At the end of January my best friend and I took off to France for a cheeky weekend in Disneyland Paris. You know, to beat the January blues… Who am I kidding, we didn’t need an excuse to go. This was my first ever trip to Disneyland, however, my friend had been before. Through her suggestions, a lot of research and suggestions of other friends who had been, we succeeded in doing the weekend on a budget. I’ll write down all the tips I learnt from this process but for today I’m detailing every penny it cost us while in Disneyland Paris.
Weekend Budget for Disneyland Paris
The Before Costs
Eurostar Return £115.00 – This was for the train which runs via Lille Europe rather than the more expensive train which goes direct. The direct train also only had one time option for each day which would have meant giving up precious time we could have spent having fun.
Hotel and Breakfast x2 nights £59.06 – We opted to stay in an Ibis hotel one metro stop away from Disneyland. The rates were much cheaper than a Disneyland hotel and it gave us more money to spend on the essentials (like shopping at Disney). This price is also based on two people sharing a double room.
Disneyland Park Tickets (2 parks, 2 days) £78.00 – Due to the time of year we were visiting our ticket was classes as a ‘mini’. This meant we could purchase the cheapest ticket possible, which just so happened to be the one on offer. Instead of buying a 2 day ticket we purchased two single day tickets as this worked out much cheaper.
Total £252.06
The There Costs
Dinner in France night 1 €15.90
Snack for lunch day 1 €8.41
Dinner at Disneyland night 2 €26.98
Shopping at the Disney Store €35
Lunch at Disneyland day 2 €11.28
Train fare between the hotel and Disney (1.90 each way) €7.60
Baggage Storage for day 2 €3
Total €108.17//£83.78
Total Spent £335.84
Disneyland has always been an expensive place in my mind and somewhere I thought you needed a large budget for. This is probably true if you are staying in a Disney Hotel as the rates per a night are much more than hotels in the surrounding area. I can see why you would do this if you were taking children on your trip. However, as twenty-somethings going for a fun girlie weekend away, we felt we didn’t need nor miss out by staying at a budget hotel in Val d’Europe. The hotel was our biggest money saver compared to the prices of the Disney Hotels. Secondly the Eurostar was around £30 cheaper to take the connecting train rather than the direct option. By doing this, we were able to pick the time train we wanted and save money by picking the cheaper times. Lastly, by visiting in January during their low season we were able to get discounted park tickets and save another £30 on the normal priced ticket.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I will be writing a whole blog about tips I learnt from this whole process and how best to save on a trip to Disneyland Paris.
I hope this budget is helpful for your future planning and anything else you’d like to know just leave a comment below.
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Tags: Budget Disneyland Paris France Money Paris Saving Weekend Budget