How much money for Disneyland?

[thatselementary]

Planning a trip for next year to have something to look forward to. We will be going with 2DC (4&2) for four days and it'll probably include the older one's birthday. We'll be going for 4 days I think, half board. How much money should we plan for a few meals out, snacks and for buying toys/treats? Bearing in mind one of the days, we'd be extra generous for DC. Any advice would be great

€120

A day I take it?

Yes I'd say so, prices are expensive there.

If you’ve got the meal plan then I think you should be fine on about £150 day. That would give you enough for buying toys plus drinks and snacks.

We actually packed a few Disney bits with us and gave them to the DC there, such as autograph books and colouring bits. We still spent a fortune in the shop but it was a one off trip.

I’d go for around £150 a day too if you’re already half board.

Depends on how/what you are intending to eat,how much shopping you want to do whether you have a meal plan or are staying on site

I'm trying to budget for our trip and I don't plan on buying them toys/souvenirs apart from possibly one day. I'll pack a few Disney bits to take (Primark do the pin badges/tshirts/etc).

Probably a bad mother but tough. They'll get a bit of spending money to choose one thing each while away.

But I honestly hate shopping (thankfully so does dh and ds and much as dd would want - she gets massively overwhelmed with more than two chpices).

I've budgeted $40 each for a souvenir (The whole trip). We will take home bought autograph books.

Oops just seen you mean Paris. Hmm...it's likely more spendy than Florida.

Four people, four days - €800 should cover but allow €1000.

The Disney resorts are pretty much "go knowing you'll be setting your purse on fire and won't get stressed about it".

@Hazelnutlatteplease to be honest, I want to make it as special as possible including everything that's age appropriate (like the princess makeover if she wants it etc). We'll be staying in the Cheyenne I think with half board so probably a few dinners out (DH& I definitely want the rainforest cafe at least once). If you knew what a hellish year we've had, you'd understand so please don't flame me.

I presume Paris and not Florida? I’ve been twice - the first time we had no meal plan at all and there’s really no cheap option for food, so you might as well get a meal plan - all the restaurants are much of a muchness price wise and you have to buy a set menu, which is either a buffet or a fixed price at a fast food place ( eg burger, chips, drink, brownie and ice cream - a tonne of food but it’s no cheaper to get less because of the pricing structure).

We had no problem bringing snacks in. We snaffled some pain au chocolat from the breakfast buffet (stayed in Santa Fe so the buffet was a bit crazy - the more expensive hotels might be more refined but I couldn’t tell you...) and a couple of big bags of crisps and that would do us for lunch (don’t even try to think about nutrition - my daughter subsisted on the sweets from the restaurant buffet).

Toys wise they are really good at parting you from your money. All the big rides exit through the gift shop and there’s all the shops on Main Street and various other locations. Many of them have exclusive toys that aren’t in the other shops. So it’s really up to you what you spend - we told our kids they could buy one toy each and my daughter bought the first toy she saw and my son agonised for the whole trip. And then bought a toy sword that we had to get home on a hand luggage only flight - that was fun!

When we went we bought very little food other than the meal plan... The breakfast and lunch dinner were buffets and massive. We took quite a few snacks with us. We bought ice creams and cold drinks. But, for example, there were lots of water fountains around. Had 'dinner' about 5pm.

We did the Princess lunch which was a lot of fun. They meet quite a few Princesses there.

@Hobbes8 toy wise, we'll be generous due to the actually horrific year we've had this year (as many others have but more things on top eg family deaths) however the 2 year old won't want much but the 4 year old probably will and I intend, for once, to spoil her but obviously not buy everything she wants.

We stayed at that hotel last year with half board for 3 nights and spent about £500. We could have spent less but we had saved the money to take so used it all. It was a fabulous holiday. Have a great time

Oh I took loads of snacks with us too. And did the character meal in the main hotel which I would recommend

Face painting was £16 last time I went just to give you a frame of reference. A candy floss was £5.

So I would take £150/day.

If you’re on Facebook there’s a page called DLP for brits (or something like that) which has lots of tips

We cross posted! We stayed in Cheyenne the second time but the restaurant was closed - I think it was being refurbed so it came in cheaper than Santa Fe. It’s reallt nice - the kids loved the toy story themed rooms. We got breakfast vouchers for the park, which was actually really good because we could get up and out for the happy hours (deffo worth doing - not all the rides are open but the ones that are have v small queues).

If you want to spend loads on toys...go for it! Your budget can be pretty much unlimited and the shops are lovely and have exclusive toys. We went in August but I still managed to go nuts on Disney themed Christmas decorations.

The food is all much of a muchness though - a meal plan gives you the convenience of eating in the restaurants in the park or the village (as opposed to going off site and getting the train to the much cheaper shopping centre two stops down the train line) so you don’t waste your day. It’s massively overpriced and not great, but if you can let go of that annoyance...your kids won’t care!

We crossed again - it doesn’t sound like you’re on a tight budget so just go nuts and enjoy yourself! You just have to be prepared that everything is about twice the price it should be - £3 a coke, £5 an ice cream...that type of thing. Funnily enough the toys don’t seem that ridiculously expensive....there’s just loads of them!

And I’m sorry to hear you’ve had such a bad year. Disneyland is magical - I know your kids are tiny but if you can keep them up for the fireworks at least one night you won’t regret it. And the parade is a much more family friendly time and is properly amazing, but expect to have the cheesy song playing in your head for years

I’m all for spoiling the kids when your there with Princess Experience etc. But there are ways to save money as well.

Take snacks with you. We pack a suitcase with snacks and make up snack packs for DS each day. Helps entertain him in the slightly longer queues as well, and doesn’t eat in to your park time trying to find somewhere for lunch. Take empty bottles and the small concentrated juice and fill up at the fountains round the park (though there may now be Covid restrictions on this)

Do you know if it’s a standard, plus or premium meal plan? You can use your vouchers against the cost of character meals, Buffalo Bills etc and just top up the difference.

Breakfast at the Cheyenne is good. Basic, but fresh, warm and filling!

Roughly how much is a standers fast food type meal in the park? Say an adult burger and chips, with a drink?

we got 4 burger chips and drinks meals (2 adults 2 children) it was about€80

For a standard burger meal deal (with a drink and an icecream or similar) from about 12 to 15 euros.
Have a look at this page, for most places you can see the menus and prices.
www.disneylandparis.com/en-gb/dining/
We usually take about €1200 for 5 days but our dds were 13 and 11 when we started going(and our next trip hopefully will be between their 18th and 21st birthdays) so adult meals needed and no meal plan most times. Even then we usually have money left.