Disneyland Paris on a Budget with Kids

The kids have been asking to visit Disneyland Paris for years, but we have never quite made it. With Covid-19 restrictions easing in Europe and travel becoming easier, this seemed like the perfect time… and it was! The magic of Disneyland is most certainly still alive and can definitely be done on a budget. See below for my tips, tricks and overall guide to visiting Disneyland Paris on a budget with kids in March 2022. I’m not actually sure who had the most fun, the kids or myself!!

When to go to Disneyland Paris and the best ways to find budget deals:

There are lots of travel companies and websites offering package deals to Disneyland Paris, some including all transport and meals, but we were on a very tight budget for this trip. So, after fully researching everything, I decided to book the transport and hotel separately and saved myself loads of money (approximately £400-500) by doing it this way.

Tips for finding good deals:

• Book with the French Disneyland Paris website disneylandparis.fr as the hotel and ticket packages are approximately 15-25% cheaper than the UK website
• We found the cheapest months to book were late January, February (excluding school half term holidays) and early/mid March
• Avoid booking over full weekends as the costs and crowds go up dramatically. Midweek or starting/ending on one weekend day were much cheaper e.g. Thursday to Saturday and Sunday to Tuesday

Getting to Disneyland Paris

Several low cost budget airlines have flights to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, including Easyjet and Vueling. Ryanair fly to the Paris Beauvais-Tille airport which is approximately 124km away from Disneyland and 80km from Paris itself.

Getting the Eurostar train is another good option as some routes will go via the Disneyland train station, Chessy la Marne.

Driving is another option with good motorway links to the rest of Europe and the channel tunnel or Ferry crossing from the United Kingdom. At the time of writing Tesco clubcard vouchers boost could still be used to pay for channel tunnel car crossing (boost is 3 times the clubcard voucher). There is plenty of car parking at Disneyland Paris and the on-site Disney Hotels. Although, finding your car in the huge Disney car park could be a mission after a long day in the park.

From Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris

There are several ways to get to Disneyland Paris from the Charles de Gaulle airport. The main ones being taxi, magic shuttle bus or train.

Magic Shuttle Bus

• The Magic Shuttle Bus can be picked up from the airport.
• You can find the schedule here.
• Tickets cost approximately 20 euros per adult and 12 euros per child.  You can buy tickets on the bus itself. Payment is by card machine.
• The journey takes approximately 1 hour depending on traffic and drop off point (park entrance/hotels etc).

TGV Train

• The TGV train is the quickest way to reach Disneyland Paris from Charles de Gaulle airport and the journey takes only 10 minutes.
• The TVG trains run approximately every 1-1.5 hours. See the schedule here
• There is a ticket office at the airport train station and several ticket machines that have several language options.
• Tickets cost approximately 35 euros for an adult and 17.50 euros for a child.

RER Train

• The RER train is the cheapest way to reach Disneyland Paris from Charles de Gaulle airport by public transport.
• The journey takes approximately 1-1.5 hours depending on which train you get. The fastest trains route codes start with a “KA” or “JA”. These trains make less stops.
• Take line B (blue line), then change to line A (red line) at the Chateaux les Halles station, just after Paris Gard Nord.
• Line A (red line) then takes you to Chessy la Marne station which is right by the Disneyland Paris park entrance gates.
• Children over the age of 10 pay adult prices on RER trains

From the centre of Paris

• The RER train is the easiest way to reach Disneyland Paris from the centre of Paris.
• The journey takes approximately 30-45 minutes depending on which train you get. The fastest trains route codes start with a “KA” or “JA”. These trains make less stops.
• Line A (red line) takes you to Chessy la Marne station which is right by the Disneyland Paris park entrance gates.
• Children over the age of 10 pay adult prices on RER trains

Where to stay in Disneyland Paris, or nearby

Onsite Disney Hotels

There are many advantages to staying at the onsite hotels, including the ease of getting to and from the park each day and extra Magic Hour park access before the park opens to the standard day ticket holders. Most of the Disney hotels are only a 8-15 minute walk to the park entrance along wide paved paths, perfect for pushchairs or wheelchairs. There is also a shuttle bus that ferries people back and forth to the park entrance which takes 5-10 minutes and saves little feet from getting too tired too quickly.

We chose the Disney Cheyenne Hotel and really enjoyed our stay there. The room had ample space, with 1 double bed and another single bed with trundle underneath. The room included 1 free coffee per person per day from the Lavazza coffee vending machine in the hotel foyer. The hotel was Woody cowboy themed and only took 10 minutes to walk down the river path to the park entrance. It also worked out cheaper and better for us to get a package which included 2 nights accommodation and 3 full day park hopper tickets for the Disney parks, including the early Magic hour access to beat the queues.

Note: The hotel room did not have a kettle, but you could request one from reception and they would supply one for you to use throughout your stay free of charge. The room also had complimentary toiletries.

Nearby Hotels

The close proximity of the Chessy la Marne train station to the Disneyland Paris park makes staying in a budget offsite hotel very easy. There are some great options of hotels near the Disneyland Paris park, especially in the Val d’Europe area which is only 1 stop (10 minutes) on the train line (Line A -red) from Disneyland Paris. There is also a large shopping mall in Val d’Europe with a nearby supermarket to pick up food/snacks and a variety of good restaurants. We stayed in the Disney Cheyenne Hotel so can’t personally receommend any of the hotels, but you can see other people’s recommendations by clicking on the link below:

Hotels near Disneyland Paris in Val d’Europe

Please note that we only recommend hotels/hostels that we have really enjoyed and for no other reason. We are not being paid to recommend them just trying to help out other travellers like us. We do however have affiliate links to the hotels that we loved and if you click them it will give us a small commission to help fund this website.

Food at Disneyland Paris on a Budget

The cheapest places to get lunch and snack food near Disneyland Paris is at the Chessy la Marne station. You have to go out of the park gate to get to the station, but it is only a 2 minute walk from the gates to the station shops, and we had no problems bringing food back into to the Disneyland Paris. There is a Starbucks, a Pret, a baguette/sandwich shop and a newsagents selling packaged sandwiches, salads, crisps, snacks etc, all just inside the station entrance.

There is a Mcdonalds restaurant inside the Disneyland Paris village which serves the normal McDonalds favourites. It gets very busy though so best to try to eat here outside of peak lunch or dinner times. Sharing a large pizza at the onsite pizza restaurants can work out quite cost effective too.

The Rainforest cafe is a bit more expensive but good for people with food allergies. The staff will happily remove food items with allergens and replace them with other options. My eldest daughter and I cannot eat dairy, the staff swiftly informed us of our choices and adapted our meals without any extra cost.

Another option to find cheap food is in Val d’Europe which is only 1 stop (10 minutes) on the train line (Line A -red) from Disneyland Paris. There is a large shopping mall in Val d’Europe with a nearby supermarket to pick up food/snacks and a variety of good restaurants.