Planning a trip to Disneyland Paris on a budget? Disney holidays have a reputation for being expensive… and it’s certainly possible to spend a small fortune!
But with a bit of planning, some careful choices and a willingness to skip the extras you don’t really need, a trip to Disneyland Paris can be much more affordable than you might think.
We managed to get our family of three — two adults and one child — to Disneyland Paris for just £1,086 for our accommodation, park tickets and LeShuttle crossing.
That’s right: just over £1,000 for our family to enjoy the magic of Disney!
The cheapest way to do Disneyland Paris
We didn’t stay in a Disney hotel, we didn’t pay for expensive queue-skipping passes, and we didn’t buy park-hopper tickets for every day. Instead, we worked out what mattered most to us and where we could save money without compromising on the experience.
So here are our best tips for planning a budget-friendly Disneyland Paris trip:
1. Stay off-site rather than in a Disney hotel
Disney hotels are magical and staying in the middle of the Disney bubble certainly has its advantages. However, if you’re planning a budget trip, accommodation can be one of the biggest expenses of a Disneyland Paris holiday. In fact, we’d say it’s the cheapest way to do Disneyland Paris.
If you’re travelling a long way to get there — perhaps driving from the north of England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland — you might want to spend several days in the area to make the journey worthwhile. Staying in a Disney hotel for that length of time can quickly become expensive.
Staying off-site can give you more space, better facilities and potentially a longer stay for your money. There are lots of great hotels and apartments around Disneyland Paris, with options to suit different budgets.
Here are some options worth looking into:
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- Adagio Serris Adagio Serris is an aparthotel around a 15-minute walk from the parks, with a free shuttle also available. It has an outdoor swimming pool, and the apartment-style accommodation can be useful for families who want a little more independence. Check prices and availability
- Hôtel l’Elysée Val d’Europe A particularly convenient option if you want to be close to shops and restaurants as well as Disneyland Paris. It lies right in the centre of Val d’Europe, close to the shopping centre and RER station. It offers a free shuttle to the parks. Check prices and availability
- Relais Spa Val d’Europe Around a 25-minute walk from the parks, this hotel also offers a free minibus on request. It’s a comfortable option with an indoor swimming pool. Check prices and availability
- Explorers Fabulous Hotels Group A popular family hotel with a pirate theme. There’s also a pool, children’s play area and a free shuttle bus to the Disney parks. A good option if you’re travelling with younger children who would enjoy having plenty to do back at the hotel. Check prices and availability
- Ki Space Hotel & Spa A modern hotel offering something a little different from the usual family accommodation. Facilities include an indoor heated pool, spa, fitness room and arcade games room. Rooms also have kitchen facilities and there’s a free shuttle to Disneyland Paris. Check prices and availability
- Staycity Aparthotels near Disneyland Paris Staycity is a lovely-looking resort offering larger family apartments, and there’s an outdoor swimming pool. It isn’t within walking distance of the parks, so you’ll need to factor in the shuttle or alternative transport when planning your days (see our drive and park tips below). Check prices and availability
- Grand Magic Hotel This themed hotel has an indoor heated swimming pool, a bar, a restaurant and a games room. It’s around a 30-minute walk from the parks, or you can use the shuttle bus. The shuttle is shared with another hotel, so it can get busy at peak times. Check prices and availability
- Dream Castle Hotel A castle-themed hotel with an indoor pool and spa, bar and restaurant and gardens with a free shuttle bus to the parks. It’s a good option if you’d like a little bit of Disney-style magic at your accommodation without staying in an official Disney hotel. Check prices and availability
- Campanile Val de France Another family-friendly option, with a restaurant, games room and an outdoor petting zoo. It’s around a 30-minute walk from the parks, with a shuttle bus available. As with the Grand Magic Hotel, the shared shuttle can get busy, so bear that in mind when planning your mornings. Check prices and availability
- Marriot’s Village d’Île-de-France If you’re looking for more space and a self-catering option, Marriott’s Village is well worth considering. It offers spacious villas with kitchens and living areas, along with swimming pools and leisure facilities. It’s about a 10-minute drive from Disneyland Paris, so having a car is useful (see our drive and park tips below). Check prices and availability
- B&B Hotel at Disneyland Paris This is a good option if you’re looking for straightforward, budget-friendly family accommodation. It has colourful family rooms, breakfast facilities and a free shuttle bus to the Disney parks. This is worth checking out if you don’t need lots of additional hotel facilities. Check prices and availability
- All Suites Appart Hôtel – Serris Val d’Europe This is another option to consider if you prefer apartment-style accommodation. It’s around a 20-minute walk from the parks, with shuttle transport also available, and it’s conveniently located next to a Carrefour supermarket. Having a supermarket nearby can be particularly useful for buying breakfast items, snacks and drinks rather than eating out for every meal. Check prices and availability
- Les Villages Nature Paris If you love Center Paris as well as Disney, this resort could be the one for you. It offers self-catering accommodation, woodland surroundings and the large Aqualagon water park, with indoor and outdoor swimming facilities. It’s around 15 minutes by car from Disneyland Paris. Be aware it doesn’t have a free shuttle – instead there’s a paid public pus service which takes around 20 minutes – or check out our drive and park tips below. Check prices and availability
Hotel prices are approximate and will vary depending on your dates, room type and availability. Check the latest prices and transport arrangements before booking.
Where we stayed
We’re members of the Holiday Property Bond, so we opted to stay at their Saint Simeon property for £300 for the week.
It’s further away from Disneyland Paris than the hotels listed above, at around a 40-minute drive, but it worked really well for us and helped keep our accommodation costs down.
The site is spacious, with two swimming pools (one indoor, one outdoor) and a games room, as well as a morning bakery delivery, a visiting crepe van and lots of local walks and activities.
The roads between the site and the Disney parks were easy to drive on, although one thing to remember is that French rural roads often don’t have street lighting. If you’re driving back after a long day in the parks, particularly in winter, keep this in mind when planning your journey.
2. Look at cheaper parking options
If you’re driving to Disneyland Paris, parking is another cost worth considering.
You can park directly at the resort, but there are alternatives that may work out cheaper, depending on your plans.
Park at Val d’Europe
We found that parking at Val d’Europe could be a great way to save money. When we visited, we parked for free.
From there, you can take the RER train one stop to Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy, right by the Disneyland Paris entrance. The fare was around €3 per person when we travelled.
If you choose this option, make sure you park in the correct area and check the car park’s opening hours. We parked near the restaurant area, where some places were open until around 1am, but you should check the current arrangements before relying on this for a late finish.
Park at Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy station
Another option is the multi-storey car park at the railway station directly opposite the park entrance.
We paid around €18 per day when we used it. It’s particularly convenient if you want to avoid taking the train, although it’s worth comparing the current parking charges with the official Disney car park. It also has extremely narrow ramps, which took some getting used to!
Always check the latest rates and opening hours before travelling, as parking arrangements and prices can change.
3. Book your LeShuttle crossing and park tickets in advance
This is one of the biggest lessons we learnt when planning our trip: if you know your dates, start looking at prices early.
We booked our LeShuttle crossing during the Black Friday sale, paying just £210.
When we later checked the same dates and times, the crossing was £330 – a difference of £120!
We also booked our Disneyland Paris tickets in advance. Our tickets cost £576 in total, compared with £584 when we checked the equivalent options later — an additional £8 difference.
That means the combined difference on our crossing and park tickets was £128.
Of course, prices can rise or fall, and booking early doesn’t guarantee you’ll always get the lowest possible price. But keeping an eye on deals and comparing the exact dates you want to travel can make a real difference to your Disneyland Paris budget.
We’d particularly recommend looking out for seasonal sales if you’re travelling by car and using LeShuttle, or travelling by Eurostar which regularly runs flash sales.
4. Think carefully about which park tickets you actually need
It’s easy to assume you need multi-day, multi-park tickets for every day of your trip (particularly if you’re a Walt Disney World regular, where flexible tickets often form part of the overall package) – but we found that’s not necessarily the case.
For us, Disneyland Park had more than enough rides, attractions and shows to keep us busy for a full day. We therefore chose a one-day, one-park ticket for one day and a two-day ticket for second day of our visit.
This worked out much cheaper than buying the more expensive ticket option for every day.
While we did make use of the two-day option on our second Disney day, fitting in some rides we’d missed at Disneyland Park, we didn’t feel we needed the flexibility to hop between parks every single day.
Multi-park tickets can cost around €100 more than one-park tickets per day, depending on the ticket type and dates. So before paying extra, think about how much time you’ll realistically spend in each park.
If you’re just there for a day, it may make sense to get a flexible ticket – but if you’re there for longer, you might want to consider if you’ll need that flexibility on every day of your stay.
5. Take your own snacks and drinks
Food and drink costs can quickly add up when you’re spending a full day at Disney.
And while those Mickey-shaped snacks are delicious, your budget can get away from you faster than a runaway train with Goofy at the helm.
We took some of our own snacks into the parks, which helped keep our spending down.
Disneyland Paris generally permits visitors to bring in their own snacks, packed lunches and non-alcoholic drinks, subject to its current park rules and restrictions.
Taking a few snacks or a packed lunch can help keep everyone going between meals and means you’re not buying something every time someone gets hungry. Plus it meant we could hop in a queue for a ride straight away without hitting the Cable Car Bake Shop first.
And we still enjoyed plenty of Disney food in the parks – we just didn’t spend quite as much as we otherwise might have done.
6. Buy Disney merchandise before you go
If your children (or, indeed, you!) love Disney merchandise, you’ll know how tempting the shops can be.
But, being mindful of our budget, we kept our Disneyland Paris purchases to a minimum.
We looked for Disney items before our trip and found some great bargains on sites such as Vinted and in stores such as Primark. We also borrowed Disney merch from friends that proved really useful in the parks (thanks to Heather for lending me her cosy Mickey fleece which proved invaluable in the autumn chill).
Buying a few things in advance meant we could take some Disney magic with us without paying full theme park prices for everything.
You might find character clothing, ears, bags, toys and other Disney-themed items for much less than you’d pay in the parks.
It’s also worth looking at what you already own before buying anything new – my son’s Mickey bubble wand, purchased in 2023, is still going strong and came along for the fireworks.
7. Fill up with fuel away from motorway services
If you’re driving to France, fuel is another cost worth thinking about.
Motorway service stations can be convenient, but they aren’t always the cheapest places to fill up. We tried to buy petrol away from motorway services wherever practical, filling up at supermarkets near the main roads in the UK and France.
Apps like Petrol Prices let you compare fuel prices so you can plan your stops in advance.
Just make sure any detour is worthwhile — saving a little on fuel isn’t always worth adding a long diversion to your journey.
8. Don’t pay for extras you don’t need
Disney offers a range of extras designed to make your day in the parks run more smoothly – but think about how much you really need them before you travel.
For example, Premier Access Ultimate was showing at €690 for our family of three for just ONE DAY! That’s a huge amount to add to your Disneyland Paris budget, so we decided against it.
You can also buy individual Premier Access passes for selected rides, which can be more affordable at around €30 for all three of us for one attraction, depending on the ride and date. These can be handy if there’s one particular ride you really want to experience without a long wait.
In the end, though, we barely used these either. We found that queue times often dropped first thing in the morning and again towards tea time and the evening, so we still managed to get on most of the rides we wanted without paying extra.
Disneyland Paris also has a good selection of single-rider queues, which are worth considering if you don’t mind being separated from the rest of your party.
So check the queue times, make the most of quieter periods and think carefully before spending hundreds of euros on queue-skipping passes – particularly if you’re on a budget break.
9) Research the cheaper months to travel
October worked well for our family, but if you’re flexible with your travel dates, it’s worth comparing prices across different times of the year.
Cheaper months at Disneyland Paris can include January, February and November – although the weather can be chilly and unpredictable (during our visit, it was a bit stormy!)
It’s also good to choose a quieter period because the queues can drop outside of school holidays and special events.
Weekdays, particularly Tuesday to Thursday, may also be worth considering rather than weekends, when demand can be higher.
Comparing different prices is quite straightforward when you book your tickets, so the best thing to do is compare the total cost of your holiday across a few different dates before booking.
So, how much did our Disneyland Paris trip cost?
Here’s how our main bookings added up for our family of three.
| Accommodation for the week | £300 |
| Disneyland Paris park tickets | £576 |
| LeShuttle crossing | £210 |
| Total | £1,086 |
That’s just over £1,000 for our accommodation, Disneyland Paris park tickets and crossing for two adults and one child.
This total doesn’t include other holiday spending, such as fuel, parking, food and souvenirs, so it isn’t the full cost of every aspect of our trip. But it shows how much you can save by making careful choices before you travel.
Would we do another budget break at Disneyland Paris?
Unequivocally, it’s a yes!
We loved our budget break at Disneyland Paris, and we didn’t feel we had to sacrifice the magic to keep costs down.
We chose accommodation that suited our family, booked our crossing and park tickets in advance, thought carefully about which tickets we needed, and skipped expensive extras that didn’t feel worthwhile for us.
Everyone’s priorities are different – and on future trips, we may choose to treat ourselves.
But it’s nice to know we can holiday at Disneyland Paris without spending a fortune. We found with a little research and some advance planning, it’s surprising what you can save.
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