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Near the top of the list when planning a trip to Disneyland Paris is choosing your hotel. We chose Disney’s Sequoia Lodge as our home for two nights on our first trip. Here’s what we thought of this American National Park-themed resort.
Booking Disney’s Sequoia Lodge
Booking Disneyland Paris is a bit different from booking the American Disney destinations. We booked directly through the Disneyland Paris site, booking a 3-day/2-night package.
Rates at the Sequoia Lodge range from under $200 to over $500 per night. This is above the prices for Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne and Hotel Santa Fe, just below the prices for Disney’s Newport Bay Club and Disney’s Hotel New York, and far below Disneyland Hotel (Paris).
As always, we suggest checking other booking sites (Expedia, Hotels.com, Booking.com) to make sure you get the best rate. This is particularly important when booking Disneyland Paris trips—booking hotels and tickets separately can sometimes save you hundreds vs. booking a Disneyland Paris package.
And when calculating potential savings, keep in mind that it may pay off to get a Disneyland Paris annual pass.
Special Park Privileges
All Disney hotel guests at Disneyland Paris get access to Extra Magic Hour (aka Extra Magic Time)—an exclusive bonus hour at the start of the day. You can pay more for club rooms, which come with special Disneyland Paris Fastpass privileges.
Arrival And First Impressions of Disney’s Sequoia Lodge
We took the TGV train from CDG Airport to Disneyland Paris, you can also take the train from central Paris to Disneyland Paris. Either of these will deposit you at Marne-la-Vallée—Chessy station.
From there, you can either take a bus from the station to the resort or you can walk through Disney Village. The walk is nice, but will require you to go through security (which can be hassle with your luggage, though they use x-ray, not manual scans).
The walk takes around ten minutes. Exit the station, go left through Disney Village, and then pick your route (left or right) across the lake to Sequoia. Sequoia Lodge has a relatively plain facade facing the lagoon.
The lakeside facade of Disney's Sequoia Lodge is rather uninteresting.
One good way to avoid getting disoriented entering the back of the hotel is to use the Disneyland Paris app to locate things like dining, restrooms, and the front desk in your hotel.
The inside of the resort is reminiscent of Wilderness Lodge in style, but with the large lobby area replaced by a significantly smaller, though still enjoyable, lounge area, Redwood Bar and Lounge.
The hotel is well-themed, though nowhere near to the quality of Wilderness Lodge (this is actually contrary to much of Disneyland Paris, which we found to be exceptionally well-themed).
As of 2019, Disneyland Paris is transitioning to multi-purpose “MagicPass” cards. These card will theoretically enable you to enter your room, charge items to your room, and access perks like Extra Magic Time and the hotel pools.
We’re unsure whether Sequoia has completed this transition yet, but we’re hopeful the entire resort will be on MagicPass sometime in 2020.
Our Room at Disney’s Sequoia Lodge
Our room was ready when we arrived, which was unexpected but nice. The rooms was pretty boring. Our view was awful (that’s what we booked, though), but we spent almost no time in the room when we weren't sleeping, so we honestly didn't care much about the details.
Our room at Disney's Sequoia Lodge
Unfortunately our last stay in Sequoia Lodge predates me caring much about taking room photographs. The TV had a Disneyland Paris channel and various foreign-language Disney channels. Outlets were sparse but not totally lacking. The beds were comfortable.
We’re always a little torn on Disney hotel rooms. When you look at hotels like Tokyo Disneyland Hotel and Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta, you really see what Disney is capable of. But then there are disappointments like Disney’s Sequoia Lodge. You can’t be too tough, though, because you’re not there for the hotel room.
Disney’s Sequoia Lodge - Location
After checking in, we walked over to Disneyland Park. The walk was about 15 minutes, including a security check between the hotel and Disney Village.
Account for five minutes for security when trying to get to the very start of Extra Magic Hours! You’ll pass the Disney Village Starbucks en route to the parks, if you’re in need of a morning boost.
The view of Disney Village across Lac Buena Vista from Disney's Sequoia Lodge
Sequoia Lodge is located on Lac Buena Visa (a small lagoon) between Disney’s Newport Bay Club (on one end) Disney’s Hotel New York (on the other, closer to the Disney Village entrance), and across from an event space and the entrance to Disney Village.
All of Disneyland Paris’s hotels, except Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch and Village Nature Paris, are walking distance to the parks and Disney Village. We’ve also reviewed Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne, which is about five to ten minutes farther from the parks than Sequoia.
Disneyland Paris is not located in Paris, and its hotels are not a great base for visiting Paris. However, you can easily get from Disneyland Paris to Paris by train if you’d like.
Dining Options at Disney’s Sequoia Lodge
We didn’t take the time to enjoy the restaurants at Sequoia Lodge. There are a total of three options, Redwood Bar and Lounge (which we did drink at), Hunter’s Grill, and Beaver Creek Tavern.
Unlike Walt Disney World hotels, it wouldn’t make sense to consider the restaurants at Disneyland Paris hotels much in picking a hotel since you can easily walk to Disney Village, the parks, and the other hotels.
Drinking at Redwood Bar and Lounge
Our favorite thing about Sequoia Lodge was Redwood Bar and Lounge. Redwood is the bar at Disney's Sequoia Lodge and offers a version of Carnet de Bar, the standard drink menu for Disneyland Paris, with a few themed offerings.
The drinks aren't so special, but the ambiance of Redwood is great.
The seating wraps around a fireplace, with couches being closest to the center and plenty of tables filling out the space. Despite the number of tables, we never felt crowded.
There was just a healthy level of buzz with families coming and going throughout the evening, some staying only a few minutes, some hanging out longer playing cards.
Disney’s Sequoia Lodge — Conclusions
Disney is in the midst (as of 2019) of trying to get Hotel Cheyenne—just a five minute walk from Sequoia—bumped up to 3-star status, which would make it the same tier as Sequoia. This seems right and like the right comparison to make.
Sequoia is a fine hotel and it has a good location, but it lacked a certain wow factor. If you're comparing the hotel to other adventure-themed hotels (Animal Kingdom Lodge, Wilderness Lodge, Explorers Lodge), expect to be disappointed.
If it were priced competitively with Hotel Cheyenne, I’d consider staying at Sequoia again. Unfortunately, we haven’t stayed at Hotel New York or Newport Bay Club to compare those, but they’re both “4-star” and more expensive than Sequoia, so the comparison seems inapt anyways.
We have stayed at Disneyland Hotel (Paris), which is the 5-star hotel on the property, but which routinely prices $200 per night more than Sequoia. That hotel is definitely better—particularly when comparing rooms—but that premium is mostly about location.
While we don’t think Sequoia quit hits a sweet spot, there is a pretty straightforward argument for it—location. You can often move up from Santa Fe or Cheyenne to Sequoia for less than $50 per night, and you’ll save yourself about 15 to 20 minutes of walking each day.
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.