Disneyland Paris.

ETanny

ETanny

ETanny

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So, me and the Hubby have just booked Disneyland Paris for next August as a surprise for our two girls who when we go will be 10 and 6.

I was wondering if anyone here who has been could advise on how much they spent during their trip? Or what they would take for spending money? Also any other useful information they want to share as neither of us have ever been to Disney before.

We are stopping for 4 nights/5 days on the park but we are leaving here the day before to travel down and spending an extra day coming home both times stopping in a hotel an hour from Paris.

We have opted for the full board meal plan while we are at Disney too so won't need to have money set aside for meals while at the park, just the two days either side of our holiday , any extra drinks while on the park and any snacks we may want plus any stuff the children ask for.

Any help would be appreciated as I can't ask anyone in real life as we are not telling anyone we are going to ensure the surprise it kept.

Thanks :)
 
Went december last year for a long weekend. As above 4 days is too long, we did the whole place in one day and went shopping the next and traveld home the last.

Food in the park is ultra expensive
 
sorry for the reply myself but the wife was struggling with the multiple quotes on her ipad


Raymond Lin said:
It's like £10 for hotdog and a drink, £50 won't get you far for 4 eating junk food…and I went in 2003.
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were getting a meal plan so breakfast, lunch and dinner and a drink with each is included so other then the odd extra drink and the odd ice cream we dont plan to eat on the park much outside of the meal plan

Schizo said:
I cant offer any help but im curious as to how you paid if you dont mind me asking.
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were going through a travel agent for the disney side of things but as i am driving down i have booked the ferry and other hotels myself... all paid on credit card as a precaution due to the recent monarch issues.

McGray said:
5 days there is way too long.
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that was my original thought but its currently on the 2 free nights offer so we have booked 2 nights, got 2 free and plan to arrive late morning for the first of the 5 days, i don't think the girls will be bored and if its too bad we can do a day in Paris or a morning or afternoon swimming but i don't see that happening personally.
 
2*pizza and chips
1 pasta dish
1 kids pizza in 2007 was around £70.

Was good we spent 3 days there, very, very busy on the Sunday, long, long, long queues.

3 euro for a can of coke, if I remember right, shocking!
 
Schizo said:
Sorry,i meant how much you paid for the trip....fingers and brain not connected this evening :)
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Pretty much £1300 for Disney but it's during summer holidays so we expected a premium.

Food package would be about £600 for 3 meals a day

Hotels to stop during travel we're about £70 each and ferry about £150

It's not cheap but we decided on doing 5 days they will love (hopefully) instead of a week somewhere cheaper but needing to find stuff to do during the week were away... We priced up a week all inclusive with flights was about £2000 but then we would need to find days out and things to do... Plus I don't like the idea of all inclusive.. We're doing something similar at Disney as we will only be eating in the park but have 15 different restaurants to pick from.
 
Nah its not as bad as some of the stuff above.

Been 3 times in the last 12 months - figured out on the first trip for the cost of a 4 day pass I could get an annual pass so went with that so have driven across a couple more times since to use it up and get my moneys worth. If you have the main food covered then thats the bulk of the money you need - obviously if you want to buy every disney gift possible you havent got enough money in the world to do that as that stuff is premium. For example my daughter collects those tsum tsum things - here in the UK you can get them for about £3 but in DLP they were 5 euros - but they had the lot. For snacks and stuff then think of it as a drink being 3.5Euros and snacks being around the 5-6 mark - in fact think of it like going to the cinema and buying their food at cinema prices. We drove over so took water / fizzy / snacks with us to save on some of that as you can carry a fair amount in. If you are eating in the restaurants the breakfast is buffet so nick a croissant or two to take with you but otherwise otherwise its expensive but you get a whole lot of food for you money.

My kids loved it and 5 days is probably a good length to see all the sights and shows if you havent been before especially if you are going to stay up one night to see the show at the end of the night. Theres loads of tips on DLPguide.com along with menus and prices aswell

Have fun.....
 
One stop on the rer gets you to val d'europe where there's a huge supermarket you could use to stock up on snacks and drinks for the park. If you did that you'd not need drinks. There are water fountains around the park too.

The rest depends on how much you want to treat the kids too. There are so many shops and so many different things you could buy, and nothing is really cheap.

They'll have a great time though
 
Probably a bit late for you but we have also done the Disney hotels which is great for the kids but these days check out the hotels just outside the park - we managed to stay in the B&B Hotel and Explorers Hotel this year - both for 4 nights for 4 for around the £500 mark plus £100 day for food on top. There's a free shuttle to the parks every 10 mins or so and for the amount of time you will want to stay in you room they are great value
 
We've been a couple of times with our two kids. Last time was two years ago. As others have said, you can comfortably do both parks in two days however, you will be knackered. So, with four days you can take it easy. Given the age of your children when you get in the park head straight to the north end behind the castle (Fantasy Land) as that's where most of the Disney Princess things happen and where most of the rides for younger kids are. Then, probably head clockwise taking in the other areas of the park. The train ride around the park is good too, for a rest.

In terms of food, we only ever went for breakfast in our hotel, had some on park food around lunchtime and snacks throughout the day (I would budget £30-£50 for that) and then went out for dinner (that would be about £80-£100 for a family of four). One thing we did that was an extra cost was the character breakfast. Can't remember the cost but it was good for the kids to meet the various characters, rather than standing in queues every day. Depending on which hotel you're staying in, if its one of the Disney ones, there will be characters around at various times for the kids to meet but, most of the time you will never be in the hotel. The key for breakfast is to arrive early (or book a slot) as you can wait ages to be seated in the morning - everyone wants to be at the park for opening. You can also take a rucksack with your own drinks and snacks into the park - there is a shop/cafe in the train station just outside the park entrance.

For rides, in the main park, the Buzz Lightyear one is good. In the studio tour park, you should definitely do crushes coaster - both our kids loved them (they were 7 and 9 at the time).

I'd budget £500-£700 for your trip in terms of spending money, although I suspect you will need less given all your meals are included.
 
Not sure about Disneyland Paris, we have always done Disneyworld Orlando.

Interested with the comments about 5 days being too long though? My understanding is (I maybe wrong) that the main park in Paris is bigger than the Magic Kingdom in Orlando.

We spent 5 weeks in Orlando this year and we visited the Magic Kingdom 6 or 7 times during that period, and each time was unique and different. I would assume that Paris would be the same?
 
Been twice at Christmas with my son, 3 the first time and 4 the second. Stayed for 4 nights both times and thought it was the perfect length for us. The parks are pretty busy over the festive season so there will be some quite big ques for the rides so you wont get everything done in a hurry. I have no idea how anyone can say they could possibly do both parks in a single day unless they've missed out all of the shows and parades and a lot of rides.

The food is mega expensive but if you've gone for the full board option then you will be fine. You wont need to buy snacks as you can fill up on breakfast which is a buffet so you can eat as much as you like. You can always take some snacks in your luggage too.

One tip I would suggest is booking a character dining experience. The first time I went I didn't and collectively we spent a whole day standing in big ques to meet the characters over the trip. It is eye wateringly expensive to book dinner with them but the interaction with the characters was fantastic (they dont just stand in the corner for photos, they come over and play with the kids etc, Goofy would pretend to steal toys and things etc) but it also saves you countless hours standing in the cold for a 30 second meet! The queue for Mickey Mouse was 2 hours on our first trip! Got a great photo mind you.

Just spotted that you have girls, they do dinner and breakfast with the Disney Princesses so might be worth looking into that if they'll be more interested in them?
 
Mark M said:
One tip I would suggest is booking a character dining experience. The first time I went I didn't and collectively we spent a whole day standing in big ques to meet the characters over the trip. It is eye wateringly expensive to book dinner with them but the interaction with the characters was fantastic (they dont just stand in the corner for photos, they come over and play with the kids etc, Goofy would pretend to steal toys and things etc) but it also saves you countless hours standing in the cold for a 30 second meet! The queue for Mickey Mouse was 2 hours on our first trip! Got a great photo mind you.

Just spotted that you have girls, they do dinner and breakfast with the Disney Princesses so might be worth looking into that if they'll be more interested in them?
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We did 2 x character dining experiences (one with Mickey and Minnie and crew and the other with Cinderella, Belle etc) and my 4 year old daughter loved it, my son...not so much. Wallet busting expensive, but we would do it again. The interactions were brilliant.
 
Rifte said:
We did 2 x character dining experiences (one with Mickey and Minnie and crew and the other with Cinderella, Belle etc) and my 4 year old daughter loved it, my son...not so much. Wallet busting expensive, but we would do it again. The interactions were brilliant.
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My son loved all the characters although he got a little shy when he saw Donald Duck for some reason. Looking to go again next year and would do it again despite the price.

Out of interest how old are your kids? Im unsure on what is the "right" age to take my son to Florida and he's a little on the short side for some of the rides that I know he would want to go on. Hes due a bit of a growth spurt soon Im sure!
 
We did 6 nights there in August, our girls 6 and 3, loved it, they keep asking to go back every day. We also did an afternoon\evenig in Paris in the middle of the holiday too.
You need to book the restraunts in advanced before you go, this can be done about 90 days before you go, we enjoyed Plaza Gardens, and all our meals were the buffet options, as this just made it easier and the girls got to decide what they wanted to eat. Trying to book when you were there left you with slim pickings or rubbish time slots, as we did manage to change a few meals around.

Bottles of water are €3.50 each, so drinks quickly add up, however there are water fountains you can use for free to re-fill the bottles. Just about all of the stalls accept contactless credit cards to make it easier to pay for everything!
We purchased Princess for a Day as an extra, which allowed the girls to pick a dress and have hair and makeup done, they loved it all, and you get to keep the dresses. I would highly recommend the PhotoPass as we had 150 photos taken when we were at the parks between the rides and meeting the characters.

The characters are great, but you will queue to see them, Moana was a 2hour wait, she also had a break every 45minutes for 15 minutes! the princess are about 90minute wait, although you do get about 5minutes with each one, so its not overly rushed, and you can take your own photos, or get them to take them with the pass. Ours also had an autograph book, so all the characters signed their books, which they thought was great.
The fast pass is good too, but only available on some rides. The firewors\illuminations is fantastic, although we needed to get your "space" about 2 hours before it started, likeways for the parade, your space being a bit of the pavement!
Everything is expensive, as in ridiculously expensive, if they could get away with charging you for oxygen, thet would! but we loved the holiday.

Are you staying at a hotel in the park? we stayed at the Hotel New York, which was great.
 
Rifte said:
Not sure about Disneyland Paris, we have always done Disneyworld Orlando.

Interested with the comments about 5 days being too long though? My understanding is (I maybe wrong) that the main park in Paris is bigger than the Magic Kingdom in Orlando.

We spent 5 weeks in Orlando this year and we visited the Magic Kingdom 6 or 7 times during that period, and each time was unique and different. I would assume that Paris would be the same?
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I agree with this - I've been to the ORlando park several times - have a different plan each day otherwise its exhausting - one day rides, next shows, parade, shopping, character meet etc. There is actually lots more to see if you slow down and check out things other than the headline rides.

Also theres an Android (and assume Apple) app called Disneyland - great for finding out what the rides times are on every ride in the parks if you have data in France
 
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