjoyed on our 2-days at Disneyland Paris. And, hopefully, our short (but exciting!) itinerary will inspire you for your next trip.

TRIP REPORT: DAY 1

This is a 2-day (one night) trip report for Disneyland Paris, taking in the highlights of Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios. Let’s chat about rides, restaurants, character meals, snacks and entertainment. Plus, my top tips for first-timers!

I. Our Eurostar Adventure

We live in London, so bright and early we took the tube directly to St Pancras station for the 7:01 am Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord. My son and I were super excited to be on our way to Disneyland Paris!

➡️ READ NEXT Best Eurostar Tips for first-timers going to Disneyland Paris

Check-in for the Eurostar was simple, and after that, we had plenty of time to grab a couple of croissants from Pret a Manger.

They started loading us onto the train about a half hour before departure, so before long, we were on our way. However, that turned out to be a little later than expected, due to a rogue suitcase that staff had to deal with.

🚄 On the Train  

Taking the Eurostar is such a relaxing way to travel to Disneyland Paris. As the sole driver in my family, it makes a nice change to leave the driving to someone else!

I had packed us a simple breakfast of pancakes and fruit, so we had that to share. My son is 13, so it always pays to bring food along!

For entertainment, we watched a Wes Anderson film downloaded on my phone (Darjeeling Limited – it’s excellent!) and shared a set of air pods to listen with together.

My son loves doing art, so he also painted Spider-Man with this travel watercolour set, while I sketched out a plan for the parks.

II. From the Eurostar to Our Hotel – Navigating the RER Train

Our Eurostar train arrived in Paris Gare du Nord, and then we headed downstairs to catch the RER (Metro) train towards our Hotel, The Moxy, in Val d’Europe.

Val d’Europe is just one stop before Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy, so it’s a great location for budget hotels.

Our plan was to leave our suitcase at the Moxy Hotel first, before heading to Disneyland. (We were staying in the park until after the fireworks ended around 10:30 pm, and I didn’t want to fuss with check-in late at night.)

I used the RER ticket machine to buy our tickets to Val d’Europe, which cost €5 per person.

It’s a relatively easy journey, and I have a post here on exactly how to do the RER train to Disneyland Paris.

✏️ PRO TIP The Eurostar onboard cafe sells RER tickets, but you can’t use these for Gare du Nord to Disneyland Paris. They are for short journeys such as from Val d’Europe to Disneyland Paris.

III. Check-in and First Impressions of the Moxy Hotel Val d’Europe

From Val d’Europe station, it is less than 5 minutes to walk to the Moxy Hotel Val d’Europe.

When we arrived, we were surprised at how lovely everything was! The modern lobby is a big open space with colourful and fun decorations.

The staff member who checked us in was friendly and welcoming, and we were lucky to get a room assigned to us early. We even had a free welcome drink!

We took our case to our room and rested for a bit, before heading back to the train station. The next train from Val d’Europe was in about 15 minutes, and then we went one stop (3 minutes) to Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy where Disneyland Paris is located.

IV. Lunch at Starbucks

It was now about 2:15 pm, and we were starving! So, my son and I decided to have a bite at Starbucks, rather than waiting until inside the parks when we would be too excited to stop and eat right away.

The Starbucks is conveniently located inside the station at Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy. I highly recommend the 5-cheese melted sandwich – it’s absolutely delicious!

Plus, Starbucks has all the usual coffees, muffins and pastries which you can take into the park if you want to. 

After that, we popped into the Monop’Daily next door to pick up some drinks (we needed the caffeine!). They are a bit cheaper here than in the park.

V. Experiencing Walt Disney Studios

Properly refuelled, we headed to security for a quick x-ray of our bags, and then to Walt Disney Studios.

If you are on a 2-day trip to Disneyland Paris like us, I recommend starting in Walt Disney Studios. Especially if you are not arriving until the late afternoon. This park quiets down later in the day, and there are far fewer attractions to complete than in the main park. So, it is easier to cross those off your list first.

✏️ QUICK TIP ABOUT CLOTHING

While we expected the February weather in Paris to be a bit grey, it was also surprisingly mild! We were perfectly comfortable in our jeans and jumpers with a light raincoat. 📌 If you want more ideas on clothing, check out my post: What to wear in every season at Disneyland Paris.

🎢 Attractions in Walt Disney Studios

Once in Walt Disney Studios, we filled our water bottles at the drinking fountains at the end (and on the left) inside Disney Studio 1.

✏️ PRO TIP Most fountains are turned off in winter, but you can always get water from inside Disney Studio 1 in Walt Disney Studios (even during construction; the door to the fountains and toilets is accessible). In the main park, try the fountains inside the Liberty Arcade on the right.  

And now, we were free to hit the attractions! This is everything we did in Walt Disney Studios and the approximate wait times:

🏰 HOW DISNEYLAND PARIS COMPARES TO WALT DISNEY WORLD

As you can see, the signposted wait times almost always underestimate the actual wait times. We noticed the opposite to be true in Walt Disney World Florida, where signposted times are almost always longer than the actual wait time. The popular belief is that in Florida, the strategy is to lower guest expectations so they are pleasantly surprised by actual (lower) wait times. Paris doesn’t share this view. 📌 Want to know more differences? Check out Disney USA vs Disneyland Paris.

👦🏻 My 13-Year-Old’s Thoughts on the Rides

• Ratatouille is really fun! Especially for a 5-minute wait.
• Toy Soldiers Parachutes is not as scary as it looks looking up from the ground. We also got a sneak peek at the construction for the new Frozen Land (Spoiler alert: Not much progress!)
• Avengers Flight Force – LOVE this coaster. (If time had allowed, we would have gone again!)
• W.E.B. Adventure is quite good, but not worth a longer queue.
• Tower of Terror is a must-do (Be aware ToT is a little spooky for younger kids, and the drops are high on the thrill level, too.)
• The queue for Crush’s Coaster is EXTRA boring but the ride is amazing. (Next time, I would pay for a Disney Premier Access One pass for Crush.)

⁉️ What About the Shows?

We had a fantastic time at Walt Disney Studios overall. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to stop to watch any of the shows; my son wanted to do the thrill rides, so we prioritised those for him.

But if you are arriving earlier in the day, I highly recommend watching ‘Mickey and the Magician’ to get the full experience of this wonderful park. ➡️ To find out more, check out 9 FREE Shows at Disneyland Paris.

VI. Dinner at Downtown

Crush’s Coaster took a bit longer than signposted, so be aware of that. In the queue, I was getting stressed that we might be late for our dining reservation, but in the end, we made it on time.

Impressions of Disney’s Hotel New York: Art of Marvel

The Disney Hotel New York lobby is stunning, with larger-than-life Marvel artwork. Just outside the back entrance to the lobby is a yellow New York taxi, which is a great backdrop for pictures.

If you have time, pop into the hotel bar for a drink. A huge ‘window’ shows Spider-Man and the Avengers going about their business in New York. And the cocktails are delicious!

Downtown Restaurant

Downtown is an upscale family buffet at Disney’s Hotel New York: Art of Marvel.

The venue itself feels laid back and casual, while the food looks and tastes more grown-up than in the park restaurants like Plaza Gardens.

How it works

Our reservation for Downtown was for 7:15 pm, and we only had to wait about 5 minutes before being seated. The waiter came to take our drink order (included in the meal), and then we were free to fill our plates.

The food

The buffet had a beautiful array of New York-inspired dishes. I noticed that every person in the restaurant had a different plate of food – piles of ribs, posh cheeseburgers, fresh stone-baked pizza with luxe ingredients, dim sum presented in bamboo baskets, colourful salads, rich plates of pasta, eggplant parmigiana, gooey mozzarella balls and so much more.    

But, the star of the show was the dessert offering! Many were themed to the popular Marvel characters like a Groot pudding and Captain Marvel shield. Others were just delectable, like the rich red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and a key lime cheesecake.

👱🏻‍♀️Our thoughts

My son and I ate far too much and ooh and ahhed over things we asked the other one to try. It was a fantastic experience for my son who had never tried many of these foods, and an indulgent one for me, too.

I highly recommend a meal at Downtown.

➡️ Check out all the details on how to book and a full Review of Downtown Restaurant.

VII. Entering Disneyland Paris (The Main Park)

With our bellies full, we strolled back through Disney Village, past the colourful water fountains under the beautifully refurbished hotel, and finally entered Disneyland Paris (the main park).

The first thing we noticed is that there are new decorations at the entrance and on Main Street USA. Large digital displays change with pictures of the princesses and different flowers. Main Street is gorgeous with a rainbow of lights. And at the end is a tribute to fairies Tinkerbell and Periwinkle – an illuminated toadstool house and oversized glowing flowers.

We stopped to take a few pictures and admired the lights on the castle before skipping off to the attractions.

🎢 Disneyland Park Attractions

It was now nearly 9 pm, and we had less than an hour before the drone show and fireworks at 9:50 pm. Luckily, the queues were short, and we managed more than I expected!

These are the rides we did, including the wait times:  

👦🏻 My 13-Year-Old’s Thoughts on the Rides

• Hyperspace Mountain is my favourite ride (we plan on doing it again tomorrow).
• The Star Tours queue was longer than we anticipated. The ride itself was a little disappointing because the 3 scenes were the same as we had seen many times before. They are meant to be random, but we seem to get the same ones.
• Buzz Lightyear Lasers – love it. The music is bouncy, and you can spin your car around as much as you like.

We had so much fun in that last hour! But now we had to dash it over the drone show and fireworks.

VIII. Disney Electrical Sky Parade + Disney Dreams!

🤓 GOOD TO KNOW Disneyland Paris fireworks always take place at the park closing time and last around 25 minutes

Unfortunately, the Disney Electrical Sky Parade (the drone show above the castle) was cancelled on the night we visited. It had drizzled a bit of rain earlier in the evening, and I suppose they had to make a call on it at the time. We were both disappointed about that. On our last visit to Disney, we also missed out on the summertime drone shows in the Studios due to the weather.

It is a shame, but luckily the fireworks went ahead as scheduled.

🚨 ***UPDATE: Disney Electrical Sky Parade and Disney Dreams! have been replaced in 2025 with Disney Tales of Magic.***

What is ‘Disney Dreams’?

Disney Dreams! is a firework and projection extravaganza on and above the castle. It follows the adventures of Peter Pan’s shadow through lots of familiar Disney film scenes.

My favourite parts are the songs with Merida in Brave and the lantern scene from Tangled (my favourite movie scene ever!). It’s hard to explain how wonderful this show is, the music makes me cry and the fireworks dazzle my children.

It’s an absolute must-do, especially if you have 2 days at Disneyland Paris.  

✏️ PRO TIP on BEST PLACE to see the fireworks

If you are not keen on waiting for an hour or more in a prime spot for the fireworks, I have a little secret for you. The best place to see the Disneyland Paris fireworks is to go to the Discoveryland side of the castle. In the area here by the castle stage, there is plenty of room without being squashed like a sardine in front of the castle or on Main Street.

IX. Journey back to our hotel

When the fireworks were over, we lingered for about 20 minutes to get gorgeous photos in front of the castle and down Main Street.

✏️ PRO TIP If you wait at least 15 minutes before leaving the fireworks, the crowds will be much more manageable.

Finally, we walked to the station and waited about 15 minutes for the next train to Val d’Europe. A 5-minute walk to our hotel, and we collapsed on our beds! (Tap PAGE 2 to continue to Day 2 ⬇️)