I spent £1,000 A DAY taking my family to Disneyland Paris – here are the tricks I wish I’d known that can slash hundreds off your bill

Can you put a price on the happiness of your children? Disneyland £ 1,000 per day in Paris. At the end of June, a four -day visit cost our family of four.

By taking advantage of the interior of the two schools, my husband and me reserve a period of journey to surprise our eight and five -year -old children.

Our biggest loved Darth Vader and Thrill Big Thunder Mountain.

Tigger, the youngest popular meeting – since infancy. With the fictional character of AA Milne, this hugging brought tears to my eyes.

But nothing diluted our eyes more than cost: about 4,000 £ for the journey.

Now I understand that there are ways to get hundreds of pounds out of cost – if I only knew earlier. Here is how.

Transporting there

As we get London’s St Pancras 7am Eurostar train, we stayed one night to go to a very early and prevent Premier Inn Euston (£ 220). Big mistake.

The hotel had no air conditioning and on a hot June night, none of us sleep well. We had to buy a taxi 45 £ earlier from the house, saving £ 160 and a sleepless night savings.

Eurostar tickets (reserved two months ago) cost £ 546. If we were more flexible in our travel times, we would have been better with our tickets.

Leaving London in the afternoon is usually much cheaper – even on school holidays.

For example, return tickets may be currently £ 130.65 per adult and on August 28th on the 13.01 train from St Pancras for £ 64.83 for children. This is a family bill that saves £ 155.04 in total we pay.

Flying to Paris could have been faster and cheaper. British Airways, from Heathrow to Charles de Gaulle for a four -man family, flights to £ 515 and Disneyland magic shuttle bus tickets would cost about £ 60 – this would save me about £ 130, even in a taxi factoring.

Hotel

Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park made a package of a package at Newport Mr. Hotel, including four days ticket and peninsula meal plan. 2,567,84 £ cost.

The hotel is a ten -minute walk from the parks, allows us to leave the day and escape from the crowd.

The pool was a great way to cool at 30C temperatures – a child had to evacuate a child (not ours!) In the afternoon.

We stayed in a ‘superior’ room with two double beds. It smelled moist, the air conditioner control would not go below 20C, and a large refrigerator withdrew from the plug to the bottom of a bed.

After complaining, we bought an apology and a little more cool room. However, personnel, French energy reduction laws in hotels and other commercial buildings limited the use of air conditioning.

Trains later: Leaving London in Eurostar in the afternoon is usually much cheaper – even during school holidays

I wish I had known how to make a reservation through the Cashback website Topcashback.co.uk. I could earn £ 35 for my Newport Bay accommodation by registering with an account and accessing the Disneyland Paris website through its link.

You can earn £ 50 to stay in other hotels near the park, including New York, Disneyland or Sequoia Lodge hotels.

And if I thought of checking my offers by Tesco Clubcard, I could save more savings by changing the club scores earned while shopping for a Hotels.com coupon that I could use while reserveing the hotel through the website.

Park tickets

Our tickets discussed both parks for four days (Thursday -Sunday). For a family previously reserved on Disneylandparis.com, a daily entrance was slightly above £ 500 on the Disneyland Paris website, so the four -day package looked better.

It also meant that we didn’t feel the need to buy tail jumpers called ‘Premier Access Passes’.

I knew I could use my visa debit card to insert it to Stitch live experience in Disney Studios.

We were beaten by more organized families and disappointed my daughter by not entering the show.

Although it is free for everyone, Visa privileged access would only shake any visa payment cards to the gate and allow us to enter any of the last three demonstrations of the day before the masses.

Food and beverage

The ‘Hemmary Plus’ plan cost 565 £ and gave six meals coupons in hotels and parks. The hotel did not require breakfast reservation at the yacht club buffet and the children swallowed pancakes every morning.

We had to book dinner in hotel restaurants as soon as possible. When I came to him, two weeks before he went, child -friendly nests were fully reserved (where Disney favorites walk at the tables).

Drinks were limited to a soft drink per food, so we paid more and occasionally for wine or beer. This added about 22 £ 22 per dinner and £ 35 to Yacht Club for small cups of wine with each course.

After walking 20,000 steps, a sunny evening, my husband and I treated ourselves to a Pina Colada in the open bar of the hotel. They came with Mickey Mouse -shaped pineapple slices and each with a price tag of 14 €. We didn’t order any more.

Memories: One -day entrance for a family of four previously reserved on Disneylandparis.com is slightly above £ 500 on the Disneyland Paris website

In addition to the inclusive meals, we paid for four lunch. In the main park, a sandwich end of a sausage in Casey’s Corner is £ 56.

Other lunchs in the village include the Italian chain Vapiano (40 £), Sandwich Count (£ 38) and McDonald’s (25 £). 6 £ Alice has completed our curl -themed ice cream and a few £ 4 without alcoholic beverage invoice.

Packing children’s snacks from home made us a little dey and I would do it again. Before I left the house, I spent many packages of chocolate cookies, dry fruit snacks and chips supermarket.

Park restaurants, including Cafe Hyperion in Discoveryland, demanded £ 3 for a Mickey cookie and £ 3.50 for a fruit bag. At these prices, two snacks for two children would cost me £ 54, so I saved at least 40 £.

Toy

I dare to escape from Disneyland without buying a few toys. We just escaped from five purchases: 30 £ 30 £ 22 £ fake pink camera covered in Disney princesses that blow up the bubbles, 39 £ 19 £ 19 £ magnetic toy sitting on your shoulder.

Although Disney was smart in stocking the private items in the parking stores, I could bring cheaper Disney toys to give children to the parks to prevent expenditures.

For example, play by Play Pelush Soft Stitch Disney (20cm – almost the same size as my daughter’s purchase) can be sold at Amazon for £ 17.34 and Star Wars branded retreatable beam swords can be purchased for about 24 £.

But sometimes pampering your children with a toy is more valuable than the cost of the gift, even if he makes you sucker to Disney’s marketing department.

Disneyland is very expensive. The queues are long and playgrounds, soft games, and even the violent summer sun do not have much judgment for young children on the way to the shadow. But for four days, it was really the happiest place

The world for our children – not just a bank balance!