One of the key perks of staying at a Disney hotel at Disneyland Paris is access to Extra Magic Time—bonus time in the parks before they open to other guests. In this post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about Extra Magic Time at Disneyland Paris. We’ll start with the basics—when it’s offered, how to get it, and what rides are included—before moving onto the best strategies for getting the most out of this bonus time. Read on to learn all about Extra Magic Time at Disneyland Paris!
Basics of Disneyland Paris Extra Magic Time
Before we get into the strategy (where to go when, at both parks), let’s get acquainted with this perk…
What is Extra Magic Time at Disneyland Paris?
Extra Magic Time offers select guests (Disney hotel guests and select annual passholders) extra time in the Disneyland Paris theme parks before they open to the public.
Extra Magic Time can vary in which park it is available at (Disneyland Paris has two parks) and for how long. Typically it is available for an hour before opening, and I believe it’s available at both parks almost every day. You can check the calendar for the upcoming schedule.
Who gets Extra Magic Time at Disneyland Paris?
Extra Magic Time is available to all guests of the official Disney hotels at Disneyland Paris. These hotels are:
Disney Hotel New York — Art of Marvel
Disney Newport Bay Club
Disney Hotel Santa Fe
Disney Davey Crocket Ranch
Les Villages Nature Paris
Guests get access to Extra Magic Time every day of their stay, including arrival and departure days. If you’re visiting on arrival day, you should go to the hotel first to get your room key (if you have tickets or an annual pass already, I’m unsure whether someone at the gate would accept just seeing your reservation on your phone, for example).
Additionally, holders of the “Gold Pass” annual pass at Disneyland Paris have access to Extra Magic Time. Other annual passholders do not get Extra Magic Time.
What rides are included in Extra Magic Time at Disneyland Paris?
This isn’t as simple a question as it seems. For starters, best I can tell, Disney does not publish a list of rides included in Extra Magic Time at Disneyland Paris. The other issue is that it’s common for rides to open during Extra Magic Time even if they weren’t open at the start of Extra Magic Time.
I’ll list the rides that have been available recently, but there are a few ways you can get a sense of what to expect as your visit date comes around.
First, you can just go on the Disneyland Paris app and check the operating times for different rides. Interestingly, once the ride opens the app actually shows the actual (not scheduled) operating hours for that day. For example:
On this day, Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains opened at 9:10AM. This was 40 minutes into the Extra Magic Time that went from 8:30AM to 9:30AM.
It wouldn’t make sense to head there first during Extra Magic Time because it probably won’t be open, but this could be a great ride to get to later in the hour since many guests in the park might not realize it opened.
You’d also see that once the ride opens, it has a posted wait time in the app. So you might also just start looking at the app a few times during Extra Magic Time in the days leading up to your visit to get a sense for what’s available.
You can also head over to Thrill Data, which tracks wait times at Disneyland Paris. See what rides are posting wait times during recent Extra Magic Times, and you’ll get a sense of what opens when.
In general, I expect these rides to operate at the start of Extra Magic Time at Parc Disneyland (the castle park):
Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain
Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast
Orbitron
Peter Pan's Flight
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Big Thunder Mountain
As the morning rolls on, some more rides might open during the hour, with the smaller rides in Fantasyland (Pinocchio, Snow White, and the carrousel) doing this pretty frequently. I’ll talk more about how to approach this uncertainty in the strategy section below.
At Walt Disney Studios Park, I expect to see the following open at the start of Extra Magic Time:
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Spider-Man WEB Adventure
Ratatouille: The Adventure
Crush’s Coaster
Most notably left out of this list are the Toy Story Land rides, which also are not a part of Premier Access. On busier days in particular, though, all the rides in the park might be operating during Extra Magic Time.
Disneyland Paris Extra Magic Time Strategy
As I’ll mention in the conclusion of this post, I found Extra Magic Time very easy to navigate. An hour is a pretty good length for this perk, and just by taking a quick look at the longest waits the few days before my visit, I had no problem getting a ton of value out of my early wakeup.
That said, I learned a few things during my time in the parks. So this section will cover strategy—from when to arrive to which rides to go to when. It gets a little unwieldy because we have to talk about plans for people with and without Premier Access Ultimate (or One), but I think you should get a great sense of how to plan this magical hour. We’ll start with the castle park (Parc Disneyland) before talking about Walt Disney Studios Park.
Parc Disneyland Extra Magic Time Strategy
Let’s talk about strategy for Extra Magic Time at the castle park, Parc Disneyland, first.
I recommend arriving at the park gates 30 minutes before the start of Extra Magic Time. This is my default minimum for when I’ll arrive at a theme park (30 minutes before I can enter). During peak season you might want to arrive even earlier but (1) it’s already pretty early and (2) Extra Magic Time is long enough that you’ll get a lot done even arriving right at the start of Extra Magic Time, if you know where to go.
Parc Disneyland uses three separate corral areas for guests before the park opens. Facing Disneyland Hotel from outside the park:
Guests with Extra Magic Time will go to the left
Guests without Extra Magic Time will go up the middle (under the hotel)
Guests with Extra Magic Time coming from Disneyland Hotel can use the entrance on the right
During my stay at Disneyland Hotel there was no one immediately at this right entrance when I exited the hotel, so I opted to go around to where the rest of the Extra Magic Time guests were. Once Extra Magic Time started, I saw the other Disneyland Hotel guests using that entrance, though.
If you arrive early enough, security might hold you far from the park gates.
After that, you might be held for a bit outside the gates. Once Extra Magic Time gets a little closer (8:09AM on this day), they’ll start checking everyone’s credentials (hotel key or eligible annual pass) and let you line up at the gates.
At 8:23AM my last visit, for an 8:30AM Extra Magic Time start, we were let into the park.
You’ll want to know what ride you’re going to first before you get inside the park. The first thing you have to know is if you’re going to pay to skip and lines today with Disney Premier Access Ultimate or Disney Premier Access One. If you don’t know what that option is, take a second to click through that link and learn about it—it can greatly impact your day at the park.
If you’re planning to use Premier Access Ultimate, you want your Extra Magic Time to focus on rides that aren’t included in that service. Your best options for starting are Orbitron (which has a Premier Access One queue but, as of this post, isn’t included in Ultimate) or Dumbo the Flying Elephant (which doesn’t have Premier Access).
After those, you’d hope to get on Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains, Le Carrousel de Lancelot, Les Voyages de Pinocchio, Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups, Le Pays des Contes de Fees, and Casey Jr. – le Petit Train du Cirque.
These are rides that aren’t available on Premier Access. They might open at the start of Extra Magic Time, in the middle of it, or after it. In any case, you basically want to linger around Fantasyland waiting for them to open one by one. (If they all wind up waiting until the park opening time—sorry, but you’ve got Premier Ultimate so this isn’t really a problem for you.)
If you’re open to using Premier Access One, you’ve got a balancing act during Extra Magic Time. First, you probably want to do your best to tackle the most expensive Premier Access One rides, which tend to be Peter Pan’s Flight, Big Thunder Mountain, Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast (check the app for today’s prices).
But you also probably want to get on some of the rides I mentioned above that aren’t included in Premier Access. Personally, I’d aim to get on Peter Pan’s Flight, Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, but I’d skip Big Thunder Mountain early in Extra Magic Time, instead focusing on some of the rides without Premier Access.
Big Thunder Mountain is a far walk from the rest of the rides you’ll be getting on during this time. If you want to head to it right at the end of Extra Magic Time, that can make sense. Or you can just try and fit it into your day later, buying Premier Access One if absolutely necessary.
If you’re definitely not paying for any Premier Access queues, then I think the following example from a recent visit of mine (official Extra Magic Time start was 8:30AM but we were let into the park early) is a good approach:
Peter Pan’s Flight — 8:30AM
Dumbo the Flying Elephant — 8:36AM
Orbitron — 8:50AM
Hyperspace Mountain — 8:59AM
Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast — 9:09AM
Big Thunder Mountain — 9:50AM
In hindsight, I’d say I regret going to Big Thunder Mountain when I did (aiming to beat the rush at park opening). I think a better approach—if you’re willing to delay the popular Big Thunder Mountain—would be to go back to Fantasyland and check off the rides there right as they opened.
Walt Disney Studios Park Extra Magic Time Strategy
As with Parc Disneyland, your plan at Walt Disney Studios is going to depend heavily on whether you’ll have Premier Access.
If you have Premier Access Ultimate, then you really only need to have a plan for getting on the Toy Story Land rides—RC Racer and Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop get particularly long lines. Unfortunately, those rides aren’t always open during Extra Magic Time, though you’ll still want to get on them as close as possible to when they open.
Without Premier Access Ultimate—whether or not you’re going to use Premier Access One—you’ll want to start with Crush’s Coaster. This is the most expensive Premier Access ride at the park (and usually at the entire resort), and one of the most popular rides in the resort.
After Crush’s Coaster, I’d prioritize the following, but with the big caveat I discuss next:
Spider-Man WEB Adventure
Tower of Terror*
Ratatouille: The Adventure
The caveat here is that you really want to get to Toy Soldier Parachute Drop and then RC Racer right when they open if they aren’t a part of Extra Magic Time. If they are a part of Extra Magic Time, you definitely want to be in line for Toy Soldier Parachute Drop before the park opens to other guests.
To that end, I’d probably skip Tower of Terror during Extra Magic Time on most days. It’s less popular than Ratatouille and Toy Soldier Parachute Drop. It’s also centrally located in the park, so if you miss it early on you won’t have a problem fitting it into the day later.
Is it worth staying at a Disneyland Paris hotel to get Extra Magic Time?
While I don’t think Extra Magic Time on its own makes Disneyland Paris hotels worth it, I definitely think they are worth it and Extra Magic Time is an important part of that.
You can cover a lot of great rides in the hour of Extra Magic Time, and I found crowds to be much more reasonably disbursed (or maybe just lower overall) than during the comparable times at Walt Disney World and Disneyland (California).
Yes, I still write thousands of words explaining this perk to you, but the bottom line is that it’s incredibly convenient and not very stressful.
I suspect I’ll almost always book a Disney hotel for future trips to Disneyland Paris, and I definitely think it’s worth getting up early to use the Extra Magic Time perk. With just a bit of preparation (which you should have from this post), you’re setting yourself up for a perfect day.