TIPS FOR BOOKING YOUR TRIP TO DISNEYLAND PARIS ON A BUDGET

Booking a Disney trip is probably the best, most exciting thing you can ever do right? I mean it's been 8 weeks since my last trip and i'm already ready to book the next one... someone send me loads of money so I can live there. Even just typing up this blog post and leaving links for you will be dangerous, thankfully its half way through a 5 week month on a 4 week pay and I have absolutely not got the bank balance to drain... damn you responsibilities.

Booking Disney looks expensive but if you book it carefully then it can absolutely be done on a budget. We have 5 children and have never paid over £2000 for the whole trip.
Now, I am under no illusion that £2000 isn't a lot of money to many people but thats with 5 people, extra's and also souvenir money too, which of course is blooming lovely BUT not necessary.

First of all when booking, think how many days do you want to go? What do you want to do when you're there? How do you want to travel? ect... It's not the easiest holiday to just book if you want to save money. If you want to just book it easily then go to a travel agent, get them to book everything and BAM, it's done for you easily but of course not the cheapest option by far.
I'll put everything into little sections for you to make it easier and clearer.

There's many other ways to save money if you want to do multiple trips and things by buying annual passes and things but i'll keep this post purely for booking a one time trip and if you want more posts just let me know and I can do those too.

H O T E L S  &  P A R K  T I C K E TS

I always book via Magic Breaks, I have only ever had one problem with them and that was the magic shuttle system which i'll get onto in a while but they're the preferred partners of Disneyland and I think they're really easy to book through, they're great if you need to call them (their hold music is a Disney soundtrack so it's the only company I don't mind sitting on hold to!) and their live chat is also super easy to use too.
Magic Breaks are easy to use and you can book your whole holiday through them too, even down to photo passes and dining plans but if you want to save money I would spend time pricing up your holiday without travel included (and look on other websites for your flights or eurostar) and with travel to be sure you're getting the cheapest option you can.

DON'T make the same mistake as I did once and be quick to see a cheap hotel in the Disney area. You have six current open Disneyland Paris official hotels (seven soon when they re-open the New york hotel as the Art of marvel hotel next Summer) and these all come with different price ranges and star ratings but don't write off the 2*'s like Cheyenne and Santa Fe as being rubbish because they're 2* hotels, they're amazing.
Anyway, don't go on somewhere like booking.com and see one of the eight area hotels for £300 for three nights and think that's a bargain compared to the £493 you have seen for example for the Cheyenne on magic breaks because it is too good to be true. The £845.88 Cheyenne includes your park tickets which range from £177 for a 3 day park hopper ticket for adults each and £163 for children so if theres three of you then thats £517 just in park tickets so you'd be paying £1010 instead of £845.88 which is a huge difference. (that's real prices for 2 adults and 1 child at 5)

I love Cheyenne and Santa Fe! They are so great for character theming. Cheyenne is Toy Story themed and Santa Fe is Cars themed and it is amazing for children too.
So, my advice is to book an official Disney hotel unless you can 1. get tickets and non disney hotel for cheaper OR 2. You don't need tickets.

T R A V E L

Travelling to Disneyland is so easy. I am not clued up about driving or travelling over by boat, so this will just include eurostar or flying.

F L Y I N G

If you fly to CDG or Orly there are taxis or even the magic shuttle. 

The magic shuttle is a service you pay extra for but be careful with it, it only goes from a certain time in the morning to a certain time at night AND in CDG it is blooming miles away from arrivals and it is really hard to find so prepare if you're getting the magic shuttle plan and prepare. 

Flying from LTN to CDG is roughly £38 each on Skyscanner.

We prefer to fly because we don't drive and get to St Pancras, Ebbsfleet or Ashford is quite tricky. I tend to go from Gatwick when flying because the train from Southampton to Gatwick is usually anything from £25-£50 for returns all together but in future we'll likely pay extra to just go from Southampton if we fly purely for the fact we will be paying for Lucas on trains from June and also last time our flight was slightly delayed and we missed the last direct train home and it wasn't great. That will add on extra money but sometimes it's worth it for less stress but if you're happy building a plan with a good time management plan then you can do it cheaper for sure. 

Getting from CDG is about 30 minutes by taxi and 45 minutes by Magic Shuttle and it's roughly the same for Orly too.

E U R O S T A R

The Eurostar is cheap but may require you to stay in a hotel the night beforehand. Eurostar is roughly £72 per person to Disneyland Paris station. The good thing about Eurostar is that you arrive straight into Disneyland in the village basically. It is a long winded journey and going out i've always found great but coming back is very disorganised in the station. Fine if you're without children (or wheelchairs) but it is chaotic otherwise. There are pros and cons to both Eurostar and flying and I would personally fly over Eurostar BUT if the price was right then i'd go Eurostar again.

D I N I N G  P L A N S

Disney do offer Dining plans! They're not as good as the ones i've seen for Florida BUT the price is dramatically different. I would personally recommend a dining plan as you know exactly how much you have for spending and you don't have to worry at all about running out of money for food and you do save money. If you have under 3's I would say the standard board plan is the best as it is the cheapest and you get 5 all you can buffets which is great if you're travelling with under 3's as they get free dining BUT if you're not in an all you can eat buffet then you don't get to order them a dish you'd have to give them some off your plate or pay for them. 

I would also say go half board instead of full board and do some research on cheap food places and bring that money separately. McDonalds, Toad Hall, Colonel hathis pizza outpost, Hakuna Matata, ect... are all really great and cheap places for lunches, counter service lunch is a good plan and do your all you can eat breakfast and all you can eat dinner. We did a full board standard package last time we went and eating 3 all you can eat buffets a day was far too much! So I wouldn't say to do that. 

Booking Disneyland Paris doesn't have to cost thousands and thousands! Budget hunt, research and you don't need to spend loads of souvenirs either! I also adore character dining and buying everything in the stores but it isn't necessary and if you have say £300 spend it on a character dining experience over things, the memories are irreplaceable. 

Any other things you want to know, just send me a message and i'm always happy to help!