If you’re planning a trip to Disneyland Paris, you’ll need at least one full day at Disneyland Park. But whether you’re planning a vacation from the United States or just a short day-trip from somewhere nearby, fitting the best rides of Disneyland Paris into one day can seem challenging.
We’ve got you covered. This one-day itinerary for Disneyland Park will guide you through getting the most out of a single day.
2021 Update: With FASTPASS suspended during the reopening phase and Standby Pass introduced, this itinerary is a tad out of date (not to mention the suspended entertainment and all the other changes to the parks). It was always intended as a rough guide to offer a strategic outlook at how you might put a day together, so we still recommend reading it keeping in mind that it won’t be a perfect guide.
Recommended Reading
If you’re interested in our opinions on the major attractions, check out our Disneyland Paris Rides and Attractions post. And if you haven’t already, check out our guide to Disneyland Paris Fastpass in preparation for sorting out the details of your day. You also may want to check out our Disneyland Paris app guide and download the Disneyland Paris app, which will provide you with wait times while you’re in the park.
Introduction
This post covers most of the attractions at Disneyland Paris and includes visits to the main parade—Disney Stars on Parade—a castle stage show, and the nighttime show, Illuminations.
Keep in mind that your itinerary will definitely not match this exactly. Crowd levels and ride refurbishments in particular can impact your day, which is why we try and talk about general strategies in this post, too. There may be other entertainment in the park when you visit. For example, during Halloween there is often an additional parade.
The rest of this post uses “Disneyland Paris” to refer to Disneyland Park, the castle park at Disneyland Paris resort (the other park is the smaller Walt Disney Studios Park).
At the end of the post, we have a minute-by-minute recap of one of our most recent days at Disneyland Paris. If you want to jump down to that—which we don’t advise—you can just click here. Let’s get started.
Extra Magic Hour 8:30 to 9:30 — Fantasyland
We’re advocates of staying at a Disney hotel, which gets you access to Extra Magic Hour, sometimes called “Extra Magic Time” (Disneyland Paris uses both terms). If you’re interested, you can read our reviews of Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne, Disney’s Sequoia Lodge, and Disneyland Hotel (Paris).
During this hour, only guests of Disney hotels and select annual passholders are allowed into the park. If you’re not staying at a Disney hotel, but are visiting the parks for multiple days, you might want to see whether a Disneyland Paris annual pass is right for you. The Magic Plus pass (€299) is the lowest level that includes Extra Magic Hour.
We have a full post discussing Extra Magic Time at Disneyland Paris, and we recommend reading that in full. We’ll summarize here. If you don’t have Extra Magic Time, you can hop ahead to the next section.
This post uses a park opening time of 10:00AM. On days with that opening time, Extra Magic Hour is typically from 8:30AM to 9:30AM. If the park is opening earlier, Extra Magic Time may be earlier (this information is available online and in the Disneyland Paris app).
The main goal of Extra Magic Time is to make sure you have ridden both Peter Pan’s Flight and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad by 10AM. The secondary goal is to ride as many other rides—particularly without Fastpass—as you can by 10AM.
Disney hotel guests, plan to arrive at about 8:15AM to get the most out of your day. The park gates often open around 8:00AM, and guests are given access to Main Street, U.S.A. (this can be a good time for photos) until 8:30AM when the Extra Magic Hours rides open.
If Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is a part of Extra Magic Time, you’ll start there. Then you’ll ride anything you can until 9:30AM, when you’ll grab a 10AM Fastpass for Peter Pan’s Flight. Ride a few rides in Fantasyland (some of them should open between 9:30AM and 10AM) and then use the 10AM Fastpass for Peter Pan’s Flight.
If Big Thunder Mountain Railroad isn’t a part of the extra hour, you’ll start with Peter Pan’s Flight. Then you’ll ride anything you can until about 9:20AM, when you’ll head over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, with the goal of riding that right at 9:30AM.
During this time, target rides that don’t have Fastpass, like Orbitron and Dumbo. Buzz Lightyear is also a good one because its Fastpass queue is actually quite slow later in the day. Ideally you’ll ride somewhere between four and six rides during this time.
Here’s a look at an example morning when Big Thunder Mountain Railroad wasn’t running during EMH:
8:47AM Peter Pan’s Flight
8:54AM Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups
9:03AM Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast (Dumbo recommended but broken down)
9:14AM Orbitron
9:35AM Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
This was a pretty scant morning (hobbled by ride closures and rain), but we still put together a great day with this start. As we said above, if you’d like to read more about this time, we have a full post on Extra Magic Time at Disneyland Paris.
If you have Extra Magic Hour, you can skip down a few paragraphs to “Phantom Manor and Indiana Jones” just after the picture of Phantom Manor.
9:30 Rope Drop — Adventureland and Frontierland
If you don’t have Extra Magic Hour try to be at the park by 9AM. Despite a posted opening time of 10AM, it’s an open secret that Disneyland Park opens at 9:30. If you’re coming from Paris, you’ll probably want to read our post on Getting from Paris to Disneyland Paris by Train.
One thing we’ve noticed at Disneyland Paris is that while the park and some rides will open at 9:30AM, you can’t count on anything running until 10AM. Be prepared with a backup plan during this half hour in case your first choice hasn’t opened yet.
In this next section, you’ll cover the following rides:
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Phantom Manor
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
There are multiple routes to Frontierland when 9:30AM rolls around, but the Central Plaza entrance is closest to Big Thunder Mountain, so you’ll want to use that entrance and head straight for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
If Extra Magic Hour included Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Frontierland will be open before 9:30AM, and you’ll just grab a Fastpass for it right at 9:30AM. You should get a return time around 10AM.
If Extra Magic Hour didn’t include Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, you’ll just ride it right at 9:30AM, exiting by about 9:45AM or 10AM.
Phantom Manor and Indiana Jones
After Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, you can head to Phantom Manor and then to Indiana Jones. If the Indiana Jones wait is over 10 to 15 minutes, skip it, you’ll likely be able to get a Fastpass for it later in the day. If you stay ahead of the crowds, you’ll visit these roughly:
9:45AM Phantom Manor
10:15AM Indiana Jones
Generally, we pass on Pirates of the Caribbean early in the day. It’s a long ride and the indoor queue is an enjoyable way to spend 20 minutes later in the day.
Finishing Your Morning — Discoveryland
If everything has gone perfectly, it’s about 10:30AM now. If things went imperfectly (as they usually will), it’s probably closer to 11AM. Either way, your next goal is Discoveryland, with the caveat that you need to get lunch before the enormous 12PM lines arrive.
Discoveryland includes the following attractions:
Hyperspace Mountain (Fastpass)
Star Tours (Fastpass)
Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast (Fastpass)
Autopia
Orbitron
Nautilus (walkthrough)
Mickey’s PhilharMagic (3D show, save for afternoon)
There’s no perfect approach for getting through Discoveryland, but the basic idea is to rely heavily on Fastpass. If you had Extra Magic Time, you hopefully already rode Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast and Orbitron, which makes the land a little easier.
If you have to ride Autopia, grab a Fastpass for Hyperspace Mountain and then get in the Autopia line. For me, I’ve seen this wait get to 30 minutes by this time and the ride just isn’t worth locking in at this point.
If you’re fine delaying or skipping Autopia, you’ll do something like (the example schedule follows at the end of this section):
Grab Fastpass for Hyperspace Mountain
Wait in Line for Star Tours
(Possible Gap)
Grab Fastpass for Buzz Lightyear
Use Fastpass for Hyperspace Mountain
(Possible Gap)
11:45AM Lunch
You can switch around these rides, but ideally you’ll have ridden two of the three Fastpass rides and have a Fastpass for the third in hand when you go to lunch.
If you have some gaps in this plan, you’ll fill them with things like Orbitron, Nautilus, Alice’s Curious Labyrinth, Sleeping Beauty Castle (including Sleeping Beauty Gallery and The Dragon’s Lair), Pinocchio, Snow White, or “it’s a small world.”
It should be about 11:45 now, and you'll have a Fastpass for Buzz in the afternoon. Here’s a look at an example schedule for this part of the day:
10:37AM - Grab FastPass for Hyperspace Mountain (11:05AM to 11:35AM)
11:00AM - Ride Star Tours
11:14AM - Grab FastPass for Buzz Lightyear (11:45AM to 12:15PM)
11:15AM - Use Hyperspace Mountain FastPass
11:30AM - Use Buzz Lightyear Fastpass
I’ll note here that Buzz is an annoying Fastpass queue that often moves very slowly. I try to avoid it whenever possible, which is why we typically ride during Extra Magic Time.
Planning Your Afternoon
If it's 11:45 and not much later, now is a good time to grab lunch. Lines for lunch start to get big around 12PM. Lunch is the time to take stock of your day and plan your afternoon.
This is also where you'll want to start being more flexible, but according to the following rules:
1. Make Lists Of What You Have Left
You need the following three lists (you can get the information for these from the app). First, a list of the attractions you have left and what time they close. Second, a list of the shows (parades, stage shows, etc.) you have left, including show times. Third, a list of the characters you want to meet and their greeting times (they’re in the app under “Shows”).
2. Plan your existing Fastpass and your next Fastpass
In our example, I used the Buzz Fastpass right before lunch. Including Extra Magic Time, I’m actually out of Fastpass rides. Ideally you have a Fastpass in-hand during lunch (even for a repeat ride), but it won’t always work out.
Peter Pan’s Flight and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad might be on their last Fastpass of the day, so you should swing by those before lunch if you need them.
3. Pay attention to showtimes
We mentioned that you need to make a list of shows and showtimes. Try not to plan to make the last showtime of something, always try to make the first showtime. Things like parades and nighttime shows often only have one showtime, so don’t miss it!
This information is in the Disneyland Paris app, but also be sure to grab a Programme at the front of the park.
4. Plan to Explore
Adventure Isle, Alice’s Curious Labyrinth, the two arcades, Frontierland Playground, La Cabane des Robinson, La Taniere du Dragon, Le Passage Echante d’Aladdin, Nautilus, Pirate Galleon, the Frontierland entrance fort, and Sleeping Beauty Castle are all non-ride attractions that you can pretty much do at your leisure.
These will rarely have lines and for the most part can take as much or as little time as you have (the Labyrinth and La Cabane des Robinson will take at least 15 minutes).
5. Fill the gaps between shows and fastpasses
So you have the “ingredients”—shows, rides, characters, explorable spaces, and Fastpass times—now mix them together. Shows and Fastpass times are fixed, so you’ll be planning around those.
When you have longer gaps, plan to check off any remaining rides. You should have a few Fantasyland things left, like Pinocchio, “it's a small world,” and Snow White, which should have waits of 15 minutes to 45 minutes. For shorter gaps, or longer gaps where you don't want to wait in lines, you’ll target the things to explore.
6. Consider getting Pirates of the Caribbean done before it gets too late
We deliberately pushed this one later in the day because we’re fans of its queue and it’s a long ride. Just don’t push it too late. The last thing you want is to run out of time or have a must-see ride break down before you get on it.
It’s rare, but it happens. A 45-minute wait in the middle of the day can be troublesome for picking showtimes, but it might make sense for you.
A Sample Afternoon in Disneyland Paris
Here’s an example of how we apply those above tips. We’re already done with Fastpass in our example schedule (lucky us), and we’re targeting the 12:30PM Seasonal Parade, the 2:30PM stage show, and the 5:30PM Disney Stars on Parade:
12:30PM Seasonal Parade
1:02PM Nautilus (Explore)
1:22PM Le Pays Des Contes De Fées (Ride)
1:32PM Casey Jr. (Ride)
2:11PM Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Ride)
2:15PM Explore Sleeping Beauty Castle (Explore)
2:30PM Seasonal Stage Show
2:45PM Main Street Vehicles (Ride)
3:30PM PhilharMagic (3D Show)
4:08PM Molly Brown (Frontierland Riverboat) (Ride)
4:36PM La Taniere du Dragon (Explore)
5:01PM “it’s a small world” (Ride)
5:30PM Disney Stars on Parade
Your afternoon could shape up over a million ways, but I’ll highlight a few things about this example. We explored Sleeping Beauty Castle right before the castle stage show because that show is right next to the castle.
Nautilus at 1:02PM was a strange choice, I think we actually had another motive for heading to that area (maybe a bathroom or to grab a Fastpass), and just added it in.
We also rode “it’s a small world” right before the parade because the parade actually starts right outside that ride. So we had a good viewing point that also allowed us to head right back into Fantasyland.
Evening at Disneyland Paris
If you’ve been putting it off, now’s the time to do it. Unless its absolutely necessary, don’t eat dinner at the park. The food isn’t great, there aren’t many options for dinner (which means long lines), and it’s a waste of time. You can eat in Disney Village after you leave the park.
After the 5:30PM parade, you’ve probably just got the nighttime firework show, Illuminations, left as a fixed item on your schedule. So just keep busy until then.
6:05PM Pinocchio’s Daring Journey (ride)
6:15PM Adventure Isle (explore)
6:30PM Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse (explore)
6:40PM Le Passage Echante d’Aladdin (explore)
6:45PM Pirates of the Caribbean (ride)
7:30PM Frontierland entrance fort (explore)
8:00PM Illuminations
Fantasyland often closes early (one hour before park close when we were there), so don’t wait too long for anything you have left there. Also, don’t push Pirates of the Caribbean (or any ride) too late, lest you wind up stuck in line during the fireworks.
Finally, a bit before park close, grab a spot on Main Street U.S.A. and watch Disney's Illuminations, prefably with as many shoulder kids and cell phones as you can get in front of you.
Example Day at Disneyland Paris
The below itinerary is an example of how you might spend a day at Disneyland Paris. The times are actual times from mostly a single day and are either when we boarded a ride or arrived at a non-ride attraction.
We use AM/PM designation rather than a 24-hour clock because most of our readers are based in the USA. This itinerary does not include Autopia, which was not operating this visit.
8:47AM Peter Pan’s Flight
8:54AM Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups
9:03AM Dumbo
9:14AM Orbitron
9:35AM Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
9:45AM Phantom Manor
10:15AM Indiana Jones
10:37AM - Grab FastPass for Hyperspace Mountain (11:05AM to 11:35AM)
11:00AM - Ride Star Tours
11:14AM - Grab FastPass for Buzz Lightyear (11:45AM to 12:15PM)
11:15AM - Use Hyperspace Mountain FastPass
11:30AM - Use Buzz Lightyear Fastpass
Lunch
12:30PM Seasonal Parade
1:02PM Nautilus (Explore)
1:22PM Le Pays Des Contes De Fées (Ride)
1:32PM Casey Jr. (Ride)
2:11PM Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Ride)
2:15PM Explore Sleeping Beauty Castle (Explore)
2:30PM Seasonal Stage Show
2:45PM Main Street Vehicles (Ride)
3:30PM PhilharMagic (3D Show)
4:08PM Molly Brown (Frontierland Riverboat) (ride)
4:36PM La Taniere du Dragon (explore)
5:01PM “it’s a small world” (ride)
5:30PM Disney Stars on Parade
6:05PM Pinocchio’s Daring Journey
6:15PM Adventure Isle
6:30PM Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse
6:40PM Aladdin
6:45PM Dinner
7:30PM Frontierland entrance fort
8:00PM Illuminations
Do you have any questions about spending a day at Disneyland Paris?
All Your Other Disneyland Paris Planning Questions Answered
Don’t be overwhelmed by Disneyland Paris planning! Take a second to check out our most important content! Just starting out? Check out our Disneyland Paris Trip Planning Guide. Need to know how much this is going to take out of your pocket? We’ve got a post on How Much it Costs to Go to Disneyland Paris.
When it comes to hotels, we’ve reviewed three of them. Check our our Review of Disneyland Hotel (Paris), Review of Disney's Sequoia Lodge, and Review of Disney's Hotel Cheyenne. We also recommend considering an off-site hotel or Airbnb when visiting Disneyland Paris.
Know what to ride with our: Disneyland Paris Rides Guide and Walt Disney Studios Park Rides Guide. And just as important, know how to get on the best rides without the wait with our Guide to Disneyland Paris Fastpass! For the complete guides to a day at the park, we have a One Day Disneyland Paris Itinerary and a Walt Disney Studios Park Itinerary.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.