2022 Update: Two new rides—Avengers Assemble Flight Force and Spider-Man WEB Adventure will open July 20, 2022. These will be significant changes to the park and probably will change strategy greatly, too. Unfortunately, we have no plans to visit the park in the near future, so we won’t be able to update this post for some time.
If you’re planning a trip to Disneyland Paris, you should be planning to visit both parks, including the smaller Walt Disney Studios Park. Visiting Walt Disney Studios Park isn’t a huge challenge, but you’ll still want to know the best strategy to tackle the rides quickly.
We’ve got you covered. This itinerary for Walt Disney Studios Park will give you the perfect attack plan for visiting this park.
Confession: this isn’t really a “one day plan.” In truth, you don’t need a full day at Walt Disney Studios Park. This itinerary covers 8:30AM to 11AM. (If you don’t have Extra Magic Hour, you might need until 1PM if lines get a little long.)
If you haven’t read our guide to Fastpass at Disneyland Paris, you might want to check that out (though using it in this park is pretty simple).We have a separate post if you’d like commentary about the rides of Walt Disney Studios Park.
If you’re planning a single day at both parks, you’ll need to also read our Disneyland Paris one-day itinerary and combine the two posts (start here, the rest of it is mostly up to you).
Upcoming Changes at Walt Disney Studios Park
Before we get to the itinerary, it’s important to highlight any major changes coming to Walt Disney Studios Park so that if they happen before we update this itinerary, you’re aware of them.
Sometime in 2020 or 2021, we’re expecting two new rides—a Spider-Man ride and an Iron Man Coaster—to open. When these open, it’s possible we’ll advise that you start your morning with one or both of them, but we won’t have final advice until they actually open.
Arrival and Rope Drop (And Extra Magic Hour)
If you’re coming from Paris, you’ll probably want to read our post on Getting from Paris to Disneyland Paris by Train.
The bulk of this post assumes you have access to Extra Magic Hour / Extra Magic Time at Disneyland Paris. At the end of this post we have a section on visiting without Extra Magic Hour.
Disneyland Paris has daily Extra Magic Hours at both Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park. During this extra morning hour, only guests of Disney hotels and select annual passholders can visit the park.
At Disneyland Park, this isn’t a huge deal because guests go to so many different rides in the morning. It is, however, a big deal if you’re starting at Walt Disney Studios Park.
Pretty much everyone is going to Crush’s Coaster to start the morning at Walt Disney Studios Park. It’s the best ride in the park and it doesn’t use Fastpass.
If you have Extra Magic Hour, you’ll be starting there. If you don’t, then you probably won’t want to start there. The reason is that the wait will already be pretty long when you arrive, and it’s better to take advantage of any remaining short waits now, then come back for Crush’s Coaster later.
It’s a good idea to arrive at 8AM if you’re visiting for the 8:30AM extra hour. If you’re not visiting for the extra hour, you should arrive by 9AM because guests may be let into the park as early as 9:30AM.
Here’s a look at the 8:17AM crowds.
Disneyland Paris uses an abysmal ticket scanner so that lengthy delays in scanning into the park are common. In Florida, this line probably would have taken about 2 minutes to get us into the park. Today, though, we’re not inside the park until 8:36AM following the 8:30AM open.
Starting the day with Extra Magic Hour is easy—go to Crush’s Coaster. You just go through Stage 1 (big building, you have to walk through it), then turn right. We’re on the ride at 8:59AM.
Without Extra Magic Hour, just start following the plan with the next section, fitting Crush’s Coaster in later in the day. Single rider is available if you’d like to cut down on the wait a little bit.
First Fastpass and Toy Story Playland
Once you’re off Crush’s Coaster, the next two steps are simple:
Grab a Fastpass for Ratatouille
Visit Toy Story Playland
When you get to the Toy Story Playland entrance from Crush’s Coaster you can just turn right (not entering Toy Story Playland) and to grab that Ratatouille Fastpass.
From there, walk through the barrel of monkeys into Toy Story Playland. On this morning, our schedule looked like:
9:05AM Grab Ratatouille Fastpass (for 9:30AM to 10AM)
9:08AM Ride RC Racer
9:13AM Ride Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin
9:32AM Ride Toy Soldier Parachutes
You can see that by 9:30AM a waits are starting to creep up. Unfortunately if you’re starting your day after 9:30AM you’ll be left with slightly longer waits or just skipping some rides.
Second Fastpass and Finishing the Rides
The final five steps to your day are simple, too:
Grab a Fastpass for Tower of Terror
Ride Ratatouille
Ride Cars Quatre Roues Rallye
Ride Les Tapis Volants - Flying Carpets Over Agrabah
Ride Tower of Terror
Exiting Toy Story Playland you hopefully have time to go grab your second Fastpass at Tower of Terror before you go and use your first Fastpass for Ratatouille.
After that, you squeeze in the two remaining Toon Studio rides, Cars Quatre Roues Rallye and Flying Carpets Over Agrabah. If you have to push one of them until after Tower of Terror, that’s fine.
Our morning played out efficiently:
9:39AM Grab Tower of Terror Fastpass (for 10:30AM to 11AM)
9:44AM Use Ratatouille Fastpass
10:07AM Cars Quatre Roues Rallye
10:24AM Flying Carpets Over Agrabah
10:47AM Use Tower of Terror Fastpass
Remaining Activities at Walt Disney Studios Park
Walt Disney Studios Park is the only park I don’t think is worth taking the time to walk through just to take it in (if you do, it takes about ten minutes), but we haven’t finished everything yet.
Mickey and the Magician at Animagique Theater is a fantastic stage show that unfortunately runs only seasonally (1st February until 6th September 2020). This is a must-do if it’s running during your visit.
As of late-2019 the Studio Tram Tour is still running. This attraction is expected to end at some point, but it’s still chuggin’. This 20-minute ride past some props and through some “sets” isn’t a great use of time, but it does have one notable fun moment.
Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show Spectacular is an automotive stunt show similar to the old show at Hollywood Studios. It is shown two or three times a day and is about 35 minutes long. There are some cool moments, but there’s also a ton of setup involved.
Stitch Live! is an interactive show like Turtle Talk wish Crush where guests are expected to interact with Stitch, who is on screen but controlled and voiced by an actor. This was one of our worst experiences in a Disney park ever and it honestly felt like everyone in the room could say the same. The show is conducted in both French and English at different times.
There are a few Character Greetings in the park. Check the Programme or with a Cast Member for the current offerings.
A second theater, Studio Theater, next to Stitch Live! was being used to show Maleficent previews when we were there, but a new show may also be coming to that space.
This brings us to a final reminder that this park is very much in flux. Without much in terms of permanent attractions until Avengers Campus opens, you can expect some small or even “pop-up” changes to happen at the park. None of these will impact your general ride strategy, though.
Visiting Without Extra Magic Hour
If you don’t have Extra Magic Hour, you have two options. First, you can ride every ride. This will take you until maybe 1PM to 2PM on average, depending on crowds. This still leaves you plenty of time to visit Disneyland Park, but I don’t recommend prioritizing Walt Disney Studios Park if you only have a single day.
The alternative (recommended) plan is to cut out skippable rides. We’d cut Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin, Toy Soldier Parachutes, Cars Quatre Roues Rallye, Flying Carpets Over Agrabah, and Studio Tram Tour.
If you cut those rides, it probably makes sense to grab a Fastpass (for Ratatouille or Tower of Terror) when you arrive and then ride RC Racer and Crush’s Coaster.
Sample Itinerary for Walt Disney Studios Park
As always, we have to remind you that this is just an example how a morning at Walt Disney Studios Park can look. Park hours and crowd levels may vary. It’s also primarily focused on rides and doesn’t include some of the “other” activities discussed above.
8AM Suggested Arrival Time (for Extra Magic Hour)
8:30AM Park opens for Extra Magic Hour
8:59AM Ride Crush’s Coaster
9:00AM Suggested Arrival Time (no Extra Magic Hour)
9:05AM Grab Ratatouille Fastpass (for 9:30AM to 10AM)
9:08AM Ride RC Racer
9:13AM Ride Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin
9:30AM Typical Park Open (no Extra Magic Hour)
9:32AM Ride Toy Soldier Parachutes
9:39AM Grab Tower of Terror Fastpass (for 10:30AM to 11AM)
9:44AM Use Ratatouille Fastpass
10:07AM Cars Quatre Roues Rallye
10:24AM Flying Carpets Over Agrabah
10:47AM Use Tower of Terror Fastpass
11:16AM Studio Tram Tour
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.