Kyriad Disneyland Resort Paris, Marne-la-Vallee

...guide" to staying at the Kyriad Hotel near Disneyland Paris for those who are looking to stay there. There are large chunks of this review that will be irrelevant to some but invaluable to others so I apologise in advance if the length puts anyone off reading it! Sections are labelled clearly so you can skip directly to the parts that interest you personally.


★ Booking my Trip ★

I stayed at the ...
...few minutes to reach the Kyriad having stopped at the other hotels first and dropped us off at the shuttle stop right outside the reception. The reception is not clearly labelled in any language so it was fortunate the automatic doors slid open as I walked near them else I wouldn't have realised it was the reception given that no-one else had gotten off the bus at the same as me. I could see the reception desk as soon as I entered the doors so I ... more

This is an "all you need to know guide" to staying at the Kyriad Hotel near Disneyland Paris for those who are looking to stay there. There are large chunks of this review that will be irrelevant to some but invaluable to others so I apologise in advance if the length puts anyone off reading it! Sections are labelled clearly so you can skip directly to the parts that interest you personally.

★ Booking my Trip ★

I stayed at the Disneyland Hotel Kyriad from Monday 11 February 2008 for three nights with my 2yr old son so we could visit the nearby Disneyland Paris. As with all Disney hotels, you can expect to pay drastically varying prices to stay here. If I'd have booked my stay directly through the Disneyland brochure or website, I'd have paid double what I did through the Eurostar website!

Booking with the hotel was extremely straightforward and you can do so through official Disneyland lines (website, brochure or travel agent) or by using one of the numerous online deal websites available (including the Eurostar website as I did). Booking through the Eurostar site meant I paid a combined travel and hotel charge of £225 for my three night / four day trip including one seat on the train as under 4's can travel free on laps if desired. The price breakdown on my bank statement informed that I paid £70.50 for my travel and £154 for my accommodation which means I paid £51.33 per night for my twin room at the Kyriad.

I didn't receive any references or anything that I'd need to quote on checking in, I was simply informed by email confirmation from Eurostar that my reservation was confirmed with the hotel and that they held my details in their booking system which made things convenient.

★ Contacting the Hotel ★

As there wasn't a lot of information about the facilities available on the internet, I had some questions to ask about my stay and emailed the hotel in advance. I simply asked if they catered for vegetarians and if the free Disney shuttle bus service ran from somewhere near the train station to the hotels so that arriving and departing guests could use it also; I received absolutely no response. There was a telephone number available had I of wanted to telephone to pursue my query but I wasn't wanting to telephone abroad given the expense already involved in such a trip. It was a bit disappointing having to arrive at the station near Disneyland and just hope for the best as well as worrying not knowing whether or not our dietary needs would be catered for.

★ Arrival / Checking In ★

Fortunately, it transpired that the free Disney shuttle bus service DOES run from the train station to the hotel so that was a big relief. Outside the station, Marne la Vallee Chessy, there's a bus stop on the opposite side of the road to the exit where a number 54 Disney shuttle bus collects and drops off Disney customers staying at the four budget hotels: "Dream Castle", "Explorers", "Holiday Inn" and "Kyriad". You do not have to activate your Disney tickets to use this service which is a relief for those not visiting the park on their day of arrival and you don't have to pay or even provide any form of identification. Presumably the reason for this is that there's not much point using these shuttles unless you're on a Disneyland holiday! There isn't much in the area besides Disneyland after all as the park is situated in the French countryside.

The bus took just a few minutes to reach the Kyriad having stopped at the other hotels first and dropped us off at the shuttle stop right outside the reception. The reception is not clearly labelled in any language so it was fortunate the automatic doors slid open as I walked near them else I wouldn't have realised it was the reception given that no-one else had gotten off the bus at the same as me. I could see the reception desk as soon as I entered the doors so I walked over and waited a minute while the receptionist dealt with another guest. "Bonjour, vu parle en anglais?" was of course my opening line ("Good day, do you speak English?"), the reply I received was fortunately "yes, a little" and it turned out that most of the staff could speak basic English also. Check in took just two minutes. I was asked to pay a "tourist tax" of 99c per night which I found odd but paid and got a receipt for so presumably this is standard practice. I was then given a little card with two room keys in (swipe cards) and the room number written on the front. I was asked what time I wanted to have breakfast as a buffet was included in the price of my stay. They said they served breakfast in half hour slots from 7:30am through to 10:30am and handed me a card for each day with my chosen time of 8:30am on. I was then directed to the nearby lift (one of many throughout the 300 room hotel) and told my room was on the first floor. I asked which direction to take on reaching the first floor but the receptionist said she didn't know. I was a bit annoyed but realised there were numbered plaques on the walls as I exited the lift which directed me immediately to my room.

It's worth noting that check-in is supposedly at 3pm though nothing was said to me when I checked in at 2:15pm. In total, the whole process of leaving the train station, catching the shuttle bus, getting checked in and finding my room took just 15 - 20 minutes which I think is very reasonable.

★ Accommodation ★

For the price I paid, I simply can't complain about the accommodation I received. It was typical "Travelodge" standard and there were even a few bits included that I hadn't expected. The room was small but not so small we had troubled moving or storing our belongings. We had two twin beds which were slightly narrower than a standard single bed but big enough for me to sleep in comfortably (I'm quite a big girl as well!) and the white bed linen was clean though not the most comfortable I've ever felt. There was a lovely large French window which opened right out and let oodles of sunlight in, with an iron guard running along the bottom of the outside to stop any mischievous little people falling out and large lined curtains hung around it.

There was also a desk with a wooden chair so you could apply your make-up or write your postcards with a lamp and a television sat on top. The only English TV station it received was BBC News so not much point having the TV unless you understand French I guess (which I really, really don't). There were also two little shelves by the side of the desk, one with a miniature kettle on - so cute! And so nice to be able to make use of the free coffee and sugar sachets along with the two tiny cream pots that were included. Unfortunately the cups provided are thin plastic disposable ones which concerned me greatly on pouring in the boiling water but though they were very hot to touch, they didn't melt or give way.

The wardrobe was built-in with two sides to it; one side had a hanging rail with five wooden coat hangers that couldn't be removed and the other had three large, deep shelves plus a smaller shelf with an electronic valuables safe on it including an instructions card on how to use it. I had all the space I needed to store a large holdall worth of clothing and possessions and felt much better about leaving our passports and electrical items in the room knowing I had the safe to use.

The bathroom was nicer than I'd expected it to be. I'd assumed I'd get a basic number for the price I paid and was surprised to find I had a bath. It was a bit of a miniature bath lengthways but widthways it was standard size. There was a removable shower hanging over the bath and both had extremely good water pressure. I filled that bath in about four minutes whereas at home, with my rubbish water pressure, it takes me at least twenty minutes to run a bath! There was a large sink unit stretching the width of the bathroom (probably about 5ft by 5ft) with a large square basin and a large square mirror panel in front of it. I had plenty of space to store my toiletries and included free was a small bar of soap and miniature bottle of shampoo (a new one was put out every day). There was only one small loo roll akin to Tesco Value quality provided and I was a bit concerned about this but discovered housekeeping had left a new one in there on the second day so I was fine. The loo was decent like the rest of the bathroom - clean and perfectly acceptable. Five small white towels were provided, two just big enough to cover me, two hand towels and one small bath mat. Not especially nice quality but perfectly adequate.

Housekeeping came in to clean the bathroom and make the bed every day during our stay. We were left new soaps and shower gels and the bin was emptied though the bed linen in the rooms wasn't changed. I know this is normal as a general rule but I'd thought they might have changed the bloody pillow case from my son's mouth accident but no - they just turned it over and made the bed as usual! The towels were folded and stuffed back in the towel rack in the bathroom which annoyed me a bit actually as I'd deliberately hung them over the bath to dry. There are no heaters in the room to dry things on though I suppose that's because the hotel's situated in such a sunny place heating isn't really necessary and we were never cold.

One thing smokers might like to note is that though this was allegedly a non-smoking room, I suspect they're not so strict about enforcing smoking rules as we are in this country. It was blatantly obvious that the previous guests (any number of) had been smoking in our room. As there are large windows in the rooms and no smoke alarms - I believe smokers will mostly get away with lighting up in the rooms. A pro for smokers, a con for non-smokers…

As far as power points go, it's worth remembering that they have French sockets in the rooms (funnily enough). Though obvious to some, it never occurred to me! I took my battery charger for my camera and one for my mobile - then realised I couldn't plug them in. Fortunately I went shopping to the nearby shopping centre Val De Europe (E2.90 return on the train) and managed to purchase a converter for just E3.90 which I thought was very reasonable. So if you don't take one with you, at least you know you can get one from the hypermarche in Val De Europe too! There was only socket in my room though so that's something worth remembering. Only the TV could be unplugged, everything else like the miniature kettle and the lamp was hard-wired in.

You'll find all the rooms are relatively similar with the only real difference between the rooms being the beds. You can book a double bed, two single beds or a family room which is as before plus bunk beds. The bunk beds are clearly advertised as being for persons weighing less than 11st so no tall teenagers then. I really do feel the Kyriad rooms are the French equivalent of English Travelodge rooms!

★ Restaurant ★

The restaurant is a separate building to the main hotel but only a minute's walk from most of the rooms and there are a few right above the restaurant even. The restaurant isn't particularly big but then I guess that explains why they serve breakfast in seven half-hourly sittings. There are 300 rooms in the hotel, but only about 60 seats in the restaurant. I chose to have breakfast at 8:30am every day and as the Disneyland park didn't open until 10am due to the time of year, this meant we never had a problem getting seated as a large portion of guests went for 9am and 9:30am sittings. Breakfast is a buffet so all you do is hand the member of staff on the door your breakfast ticket (which says which session you've booked for breakfast) then grab a tray from the stack by the door and head round the corner to collect your breakfast. On offer during our stay was a selection of ham, boiled eggs and cheese cubes; a large pot of natural yoghurt and a large bowl of fruit salad; several huge baskets of croissants and pain au chocolate; baskets of either soft or salted butter and two triple cereal dispensers offering cornflakes, chocolate cereal or what looked like a kind of bran number. There were vase-like urns with milk in for the cereal and a stack of narrow bowls and plates on hand for helping yourself.

Also included was a wide range of free drinks which wasn't something I was expecting. There were two coffee machines offering tea, coffee, hot milk or hot chocolate and two fruit juice machines offering apple or orange juice as well as a large water machine. You could help yourself to whatever you wanted - there were no limits on anything. There were also metal trolleys that held three trays if you needed to get breakfast for the family and couldn't carry it all.

Evening meals are offered from around 6pm onwards though times and deals vary throughout the year so it's important to check this on arrival if you plan to eat here. The offer running through to March 2008 is presently buy one adult meal for E19.90 and get one child's meal free (worth E15). To me I guess that's an acceptable price considering the are (£15 for an adult and child for dinner) but imagine paying the usual price? We're talking about a very small and basically equipped restaurant here. Although there was plenty on offer for breakfast - none of it was hot (even the hot chocolate was warm not hot) and the food tasted acceptable, nothing to write home about. So I didn't eat dinner in the restaurant because basically I thought it would be a waste of time and money. For E10 more than the special offer price (so E5 less than the standard price) my son and I had dinner at Café Mickey in the Disney Village where he got to cuddle not one but five Disney characters included in the price as well as take home a souvenir Disney cup.

★ Facilities ★

Besides the restaurant there is an extremely small bar in the reception area with about ten tables where they serve a limited range of beverages at shockingly inflated prices. After a hard day's Disneying, I stopped at the bar for one quick drink just to take the edge of my aching feet and was gobsmacked to be charged E7.50 for a small southern comfort and lemonade. Yes, I paid nearly £6 for a single spirit and dash of mixer. Imagine a party of four having a few drinks here? We're not talking about a nicely decorated, lively holiday bar with an atmosphere and facilities on offer for the kids. No, we're talking about a bar that could fit in someone's garage with a few wooden tables and chairs stuck in the reception area. I do not see any reason for them to have inflated the drinks prices so drastically given the low overheads and lack of facilities on offer. There wasn't even a loo nearby!

Round the back of the bar was a tiny room with a few arcade machines in so the adults could waste a bit more money if they felt so inclined to and there were also eight soft lounge chairs situated in two groups of four right opposite the reception desk (running parallel from the bar) where guests could sit with or without a drink if they wanted to for any reason. There was a wendy house in between the two sets of chairs but nothing in the wendy house besides four small wooden chairs. There were no toys for the children to play with and I think it's an extreme waste of the space. If they spent just E100 on children's toys for the wendy house and used the area as a place for children to play while the parents use the bar - they'd make a killing on the extra bar profits. It just seemed ludicrous to me.

There was nothing anywhere else for the children besides a small four horse carousel in the entrance hall which took tokens costing E2 per ride. Lovely yes, and E2 wasn't such a bad price given how lovely the little ride was and that you could sit four children on it if you wanted to; but why have they not utilised any of the surrounding area to make it a place children could play for 15 minutes rather than just a quick earner? Again, if they want repeat business and worth-of-mouth advertisements they really need to cater for children in some manner or other. All that space inside, not to mention the unused grass areas outside, and they don't have one single children's play area. An empty wendy house and a small electronic ride that you have to pay for do not constitute play areas in my book.

Wireless internet connection is available for all guests throughout the complex and there is ample free parking available to the front of the complex. You can purchase Disneyland Paris park tickets from the reception desk though they charge the same price as you'd pay at the park gate (other hotels sell them cheaper) and they offer a cot free of charge for one child under 2 per bedroom. They also offer a free luggage storage service which means that you can store your luggage at the hotel free of charge whilst you visit Disneyland (or wherever) before you check-in or after you check-out. I found it more convenient to pay E2.50 at Disneyland to store my luggage after checking out as it meant I could go straight to the train station afterwards but those with more than one bag may find this too expensive an option (Disney charge E2.50 per bag and E4 per suitcase). They have a shop besides the bar but it's really more of a stall situated in a very small room and again you can expect to pay greatly inflated prices for any Disney memorabilia you may wish to purchase from them.

The free Disney shuttle bus really is completely free and picks you up and drops off from a shuttle stop right outside the hotel reception and a shuttle stop situated close to the train station (just across the road) and the Disneyland parks (about a 2 minute walk). There is a bus timetable hanging up at the Kyriad shuttle stop but I didn't find the bus drivers adhered to this particularly. During peak times (at the start and end of the day) you can expect a shuttle to come along every ten minutes or so which I found very convenient. At less popular times you may have to wait up to twenty or even thirty minutes but I can't say I ever felt like I was kept waiting particularly. The buses were a wonderful addition to the holiday and meant I could manage my toddler, pushchair and luggage to and from the station, hotel and parks without the need of a hire car or taxi. I can't see any reason for any family staying at this hotel who plan to only visit Disney (or perhaps take a train journey to the nearby Val De Europe shopping centre as well) to hire a car. My only gripe with the buses was that one or two of them had several steps which meant I had to rely on the help of strangers to get the pushchair on board (with my toddler in it) but the majority just had a single low step.

★ Checking Out ★

Checking out was much the same as checking-in. Yes the staff are a bit slow and frankly not terrifically enthusiastic, but they employ simple, straightforward checking in and out procedures here and don't keep you waiting around unnecessarily. If they check their system and find you've made no phone calls - they just take your room keys off you, ask you if you enjoyed your stay and wave you on your way. I waited about two minutes to be seen to in order to check out then the process took under a minute so I was pleased to be on my way so quickly.

★★★ Recommendation ★★★

If this is what you can afford, and you wouldn't be able to enjoy the Disney experience otherwise, then yes I recommend this hotel. I was happy with my room and found it clean enough despite the slight whiff of stagnant smoke and was pleased with all the facilities the room had to offer. It wasn't very big no, but then it wasn't too small for our needs either. The beds were just big enough and there was enough storage space in the wardrobe, on the desk and in the bathroom for me to put our things away and there was even just enough space at the foot of my bed, besides the end of the desk, to sit the pushchair and still get by so you could easily do the same thing standing two suitcases side by side.

I knew there wasn't going to be a pool there which is of course a bonus to any holiday but I didn't expect the children's facilities to be quite so non-existent. Even a small climbing frame and swing outside would have made a big difference to my son's enjoyment of this hotel and meant he had something to look forward to leaving Disneyland and coming to the hotel for. As it stood, he obviously didn't want to come back to the hotel knowing we were only going there to go up to the small room where he'd be expected to go to bed!

There are some good deals to be had if you look in the right places and as long as you're paying between £40 and £65 per room per night and don't spend money in the bar or restaurant then I think you're getting reasonable value for money considering the inflated cost of visiting the area in general.

That said, if you can afford to spend a little bit extra, for between £20 and £40 more per room per night you can stay next door at the Holiday Inn which has larger rooms, an indoor swimming pool and children's facilities. I don't regret staying here as this is what I could afford at the time due to the Eurostar special offer. But if I take my son to Disneyland again in the future, I would rather save up for an extra few months to take him to stay at the Holiday Inn. I agree with the two to two and a half star rating that the Disneyland website and numerous other travel websites have given this hotel though for Ciao purposes I feel it would be unfair to rate it as poor when really it was satisfactory so I've gone for three stars.

It's an adequate place to stay near Disneyland Paris on a budget. 

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