Disneyland Paris picnics: taking your own food, the full guide

You’re planning your day and wondering whether you can take your own sandwiches rather than eat on site? The short answer: yes.

Bringing your own food is a good way to visit Disneyland Paris without stretching the budget, as long as you know two or three simple rules. First I’ll explain what gets through security, then I’ll take you to my favourite spots for a quiet meal.

Disneyland Paris rules don’t allow a set-up picnic inside the parks. But in practice there’s some leeway: you’re allowed to bring your own food, as long as it fits in a backpack and doesn’t need any bulky equipment.

It all comes down to the security checks at the entrance: if you turn up with a rigid cool box, a table or folding chairs, security will send you back with them.

One last point that surprises a lot of first-time visitors: the tables and terraces of the park restaurants are reserved for people who bought their meal there. So you can’t sit there with food you’ve brought. To eat it, find a bench or a low wall, or eat as you stroll or in an outdoor queue.

This is where I can really help you. Most guides stay vague on the subject. Here are the exact spots I’ve been scouting for years, from the official picnic area to quiet corners inside the parks.

If you want a proper sit-down picnic, with a table, this is the place designed for it. The official picnic area is outside, between Disney Village and the moving walkways that lead to the visitor car park, about ten minutes’ walk away.

It’s a shaded area with plenty of wooden tables and benches, free and open to everyone: the only place on the resort really set up for settling down to eat.

A real plus: as this area is before the security checks, you can even bring a cool box, which is impossible inside the parks.

In this park, benches fill up fast whatever the time of day. Three areas are still quieter than average:

• The low walls at the entrance: just after the security gates, before the Main Street U.S.A. station. Handy when every bench further in is taken.
• Behind Space Mountain, in Discoveryland: a quiet corner, perfect for a quick break.
• The back of Frontierland (towards the former Critter Corral, by Woody’s Roundup Village): an often overlooked spot and my favourite quiet corner. I’ve seen every bench empty there in the middle of July, at 12:30, while the rest of the park was packed.

This park has even fewer benches, so you need to be a bit smarter. Two fallback options:

• In front of Avengers Assemble: Flight Force, in Avengers Campus: a large open space with low walls to sit on. As a bonus, the superheroes regularly pass close by.
• On World Premiere Plaza (formerly Production Courtyard), in front of the theatre for the show Together: a Pixar Musical Adventure: more low walls, but it’s a thoroughfare, so busier.

For a quiet break outside the parks, here are two places I really like:

• Fantasia Gardens, at the entrance to Disneyland Park (below the Disneyland Hotel): a peaceful garden, handy before going in or after your visit. One thing to note: the pink gazebos that sheltered this spot have been removed. It’s still a very good picnic spot, just less protected if it rains.
• Around the Disney Village lake, especially in front of the Hotel New York - The Art of Marvel: benches by the water for a relaxed break.

A picnic is still the cheapest option, but it isn’t the only one. If you’d rather eat on site, for at least one meal of the day, take a look at the restaurant guide to compare restaurants, my guide on where to eat in Disney Village for the restaurants right next to the parks and my tips for eating cheaply at Disneyland Paris.