Boundless Horizons

We’d been averaging one Disneyland Paris visit a year, but we loved the idea of getting annual passes and going more often. Then when we looked at the cost of going back to Walt Disney World in 2023, we realised we could get a 7 night Mediterranean cruise on the Disney Dream and annual passes for DLP for basically the same price!

We have the benefit of our local airport offering direct Easyjet flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle, so we’re able to keep an eye out for cheap flights, which was really what made this plan feasible. We were able to do a couple of weekend trips where we finished work on Friday, headed to the airport, then flew home Sunday.

The plan got off to a slightly bumpy start, when DLP pulled sales of their previous annual pass! We had tickets for DLP Pride in June 2023 and originally thought that would be the first trip on the passes – in the end, the new Disneyland Passes weren’t available until July.

The new Disneyland Pass range was pretty controversial when it launched, as it was a pretty big price increase over the old range, and some of the previous benefits had been removed. It certainly caused us to pause and consider whether the plan was still viable. Ultimately we decided to go ahead but instead of two top level passes we opted for one Gold pass to get the annual photopass and maximum discounts and one Silver pass since the availability calendar showed that none of the blocked out dates clashed with our plans. The only downside to this is that the Silver pass didn’t have early entry (unless we were staying onsite, where the hotel booking gives that), but we don’t always make it there in time for that anyway.

Purchasing the passes was a little convoluted. The UK DLP site directs you to either call or buy them onsite. However, the French DLP site does online sales! With the help of Google Translate, we were able to buy our passes online. The advantage of this is that we saved time in line and could go straight to the parks, plus we could start making reservations right away. It’s worth noting that the passes start from when they’re purchased so we waited until closer to our first trip to buy them.

September 2023

Our first visit as annual passholders! We had a trip to Bordeaux with our extended family, but couldn’t get direct flights. The best option was to go via CDG airport and then on to Bordeaux by train. On the way back, train/flight schedules meant we would need to have an overnight stay… and since the train stops at DLP on the way to CDG, it made sense to grab some time in the parks!

We made a room-only booking for Disney’s Sequoia Lodge through Hotels.com, which also let us use Tesco Clubcard vouchers to pay for our stay. We had one evening and one morning in the parks so buying two days of park tickets just wouldn’t have made any sense – the annual passes really enabled this visit.

This was our last chance to see Dream… and Shine Brighter, which was introduced for the park’s 30th anniversary. I still miss that show!

October 2023

Most of our visits have fallen in October because we love Hallowe’en at DLP. The weather is usually a comfortable temperature for walking around and the crowds aren’t too bad outside of the school holidays.

We actually booked this trip when bookings opened and got a great deal on a package for three nights at Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne with park tickets direct from DLP. DLP offer free cancellation up to 7 days before the trip, but by the time we’d bought our passes, hotel prices had increased so we were better sticking with the package. This trip coincided with the Disney100 celebration on October 16 – we’d managed to book before they announced the event and prices jumped once those details were released.

The passes still came in handy, as flight schedules meant we were better off arriving a day before our package began. We added a night at Hôtel l’Elysée Val d’Europe and were able to get into the parks with our passes that night. Plus the annual photopass and shop/restaurant discounts were still useful!

November 2023

We’d only been to DLP at Christmas once before, so I was hoping to find an opportunity to go back. I kept an eye on flight and hotel prices, and managed to grab a great deal leaving after work on Friday night and flying back on Sunday.

I guess this was a particularly quiet weekend for travel as flights were only £35 each way. ibis Marne la Vallée Val d’Europe was only €70/night, which was great! We’ve stayed here a couple of times and it’s usually €90-€100/night. It’s right beside the Montévrain exit to Val d’Europe station so the door-to-door time from the hotel room to the parks can actually be quicker than from some of the Disney hotels. And of course, the cost of park admission was covered by the passes.

With just a couple of nights, we had about a day and a half in the parks – just enough time to take in all of the Christmas decorations and hit our favourite rides!

January 2024

When I realised that Rhys’s birthday fell on a weekend, I had to see if we could spend it in the parks! We took a couple of days off work to do a three night trip, this time we spotted a great room-only price for Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne (£116/night).

We’d never been in January before and it was cold! But it also meant the wait times for rides were pretty short, we were definitely spoiled with that. This was also our first chance to see the Disney Electrical Sky Parade. The challenge with drone shows is that they’re subject to cancellation depending on the weather. We were fortunate to see it each night of this trip!

While we didn’t make it to any of the Annual Pass party nights, there are occasionally Pop-Up Surprise meet & greets which are exclusive to passholders. This was our only trip which lined up with the Pop-Up Surprise dates. Each passholder can make one reservation and bring up to four guests (each of whom must also be passholders). We each made a booking for different days and managed to meet Anna from Frozen & Marie from The Aristocats on one visit, and Elsa & Berlioz on the other.

April 2024

Our next chance to get across to the parks was in April, during the Easter school holidays. We booked four nights at the ibis in Val d’Europe again as it was the best value option – Disney hotel prices were about as high as they get!

This was the only trip where I was concerned about park reservations. Unless you have an onsite hotel booking, you need to reserve your days in the park. Passholders can make up to three reservations at a time, but we had five park days planned on this trip. The next reservation can be made after midnight when you’ve used the first one, but fortunately there was plenty of availability and we got the additional days booked without any issues.

July 2024

Our last AP trip! This was the end of our Switzerland/France summer trip, and there’s a full trip report on this site. We arrived by train from Strasbourg and spent three nights at the ibis in Val d’Europe as once again it was the best option for us. We’ve now stayed here four times and it’s really hard to beat on value.

This trip coincided with the French summer sales, we’d also managed to visit during the winter sales in January. What’s really nice is that the pass discount also works with sale items, so we got an extra 15% off!

Was it worth it?

We really enjoyed the freedom that came with the passes as we wouldn’t have visited 6 times in 12 months if we’d had to buy park tickets every time. It was a lot of fun and we made the most of having them! Sadly there’s no longer a renewal discount, so we’ve let them expire. With the old passes, DLP gave a discount on adding another year, but that ended when that range was withdrawn.

Would we get them again? Yes – if the maths works. I think the passes definitely need a good amount of planning to be worthwhile. We knew we would be able to get multiple trips out of them, but in previous years when we’ve only had one DLP visit planned, the hotel and ticket package from DLP was a better offer. The food and beverage discounts and the annual photopass were great, so we would miss having those!

Ultimately they were beneficial because we prioritised getting as many visits in that 12 month window as possible, which was fine for the two of us but that definitely won’t suit everyone. We’re also fortunate to have a couple of airports within a reasonable distance of where we live which offer regular low cost flights to Paris CDG meaning we could get to the parks easily. And neither of us work weekends so being able to have certainty with work schedules helped us to maximise our visits.

Right now, we’re taking advantage of a gap between passes to go back to Walt Disney World, because we really miss it! For our next trip we’re off to WDW and sailing on the Disney Treasure, so it could be a year before we return to Paris. Of course, we’ll get out a spreadsheet and see if those passes make sense when we book!