James - Disneyland Paris Trip Report (Hotel Santa Fe, Character Breakfast & Family Tips)

James’s Disneyland Paris Trip Report (August 2022) ✨🏰

Related Content You’ll Love:

🏨 Disney Hotel Santa Fe review
🍽️ Plaza Gardens character breakfast guide
🎢 Is Premier Access worth it?
📅 Best dates & crowd calendar
📖 More Disneyland Paris trip reports

💡 Planning your own trip? Picking the right dates can make a huge difference 👉 check crowd levels here

Disneyland Paris Trip Report – 2nd to 6th August ✈️

We flew from Manchester to Paris CDG with minimal delays at security, which was an excellent start.

We stayed at Disney Hotel Santa Fe and had booked connecting rooms, as there were five of us. The hotel was lovely and perfect for our youngest child, who loves Disney Cars.

The rooms were a decent size with two double beds in each room, and there was a ceiling fan too. My wife and I felt a bit warm at night, but nothing we couldn’t cope with.

There is a free shuttle bus that takes you directly to the parks in just a few minutes, and it runs back and forth until 1am. It was usually busy though, with a bit of unnecessary pushing and shoving to get on, which was slightly irritating.

💡 Travelling with kids?

A few practical extras can make park days much easier — think ponchos, power banks, snacks and little bits for the queue 👇

Browse family park essentials

Plaza Gardens Character Breakfast 🐭🍳

Arriving at the parks for the first time was unbelievable.

On our first full day, we had booked a character breakfast at Plaza Gardens in Disneyland Park.

Both our children loved meeting the characters, including Pinocchio, Tigger, Captain Hook, Smee and Rabbit.

The buffet breakfast was good quality and had loads of variety, with both hot and cold options. Our two children can be quite fussy, but even they ate really well.

Lots of Rides & Attractions! 🎢

The rides we went on were brilliant. We used Premier Access for some of the rides the children really wanted to do.

Wait times in general were actually not too bad from what we experienced. Our longest queue was about 45 minutes. It definitely gets better later in the evening, when some queues dropped to 10–15 minutes.

Some of the rides we did:

💡 If rides are a big part of your trip, this helps 👉 ride planning guide to skip the queues

World-Class Shows 🎭

We booked two shows: The Lion King in Frontierland and Mickey and the Magician in Walt Disney Studios.

I’d definitely advise pre-booking the shows if you can, just so you’re not waiting ages in line or risk missing out.

Both shows were absolutely unbelievable and definitely worth it.

Night-Time Fireworks 🎆

We watched the fireworks and light show on both Thursday and Friday, and this was definitely a highlight of the holiday.

We got our spot from about 9:50pm on both nights and brought snacks and drinks while we waited. Blankets and jackets were also handy for the kids as it got a little chilly later on.

On the Thursday, everyone sat down to watch the display. On the Friday, a few people stood up in front and refused to sit, which was frustrating, so we had to stand too. Still, we enjoyed it all the same.