Disneyland Paris on a 'Minnie-malist' budget

I've been meaning to write this post for a while! Since going to Disneyland I've relayed a few tips to a number of friends so think it would be worth a wider audience! 

We were meant to go to Disneyland Paris in 2020 but Covid scuppered those plan, however a few years later we managed to get it sorted.

It was my wife that actually recommended going to Disneyland and I immediately had shooting pains right in my bank balance due to my perception about how expensive it can be, however breaking it down it was actually really good value.

Roughly adding it all up, for a family of 4 to travel to Disneyland we managed to do it for less than £1000. 

This included:

- Ferry transfer from/to Dover

- 2 nights in the Davy Crockett Hotel (5 mins drive from the park)

- 3 days park passes for a family of 4

- All meals / food / drink bought

- 12 months free Disney+

- 2 x Premier Inn stays in Dover

- Fuel from Yorkshire to Paris and back, with French toll payments

Given you'd struggle to get a weekend at Bougie Butlins for that price, I'm pretty impressed how we did it!

Package

We booked a February half term stay through a deal on the Disneyland site, and it came to £766.

I booked it through a cashback website which gave me £80 back. If you've not got a cashback account here's my referral link where you'll get a free £10

We picked the kids up from school on the Friday and drove straight down to Dover from Yorkshire. We stayed in a Premier Inn right next to the Ferry terminal for about £40/50. We had booked on the first ferry out on the Saturday morning and too early to get breakfast at the hotel so we took some breakfast with us to eat on the way / have some on the ferry.

Arriving in Calais just before 10am, we drove straight down to Paris. Stopping off at a supermarket on the way in Meaux we loaded up on picnic snacks mainly bread and cheese, which always seem much better on the continent!

We then swung by to the Hotel we were staying at to check in, dump our bags, sort out stuff to take onto the park as well as appropriate clothes to wear. Although we only managed to get onto the park for around 3pm, given the park is open until 10pm we felt that there was still plenty we could do. The kids were certainly raring to go after the long time spent in the car!

On the second day there we all woke early raring to go. As Disney Hotel guests you actually get access to the park earlier than the general public, on what they call a "magic hour". We managed 5/6 rides during that hour, for rides that were 40/50 mins wait an hour later! 

On the Disneyland app you can see live queue times which makes it great to plan your day, or target quieter areas of the park to go to. You can also purchase fast passes on there to skip the queues. When we went the price for these were tiered depending on what ride it was and how busy it was. We had set aside some money to use for rides we really wanted to go on but in the end we didn't need to buy any of them.

In terms of food and drink on the park they are very relaxed about bringing in your own food. We did this most days but we also booked a meal at one of the restaurants and had quite a few snacks along the way as well. The restaurant we went to was PYM Kitchen in the Marvel area which was great. It is all you can eat and very kid friends food (not that ours are that fussy), so we planned our eating around this meal to get money's worth!

Tips

• Book through a cashback website Our package was £760 on paper, but we got £80 cashback by just clicking through one. If you've not got a cashback account here's my referral link where you'll get a free £10

• Food on the park is - as expected - quite expensive given the captive market.
• If you are driving then pop in at a Carrefour on the way and load up on picnic stuff. You can take bags into the park and your own food. Our 2 are bottomless pits so having a steady supply of fruit and snacks was invaluable

• Rides - Set yourself a budget with what rides you are willing to fast pass on. As I've mentioned we didn't need it in the end, but have a strategy and you won't get burnt.

• Magic Hour - If you are staying at a Disney Hotel you get access to the 'magic hour', so can access the park an hour before the general public.

• Car parking is £30 a day(!) for the general public, but free for Disney Hotel guests (including Davy Crockett)

• Character meets - If you aren't fussed with meeting characters then don't bother, some of the queues we saw were huuuuge (3+ hours to meet a random Disney Princess!). 
• Check out the app as sometimes you can book a time slot for free, so just turn up at that time. My son managed to meet Iron Man without waiting and was made up. The photos for sale are again expensive, but worth it to capture a moment.

• Have a plan of attack with what you want to go on. As I've said the app is great for working out what to go on next. If you've already seen the parade then go and queue for one of the big rides as it'll be much shorter.

• We had 1 big meal on the park during the 3 days there, with the rest just being picnic type food and getting the kids the odd pizza/chips/