How many days for Disneyland Paris do you need?

Are you wondering how many days for Disneyland Paris you need? In this guide we will round up how many you need for Disneyland Paris in our experience, what you can achieve in the time you have and other considerations that may affect how long you need in the parks.

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Table of Contents

How many days for Disneyland Paris do you need?

Disney Paris Castle at night – How many days for Disneyland Paris do you need?

In order to assess how many days for Disneyland Paris you need first it is important to understand some of the things that will affect your decision.

How many parks you want to visit ?

Firstly the biggest factor as to how many days you need at Disneyland is depends on how many parks you want to visit. Disneyland Paris has two parks – Disneyland Park and the Walt Disney Studios.

While you can get a 2 park 1 day ticket this really isn’t the most efficient way to see both of the parks. But if you are only visiting one park then you could theoretically see the majority in a day (especially if you are visiting at a non peak time and in Summer when the operating hours at the park are longer).

Sometimes, the park operating hours, say at the Disneyland Paris park in July in August can operate as much as 9am – 11pm with Extra Magic Hours being an hour earlier for on some guests.

However if you are traveling in Winter when the days are shorter and at peak times while staying off site to do everything you may need extra time to experience everything.

If you are staying on or off site

On-SIte Vs Off Site Hotels at Disneyland Paris

Your choice of Disneyland Paris Hotels will affect how many days you need especially if you are traveling at peak times such as visiting Disneyland Paris at Christmas, during Easter or the summer holidays.

That is because guests of on-site hotels have the added advantage of getting Extra Magic Hours. Extra Magic Hours or Early Magic Hours as they are sometimes called entitle on-site guests to get into the parks one hour earlier.

While not all attractions are open during the Extra Magic Hours, many are and you are able to get on many of these without large queues.

For instance when we visit Disneyland Paris with a toddler, baby or pregnant we head straight to Fantasyland which is largely open for rides at this time. Usually when we head straight to Fantasyland at this time we can get on five or six rides very quickly including being able to ride the very popular Peter Pan’s Flight, the most popular ride at Disneyland Paris which often has queues that exceed an hour.

You can also use this time to get on thrill and scary rides at Disneyland Paris such as Hyper Space Mountain and Crush’s Coaster which also get large queues later in the day.

Also if you are staying on site you are able to walk into the parks which means you can nip out of the park and back to your hotel easily and still be able to return for illuminations and fireworks at night.

Overall if you are staying on site you could maybe reduce your time in the parks by a day if you use Extra Magic Hours given how much you can get done in the early hours of opening.

For more information on what to pack for Disneyland Paris and what to wear check out these posts.

Next read: if you are doing your trip as a wider Paris with toddlers trip then do check out this post.

Time of year

The time of year will really affect how much time you need in the park for several reasons:

if you visit in Summer, the operating hours of the park are longer so you have more time to get things done.
if you are visiting midweek or at a weekend – there are better days to visit Disneyland Paris for crowds.
if you are visiting in peak or off peak season – if you visit during a school vacation the crowds really swell. If you visit during a peak school holiday you will see some ride times to swell to well over an hour such as Crush’s Coaster and Peter Pan’s Flight which can exceed 120 minutes at really leak time.

As time of year really affects what crowds are like and what you can expect we have written some monthly guides to tell you what to expect in the park.

Generally speaking if you are visiting off peak and staying on-site then you can expect to have everything achieved in there days at the park without having premier access.

However if you are staying off site or traveling at peak time then you may need to budget for four days at Disneyland Paris to ensure that you get everything you done.

Season

Christmas at Disneyland Paris / Disneyland Paris Christmas Day

While the season will affect your time at Disneyland Paris in terms of weather i.e. if you are visiting Disneyland Paris in the rain you may need extra days if they close rides due to extreme weather. The biggest seasonal affect is in terms of Disney seasons.

If you are visiting for Christmas or Halloween you will find there are more crowds who are there to see the special decorations and do the special seasonal meet and greets at the park. Therefore I would budget an extra day during these times so you can achieve everything you want.

Whether you have Premier Access

Disneyland Paris Premier Access

While Disneyland Paris does not have Genie + or Fast Passes it does have Premier Access. Premier Access at Disneyland Paris is done on a ride by ride basis. However it is expensive with surge charging based on demand and on the ride you are bypassing the queue of.

If you are traveling to Disneyland Paris on a budget I don’t recommend getting Premier Access as this can cost you up to 16 Euros per person per ride. However if you are traveling at a very busy time and have the budget then Premier Access may be worth it for you.

For instance Crush’s Coaster, Ratatouille and Peter Pan’s Flight can get queues of over an hour but Premier Access can reduce queues to under five minutes.

Whether you have a Priority Card

If you are traveling with someone with disabilities or who is in a Wheelchair then I advise you look into applying for a priority card.

This allows those with special needs to have quicker access to the rides. When we recently visited with someone with a priority card we will able to do all the rides at both parks in two days. If you have a priority card and are happy to spend full days in the parks then you should only need to two days in the parks. However if you want to do things at a slower pace and include things such as character dining then three days would be more appropriate.

Who you are traveling with

Visiting Disneyland Paris with a baby

Depending on what your travel party is made up of will depend on the types of rides you want to do and how long you will need.

For instance if you are traveling to Disneyland Paris with teenagers as opposed to Disneyland Paris with babies, there will be more things you can do. Therefore you will need more time in the parks.

What you want to do in the parks?

Another thing that will affect how long you will need to spend in the parks is what you want to do in them. For instance if you are only interested in rides you will be able to achieve this in 2 – 4 days depending on the factors we listed above. However there is so many more things to do at Disneyland Paris than just the rides.

Snow White signing an autograph – do they only speak French at Disneyland Paris

For instance there are meet and greets for those that like meeting characters and collecting autographs. And if this is something you want to do this can add considerable time in your itinerary. For instance the Princess Pavillon, where you can queue to meet one princess at Disneyland Paris can add up to two hours to your day. And it is not uncommon for the Mickey meet and greet to exceed 90 minutes.

Therefore you can see that these two experiences could take up a whole morning in Disneyland Paris.

Next read: questions to ask Disney Princesses and questions to ask Disney characters.

Another thing that you may want to add to your Disneyland Paris itinerary is character dining. There are a couple of character dining experiences at Disneyland Paris, Plaza Gardens and Auberge de Cendrillon. However this does add time in your day.

For instance we met the princesses at Auberge de Cendrillon. Here we met 3 princesses, (Cinderella, Merida and Snow White) and two of Cinderella’s mice friends. The meal was gorgeous (you can read more about our review here) but did take 2 and a half hours so this will add time into your day.

Hidden Mickey Disneyland Paris made of cogs

And on top of this there are other things to do in the park such as finding Hidden Mickeys, exploring the Disneyland Paris or doing the maze which although not rides are attractions that you might not want to miss.

Therefore if you want to do all these things you will probably need the 4 days in the park.

Please note: currently (2023) the parks are experiencing industrial action, usually but not exclusively on a Tuesday. For more information on this check out our post on Disneyland Paris Strikes.

How Many Days Do you need at Disneyland Paris (a day by day comparison)

Can you do Disneyland Paris in One Day?

In answer to can you do Disneyland Paris in one day the answer is it depends what you consider “doing”. If oyu have one day you can get a good proportion of rides in one park done if you are visiting in the off season and staying on site.

However if oyu want to ride all the attractions, do meet and greets and spend time in both parks one day is not enough to do everything.

Having said that if you only have a day to spare for Disneyland Paris, or Euro Disney as some refer to it as, check out our one day itinerary for Disneyland Paris to find out how you can make the most of your time.

For our 1 day 2 parks itinerary or our Disneyland Paris one day itinerary check out these posts which will maximise you time in the park.

Can you do Disney Paris 2 days?

Overall I would say 2 days is better than one day at Disneyland Paris as you can one day in each park; This will allow you more time to do rides and other attractions at Disneyland Paris.

For a 2 day Disneyland Paris Itinerary check out this post.

Can you do Disney Paris 3 days?

You absolutely can do Disney Paris in 3 days. I would say if you are visiting in the off peak season and staying on site this is actually the perfect amount of time in the parks.

That is because you can spend one day in each park and then use your final day (if you get a two park ticket) to do rides you have missed, enjoy character meet and greets and do some character dining.

Is 4 days enough for Disneyland Paris?

If you are traveling to Disneyland Paris at peak times or staying off site then 4 days is the perfect amount of time in my opinion.

This allows you more time to compensate for longer ride queues and not having early magic hours.

For a 4 day Disneyland Paris itinerary check out this post.

Overall what is the best number of days at Disneyland Paris?

Overall I think 3 to 4 days is the perfect amount of time and the best number of days at Disneyland Paris to do everything there is on offer.

However if you have less time, there is still you can achieve and you can enjoy Disneyland Paris no matter how many days you have.

Have you been to Disneyland Paris? How many days did you spend in the park? We would love to hear how many days you think are needed for Disneyland Paris.