Disney Revokes Vacation Booking Rules, Thousands Now Charged Extra

Did you know it is cheaper to visit Disneyland Paris by booking a room with tickets then just booking a room alone? It sounds like a dream that Disney would actually give you some money back if you book park tickets and a hotel room, but luckily, at Disney, the realm of fantasy exists and that is exactly what happens.

Disneyland Paris offers a range of themed hotels designed to immerse guests in the magic of Disney.

At the entrance of Disneyland Park, the luxurious Disneyland Hotel welcomes visitors with Victorian princess elegance and direct park access. Meanwhile, Disney’s Newport Bay Club offers a nautical-themed escape inspired by New England seaside resorts, complete with indoor and outdoor pools. For Marvel fans, Disney’s Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel celebrates superheroes with stylish rooms and immersive artwork. Nestled in a forested setting, Disney’s Sequoia Lodge provides a cozy mountain lodge atmosphere, perfect for nature lovers. Lastly, Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne transports guests to the Wild West with cowboy-themed rooms and family-friendly amenities. There is also the Disney Hotel Santa Fe, Villages Nature Paris, and Davy Crockett Ranch.

Each hotel offers its own unique theme and amenities, enhancing the Disney experience for guests of all ages, but it can be quite costly, running from hundreds to thousands of dollars each night. Add tickets to that cost, and you might not have money left for merchandise or food — or so, you thought.

The Disneyland Paris website allows you to book packages that include tickets with your room, and thanks to PixieDust.Be, we were able to see that buying tickets can actually save you money on your room.

The strange thing about the whole story is that the price is sometimes cheaper if you book a package with tickets than a “Room Only” without tickets. We did a little test:

We took a random weekend in June 2024, in our example that is Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 June. That is 1 night, we chose 1 person in the room with tickets to visit the parks for 2 days. For the hotel we chose Disney Hotel Sequoia Lodge .

The price of the complete package with tickets was: €419 . Then we looked at the same weekend in June but for a room WITHOUT tickets, also 1 night and 1 person and we got a price of €464.56 . A difference of about €45.

From this, we can see that Disneyland Paris is pushing for guests to visit and purchase their tickets, but not necessarily favoring locals with Annual Passes, who will have to pay more money as they do not need the ticket, or they will buy the package with the ticket to save money for no reason, making that Annual Pass payment feel like more of a waste.

It is interesting to see the park featuring such a great deal for guests who need lodging and tickets, as they have been hitting a capacity issue.

Over Easter, Walt Disney Studios Park was hitting such high capacity that Disney actually sent a massive notice to all guests over the Disneyland app, asking that guests with a two-park ticket start at Disneyland Park and come to Walt Disney Studios when it was less busy. In the days leading up to that, we saw that the parks were both hitting capacity daily. 

Over the summer, the park even asked guests to leave between the house of 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. if they did not want to deal with extreme crowding, which would mean that guests would be paying for a ticket to only get a half-day park experience without fireworks. And lastly, even their Disneyland Hotel reopening has caused issues for the theme park, as the lobby and hotel have been hitting capacity from guests who are not actually staying at the hotel but want to either look around, shop, or dine.

Plus, with Studio 1 shutting down for an entire year this month at Walt Disney Studios Park, crowding will only get worse.

This does offset some of the recent price increases that we reported on, which include a higher cost on items like pins, bags, and luggage storage fees for guests.

It should be noted that Disney World and Disneyland do not offer what appears to basically be free theme park tickets for staying at their hotels, so if you were debating staying on property on your Disneyland Paris trip, this might be your calling to do so.

Did you know about this price hack at Disneyland Paris?