Disneyland Paris on a budget?

[abonymousAnon]

My son is turning 8 and I really want to take him to Disneyland Paris but it’s so expensive! I only did a quick search and it showed me for park tickets (1 day only), flights and hotel for one night will be over 2k! Any ideas how we can do it cheaper? Or is this standard? Family of 3.

It's the flights that make it so expensive, its much cheaper if you can drive. This also means that you can stay in the davy crockett ranch which is the cheapest Disney accommodation as it is off site but still includes park tickets and magic hours.

Disneyland Paris for Brits Facebook page is your friend.

I’ve never been for less than 4 days (3 nights) in a Disney property and the most expensive was Marvel at a lot less than £2k!

Don’t forget the fact that inside Disney you just haemorrhage cash! Food and drinks are so expensive. And then you will end up purchasing some expensive merch!

Do have a look at the train as an option for getting there. Quicker than driving and much nicer than flying. If you're able to travel at quieter times you can get a good price.

I would look at Eurostar tickets and metro in from CDG but then if you’re not near London I guess it has the potential to be more expensive than flying. I wouldn’t necessarily stay at the park. When we did it we got the metro in and out so got to enjoy an evening in Paris too.

Do they still run coach trips to DP? That’s how we did it when we were kids.

I remember paying €17 for a rubbish quesadilla inside the park a few years ago, and queuing for 45 minutes to get it, and there was absolutely nowhere inside to sit with it. Awful. Will never make the mistake of buying food there again, expensive and a huge waste of time. I would have a big breakfast, take snacks and plan to eat when you get out later, even if it’s just MacDonalds.

Drive from calais, or get the train.
Don't stay on site - look for the eurocamp nearby and drive. Lots of campsites/caravan sites have a bus service to the parks.
Val d'europe's supermarkets are one stop away in the train. Make packed lunches to take in. If its not packed in a coolbox etc and just shoved in a backpack, they don't care!
Make pasta or similar in your caravan, pack it in a food flask for dinner if you're staying for the fireworks etc.

Thank you so much everyone. It’s been a really tough year for him. I’m leaving his father too so it’s extra stressful for him. It’s just going to be my 2 kids and myself going. I know I’m an adult but I haven’t booked a holiday before as DH would do all that. I think I’ll take a look at the train option now as driving would be too difficult I think. Thank you all! x

You don't have to stay on site in Disney

we went last month we stayed off site in the dream castle hotel for four nights three days in the parks. The hotel had a free shuttle to and from the park every day throughout the day. We flew with Transavia had never heard of them but they were the cheapest. There were five of us and we got it for £3500 for everything hotel, flights and tickets

are you planning on going soon? That will be ramping up the cost. Could you go in a few months instead? It’s a lot cheaper in Feb than Dec.

Also the earlier you book the better, they don't really do last minute deals so if you look for the furthest dates away the price will likely come down.

We've done eurotunnel 4 nights, 5 days staying at Newport bay with meals for £2.5k in the summer hols so I'm sure you can find a better deal.

Oh and I didn't find the food as expensive as everyone had led me to believe. The sit down restaurants are pricey (but have lovely theming) but places like Bella notte do pizza and pasta at a reasonable price, I certainly didn't find it any worse than prices at theme parks in the UK.

That seems very expensive! Is that a package? Look at flights through Skyscanner and book a hotel in Paris, rather than on site. It’s less than an hour on a direct metro train from the city centre and when I went a couple of years ago I think day passes were less than £100 pp.

Get the ferry if you can, stay at Davy Crocket. It's a nice easy drive from Calais - the trickiest bit is finding Davy Crocket.

Yes absolutely don’t book a package, cost everything up separately.

I’ve just looked at Eurostar and it’s actually cheaper to fly there. I’m shocked at Eurostar prices

I'm going next week and on love holidays for a flight, hotel and transfers were £1100 Monday-Friday and the tickets were £546 for 3 days for 3 people (2a and a child) and we're taking £1k spends but reckon you could do it on less so that's only £2700 for 4 people (one child is under 2 so free at disney).

It's definitely doable on a budget - now if only I could figure out how to get walt disney world cheaper

Eurostar is much cheaper and there's currently 30% off if you book through Quidco (kicking myself as I booked last month!)

There's loads of air bnbs locally to the park which you can stay in or non Disney hotels which run shuttles to the park so you don't need to book a Disney one with the added price tag!

Really? I presume you are looking to go in school holidays though. Or in December? There are some very good deals on outside of peak times but potentially might mean being a bit naughty and skipping a day of school

I took my daughter in feb, just the two of us and we are in Scotland. I booked directly with Disney and got 3 nights/4 days including flights/cheyenne and 4 day park tickets for around £800. If def say look at off season, I did take my daughter out of school for 2 days but we don't have fines so not sure how that would work out. I've been looking at deals for the 4 of us to go next year and I've seen similar deals for £1800-2000 so it def can be done cheaper.

We just went last week.

We paid £430 for 1 night in Newport bay (for 2) of us plus park tickets for 2 days. The prices for hotels really fluctuate, booking way ahead is the way to go. Eurostar was about £180 into Paris and £5 pp each way out to Disney.

I actually didn't think food was too bad as long as you accepted fast food. £17 for a meal for two in McDonalds. €11 for a (large) hotdog. Sit down meals were more expensive.

You could take snack type stuff to have for breakfast and then just make sure you have water bottles to refill.

Depends when you book. Disneyland Paris website has a tool that shows the cheaper times to book. I've just booked 4 nights for Jan 2026 and for 2 adults and 2 children have paid £1000 - could have done cheaper in a cheaper hotel or offsite. Haven't booked travel yet but looking at around £400 for flights.

When are you planning on going OP? I can get a 3 night (which will be 4 day park ticket) trip in school Christmas holidays for just over your £2k.

That’s way too expensive. Our entire holiday (for three) in the school summer holidays only cost £3k. For that, we got the following:

Flights with underseat bags
Parking at airport
Apartment in Torcy for 4 nights (It’s 10 mins from DLP)
3 days at the park
2 sit down meals in the park
2 sit down meals in Torcy
Approx €120 on food which we had for breakfast/dinner/lunch in the parks
Various mocktails/cocktails/cider
Approx €250 on Disney merch at the parks
€65 on the photo pass at the park
Train to and from Torcy
Train to and from DLP (€12 per person per day)

I think that just about covers it.

When we were there about ten years ago you couldn’t get fresh milk - UHT only which is popular in France. Next one we went I took chilled and frozen one pint bottles which got us through a few days. DS loves milk and wouldn’t touch UHT. But we were driving so could take it plus loads of other snack stuff.

We’ve stayed in the hotels a little further out. You don’t get the early hour but the shuttles go to them. They were cheaper than the early hour hotels.

Join one of the DLP Facebook group, loads of tips on there.