how much did your disneyland paris trip cost.....please!

mellyonion · 2008-08-31T08:56:13+00:00

looking at whether we can afford to go.. have 7yo, 4 yo, and 2 yo. can go whenever, and hopefully for 3 nights/4 days...(pref out of half terms etc) have looked into it and it seems that we can't do it for less than about £1500 all in...how come the adverts show really cheap amounts?? so, how much did you pay roughly?

SugaryBits · 31/08/2008 10:00

We are going for 4 nights on 8th September. We are staying in the Vienna International Dream castle hotel. The hotel and park tickets were £600. I booked eurostar tickets on eurostar site for £250- Disney wanted more than twice that to book tickets through them!
So £850 altogether.

eandh · 31/08/2008 10:04

we are going on 22nd september mon-thurs staying in santa fe hotel at disney it is £388 for 4 of us (dd1 will be 4 (her bday present) and dd2 will be 21months) it includes breakfast and I booked it through another mnetter who is a travel agent on my postnatel thread (laughalot)doenst include eurostar but booked directly and that was £180 for 2 adults plus dd1 (dd2 free as under 3) we will be going from ashford direct to disney.

I am planning on taking some snacky stuff (cereal bars/crisps etc) with us but fill kids up at breakfast , lite lunch and we'll eat out in the evening, although am now panicking how much an evening meal is goin to cost us (I have budget £80 per eveningplus £250 for bits and bobs plus my parents given dd1 euros as part of her birthday present although have to think of a reason why as she hasnt got a clue we are going)

gingernutlover · 31/08/2008 19:44

we have just got back

4 nights 5 days

we stayed at davey corckets ranch - which was fanatstic, you need a car tho so we went euro tunnel and drove to paris

we had Half board plus vouchers

it was me and dh and dd who will be 3 next week, so she was free, and they let her eat free at the buiffets too

we paid £900, and this was in august, so peak season

the £900 included everything, we got a price from disney direct, then went to thomas cook and they matched it (cos we neeeded to pay cash)

mypandasgotcrabs · 31/08/2008 19:51

I went last year, 1st weekend in August for 4 nights. We stayed in Hotel New York, had direct Eurostar from Waterloo.

For myself, xp, ds1 (then 5), and ds2 (then 1) it was £1033. I found Eurostar website was cheapest, but called Thomson who price matched & I got them to give me the direct train instead of messing about changing at Lille.

Original poster

mellyonion · 01/09/2008 11:45

many thanks everyone...

looks like a grand may do it the (as long as we don't eat while we're there!! )

any top tips about best times of the year to go??

OP posts:

gingernutlover · 01/09/2008 18:37

our £900 included breakfast every day at the ranch and also a buffet or table service dinner every night in a restaurant

we had a choice of 17 restaurants, and one was a character dinner too for nothing extra - i would really reccomend the vouchers as a normal "buffet" in the restaurants was advertised as costing around 25-30 euros

gingernutlover · 01/09/2008 18:38

oh, and if you stay at a disney hotel or selected other hotels you get 2 magic hours extra at the park every morning, 8am-10am it was much much quieter in this time so def worth it

LadyMuck · 01/09/2008 18:48

We went last week. We got Eurostar train tickets for £59 each. Triple room at Premiere Class Bussy St George at £40 per night for all of us. We had bought annual passes (179 euros for adults, kids were free) which also gave us the Extra Magic Hours early entrance, free stroller hire, free parking, luggage storage, 10% off food, 20% off toys/merchandise.

If you are looking for cheap then I would look at getting an annual pass for at least one of you if only for the discounts. Also I would stay offsite - I've stayed at Sequoia, Explorers and then at Bussy St George (2 stops away on RER) and actually the time door to door isn't much different between them, but the price difference is huge. That said kids preferred Explorers because of pool and play area. As weather was good we just stayed in the parks all day and kids played in the Indian playground (rather than going back to hotel for break).

As we'd bought the annual passes for a trip at Easter I took the boys last week for 3 days/2 nights. Train/accom cost £260 plus I had to pay £34.50 parking at Ashford. So £300 for 3 of us during August bank holiday week.

piratecat · 01/09/2008 18:49

£360 for me , my mum and dd6 to share a room for 4 nights, B + B plus all passes included (5 day pass)

£70 each for return flights from Exeter to Paris.

about £20/£16 for return transfers to hotel form airport.

stayed st Santa fe, and it was basic but fine for a cheap break, AND next to the ONLY garage/shop within about 2 miles of disney. great for wine/biccies, crisps.

anyoneelse · 01/09/2008 18:52

we stayed at a hotel called Explorers which is a partner hotel and has pink shuttle bus to/from the site very regularly (takes only 10 minutes) - coz we have 3 DC (slightly older than the OP's DC) and so needed a room which can take more than 4 people - they have rooms with a double, 2 singles and a sort of annex bit with bunk beds in - so sleep up to 6 people. We did spend about £1500 all in all for a 5 day/4 night visit but we did treat ourselves to some nice meals etc.

piratecat · 01/09/2008 18:55

eandh,

when we stayed at the Santa fe we ate a few evening meals there. it was handy for us as me and dd are vegetatian and veggie are not catered for in the parks really.

It's a buffet thing, so you can really fill up,

last oct is was 21 euros for an adult, and aabout 16 for a child. thats about £14 adult.

my dd has a tiny appetite tho, and I just bought myself a meal and she has some of mine. I cheated yes, but tbh the place is so big and busy, that me grabbing an extra plate and her having a few bits, was fair in my eyes!! As, SOME people totally took the piss and ate tonns, but also left loads too.

We found it nice to come back to the hotel, and chill then go to the hotel buffet.

piratecat · 01/09/2008 18:58

friends have stayed at the explorers and recommended it, i will try there if we ever do it again!!

mypandasgotcrabs · 01/09/2008 19:46

eandh, before I went all I heard was how expensive it was to eat at DLP. IMO it's bloody cheap eating there! An evening meal for the 4 of us, including drinks cost approx 75 euros. That was in places like Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe etc. On last years exchange rates, that made it about £45 for the 4 of us. Bearing in mind the childrens meals at the Rainforest Cafe in London are over £10, you can see why I think it's so cheap to eat out over there. ALso, drinks in the park were 2 Euros for a bottle of coke, sprite etc, so about the same price as you'd pay in a shop here and a heck of a lot cheaper than at Thorpe Park, Legoland for example.

chipkid · 01/09/2008 19:59

it is monstrously expensive to eat out at disneyland paris-we went in July-and given the bad exchange rate-hot dogs and chips for 4 with a soft drink was about £40.00-it is more expensive if you sit in a reatsurant (£70.00 for two adult burgers and 2 children's meals two beers and two soft drinks.) I burned £300 in food alone and we were on a bed and breakfast deal.
The two free hours are great if you stay in a disneyand hotel-but only certain sections are open-doesn't include thunder mountain. Also the problem is that you have breakfast so early to beat the crowds that the children are starving again by lunchtime!
The expense of it all made my eyes water-but we were in peak time

iamdingdong · 01/09/2008 20:01

we stayed 2 nights last w/e, had lunch with princesses, decent hotel, cost us about £1000 all in

piratecat · 02/09/2008 07:42

peak time or not I don't think the food prices ever change chipkid.

I realy felt exploited, as the prices are so silly, esp for what you get. Thats why I enjoed the hotel buffet, as was gagging for a vegetable/bit of salad by day 2!

LadyMuck · 02/09/2008 08:34

I think that it does depend on where you eat and what you order. There were plenty of reasonably priced set meals but if you went a la carte then it would be a lot more expensive. Counter service is a lot cheaper than table service. I thought that the Disney buffets were pretty good - everyone got to eat plenty at the Plaza Gardens buffet for example.

LadyMuck · 02/09/2008 08:34

I think that it does depend on where you eat and what you order. There were plenty of reasonably priced set meals but if you went a la carte then it would be a lot more expensive. Counter service is a lot cheaper than table service. I thought that the Disney buffets were pretty good - everyone got to eat plenty at the Plaza Gardens buffet for example.

poorbuthappy · 02/09/2008 08:44

We went in April this year and for 3 of us in Sequoia Lodge cost £650 for 4 nights/5 days. Eurotunnel was £114 return, plus obviously diesel and tolls.

Only breakfast was included in the price.
Top tip for us was to make up rolls at the breakfast buffet to take into the park and then eat for lunch. We saved about £100 over the 4 days by doing this as after the 1st day we knew we didn't want to see another burger again for a while!

Didn't rate the rainforest cafe at all...wouldn't go there again to be honest.
Loved Cafe Mickey and enjoyed the food.

Also buy crisps and things in the train station on the way into the park!

piratecat · 02/09/2008 10:29

also depens on your budget, low budget here!

goog tip about breakfast rolls, we ate alot a croissants as snaks, pilfered from breakfast. i took lots of stuff too, like peguins, pack of biccies, to have in my bag.

chipkid · 02/09/2008 13:23

I didn't rate the rainforest restaurant either-the idea was fun-lots of animals coming alive etc-but the amount of three/four year olds screaming in fright and refusing to eat their expensive food was incredible!

Agree Pirate-my ds who hates vegetables was despearate for some broccoli by day 2!

eandh · 02/09/2008 13:30

Thanks for all that info, think we'll def go to cafe mickey one day and maybe rainforest (not sure dd2 will like it) and do buffets the other nights (dd2 doesnt eat a huge amount so may get away with giving her some of our food)

The dd's have trunki's so am filling those with food before we go and will pilfer croissants/fruit at breakfast for lunch (and think we'll be popping into the garage next to santa fe )

SO it seems £80/120E for the 4 of us for an evening meal seems quite reasonable and will just have to restrain dd1 from going in the shops looking at all the toys etc!

piratecat · 02/09/2008 18:05

when i wason here asking about disney, thisitme last year in fact , I was really pleased when another mnetter told me about the garage. it's just handy becuase there is NOWHERE to buy even a bar of choc in disney. We of course bought vino!!!

LadyMuck · 02/09/2008 18:09

eandh, you're in for a shock if you think that £80 will get you 120 Euros....

But yes, you should be able to eat for 100 Euros. I think 3 course set menu in Cafe Mickey was 29 Euros for an adult.

PrimulaVeris · 02/09/2008 18:22

Good tip for shop - there's a very small Casino (supermarket chain I hasten to add) in the railway station. Sells mineral water, drinks and VERY basic food for picnics.

Also Esso garage as above. If you have car and staying in Dream Castle/Holiday Inn/Kyriad you can drive into Magny le Hongre in 5 mins, there is a v nice boulangerie and small shop there. Fraction of disney prices.

God the food made me gag. Especially when paid the bill.