Please talk to me about Disneyland Paris on a budget

[AliasGrape]

Have you done this? Where did you stay? Any recommendations?

How about eurocamps - are they a good base, is travel to and from the parks easy from any of them? I was researching La Croix du Vieux Pont after seeing it recommended but it’s 90mins away and we wouldn’t have a car, only appears to have a shuttle to the parks on Tuesdays. Other option is Le Chêne Gris which is closer, but I’ve read some dodgy reviews. Can anyone tell me from personal experience?

We’re also looking at staying in nearby Val D’Europe - again any suggestions gratefully received!

We’re thinking of first week of June next year, just us and our DD who will be almost 5. We will fly in from a northern airport to Paris CDG and most likely get train from there.

Thanks all!

I can't remember a wild lot but we stayed at Explorers Hotel which was great, and Earl of Sandwich was cheap and yummy

I'm not sure what your budget is, but have you looked at the Disney holidays? The travel, tickets and accommodation is all booked through them and it's surprisingly reasonable (for Disney). We are going in Feb half term next year and it worked out cheapest (for what we wanted) to book direct through Disney.
Like I said, it depends on what you want and what your budget is but for what we wanted, it was the cheapest way.

I think the Explorers Hotel also have shuttles to the park which is ideal for you if you don't have a car, double check that though.

The Ibis at Val D’Europe is a good base and reasonably priced. 1 stop on the RER line to Disney.

Public transport is very good so you can stay far away.

We stayed at the Adagio, which had a pool, which was great when we had had too much Disney. It was cheap, there’s a free shuttle bus there or you can get the RER one stop. It’s close to a huge shopping mall with a supermarket, so easy to pick up stuff for breakfast. We had a one bed apartment which had a double bed in a separate room and two single sofa beds in the sitting room/kitchen. It wasn’t luxurious, but it was clean and cheap. We also got Ile de France annual Disney passes, but for goodness sake make sure they are valid for the dates you want to visit. It’s not huge so 2-3 days is enough.

Thanks all! Booking isn’t open yet through Disney but I will definitely wait until it is (early September) to compare. It may be that for convenience we end up doing that, but with a few other big commitments next year it would definitely be better to do it on a budget. We were hoping to do 3 or 4 nights, 2 days in park, for under £1k really, obviously flights would be on top of that.

We stayed off site as we needed more than one bedroom, no way could four of us sleep in one room. Also if you can stay offsite you could extend your trip by a day or two if you wanted. Plus save money on food by self catering. If you stay in Val d’Europe there is a hypermarket in the mall. Or grab pastries from a Boulangerie. We did breakfast at accommodation (calm start to the day), packed lunches and bought evening meals in the parks. Lots of the hotels have free buses to the parks.

Do you mind me asking where you ended up staying? We have a 3 year old and 7 year old and the thought of all sharing a room fills me with dread, but finding accommodation with 3 bedrooms (our ideal) or even 2, isn’t that easy.

Hi you can use skyscanner to get flights cheap and then book hotel separate. Trains from Paris are easy to use ( stay at a big station area such gare de Lyon) and get train to Disney. Easier option though is to stay in the Disney area in a non Disney hotel. You can get deals through Disney that include these hotels.

Yes to the val d'europe area hotels, do check walking times to the station though. Highly recommend taking a pushchair to be honest. Unless your hotel includes breakfast I recommend getting in food to eat before leaving, take snacks and water bottles with you (the squash drops are useful if you don't want to drink plain water all day), McDonald's in the Disney village is standard French prices ish, cheaper eats in val d'europe area and we also bought chicken and salads from the supermarket one night (I carry forks and plates with me but I did have the car). As entertainment/food value we like Buffalo Bill but not sure on pricing or even if it's still going. The fast food inside the park is ok.

Do check pricing through Disney as well as independently, sometimes it's cheaper through them because they have a deal

We did it on a budget ish as much as is possible with Disney

stayed in valle d’ europa, 10 mins or less on the metro, super easy, had an apartment booked via either booking.com or air b&b I can’t remember. Cost around £80 a night. Apartments are pretty reasonable there.

Supermarket across the road from the apartment. Bought food for breakfast and lunch. Ate breakfast at the apartment. Took lunch and snacks in with us. Food in the park is ridiculously expensive. We ate tea in the park which was around £60 for a McDonald’s type meal for 4.

Park tickets bought through attraction tickets. Apparently this is the cheapest way to get them. We had a 3 day pass which could be used in either park. Cost roughly £800 for 4 people for the 3 days.

i think the total cost of the holiday including flights and accommodation was just under £2k for 5 days. We had a day in Paris as well as the 3 days at Disney

We stayed here - https://www.relais-spa.com/uk/valdeurope/location/. It was nice, clean and relatively peaceful. It had a pool and also we had a little kitchenette in our room which was helpful for making lunches. The hotel was a quick walk to shops and restaurants at Val d'Europe and we could get to Disney either via hotel shuttle bus or a 25 minute walk. We much preferred staying off site (caveat, we are not mega Disney fans) and it was much better for our wallets. For food, we did pastries for breakfast, we shopped at Auchan and had lovely picnic lunches and we had take aways from local non-Disney restaurants for dinner. We enjoyed what we ate and it was much, much, much, much cheaper than eating at Disney.

We’ve been three times. Eurocamp 20
minutes drive away (site not on Eurocamp anymore), Adagio Aparthotel with indoor pool with one bedroom and two beds in the lounge, and an a two bed apartment with bed in the lounge through Vrbo. We loved the space in the apartment. My kids aren’t bothered by staying in a DLP hotel though, they prefer to chill out off site. We always do a day or two in Paris as well.

Hiya OP, I've booked to stay in Le Chene Gris for the first week of September for Disney and going to Paris, so if you can hold out that long, I can let you know how it is. I'm staying with Eurocamp and the accomodation were fine before when I stayed at another of their sites.

Oh fantastic, yes please do let me know how you get on! Hope you have a great time.

Thank you! Drop me a message just after because I'll probably forget!

Some years ago we bought a Disney annual pass and went four times during the year. The price of the annual pass for four was similar to three days of park tickets and included free parking at Disney and discounts in restaurants but the pricing structure may have changed now.
The first time we used this annual pass we went in May half term at the end of the half term week on a hotel (Dream castle) and train package through Eurostar. Then in August we stopped at Disney on our way back from a summer holiday in france and stayed in an Accor hotel. We went for a few days pre christmas on a Brittany ferries hotel and ferry package and finally we went at May half term again (managed to do this by going for the first few days of half term the second time so that the annual pass was still valid). On the last occasion we drove from the Calais ferry and stayed at Relais Spa Val D'Europe.

Each of these trips was 2-3 days at Disney and 1-2 nights in a hotel and it was fun going to the park at different times of the year.

If anyone is still looking for a budget holiday at Disneyland Paris I noticed DFDS ferries are offering hotel and ferry packages to Disney in their latest newsletter.

Some years ago when the dc were much younger we drove to France via the tunnel and stayed at Jablines in one of their chalets. Outside of July/Aug you can book them for a short break. We had a brilliant time - went with friends who had the next door chalet, went to Disney for a few days to do both parks and bbq'd by the chalets in the evenings. Kids had freedom to ride scooters round the site and we got
to relax with a glass of wine in the evenings. On the last day we went to the beach in the leisure park next door to the campsite and swam in the lake. It did help that the weather was very hot (we went in the May half term).

A few years later we went back again to Jablines but took the kids into Paris instead for a few days (parking at Val d'Europe each day and taking the RER into the city). It was a great way to do Disney on a budget and the kids still talk about it!

A few years ago we went. I think we stayed at the Adagio, as mentioned above. Caught the shuttle bus which worked well. Around the corner from an enormous Auchin supermarket.

I took the advice from TripAdvisor and booked on the German site. That was fun. One screen in German, one on the UK site and on the Aus site to understand all the translations, conversions, T’s & C’s etc. But the saving was certainly worthwhile.

hiya @AliasGrape the reviews were unfounded. it was a lovely little place, perfectly functional and clean, other than a bit of dust in some corners. staff were lovely. snack bar food was good and reasonably priced. the restaurant was closed as high season had finished but enough of a menu with the snack bar tbh. the pool was cold, but the kids didn't mind at all. they even were swimming in the rain. there's a little shop which sells all the pool floaty stuff, bread and basics. i'd take extra bedding as it got chilly with the one blanket. they said the bar queues were long in july and august but in september it was so quiet. i've noticed eurostar are having a sale on atm as well, but if you book the campsite through eurocamp, the ferry is heavily discounted as well, if you call them and ask to book the ferry. i got a Bolt taxi to disney for 24 euro and the campsite put on a shuttle on tuesdays. there's also buses and trains midweek. if you need it, i found a reliable bolt driver, who I contacted privately to arrange transport to chessy train station for 30 euro. train station is literally outside the front entrance and the trains were lovely, clean and modern. the only downside is you have to clean your own caravan when you leave, but they come and inspect it as you're checking out and give you your deposit back straight away.

There is a B&B brand hotel in Torcy, super close to the station in Torcy and 3 stops from the Disney parks (approx 12 mins) on the RER train, cost was about €200 a night for a family of 4 (I think it would be an awful lot cheaper now as this was during the Olympics). We stayed there in the summer. Think UK travel lodge and your expectations will be perfect. On our previous visit we stayed in Val d'Europe, Hotel l'elysee. That was about €250 per night, admittedly this was much nicer than the B&B hotel but you do only sleep there. The Disney hotels are often a good price, when you book a package so 2 days of park tickets and 1 night in the hotel, the price for the hotel will often be only a few euros more than the park tickets alone, but adding extra nights in the Disney hotel before/after your park visit is usually quite expensive. I think usually if people want to stay 3 nights in a Disney hotel they book a 4 day/3 night package and accept they lose some/a lot of their park time on arrival and departure days. We actually hotel hopped and stayed at Val d'Europe hotel before and after our 2 days at Disney and had one night at a Disney hotel in the middle, just to get magic hours. Works fine if you can be bothered to do it. Magic hours access means entering the park an hour before everyone else except hotel guests. You just need to price everything up and see what works out best. Definitely book Disney on the German/Italian website, saved myself about £18 per person on day tickets doing that for our summer visit.

Oh yes I also stayed at the Torcy hotel at the end of my le chêne gris visit as we needed to extend our trip a couple of days after Disney and the campsite was full. İt was a really nice hotel, very clean. İ paid about 110 euro per night for a double room mid week. I booked it expecting something really basic and backstreet, but it was actually really nice and the staff super friendly too. The only issue was that we left the park late after the fireworks (around 9/10pm) and we struggled to get a Bolt/Uber. Eventually I got one but the driver told me he was heading home as he lived in Torcy and it was a random fluke. He said the drivers all refuse the trip to Torcy as there's no more work there for them there once they arrive. But one of the expensive taxi rank taxis may have gone there for a higher charge. There's still the train but I didn't feel comfortable taking a train to a Paris suburb after dark with a little one. I'm not saying it to be negative, just to give a heads up for anyone thinking to get a Bolt from the park to there.