Tips for Booking your holiday to Disneyland Paris

Disclosure: I’m not an expert, just one parent trying to pass on the information I’ve learnt in the hopes that it’ll help you!

Warning: This is a long post!

Disneyland Paris is such a magical place. I went when I was a kid and I remember various things about it. My parents took my sister and I, and ever since my own children were born, I’ve been desperate to take them.

I wanted to take them at an age which would mean they’d remember their visit. We’ve recently booked our holiday to Disneyland Paris, and at the time of flying out, our twins will be five and a half years old.

I think this is a great age to go. They’re still young enough to believe in the magic of Disney and they’ll also remember it. I just know they’re going to love it!

One thing I will say is that I hadn’t realised how much research I would need to do in order to book a holiday to Disneyland Paris. It’s nowhere near as simple as booking an all inclusive beach holiday for a week! At least for me, it wasn’t!

I like to know everything about where we’re going. From where and what we can eat, to what shows and entertainment can be expected. I think it’s fair to say I’m very meticulous when it comes to booking holidays, even more so when it comes to booking a holiday to Disneyland Paris!

This post will cover the following topics:

• Research
• Finding the best deal/Who to book with
• Flights and Hotels plus Extra Magic Hours (EMH)
• Getting to and from the airport to your hotel
• Meal plans and Dining Options (Character dining and lunch with the Princesses/Princes)
• Child Friendly Dining
• Entertainment
• Autograph Books
• Fast Pass
• Photo Pass
• Spending Money
• Safety
• Pushchairs and Wheelchairs
• Wait Times
• Disney Village and Walt Disney Studios
• Disney Official Forum
• Getting the most out of your stay

Here is what I’ve learnt so far…

Research

The first thing I would suggest doing is joining the Facebook group, ‘Disneyland Paris for Brits’. This group has been invaluable! Everyone is friendly and there are lots of knowledgable people in this group.

Without this group, I would have ended up spending more money than I would have needed to. By this I mean the discovery that some of the meal plans include lunch with the princesses and princes, Buffalo Bills Wild West show and more! If I hadn’t known this I would have spent extra money to pay for these – more on this under meal plans and dining below.

In this group you can ask questions about any concerns or queries you have about your stay. Whether it be about dining, getting around, how to make the most of your stay or where to find the best deals. There are some pretty useful files in the group too such as photos of the hotels, guides to dining, suggested packing lists and more!

One thing I will say is that if you want to ask if a price you’ve found is a good price, be prepared for the majority of people to tell you it’s expensive! You may think you’ve found the deal of the century, but others will tell you otherwise! I found this out when I queried what I thought was a good deal! They did me a favour, as I ended up booking a much cheaper offer, but for all of that bear in mind that what’s expensive to one person, will be a bargain to others. How much you spend on your holiday is a very personal decision and obviously will depend on your budget, as well as where you’re staying, the duration of your holiday, how you’re getting there (flying/euro-star/euro-tunnel/driving etc), as well as lots of other factors.

For all of that, this group is great and I highly recommend that you join it!

Finding the Best Deal/Who to book with

Disney have various deals available through their website, but other travel companies also offer their own deals such as free photo passes. Do your research! Look at prices online with Disneyland Paris direct, as well as other travel companies such as Magic Breaks and Disney Holidays. (This isn’t an endorsement of these companies as I’ve had no dealings with them, but have read of others booking through them).

At the time of booking our holiday direct with Disneyland Paris, they had an offer of up to 25% off your hotel and park tickets combined with a free half-board meal plan including restaurants in the Disney Parks. Unfortunately we couldn’t take advantage of this offer as this was for holidays booked before March 2017, but we did take advantage of the offer to get two nights free when you book two nights, plus our full board premium meal plan worked out cheaper than booking a half board premium meal plan, so it’s always worth checking the price of each meal plan!

Flights and Hotels

Flights

Disneyland Paris, amongst other travel companies offer package deals that include transport such as flights or the Eurostar, but you may want to consider booking things separately as it can work out cheaper.

At first the idea of booking everything separately worried me, but that’s exactly what I ended up doing! It worked out cheaper and we were able to find flight times that worked well for us.

I booked our hotel direct with Disneyland Paris, then booked flights by checking for the best deal on Sky Scanner. Make sure your baggage allowance is one that suits your needs and if travelling with children, I highly recommend paying to book your seats to ensure you’re all sat together.

Don’t forget your travel insurance too!

Hotels and Extra Magic Hours

Booking your hotel will depend on your budget. This is possibly going to be the biggest cost, in addition to your meal plan if you decide to have one.

There are lots of hotels ‘off site’ that you can book. This will mean that you need to travel in order to get to the parks each day. Depending on the distance to Disneyland, you may be able to walk, but most people tend to use public transport or jump in a taxi. This is an added cost to take into consideration. Some of the Disney Hotels also offer a free shuttle bus service.

There are benefits to staying in a Disney hotel such as Extra Magic Hours (EMH). EMH allows those staying in a Disney hotel to access the park before it opens to the public at 10am. This means you can enter the park a whole two hours before anyone else, (8-10am). This is a great time to go on the more popular rides and to avoid the queues, plus take advantage of the possiblity of meeting any characters that may be wandering around!

At the time of booking, I was lucky enough to be offered a luxury room in the Disneyland Hotel with two double beds and a terrace. Perfect for us as my husband and I can make use of the outside terrace whilst our children sleep, plus the girls can enjoy some outside space too!

Getting to and from the Airport to your Hotel

Disneyland Paris do offer a shuttle bus service from the airport. You can check the price of this when you go online to get your quote. We decided not to use this service based on the advice we received from the members of the Facebook group mentioned above. This advice was that a taxi would take around 30 minutes whereas the shuttle can take over an hour.

A taxi will also most likely work out to be cheaper, but this depends on the size of your party as you can always split the cost. You also have the option of travelling by train and making use of the Disney Express Luggage Service. This service allows you to drop off your luggage at the Disneyland^® Paris Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy station by going straight to the Disney Express counter on the first floor. You’ll then receive your advance hotel check-in documents (including your Park tickets). Your luggage will be transferred directly to your hotel on arrival and to the station on departure.

Meal Plans and Dining

Meal plans and dining is a lot to get your head around. I hadn’t realised how many different options were available.

Unlike an all inclusive package holiday, Disney offers varying levels of meal plans. These are:

• Breakfast
• Hotel Half Board
• Half Board Standard
• Half Board Plus
• Half Board Premium
• Full Board Standard
• Full Board Plus
• Full Board Premium

Now, here’s the really confusing part! In addition to the plans above you can also book the following ‘extras’:

• Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show…with Mickey and Friends
• Breakfast with Disney characters at the Plaza Gardens Restaurant
• Lunch with Disney characters at Inventions at the Disneyland Hotel
• Lunch with Disney Princes and Princesses at the Auberge de Cendrillon (ADC)

This is the important part. If you book a half board premium or full board premium meal plan it includes all of the above. That’s:

• Breakfast with Disney characters at the Plaza Gardens Restaurant
• Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show…with Mickey and Friends
• Lunch or dinner with Disney characters at Inventions
• Lunch with Disney Princes and Princesses at the Auberge de Cendrillon (ADC)

Therefore, it’s important to note that if you’re given the option to book these at an additional cost, don’t do it. When you arrive at the hotel, you’ll be given vouchers for your meals. You can simply use these vouchers as payment for the above.

60 days before your visit, you can book your restaurants. It is highly recommended that you do this to avoid disappointment. The last thing you’ll want is to turn up and find that it’s fully booked. You’ll need to ring the reservation number to book these. It can’t be booked online.

You don’t have to book a meal plan. You can wing it, but for those who like peace of mind and like to plan, a meal plan may be the way forward.

With the standard, plus and premium half and full board plans, you get one soft drink. You will be charged for additional drinks.

Child Friendly Dining

I would recommend checking the menus of the places that you plan to eat in before booking, especially if your children are fussy eaters.

As mentioned above the lunch with Disney Princes and Princesses is at Auberge de Cendrillon (ADC) which offers fine dining. The children’s menu consists of chicken in a creamy tomato sauce with fresh vegetables, as well as grilled salmon or pasta with tomato sauce.

Disney offers a range of table service and buffet restaurants. Buffets may be more suited to fussy eaters.

Lots of people bring homemade ‘snack packs’ with them for children to eat when queuing up for rides. You can also bring an empty refillable bottle with you so that you can fill up your bottle with the many water fountains dotted around the parks.

Entertainment

There are so many things to do at Disneyland! You can view all of the entertainment on offer here. From meet and greets with a variety of Disney Characters to shows, rides, parades and more!

I’d recommend checking out the park schedule before your trip so you can plan what you want to do or what characters you want to meet. Depending on the time of year you visit you should probably start to queue up to meet your ‘must see’ characters 30-60 minutes before their due to do their meet and greets to ensure that you’re one of the first in the queue.

At park closing time the castle will be lit up with the Disney Dreams/Illuminations show. Some of your favourite Disney characters will be projected onto the castle, with music and fireworks. This isn’t to be missed! You should see this at least once! To get a good view people start taking their places up to an hour before it’s due to start.

Autograph Books

These are available to buy in Disneyland, but it’s probably cheaper to buy one before you go.

Fast Pass

A Fast Pass can be a valuable asset if you have young children. It’s a free service that gives you a ‘return time’ to some of the most popular attractions such as Space Mountain. You’ll be given a time to go back and you’ll be able to board within a matter of minutes via the special Fast pass entrance.

Fast pass isn’t available for all rides and it does sell out. It’s advised that you visit your chosen ride where Fast pass is available when the park opens to the general public at 10am to get your Fast pass before it sells out.

You can only have one Fast Pass ticket at a time per person. Another ticket can only be obtained once the previous one has been used or 2 hours after the previous one.

The bonus of getting a Fast pass is that you can enjoy the rest of the park, knowing that you won’t have to queue up for your fast pass ride.

Photo Pass

Photo Pass is a paid service that allows you to receive a digital portfolio of all your souvenir photos. Some meet and greets will have photo pass photographers who will take your picture. This picture is then loaded onto your photo pass for you to download. Photo pass can also be used on some attractions.

Spending Money

How much spending money you take will depend a lot on whether you’ve booked a meal plan. If you don’t have a meal plan, then you’ll need to consider the cost of dining. You can view the menus and prices online to get an idea of how much you’ll need to spend.

There are a lot of souvenir shops around Disneyland Paris. The great thing about these is that you can get your purchases delivered to your hotel (depending on what hotel you’re staying in) which means you won’t need to carry them around.

A lot of people recommend getting a Revolut Card. You can download the app to your phone. You’ll need to register with your mobile number. You can then upload money to your Revolut card and use it to pay. The app will automatically convert your spend to local currency for the best possible rate.

Safety

Like any popular destination, it’s important to keep belongings safe. Disneyland is not immune to opportunists and pick pockets can strike at any time.

Keep your belongings safe. Consider getting a money belt to store valuables such as money, bank cards and mobile phones in.

If you’re bringing a pushchair or wheelchair, it is recommended by people who’ve visited, that you also take a bike lock so that when not in use it won’t get stolen.

Pushchairs and Wheelchairs

You can hire puschairs and wheelchairs for the duration of your stay, although it may be cheaper to buy a cheap one before you go.

Wait Times

Download the Official Disneyland Paris app. This will show you the wait times for the rides and various attractions, as well as provide you with important information such as show times, and meet and greet times.

Disney Village and Walt Disney Studios

Disney Village is an entertainment district that has restaurants, shops, a cinema, live music and more. Find out more here.

Walt Disney Studios lets you discover the secrets behind the most magical scenes of Disney film and television. You can also meet Spiderman here!

Disney Official Forum

Lastly check out the official Disney forum for more tips.

Getting the most out of your stay

We booked a 4 night, 5 day holiday which included park passes for the five days. Our arrival date for the Disneyland Hotel was a Monday, but if we arrive on this day we wouldn’t get to the hotel until the afternoon. This would mean that we would miss out the full day pass in the park. We also wouldn’t be able to be use our breakfast and lunch meal vouchers either.

To make the most of our stay we decided to book a flight the day before we were due to stay in the Disneyland Hotel. So we will actually arrive in Paris on the Sunday, the day before our arrival in the Disneyland Hotel. We booked a budget hotel close to Disneyland Paris, for the night before our stay in the Disneyland Hotel. This means that on the Monday we can arrive at Disneyland Paris and spend the full day there. I just felt that by arriving in the afternoon, we’d be missing out on a full day in the park. You can arrive at any time and leave your luggage in the hotel, you just won’t be able to check into your hotel until later in the day.

This is pretty much everything I’ve learnt so far. If I learn any more, I will update this post