QUICK QUOTE - BOOK YOUR RIDE
The trip is booked. The kids have known for weeks. Someone drew a countdown on the calendar and crossed off every single day leading up to this one.
But now it is actually happening, and somewhere between sorting the bags and figuring out the tickets, a thought crawls in - what do we actually do when we arrive?
Nobody tells you this part. Everyone talks about the rides, the castle and the magic, but the practical side of arriving at your destination in a foreign country with children along - that bit gets glossed over. This guide covers it properly, from the airport all the way to your first steps inside.
People underestimate the journey. Disneyland Paris is not in Paris. It is in a town called Marne-la-Vallée, about 32 kilometres east of the city. That gap matters, especially when you are arriving off a long flight with tired kids and a mountain of luggage.
CDG is the closest airport to the park and where the majority of international flights come in. On a normal day, a private transfer from CDG takes around 40 to 50 minutes. The road is straightforward, mostly motorway, and there are no surprises on the route.
The train is an option — the RER B into the city, a change at Châtelet-Les Halles, then the RER A out to Marne-la-Vallée. On a map it looks easy. In real life, dragging bags through a busy Paris interchange with children who have been on a plane for several hours is a different story. Plenty of families do it and survive, but it is rarely the happy start to disney trip they imagined.
Orly is further from Disneyland than CDG airport and there is no direct train link to the park. Public transport means changes and more walking. For a family, a direct transfer from Orly Airport is genuinely the practical choice here - the public transport alternative involves too many steps.
Budget airlines use Beauvais. It is cheap to fly into and a long way from disney. Disneyland Paris is around 1.5 to 2 hours away depending on traffic. That is not a short transfer, and families who do not account for it end up arriving at the park far later than they planned.
Disney24Cab covers all three airports with private transfers direct to Disneyland Paris. You pay a fixed rate upfront - no meter running, no traffic surcharges, waiting for you at the end. Baby seats and child seats are available free of charge, you just mention them when you make the booking.
From CDG the rate starts at €65. From Orly and central Paris it starts at €80. From Beauvais it starts at €140. You come through arrivals and your driver is already there. That is the whole process.
Private transfer guests staying at a Disney hotel get dropped at their hotel door. Day visitors get dropped near Disney Village, which is a short walk from the park entrance.
Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park — the two parks that make up the resort — both open from the same central area called Place de la Fontaine. Bag check and ticket gates are done here. It gets busy from early morning, so once you arrive, keep moving.
Buying tickets at the gate on the day is a bad idea. Queues are long, prices are higher than online, and you will spend the first hour of your morning standing in line before you have even entered the park.
Buy the tickets in advance through the official website. Single-day and multi-day tickets are both available, and you choose upfront whether you want access to one park or both.
If you are staying two or more days, get the tickets for both parks. Walt Disney Studios is a completely separate experience, and one day in the main park is not enough to see what it has to offer properly.
Have your tickets saved on your phone or printed before you leave home. The official app holds them too, which leads to the next point.
Download the official app in advance, not on the morning you arrive.
The feature that makes the biggest difference is live queue times. Before walking to any ride, you can see exactly how long the wait currently is. On a busy day that information changes everything — a ride with a 70-minute queue at 11am might be 20 minutes by 3pm. First-timers at Disneyland Paris who go in without the app almost always spend more time queuing than they need to.
The app also has the daily show and parade times, restaurant booking, and maps of both parks. Log in before you travel and have it ready.
Before the ticket gates, there is a bag check. Security staff open bags and have a quick look inside. It takes a minute or two — just keep your bag easy to get into rather than buckled shut and packed to the top.
After that, scan your tickets at the turnstile and you are in.
Main Street USA is directly ahead of you. Sleeping Beauty Castle is at the far end. That view — the first proper look at the castle — is the moment a lot of people talk about afterwards. Do not rush past it.
Every first-timer to Disney sprints through Main Street to get to the rides. Every single one. Try not to.
In the morning, before it fills up, Main Street is one of the best parts of the whole park. The music, the buildings, the details on every shopfront — it is worth five minutes of your time. It is also the parade route, so a slow walk through it helps you pick a spot for later in the day.
The castle at the end of it is not just a photo backdrop. Walk inside. There are stained glass windows and a dragon in the basement that most visitors never find. The dragon alone is worth knowing about.
Disneyland Park is split into six themed areas. Knowing the layout before you arrive saves a lot of time walking in the wrong direction.
Main Street USA is the entrance area — shops, restaurants, a good place to save the souvenir shopping until the end of the day rather than carrying bags around for hours.
Fantasyland is behind the castle and the most popular area for younger children. It's a Small World, Peter Pan's Flight, Dumbo, the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups — all here. Beautiful area, long queues from mid-morning onwards.
Adventureland has Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. Better suited to older children and adults.
Frontierland is where Big Thunder Mountain lives, which is genuinely one of the best rides in the park. Phantom Manor is here too — slower-paced, atmospheric, and far better than the number of people who skip it would suggest.
Discoveryland covers Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, and Star Tours. The sci-fi end of the park and a firm favourite with older children and adults.
Walt Disney Studios Park is the second park through the same entrance area. Avengers Campus is the main draw. Ratatouille: The Adventure is excellent for everyone, and Tower of Terror is worth doing once if you have the nerve for it. Give this park a proper half day.
Food inside the park is expensive and the busy spots fill up quickly. You have two types — sit-down table service restaurants and counter service where you order and find a seat yourself.
Table service can be booked in advance through the app or website. If you want character dining — the experience where Disney characters come to your table during the meal — book it weeks before your visit. These fill up and there is no option to just walk in.
If nothing is pre-booked, eat at 11:30am or 2:30pm instead of noon or 1pm. The queue difference during the actual lunch rush compared to either side of it is noticeable. Same food, completely different wait.
You are allowed to bring your own food and snacks in. Nobody stops you at the gate. For families with young children this is worth knowing — snacks in the bag mean you are not searching for somewhere to eat every time energy drops.
For young children, bumping into a favourite character can end up being the thing they talk about most when they get home.
Some characters have set locations with timed meet-and-greet slots — these are listed in the app. Others appear around the park without a set schedule. The big names — Mickey, Minnie, the princesses — have queues that build fast.
Check the app before you head to any character meet and work out which ones actually matter to your children rather than trying to do all of them. Queuing for characters your child is not particularly fussed about is time that could be spent elsewhere.
Character dining is worth a separate mention. It is more expensive than a standard meal, has to be booked in advance, and is not for everyone. But sitting at a restaurant table and watching your child's face when their absolute favourite character walks over to them — that moment does not leave anyone in a hurry.
The daily parade runs through the park along the main route. Time varies by season — check the app on your visit day for the exact schedule.
Get to Main Street or Town Square around 20 to 30 minutes before it starts to get a decent spot. The parade moves in both directions so there is no wrong place to stand — though standing closer to the castle end gives better photo backdrops.
The evening fireworks over the castle is the thing that catches most people off guard because they were not expecting it to be as good as it is. Position yourself in the central hub area facing the castle, far enough back to see the display above the roofline. On busy days get there 30 minutes early. The spot you want will already be filling up.
Shoes. You will walk somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000 steps on a full park day. Shoes that are not broken in will cause real problems by noon. Wear something you have actually worn before.
A refillable water bottle. There are water refill points throughout both parks. Buying bottled drinks inside adds up fast and the refill points are easy to find once you know to look for them.
Layers. Even when the afternoon is warm, mornings and evenings in Paris can be cold, particularly in spring and autumn. A light jacket tied around your waist costs nothing in effort and makes a big difference in comfort.
Full phone battery. Between the app, photos and everything else, your phone will not last the day without starting at 100%. Charge it fully the night before. A small portable charger in your bag is worth having.
A proper rest. Sit somewhere quiet for 20 to 30 minutes in the early afternoon. This sounds unnecessary and almost nobody does it. Families who do it enjoy the second half of the day significantly more than those who push through without stopping.
The day will not go exactly how you planned it. A ride will be closed. Something will take twice as long as expected. A child will need a break at precisely the wrong moment.
None of that matters. Disneyland Paris is not something you complete — it is a day you have. Sort the private transfer before you go, buy tickets in advance, get the app downloaded, and after that just let the day be whatever it is. The parts people remember most are almost never the ones on the itinerary.
Disney24Cab runs private transfers from Beauvais, CDG, Orly and central Paris straight to Disneyland Paris. Fixed prices, live flight tracking, free child seats, English-speaking drivers, available every hour of the day.
Book at Disney24Cab — confirmation comes through immediately.
| Route | From | Journey Time |
|---|---|---|
| CDG → Disneyland Paris | €65 | ~45 mins |
| Orly → Disneyland Paris | €80 | ~50–60 mins |
| Paris City → Disneyland Paris | €80 | ~45–60 mins |
| Beauvais → Disneyland Paris | €140 | ~1.5–2 hrs |
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