Is the Disneyland Paris Meal Plan worth it? Plus or Premium Meal Plan (2024)

One of the first planning decisions when booking your Disney holiday is whether you should add the Disneyland Paris Meal Plan, also known as the Disney Dining Plan. With the introduction of new Disneyland Paris Meal Plans, the reopening of more Disney hotels and restaurants as well as the expected return of character dining in the coming weeks, we thought it would be worth exploring the options to find out are the Disneyland Paris Meal Plan worth it?

The Disney meal plan is available to guests staying in a Disney hotel (apart from Les Villages Nature Paris) and allows you to prepay for your food for the duration of your trip on a Half Board or Full Board basis. Up to the 30th of March Disneyland Paris will be offering 2 Meal Plans (Standard and Plus), after this date, they will be offering 3 options, Standard, Plus and Extra Plus.

At first, purchasing one of these dining plans can seem like an easy option as you can budget all your food into your holiday payments, meaning you don’t have to worry about meal costs whilst on holiday. But, is a Disneyland Paris meal plan worth it, will it save you money, and is it still worth it with or without the character dining option?

With so many options available, let’s have a look at which meal plan is currently best for you if any at all!

For arrivals After 30th March 2022

• Disneyland Paris Meal Plans (For arrivals after 31 March 2022)
• Disneyland Paris Meal Plan Options
• Disneyland Paris Meal Plan Prices
• Which meal plan is available to me?
• Disneyland Paris Standard Meal Plan Worth it?
• Disneyland Paris Plus Meal Plan Worth it?
• Disneyland Paris Extra Plus Meal Plan Worth it?
• Is Full Board worth it over Half Board?
• Is Full Board Plus worth it over Full Board Extra Plus?

Disneyland Paris Updates Meal Plan Options

Disneyland Paris has updated their range of Meal Plans. They are now offering 2 options for guests arriving before March 30th and 3 options for arrivals after 31 March 2022. With the release of these new plans, we are revisiting and updating this popular article to make sure you make the most of your Disneyland Paris Dining Plan.

Disneyland Paris Meal Plans (For arrivals after 31 March 2022)

From March 31st, guests will have 3 new Disneyland Paris meal plans to choose from. We have gathered all the information about each plan to make sure you understand the difference between in plan and choosing the best option for you and your family!

Meal Plan Options

Disneyland Paris Meal Plan Prices

Prices are per person per night booked. Children’s meal plans are available for children aged between 3 and 11, whilst children under the age of 2 can share their parent’s plate or you can buy them a meal at the listed price.

Disneyland Paris Standard Meal Plan is:
Half Board – Adults €49, Children €30
Full Board – Adults €69, Children €40

Disneyland Paris Plus Meal Plan is:
Half Board – Adults €59, Children €40
Full Board – Adults €89, Children €55

Disneyland Paris Extra Plus Meal Plan is:
Full Board – Adults €119, Children €75

Breakfast Only Option
Santa Fe – Adults €21, Children €14
Cheyenne & Sequoia Lodge – Adults €24, Children €17
Hotel New York Art of Marvel & Hotel Newport Bay Club – Adults €28, Children €23

Which meal plan is available to me?

The Disneyland Paris meal plans available to you depend upon which Disney hotel you are staying in. This can be split into two groups.

Disneyland Paris Meal Plan V Pay As You Go

The best way to check if a Disneyland Paris meal plan is worth it is to crunch the numbers and compare the cost of buying a plan verse paying for food on the go. For this guide we are going to use a hypothetical family of four, the usual two adults and two children on a half board meal plan which ranges from €158-198 depending on your hotel.

Breakfast

With the Disneyland Paris meal plan, you get to enjoy a buffet breakfast at your hotel. The cost of the breakfast depends on your hotel and ranges from €21-28 for adults and €14-23 for children. This makes a total of €70-102 depending upon which hotel you stay in.

If you plan to have breakfast in the hotel, using these prices it’s probably going to be worth getting a Half Board meal plan. As previously shown the total meal plan for 2 adults and 2 children would be €158-198. So for an extra €88-96, you get a lunch or dinner for the whole family too. It’s a bit of a no brainer!

But what if you do not want a buffet breakfast in the hotel, after all, they are many locations in and around Disneyland Paris you can grab breakfast from such as McDonald’s, Starbucks and other locations in and around the park. These options could provide a cheaper solution and an average breakfast price would be you would be looking at around €40-60 in total.

Lunch / Dinner

They are over 30 restaurants to choose from for your lunch or dinner using the Disneyland Paris Plus meal plan. You can eat inside the parks at locations such as Bistrot Chez Remy or Captain Jacks, inside Disney Village such as Annette’s Diner and even in Hotel restaurants such as Downtown or the Manhattan restaurant. So let’s take a look at a table service option, a buffet option and a quick service option.

Firstly we will look at a table service set menu restaurant. The kids love the Disney Pixar film Ratatouille, so you shrink down to the size of a mouse and decide to have a meal at Chez Rémy. As part of the meal plan, you get to choose from the Emile and Little Chef options which include a 3-course meal and a soft drink. If you were to purchase this without a meal plan, the cost of these meals is €124. Please be aware although the meal includes a soft drink for the children, the adult’s menu doesn’t include any drinks. At Chez Rémy, you can expect to pay an extra €5.10 per Coca-Cola or €15 each if you wanted a meal with wine! The total price would be at least €134.

Secondly, let’s take a look at a buffet option. One of the most popular buffet restaurants at Disneyland Paris is Downtown, located within the Hotel New York – Art of Marvel hotel. Like any block in New York, at the Downtown Restaurant, you can find Chinese, American and Italian dishes. The cost of the buffet would be €140, and once again this doesn’t include your drinks for Adults, here it’s €6 per Coca-Cola and €8-9 for a beer. The total price would be at least €152.

Thirdly, a quick service option. They are many quick-service locations around Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios, however, the prices for the meals at these locations are very similar with children’s meals usually around €9 and adults at about €16. The total cost of this would be around €50.

Disneyland Paris Standard Meal Plan Worth it?

The Standard meal plan is only available for guests staying at Davy Crockett Ranch or Disney’s Hotel Sante Fe. The Half Board meal plan for 2 adults and 2 children would be €158 per day.

The buffet meal at Downtown for the family is €152, just €6 less than the full meal plan. No matter where you get breakfast in Disneyland Paris, it’s going to cost more than €6 for a family of four!

Conclusion

Disneyland Paris Standard Meal Plan Worth it? Yes, you could easily save over €50 per day if you choose to have breakfast in the hotel and your dinner at a table service location.

Disneyland Paris Plus Meal Plan Worth it?

The Plus meal plan is only available for guests staying at Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne, Disney’s Sequoia Lodge, Disney’s Newport Bay Club, and Disney’s Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel. The Half Board meal plan for 2 adults and 2 children would be €198 per day.

If you are staying at the Cheyenne, breakfast and a table service lunch or dinner would be a total cost of €216-234.

If you are staying at Hotel New York – Art of Marvel or Hotel Newport Bay Club, the total cost would be €236-254.

Conclusion

Disneyland Paris Plus Meal Plan Worth it? Yes, you could easily save money if you choose the right places to use your meal vouchers!

Disneyland Paris Extra Plus Meal Plan Worth it?

The Extra Plus meal plan is available for guests staying at any Disneyland Paris hotel (except Les Villages Nature Paris) and is only available on a FULL BOARD basis at a total cost of €388 per day.

With this meal plan, you can choose to have a table service meal for both your lunch and dinner, as well as enjoying a “snack and drink package” and one additional alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink per day (around €15). You can also book one character meal at Auberge de Cendrillon or Plaza Gardens during your stay.

So let’s compare the costs for this at the hotels..

For guests staying at Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe, for the same amount of food at table service restaurants and the additional extras you would expect to pay around €398-434.

Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne or Disney’s Sequoia Lodge, for the same amount of food at table service restaurants and the additional extras you would expect to pay around €410-446.

Disney’s Newport Bay Club, and Disney’s Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel, for the same amount of food at table service restaurants and the additional extras you would expect to pay around €430-466.

Conclusion

If you plan on eating a full breakfast, lunch and dinner you can save money with this meal plan.

If you are only choosing this option for the Character Dining, we would recommend that you choose one of the previous meal plans and ‘upgrade’ a single meal to a character dining option. This will be the most cost effective character dining meal option.

Is Full Board worth it over Half Board?

For some people, 3 full meals a day can be a lot of food and if you don’t eat at two table service restaurants each day this meal plan could end up being more expensive. As well as eating a lot of food, you will also have to consider the time away from the parks.

In our opinion, we prefer to have breakfast and one sit down meal per day, and just grab some snacks or a small quick service meal if we get hungry. If you are like us buying the PLUS half board meal plan would be a better option than the Extra Plus.

Is Full Board Plus worth it over Full Board Extra Plus?

The difference between these two plans is €30 per adult and €20 per child per day. This means for a family of four the price would increase by €100 per day.

For the extra €100 you’ll get the “Snack & Drink package” and one additional drink per day per person, this is worth around €60, but you’ll also get 1 character meal per stay.

As you only get 1 character meal per stay you would need to work out the total additional cost for the duration of your stay. The average time people spend at Disneyland Paris is 3 days, this means you will be paying around €120 (€40 per day) more to have just one Character meal, and it would be far more cost effective to just upgrade the meals for a single date.

Previous Meal Plans at Disneyland Paris

For arrivals up to 30 March 2022

• Disneyland Paris Meal Plans (For arrivals up to 30 March 2022)
• Is the Disneyland Paris Meal Plans Worth it?

Previous Disneyland Paris Meal Plans

• Previous Disneyland Paris Meal Plans and Prices 2021-2022
• Disneyland Paris Meal Plan V Pay As You Go (2021-2022)
• Conclusion
• Is it worth upgrading to a Full Board Disneyland Paris Meal Plan (2021-2022)?
• What’s the difference between Plus Vs Premium Disneyland Paris Meal Plan (2021-2022)

Disneyland Paris Meal Plans (For arrivals up to 30 March 2022)

As these two meal plans are only available for a limited time, we will only give a quick recap of each plan to help you decide if it is worth it for you.

Standard Meal Plan, gives you have 4 Buffet restaurants to choose from with one soft drink included with each meal. The buffet restaurants include Plaza Gardens (Disneyland Park), Agrabah Cafe (Disneyland Park), La Cantina (Santa Fe), and La Grange Billy Bobs Country Western Saloon (Disney Village). Please be aware they do state 5, but currently, Crocketts Tavern is closed and it is not expected to open before the 30th of March.

Plus Meal Plan, you have an increased choice of around 14 restaurants. However, this plan includes both Buffet and Set Menu’s at Table Service restaurants and one soft drink is included with each meal. Again, they do advertise this plan at 17, but they are multiple closures such as Crocketts Tavern and Yacht Club.

After you have chosen your base plan, you’ll then have an option to choose your board basis.

• Half board: This includes breakfast at your hotel & one meal (lunch or dinner) per person, for each night of your stay.
• Full board: This includes breakfast at your hotel & two meals (lunch and dinner) per person, for each night of your stay.

Each ‘Meal’ consists of a starter, main meal and a dessert or an all-you-can-eat restaurant buffet with a soft drink.

Are these Meal Plans Worth it?

These meal plans are similar to the previous 2021-2022 meal plans we explored last year, with the only change being the removal of the PREMIUM meal plan option. This makes sense as the ‘benefits’ of this plan will not be available to guests due to current restrictions and closures.

We went through this meal plan and prices in detail below (click here to read full review) and if you plan to have one meal inside a Disney Restaurant, either buffet or Table Service, a Disneyland Paris Meal Plan is worth it can it could save you money!

Previous Disneyland Paris Meal Plans (2021-2022)

One of the first planning decisions when booking your Disney holiday is whether you should add the Disney Meal Plan, also known as the Disney Dining Plan. With no character dining, multiple restaurants and hotels currently closed due to the impact of COVID and hotel renovations, we thought is adding the Disneyland Paris Meal Plan still worth it? With the reopening of Disneyland Paris just around the corner, we thought we would explore this more and find out.

The Disney meal plan is available to guests staying in a Disney hotel (apart from Les Villages Nature Paris) and allows you to prepay for your food for the duration of your trip. Disneyland Paris offers 3 Meal Plans; Standard, Plus and Premium. Each of these is available on a Half Board or Full Board basis.

At first, this can seem like an easy option where you can budget all your food into your usual holiday payments, so you don’t have to worry about the meal costs whilst on holiday. But, is a Disneyland Paris meal plan worth it, will you be saving money, and is it still worth it without character dining. With so many options available, and so much food in one day, let’s have a look at which meal plan is currently best for you if any at all!

For the purpose of this guide, we will be using the 2021 Disneyland Paris Plus Meal Plan. We chose this option for the basis of the guide as the main benefit of the Premium Meal Plan is the character dining option. Since this is not available at the moment, we would not advise guests to currently choose the Premium Meal Plan.

• StandardMeal Plan, you have 5 Buffet restaurants to choose from in the parks, village or at your hotel, with one soft drink included at each meal.
• PlusMeal Plan, you have an increased choice of around 15 restaurants. This includes both Buffet and Set Menu at Table Service restaurants, in the parks, village or at your hotel, with one soft drink included at each meal.
• PremiumMeal Plan, you have over 22 restaurants to choose from. This includes both Buffet and Set Menu at Table Service restaurants in the parks, village or at your hotel, with one soft drink included at each meal. With this plan, you also get options of Character Dining restaurants and access to the à la carte menu at Table-Service restaurants.

You then have an option to choose your board basis.

• Half board: This includes breakfast at your hotel & one meal (lunch or dinner) per person, for each night of your stay.
• Full board: This includes breakfast at your hotel & two meals (lunch and dinner) per person, for each night of your stay.
• Each ‘Meal’ consists of a starter, main meal and a dessert or an all-you-can-eat restaurant buffet with a soft drink.

The 2021 Price for the Disneyland Paris Standard Meal Plan is:
Half Board – Adults €41, Children €28
Full Board – Adults €61, Children €43
Prices are based on per person per night booked. Children are ages 3-11.

The 2021 Price for the Disneyland Paris Plus Meal Plan is:
Half Board – Adults €57, Children €38
Full Board – Adults €77, Children €52
Prices are based on per person per night booked. Children are ages 3-11.

The 2021 Price for the Disneyland Paris Premium Meal Plan is:
Half Board – Adults €99, Children €62
Full Board – Adults €129, Children €90
Prices are based on per person per night booked. Children are ages 3-11.

If you are used to the Disney Dining Plans in the USA, the Disneyland Paris Meal Plan can a bit of a shock. They are just as many options, but you don’t get any refillable drinks, or any snacks included in any plan!

Disneyland Paris Meal Plan V Pay As You Go

The best way to compare paying for food as you go, or using the meal plan is to spend a day in Disneyland Paris doing both. In this case, we will use a hypothetical family of four, the usual two adults and two children staying in the New Port Bay Hotel. The total Half Board Plus meal plan for 2 adults and 2 children would be €190. This is Breakfast +1 meal (either lunch or dinner)

It is slightly easier to create a comparison at Disneyland Paris compared to Disney Parks in the USA as you don’t get any snacks, so you will only have to consider the physical main meal prices. Please be aware we will not be including any gratuity tips as these are also not included with the meal plan.

Breakfast

With the Disneyland Paris Plus half board meal plan, you get access to the buffet, all you can eat, and breakfast at your hotel, in this case, Cape Cod at the New Port Bay Hotel.

Without the meal plan, you have multiple options for breakfast at Disneyland Paris. You can still visit the hotel buffet at a cost of €30 per adult and €24 per child. This makes a total of €108.

If you plan to have breakfast in the hotel, just looking at these prices, it’s probably going to be worth getting the Plus Meal Plan. As previously shown the total meal plan for 2 adults and 2 children would be €190. So for an extra €82, you get a lunch or dinner for the whole family too. It’s a bit of a no brainer!

But what if you do not want a buffet breakfast in the hotel, after all, you can grab breakfast from McDonald’s, Starbucks and other locations in and around the park. These options could provide a cheaper solution for you and the family. Depending upon the location, you would be looking at around €40-60 in total.

Lunch / Dinner

You have a lot of options for lunch or dinner with the Disneyland Paris Plus meal plan. This includes the popular restaurants such as Annette’s Diner, Bistrot Chez Rémy, Captain Jacks, Plaza Gardens and many more. The kids love the Disney Pixar film Ratatouille, so you decide to have a meal at Chez Rémy and shrink down to the size of Rémy and feast on some French cuisine.

With the Plus meal plan, you get access to the Standard set menu, with an option to upgrade to the gourmet set menu. So if you choose the standard option, the 3-course meal, and one drink.

Without the meal plan, you also have access to the same set of menus but pay on the day. For a fair comparison, we will choose the same standard set menu with Start, Main and Dessert.

Bistrot Chez Rémy standard set menu for adults is called Emile Menu and is currently priced at €41.99. The standard children’s set menu is called Little Chef and is currently priced at €19.99. These prices do not include a drink for adults but do include one drink for each child. Therefore, mum gets a co*ke (€5.10) and dad grabs a beer (€5.50). The total meal price for this would be €134.56.

Conclusion

As previously shown the total Plus half board meal plan for 2 adults and 2 children would be €190.

If you had breakfast at Starbucks or Mcdonald’s and a meal at Bistrot Chez Rémy, you would be looking at around €174.56-194.56

If you had a buffet breakfast at the hotel and a meal at Bistrot Chez Rémy, this would be a total cost of €242.56.

Looking at these numbers, the Disneyland Paris Plus meal plan is still worth it! You could end up saving a lot of money using the plan, and it also allows you to pay the plan off in instalments as you pay off your holiday.

If you would like to add a Meal Plan to your Disneyland Paris vacation please follow this link…

Is it worth upgrading to a Full Board Disneyland Paris Meal Plan?

Looking at the numbers above, you could be thinking is it worth upgrading to the full board plan? For the same family set up the total cost for the full board meal plan would be €258. This is €68 more expensive per day compared to the Half Board option for the complete family.

Yes, if you plan on having a complete breakfast, lunch and dinner in the parks it would be worth upgrading to the Full Board plan, as you won’t find a family meal in Disney for €68. However, if you don’t want that much food in a single day, and would rather spend more time on the attractions and would rather grab a Disney snack during the day, it may be best to stay with the Half Board option.

The difference in Plus Vs Premium Disneyland Paris Meal Plan

Two of the main differences between the Plus and Premium meal plans are the number of restaurants and character dining.

Restaurants currently included in the Plus meal plan;
Annette’s Diner, Billy Bob’s Country Western Saloon, Bistrot Chez Remy, Cape Cod, Captain Jacks, Chuck Wagon Cafe, Cowboy Cookout Barbecue, Crockett’s Tavern, Downtown Restaurant, Hunters Grill and Beaver Creek Tavern, La Cantina, La Grange, Manhattan Restaurant, Plaza Gardens, Agrabah Cafe, Silver Spur Steakhouse, The Steakhouse, Yacht Club.

Restaurants currently included in the Premium meal plan;
All of the above plus, Auberge de Cendrillon, Cafe Mickey, California Grill, Inventions, Manhattan, Walts.

However, if you are looking to upgrade to the Premium meal plan, please be aware that due to the COVID restrictions when the parks reopen in April, the 4 character dining restaurants will not contain characters. These are Auberge de Cendrillon, Cafe Mickey, Inventions and Plaza Gardens. You can also read our helpful guide on the best character dining at Disneyland Paris for when this returns to the park. Inventions will not be open at all, as this is located within the currently closed Disneyland Hotel.

This leaves California Grill, Manhattan, Walts.

California Grill is also located inside the closed Disneyland Hotel, which is currently closed with no opening date, and will therefore also be closed. Manhattan is located within the new Marvel Hotel, which is not open until Fall 2021. Walts Restaurant has also not been given a confirmed reopening date, and it may remain closed when Disneyland Paris reopens in April.

Due to this, we would not currently recommend the Premium Meal Plan, and believe the Disneyland Paris Premium meal plan is not currently worth it. You are basically paying for extras you are unable to claim. We would advise sticking to the Disneyland Paris Plus meal plan

When these restaurants reopen and character dining is reintroduced, we will of course be looking at this meal plan in more detail and crunch those numbers once again for you!