What's the weather like? When should I visit?

Disneyland-Paris is promoted as an all-year-round attraction, but even the most ardent Europhiles would be hard-pressed to find a visit in the middle of Winter as pleasant as one in peak summer. Some of the food outlets and attractions will be closed, and the weather will very likely be wet, windy and rather cold (the temperature can easily be sub-zero). On the plus side, of course, winter attendance is lower (expect during the Christmas/New year weeks, which are packed) so queues are very much shorter.

It's hard to say exactly the best time to visit, since European weather patterns are not very predictable. Probably the best periods to choose would be May/June or September/October if you want reasonable weather while still avoiding the busiest school holiday periods, or July/August if you want the best guarantee of good weather but don't mind queuing!

If you want to check out the current weather reports for Disneyland Paris, point your web browser to the 'Intellicast' four-day forecast page for the Paris area: http://www.intellicast.com/weather/par/

The park's designers have made every effort to enable you to enjoy your visit even if the weather is poor, even down to choosing colour schemes that will show up as well against dull grey clouds as they will against blue skies (for example, the pinks and blue/greens of the castle). You can get from the main gate to Frontierland, and then on to Adventureland and Fantasyland, completely under cover. Most of the attractions are indoors, with fairly well sheltered queuing areas. Some, of course, are unavoidably in the open - such as Big Thunder Mountain, the Indiana Jones ride, Alice's Curious Labyrinth, Orbitron, etc.

Graham Allan (grahama@netcom.com) comments: Seeing the park for Christmas was very nice, but it was freezing cold (snow on the ground, too). I would hesitate to recommend going at this time of year, especially on weekends when there might be a crowd - standing in lines in sub-zero temperatures was not pleasant! However, there were loads of walk-arounds out in the park on the Monday morning (when the park was dead). Many more than one would normally see at DL or WDW at one time.

Gerard de Vries (gdevries@pi.net) adds: I agree with Graham Allan that it can be freezing cold during the winter, and that it's unpleasant to have to wait in the queues, but (as I encountered on New Years Eve 1996) the beauty of a frozen waterfall next to the castle, the sound of four singers dressed like they just stepped out of a Charles Dickens tale chanting Christmas carols in Main Street and, above all, the lighting ceremony of the Christmas Tree while it was gently snowing, was an experience which I'll never forget.

It may be worth noting that the local French school holidays are normally as follows:

Autumn (Fall): Last week in October
Christmas: A week before Christmas until just after New Year.
Winter: Mid-February to start of March
Easter: Two/three weeks starting at Easter
Summer: Early July to mid-September

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