Disneyland Paris from £10 per person per day

Tim_Mullis

It used to be dream of my mine to take the family (4 kids and wife) to Disneyland but I was always put off by the high prices. After a bit of a research and refining our technique we are now getting in for £10 per person per day for both parks. Camping for the family at £50 (could bring this down but we love the campsite) per day and the same expenditure on food that we'd spend at home. Even in the parks we eat and drink better than the other visitors (good food as opposed to fast junk food).

We are planning our 5th trip this Summer (OK we are addicts now) and have got everything down to a tee. Even though the kids are now 17, 15, 13 and 11 they are still really looking forward to it. The first year we really cracked it we got home from holiday and when I did my normal look into how in debt we were after our holiday I found we still has several hundred left in the bank account!!!!

Happy to let you know any details if you are interested.

SHEILA54

Be good to have the details? There is a Disneyland Paris thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/527819

Might be an idea to post on there as well

Tim_Mullis

It's a three stepper.

Step 1
Firstly you have to love Disneyland enough to want to go a lot.

Get there on the first day of your holiday, take your passports, pay for a normal daily ticket, walk straight in and go to the Bureau Passeport Annuel near the Discoveryland entrance at Disneyland Park. Allow 90 minutes for the process and be aware that the pass cannot be used for the next two days, plan our holiday accordingly.

I'd recommend the 'Annual Passport Classic' (sometimes called the francellian) at 135 Euro. There are a few days a year when it cannot be used, check these dates in advance and plan your holiday accordingly. There is one day this year when we can't go.

We'll go about six times to Disney land this holiday - so far about £20 a shot....not good enough!!!!

Step 2
OK remember the bit when I said you need to really love Disneyland? This is the killer.....

This year we go toward the end of the summer holiday racking up in mid August. Next year we go as soon as we break up in mid July.

Do you see where this going, we go twice on the same annual pass. In truth we'll hit the park at least 12 times on the same ticket (if I had told you we go in for less than a tenner I figured no one would have read this thread as you wouldn't believe me).

Step 3
Just little refinement really....
Firstly as you plan the holiday start watching your X-graphs (xrates.com) for Euro / Sterling. This year we have had everything from 1.4 to 1.2 (thank you Brexit). Have your money for the ticket (and the rest of the holiday) ready and pounce when the exchange rate is optimum. We hit 1.3 Euros to the pound. Don't just rack up to Disneyland with your debit card and except the rate on the day. Strip off at leat 10% doing this.

So far we are down to around £8 per person per visit and guess what, that's still not good enough.

Rack up with at least 5 family members - 20% discount.

One of you gets the fantasty pass = free parking for the holiday.

Frankly we end up paying so little I actually feel guilty.

Happy to supply more details as to how we cut costs on other aspects of our visit.

FBaby

So you pay 135 euros x 6 for going twice to Disney, that in addition to travel and camping. Sorry but I don't see this as a good deal, but then again, my teenage kids would not be ecstatic at the prospect of going to Disney every year as their holidays.

Tim_Mullis

To be precise we buy 5 * 135 classics and 1 * 179 Fantasy (to give free parking) = 854

Then take off the 20% family discount = 683.2

Into sterling at 1.3 Euros to the pound = £525.

From this we will get in excess of 12 visits for the 6 of us = at most £7.29 per person per entry.

As mentioned in the entry, you need to love Disneyland Paris, if you haven't fallen in love with it this would be a recipe for torture for sure.

Tim_Mullis

Next thing is drinks. If you are going for several days and there are several of you it could cost a small fortune if you rely purely on the retail outlets. We give each of the family a small water bottle and a choice of those small very concentrated squashes (Robinsons Squashd). There are plenty of good drinking fountains around the park so everyone can keep topped up (and swap flavours).

Don't get me wrong, we have the odd treat, its just that you don't want to be overly reliant on a long hot day.

Tim_Mullis

So then food...

Again the occasional treat from the food outlets is good, but you don't want to be reliant on it if you are going big time. We take a wide variety of meals in back packs (each member of the family carries a small backpack).

We take plenty of cheese and french bread along with a wide variety of fruit and snacks from the French supermarkets.

A large flask of hot water (boiled up on the camp stove in the morning) is good for pot noodles (OK, I know they're not French - we bring them with us!).

Boil up hot dog sausages in the morning - put them in a large thermosflask - kids love them in buns- you can even do the onions too!

For variety we sometimes cook up a pasta meal and divide into tupperware containers.

We take disposable plastic bowls, knives, forks etc so we don't end up carrying around dirty cutlery and crockery.

Thermos Flasks are fine at the X-ray machines, no need to worry about security.

Don't try and take in any metal cutlery or alcohol however.

tomtontom

Tim, have you looked at the thread linked to above? All the information is already on there, including the annual pass. In fact you might find even more cost cutting tips on there

Tim_Mullis

Had a good look but I can't really see advice on reaching the prices that I am looking for.

Tim_Mullis

Next step is find a campsite. We camp 28 minutes from Disneyland on a very pleasant backroad with no tolls etc to get to Disneyland. Its nice to come away to somewhere relaxing and spacious with canoeing, football, crazy golf, tennis etc. We pay 50 Euros per night for the six of us. Typically we'll spend a couple of consecutive days at Disney and then a day relaxing at the campsite before doing it over again. The kids actually prefer camping to hotels as it is so different to being at home. There are lots of campsites within easy reach.

zagfles

Tim_Mullis wrote: »

Next step is find a campsite. We camp 28 minutes from Disneyland on a very pleasant backroad with no tolls etc to get to Disneyland. Its nice to come away to somewhere relaxing and spacious with canoeing, football, crazy golf, tennis etc. We pay 50 Euros per night for the six of us. Typically we'll spend a couple of consecutive days at Disney and then a day relaxing at the campsite before doing it over again. The kids actually prefer camping to hotels as it is so different to being at home. There are lots of campsites within easy reach.

Also if you don't want to camp there are a lot of campsites with static caravans/chalets for not much more.