Disney Parks’ vacations are not cheap, this is just a fact of life. Having said that, the brand new Disneyland Hotel at Disneyland Paris is taking things to quite another level when it reopens next month. The hotel has been undergoing a massive glow-up. And that includes the restaurants, as the new menus have some pretty hefty prices, that might give some not familiar with Disney Resorts sticker shock.
Disneyland Paris’ Disneyland Hotel has released the menus for the new restaurants that will open on January 25 along with the rest of the revamped hotel. This includes La Table de Lumière, a Beauty and the Beast-inspired French restaurant that includes a three-course Prix Fixe menu for about $130. By comparison, a three-course dinner at Be Our Guest, the Beauty and the Beast-inspired restaurant at Magic Kingdom, runs $70, so that's a pretty significant step up.
Having said that, several Disney World resort hotels have much finer dining locations that are on par, or even exceed the cost of the dinner at Paris’ Disneyland Hotel. The ultimate question is whether or not the food is good enough to justify the price. As somebody who has dinner at Napa Rose, one of the best reasons to visit the Grand Californian Resort & Spa, whenever he gets a chance while visiting Disneyland Resort, I love the fine dining experience at Disney Parks and would love the chance to see whether this menu is worth it. And the Napa Rose Vintner's Menu currently runs $140, so it’s more expensive than La Table de Lumière
If the fine dining offering isn’t your style, the Royal Banquet buffet is also available, but it won’t save you a lot of money as the adult price comes in at a little over $100 for adults. This is a fair chunk above your average Disney World character dining buffet. Cocktails at the various restaurants and bars can run as high as $30 for the hotel’s signature cocktail, but there are plenty of options cheaper than that. And who knows, a $30 cocktail that’s worth every penny, assuming it is, has to be phenomenal.
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While these prices are, in an absolute sense, on the higher side of things, what you have to remember is that Disney Parks’ vacations are, for many, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. For everybody in Europe who has a Disneyland Paris annual pass, there are 10 families planning vacations for what may be their one trip in life. They want to experience everything, and in most cases, the money, for the duration of the trip, is no object.
And there are some great reasons to visit Disneyland Paris, even if you've been to other Disney Parks. The resort's Avengers Campus has a roller coaster you can't find in California. Disneyland Paris uses drones in its nighttime spectaculars, something we're still waiting to see stateside. The resort is also getting ready to open its own World of Frozen, following the incredible one that recently opened at Hong Kong Disneyland.
Theme park food is always more expensive but when it comes to the finer dining establishment, the price is frequently worth it. You get a real five-star experience a lot of the time with fantastic wait staff and top-of-the-line food. As with so many things at Disney Parks, the experience is what you’re paying for, and you often come out of these restaurants having had an experience to remember.
