Disneyland Paris on a budget
Our recent family visit
So I think how to survive Disneyland and not lose your shit was a less appealing title. I posted on Instagram this week about the fact that sometimes its okay to not enjoy every second of taking kids away and that sometimes you feel like you are partaking in an endurance boot-camp…..anyone else feel me? Anyway this is a bit of a bigger overview on DLP you can find some good on-the-day tips in my last post here. I will break it down into sections so you can decide whether you’d like to book a package or DIY it but as I do the latter you will find most info geared towards that. This a long and non-glamorous read so best to do when you aren’t time short.
Ok so you want to go to Disney and don’t want a package. My first piece of advice is to not go in summer holidays. I hear you, your kid is at school and you want a summer holiday but there are a few reasons I would stay clear; Disney Paris has an awful lot of european tourists and this seems to be the busiest time by far, you will find Qs get really hefty, the heat is pretty intense if you are in Q or waiting for parades in the full sun. I just personally find its my least favourite time, these factors make it quite exhausting for all and I think you get the keast out of it. My favourite time is obviously Christmas and you can have a great time in a weekend but there’s also a few other half term holidays you can go where you won’t have the issue of the heat.
So moving on from that if you want to DIY you need a Eurostar/Flight/Eurotunnel. My preference is always Eurostar, I’m based near London and hate flying (I know, I do it a lot-but I still don’t like it). I’m breaking each option down below:
Eurostar-If you have younger children they travel on your lap for free if they are under 4. Having said this I have managed to grab a seat for Pads everytime. You can change your seat for free after you book and if you check the day before you can see where there are free seats so I switch to where there isn’t anyone next to me. I never pay more than £60 return to Paris, you need to look at least 3 months in advance or when they are having a “sale” I find Eurostar only ever goes up in price they won’t drop so don’t hang about. I also tend to go via Paris as 1. It’s much cheaper, you go one stop on the tube to Chatelet Les Halles and then get the RER A all the way to Marne La Vallee Chessy which you walk out and Disney is right there. You can get a eurostar to Marne La Vallee but you have to change in Lille and I find this is a lot more costly and time consuming but it depends whether you want to cut out the Paris metro system.
Euro tunnel-I think this way is more cost effective if 1. you live in the South East 2. If you are paying full price for 4 or more people. I normally find it to be around £140 per car, obviously you need to factor in petrol too but could work out better for you if you want flexibility in France with your car, have as I said more people or wanted to do DLP as part of a bigger trip. It takes about 35 minutes on the tunnel then you are looking at about 3 hours from Calais to DLP so could be time effective if you are in the South East.
Flying-If you are in the far North this may be your best option. I can only seem to find flights for about £100 return each at the cheapest From Leeds/EMA/Birmingham but you can probably get cheaper. I think if you are within 2 hours of London via train and you can get cheap advance tickets its worth looking at Eurostar still. Our Auntie came with us on our recent trip and she got advance singles from Birmingham on the train for £6 each way so it was still a much better option.
Eurostar is much better when you can bag a seat for these two
So, transport sorted I will move onto accommodation. You have quite a few options, I have varying opinions on this. Firstly this is not (unless you have a lot of time and money to throw at it) a pampering, relaxing trip so I don’t tend to bother with the top end hotels and that includes the Disney ones. I would love to stay in the main Disney but you are looking at about £1600 for a family of 4 for 3 nights its not worth that amount-for me personally. I’m also desperate to stay at nature villages which is the centre parcs at DLP but I’m saving it for next year when we can go for a whole week.
So here are my favourite options (In my opinion in order of luxury):
Explorers, this is by no means a luxury hotel, for me its the butlins of DLP……Stay with me people! It has large rooms big enough to house up to 8 people, you get a free (but basic) breakfast, it has a soft play in the bar/restaurant area and also a big pirate ship for the kids to play on, a 4d cinema and a really cool but freezing cold pool. As I said its not luxury at all but nice and clean and the kids love it. The free shuttles to Disney are really frequent and take about 10-15 minutes. Oh and its pirate themed :)
Vienna House Magic circus-slightly more dated than the dream castle with circus themed rooms, again plenty for kids, good theming and the rooms comfortably cater for larger families.
Vienna house Dream Castle-This is a cute, mid-range castle themed hotel within the Disney area. It’s a little nicer than Explorers but probably has less for the kids but still a fair bit and the theme is lovely.
Radisson Blu-Definately a more ‘high end’ option, its good if you are a family of 4 and you have a bit of time to enjoy the facilities (sauna, steam, pool etc) on our most recent trip we actually got the Raddison cheaper than the other options so went for that and it was lovely.
All of these are a quick and free shuttle to the actual park (taking around 10-15 minutes) and you can expect to pay an average of £90-£130 a night for a family of four depending on time of year which isn’t bad I think and you get free cots, some of these also fit up to 6. Obviously there are plenty of others I’ve just put some of them here.
Three other options….
Nature Villages Paris-As mentioned before, it’s the Centre Parcs of Disney (my two favourite holidays). I think you need to be able to have 2 free days to enjoy the facilities personally but if you do this is a really good option. We looked for our November trip and for £700 you can get a 3 bed chalet which again I thought wasn’t bad for a weekend.
Newport bay-One of the main Disney hotels and for me the only one thats worth a mention here. You will pay about £900 for 3 nights (again family of 4) It’s about 5 minutes from the parks and I’ve only been in for a look and it was nice but personally I wouldn’t justify the extra price tag.
Disneyland hotel-Literally at the park entrance. This is one for a special occasion as you are looking at £1500-£1700 for the 3 nights but I would love to stay here.
You can also look at Airbnb if you are on a real budget as these can come up really cheap £40-50 a night but then you have less facilities and no shuttle to the park so in the long run you can rack up a fair bit in taxis (€20-€25 is average).
So travel and accommodation sorted last up is tickets…..I would recommend buying in advance to save yourself some ££££. It’s worth mentioning the annual pass options as I have one and love it and I believe it’s worth doing if you go for 2 days or more. You pay for kids once they reach 3. I tend to use www.attraction-tickets-direct.co.uk they will cost you around £43 for a 1 park, 1 day ticket or £60 for a 1 day 2 park ticket (current price, subject to change). Direct with Disney it will cost you a little more depending on dates (roughly £6 pp). It’s worth noting that if you stay in one the main Disney hotels you get extra magic time for your ticket which is the best as you can get in there before anyone else. On the gate the tickets are much more expensive (€80-€100) so I would definately buy in advance.
Annual passes-I’m covering this here as I think it’s definately worth looking at. There are 4 types and I have the infinity as the perks are so good but next time we go I think I will get Paddy the magic plus. I’m going to break them down below briefly….
• Discovery-the most basic. You pretty much only get park entry for 150 days a year. If this is within your travel time it’s worth you getting if you are going for 3 days or more because if you park hop this works out cheaper. €179 upfront or initial payment of €60 and €11 a month.
• Magic Flex-300 days entry per year, 10% off in the Disney shops, 20% off gate tickets for friends and Disney hotels from €130 per room. €259 or €19 per month with an upfront of €60. I don’t feel like this ones worth a great deal to be honest.
• Magic Plus-350 days a year entry, 10% off in the shops, €130 hotel rooms, 20% 1 day entry tickets, 10% off in the restaurants, 20% off buffalo bills Wild West dinner show, 10% golf Disney, reserved separate entrance to parks (no Q yay!) extra magic time (early exclusive access to parks, then one of the best is you can get 1-day/2 park tickets for friends for €45 so that’s so good if you go with others, and they can use your extra magic time. €299 or €22 a month…..does anyone ever pay upfront?!
• Finally Infinity. You get all of the above plus 20% of Disney shops, €108 hotel rooms, a free PhotoPass, 15% off restaurants, 15% off breakfast with characters, €39 a day for family and friends, free guest wheelchair/pushchair, free access to swimming pools, vip seatingbfor yhe shows and 365 days a year entry. It’s €499 upfront or €36 per month.
The hardest thing with the annual pass is obtaining one….haha literally you have to buy a ticket on the gate, go in and go to the pass annual bureau to the right as you face the castle. You give them your ticket which they redeem against the price of your pass and then just set up a direct debit and take a picture of you. You need to take your passport for some reason…..we opted for the infinity as at the time we didn’t pay for either child and I use my family and friends tickets for Ben/Mum in law/Bestie and now we are paying for Pads we will weigh up wether it’s worth him having one or not. I’m pretty sure on our first visit last Christmas we saved enough in shops and restaurants (we were a big group) to make the money back and I will have done 7 days in the park with it but saving a lot on the day tickets for our family so for me totally worth it-but that’s your call.
I’m just going to briefly mention restaurants which I will go into detail in another post. Everyone says it and it’s true. Sorry. Eating at DLP is not a gourmet affair. My tip is take some croissants or a breakfast bag into the park, if you have time leave the park and go five guys or Vapiano which you walk out of the main park towards Disney village and hang a right before the big Disney shop on the corner. You have to leave security but it’s not far at all. Five guys of course is fast food but a decent burger and Vapiano is a cool self service Italian chain popular through Europe. They make the pasta in front of you and the pasta is made in house so makes a nice, much calmer lunch spot. Having said that there are plenty of counter service restaurants in the park, you can get a meal for around €15 including drink but I would try and eat 11-11.30 as again queuing gets hefty.
Studios park
My only final tip is that if you are doing it this way I would recommend going the day before, letting the kids settle (if you have them) you can wander round Disney village, sort your annual pass if you want to get one or head to your hotel for a swim. When you reach the station hang a left and you will see the bus station with all your free hotel shuttles. Two days is enough but I would take three if you can. Then travel back the day after your last park day as otherwise it’s just exhausting. Fireworks are at about 8pm in winter and 11pm in summer so I would definitely do that one of the evenings.
So there you have it. Not my most glamorous post but some hopefully useful info on how to grab the best deal. Let me know if there’s anything I’ve missed and you can find my guide to the parks and rides on my other post ✨
2nd ride of the day, no queues in extra magic time!
Dumbo ride before it gets super busy….
