Disneyland Paris for the Non-French Speaker

[mattj4226]

My family and I are thinking (just thinking right now) about going to Disneyland Paris at some point in the future. I can speak a little french (albeit with a southern ,redneck if you will, draw), but certainly not enough for a frenchperson to understand me.
My question is: Is it fairly easy to get around the resort and the rest of Paris with little knowledge of French?

[GIOny]

I can only tell you secondhand, some friends of mine went last year (to DP) and had little knowledge of the French language (although they did know some basics, which I think is a good idea whenever traveling to a foriegn country) and they didn't have a problem.

[mini-V]

We went to DLP in October 2005. My dd speaks French, but we found that it wasn't difficult to get around DLP at all. In fact, if she spoke to the waiter in French, he would reply in English, she would speak in English, and he'd go back to French. It was pretty funny. The most difficult part of the trip was trying to get from the Euro-star train station TO DLP. Had dh realized that we could have taken Euro-star right to DLP and skip transferring to local trains in Paris, we would have done so. The sign-age in the Paris train station was very confusing.
I think it shows a bit of respect to know some of the language in the country you visit. Brush up on your French JUST to make yourself look good and give yourself some confidence.

[mattj4226]

That's good. I just wish that we could go during the 15th anniversary, but I doubt we'll make it before the 50th LOL!
Is everything basically labeled in the airport/train station and DLP? I can read some french, so I think with that along with a patient frenchman we will be ok.

BTW, Bon Anniversaire Disneyland Paris!!!

[DisneyDreamer13]

You can still enjoy DLP with very little or no french. From memory all the signs/maps/menu's etc are in more than one language, at least french and english. And unless its changed the CM wear badges to show which languages they speak, a very high percentage have english as a language. Having said all of that, I found a 'please', 'thank you' and the basics in french go a long way.

[mini-V]

That's good. I just wish that we could go during the 15th anniversary, but I doubt we'll make it before the 50th LOL!
Is everything basically labeled in the airport/train station and DLP? I can read some French, so I think with that along with a patient Frenchman we will be ok.

BTW, Bon Anniversaire Disneyland Paris!!!

DLP is fine. You won't have a problem there. We took Euro-star, so I don't know about the airport. As I stated in my comment, WE had trouble in the train station trying to get from Euro-star to the local trains that would take us to DLP. When we finally got on a local train, it wasn't one that went all the way to DLP. We had to get off that train and take another. Europe likes to build trains, but they haven't figured out how to make the platform and the train be close to the same level. Getting on and off the trains was a challenge with a heavy suitcase.

[ky71]

We went in 1997 with our 18mth old DS. We had more issues at Heathrow airport than we did in the whole of France. We only knew basic French but had no trouble touring DLP with the guidemap printed in english and the CM namebadges have little flags of the country's languages they speak. In usual Disney style we always had some helpful person guide us if we could not pronounce the food at the counter or hand signals worked great. You will not have any problems at Disney - the train stop is Marnee le Valley (spelling ?) and if you're up for it you can walk to the station from the hotel (Cheyenne). Allow extra time for the village shops too. Have fun!

[ToddBreakey]

My brother and I went to EuroDisney (yes that is what it was called then) and neither one of us speaks a lick of french. We made out just fine. Look at the badges that the CMs wear. The will usually have a French flag and a British flag indicating that they speak french and english.

I will agree about the trains. We managed to get on the wrong train 2 times in Paris before getting on the one to the park.