Disneyland Paris picnic: bring your own food, the complete guide

You’re planning your day and wondering whether you can pack your own sandwiches instead of buying food on site? The short answer: yes.

Bringing your own food is a great way to enjoy Disneyland Paris without blowing your 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 favorite spots for a peaceful meal.

Disneyland Paris rules don’t allow a full sit-down picnic inside the parks. But in practice, there’s real leeway: you’re free to bring your own food, as long as it fits in a backpack and doesn’t need any bulky gear.

It all comes down to the security check at the entrance: if you show up with a hard-sided cooler, a table, or folding chairs, security will ask you to take them back.

One last thing that catches many first-time visitors off guard: the tables and patios at the park restaurants are only for people who bought their meal there. That means you can’t sit there with food you brought. To eat it, find a bench or a low wall, eat while you walk, or eat in an outdoor line.

Here’s where my experience really pays off. Most guides only give you a fuzzy answer on this. Below are the precise places I’ve been scouting for years, starting with the official picnic area and moving on to peaceful nooks inside the parks.

If you want a proper, relaxed picnic at a table, this is the spot designed for it. The official picnic area is outside, between Disney Village and the moving walkways that lead to the visitor parking lot, about ten minutes on foot.

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

A real bonus: since this area is before the security checks, you can even bring a cooler here, which you can’t do inside the parks.

In this park, benches get snapped up fast, no matter the time of day. Still, three areas stay quieter than most:

• The low walls by the entrance: just past the security gates, before the Main Street U.S.A. station. Handy when every bench farther in is taken.
• Behind Space Mountain, in Discoveryland: hardly anyone goes back there, so it works well when you just want to stop for a few minutes.
• The back of Frontierland (near the former Critter Corral petting area, toward Woody’s Roundup Village): an often overlooked nook, and my favorite quiet spot. I’ve seen every bench empty there in the middle of July, at 12:30, while the rest of the park was overflowing.

This park has even fewer benches, so you need to be a little more resourceful. Two fallback options:

• In front of Avengers Assemble: Flight Force, in Avengers Campus: there’s plenty of room here, with low walls you can perch on. Plus, you’ll often see superheroes walking past.
• On World Premiere Plaza (formerly Production Courtyard), in front of the theater for the show Together: A Pixar Musical Adventure: more low walls, but people pass through constantly, so it’s busier.

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

• Fantasia Gardens, at the entrance to Disneyland Park (below the Disneyland Hotel): a calm garden, handy before you go in or after your visit. One thing to know: the pink gazebos that used to shelter this spot have been removed. It’s still a great place for a picnic, just less protected if it rains.
• Along the shore of the lake at Disney Village, in particular outside Hotel New York - The Art of Marvel: you’ll find waterside benches where you can sit and unwind.

Bringing your own food will always save you the most money, though it’s far from your only choice. Planning to buy at least one meal during the day? Browse the restaurant guide to compare your options, read my guide on where to eat at Disney Village for spots just outside the park gates, and see my tips for eating on a budget at Disneyland Paris.