One of the best things to check before your visit is the Disneyland Paris park hours. Because even though the parks are open year round, the times that they are open to guests can differ from day to day.
Normally, the parks will open somewhere between 9 and 10 am and close between 7 pm and 10 pm. As you can see, not checking the opening hours before your stay will significantly impact how much time you can spend in the parks and whether you need to search for some evening entertainment.
But there is also some other information hidden in the opening hours; we will tell you about it a bit later.
Where to find the opening hours?
First, let’s look at where you can find the opening hours.
There are two ways to check them; you can download the Disneyland Paris app, which will give you all the information about opening hours, show times, character meetings, and even wait times. Or you can check the Disneyland Paris website.
Every day the resort offers Extra Magic Time to Disney Hotel guests and people with an Infinity or Magic Plus annual pass. This means that the parks will open one hour earlier, exclusively to those guests. You can find the Extra Magic Time hours together with the regular park hours in the app or on the Disneyland website.
What the Disneyland Paris park hours are telling you
During the peak season, which starts in April and lasts until September, the parks are open until 10 or 11 pm. There are two reasons for that. One is the evening show Disney Dreams! that has fireworks and projections that look much better when the sky is dark, and sunset during the summer months is normally around 10 pm.
Another, a bit more hidden reason, is the crowds. The park hours can give you a great indication of how busy it’s going to be. Do the parks close early? Or open late? That means that it’s going to be a slow day. And if the parks are open from early morning to late in the evening, you know it’s going to be pretty crowded.
What we usually do on a crowded summer day in Disneyland Paris is start the day early, benefit from the shorter queues during Extra Magic Time and the first hours in the morning, and then have a nice lunch followed by a short break. You can take a nap, check out the pool at your Disney Hotel, or visit the nearby shopping mall Val d’Europe.
Before dinner, we go back to the parks, where most people are leaving to have some dinner or to freshen up before the nighttime show. The crowds will go down during that time and you can go on lots of rides with a much shorter wait. Then we get a drink, find a spot for the evening shows, and end our perfect Disneyland Paris day.
Things to do when the parks close early
During the winter season, the parks close pretty early; typically, Walt Disney Studios Park will close at 7 pm and Disneyland Park at 8 pm. Luckily, you don’t need to go to bed early or stay in your room to watch tv (if you don’t want to, of course) because there are lots of great things to do when the parks close. This is what we do:
- Have dinner at one of the restaurants in Disney Village or Disney Hotels. Our favourites are Downtown Restaurant, The Steakhouse, Annette’s Diner and Chuck Wagon Cafe.
- Go shopping at Disney Village; here, you can buy Disneyland Paris merchandise, but there is also a large LEGO store where you can browse and even create your own LEGO figurine.
- Grab a drink at one of the bars in Disney Village, like the Royal Pub or the Sports Bar, or go to the Skyline Bar at Disney Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel, which has windows overlooking New York where Marvel characters will fly by.
- Meet characters at the Disney Hotels. Each Disney Hotel has a character meeting location, typically in the lobby near the store. Those locations are open to everyone, even if you are not staying at the hotel. So, if the parks close early, why not do a Disney Hotel scavenger hunt to see which characters you can meet?
- Relax at the pool. Most Disney Hotels, with the exception of Hotel Cheyenne and Santa Fe, have a pool. The pools are open daily until 10 pm and are a great way to relax your muscles after a Disney day. Pools are only open to guests staying at the hotel.
- Visit Villages Nature Paris, a holiday park nearby that offers lots of sports activities and even has an indoor water park with seven pools and lots of slides. You need to buy a ticket in advance through the Center Parcs website.
