We were seated at the very back, upstairs. We couldn't see a thing. It was a huge letdown—after waiting 40 minutes and paying €150 for a family meal. There was plenty of space along the edge of the mezzanine (about ten empty seats), but they refused to seat us there because there were four of us. Only the ceiling could be seen. We were told we could just move over there during the meal. Right... So I took my glass and plate and went over to the mezzanine, where there were plenty of spaces available, just to catch a glimpse of the decor.

Hope this type of post is welcome here :) First time visitors to Disneyland Paris, but came away with one of the best theme park experiences we've ever had.
Fair warning, this is a long one, since it's technically two parks in one report.

We visited the Disneyland Paris resort on August 20th, 21st and 22nd, 2026. While this technically wasn't our first visit to the main park, given a 2009 visit during a family vacation, to say we remembered nothing as we walked through the main entrance would be an understatement. This very much felt like a first-time visit.

We spent the entire first day at Disneyland Park, the entire second day at Adventure World (except for a quick pop-in for a night ride on Big Thunder), and used day three as a clean-up day, riding the things we were still missing and getting some re-rides. In total, around 18 hours in Disneyland Park and 13 hours in Disney Adventure World.

We came to Adventure World knowing its reputation as one of the "lesser" Disney parks, often labeled the "worst" Disney park by many previous visitors. Well, imagine our surprise when we not only loved the time we spent there, but walked away thinking it is the best park at the Paris resort.

We score every park across 10 categories on a scale from 1-10. the average of those scores is the final score for the park. (The occasional 11 is given for parks that break the scale and go above and beyond, and Disney is definitely one of those parks)

Let's start with the result. The full breakdown comes after.

Category	Disneyland Park	Adventure World
Best coaster	8	7
Coaster depth	6	4.5
Water rides	0	0.5
Flatrides & darkrides	9.5	10
Park appearance	11	11
Park practicality	7.5	8
Food	7.5	9.5
Snacks & drinks	9.5	9.5
Ride operations	11	11
Park management	10	11
Overall	8.00	8.20 (Winner)

 

Best Coaster (DLP 8 / AW 7)

Disneyland Park

The battle for the best coaster is quite a contested one between Big Thunder Mountain and Hyperspace Mountain. While Big Thunder is undoubtedly a great coaster in its own right, we left thinking Hyperspace Mountain was the best coaster at the park.

This large, thrilling, launched looping Vekoma is somehow completely hidden away inside a massive, gorgeous structure. The Jules Verne-inspired architecture and art style are absolutely stunning, the scale is staggering, and the Columbiad cannon is perhaps the coolest launch track we've ever seen. The ride itself is a thrilling and fairly intense affair taking place in the dark, illuminated only by screens and special effects. Being launched upwards through the Columbiad with the classic Star Wars score blasting in the background is certainly a vibe.

It's impressive how well Disney has managed to incorporate such a large thrill coaster into Discoveryland, and it delivers what we consider to be the best coaster experience at the entire resort.

Adventure World

Avengers Assemble: Flight Force is the best coaster at Adventure World, not that it has much competition, as it is the only thrill coaster in the park. It's very interesting that the resort now sports two major launched thrill coasters from Vekoma, both fully enclosed and both space-themed.

Avengers is a very good launch coaster that, on paper, has Hyperspace Mountain beat on both length and speed. It certainly has the most powerful launch, yet something just isn't quite as good. Do not get us wrong, a coaster of this size that unwinds entirely indoors is a great experience, but in many ways, it feels like a slightly lesser version of its counterpart.

The main downside is that it still features the old Vekoma trains, meaning the seats are a lot less comfortable and some headbanging does occur. This may be slightly amplified by the fact that Avengers is the more intense ride, with a more powerful launch and whippy inversions occurring so close to each other. Still, it's great that you can experience two genuinely good launched thrill coasters at the resort.

Coaster Depth (DLP 6 / AW 4.5)

Disneyland Park

The supporting coaster lineup is one of quality over quantity, featuring only three coasters to back up Hyperspace Mountain.

Big Thunder Mountain is a fantastic addition to the roster and provides the park with a solid one-two punch, even though it is technically a family coaster. With its incredibly long ride duration, amazing theming, and commanding presence in Frontierland, Big Thunder is an exceptional family-thrill coaster that does a lot of heavy lifting for this category.

Intamin's looping Cyclone, Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril, is a weird addition, but it is actually quite impressive that this Disney park has two thrill coasters in its lineup. It features, once again, stellar theming with cool visuals, though it suffers from a subpar layout and rider comfort.

Casey Jr., Vekoma's powered coaster, has no thrills whatsoever (you could probably overtake it on a bike), but what it does have is a highly detailed train featuring different types of vehicles and seating arrangements, including a backward-facing rear car. It also utilizes onboard audio playing the coaster's own unique theme song (one that will absolutely get stuck in your head).

Three supporting coasters might not seem like a lot, but there is genuine quality and variation in this lineup, which saves the park from a lower score.

Adventure World

As we'd come to expect from a Disney park, the coaster lineup is not what Adventure World is really about, even less so, in fact, than its neighboring park.

RC Racer, the Intamin halfpipe, is a terrible fit for a Disney park and probably scores lower here than it would have at a small regional park. Even though the Toy Story theming is very clever and cute, the capacity is simply horrible and the ride duration is abysmal. Standing in line for an hour for what feels like 30 seconds of ride time just isn't great at all.

Crush's Coaster, the Maurer spinner, is another major (almost) fully enclosed coaster that has been at the park for almost 20 years. This may very well be a completely different experience in the future, but these are our thoughts on the original version we got to experience:

>Is it slightly janky? Yes.
>
>Does it have a few moments that can rival a Vekoma slap*? Oh, yes.
>
>But is it also just a damn charming coaster in the dark? Absolutely.

*If you know, you know.

Crush's Coaster actually does a lot of heavy lifting here, and for a coaster about to go down for a major refurbishment, it was very enjoyable.

Water Rides (DLP 0 / AW 0.5)

Disneyland Park

While the park does have some traditional boat rides, seeing as it doesn't have any flume, rapids, shoot the chute, spinning raft or water coaster, we can't allocate any points in this category.

Adventure World

It is always hard for us to rate a park without any proper water rides. At times, we do consider whether it is fair to leave an otherwise incredible park with this big of a minus in its overall score. However, each time, we also acknowledge that we have to stand by our principles. In our minds, a theme park is not a complete park without at least one true water ride.

Adventure World has no excuse not to have one, which is also why they are now building one! With the opening of the Lion King land, the addition of an Intamin log flume will be a very welcome sight.

For now, though, it scores a 0.5. Why not 0.0? We got a bit wet on Frozen Ever After. Consider it a token of good fortune for the future. (Lion King land is going to be an incredible addition to this park)

Flatrides And Darkrides (DLP 9.5 / AW 10)

Disneyland Park

Pirates of the Caribbean is not only a classic attraction but a genuine world-class dark ride. Phantom Manor and It's a Small World are two other notable dark rides that are far beyond what you normally see at a theme park in terms of overall theming, immersion, and scale. Also, a special shoutout goes to Peter Pan's Flight with its suspended vehicles and highly original ride experience.

Even the lower-tier Disney dark rides like Buzz Lightyear, Snow White, Pinocchio, and Star Tours would be considered true standout attractions in most other theme parks around the world. The park does have a few flat rides like Mad Hatter's Tea Cups, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, and Orbitron, though these are all family-oriented.

Needless to say, the dark ride game is off the charts, meaning you will never feel like you're lacking things to do. However, the low amount of flat rides, and the complete lack of thrill flats, means that we can't allocate the very top score in this category.

Adventure World

You cannot talk about Disney without talking about their approach to dark rides, world-class theming, immersion, and overall experience. Adventure World is no different, boasting not one, not two, but three absolute world-class dark rides that rank at the very top of our worldwide ranking.

Tower of Terror needs no introduction. It's a Disney staple and an absolute riot of an accelerated drop and launch tower, and it remains one of the most thrilling attractions at the resort.

Frozen Ever After, Intamin's brand-new boat ride during our visit, strikes the perfect balance between world-class theming, whimsical songs, and immersion. Just watching the state-of-the-art animatronics move around is a form of escapism in itself. Add in all the music and the decently thrilling drops, and you have what we consider the crowning jewel of dark rides at the Disneyland Paris resort.

Ratatouille: We dreaded the 80-to-100-minute queue for two days before finally biting the bullet, and we regret nothing. This 2014 trackless car ride combines digital and practical elements to throw you into the world of Ratatouille, and it does it in absolutely spectacular fashion. We could not stop nerding out over how well-executed their trackless setup was, with six cars gliding around corners in perfect synchronization. Even the screen-based sections were far beyond anything we had seen before.

Add a high-quality interactive shooter like Spider-Man W.E.B. Adventure, and there is no world in which we do not give this a 10/10. The only reason we are not breaking the scale and going to 11 is the lack of thrilling flats, and flat rides in general.

Park Appearance (DLP 11 / AW 11)

Disneyland Park

If there were any one category where this park was almost guaranteed to score max points, it would be appearance, as it is quite literally the reason why most people come here. The theming, immersion, attention to detail, and overall vibe of a Disney park are something special that speaks to a lot of people (hence the ludicrous number of people we saw heavily decked out with Disney merch and custom t-shirts celebrating this season's trip to their favorite theme park).

This doesn't necessarily mean that it would speak to us personally, and Disney parks certainly aren't for everyone. However, it didn't take long before Disneyland Park proved itself worthy of the golden rating in this category. Not only is every ride meticulously designed, heavily themed, and immersive, but the park itself is also beautiful and clean (which is extremely impressive given the sheer number of people and families with small children present).

Hell, even the entrance sets the stage. The walk down Main Street, U.S.A. with a center view of Sleeping Beauty Castle really is a sight you rarely see at a theme park.

Adventure World

Unsurprisingly, Adventure World also completely knocks it out of the park when it comes to appearance, though it is interesting how different the two parks actually feel. Where Disneyland Park has a more lived-in and magical feel, Adventure World is much more modern and exciting, and we really loved the overall vibe.

The park looks incredible, and we were especially impressed by the numerous character appearances that happened throughout the day. From the Disney Princess Cavalcade and Elsa showing up mid-queue for Frozen Ever After, to the spontaneous shows at Avengers Campus, there truly was always something to look at and look forward to while traversing the park.

It is going to sound cliché, but Disney very much manages to pull you out of your mundane everyday life and bring you into a different world, one where attention is paid to every little detail, all coming together to create something much bigger than the sum of its parts.

Park Practicality (DLP 7.5 / AW 8)

Disneyland Park

A fairly large park with an interesting layout. You enter through Main Street, U.S.A. and are taken to the Central Plaza in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. From here, the four main themed areas circle the plaza, and you're free to move between them. This is actually a very nice and practical design, as it means it never takes too long to get from one end of the park to another, and given that you can often use the castle as a point of reference, navigation is incredibly easy. We also greatly appreciated the wooded path between Fantasyland and Discoveryland (perhaps the only place in the entire resort where it's nice and quiet).

The Main Street-to-Central Plaza design is very nice both as an entrance experience and when you casually navigate throughout the day. However, it also turns into a massive bottleneck when it's busy, especially after the closing show when everyone is heading for the exit.

Adventure World

The park itself is practical and very easy to navigate with a simple layout surrounding the lake.

Both parks

The fact that a company of this size is unable to provide a decent app experience is beyond us. The app (despite having solid features) is very unresponsive and slow to use, suffering from stuttering, delayed response times, and an overall bad UX. Doing simple tasks like looking at queue times on the map was way harder than it needed to be.

But perhaps the biggest sin was the incorrect queue times that always worked against you. Posted times were almost always 20 to 40% lower than the actual wait time, making an already long 40-minute wait turn into 70 minutes. This was quite annoying as we never really knew if a queue was standard-long or "Disney-long." We would much rather have the times be overestimated, turning a long wait into a positive experience when you arrive at the station 10 or 20 minutes sooner than expected.

Food (DLP 7.5 / AW 9.5)

Disneyland Park

There is a great variation throughout the park, taking inspiration from a lot of different countries and cultures. We loved how almost all of the food was themed in some way, and the experience of getting it was surprisingly easy despite how busy the park was.

The quality of the food itself was a bit of a letdown, not because it was bad, but because we had hoped for slightly better at Disney. The pulled beef sandwich (which was more of a wrap) and the Hakuna chicken salad we got at Restaurant Hakuna Matata were okay, but nothing special. The Mickey Mouse pizza we got from Pizzeria Bella Notte reminded us of a frozen pizza bought in a convenience store (though with a cute Mickey Mouse design) and was quite disappointing for a Disney food option. The saving grace here was the classic turkey leg from the Last Chance Café, which was quite a unique and tasty meal.

Adventure World

Disney and food (and snacks) often go hand in hand, and Adventure World definitely delivers. On day one, we had a fantastic chimichurri burger themed to Toy Story, followed by a turkey meatball and salmon dish paired with mash and gravy on day two. The burger definitely stood out as one of the best we've ever had at a theme park, and the Scandinavian-inspired dishes (in Arendelle) were a fresh and welcome addition to the usual theme park fast food.

The food itself was high quality, but the score earns further points for the amazing theming and service. Every restaurant was unique and themed to the IP it represented, with distinct menu items at each location making the hunt for food a truly interesting experience. We have never spent so much time exploring menus looking for interesting choices throughout a park before!

Snacks And Drinks (DLP 9.5 / AW 9.5)

Disneyland Park

• Restaurant Hakuna Matata: Plantains and a Simba Cupcake. Fun options that were both tasty and of good quality.
• The Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlour: Ice cream with a Mickey Mouse cookie. We were quite skeptical as they "just" served Carte D'Or ice cream, but it was very good and refreshing, and the Mickey Mouse cookie was a nice touch.
• Last Chance Café: Pineapple Fritters. While they weren't personally our thing, this was another interesting option of fairly high quality.
• Random ice cream stall near Peter Pan: Mickey Mouse Ice Cream. We felt a bit silly buying what looked like a small and simple ice cream for kids, but this thing was surprisingly good. It featured high-quality chocolate and vanilla ice cream, and it wasn't small at all, either (nor cheap, for that matter).

While none of the things we got really blew us away, the variety seemed strong with lots of interesting options, though there was a big emphasis on ice cream in particular. Overall, the snack game hit hard at Disneyland Park.

Adventure World

We will try not to repeat everything we just said about the food, but most of our praise remains the same when it comes to snacks, and perhaps even more so. Each location almost always had a unique dessert, be it a white chocolate shortbread with a berry center, a tutti frutti ice cream in a pepper cookie bowl (a very delicious bowl, we might add), or a Toy Story-themed eclair. All of these were absolutely delicious, by the way.

The park also offered the usual, more generic items such as crepes, vast amounts of candy, and standard ice cream parlors scattered around. We tried one of the crepes, which was decent, but nothing to write home about. Landing on a score of 9.5, therefore, comes from the previously mentioned theming, but also from the incredible variety of snacks available throughout the entire park.

Ride Operations (DLP 11 / AW 11)

Operations at both parks were incredible and some of the best we have ever seen. The 60+ minute queues are definitely through no fault of the operations team, as multiple trains were always running, often utilizing dual stations on the roller coasters or double-vehicle loading on the boat rides. Dispatches were lightning-quick, and staff members were everywhere, swiftly directing people where to sit. Honestly, we don't mind assigned seating when it's handled this well (especially since it serves an actual purpose, these stations would be pure chaos without it). Disney expects crowds and they do absolutely everything in their power to handle it.

We also noticed just how many wheelchair users and otherwise impaired riders were in the queues for many of the rides. It seems that Disney goes out of its way to make sure as many people can ride as possible, and we considered this to be a major positive.

The entire staff was, of course, very professional and friendly, and it is to no one's surprise that both parks score the absolute maximum points available in this category.

Park Management (DLP 10 / AW 11)

Disneyland Park

A beautifully run park, and it really is a testament to the daily management that we spent over 18 hours at the park without experiencing any major issues or feeling too frustrated by the crowd levels.

Yes, it is an expensive park. Perhaps the only things we can really hold against it are that the nighttime show could have been handled a little better, and they had a few minor flat rides closed (with a few more closing early due to preparations for the show). However, all of this was clearly visible on the website and in the app, and it did little to hinder us from having a great time.

Between the great service, an abundance of friendly staff, plenty of clean amenities (none of which were closed), and, of course, the insane merch game, Disney really did live up to its expectations as a well-run park (and then some). As long as you don't mind spending a lot of money and standing in very long queues, you will have a great time at Disneyland Park.

Adventure World

Rounding off our 13 hours in Adventure World, we can only conclude that the park runs like clockwork. There were no facility closures, no odd policies, no staggered openings, and immaculate service. Add in a merch lineup that is quite obviously unrivaled by most other European theme parks, and this becomes one of the easiest 11s we can give to a park that ends up landing at the very top of our overall rankings.

Conclusion

Adventure World 8.2, Disneyland Park 8.00. Disneyland Park won both coaster categories and still lost.

Everything here is obviously very subjective, but for us, Adventure World has for decades been seen as the lesser of the two (even going as far as being called the worst Disney park in the world), but as our scores show, Adventure World is equal to, if not better than, Disneyland Park in most categories. The park just felt more alive, more cohesive, and better managed, overall providing a more complete experience. We would love to come back to this park any day and hope that, with the future investments already underway, Adventure World can shake off its previous reputation, because this park truly deserves to be praised.

A 8.2 average lands Adventure World joint 4th of the best parks we have tried, tied with Phantasialand; Disneyland Park lands 8th, just behind Heide Park and Liseberg.

Full reviews with individual coaster breakdowns are as always at https://parkrating.com/.

Pàrc Asterix is coming later this month, (Goudarix might be rough, but god damn is it a beautiful coaster), and starting in the new year we are going on a roadtrip through korea covering everything from the new rebranded Monimo rush in Everland to the new Zamperla Double heart in busan :)

a girl was holding her simba balloon while being seated on her dads shoulders and i couldn’t see the castle during the closing show lmaooo, and no, i couldn’t move because it was PACKED!

anyway

hey everyone, i went to DLP for the first time a few days ago and wanted to share my experience just for fun.

size of the parks: wow they are giant, we bought tickets for 1 day - 2 parks, and it wasn’t definitely enough. still had so much fun!

final show: i cried, too beautiful and i loved the quote "Find your magic, embrace it, and pass it on"

rides: lmaoooo i wasn’t expecting tower of terror to be like THAT (my first time riding it), it was great but i got so scared of the next ones. i’m more a simulator girl, my partner did ride avengers and big thunder mountain, and he liked them.
i loved ratatouille ride, slinky ride and flying carpets.

time of wait: we visited on a monday, every single ride had a 85+ minute wait; now i get the comments about how dlp over sells tickets.

rudeness of staff: i was very surprised, i remember how magical disney orlando felt to me when i visited in 2015; you really felt inside a magical bubble and people looked like they enjoyed their job.
this wasn’t the case of dlp, i understand some tourists can get in your nerves, but trust me, i’m not that kind of tourist lol, and i still got mistreated.
i dont want to expose cast members because at the end it’s a job, and ofc its not ALL of them, but to name a few situations that shocked me: one was chewing gum with his open mouth while driving the ride lmaoooo, another one was literally yelling at her co coworker (i had no idea about what because i don’t speak french but she was fuming)
i got tired of writing but overall they looked annoyed to be there.

and look, i work from 8 am to 7 pm, im underpaid with no benefits in a 3rd world country where the political and economical crisis is our every day.. i deal with annoying, rude and entitled people all the time, but IMO you have to learn to manage your emotions… there are kids (you didn’t see me fighting the girl with the simba balloon), it’s a kids place… some can be annoying and stressful, yes, but not all of them and not all the time! as well as tourists some are good, some are bad, but it’s disney right? a ~magical place.

chez remy: my favorite part definitely, the food was so good too!! and the portions were big

the 2 parks are giant and beautiful, i loved them… hopefully i can come back and stay at the disney hotel and have more days to visit the parks!

Beautiful show.

I thought I'd share some photos I took of my trip in June. It was so magical but way too hot which dimmed our enjoyment, but we can't wait to return next October. The sun meant we got some amazing photos though which I have shared!

Also a special thank you to the staff, the accessibility was far better than we imagined and was absolutely amazing, we didn't feel like a burden at all with our Dad in a wheelchair which is usually the case, truly magical and it's so important. The only issue we had the entire trip was caused by other visitors when a group refused to move out the way so we could wheel my dad to the accessible parade viewing area and had to be repeatdly asked by staff members to move.