I’ve put together 14 top tips for Disneyland Paris, which we found really helpful and made our first experience of Disneyland Paris a brilliant one.

These tips will help you not only save money at Disneyland Paris with Kids because the little savings add up, but also help you all enjoy it to the max.

14 Top Tips for Disneyland Paris With Kids

Tip 1 – Travel to Disney Paris during Off-Peak Times

If you can visit Disneyland Paris during less crowded seasons, which are typically outside of major holidays and school breaks. You’ll find lower prices on accommodations, lower prices on tickets and possibly shorter lines for attractions.

This is really hard to manage with school-age kids. However, keep an eye out for those bonus weeks schools sometimes tag onto holidays that are out of peak time, or those inset days too.

You can see here how much you can save travelling on a weekday in Winter rather than a weekend in Summer.

With attractiontix.co.uk for a family of 4 with children under 11 that’s a saving of £93.76 over one day! That’s a few snacks at least.

Tip 2 – Shop around for tickets to Disneyland Paris

Dinsneyland Paris tickets are expensive there is no getting around that, but do shop around for tickets.

For the one day/two park tickets I wanted to buy, you can see I saved £45.50 by buying these at attractiontix.co.uk rather than picniq, or on the DLP website but I’d always recommend trying them all at the time of purchase to check who is cheaper.

Tip 3 – Book Accommodation and Tickets together

Sometime booking a package saves money too. Disneyland Paris  directly often put together offers such as 2 extra nights and 2 extra days free with free entry into the park for children under 7.

Friends recently thought they would go for 3 nights and 4 days but the offer took them to 5 nights, 6 days at the Wild West themed Hotel Cheyenne which was only a 15 minute walk from the parks and a 10 minute walk to the Disney village.

Tip 4 – Keep the Trip a Surprise or Get Them to Help Plan!

Keep the trip a surprise if they are younger and have no concept of time. Tell them just before you’re due to go and watch them bubble with excitment.

However if they’re older like mine, get them to help plan the trip, watch you tube videos about the rides and get them to help plan the day. You’ll get way more out of the trip that way.

Tip 5 – Use Loyalty Points for Hotels To Save Money at Disney with Kids

Use loyalty points to book hotels. We converted Tesco Clubcard points for our next trip; again, we saved them all year and swap for Hotel.com vouchers. We could put these towards our hotel onsite, bringing the cost down from £1300 to £300. The savings are also considerable on off-site hotels.

Tip 6 – Stay Offsite When Visiting Disneyland Paris With Kids

An airbnb or an apartment is always a great option to save money. We stayed in an apartment 30 minute walk from Disneyland Paris, was super stylish and at £361.16 for two nights, a bargain compared to booking a hotel. It was a pleasant walk, and a great space to chill out and wind down after a busy day in the park. Accommodation outside the park is also great for multi-generation groups to stay together and save money.

You could also consider staying at Eurocamp just outside Paris and getting the transfer coach.

Tip 7 – Bring Your Own Fancy Dress 

We took our Disney fancy dress from home. Like many of you, we will have a full box of fancy dress, so we packed it. If you fold it into a zip-lock bag, it presses down quite small, and your little ones can have their own fancy dress on to meet the princesses/characters. Saving you having to buy it in the shop when you’ve realised they ‘need’ it.

Tip 8- Take Warm Onesies For The night

For the evening shows and fireworks, take fleece onesies. These went under the kids’ coats and kept them super warm on the cooler nights. It also means when you get back to your accommodation, they can get straight into bed.

Tip 9 – Use Refillable Water Bottles

Take refillable water bottles or a refillable mug with a secure lid with you and fill them up during the day from the water fountains near the restrooms. Bottles of water at Disney aren’t really expensive; they go through a lot, and you may not want to queue. 

Tip 10 – Take Snacks

Take a huge bag of snacks into the parks every day in a zip-lock bag. We did this for a few reasons, mainly because our three can be quite fussy, and I wanted to know we had things they would eat.

Secondly, I thought snacks would keep them busy in the queues, and thirdly, because in the end, they snacked all day, and we ate lunch late afternoon after leaving the parks. It worked for everyone. We took raisins, squeezy fruit snacks, cereal bars (chocolate would melt anyway), breadsticks and marmite rice cakes! Then the kiddies can choose one Disney-themed treat a day.

Tip 11 – Big Breakfast/Late Lunch To Save Money on Food at Disney

Eat a big breakfast at home or en route, then eat a late lunch. The snacks above kept the kids happy; it was too hot for us to want to eat anyway. The restaurants were very busy. It gets the busiest in the parks from lunchtime to early evening, so if you leave and eat on the way home, you win on all levels. 

However, if you want to try character dining book breakfast, as it’s always cheaper than lunch or dinner.

Tip 12 – Head To Au Chalet de la Marionnette For a Late Lunch

You will find Au Chalet de la Marionnette in Fantasy Land near the Peter Pan ride. For some reason, even though it is in a central location, it is not busy. I think people avoid it because it looks like a restaurant when, in fact, it is a quick-service restaurant. This overlooked dining venue offers all the usual burgers and half-roasted chicken with a choice of salad and chips. The chicken and chips cost $17.00, and the children’s burger, chips, drink and dessert cost $9.

Tip 13 – Create a Disney Birthday List 

Another way we deflected the ‘off every ride and through the shop’ toy request was by adding their requests to their birthday list. I make a list on the notes app on my phone. This has killed two birds with one stone as we didn’t buy everything in sight, and now we have a list to show to friends and relatives who ask closer to birthday times. Plus, it’s easier to cull unnecessary items at home and not in the moment.

Tip 14 – Take Bubbles

If you want to save money, take bubbles. The park sells bubble wands of all varieties, so the kids are guaranteed to want one, too, but they are expensive. You can combat this by buying bubble wands ahead from Amazon at a fraction of the price or taking pots of bubbles.