France · Disneyland Paris
Two parks, seven official hotels and a great many ways to spend more than you need to. The decisions that actually change your trip are which hotel tier you book and how you get there — not which package looks shiniest.
The short version
Where you stay decides whether you get into the parks early, how far you walk, and how much the week costs. Get that right and the rest is detail.
There are two parks: Disneyland Park, the one with the castle, and Disney Adventure World — the second park, renamed from Walt Disney Studios as it is rebuilt around the new Worlds of Pixar and the Adventure Bay lake. Both are walkable from the official hotels and about a fifteen-minute stroll apart.
The seven official Disney hotels sit inside the resort. Stay at one and you get Extra Magic Time — entry to part of Disneyland Park up to ninety minutes before the public. Partner hotels nearby are cheaper and perfectly comfortable, but they do not include it, whatever the booking site implies. That single difference is the one we ask about first.
Getting there
Two and a half hours from St Pancras to Marne-la-Vallée, and the station is a five-minute walk from the park gates.
Eurostar runs direct to Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy, the station at the resort itself. No transfer, no coach, no airport. For a family with luggage and a pushchair it is the least painful way to arrive, and you step off the train already there.
Flying is usually cheaper and always longer. Charles de Gaulle is about 50 minutes from the resort by coach, Orly around 70. Add check-in, baggage and the transfer and a flight rarely beats the train door to door.
Driving suits some families — Folkestone to the resort is around four hours from Calais. The hotels charge for parking, and so do the parks if you stay off-site.
Where to stay
Prices swing enormously between them, and the difference is mostly walking distance and breakfast.
Directly above the park entrance and recently rebuilt as a royal-themed five-star. Extraordinary, and priced accordingly. Worth it for a milestone trip, hard to justify otherwise.
The middle tier, ten to fifteen minutes' walk around the lake. Hotel New York reopened as an Art of Marvel hotel. This is where most families get the best value.
The value hotels, twenty minutes' walk or a short shuttle. Cheyenne has a Toy Story theme children respond to. Davy Crockett is cabins in woodland, and needs a car.
Partner hotels are the ones most families end up in, and we book all of them.
The most family-focused of the partner hotels — pirate ship pool, splash park, and interconnecting rooms that sleep six or more. Ten minutes by shuttle. The one we book most for larger families.
Both sit on the same lake a few minutes further out, with pools, gardens and free shuttles. Quieter than Explorers and often better value midweek.
Straightforward and inexpensive. B&B and Campanile are the cheapest way to stay near the parks; Radisson Blu sits on the golf course and is the smartest of the group.
What you give up. No Extra Magic Time, so no early entry to Disneyland Park. You travel in by shuttle rather than walking, and shuttle timings can be awkward at the end of a long day with small children. Some partner hotels charge for the shuttle in low season.
What you gain. Often forty to sixty per cent off the equivalent official hotel for the same dates, larger rooms for the money, and free parking if you have driven. On a four-night stay that difference can pay for the Premier Access you were not going to buy otherwise.
Our usual advice: if it is a short trip built around the parks and early entry matters, stay official. If it is a longer stay, a larger family, or the budget is the constraint, a partner hotel is the better buy and we will say so.
When to go
Same hotel, same park, twice the money depending on the week.
Cheapest: January to mid-March and most of November. Cold, short days, some rides closed for maintenance — but queues are short and prices are at their lowest.
Best balance: late April to June and September. Mild, long days, and the parks busy but manageable. Our usual recommendation.
Busiest and dearest: UK school holidays, and the Christmas season from early November to early January, when the resort is decorated and the parade changes. It is genuinely lovely and it costs accordingly.
New Year's Eve: if 31 December falls inside your stay, most Disney hotels apply a compulsory gala dinner charge per person. It is not optional and it is not always shown clearly in the headline price. We flag it before you book.
What we would tell you before you book
None of these are secrets. They are just rarely mentioned before the deposit is taken.
Travel, hotel and park tickets as one booking. Every one can be reshaped — different dates, a different hotel tier, a hopper ticket, or a night in Paris on the way.
Guide prices, per person, based on two adults sharing, including return Eurostar or flights, hotel and park tickets. They indicate what a break of this type has typically cost and are not an offer or a quotation. Children's prices, park ticket type and board basis change the figure, and your price is confirmed in writing before any payment is taken.