Review: Newport Bay Club Hotel, Disneyland Paris Resort, France

Visited by:

Rebecca visited Newport Bay Club Hotel with her husband and our children, aged 3 and 5, while visiting Disneyland Paris. They stayed in the first week of the school summer holidays in July.

What’s Newport Bay Club Hotel like?

The 4-star Newport Bay Club Hotel sits in a lovely position next to Lake Disney at Disneyland Paris. Designed to look like a 1920s New England mansion, it was completely renovated in 2016 and even has its own lighthouse!

All of the rooms have a nautical theme, which includes charming details such as ‘port holes’ with Disney characters peeping in through running along the top of the wallpaper in our room.

It’s in a great location as it’s only about a 15-20 minute walk from the parks. Although there’s a free shuttle bus service, we enjoyed the pleasant amble around the lake and through the Disney Village instead of using it.

How much does it cost in 2023?

As you'd expect for some Disney magic, it's not cheap, and it pays to keep your eyes open for offers.

An example package is: From £2,356 for a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children) in a superior room for 4 nights in August 2023 from Booking.com.

But if you plan to travel by Eurostar, there's more information about it and an offer that includes Eurostar tickets, too, at the end of this review.

What family-friendly facilities does the Newport Bay Club Hotel have?

It has all the facilities you’d expect from a 4-star hotel. It has two restaurants, Cape Cod, a buffet restaurant, and the more formal Yacht Club, as well as the Captain’s Quarters bar.

There’s free Wi-Fi, free parking and a free luggage service that will transport your bags to and from the station if you’re travelling on Eurostar – leaving you free to go straight to the parks.

It also has accessible rooms, room service and valet parking for an additional cost. The hotel also has a shop selling holiday essentials and Disney gifts.

When you’re not at the parks, it has both indoor and outdoor pools (seasonal). As we were staying in swelteringly hot July, we stuck to the outdoor pool, but it was good to know you could still get some swimming in if it was cold or rainy. For the grown-ups there’s also a sauna, a whirlpool bath and a fitness room, and for an extra charge you can have a massage.

What are the highlights for your family?

Staying at the Newport Bay Club Hotel has some great perks. As at other Disney hotels, as guests we were able to enter both parks an hour earlier than other visitors for ‘Extra Magic Time’.

Also, if you’re staying in the hotel’s Compass Club rooms, you get access to the ‘Hotel Fastpass’ system, which gives you an additional FASTPASS to use each day. (The parks run a FASTPASS system that lets you book a slot on some of the rides in advance without having to queue – you just go back at your allotted time and get on the ride much more quickly.)

And if you stay in one of the hotel’s suites, you’ll get a VIP FASTPASS, giving you unlimited access to join any of the FASTPASS queues without needing to reserve a space.

Another bonus of staying at the Newport Bay Club Hotel was that our kids could meet Disney characters in the hotel as well as at the parks!

What does it offer families with young children?

There are plenty of touches to make parents’ lives easier, such as travel cots and bottle warmers if you need them.

As well as the main outdoor pool, there’s a shallow children’s pool next to it, and there are tummy bands and arm-bands available to use free of charge, as well as floatation aids for babies to sit in.

When it comes to eating, both restaurants offer children’s menus and there’s a special kids’ buffet. And if you fancied a date night during your stay, you can book a babysitting service through the hotel – provided by an external, Paris-based company. The bar also has a children’s corner so you can enjoy a glass of something chilled while watching your child play. They can also amuse themselves playing on the coin-operated games machines at the Sea Horse Club Game Arcade.

How do the Disney hotel meal plans work?

If you’re staying at a Disney hotel and your package doesn’t include meals, you can either eat and pay as you go, or buy a meal plan in advance. This gives you breakfast in your hotel plus lunch and/or dinner at a range of restaurants in the parks, Disney Village and Disney hotels.

You can choose from half- or full-board options in 3 price brackets – the Standard, Plus or Premium Dining plans. The Standard plan is available in over 5 restaurants, compared to the Plus plan where you can dine in more than 15 eateries, and the Premium Plan, where you can eat à la carte in 20 or more restaurants. The Premium Plan also includes character meals and shows too, which makes it quite cost efficient if you planned to see some shows during your visit.

For a party of 2 adults and 2 children aged over 3 (under 3s have a dedicated children’s menu), dining for 4 days at half board, the Standard Dining Plan costs around £581*, the Plus Dining Plan would set you back around £726*, and the Premium Dining Plan would cost around £1,526*.

We added on the half-board Plus Dining Plan. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast in the Newport Bay Club Hotel, which had an enormous choice of food, and it meant we could eat in a range of restaurants in the parks, Disney village and hotels for our lunch or evening meal. When we booked the meal plan, it seemed expensive, but after pricing up the various food options in the parks we felt it was the right decision.

What’s the food like at Newport Bay Club Hotel?

There are two restaurants, Cape Cod, which is a buffet, and if you’re not using a dining plan, it costs €45 per adult and €25 per child.

The Yacht Club is more formal, it serves a fabulous selection of seafood and there’s an à la carte menu and set menus, too. It’s not cheap, though: we had the set 3-course menu which was in our dining plan, which costs €55 per adult and €30 for children if you’re not using a plan.

The New England-inspired menu would suit seafood lovers and those who enjoy eating in nice restaurants – for example, squid was on the menu. But it was also a good choice for people who like simple British food – we had lovely, posh-style fish and chips, and I had some delicious mussels, too.

The kids’ menu looked good – it offered dishes such as roast cod with rice and vegetables and chicken was available as well.

We thought the quality of food was good – although we expected it should be for the cost.

How does Newport Bay Club Hotel compare with Disneyland Paris’ other hotels?

If our budget had allowed, we would have stayed in the Disneyland Hotel, which has a fabulous location at the entrance of the Disneyland Park, but sadly it was too expensive. We decided to go one notch down in price, and the Newport Bay Club Hotel was comparable to the Hotel New York cost-wise.

We chose the Newport Bay Club because it had recently undergone a refurbishment and we thought the children would like the nautical theming of the rooms. It’s slightly further away from the parks than Hotel New York, but we liked the look of the lakeside setting.

What are the rooms like?

We booked a standard room, which had 2 double beds, which meant the 4 of us were all sleeping in the same room. The rooms they offer accommodate a huge range of family sizes – right up to rooms sleeping 6. But to get additional space such as a lounge, you would need to book one of the suites.

It did mean that we all ended up going to sleep at the same time, but to be honest we were so shattered after our days in the parks we were fine with that.

The beds were comfy, with nice linen, and I liked the fact we had two double beds in the room, rather than one bed and a fold-out sofa bed. The rooms weren’t huge, though, so if you were using the travel cot as well it may be a little bit of a squeeze.

Also in the room there was a TV with some English-language channels, a dressing table with mirror, a chest of drawers, plenty of plug sockets and a separate dressing area, which had a safe in it, plus an ironing board and iron. There weren’t any tea- and coffee-making facilities, although you can request a kettle. There wasn’t a fridge, either, but there was an ice machine on our corridor.

What’s the bathroom like?

The bathroom was a bit disappointing for a 4-star hotel, it was quite basic and small and didn’t seem to have the nicely finished touches the bedroom had. The toiletries were perfectly fine – they had cute Mickey ears on the lids – and there was a shower within the bath.

We were fine bathing the children in there, however, I think a nice touch would have been to have had child-friendly loo seats.

Is there anything to watch out for?

The hotel is enormous, it has more than 1,000 rooms, and I wish we had asked for a room near the lifts. It took around 5 minutes for us to get to our room from the lifts, which is a long way for little legs after a day at the park.

How does the hotel rate for location?

It is brilliantly located for the parks, it took about 15-20 minutes for us to get there. It’s also not bad for visiting Paris itself. It took us about 45 minutes to get into the city on the train – we did this on our last day as we were heading to Paris for two nights and it was an easy direct journey to the centre.

How to get to the hotel:

The hotel is at the Disneyland Paris resort, which is about 32km east of Paris – you get to it by taking exit 14 off the A4 Autoroute. The hotel address is: Avenue Robert Schuman 77700 Chessy and there is free parking. The nearest station is Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy, where the direct Eurostar service from London St Pancras terminates, which is about five minutes away on the shuttle bus service or about a 15-minute walk.

MFM verdict:

Newport Bay Club Hotel is a great option for people visiting Disneyland Paris. It has a lovely position on the lake and it’s only about a 15-20 minute walk to the parks. The quality of the food was excellent, in particular at the Yacht Club restaurant, and I liked the fact the kids could meet Disney characters in the hotel. The theming of the bedrooms was great and the children liked it, too.

Visit the Newport Bay Club Hotel website

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* Prices correct as of May 2023