Staying on Disney Property vs. Staying off Disney Property

Staying on Disney property vs. not

When thinking about booking your holiday to Disneyland Paris, one of the first things that you need to consider is where you want to stay. There are benefits to staying both on Disney property and outside of the resort. This post focuses on the pros and cons of where you choose to stay and I will explore the individual properties in later posts. I’ve listed some ideas below with a run down of some of the pros and cons.

Staying on Disney property

If you choose to stay on Disney property, you need to consider a couple of things such as how much of a walk you want to the park and whether you would consider driving a short distance (see my post on Davy Crockett Ranch Hotel).

Pros	Cons
You are only a walk or shuttle bus away from the park entrance	Staying on property can be pricey – I would say one of the bigger cons
You can take advantage of extra magic time (get extra time in the parks)	Disney Davy Crockett Ranch hotel is a short drive at the end of the day
You can potentially stay out later as your hotel is nearby!	You have to pay more for a closer hotel
Disney characters visit your hotel in the evening!	The characters are not always different every night – we went for 4 nights and saw the same character for 3 of those nights
It is convenient

Staying off Disney Property

If you are choosing to stay off Disney property, there are a couple of things that you need to consider such as how you want to get to the park daily and what sort of property you would like to stay in.

Pros	Cons
It can be much cheaper (depending on where you choose to stay)	You won’t have magic hours to get into the park earlier (unless included with ticket purchase)
You may be able to see more of Paris if that is something that you would like to do	You will have to travel to get to the parks daily (car parking at the parks can be a nightmare!)
There are good transport links between Disney and outer parts e.g. using the train	You will have to be mindful of last trains etc. so as not to miss your transport back to your property
You can stay to watch the fireworks in the park and still get back in time to get the train!	You won’t get Disney characters visiting your hotel so your only meet and greets will be in the park
	There may be more security zones to get through as you are coming from outside Disney property