Disneyland Paris - best hotel

[PJ2000]

I've heard the food is generally crap, the accommodation is poor so come on where should I stay for a long weekend with my daughter and her three Young children. It wouldn't really work being in a hotel that requires getting on a shuttle bus because all kids are close in age and under 4 (too much stress). However would we have to do that to get a nice hotel??

I've stayed at the Disneyland Paris hotel and Hotel New York. Both were nice and fine. Breakfast was lovely (if a bit busy) in both. I also got a deal where half board was included and the food was lovely. We ate at Walt's in the park, Inventions and California Grill at DLPH the buffet at Sequonia Lodge Hotel. All fab. In terms of value I don't think you can beat the Sequonia Lodge one. If I return I'll go back to Hotel New York as DLPH is very pricey and the walk from NY is very short, and it's also nice to walk through the village and see everything there. Have a great time!

We stayed at the Santa Fe as thats all we could afford, it was clean and a good 15 min walk to the park. Breakfast was awful though, crap food and a rat race.

If you can pay a bit more to upgrade to a better hotel.

We stayed at the main Disney Hotel (the one at the park gates), it was lovely. Delightful! And the Disney characters joined in for breakfast sometimes!! Expensive, but we got it at half price by booking in advance.

I've stayed at disneyland hotel , hotel New York , sequoia lodge and the Newport bay over the years and I like the New York best ,it's close to the village and the breakfasts are lovely ( I've never had to queue) . I think the disneyland hotel is useful when you have very small children and will mainly be in the main park , if you will be going to the studios and village a lot it's not worth paying the extra to stay there IMO.

I want to be out there for one of the kids bday it would mean going on Sunday and coming back Tuesday - would I be missing out if I wasn't there on a Saturday???

The way they price the hotels is based on the day you arrive, I think they have three price bands, low, mid and high. Unless it's the school holidays they tend (I think) to be Fri is mid, Saturday is high and Sunday to Thursday is low. They then price all the days based on the arrival day, so if you arrive on a Sunday it can save you a lot of money than arriving on a Saturday. Have a play with their prices on their website. Also if you stay in a disney hotel you get to enter the part from 8am, some very popular rides are open then, but the general public can't get to them until 10am

And no, you wouldn't miss a thing other than crowds and queues.

Also if you are going for 2 nights it may be worth waiting until a free half board offer comes up, I always book with that as we went for 3 nights each time so couldn't get the most out of a book 2 nights get 2 nights free offer

We stayed in the Sequoia Lodge during February last year. I would definitely go back to that hotel, it was really nice. We stayed in the main hotel, if you book a 'standard' room you will be in on of the separate lodges. Montana and Golden Forest rooms are in the main hotel.

Depending on the age of the youngest child you might be better looking at the Newport Bay hotel if you all want to be in one room. Otherwise, if the youngest is 3 or older you'd be in two separate rooms. We are a family of 5, the children were 8, 5 and 23 months when we went last year so we had one room in the Sequoia Lodge with a travel cot.

We like to stay at the Davy Crockett place off site and drive on. It's more like cladded cabins so self catered with more space, places to wander, etc. and only a 5-10 min drive.

Food varies. Lots of theme park style food, but there are slightly dearer options which is better quality though its never going to be top class in a theme park tbh. There are chain places like rainforest cafe and planet Hollywood there too.

Thank you for all this info. Any recommendations on who to book with to get the best deal?

Newport bay is my favourite Disneyland Paris hotel, but I have stayed at most of the others (Hotel New York booked for upcoming visit) and also at nearby non-Disney hotels, B&B (like Travelodge) and rented a cottage in the area too.

The Disneyland hotel is right at the park gates so less walking, but it is very expensive. The New York, Sequoia and Newport Bay are all located around Lake Disney, which is about a 10-15 minute walk (I'm assuming the little ones are in pushchairs) through Disney Village to the parks. Santa fe and Cheyenne hotels are a bit further out (15-20 mins walk) but I wouldn't recommend Cheyeen for your family as all rooms have bunk beds, not suitable for under age 6. All the Disney hotels (except DLH obviously) have free, frequent shuttle buses to the parks and unless you are leaving after Dreams/parade with the crowds, they aren't too busy. Only other option is a self-catering cabin at Davy Crockets Ranch but that's only possible if you drive there as there is no shuttle bus.

The next nearest non-Disney hotels are the Val de france ones, near Magne le Hongre. They are Magic Circus, Explorers, Dream Castle and Kyriad. they vary in price (Kyriad is cheapest) and facilities available (Explorers has a good family friendly swimming pool and rooms with separate bedrooms for kids) but they are all 'partnered' with Disney so you can book park tickets as a package with your hotel. There is a regular and free shuttle bus from here to the parks too. It is possible to walk the distance but its not recommended as it requires crossing a main road.

There are also two other partner hotels in Val d'Europe which is close to the big shopping mall and huge Auchan supermarket. They are Hotel l'Elysee and the Adagio Aparthotel. The Adagio includes a small kitchenette in the room which is useful if you want to keep costs down by self-catering. There are several other aparthotels in Val d'Europe such as Hipark, Sejours et Affaires and Residholme, but as they are not partner hotels, you will need to buy park tickets separately. The PEPS 50 shuttle bus serves this area and will take you to Disneyland for free but they are not as frequent as other shuttles. However there is a train station at Val d'Europe with trains to the park gates every 15 mins (journey time approx. 2 mins) and also direct train into central Paris.

Further out from this there are many, many other hotels which are considerably cheaper but obviously journey time is longer and some like the F1 motel, Balladins and Ibis don't have very good public transport links making it hard to get to and from the parks. I'd only recommend staying that far out if you are confident at driving in France. You can get real bargains there though- as low as €30 per night in low season!

If you are booking a Disney hotel you can't usually get a better deal than by booking direct, either online or by telephone if you only want to pay a deposit for now. Do not book any travel through disney though as they charge a huge supplement. For flights or Eurostar tickets book as soon as your dates are available for the best prices.

I've always booked through the disney site and then arranged my own transport , we generally drive ,it's a very straight forward route and only takes about 2.5 hours once you are in France .

Yes driving (especially for a large family group) is way cheaper than any other method of transport. Driving and having an Annual Pass for the parks is how I manage to afford several trips to DLP each year

I've travelled there by Eurostar a few times too but even though it takes you all the way to the gates, i much prefer to drive. It really is easy and so straight forward, mainly just one long motorway nearly all the way there.

Agree with PPs re booking direct with DLP for hotel but Eurostar separately. If you use Quidco you can get cashback on both of these IIRC. Also recommend New York hotel. My top tip is to get early breakfast tickets and get in the park when it opens at 8am, then come out at lunchtime and find convenience type store which is in the corner of the railway station to grab some lunch. After lunch everyone has a nap in the hotel room and then go back to park in the late afternoon. That way you miss the times when the park is busiest, you can grab something to eat without breaking the bank and children (and adults) get to recharge their batteries during the afternoon.

Disneyland hotel is right at the gates, you step out the door, you are in the park. It suited us with children age 4-6 for that reason. If you watch the afternoon parade that's at about 4-5pm near the entrance, then you are two mins from the hotel to get back for a drink and relax before dinner. We didn't find we bothered with any naps as ours are not nap age, but some downtime in the bar with ahot chocolate was good. Also staying in disney hotels you can go I to the park for magic hours befor it starts. Sometimes we would get up and God the magic hours and then come back for a late breakfast, as disneyland hotel is so near you can do that.
Have also stayed at Newport bay. Disneyland breakfast 10000 times better. Neort was like a zoo, had to get tickets blah blah and it was just a continental breakfast. Disneyland Paris has a lovely buffet of everything you can think of and no tickets etc.
Depends what you want, proximity to park, save money etc

I always booked with DLP direct and Eurostar direct as well

I would avoid Newport Bay ,at one time it was the largest hotel in Europe which explains the issues people have with breakfast . We stayed there on one trip because it had a Special deal on free full board for the days we were visiting . We booked an Admirals floor room and when we arrived we got an upgrade with access to the Captains Cabin for meals which has waitress service so we didn't have to use the main restaurant . On all the days we were there the queues for the main breakfast restaurant were at least 30/40 people , if we hadn't had the upgrade I would have been paying for room service !

My parents took my kids to Disney last February - they stayed in Sequoia. They enjoyed it, had no complaints about the room/breakfast queues etc. The main reason they liked the Sequoia was the pool. The weather was dreadful when the four of them went - so the pool was great in the afternoon/morning.

They booked accommodation with DLP, flights themselves (Easyjet), and organised transfer themselves.

Think they all have pools? Newport and Disneyland definitely do

The Sequonia Lodges pool looks the best for kids though, I think it has slides etc

The best pool used to be at Davy Crockett Ranch , which is also a great place to stay in the warmer months if you have small children .

The Santa Fe and Cheyenne hotels don't have pools.

for me best and cheap explore hotel at disneyland paris with big pool