Disneyland Resort Paris

Marne La Vallée, France.
About 40 minutes by train from Paris.

International: 00 44 990 03 03 03
Disneyland Paris Reservation Line
U.S. Residents - (1) 407 934 7639
U.K. Residents - 08705 03 03 03 
Denmark, Finland, Norway - (33 1) 60 30 60 70
Sweden - 020 795 555
All Other - (33 1) 60 30 60 53

Disneyland Park
Walt Disney Studios Park
See Overview below.

Disneyland Park
Pirates of the Caribbean
Phantom Manor
it's a small world
Star Tours

Walt Disney Studios Park
Moteurs...Action! Stunt Show Spectacular

Like its stateside counterparts, the Paris resort offers a nightclub/dining/shopping complex, albeit considerably smaller. Choices range from the familiar Planet Hollywood and Rainforest Cafe chains to the kitschy Billy Bob's Country Western Saloon. If you're cost-conscious, take heed. As I overhead one bloke remark as he reviewed a menu outside a restaurant, "This place is bloody expensive!"

Disney operates six onsite hotels ranging from the swanky Disneyland Hotel to the more pedestrian Hotel Cheyenne. Other hotel choices include: Hotel Santa Fe, Hotel New York, Newport Bay Club, and Sequoia Lodge. The resort also offers cabins and campsites at the more remote Davy Crockett Ranch. Another six non-Disney properties are official "Selected Hotels."

Keep in mind that the resort is an easy 40-minute RER train ride from downtown Paris, so staying off property is quite viable.

Search for Hotel New York Disneyland Paris rates at About.com's booking partner, Kayak.

Disneyland Resort Paris (English-language version. Other language options available.)

Mickey Mousse?It may be a small world after all, but seeing Disney's iconic Main Street U.S.A. transplanted to France (and, I'd imagine, Tokyo or Hong Kong) is tres weird. Still, the Disneyland Park that is at the heart of the European resort holds true to the California prototype and just may be the fairest Magic Kingdom of them all. Most of the classic Disney rides are here in all their glory, including a unique launched version of Space Mountain, It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Peter Pan's Flight, along with a few unique ones, such as the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril coaster. Lushly appointed and meticulously maintained, the park sparkles and beguiles with its charm.

The Walt Disney Studios Park, on the other hand, is a Mouse House curiosity. At 25 hectares (about 62 acres), you can walk its entire perimeter in about two minutes. More a collection of nondescript attraction buildings (and darn few of them) than a theme park, the company that wrote the book on theme parks seems to have ignored its own rules. And it has the nerve to charge the same admission price as Disneyland Park. After a rocky first few years, this is what the EuroDisney folks came up with to save the resort? To be fair, Disney often offers deals to ameliorate the blatant value differential between the two parks.

Ironically, the theme at the Studios park is the movies. When Walt Disney developed Disneyland, he used film techniques, including "long shots," lighting, and music to transform two-dimensional Hollywood movies into immersive, three-dimensional themed lands. The Studios park has no themed lands, no iconic landmarks, no whimsical architecture--virtually none of the characteristic Disney magic. It does, however, offer Moteurs...Action! Stunt Show Spectacular, a rip-roarin', car-screechin' show, Rock 'N' Roller Coaster and the Studio Tram Tour, clones of Disney-MGM Studios attractions, and the delightful CineMagique, a clever homage to movie history.