**Did you know? Disneyland Paris' cheapest official hotel is often cheaper than unofficial budget hotels once you include theme park tickets? Read more at the bottom of the page**
Disney Premier Access at Disneyland Paris lets you skip the normal queue and use a fast lane instead. As a result, you can go on a lot more rides and see more in one day.
But how much does it cost to jump the queues at Disneyland Paris? And is it worth it? And what's the difference between the Disney Premier Access Ultimate and the Disney Premier Access One? Here's my summary for those who just want the brief answer (instead of my waffle):
Read on for the full waffle and price guides! How much does Disney Premier Access cost?
The price of Disney Premier Access varies depending on when you are visiting, how many days you buy and what type of Premier Access ticket you buy.
Roughly speaking, Disney Premier Access costs about £100 - £170 per person, per day for a pass which gives you one ride on 14 different rides. If you choose the 'pay-as-you-go option then the price varies from about £4 per ride, up to about £16 per ride. There are two types of ticket: Option 1: Disney Premier Access Ultimate
The top level of Disney Premier Access is called Disney Premier Access Ultimate. This allows you to queue jump one time on a selection of 14 different rides (at the time of writing). The rides include Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain and Avengers Assemble Flight Force (full list below).
I looked at the price for one day tickets for Disney Premier Access Ultimate during the UK Easter holidays 2023 and found it was £172 per person per day. This was the price for adding it on as an extra when buying tickets via the Disneyland Paris website. We found it cost the same to add it to an official Disneyland Paris hotel booking as booking it with day tickets. Keep in mind that this price is on top of your entrance fee to the park, which on that date was about £91 per person per day (assuming you booked in advance and visited for three days). So your total entry price with Disney Premier Access Ultimate would be around £263 per person, per day at Easter 2023. To put it another way, if a family of four wanted Disney Premier Access Ultimate for the entirety of a three day Disneyland Paris visit it would cost £2071 on top of the standard entry price of £1090. Most people wouldn't buy Disney Premier Access Ultimate for every day though - it's a much more affordable option to just buy it for one or two days and try to cram in several rides on that day. Prices for Disney Premier Access Ultimate are much lower on quieter days at Disneyland Paris. For example, we looked at mid-September 2023 and found that the price was £109 per person, per day (compared to £172 at Easter 2023). Standard entry to the park on those off peak days would be about £63 per person which could work out as about £6 per person, per ride if you visited the 10 rides at Disneyland Park. To put it another way, your total price for entry and a one day Disney Premier Access Ultimate pass would be £172. Of course, the queue times during off peak days are much shorter so the benefits of getting the Disney Premier Access Ultimate pass at Disneyland Paris are less significant. Option 2: Disney Premier Access One
The second option is to queue jump for one ride, by buying a Disney Premier Access One pass on the day. I think of this as the 'pay-as-you-go' option.
This can work out as a better value option but you have to pre-book a time slot so it requires more planning and less spontaneity than you might want on a family day out (personally, I prefer to stick to a schedule when I'm out with the children!). You buy Disney Premier Access One passes via the Disneyland Paris app, which shows you prices on the day that you are visiting. Thrill Data provides some useful data on the price ranges during 2022:
We checked prices for a day in mid March 2023 and found that they ranged from about £4 per person per ride to £12 per person per ride. Rides such as Autopia and Orbitron were about £4 whilst Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain was about £12. As an experiment, I looked at the price of buying one ride on each attraction with Disney Premier Access One in mid-March. The total came to £96. Meanwhile, buying Disney Premier Access Ultimate for that date would have cost us £107 which is £11 more.** There is another key difference between Disney Premier Access One and Disney Premier Access Ultimate. With the 'pay as you go' option (Disney Premier Access One) you have to book a slot to jump the queue. With the bundle (Disney Premier Access Ultimate) you can just turn up and go on the ride. If you want to reduce the time you are spending buying tickets on your mobile phone then you would be better to go for Disney Premier Access Ultimate. *Prices are listed in Euros on the Disneyland Paris app but we have converted and rounded them to pounds on today's exchange rate to make it easier to compare with the Disney Premier Access Ultimate. **Big Thunder Mountain wasn't actually open that day, but I calculated the price on the assumption that it was to make a fairer comparison with a typical day. Is it worth getting a Disney Premier Access pass? How much time will I save?
To figure out if it is worth buying a Disney Premier Ultimate Pass we looked at all-time average queue times for the 14 rides included in the Disney Premier Access Ultimate pass.
The rides are split between the two theme parks at Disneyland Paris. As mentioned, you can visit both parks on a joint ticket but they are big enough that you are best to spend at least a day in each park.` Disneyland Park:
(Total average queue time of 4 hours 15 minutes) Walt Disney Studios Paris
(Total average queue time of 3 hours 28 minutes) These wait time figures are from Queue-Times.com. There's also a ride called Orbitron, which you can buy a queue jumping pass for, but it's not included in the Disney Premier Ultimate Pass. It has an all-time average queue time of 23 minutes. It's important to point out that these are average queue times. According to Thrill Data (another excellent reference site) the wait time for Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain ranged from 22 minutes to 58 minutes throughout 2022. Most dates we looked at were around 25-35 minutes which matches with the overall average of 28 minutes mentioned above. Wait times also vary a lot throughout the day. For example, Thrill Data says that the daily wait time for Peter Pan's Flight is often under 30 minutes at the start and end of the day but is often 40-60 minutes at around 2pm (based on February 2023 data). What will the cost per ride be with a Disney Premier Access Ultimate pass?
A good question to ask is how many attractions will you manage to squeeze into your day if you get a Disney Premier Access Ultimate pass. You can then work out if it is cheaper to go for the fast lane on a pay-as-you-go basis (Disney Premier Access One).
In theory, you could attempt to do all 14 rides included in the Disney Premier Access Ultimate pass in one day - but it would take some doing! The rides are split between the two theme parks at Disneyland Paris - Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park. You can buy a joint ticket which covers both parks, but most people just visit one park in a day. Also keep in mind that different rides are aimed at different age groups. Some have height restrictions so you may not actually be allowed to ride on every attraction. Let's split the rides with fast queue lanes into different types, based on their height limit. This usually gives an indication of what age they are suitable for. Rides described as 'big thrills' which have a height limit:
Rides suitable for any height, mostly described as 'family adventure'
So, if you are visiting with very small children (i.e. below 1m tall, about 4 years old on average) then there are seven rides across the two parks which you can access with the Disney Premier Access Ultimate pass. If you are visiting with children who are more than 1.4m tall (10 years old on average) then you could use your pass on every attraction. Of course, some of these rides may be too tame for older children. Peter Pan's Flight and Autopia are both described as 'fun for little ones' so it's less likely that your 17 year old will be interested. Let's look at three examples to see how much you will pay per ride.
From this over-simplified example, my conclusion is the Disney Premier Access Ultimate pass is best value for children who will enjoy a combination of 'big thrills' and the tamer 'family adventure' rides. Based on average heights for UK children, I would suggest that age seven plus is deal as you would be able to go on every ride except Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. *These ones are at Walt Disney Studios Park rather than Disneyland Park. Conclusion
Here are my conclusions based on the limited set of numbers and dates we looked at:
Did you know? It is often cheaper to stay an official Disneyland Paris hotel than a DIY holiday where you find a local apartment and buy your own tickets (seriously!).
This is because Disneyland Paris gives all guests at its official hotels free theme park tickets and free parking - even if you stay at one of the budget hotels. The cheapest hotel is usually Disney's Hotel Santa Fe. If you want cheap lodge-style accommodation then the cheapest option is usually Disney’s Davy Crockett Ranch. Check out latest offers on official accommodation + tickets bundles.
Please note, I rounded figures up and down to the nearest pound to make it easier to read. You may be quoted slightly different prices. Prices are correct at the time of writing, in March 2023.
2 Comments
Anthony Tugwell
15/2/2024 09:01:08 pm
Bravo. What a blog! It has saved me a few hundred ££ Pay as you go it is!
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Holiday Park Guru
9/9/2024 03:46:48 pm
Thanks Anthony. Sorry for the seven month delay in replying. Just realised it's not been alerting me of new comments...
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