Family share the eye-watering costs of a day at Disneyland Paris – and reveal hacks to save money along the way

A family of three have shared their frustration over the cost of a single day at Disneyland in Paris – and come up with some handy ‘hacks’ to avoid paying for expensive items along the way.

Mother and travel influencer Jen, known as @thetravelmum on TikTok, regularly shares images of various trips, days out and holidays as a trio, together with her husband João and their four-year-old son Leo.

Jen received a question from one of her 383,000 followers who was curious about the total cost of their trip to Disneyland Paris in September.

Both Jen and João have listed the cost of each activity, meal, upgrade and souvenir purchase video which summed up their time at the resort.

The family revealed that given the abundance of Disney-related clothing, toys and accessories, Primark was the perfect store to stock up on merchandise rather than paying twice as much at the park.

In the one-minute video, titled ‘How much did we spend in one day at Disneyland?!’, dad João was captured holding son Leo in front of the resort’s iconic pink castle.

Before venturing through the gates, the trio headed to Val D’Europe – a shopping center east of Paris, France – to pick up some essentials for the trip.

Narrator João said in the video: “First we went to a local shopping center to pick up our Disney merchandise,” as he panned the camera to a sprawling Primark store.

The bargain-loving dad revealed that Primark, with its abundance of Disney-related clothing, toys and accessories, was the perfect store to stock up on merchandise for her son, rather than paying twice as much at the park.

João bought a Mickey Mouse soft toy for £12 and said: ‘We knew Leo would want one of these, this guy was over 50% cheaper than his twin brother at Disney.’

He produced a £3.90 pair of Minnie Mouse ears, adding: ‘These ears were a quarter of the price of the exact same ones at Disney. We also bought some matching T-shirts, which were a third of the price we would have paid in the park.’

The family had originally planned to travel to the park by metro – which the father said would have been ‘cheaper’ – but had ended up taking the car, with parking costs totaling €30 (about £26) for the day .

As for the cost of the day tickets, João explained: ‘We got a one-day, two-part ticket, and for all of us it was two hundred and thirty-two pounds and fifty-five pence.’

The family originally planned to take the subway to the park, but ended up taking the car. Parking costs for the day totaled €30 (approximately £26).

After heading to a restaurant in the park for their first meal, the dad revealed that son Leo’s kids meal cost £7, while two burger meals and an ice cream cost £26.

João added that the family opted to upgrade to ‘fast passes’, saying: “So we got a bit happy and spent a hundred and ten pounds on fast passes.”

After they went to a restaurant in the park for their first meal, the father continued, “Leo was the first to get hungry and the kids meal cost £7. Later we got two burger meals and an ice cream for Leo and this was £26.

At the end of the video, João concluded: ‘With the tickets, fast passes, parking, food and merchandise we spent £417. Was it worth it? Absolutely not. But for Leo it was invaluable.’

Mom Jen wrote a caption under the video, which received more than 1,000 likes and nearly 30 comments from grateful Disney fans and would-be tourists, providing a further breakdown of the family’s itinerary and initial costs.

She wrote: ‘Cost is obviously important and it’s not cheap. The tickets cost about what they do, you can save a few quid here and there with third parties – but we didn’t think it was worth it.’

Disney enthusiasts who have visited or are about to visit the park expressed their gratitude to the family for their hacks and bad luck, but some were not convinced by Primark’s ‘hack’

‘We only had one day to visit, so we bought two tickets for that one day. Two days, two parks would have been more relaxing. Fast passes cost £109 each, meaning you only have to queue once on each journey (but many people really don’t need this).

‘We decided not to buy this and pay as we go’ – if the queue was long we tapped through (only one of us went with it so we only bought two passes – often around £10 to do this) .

‘$10 or waiting in line for two hours with a four-year-old was a no-brainer for me. Some queues were only 5-15 minutes.”

Disney enthusiasts expressed their gratitude to the family for their hacks and glitches.

One person wrote: ‘This is SO helpful! I’m hoping to go to Disney next year..thanks,” while another said: “Going to Primark is such a good idea!”

In response to a comment criticizing the quality of Primark’s products, Jen wrote: ‘It did the job. They definitely raise their prices quite a bit at Disney.”

A visitor to Disneyland Paris took to Reddit in October to criticize the iconic park, claiming that exorbitant ticket prices and long wait times have become so “horrendous” that a visit to the tourist hotspot is no longer “worth the time or money.”

“Literally everything is a queue,” the user complained in the Unpopular Opinion subreddit, “Going to the bathroom, queue. Want to eat? Queue. Would you like to buy a souvenir? Queue. Want to catch a glimpse of something? Queue…’