When We Go, Where We're Staying & What's On Our Bucket List for Our 2022 Trip To Disneyland Paris.
We're going back to Disneyland Paris! We're so excited to be heading back to this magical place and we have a feeling it's going to be our best trip yet. Like many people, we have booked and cancelled our trip so many times over the last 2 years. But with restrictions lifting all over Europe, the trip is finally happening and we cannot wait!
In today's post, we're sharing our plans for the trip and what's on our bucket list as well as letting you in on some great tips we've picked up whilst planning a trip in 2022.
When Is Our Trip & How Long Are We Going For?
We are heading back to the magic in June 2022! It's so close and we cannot wait. This will be our first holiday outside of the UK in over 2 years, so we have chosen to make the most of it and visit 2 of our favourite places in one trip - Disneyland Paris and Paris itself. We are spending the first few days of our time away in Paris before heading to Disneyland Paris for 2 full days.
How Are We Getting There?
Travelling from England, we have a few different options to get to Disneyland Paris. We have travelled by plane before and by car and have had no issues with either method, so for this trip, we have decided to travel by car. Flying would be the quicker choice as we are travelling from the north of England, but with lots of people making up for lost time and planning to go abroad this year, our local airports have reportedly been overcrowded and understaffed. We want this trip to be as stress free as possible, so haven chosen to drive.
We really enjoy driving to Disneyland Paris. The journey itself is simple and we like being able to go at our pace and to our own schedule. We have booked a morning crossing on the Eurotunnel to make the most of the first day of our trip. We have never had any issues with the Eurotunnel but it will be interesting to see if there are any differences since the pandemic began and post-Brexit. From what we've read online, the Eurotunnel experience is just the same, but we will be sure to update you on our experience in our trip report.
Where Are We Staying?
As mentioned earlier, we are visiting Paris as well as Disneyland Paris. For the Disneyland Paris portion of our trip, we have booked Disney's Hotel Cheyenne.
We LOVE this hotel and would highly recommend. We love the theming and the modern feel to the room and it's one of the more affordable hotels on property. When we priced up our trip, staying onsite worked out cheaper than staying offsite too.
Not sure where to stay? Read our post of a full breakdown and comparison of staying in an onsite hotel, a partner hotel and offsite in a hotel or Airbnb here
TIP: You don't need a park ticket to visit Disney Village or to eat at the hotel restaurants. So we have also booked an offsite hotel for our travel day and will be spending our first evening in Disney Village. Then we will check into Disney's Hotel Cheyenne early the following morning to make full use of our Extra Magic Time.
What Meals Have We Booked?
If you have ever made dining reservations via the Disneyland Paris app, you won't be surprised to learn that booking tables was a bit of a headache. But we managed it! We were able to book our restaurants just under 3 months ahead of our trip via the Disneyland Paris app.
TIP: Our top tip for having the best chance of securing the dining reservations you want is once you have booked your trip, link it to the Disneyland Paris official app. Once you've done this, your trip dates may be available to book straight away. If they are, make your dining reservations as soon as possible. If not, keep checking back. If it gets to 2 months before your trip and the dates are still not available on the app, give Disney a call and book them over the phone.
We have also purchased the "plus" dining plan. The dining plans have changed since our last trip in 2020 and had never really been good value for money (for us). But after much research and taking into account the restaurants we knew we wanted to eat at, we decided to purchase the plan. We paid £79pp per night (for us this is just 1 night) which includes (per person) 1 x hotel buffet breakfast, 2 x meal vouchers for lunch and/or dinner & 1 x extra meal voucher for the last day.
If you've never considered a meal plan before, we highly recommend looking at the different options and what restaurants are included. With the restaurants we had planned on eating at, the "plus" dining plan has saved us a lot of money.
For more information on the dining plans available, please visit the Disneyland Paris website here.
We have booked 3 table service restaurants for our trip and are going to be eating at Annette's Diner and Earl of Sandwich for our lunchtime meals. The 3 table service meals we have booked are:
• Hunter's Grill at Sequoia Lodge. The buffet at Hunter's Grill is excellent and is a hidden gem when it comes to dining. We dined here when staying at Sequoia Lodge in January 2020 and it was one of the best meals we've had at Disneyland Paris. The buffet is all you can eat and the quality and variety of food is fantastic. We have this booked for the evening before checking into Disney's Hotel Cheyenne.
• Downton Restaurant at Disney's Hotel New York - Art Of Marvel. We were very excited to get a reservation as Downton Restaurant is one of the most popular restaurants and tables book up quickly. The restaurant opened in 2021 when Disney's Hotel New York - The Art Of Marvel reopened after an extensive refurbishment and has been immensely popular ever since. We were very fortunate and managed to book a table for our first full day at Disneyland Paris. We're also planning on visiting the hotel's Skyline Bar afterwards before heading back into Disneyland Park for the firework show.
• Bistrot Chez Remy in the Studios Park. Ratatouille is one of our favourite Disney Pixar films, so this had to go on our list of restaurants. We ate here in January 2020 and just loved it. The theming is fantastic (Disneyland Paris knows how to theme a restaurant!) and the Ratatouille soundtrack playing in the background made this our favourite dining experience. The menu has recently changed, so we are looking forward to trying some of the new dishes on offer.
Look out for our full reviews of all our dining experiences when we return from our trip in our trip report.
What's On Our Bucket List?
With the 30th celebrations underway and this being our first trip abroad since 2020, our bucket list for this trip is pretty long.
• Get a picture with the castle. It's a must on every trip for me - it just has to be done. The castle has recently undergone a renovation and received a paint job, so we can't wait to see the castle looking it's best.
• Experience the 30th anniversary celebrations. Disneyland Paris turned 30 years old this year and they are making a pretty big deal about it. The 25th anniversary celebrations were brilliant and made our 2017 Disneyland Paris trip so special, so we're expecting big things for the 30th. We'd love to catch the Dream...and Shine Brighter show, meet some of the characters in their 30th anniversary outfits, see the new Gardens of Wonder and watch the new drone preshow, Disney D-Light, that takes place on the castle before the fireworks.
• Get A Good Spot For The Fireworks. We love the firework show, Disney Illuminations and always make sure to watch it on each trip. The fireworks don't start until 11pm on our visit, so we have plenty of time to stake out a good viewing spot.
• Eat Some 30th Anniversary Snacks. As part of the 30th anniversary celebrations, Disneyland Paris has released some fantastic looking snacks. We've got our eyes on the giant cookie, the purple ice cream, the cake in a mug and more. As we are using the dining plan this trip, we are going to be eating a lot of food, so we may have to buy some of these snacks and enjoy them when we return home.
• Eat Something Mickey Shaped. After so many trips to Disneyland Paris, you would think we must have tried something Mickey shaped - but we haven't! Disneyland Paris isn't known for it's snacks but they have recently upped their game and have been introducing some new snacks. There are plenty of new Mickey shaped food items to choose from including mickey waffles at the hotel buffet breakfast, the mickey premium ice cream bar, mickey shaped beignets, cookies, marshmallows, sandwiches and even pizza. As we're only in Disneyland Paris for 2 days, we won't be able to try all the mickey shaped food on offer, but we'll certainly give it a good go!
• Drink Champagne On Main Street. This is one we're really excited about. Did you know you can now enjoy a glass of champagne on Mainstreet USA? We're looking forward to grabbing a (plastic) glass to enjoy as we wait for the fireworks.
• Buy Some 30th Anniversary Merchandise. The 30th anniversary merchandise looks fantastic. Whilst it's not all to our personal taste, we have a few items on our shopping list.
• Buy A New Mug. Buying a Disney mug on each trip has sort of become a (accidental) tradition. We love using our Disneyland Paris mugs as they hold special memories of each trip. We have our eyes on the Starbucks 30th anniversary mug. Fingers crossed it's in stock during our trip.
• Meet Mickey Mouse. It would be wrong to visit Disneyland Paris without saying hello to the mouse, right?! We're not sure whether it's possible to meet Mickey in his 30th anniversary outfit at the moment, but we're hoping to visit him in his "traditional outfit" at his permanent meet and greet spot located towards the back of Fantasyland.
We hope you enjoyed this trip announcement. If you have any questions about our trip and how we booked it etc, or any questions about Disneyland Paris in general, please pop them down below in the comment section.
Be sure to check back in after our trip, where we will write up a full trip report and go into detail about what it's really like to visit Disneyland Paris after the events of 2020. We will give you our honest opinions on our EuroTunnel experience, our stay at Disney's Hotel Cheyenne, full reviews of all the restaurants we eat at and what our experience overall was like. We'll also be recapping our bucket list and letting you know what we'd have done differently.