Disneyland Paris - tips and advice

[WideFootWelly]

I'm sure this subject has been done to death, but I'm in need of advice and your best tips!

We're looking at disneyland paris next Feb half term - staying at Cheyenne. 2 adults, 2 kids (4 and 7).
It's always going to be expensive, but I'd like to keep it managable so the costs don't spiral.

Firstly, I'm torn between 2nights/3days, and 3n/4d. I feel like 4 Park days is too much, but with 2n/3d you only get the one full day and the other two are leaving/arrival days.

Half board/full board - looks likey we'll do a food package. Does anyone know what these packages include on the arrival day? As far as I can tell full board includes lunch on departure day but half board doesn't. Does full board include lunch and dinner on arrival day?
The price between HB/FB seems to work out about £80-£110 per day (depending on if lunch is included on arrival day). Is the full board worth it? Can we get a light lunch/sandwiches in the park for a lot less than this? I don't feel we'd need a full lunch, and I'd be reluctant to spend money on snacks (which the kids will want!) if I've paid for full board.

If we did 2n/3d we would potentially travel to Paris the day before and stay in a hotel in Paris and get an early start to the park, plus see a bit of Paris the day before. Is this sensible, or does it sound like a nightmare with kids?
Cost saving when you take into account food/hotel in Paris for the day is probably only about £200. But it's not so much about the cost, more about arriving to the park earlier and not on the same day as the kids will already be knackered from travel home-London-Paris-disney.

I have loads more questions, but thats probably enough to start! I like to plan - and I like to plan in the ability to be a little flexible with our time when we're there (e.g. making sure we have enough time and aren't constantly rushing). I heard Disney needs to be planned, so my planning might be more useful than annoying!

How exciting :) I feel like it's really easy to panic when you start looking into Disneyland because there's so many priority passes, people telling you to book xyz a month out.

We went when our kids were 2 and 4 and had a great time and after reading all of the forums/Facebook groups (you'll definitely panic reading the Facebook groups), we decided to relax and wing it a little. That being said, if there are certain rides you absolutely must go on, you may want to look at the passes. With our children being younger, they weren't aware of everything going on so weren't 'missing out'.

The magic hours staying in the park are really great and are so worth it - you can do a lot in that hour. We did 3n/4d but we arrived late afternoon on the first day and left around 11am on the last day. I'd say we did everything we wanted to do (bearing in mind kids couldn't go on all the rides) and with a good pace, e.g. we went back to room for naps some day, so I think 2n/3d would be doable for you.

In terms of food, again it really depends on what you want to prioritise, but I found that the restaurants get booked up in advance and I didn't want to have to plan exactly what meals we'd have when. We ended up loading up at hotel buffet and then getting snack-type meals while out. We did one buffet dinner in the park but had some meals in the outside village area and that worked well for us.

Reading back through that, I don't know how useful that answer was...! And now realising our kids were quite different ages then. Main takeaways -

• 2n/3d feels like enough but 3n/4d you won't feel as rushed and you can revisit the things you really like
• Half/full board in restaurants requires you to book lots of them in advance, which can be limiting on the day when you realise you might want to do something else or had a big breakfast and then don't want lunch
• Don't get too caught up in all of the must-do hacks - if you can get past the fomo, it will be much more enjoyable!

How exciting :) I feel like it's really easy to panic when you start looking into Disneyland because there's so many priority passes, people telling you to book xyz a month out.

We went when our kids were 2 and 4 and had a great time and after reading all of the forums/Facebook groups (you'll definitely panic reading the Facebook groups), we decided to relax and wing it a little. That being said, if there are certain rides you absolutely must go on, you may want to look at the passes. With our children being younger, they weren't aware of everything going on so weren't 'missing out'.

The magic hours staying in the park are really great and are so worth it - you can do a lot in that hour. We did 3n/4d but we arrived late afternoon on the first day and left around 11am on the last day. I'd say we did everything we wanted to do (bearing in mind kids couldn't go on all the rides) and with a good pace, e.g. we went back to room for naps some day, so I think 2n/3d would be doable for you.

In terms of food, again it really depends on what you want to prioritise, but I found that the restaurants get booked up in advance and I didn't want to have to plan exactly what meals we'd have when. We ended up loading up at hotel buffet and then getting snack-type meals while out. We did one buffet dinner in the park but had some meals in the outside village area and that worked well for us.

Reading back through that, I don't know how useful that answer was...! And now realising our kids were quite different ages then. Main takeaways -

• 2n/3d feels like enough but 3n/4d you won't feel as rushed and you can revisit the things you really like
• Half/full board in restaurants requires you to book lots of them in advance, which can be limiting on the day when you realise you might want to do something else or had a big breakfast and then don't want lunch
• Don't get too caught up in all of the must-do hacks - if you can get past the fomo, it will be much more enjoyable!

Thanks @boymum1989 that is helpful.
My kids aren't massively into rides - not the big rides at least, so that should cut down some queue time hopefully.

I hadn't thought about outside food, what are the prices like?

The half board works out around £200/day I think - maybe just under. My kids would definitely want breakfast - but that on its own doesn't seem worth it. Our other meal would almost certainly be an evening meal rather than lunch. Booking meals in advance does not appeal to me at all.

I suppose its just a matter of working out if the meal plan is good value, when we'll have to buy meals there anyway. Without knowing costs its hard to tell.

What time of year did you go? I'm assuming Feb will be pretty cold, and not sure what sort of clothes and shoes would be suitable for being outside/walking around all day.

We went with kids the same age and did breakfast only. We took snacks with us and took fruit / pastries from breakfast. Then just ate when we were hungry around 4/5pm. It gave us more flexibility and we went to the rainforest cafe and McDonald’s (there’s a massive one near the entrance).

Sorry! Just realised I posted twice. Feb will be chilly - we went the 2nd week of March and we were wearing light jackets and beanie hats, but not winter coats.

Hotel breakfast is 100% worth it.

You can find menus for the Disney village restaurants here https://www.disneylandparis.com/en-int/dining/ and there are prices, too. Some of them have an evening happy hour for drinks.

Don’t get full board. It’s not worth it. Snacks are definitely part of the fun of Disneyland - you can get so many fun snacks and we use snacking as a way to keep the kids occupied in queues and to keep their energy levels up for a long day.
If you are happy to eat at counter service restaurants or MDs etc, you will save money by not having a meal plan. If you intend to eat at buffets and table service multiple times, you will save money by having a meal plan. Counter service meals are huge and very good!

I'm already stressed. Prices are rising, and realistically we can't book for another 2 weeks until we can get our annual leave confirmed!

Price difference between breakfast only and full board is around £200, so about £100 per evening meal. I'm sure we could probably spend that, but if I'm right in thinking the chains aren't actually included in the meal plan then we might struggle with food choices elsewhere (fussy family).

Is it possible to book the base package and add the meal plan later if we change our mind?

Is breakfast only plan worth it (approx £90 per day for the 4 of us?). I can eat a lot of breakfast 😆😆

We went this summer. 2 days was (more than) enough for us, First day we went early and had enough by 7pm. Second day we went at about 3pm and lasted until the light show (by far the best bit). More than enough for us (kids 9 and 10)

I think the 2 nights will be enough for us - I have no desire to walk around the park 4 days in a row, with two kids who would be knackered by that point.
Now...just to convince the husband that we don't need the extra night or the food package...

How about the photo pass? £69.44.
Does that mean we wouldn't have to pay separately for photos from rides?

Not sure about adding the package but definitely worth the breakfast in my opinion. Sets you up well for the day and I think we took some pastries away/made up little sandwiches for the kids.

the only consideration is timing as you want to be in the park for the Magic Hour for hotel guests (8am I think?) so either eat breakfast at 7 or if that’s too early for you, don’t get the breakfast plan or I know some people go in, do the magic hour for an hour or so and then go back for a later breakfast (then skip lunch)

Food plan so depends for dinner, £100 extra for a family dinner is good value and the buffet restaurants will have something for everyone BUT if you are likely going to be eating chips or pizza, not worth spending £100 on that!

Kids would be happy with mcdonalds. Buffet would definitely be wasted.

In theory we could stock up on snacks and non refrigerated breakfast items from home. Give the kids something 7-8am in the room, then magic hour, back to the hotel for around 10am to eat as much breakfast (brunch) as we can manage. Dinner in the park. Snacks when we feel like it.

You guys may have just saved me a small fortune.

Is there a fridge for milk in the room? Or a kettle for tea?

Cheyenne has a kettle tea coffee but no fridge. We did no meal plan and winged most meals. There is a Starbucks onsite so got breakfast from there or in the park. I would do the same again as I don’t like being tied to a certain place at a certain time.

There is a McDonalds in the Disney village, I think it's the cheapest place to eat, though it's often busy. I've actually not tried the sit down restaurants, but the food in the quick service places is not great.

Just had a quick flick though some of the menus of quick service restaurants at DLP. These are the current average prices for what DH and I would be eating in addition to breakfast.
€4 for mid-morning drink
€12 for an adult lunchy main course, €4 for drink
€4 for mid-afternoon snack, €4 for mid-afternoon drink
€18 for main, side and drink, sometimes an additional €4 for pudding

That’s €50, or £42. Hope this helps. All the DLP menus and prices are online, so it's really easy to check.

Forgot to mention kids meals in my last post. They don't seem to be more than €10 each, and it includes a drink and sometimes a lolly/cookie etc...

We did early breakfast in the hotel (Santa Fe), then into the park for magic hour. We bought baguette sandwiches from the train station (literally next to the gates to Disney) and took them in so we ate lunch in the queues, and supplemented with snacks throughout the day and ate in the Disney village for tea. We had done the half board option on a previous visit, but the restaurants were busy so if you go with that then I’d eat outside the standard meal times and snack the rest of the time.

Haven't read all this but worth looking at Disneyland Paris for brits on facebook