When it comes to planning your trip to Disneyland Paris, how you book your hotel stay and tickets can have a big impact on how much you pay. In this post, we cover different ways to book your hotel stay and tickets at Disneyland Paris.
Related Posts
We also have a post breaking down how much it costs to visit Disneyland Paris.
Three Options for Booking Your Disneyland Paris Vacation
At the outset, you have three main options for booking your Disneyland Paris hotel and park tickets. We'll give a quick overview of these before diving more deeply into them.
Option 1: Book a Vacation Package Through The Disneyland Paris Website
This is the most direct option that most Americans probably use. It’s intuitive to just visit DisneylandParis.com and follow through their steps for booking a vacation package that will include your hotel, park tickets, and some add-ons if you prefer.
Option 2: Book Hotel & Park Tickets Separately
This is probably the second most popular options. Sites like Booking.com, Expedia, Orbitz, and Hotels.com often have the Disneyland Paris hotels. You might save money booking your hotel through them and then buying your tickets separately. We show an example of the savings in this section of the post. (Note that you can also stay off-site at a hotel or an Airbnb.)
Option 3: Book A Vacation Package Through the EU’s Walt Disney Travel Company
Walt Disney Travel Company is a Disney site designed to be a single stop for folks in the European Union looking to visit Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris, or Disney Cruise Line.
Nowadays, it appears that the Walt Disney Travel Company can only take reservations from within the EU.
Booking a Vacation Package through DisneylandParis.com
For the rest of this post, we’re going to use a sample stay of January 8, 2020 to January 10, 2020 with three-day tickets for two adults and two children. We'll include screenshots and sample prices for a few different hotels.
If you've booked a stay at Disneyland or Walt Disney World before, you might find the basics of the Disneyland Paris website to be familiar. When it comes to bookings, though, the experiences are quite different.
General Tips for Using DisneylandParis.com
To book a Disneyland Paris hotel stay through DisneylandParis.com, you have to purchase a package that includes tickets. If you want to book the hotel only directly through Disney, you can call +33 1 60 30 60 53.
Since Disneyland Paris doesn't publish room rates, you’re best off knowing your dates for your stay in advance. We recommend using “incognito” or “private” browsing mode if you’re conducting lots of searches in order to avoid website glitches.
Searching for Disneyland Paris Packages
When you arrive at DisneylandParis.com, you can price out a package right from the home page. You type in the dates you’re interested in and choose a specific hotel or just leave “All Hotels” selected for more options, and hit “Find Prices.”
The results screen will generally show the Standard Package rate, but if you’ve entered a search that is eligible for a special package, it will show that rate. I’m searching during standard pricing.
Here's what our dates spit out for prices:
Disneyland Hotel (Paris) - $2308
Disney's Newport Bay Club - $1650
Disney’s Sequoia Lodge - $1360
Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne - $1255
Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe - $1255
Disney’s Davy Crockett Ranch - $1264
Villages Nature Paris - $1200
Disney’s Hotel New York - The Art of Marvel - (unavailable)
These are all standard package rates. We’ll talk more about special offers below, but let’s cover the standard package first.
What’s Included in the Disneyland Paris Standard Package
The Disneyland Paris standard package includes:
your hotel stay
tickets for both parks for each night of your stay and your departure day
parking
shuttle bus to the parks (though it is usually easier to walk)
The shuttle bus is not included at Villages Nature or Davy Crockett Ranch, and Villages Nature guests get one fewer day of park tickets. All these hotels have access to Extra Magic Time at Disneyland Paris.
If you selected “All Hotels” when you searched, you’ll get a list with the price of the Standard Package at each hotel (unless there’s an ongoing offer), along with a series of icons indicating amenities at the hotel (Room Service, fitness room, pool, etc.). Here’s an example of a standard search result:
Disneyland Paris also provides star ratings to indicate the quality of the hotel. Disneyland Hotel is the only 5-star hotel. Hotel New York and Newport Bay Club are 4-star. Disney's Sequoia Lodge is 3-star. Cheyenne and Santa Fe are 2-star. As of publication, Cheyenne is in the process of “applying for” (I don’t know to whom) a third star, which we do think it deserves.
Alternative Package Suggestions
Once you hit “Select” the package will be added to your cart, and then you’ll need to click “Continue” on the top right. On the next page, Disneyland Paris will offer you “Alternative Packages” that are similar to yours but with different dates or hotels.
You can usually just ignore this screen, but if you have flexible dates it is a good idea to check the offers, as prices can vary by hundreds of dollars (or maybe you can add a night for a very small amount). Either select a new package or just hit “Continue” to move on.
Picking Your Room Type
Next, you’ll choose your room. The price you have been given until now has been the standard room offering, but if you’re interested in a larger room, club level, or suites, you'll make that selection here.
You’ll see that certain room types offer perks like “Hotel FASTPASS.” We cover the value of this specific perk in our guide to Fastpass at Disneyland Paris. Make a new selection or just hit “Continue” to move on.
Select A Meal Plan Or A Special Meal
Once you’ve chosen your room, you’ll move on to the add-ons offered at Disneyland Paris. The major one of these is the meal plan.
We don’t know of a comprehensive review of the Disneyland Paris meal plan, but most reviewers frown on Disneyland Paris food and opt to eat in Disney Village instead.
Our two cents—skip the meal plan. If you have a short visit, the meal plan meals won’t be worth the time (just do quick service and move on). If you have a long visit, the meal plan isn’t worth the money (just book one or two good meals instead).
Disneyland Paris also treats certain meals—like character breakfasts and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show—as “add-ons.” You can select them now and pick a specific time as part of your package, or you can add them later by calling.
If you don’t purchase them now, you can call Disneyland Paris later and add them to your reservation.
Select Other Add-Ons
The second add-on page offers Disney Express Luggage Service, PhotoPass+, paid Fastpass, Airport Transfer, and excursions to Paris.
Disney Express Luggage Service is not complimentary (!) but allows you to visit the park directly from the train station instead of going to your hotel first. If you only have a one-night visit, maybe this is worth it. Otherwise just go to the hotel.
We have no opinion on PhotoPass+ and have never used the Disneyland Paris service.
As we’ve explained in our post on Fastpass at Disneyland Paris, we don’t think the paid services are worth it. I certainly wouldn’t book them in advance.
As for the Airport Transfer, this one can actually make sense. We’ve covered the train trip between CDG and Disneyland Paris in a separate post, but the quick route starts at €17.50 one-way per-person. This makes the pricing for the Magical Shuttle pretty competitive.
Finally, Disney also offers a variety of Paris-related excursions. We would not suggest using Disneyland Paris as a base for exploring Paris because of the cost of the hotels and the distance from the city center. We also have a post that covers how to get from Disneyland Paris to the Eiffel Tower (and all of central Paris).
final Steps (Insurance, Deposit, Payment)
The final pages require you to select an option for travel insurance, enter your party details, and make payment. The package prices that are displayed now include taxes and fees, so you shouldn’t be surprised at the end.
You can pay in full or put down a deposit if you book far enough in advance. If you only pay a deposit, I’m not sure if final payment is automatic or you have to arrange it.
Special Packages at Disneyland Paris
If you visit the Disneyland Paris offers page, you’ll typically see at least two deals available: an Early Booker package and a Super Early Booker package.
The early booker offers are deals for people who book packages up from about six months to two years in advance. In the past these deals included free nights, but it appears they’ve shifted to a 20% to 25% off and complimentary meal plan.
Booking Disneyland Paris Hotel and Park Tickets Separately
An alternative to booking through Disneyland Paris directly is to book your hotel through a third-party site and to buy your tickets from Disneyland Paris.
Buying Disneyland Paris Tickets
Disneyland Paris tickets can be purchased on the website or at the park gates. For our January 2020 dates, the price for two adults and two children, three-day tickets comes out to $982.10. If you’re buying tickets separately, it might make sense to consider a Disneyland Paris annual pass, too.
Booking Off-Site Hotels and Airbnbs
We should quickly add here that you don’t need to stay at a Disney hotel to visit Disneyland Paris. You can stay off-site at a hotel or an Airbnb. And we have instructions for getting to Disneyland Paris from Paris by train.
Booking Disneyland Paris Hotels Through Third Parties
Any time you book a hotel through a third party, you have to make sure to call the hotel to be sure your reservation went through properly. There’s no reason to doubt major sites like Booking.com or Orbitz, but you still need to take the time to ensure everything goes smoothly. This is a good idea when you’re using a travel agent—particularly one you’re unfamiliar with—too.
We used Kayak.com to search for prices across a few sites. Here’s how the prices for our dates, plus the added ticket cost, compared to Disney’s Standard Package (I went all the way through to the final payment screen for the hotel rates):
Disneyland Hotel $2,027.80 separate vs. $2,308 Disney Package
Disney’s Newport Bay Club $1,460.94 vs. $1,650 Disney Package
Disney’s Sequoia Lodge $1,269.50 vs. $1,360 Disney Package
Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne $1,200.00 vs. $1,255 Disney Package
Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe $1,200.00 vs. $1,255 Disney Package
For all five hotels, booking separately saved over the package, and for Disneyland Hotel, the savings were almost $300.
Keep in mind that when you book separately, you won’t have the option—at least not up-front—to add the add-ons we covered above. Some of them—like paid Fastpass—are definitely available without a package. But I’m not sure if you could, for example, add a meal plan to a room-only booking.
The biggest savings tend to come when booking Disneyland Hotel. We’ve personally seen savings over $1000, and you can scroll down to the comments to see one person who also saw that huge disparity. And for what it’s worth, I’ve booked Disneyland Hotel through Orbitz and had a perfect stay.
Keep in mind—booking separately is sometimes much worse. For a trip a few years ago with an early booking offer ongoing, we priced out a package on the website for $969 that cost $1803 booking separately.
Booking a Vacation Package Through Walt Disney Travel Company
As we said, Walt Disney Travel Company bookings can’t be made without a European Union billing address anymore. But if you’re booking from within a country that has the choice of platform, you’ll want to check this site as well.
Look familiar?
Booking a Disneyland Paris vacation through Walt Disney Travel Company is a lot like booking through DisneylandParis.com, so we're going to make this section a bit shorter. For the most part, the process is the same with a slightly different web design.
When you click the radio button to search “Hotel Only,” you actually wind up with hotel + ticket packages. (Note: I’m just leaving the screenshots and prices from the 2018 version of this post.)
During the time we searched, there was a 25% discount + “half board” meal plan deal going on. Because Walt Disney Travel Company is a separate booking system, they offer details you won't find in other places!
The room selection and add-on screens look a lot like those we saw earlier.
But now for the interesting part, the prices! Here's what we saw when we compared the two sites (converted to USD):
Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch - $1,086.64 vs. $1,236 through DisneylandParis.com
Disney's Hotel Cheyenne - $1,250.53 vs. $1334
Disney's Sequoia Lodge - $1,156.85 vs. $1442
Disney's Hotel Santa Fe - $1,321.32 vs. $1240
Disneyland Hotel - $1,910.11 vs. $2380
Disney's Newport Bay Club - $1,220.91 vs. $1520
Disney's Hotel New York - $1,220.91 vs. $1520
As with booking separately, booking through Walt Disney Travel Company can result in savings. But remember, we were booking for a period when there was a deal available on Walt Disney Travel Company, but not on the standard Disneyland Paris website.
Booking a Disneyland Paris Package - Closing Thoughts
When it comes to booking a stay at Disneyland Paris, the name of the game is to diversify. Check these three options and see which is the cheapest for you. Remember, though, that deals come and go, so the best option today might not be the best option tomorrow!
Is there anything you want to know about booking your Disneyland Paris trip? Or anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!
All Your Other Disneyland Paris Planning Questions Answered
Don’t be overwhelmed by Disneyland Paris planning! Take a second to check out our most important content! Just starting out? Check out our Disneyland Paris Trip Planning Guide. Need to know how much this is going to take out of your pocket? We’ve got a post on How Much it Costs to Go to Disneyland Paris.
When it comes to hotels, we’ve reviewed three of them. Check our our Review of Disneyland Hotel (Paris), Review of Disney's Sequoia Lodge, and Review of Disney's Hotel Cheyenne. We also recommend considering an off-site hotel or Airbnb when visiting Disneyland Paris.
Know what to ride with our: Disneyland Paris Rides Guide and Walt Disney Studios Park Rides Guide. And just as important, know how to get on the best rides without the wait with our Guide to Disneyland Paris Fastpass! For the complete guides to a day at the park, we have a One Day Disneyland Paris Itinerary and a Walt Disney Studios Park Itinerary.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.