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Credit: Bery Sneyers / FlickrTraveling to any Disney park is an expensive decision, so when we do get to visit, guests expect magic and perfection.
When we are talking Walt Disney World, not only do guests need to transport themselves to Walt Disney World Resort by plane or car, which has a large cost at times, but things only get worse from there. Disney guests have an option to either stay at a Value Resort, being the cheapest, Moderate Resort, being in the middle, and a Deluxe Resort, which can cost guests nearly $1000 per night, depending on the Resort, for a standard-looking room with only two beds.
Following that cost, Disney tickets have been increasing steadily over the years and, following the pandemic, spiked. Now, Disney World has moved to date-based ticket prices, which means that if you are looking to visit Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT, your price will vary, which can be a major negative if you tend to visit during the busy season. Magic Kingdom ticket prices can go up to $189 per person, which means a family of four will easily pay $1000 for one day at Disney World after they eat.
Quickly, we have hit $2000 for one night at a hotel, and a day at the parks, and that is not even including food.
At Disneyland, costs are even more expensive as there are only three hotel options: Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian Resort, and Paradise Pier. Each of these hotels is priced higher than the lower-level hotels at Walt Disney World Resort.
Disneyland Paris is also very costly.
Although some ticket costs are a little lower than Walt Disney World, their hotel prices are also expensive. When guests visit, they can choose between:
- Disneyland Hotel
- Disney Hotel New York
- Disney Newport Bay Club
- Disney Sequoia Lodge
- Villages Nature Paris
- Disney Hotel Cheyenne
- Disney Hotel Santa Fe
- Disney Davy Crockett Ranch
If you do not stay at a Disneyland Paris hotel, you will have to commute into the theme park by train, which can take around an hour from Paris.
Lately, the theme park has been hit with a ton of closures, as well as overcrowding.
Crowding has also been a major issue, and Disney has warned guests that they should stay out of the parks from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., basically telling them to miss the majority of their day, including parade times, show times, and fireworks at no added discount. As one may imagine, telling guests to get out of a theme park just a few hours after arrival is not a great look, and certainly makes the cost of the tickets not worth it. Guests do not have to leave at all, but it is telling that Disney has erected signage warning them to do so.
Things at Disneyland Paris have been questionable as of late, with mold being reported in the rooms at their hotels. Many guests spoke out on this issue recently, as well as seeing their rooms not properly cleaned and their beds breaking and collapsing or being found entirely broken before they even have their first night of sleep at the hotel.
On top of this, the parade, Disney Stars on Parade, has been reported to be in very rough shape, with some floats broken while others are entirely missing.
At the moment, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, Pirate Galleon, and Ratatouille: The Adventure are all closed for refurbishment. La Tanière du Dragon and Frontierland playground will also be shutting down shortly as well.
At Disneyland Paris, we recently spoke about the closure of two of their parades, ““Dream… and Shine Brighter” and “Disney D-Light” will end permanently on September 30.” Of course, this left many Disneyland Paris guests devastated, as parades are an essential part of the Disney Park experience.
Also, “The “Disney Jr. Dream Factory” will be closing its doors temporarily from September 25 to October 20, 2023, included.
This will not be the only show to experience downtime, as “TOGETHER: a Pixar Musical Adventure” will not be performed from Nov 6 to Dec 15, 2023.
With the negative reception of the Paris theme park coming in strongly as of late, the future of the park has been looking quite bleak. Now, a horrific review of Disneyland Paris has surfaced on the internet, and the description of the parks will have future guests looking to cancel their trip and visit another Disney park.
One guest who went to Disneyland Paris wrote a review of the park and titled it: “Disneyland Paris: The rotten corpse of a failed amusement park dressed up like it’s something new.” Right away, we can see that this is not going to be a positive review, and it seems that the negative overall experience was not targeted to just one issue but multiple.
The guest begins by stating that their stay at Disneyland Paris was disappointing and that they were expecting more following a visit to Europa Park, a smaller and lesser theme park in Europe that blew them away. The guest said, “My stay at this park has been a disappointment to say the least. Last year we went to Europa Park, and we were really amazed at how beautiful an amusement park could be. Because of this, we decided to go to Disney this year because since it’s the most popular park in Europe, it could only be better, right?”
The first major issue addressed was the crowds.
“The entire park felt like a mess. It’s so crowded that you can barely even see the theming of the park. All you see it waves of people with crying kids waiting for what feels like absolutely nothing.” As we noted earlier, Disneyland seems to be very aware of the overcrowding as they are advising guests to leave early, but not much more is being done at this time.
The guest also noted that there were strong scents throughout many areas, which were putrid in nature. These horrible smells therefore made the claustrophobic feeling escalate. The guest continued to note the broken attractions, “Most of the attractions were either boring or broken down. Like seriously, thunder & space mountain were “opening soon” for like 50% of our 4-day stay.” Although we listed the refurbished attractions that were shut down, other rides can break down, which can cause more attractions to close unexpectedly.
It seems the guest also found that the theming was lacking at Disneyland Paris, “But hey at least there’s the theming right? Nope everything except the castle looks like it’s falling apart with some attractions having new ip’s poorly plastered over it to make it look like it’s something new”. The guest did note that they enjoyed Walt Disney Studios Park more, not due to fewer crowds as that was not the case since the crowds were still “suffocating”, but because the rides were not shut down here.
The guest concluded, “Maybe I’m just to old for this park, but I just don’t understand how kids could even enjoy this. The entire park just feels like you can’t do anything, and there’s nothing to do to escape it.”
Once this review hit the internet, many decided to chime in with their opinion. A handful of guests disagreed, stating, “I think you went to a different park than I did,” and “Was gonna say the same thing, we had the best time when we went 2 weeks ago.”
Related: Disney Removes Major Discount Permanently, Guests Furious as Costs Increase
Others agreed, “To be fair, Hyperspace Mountain needs TLC, I went the other week, and it was incredibly dark to the point the actual ride effects were dim! It needs an update badly”. Many agreed that areas of the park were old and needed to be updated.
Overall, we have heard of some less-than-favorable stories coming from Disneyland Paris lately, and with the 30th anniversary ending soon, this may be the perfect time to address some of these issues.
What do you think of Disneyland Paris? Are you a fan of the park?