Post updated on 07/12/2025 to update Disneyland Paris ticket prices and improve our one day itinerary for Disneyland Paris. One day in Disneyland Paris never looked so fun!

Disneyland is often called the most magical place on earth. But it’s also one of the most expensive!

Want your kids to experience the magic of Disneyland Paris, but don’t want to have to remortgage your house to do it? It’s not a popular opinion, but perhaps one of the best ways to save money on a Disneyland Paris trip is just to spend less time there. And it’s totally possible to experience all the magic of Disneyland Paris in one (very jam packed and exhausting!) day. You just need the right one day itinerary for Disneyland Paris!

We’ve had Disneyland Paris annual passes for 3 separate years, and are regular visitors so we know all the tricks for maximising our visits.

And last summer we took a road trip around France, and we wanted to visit Disneyland Paris but we didn’t want throw too much money at it. So we stayed in an off-site hotel, and then spent just one day in the main Disneyland Park.

Here’s how we did it, how much it cost, and a full itinerary so you can copy our trip!

Top Tip: This Guide is for the main Disneyland Paris park. I will be creating a separate guide for the studios park as the World of Frozen will be opening here on March 29th. 2026 is set to be a very busy year for this park as a result!

Contents

Note: This post may contain affiliate links which cost you nothing, but give me a few pennies every time you use them to book your next adventure.

One Day Disneyland Paris Tickets

First thing’s first, you’re going to need tickets for your one day in Disneyland Paris. I strongly recommend booking these via Klook. We use Klook because you get instantly downloadable tickets, their prices are great (especially for short one day trips) AND I have an exclusive reader discount code. This gets you an extra 5% off Disneyland Paris tickets. And finding a discount on anything Disney is very rare!

👉Book your discounted Disneyland Paris tickets here.
💶 Use code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK to get 5% off your ticket prices

Can You Do Disneyland Paris In One Day?

One of the questions I’m asked the most is ‘can you do Disneyland Paris in one day?’ and the simple answer to that question is yes! You can choose to focus on just one park, OR you can buy a one-day park hopper ticket, which enables you to hop between the two Disneyland Paris parks. The two parks are conveniently close together, so this is very easy to do.

If you want to do Disneyland Paris in one day, then you’ll need a realistic plan and to focus on smart prioritising. You can’t go in expecting to ride everything, watch every show, and meet all the characters: this will only lead to disappointment. Instead, you should focus on the highlights, arrive early to maximise your day, and choose the right ‘must-do’ rides for your family. Don’t worry, I’m going to show you how….

Maximise Your Time With This Disneyland Paris One Day Itinerary

We have visited Disneyland Paris for the day on more than one occasion, and we always opt to stay in the main castle Disneyland Paris park. We take the earliest possible ferry from the UK (at around 3am) so that we arrive at the park at around 8am- meaning we are in line and first in when the gates opened to day visitors at 9am.

The kids sleep in the car (essential for a long day like this), so although we grown-ups were tired, the boys started the day fresh and raring to go. Parking in the Disneyland Paris car park costs 30 euros per car (honestly, it’s absolute extortion!) so something to bear in mind. If you’re staying locally before driving back to the UK the next day, you can save some money by following our lead and parking at your hotel. All of the nearby partner hotels offer a free shuttle bus to Disneyland.

Morning in Disneyland Paris

I know you’ve got a tight schedule, but don’t rush entering the park! The walk along Main Street is magical, so just take your time and soak it all in. The morning (as soon as you arrive in the park) is the best time to take photos in front of the castle, as it only gets busier through the day. So do this first!

From here, turn left into Frontier Land. You’re going to want to do the most popular rides first, and save the high capacity rides and attractions for the busier afternoon. So I would suggest riding Big Thunder Mountain first, and then riding the Haunted Mansion Ride.

The other ride in this area is the Steam Boat, but as you only have one day in the park, I would suggest missing this in favour of better attractions. It’s a boat that goes round the island you can see in front of you: nice, but you’re not missing anything!

If you’re travelling with kids that need to let off a little steam after standing in line then at the back of Frontier Land is the Frontier Land playground, and this is a great place for them to run and let out that energy.

If you want to see characters then both Goofy and Minnie generally do meet and greets in this area. It’s up to you if you want to stand in line for an autograph and a photo, or if just seeing them is enough!

Next Stop: Adventureland

From here. walk through to Adventureland, and be sure to ride Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. This is one of my favourite rides in the park, and a great roller coaster but because of its tucked away location, it tends to have shorter queue times than the other ‘big’ rides in the park.

For a break from standing in line, take a walk through the Aladdin Passage next: this is a walk through full of diaramas that tell the story of Aladdin. Because it is a walk through there are no queues for this, which again is great for kids. Again, you’ll spot either Aladdin and Jasmine or Jafar doing meets here. Whether you have the time to queue to meet them depends on what you want to do, and realistically how busy the park is!

Next you’re going to ride on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, then when you’re in a piratey frame of mind, you’re going to walk through skull rock, explore Tom Sawyers island, and explore all of the hidden caves, bridges, and walkways in this part of the park. This is a great place for kids, and a great stop on busy days because there are no lines and its incredibly high capacity.

At this point it’s a great time to stop for lunch! Because of where we are at this time of day, we would choose to eat in Colonel Haitithi’s Pizza Outpost, which is in Adventureland. This serves pizza and pasta: prices are good and portions are huge.

Afternoon in Disneyland Paris

The afternoon is for exploring the rides in Fantasyland, and making sure that you don’t miss the parade!

I’m just going to list the rides here so you can choose which ones you do and in which order, because this will depend on queue times which can vary from day to day:

• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Dumbo’s Flying Elephants
• Alice in Wonderland’s Tea Cups
• The Alice in Wonderland Maze (This is a walk through maze with fun features, and no queue time as it isn’t a ride. So another great stop for kids to run off some energy)
• It’s a Small World
• The Carousel de Lancelot
• Pinocchio/Snow White dark rides (These rides are similar, so if you’re short on time choose one, don’t waste time queuing for them both)
• Casey Jr.
• The Storybook Boats

Top Tip: Download the Disneyland Paris app! This will give you the most up to date wait times, so you can easily plan which ride to go on next.

Don’t Miss The Disneyland Paris Parade!

Make sure you take a gap between all the rides to see the Parade! This usually takes place at 5.30pm every day (but they do change it, so check the schedule on the day you arrive) but you want to queue for a good spot around 45 minutes before it begins.

Top Tip: Everyone wants to watch the parade from the castle, so this is the busiest viewing spot. But the parade actually starts in Fantasyland next to the ‘It’s a Small World’ ride. To maximise the time you’d spend waiting for the parade to reach you, watch it from this starting point instead!

Other things to fit into your afternoon include trying to pull the sword from the stone (this is in front of the carousel and is a great photo spot) then going both in and under the castle.

You can actually walk around the castle here, and the stain glass windows tell the story of Sleeping Beauty. There’s no queues to get in (though it can be crowded) and the views of the park from the top are amazing.

From here go down under the castle. This is the ONLY Disneyland castle with a dragon underneath it! And it’s a real highlight of any visit (again no queues!) This animatronic dragon moves, roars, and breaths fire into the darkened cave. It’s awesome.

Evening in Disneyland Paris

After the parade it’s time to grab dinner. There are LOADS of cheaper quick service options around. But if you’re short on time and don’t mind the expense then I really recommend going into Plaza Gardens for their Character Dinner (you should prebook this via the Disneyland Paris app).

6 Characters will come around to your table to pose for photos and sign autographs, meaning you don’t have to queue to meet characters during the day. The food is served buffet style and it’s good! Both quality and quantity. Mike and I loved the rich French dishes, but there are options (like Mickey Mouse nuggets and chips) for fussy kids too. Make sure you save room for dessert! You can read our review of the Plaza Gardens character dining experience here.

Evening Rides in Discoveryland

Next it’s time to go into Discoveryland for the evening. Here you can ride:

• Buzz Lightyear Spaceraider Spin
• Space Mountain
• Autopia
• Star Tours (a personal favourite!)
• Orbitron Flying Machines (the one i’d miss if you’re time poor)

This part of the park looks amazing lit up at night, and the rides here are always busier but tend to get quieter (like much of the park) in the after dinner lull.

There’s also a fun show to catch here: Mickey’s PhilharMagic is a 4D cinema experience, and it’s a lot of fun with a great soundtrack. The show is repeated every 20 minutes, so this is a great high capacity attractions for busy days too.

If you’re still with us and not flagging then you might want to stay in the park to see the fireworks. These are at park closing, which can be as late as 11pm in the summer, earlier during the winter and Christmas seasons, but you’ll need to get a spot to watch them at least an hour in advance, maybe 2 on really busy days.

Spend the rest of your evening before this doing what we call ‘mopping up’: that’s going around the park to take photos, and go on any of the rides you missed because the queues were too busy earlier in the day.

And that’s it! That’s how you can see everything the Disneyland Paris park has to offer in one day!

How Much Does A Day in Disneyland Paris Cost? A Complete Breakdown of How Much We Spent!

So how much did our Disneyland Paris day actually cost? This was definitely not a cheap day out! But for us, it was worth every penny and it is much cheaper than booking a vacation package from the Disneyland Paris website.

First we needed 1 day Disneyland Paris park entry tickets. We booked these via Klook and prices vary depending on the day you visit but the current off peak prices are £44.05 per adult and £40.50 for a child aged between 3-11. Prices can range up to £100 per ticket for peak period entry (this is the ticket price for Christmas Day this year) so this is something to consider if you’re looking to travel on a budget!

👉Book your discounted Disneyland Paris tickets here.
💶 Use code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK to get 5% off your ticket prices

With this discount code, the total price for a 1 day park ticket for a family of 4 is £169.

Where To Stay in Disneyland Paris

We then stayed at the Explorers Hotel, which is a Disney Partner Hotel. It’s not possible to make the most of your Disney day and drive back to the UK in one day (although I know people do it, I don’t recommend it!) so you will need a hotel room for 1 night, at a minimum. We paid £130 for a family room, including breakfast.

This hotel has a soft play area, a water park with slides, and a huge outdoor play area, all included in the price. Meaning you can have a second day of fun without it costing you another penny! We spent the morning having fun in the hotel, then went to the Disney Village in the afternoon (for a free Disney hit, as you don’t need a ticket to enter).

👉You can check prices and book the Explorers Hotel here.
🕍 Read our full review of the Explorers Hotel here (spoiler alert: we love it!)

How To Get To Disneyland Paris

We travelled by Ferry (this is much cheaper than the Eurotunnel) and if you book in advance you can get a return crossing with a 48 hour stay in France for £100 per car. We then spent around £80 on petrol, but this will depend on where abouts in the country you’re based, of course!

💸 Looking for more money saving tips? I’ve written a whole post of money saving tips for Disneyland Paris on a Budget here.

Where Did We Eat?

• We ate breakfast in the car on the drive between Calais and Paris (I’m calling this free, because I packed fruit, fruit juice, croissants, cereal bars etc) from home.
  
• For lunch we went to the Pizzeria Bella Notte. This is a ‘quick service’ restaurant that serves the famous Mickey Mouse shaped pizzas. We eat lunch here whenever we’re in Disneyland because the portions are so big. The set menu includes a pizza, half a loaf of garlic bread, and a large 50 cl soft drink. We get 2 of these between the 4 of us (and then buy 2 extra drinks) and it’s so much food that we still don’t eat it all. Total cost 40.60 euros for our family of four.
  
• Mid afternoon we stopped for a snack: mostly because the boys had seen Star Wars waffles and wanted to try them. The Darth Vader shaped waffles covered in Nutella were 5.50 euros each. It was around another 4 euros each for Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream bars. So 20 euros for a mid afternoon snack.
  
• We’d eaten so many snacks that the boys didn’t want dinner in the park. So we ended up grabbing a very late dinner from the McDonalds in the Disney Village on the way back to the car after a very long day. Mike and I were dead on our feet at this point, so we just had a drink and a couple of sugar-filled macarons for an energy boost! We spent 30 euros.

Our Complete Disneyland Paris Cost Breakdown

There’s no need to buy souvenirs if you don’t want to but, as you would expect from the birthplace of ‘exit via the gift shop’, there are shops everywhere! We let the boys choose a small gift each, and they both chose ‘shoulder pals’ – magnetic wearable plushies – for around 15 euros each. When they were younger we would give them ‘goodie bags’ with colouring books, and other small Disney toys each (much cheaper at home!) and they were happy to skip the gift shop altogether, which is another money saving tip if you’re travelling with smaller kids.

Park Tickets	£169
Hotel Room including Breakfast	£130
Return Ferry	£100
Food in Disneyland	£90
Souvenirs	£30
TOTAL	£519

ADD IT ALL TOGETHER AND THE TOTAL PRICE FOR OUR PARK TICKETS, 1 NIGHT IN A HOTEL, FOOD, AND SOUVENIRS WAS £519.

You could make this cheaper by choosing a cheaper hotel, not buying anything from the shops, and avoiding the lure of the snack bar!

Top Tip: Carry Water Bottles and snacks with you to save money, especially if travelling with young kids! A cereal bar/fruit roll up when in a long queue or waiting for the parade is a great distraction, and means you won’t have to buy even more snacks!

What’s In Our Disneyland Paris Day Bag

I’ve mentioned above that we carry water bottles and snacks with us in the parks, both to save money and to occupy the kids during long queues or wait times. But I thought it might be helpful to share what else we carry in our backpack when we visit Disneyland Paris for the day to make our lives easier:

• A good powerbank. You’ll be using your phone for your tickets, to access the Disneyland Paris app, and to take millions of photos. Mine usually runs out of battery by lunchtime as a result! So I carry this fast charging powerbank to keep it charged throughout the day.
• A refillable water bottle. We always carry waterbottles to use at the water fountains in the park. We choose these metal bottles over plastic ones, because they stay cooler for longer.
• Hand sanitizer. With so many high-touch areas, please make sure your kids keep their hands clean before they eat anything! Is it OTT that I found a Disney hand sanitizer? Yes! Did I do it anyway? Also yes! Check it out here.
• Plasters, blister bandages and medicines. Paracetamol for us and calpol for the kids are the one thing we would never do a day trip without!
• Sunscreen, sunglasses, and sun hat. You’re outside all day, so even in the cooler months you’ll find you need sun protection. Make your sun hat a Disney one: I’m obsessed with this Mickey hat for my boys!
• Wet wipes. It doesn’t matter how old your kids are: if you know, you know!
• Rain coats. We carry folding rain coats on every trip we take to Disneyland Paris, because the weather in Paris is just as notoriously unreliable as the weather at home!

When Should You Spend 1 Day At Disneyland Paris?

If you’re planning a one-day Disneyland Paris trip, choosing the right time of year makes a huge difference to how much you can realistically experience. While Disneyland Paris is magical all year round, the warmer months (late spring through early autumn) are by far the easiest and most efficient for one-day visits, especially for UK families driving over in the early hours like us! Here’s why:

 1. Longer opening hours means more rides, more shows, more time

From May to September, Disneyland Paris typically offers:

• Earlier openings
• Later closings (often 10–11pm in peak summer)
• Longer entertainment schedules

This gives you several extra hours compared to the winter months, which can effectively double the amount you can do in a single day. With a one-day visit, every hour counts, and summer simply gives you more of them.

 2. The drive from the UK is much easier in warmer weather

If you’re travelling via Eurotunnel or ferry, warmer months mean:

• Safer driving conditions
• Less chance of delays due to weather
• Longer daylight hours (helpful if you’re driving home after a long park day)

It also makes the journey feel more relaxed for kids: no icy roads, no packing bulky winter gear, just a smoother travel experience overall.

 3. Comfort matters when you only have one day

When you’re racing between rides, watching parades, and queuing outdoors, the weather matters more than you think. Warmer months mean:

• No shivering in queues
• No rain-soaked pushchairs
• No trying to juggle gloves, coats and ponchos
• Happier kids = happier day

You don’t need hot weather, just dry, mild conditions, and late spring to early autumn delivers that more reliably.

 4. Midweek days in May, June and September are the sweet spot

If you want the perfect balance of:

• great weather
• long hours
• lower crowds

…then May, early June and September offer some of the best one-day experiences of the entire year.

Final Thoughts

Cramming in all the fun of Disneyland Paris into one day was totally exhausting: but worth it to see the kids happy faces! We wanted to save some cash, and we also didn’t have extra days to dedicated to our time in Disneyland, as we had other stops on our road trip booked that we’d paid for in advance.

Don’t forget that if you choose to book your ticket through Klook as we did, then the code THATMUMTRAVEL5KLOOK will get you an additional 5% off your ticket prices, saving a little extra money.

I know that the tickets are the most expensive (eyewateringly so) part of booking a day in Disneyland Paris. But if you want to visit Disneyland Paris without breaking the bank then it’s going to be an intensive day, but it’s absolutely possible, and well worth doing.

Keep Planning The Perfect Disneyland Paris Day Trip

Looking for more help to keep planning the perfect Disneyland Paris day? Don’t worry, keep reading these pieces to create the best possible Disney experience for the whole family:

🎄 Thinking of visiting Disneyland Paris at Christmas? Read this first!
💶 Disneyland Paris on a Budget: Family Friendly Money Saving Tips
⛱ Top Ten Tips For Visiting Disneyland Paris in August
🎢 Top Tips For Visiting Disneyland Paris In January: An Underrated Month (And Our Favourite Time To Visit!)

This post may contain affiliate links which cost you nothing, but give me a few pennies every time you use them to book your next adventure.

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