Disneyland Paris: Main Street U.S.A.

When you walk through the ticket barriers at Disneyland Paris, you're no longer in France - you're on Main Street, USA!

There are various ticket types to get into the park/s, including multi-day and multi-park options, and you can find out more details about tickets here. (Disney hotel packages tend to include tickets, though you can also book room-only.)

Whilst Main Street doesn't have any rides, it is the street that leads you to the four lands: Adventureland, Discoveryland, Frontierland and Fantasyland. At the end of the street is the iconic Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

Main Street is also where the parades take place, and there are often smaller parades that take place seasonally - at the moment it's Swing into spring. We missed Goofy's Garden Party, but we caught Minne's Little Spring Train:

It's just a small parade, but it's nice to see all the spring colours, especially when it's rainy and cold and the weather hasn't got the memo it is spring. The song is also super catchy!

Disney Magic on Parade!
The big parade though which takes place on Main Street is Disney Magic on Parade! This happens once a day, so if you're only there for one day, do not miss it! (You'll find maps and programmes, in various languages, inside the entrance of the park.)

     

If you want to be at the front for parade, you need to get to Main Street about 45 minutes before the parade begins to stake out your spot.

     

I totally love Pinocchio's gangster hands. One of the best places to see the floats is on the left corner in front of the bandstand (bandstand pictured at the top of this post, for reference; castle should be in front of you).

From that spot you get to see the floats as they come down Main Street, but also from the side as they pass that corner. Maximum parade watching!

But, as long as you're at the front by the rope you're going to have an awesome view of all your favourite characters passing you by. (We were about five metres to the right of that sweet bandstand spot.)

Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, Chip and Dale - the core Disney old-school characters - are on the very last float... though you might spot a small castaway at the back of it!

Eating on Main Street:
We had breakfast at the Plaza Gardens Restaurant twice, which is your typical Continental breakfast buffet - it's only available for hotel guests during the Magic Hours; non-hotel guests can eat lunch or dinner there - and ate lunch at Casey's Corner.

Casey's Corner is a hotdog place - this sort of food (burgers, fries, chicken nuggets and hotdogs) is pretty standard across the different quick service restaurants in the two parks, unless you go to a buffet restaurant or a sit-down restaurant. (Which, obviously, cost more money.)

For one of our dinners we ate at Walt's, which was probably my favourite meal of the holiday - I enjoyed a seabass risotto, and it was nice to have something a bit different from the lunchtime fast food.

One thing I loved about my nephews' and niece's evening meals was that their food was presented on a Mickey Mouse head and ears shaped plate - face for the main, left ear for the starter and right ear for their drink. So cute! (Though where was my Mickey plate?!)

Disney Dreams:
The final thing to know about Main Street U.S.A. is that Sleeping Beauty's Castle is the place to be as the park closes for Disney Dreams. If you're facing the castle head-on, you want to be at the left-hand side of the castle - at the Adventureland entrance, rather than the Discoveryland side. That's because as well as fireworks over the castle, there is a projection on the castle; this is the best place to stand to get the full effect.

I know this because we actually watched Disney Dreams twice - the first time some of us missed the beginning as we were still on Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, so we came out of the ride and had to watch it on the Discoveryland side (all my photos were taken from this side, so they are not as good as they could be). The second time we were on the other side and it was a far more enjoyable show from this vantage point. Get ready to sing along to all those iconic Disney songs!

What do you make of good ol' Main Street USA? x