Are you thinking of doing a day trip to Disneyland Paris from the UK? We did exactly that!
We’re lucky enough to live 25 mins (on a good day) from Gatwick Airport, so decided to make the most of it. With our newly gifted Disneyland Paris Bronze Passes we hopped on a plane, back in October 2025.
It was just me and my son heading on our adventure, and our day was 6am to 11pm door to door. It was such an adventure, and we can’t wait to do more extreme day trips!
Outbound flight and passport control
We parked in Short Stay parking, then had a speedy journey through the family security lane, picked up a Pret for breakfast and headed over to the gate. We were flying with EasyJet, our flight was due to take off at 8am but it was delayed until 9:05am.
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Our flight landed around 10.50, and we arrived at passport control at 11:02am (French time), and were through passport control in 2 minutes, which must be a record, especially travelling with a child!
We arrived in terminal 2B, and it was an 8 minute speedy walk to the train station – I was basically running, so ended up pretty hot on arrival. I’d booked the 11:16 and 12:00 to ensure we could get the TGV, as its only a 10 minute ride from Charles De Gaulle to Marne La Vallée Chessy) – my son was in a carrier so we could be as fast as possible. Arrived at the station at 11:12, but didn’t have time to catch the 11.16, so picked up some lunch at Monoprix at the station and the platform was announced at 11:40 for the 12pm train.
We hopped off the train at 12:14, had a quick pit stop at relay for some extra snacks for the day, and then we arrived!
Our time in Disneyland Paris
The parks were full on our arrival (a Thursday before any of the school October holidays). It was SO busy. There were queues for everything, including the toilets, so we had to be very flexible on what we did.
We managed to successfully do, in the 7 hours we were at Disneyland Paris:
- Dumbo (45 min queue)
- It’s a Small World (premier access)
- Casey Jr Train
- Halloween afternoon parade
- Cars Road Trip
- Snack breaks x 2
- Dinner (quick service star nuggets and chips for two, plus two soft drinks – €31 total, so very expensive! )
- Spiderman Web Adventures
- Carousel
I wanted to try and do as much as possible, but I wish we’d taken it a bit more relaxed. We used the self service machines at the quick service restaurant to speed up getting food and took snacks with us to speed things up there. Plus tried to use some of the more hidden toilets to reduce the length we queued.
The journey home
We hopped off the Carousel at 19.32, and managed to be out of the gate at 19.41 (including a quick toilet break!), getting on the platform to wait for our train by 19.53.
Our train was slightly delayed (causing a lot of stress for me!), but we arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport at about 20.30, through security at 20.45 and through passport at 20.52.
Perfect timing for our 22:15 flight which started boarding at 21:30.
Was it a success or failure?
Everyone I told about the extreme day trip from London Gatwick to Disneyland Paris, with a 3 year old and on my own, said I was crazy to do so!
But, personally, it was one of our most special adventures! Things didn’t go 100% right throughout the day, from a delayed plane, long queues, my son refusing to walk, and a tired meltdown in the queue to board the plane home, but taking a deep breathe at each challenging point meant we could keep on moving from it and we really did have a fantastic time with some core memories made.
Next time I wouldn’t move between parks, and I’d definitely take a buggy. We have the Graco myavo travel buggy and it would have saved my shoulders!
Key takeaways from our Extreme Day Trip to Disneyland Paris:
- Pack snacks, snacks and more snacks
- Be flexible – plan to take the TGV if timings work, but budget for a taxi.
- I booked 2 trains to ensure as much flexibility as possible.
- Decide if you’re there for the atmosphere, or for rides. For rides it might be best to buy access passes to ensure you get the rides you like.
- Stay in one park – we lost time walking between parks. We know Disneyland Paris really well, but it adds a lot of unnecessary walking – I did over 15km of walking!
- With an annual pass, the cost for doing an extreme day trip was probably about the same as doing a one night stay in a non-Disney hotel – but you do lose some flexibilty.
- Keep an eye on the EES and Visa rollouts, as this may make passport control lines too long for a day trip.
We love travelling, and Disney! Read about our trip to Walt Disney World Orlando here.
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