Opinion
Fantastic Four: why I can’t get over this Marvel trailer
by Luca Fontana
7 reasons why you shouldn’t go to Disneyland Paris
3.5.2025
Translation: Julia Graham
Pictures: Lorenz Keller
16 million people visit Disneyland Paris every year in the hope of experiencing magical moments with Mickey, Elsa and friends. Instead, they’re just met with frustrating waiting times, rides shut for maintenance and overpriced extras. Here are seven reasons why it’s hardly worth going.
I love theme parks and rollercoasters, so visiting Disneyland Paris with the whole family was a must. I’d obviously heard about the negative things people said about Europe’s largest theme park, so I didn’t have high expectations. Nevertheless, I was still disappointed.
1. King of the queues
I had to queue everywhere at Disneyland Paris. It starts with the double queue at the entrance. First it’s the security check, then you need to scan your tickets at one of the surprisingly few automatic gates.
In the park itself, you also come up against queue after queue, be it for food, the toilet or every single attraction. And when you’re not queuing, you’re standing around waiting: at the Frontierland theatre to get a seat for The Lion King, along the route for the Disney Stars on Parade and in the evening at the large square in front of the castle for the fireworks and light show.
I feel sorry for parents who wait an hour and a half to two hours with their kids in front of the Princess Pavilion just to take a photo with a Disney princess. The real kicker is that no one knows in advance which princess will be posing with you for the souvenir photo. Imagine the meltdowns for Elsa fans suddenly having to get their picture taken with Ariel. Fortunately, my offspring are past that age.
Just be patient and the queue will get shorter, they say. Wrong. It never wanes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., as you can see for yourself on the theme park’s app. The only solution is opting for a shorter queue, like Mickey Mouse, where it’s just a wait of 45 minutes to an hour for a photo.
You can also skip some queues, but that costs extra. Which brings us to the next topic.
2. Rip-off – and a completely blatant one at that
You pay 80 to 120 euros for admission, depending on the date. Generally speaking, amusement parks are always expensive, but I feel ripped off when Disney charges for services that used to be free. While shows and musicals are included, if you want «guaranteed admission», you have to secure it by paying 15 euros per person. Similarly, booking a reserved area with a good view of the parade and fireworks will set you back 19 to 24 euros.
A symbol of Disney’s unsympathetic pricing policy are the hairbands that it feels like every other person buys and wears. The ears you can buy on every corner come in loads of different versions and will cost you 25 euros.
You can also skip the queues for rollercoasters, but for popular attractions, this comes at an additional price tag of 15 to 21 euros – per ride. For at least 90 euros, you can get «Ultimate Access», which, contrary to its name, doesn’t offer what you’d expect. Instead, you just get quick access to 16 rollercoasters and attractions, but only once each.
3. Waiting times: to infinity and beyond
To be honest, if I’d only been in the park for one day, I’d probably have treated myself to one of these passes. The waiting times for the rides are unreal. For instance, you always have to wait an hour and a half to two hours for Crush Coaster and Peter Pan’s Flight, no matter what time of day it is. Even young children had to queue for 30 to 60 minutes for the Dumbo merry-go-round.
If you stay in the hotel, you can access the park an hour earlier. But if you’re hoping to «tick off» a few coasters during this time without queuing, you’ll be disappointed. There are so few attractions open early that the waiting times quickly end up as long as the rest of the day.
With around 16 million visitors to Disneyland every year, it’s no wonder there are so many queues. That’s an average of over 43,000 people each day. For context, Europapark sells a maximum of 30,000 tickets per day. Although smaller in terms of area, that theme park offers a lot more different attractions. In purely mathematical terms, long queues are inevitable.
Two aspects exacerbate the bottlenecks: the first being out of service rides. During my stay, a lot of roller coasters were shut, sometimes only for a few minutes, but sometimes for hours. I’ve never seen this happen as often in other theme parks.
What’s more, several attractions, including the largest rollercoaster, are currently closed due to construction. But of course, Disney hasn’t reduced park entry numbers to reflect this.
4. War of the construction sites
The construction sites are also an issue in other respects. In contrast to other parks that renovate bit by bit, Disneyland decided to close off a large area in one go. Almost all of Frontierland, including the Big Thunder Mountain rollercoaster, will be shut until the summer at the earliest. This is a significant closure, as it’s one of the park’s five themed areas. A section in Main Street is also being renovated.
At Walt Disney Studios Park, I walk past a large construction site right at the entrance. The stylised studio halls are closed and guests have to go in through the back.
While there’s no doubt about the fact it needs to be renewed and remodelled, this could’ve been done better if the work was staggered. Moreover, it could’ve been better communicated. At first glance, the website doesn’t mention the renovation work at all, and the app only prominently mentions the smaller and less vital renovation work in the studios.
5. A pointless mission: on the hunt for good food
High prices also apply to the food. A burger, pizza or burrito alone cost 12 euros and a hot dog 10 to 11 euros. This seems all the more steep given the meals are only fast food quality. All of this sits heavily on the stomach.
Just as with the wait times, the sweets and snacks are also a source of frustration. You can get four different types of biscuit available throughout the park – they’re all the same variety. And you’ll find piles of the pseudo-cult Mickey Mouse-shaped fritters around Disneyland, all filled with the same mediocre chocolate cream. Essentially, it’s a case of cheap mass production rather than culinary diversity.
I may get my fill at Disneyland Paris, but the food doesn’t satisfy me.
6. Little beauty, lots of beast
After the first day of a two-day stay, I wondered why Disneyland seems so soulless. This isn’t down to the absolute commercialism or the crowds. The visitors with their costumes and souvenirs are actually what make the park so colourful and fill it with life.
But everything looks like an empty backdrop for a long-forgotten film. Now and again a Disney character appears, such as Goofy conducting an orchestra of water fountains or Spider-Man greeting us from a rollercoaster roof. Everything follows a strict formula – nothing seems spontaneous or playful. What’s more, there aren’t any funny details or playful ideas in the buildings or on the paths, like the ones you’d get in the big Disney films. And many of the attraction waiting areas are also strangely empty.
This is disappointing given that Disneyland wants to impress with its ambience and atmosphere. The focus is less on spectacular rides and unique attractions. On the other hand, Europapark and Gardaland, to name just the big competitors from Germany and Italy, boast a more aesthetically pleasing and detailed overall design.
7. Guardians of Darkness
An astonishing number of attractions are indoors. And I don’t just mean the musicals and shows, but also a lot of rollercoasters, such as Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain and Avengers Assemble: Flight Force. In total, I spotted 14 dark rides and only 10 outdoor activities, including most of the smaller rides and merry-go-rounds.
Obviously, this is an advantage in bad weather. However, even when it’s nice outside, you spend a large part of the day standing in buildings and hangers since the queues are mainly indoors.
What if you’ve already booked?
Make the most of it and concentrate on what Disneyland is really good at: first-class shows, impressive technology and fireworks that enchant even the most hard-to-please guests. With the right expectations, you can avoid a lot of potential frustration. Another area Disneyland excels is with its staff – there are plenty of them, and they’re all friendly and helpful.
It’s worth paying extra for a spot with a guaranteed good view if you’re going to the truly extraordinary fireworks display, which includes video projections on the fairytale castle along with a drone and light show. If you’re under 1.60 m, it’s really frustrating standing amidst tens of thousands of spectators and only seeing the top half of the show.
Just as the lovingly designed ride in little rat carriages through the kitchens from the film Ratatouille shows, Disney can actually do better – if it wants to.
What was your experience at Disneyland? Do you have any hacks to make the most of a visit? Let us know in the comments.
Lorenz Keller
Senior Editor
Lorenz.Keller@digitecgalaxus.chGadgets are my passion - whether you need them for the home office, for the household, for sport and pleasure or for the smart home. Or, of course, for the big hobby next to the family, namely fishing.
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