Disneyland Hotel (Paris) is the flagship hotel of Disneyland Paris Resort. It’s on of the few Disney hotels that looks directly into a theme park, and the one that Disneyland Paris that is closes to both parks. It’s also by far the most expensive hotel at the resort. In this post, we’ll review our recent stay at Disneyland Hotel (Paris).
Note: Upcoming Reopening
Paris’s Disneyland Hotel has seen an extensive refurbishment and is reopening soon. I’ll be visiting in Spring 2024, at which point I’ll update this review fully.
Booking and Price
Disneyland Paris has a ridiculous booking system that only allows you to book packages online. You can book room-only rates by calling…or you can just use a website like Expedia or Booking. In my case, I use Kayak to search for rates, and Kayak pointed me to Orbitz.
Booking packages from Disney is sometimes the cheaper option, but booking hotel and tickets separately often wins the day. We now have Disneyland Paris annual passes, so packages don’t make sense for us at all.
I really don’t like to “review” a hotel on only a single night stay, but when the hotel charges $500+ per night and is mostly offering location and a certain room decor, I’m happy to make an exception.
For this trip, I originally was very tempted by a Newport Bay Club rate of around $225 per night, but I instead opted for the single night at Disneyland Hotel (Paris) combined with an off-site Airbnb stay. We paid $561.03 for the single night stay at Disneyland Hotel (Paris). (You can and should read more about staying off-site at Disneyland Paris here.)
Now, you might be thinking “well I’m going to book a package anyways so I’ll just go through Disney.” But you can oftentimes save hundreds, and sometimes over $1000, by booking your Disneyland Paris hotel through something like Expedia and buying separate tickets instead of buying the whole package through Disney.
We have a post that covers the different booking options at Disneyland Paris. It’s in need of updates, but it still provides a good overview of the basic issues.
Location
Besides being the most “elegant” of the Disneyland Paris hotels, Disneyland Hotel (Paris) is most noted for its location. The hotel is situated above the entrance to Disneyland Park, which makes it the hotel nearest to the two parks. It will still take 2 or 3 minutes to walk over to Walt Disney Studios Park.
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By comparison, Hotel New York is about 7 minutes from Walt Disney Studios Park and nine from Disneyland Park. Disney's Hotel Cheyenne is about 15 minutes from the parks (these are through Disney Village in the above map).
The other perk of the location is the entire hotel is within Disneyland Paris security. Guests coming from the other hotels will have to pass through security to enter Disney Village, while guests at Disneyland Hotel are already on the secure side (you’ll pass through security when you arrive, obviously).
If I’m being 100% honest and 100% me, there is one downside to the location. You actually have to go out of your way about ten minutes (roundtrip) to get to Starbucks.
The parks serve machine-brewed instant coffee beverages—so no, you can’t “just get coffee in the parks.” That is, this isn’t a “Starbucks” thing, it’s an “any quality caffeinated beverage” thing. (Okay but it’s also a Pumpkin Spice thing because we were there in October #CapitalBBasic.)
Disneyland Paris is not located in Paris, and its hotels are not a great base for visiting Paris. However, you can easily get from Disneyland Paris to Paris by train if you’d like.
Dining and Drinking at Disneyland Hotel (Paris)
Disneyland Hotel has two restaurants and a bar. All three are located on the 2nd floor (which Americans consider the 3rd floor) around a foyer (not the hotel lobby). It’s not hard to find them from the lobby—just go up some stairs and then cross the footbridge.
Inventions has a no-character breakfast buffet and character meals at lunch and dinner (both also buffets). California Grill is a traditional, elegant table service restaurant.
Cafe Fantasia (pictured above) is one of our favorite bars at Disneyland Paris. While the prices are higher than you’ll pay at some of the other bars (yes, for the exact same drinks), the bar itself is beautiful and the service is good.
Park Privileges
All Disney hotel guests at Disneyland Paris get access to Extra Magic Hour (aka Extra Magic Time)—an exclusive bonus hour at the start of the day.
There was a time when just staying at Disneyland Hotel get you more special perks for the parks, but those days are gone. Nowadays, the perks are reserved for Castle Club and suites guests.
These guests get complimentary VIP Fastpass, which is unlimited access to the Disneyland Paris Fastpass queues. As our guide to Disneyland Paris Fastpass explains, we don’t consider this a particularly valuable perk.
Castle Club guests also have a special elevator that takes them directly to the turnstiles for Disneyland (other guests have to walk about 100 feet).
Other Disneyland Hotel (Paris) Amenities
There are a host of amenities at Disneyland Hotel (Paris) that we’re not going to cover. Probably the most important are the indoor pool and the sauna. There’s also a fitness center and a (paid) spa.
Our Room at Disneyland Hotel (Paris)
If you took the RER A train from Paris or the TGV train from CDG airport, you’ll be coming from Marne-la-Vallée—Chessy station. You can talk a bus from the station, but it’s also only a three minute walk (exit the station, head right toward Disneyland Park). There’s also a Disney Express check-in service at the station that you can book in advance.
Coming from the station, the entrance to the hotel is on the right side. If you walk straight under the hotel, you’ll hit the park turnstiles. You want to instead go to the building farthest to your right, which is where the lobby is.
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If you arrive early, you’ll be able to complete most of check-in, but your room might not be ready. You’ll get a MagicPass card that serves as your hotel identification for everything other than entering your room—things like Extra Magic Hours and pool access.
Come back later (after 3PM) to get your room assignment and room key (right in below picture). You might recall from our Hotel Cheyenne review that that “lesser” hotel was already using the MagicPass as a room key as of a year ago. Disneyland Hotel has some catching up to do.
These rooms would probably rank third in terms of “fancy Disney” style of the Disney rooms we’ve stayed in, just behind Tokyo Disneyland Hotel and Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta.
That’s not to say they’re the third best rooms, though. Plenty of rooms in Florida (Yacht Club, Gran Destino Tower, and maybe even—gasp—Pop Century come to mind) are higher quality (whatever that means), but there’s certainly a measure of elegance with Disney touch that hotels like Disneyland Hotel (Paris) are going for.
In many ways, these rooms remind me of how boring and sterile some of the Florida rooms are getting.
Many of the things I’d typically complain about actually do well here. I hate carpeting, but I think the pattern here maybe makes it worth it.
The television is tiny, but it’s worth it to have it sit in this beautiful armoire.
One thing I can’t forgive is a lack of outlets. Most—not all—of the Disney hotels in Florida have resolved their lack of outlets by adding a digital clock with USB ports to the nightstand (or they’ve been refurbished to have more outlets).
Disneyland Hotel has instead hidden two USB ports inside of the armoire. I’m not a fan of this. You can see them in the back right of the below picture.
I do wish I’d tried the coffee machine. One thing to know about Europe is that drip coffee isn’t really a thing. You can get it at Starbucks, but pretty much anywhere else (including Disneyland Paris) that sells it has a disgusting product. (Europeans drink espresso and espresso beverages.)
The Disneyland Hotel is the only on-site Disneyland Paris hotel where you won’t walk past Starbucks in the morning. I can’t speak for the coffee in the room, but I can say that it cannot be worse than what they serve in the parks.
We had a view of the street entrance to the hotel. There are theme park view rooms, but I’m given to understand these are all suites and Castle Club rooms.
The bathroom is cute and elegant (use the arrows to navigate the three photos below).
You can see in the third photo that the toilet has its own nook, but it’s functionally the same room as the vanity and the shower, which is a disappointment.
I’ve traveled Europe pretty extensively, but I’m not totally sure what that toilet nook is meant to accomplish. It’s almost like it’s saying it’s okay to use it while someone else is in the bathroom? But why no door? Maybe the nook is just for sanitary reasons?
The detailing around the mirror is particularly good.
Toiletries come in single use bottles.
As someone who likes to participate in “green” culture, I’m a little torn on these. I’m opposed to bulk containers for sanitary reasons.
I think a good solution exists somewhere around biodegradable single use containers or reusable single use containers guests are charged for taking.
Conclusions — “Is Disneyland Hotel (Paris) worth it?”
Answering “is it worth it?” is a tough task. First of all, it’s always subjective. $500 per night is nothing to some people and it’s everything to others.
That point aside, I’m going to answer the question in two ways. The first is that if I’m picking a hotel at Disneyland Paris for an annual visit, then no, Disneyland Hotel is not worth the premium it charges.
I enjoy the walks from the other hotels to the parks. On this trip we even made the walk to Hotel Cheyenne just for fun. Yes, you have to go through security coming from those hotels, but that’s usually a minor delay.
As for the other perks of Disneyland Hotel (the pool, spa, fitness center, restaurants, etc.) I’m the first to admit we haven’t and never will take advantage of any of these…except the bar.
Most people who are visiting Disneyland Paris resort aren’t there for a long stay, and with good reason. If you’re considering more than two or three nights, you really need to be considering spending more time in Paris itself.
The two parks—though one of them is only a half-day park—are strong enough to fill two full days. That leaves little time for kicking back and relaxing and little need to pay an extra $150 to 350 per night for whatever Disneyland Hotel offers than the others don’t.
Here’s the flip side. The Disneyland Hotel is the best hotel in the area and it’s actually much lower-priced than Paris’s best hotels (which, to be clear, it isn’t as good as). For a bucket list trip, it’s not too hard to justify a stay.
When we talk about the Grand Floridian at Walt Disney World, we often mention that the Four Seasons Orlando has comparable prices and is a far superior hotel. Disneyland Hotel at Disneyland Paris doesn’t have any nearby competition. (The Grand Californian at Disneyland similarly has a monopoly on quality in its neighborhood.) So if you’re in “bucket list” territory, there’s really nothing else to compare it to.
Similarly, if you’re looking to “treat yourself” while in Paris, you Disneyland Hotel is a pretty decent compromise. It isn’t as nice as Paris’s best hotels, but those hotels also often cost over $1000 per night.
If you were staying in the area for, say, seven nights, doing two of them at Disneyland Hotel would be a reasonable treat compared to trying to do something fancy in the city.
All Your Other Disneyland Paris Planning Questions Answered
Don’t be overwhelmed by Disneyland Paris planning! Take a second to check out our most important content! Just starting out? Check out our Disneyland Paris Trip Planning Guide. Need to know how much this is going to take out of your pocket? We’ve got a post on How Much it Costs to Go to Disneyland Paris.
When it comes to hotels, we’ve reviewed three of them. Check our our Review of Disneyland Hotel (Paris), Review of Disney's Sequoia Lodge, and Review of Disney's Hotel Cheyenne. We also recommend considering an off-site hotel or Airbnb when visiting Disneyland Paris.
Know what to ride with our: Disneyland Paris Rides Guide and Walt Disney Studios Park Rides Guide. And just as important, know how to get on the best rides without the wait with our Guide to Disneyland Paris Fastpass! For the complete guides to a day at the park, we have a One Day Disneyland Paris Itinerary and a Walt Disney Studios Park Itinerary.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.