It’s now cheaper to travel to Paris than stay at Disneyland in Anaheim

[dragonflymom]

Copy and paste from an SFGate article published on Feb. 23:

"Following a whirlwind of complaints from Disneygoers about poor merchandise quality, “berserking” price hikes and the recent decision to gut free FastPasses in favor of paid Lightning Lanes, a recent report from KTLA’s sister station shows that a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim is now nearly twice as expensive as traveling to Disney in Marne le Vallee, France.

This month, the outlet reported that it in June 2022, it costs a total of $4,571.50 for two people to stay at the Paradise Pier Hotel – the cheapest Disney property resort available – for six nights with five days of park tickets included.

Meanwhile, at Disneyland Paris, the cheapest on-property hotel, the Hotel Santa Fe, was quoted at $2,173.66 for seven days of theme park tickets and a six-night stay (no meals were added on and no insurance was selected). Even with a $1,456.74 flight from Los Angeles to Paris included, the experience would still come out to a grand total of $3,676.06.

Overall, travelers in this scenario could save $895.44 by going to Disneyland in Paris instead of Anaheim.

The soaring cost of admission comes as no surprise, especially considering that the entertainment franchise lost $710 million due to COVID-19 disruptions and closures.

In October 2021, Disney announced that starting in March 2022, a sixth-level ticket will be added to their tiered system. It will cost visitors $164 for a single-day, single-park ticket, and those who wish to visit both parks in a single day will need to pay $224 out of pocket.

Twenty-two years ago, a single-day ticket to Disneyland cost just $41. Adjusted for inflation, that same ticket would cost $62 today –making some guests wonder where the magic has even gone.

Disney representatives did not respond to SFGATE's request for comment at the time this article was written.

 

[BadPinkTink]

ok, for context I have stayed at Santa Fe Hotel at Disneyland Paris. There is no way I would compare it to Paradise Pier.

Santa Fe Hotel is a motel style hotel, the rooms are in blocks.
There is no pool or other amenities.
It has a very small onsite shop, similar to the shop at Grand Californian.
It does have onsite dining, but its not included in the room price.

The room is small, its about the size of the rooms at Tropiana Hotel , but there are 2 double beds. The room does not have American style air conditioning.

The Santa Fe Hotel is 20 minutes walk from Disney Village / Downtown Disney. You then have to walk through Disney Village / Downtown Disney to get to the actual park entrance.

There is a bus from Santa Fe hotel, the drop off area is between Disney Village / Downtown Disney and the parks entrance.

If you wanted to compare Paradise Pier Hotel to a Disneyland Paris hotel, its more like Sequoia Lodge or Newport Bay.

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

ok, for context I have stayed at Santa Fe Hotel at Disneyland Paris. There is no way I would compare it to Paradise Pier.

Santa Fe Hotel is a motel style hotel, the rooms are in blocks.
There is no pool or other amenities.
It has a very small onsite shop, similar to the shop at Grand Californian.
It does have onsite dining, but its not included in the room price.

The room is small, its about the size of the rooms at Tropiana Hotel , but there are 2 double beds. The room does not have American style air conditioning.

The Santa Fe Hotel is 20 minutes walk from Disney Village / Downtown Disney. You then have to walk through Disney Village / Downtown Disney to get to the actual park entrance.

There is a bus from Santa Fe hotel, the drop off area is between Disney Village / Downtown Disney and the parks entrance.

If you wanted to compare Paradise Pier Hotel to a Disneyland Paris hotel, its more like Sequoia Lodge or Newport Bay.

I really appreciate this perspective!!! I was starting to wonder why I didn’t just have our family fly to Paris! (Though one day I’m sure we will, but maybe we will avoid staying at the Santa Fe ).

 

[mel2014]

This isn't a recent development. We have been to Disneyland Paris twice now (in January 2018 and August 2021) and both times our accomodations and tickets together were less than the cost of 3-day parkhoppers to Disneyland. Even factoring our airfare for 4 it would have been cheaper than a similar length stay at the DL hotel or Grand Californian (probably not Paradise Pier). Our first trip we got an amazing deal ($1200) on a club-level suite at the Sequoia lodge that included unlimited VIP fastpass, breakfast and afternoon snacks, free stuffed animals and candy for my kids, etc. Our second trip last summer was $1500 for a large 2-bedroom cabin at the Davy Crockett resort with 4-day park tickets. While the resort is a few miles from the parks, we had a rental car and our stay included free parking at the parks and with early entry we were able to park far closer to the park entry than walking in from a Harbor hotel.

With all of that said, while Disneyland Paris is a beautiful park and has some unique attractions, it doesn't hold a candle to the quality of Disneyland, mainly because of the dearth of attractions at the Studios park vs. California Adventure. But that will change soon with their Marvel land and the Frozen addition. I highly recommend everyone visit Disneyland Paris at least once.

 

[pokee99]

This is just shock value reporting. It's comparing apples to oranges.

I'm Canadian and there's no way we'd get cheap enough flights to haul our cookies to France, and even if we hoofed it to Seattle to fly from there. And the extra flight time means precious time lost - and time is money, people! Also, there's so much history, beautiful architecture and art there! I'd be woefully preoccupied thinking about what I'm missing out on!

 

[disneycat321]

I'm pretty sure it's also cheaper to go to Tokyo Disneyland if you just consider the park tickets and lodging. I looked into that a couple years ago and was really surprised by the value.

DLR is always going to be cheaper for me because I don't stay onsite and I drive there. And for us, a trip to Paris would definitely include actually seeing parts of Europe outside of just Disneyland Paris, and that would be significantly more expensive total and take a lot more time.

This is interesting, although I always kind of roll my eyes at SF Gate - they REALLY seem to hate Disneyland and are always biased against it.

 

[jknc]

Not Breaking News:
Why does RX cost so much more in US?
Answer: Because we will pay it.

 

[starlite_]

I'm not sure I would spend 10 hrs on a plane each way just to go to Disneyland, if I already crossed the continent I might as well travel around.

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

I'd be willing to bet that the $800/night we're paying for GCH would, in Paris, get us a pretty nice room and HOUSEKEEPING. I feel that the article's point is a fair one.

 

[Bossy22]

Not Breaking News:
Why does RX cost so much more in US?
Answer: Because we will pay it.

I think this is changing. Coming from Canada (we love DL, it is our happy place) but we are getting so stressed about our summer trip. There is 7 of us so adding Genie Plus and LL would cost close to a thousand bucks Canadian. We won't do it. We are debating 1 or 2 days just because we are already spending so much money on the trip (I hope we don't have to go up to 3 or 4 days once there). If we can't enjoy the parks without always being on our phones and waiting hours for lines (we never waited more than 20 minutes with the old fastpass system) then we won't go back. We get making money but it just seems so broken right now. Charging $15 bucks a ticket to have your ticket work in the old fastpass machines is something we would have done. We love riding multiple times on the same ride in the same day!!! They took a great system (tweaked it with max pass) which we never got but didn't find it hurt our experience with regular fastpass and killed it. It's the LL that really gets me. Paying individually for a ride just smells sooooo bad!!! I know we are looking into Europe or Hawaii for our next trip and it will cost us less than DL.

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

I think this is changing. Coming from Canada (we love DL, it is our happy place) but we are getting so stressed about our summer trip. There is 7 of us so adding Genie Plus and LL would cost close to a thousand bucks Canadian. We won't do it. We are debating 1 or 2 days just because we are already spending so much money on the trip (I hope we don't have to go up to 3 or 4 days once there). If we can't enjoy the parks without always being on our phones and waiting hours for lines (we never waited more than 20 minutes with the old fastpass system) then we won't go back. We get making money but it just seems so broken right now. Charging $15 bucks a ticket to have your ticket work in the old fastpass machines is something we would have done. We love riding multiple times on the same ride in the same day!!! They took a great system (tweaked it with max pass) which we never got but didn't find it hurt our experience with regular fastpass and killed it. It's the LL that really gets me. Paying individually for a ride just smells sooooo bad!!! I know we are looking into Europe or Hawaii for our next trip and it will cost us less than DL.

We go to Hawaii for 2 weeks every summer (we live in California), and this 6-day DL trip we're planning in April costs almost double what we pay for our flights, condo, and food for 2 weeks on the Big Island at the very height of summer tourist season.

 

[brightlined]

I saw this article in my news feed, and I immediately blocked SFGate from it.

This is just clickbait writing, intending to play into people's anger about the increase in costs of going to Disneyland.

They have to cherry-pick a lot to make the case in the headline. There's a reason they picked a six-night, five-day stay - it's the only way to make the math work after airfare. (It also ludicrously ignores the fact that there is ample affordable, quality lodging nearby DLR. If those resorts are overpriced, it's because people keep paying the absurd prices.)

They also had to go back to 2000 for the ticket comparison, in order to get around what happened after DCA and Downtown Disney opened. There's a lot more to do at DLR now - a lot more reason to go to the resort, thereby bringing in more people. They had a lot less of a draw when it was just one park and a parking lot - it was harder to get people to show up. (Which they clearly are not having trouble with now.)

I'm assuming they've had this article in the queue for a while and forgot to update it. $41 in 2000 dollars is now closer to $70 according to the US Bureau of Labor.

While there is certainly a lot of truth to the story, the hoops they have to jump through to justify the headline make the whole thing obnoxious.

Journalism has an obligation to be truthful, and to tell the real story, not to tell its audience the story that it expects to or wants to hear.

All this article is attempting to do is validate people's anger. And that sucks.

 

[808blessing]

Our family found tickets for $525RT each from HNL to Paris in 2019. It is usually more to go to Orlando. It was a steal but I saw similar prices to Paris this past Thanksgiving 2021. It could be done.

DL Paris was very small and extra crowded but beautiful. I'd love to go back but it is apples to oranges. So glad a previous poster did the Santa Fe breakdown.

 

[PirateBrigade]

Twenty-two years ago, a single-day ticket to Disneyland cost just $41. Adjusted for inflation, that same ticket would cost $62 today –making some guests wonder where the magic has even gone.

lol I always hated the comparison to standard inflation. Milk in 2000 is the same as milk in 2022. Disneyland in 2000 was much different from today.

Does anyone know what Knotts looked like 22 years ago? Their prices tracked inflation (I checked). But it's also Knotts, so I don't really care

 

[PirateBrigade]

This is interesting, although I always kind of roll my eyes at SF Gate - they REALLY seem to hate Disneyland and are always biased against it.

Oh the SFGate vitriol is real, it's actually kind of funny to read. It's almost as bad as the "G+/LL is for the rich! Let them eat cake!" vitriol on Reddit now.

 

[jknc]

We go to Hawaii for 2 weeks every summer (we live in California), and this 6-day DL trip we're planning in April costs almost double what we pay for our flights, condo, and food for 2 weeks on the Big Island at the very height of summer tourist season.

what price do you place on entertainment? because with what you’re paying for Hawaii, you’re getting none.

 

[PirateBrigade]

what price do you place on entertainment? because with what you’re paying for Hawaii, you’re getting none.

lol, entertainment? you mean me eating on the beach isn't entertaining enough? hahah, seriously though, i think i've actually spent $0 on "entertainment" on our last week long trip to Maui. It was just a boatload of money on food at nice restaurants.

 

[Mike_M]

While there is some truth in what they reported, it’s still a very narrow comparison.

I’ve not been shy about my opinion that staying on Disney property in Anaheim is wasted money. I’ve spent 1/4 the price of a Disney hotel at the off property ones and still had outstanding trips full of Disney magic.

That right there makes DL CA a more reasonable choice.

I’ll also say that while I have been to DL Paris and not only absolutely loved it, but can’t wait to go back, it’s still smaller than DLR and you get much more for your money in CA. DL Paris for me, works as part of a larger Paris trip where the park is only part of the trip.

Lastly, there is jet lag to take into consideration. It always takes me a day or more to acclimate to a time zone change of that degree. That would impact the first couple days of your trip with either groggy days in the park, or extra days added on to the front to get on the local time.