I stayed in Disneyland Paris' exclusive Castle Club – and it was nothing short of magical

I’m a self-confessed Disney addict. Sometimes I check the wait times on my Disneyland Paris app just to see what the queues are like…despite the fact I live 700 miles away in Worcestershire. And as any Disney resort addict knows, staying ‘club level’ – the Castle Club at the Disneyland Hotel – is the ultimate goal. These rooms and suites, at each of the Disney parks worldwide, offer the top tier of Disney accommodation with lots of added extras…and a price tag to match.

As my husband and I are both celebrating our 40th birthdays this year, we decided to book ahead and splurge on a three-night stay in a garden-view room at Castle Club with Premier Access Ultimate tickets to help us skip the queues.. By booking 12 months in advance when tickets were released and staying outside of European school holidays, we managed to make the stay affordable. Here’s what was included, what wasn’t, and whether we’d do it again. (Spoiler alert, if you can afford it, then 100% book it.)

What is Castle Club?

Often called a ‘hotel within a hotel’, Castle Club comprises 41 rooms and 18 suites at the Disneyland Hotel in Paris. These rooms sit on two private floors of the hotel and can only be accessed by guests with Castle Club Magic Passes – the tickets that allow you to access both the parks and your hotel.

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Even without the Castle Club upgrade, the Disneyland Hotel is magical, with its iconic pale pink facade and soaring lobby with glittering chandelier. From the Clarins spa, complimentary kids’ club and daily bookable princess meet-and-greets, there are lots of perks to staying in even the most basic of rooms here, which are dubbed Superior Rooms.

A step above that are Deluxe Rooms, which include access to a lounge with included drinks and snacks. We’ve stayed previously in these rooms and they’re beautifully appointed, with nightly turndown service and added extras like impromptu performances from Storytellers in that magnificent lobby, with its sweeping central staircase.

The Disneyland Hotel is the only hotel that sits within the Disneyland Paris resort, so you’re already through security each morning and get easier access to the parks, whichever room category you’re in. We’ve stayed off-site before, and the convenience of being right at the park gates is well worth the spend for us.

Staying Castle Club is the ultimate level of accommodation here, but it is costly. Our stay cost almost £5,000 for three nights for four people, which included accommodation for two adults, and two children aged four and eight, plus four days of theme park tickets, and all of the Castle Club perks.

What is included in Castle Club?

From the moment we pulled up outside the hotel, we were treated like royalty. Staying Castle Club means you get concierge parking and luggage services.

Our Tesla had made it from Calais to Disneyland with about three miles of charge left, so the concierge offered to get it fully charged for us during our stay, which was included in the price we’d paid. Hilariously, he’s somehow set our Tesla to quack like Donald Duck every time it locks now – a cute touch and one I don’t know how to turn off, so we’ll be quacking away for the foreseeable future!

With the costs involved, we wanted to maximise each moment of our stay, so we actually stayed in a nearby budget hotel the night before our arrival so that we could get to Disneyland in time to take advantage of Early Magic Hours on our first day – the hour before parks officially open when only Disney hotel guests can access the parks.

The concierge personally escorted us up to the Castle Club check in, which is an adventure in itself. There’s a private lift for Castle Club guests and when you first arrive, you lift a secret, old-fashioned wired telephone to let them know you’ve arrived and they send the lift down to collect you. There’s a concierge and reception exclusively for Castle Club guests which is manned 24/7 by staff who genuinely can’t do enough to help.

When my eight-year-old got upset because she unexpectedly lost a tooth and didn’t think the tooth fairy would know where she was, one of the team, Marvin, wrote her a beautiful note from Tinkerbell and ‘pixie dusted’ us a Minnie Mouse teddy and ears. For those who aren’t up on their Disney lingo, ‘pixie dust’ is something magical that happens while staying at Disney that you haven’t expected or asked for. When it does happen, it’s truly magical and seeing her face in the morning will stay with me forever.

Rooms are typically available from 3pm but we were able to access the Castle Club Lounge from 11am, which is just the perfect place to relax and unwind away from the fun of the parks. The lounge is so elegant, with opulent furnishings, plush fabrics and the most amazing views of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.

The lounge is open throughout the day and evening, and we never had an issue getting a table. In the morning, breakfast is served from 7.30am to 11am, with at least three Disney princesses guaranteed to visit between 9.30am and 11am. We chose to grab a takeaway coffee first thing, then use early magic hours to get on a few rides without queuing, before coming back for a leisurely brunch and meeting the princesses. The girls loved getting their autograph books signed and photographs with their favourite characters.

The breakfast buffet had everything you could want, from cloud-like pastries to hand-cooked omelettes, full English items, Mickey waffles, cereals, cold meats, cheeses, fresh breads and moreish honeycomb.

You can enjoy complimentary hot drinks and soft drinks throughout the day, including the most decadent hot chocolates, as well as freshly brewed coffees and fresh fruit juices. You can ask for bottles of water and soft drinks to take away – just make sure you decant them into plastic bottles, as glass isn’t allowed in the parks. We didn’t pay for a single drink during our four days at the park, so this is a real perk.

In the afternoon, you get afternoon tea served in the lounge from 3.30pm to 5.30pm. We managed to use this and breakfast as two of our meals each and just ate at one of the quick service restaurants for our other meal. There were more pastries, pancakes and lots of desserts on offer during afternoon tea, as well as a few hot options, like pizza rolls. Personally I would have liked some bread and butter or a soup included as part of the afternoon tea as it didn’t quite live up to the levels of breakfast.

One of the biggest perks of the Castle Club lounge is being able to sit back with a complimentary drink and watch the fireworks display each evening. The girls could pop their PJs and slippers on and be in bed two minutes after the display had finished. Staff dim the lights and the music is piped into the lounge so you can experience the spectacle and the atmosphere, without the queues, crowds and schlep back to bed.

What about the VIP lift?

This VIP Castle Club lift is the thing you might have seen on social media if you're a fellow Disney parks fanatic. Naturally I had to film how long it took us to get from our room to the Disneyland Park gate and it was less than two minutes. From bed to Disney Main Street in less than 120 seconds is pretty much a dream come true for me.

There are two lifts serving Castle Club rooms and suites and we never had to wait long for one to arrive. You simply swipe your magic pass and select 'park entrance' and it sweeps you downstairs to a dedicated Castle Club entrance gate, where we never had to queue.

If you're new to Disneyland Paris, it's worth noting that this perk is great for Disneyland Park – the OG park with Sleeping Beauty's castle and iconic rides like Dumbo and Big Thunder Mountain – but it doesn't provide quicker access to Disney Adventure World, the second park which is about five minutes' walk away and houses attractions linked to franchises like Toy Story, Frozen and Marvel.

What are the Castle Club rooms like?

All of the bedrooms at the Disneyland Hotel are exquisite, with a fairytale feel and hidden motifs, such as Cinderella’s slipper and Belle’s rose, on the pattern of the carpets and on moulding around the mirror in the bathroom. Each room is subtly themed around a specific princess, from Elsa to Raya, Moana to Aurora, and you can request your favourite seven days before you check in (although there’s never a guarantee you’ll get it).

You’ll get plush bathrobes and slippers, Clarins toiletries and every bathroom amenity you could dream of (no need to worry if you forget your toothbrush or comb here! In the bedroom, there’s a fridge with complimentary water juice and nuts, a coffee machine, kettle and giant TV hidden inside your mirror with Disney streaming as standard.

There isn’t a huge amount of difference between the Deluxe rooms and standard Castle Club rooms in terms of decor. Both have the addition of beautiful illuminated canopies above the beds that sparkle gently and can provide pre-bedtime light shows. You do get a top-of-the-range Dyson hairdryer, upgraded toiletries and luxurious Castle Club-branded robes and slippers though, which do get a few envious looks by the pool!

A nightly turndown service comes as standard in Castle Club, which you need to request in other room types. You’ll find an exclusive storybook on your pillow, plus calming teabags and nougat waiting for you to enjoy. You’ll also get your minibar replenished every day, which you don’t in Superior and Deluxe rooms

There are two types of Castle Club room – Park View, which overlook the castle and cost a premium, and Garden View, which face either the sides of the hotel or Fantasia Gardens. We were lucky to get a Cinderella themed room with two balconies overlooking the fountains. Waking early and sipping a coffee on the balcony while the park was deserted was a real treat.

How can you make the experience more VIP?

We booked Premier Access Ultimate passes, which take away the stress of queuing for the most popular rides. You can use the passes once per day for the biggest attractions, from the new Frozen Ever After, which often had wait times of two hours, to icons like It’s A Small World and Peter Pan’s Flight.

You load the passes onto your phone’s wallet and scan a QR code at the dedicated Premier Access entrances to join the end of each queue. The longest we waited when using the passes was 15 minutes, so it makes a huge difference to how many rides you can get done in a day.

It was out of our budget this time, but if you really want to go big, you can book a VIP tour for a day where a dedicated guide will provide unlimited speedy access to shows, attractions, character meets and show you straight to reserved VIP seats for parades and displays.

How to get to Disneyland Paris

There are lots of ways to get to Disneyland Paris – fly, ferry or take Le Shuttle. We’ve done them all before and prefer to have our car over flying. Firstly, you can pack as many princess dresses as you like, and secondly, you can bring home as many princess dresses/and other merchandise as you like. Plus, we like to stock up on French wine while we’re there.

I’ve never used Le Shuttle - previously known as Eurotunnel – before but we found the whole thing simple and stress free. We have an electric car so arrived three hours before our departure and plugged into the super-fast chargers, which took less than an hour to give us a full tank of charge while we popped to the loo and had a look around the shops. We were given the option to move our departure time forward free of charge as we’d arrived early, and we actually boarded and left two hours earlier than planned. This turned out to be a godsend as the traffic on the outskirts of Paris can be a pain.

I highly recommend getting a Revolut card, or similar, which allows you to quickly exchange GBP for euros and pay for the roadside tolls, of which there are a few on the route to Disneyland. You’ll also need to register for a CritAir sticker with the French government. Ideally do this a month or so in advance as you’ll be sent a paper sticker to display in your windscreen, but don’t worry if you forget – print off your booking confirmation and that counts.