A few years ago we went on a trip to Disneyland Paris for my birthday and we had to survive on tomato pasta alone so I was extremely excited to go back for my daughter’s first Birthday this year and try out some of the new and seemingly plentiful in comparison vegan options on offer.
I’m sharing them here as it is very difficult to find actual information about what is available in the parks, the menus are ever-changing and it is CRITICAL to do research before you go if you need to find vegan food while you’re at Disneyland Paris.
The official Disneyland Paris website states that there is at least one vegan option available at all restaurants but this is not a particularly useful piece of information unfortunately as it didn’t always appear to be true. Maybe technically it was, for example, you can get a vegan pavlova… but what are you supposed to eat as a main? (more about the Pavlova later!). Plus, the majority of us don’t eat at restaurants throughout the day for each and every meal.
So what can you eat? Well, here’s what we ate during our stay. We had two full days plus an arrival and a departure day. That was plenty and I think we would have struggled for food without repetition after that. We also had an almost one-year-old to feed which was another battle!
Day one. This was the day we arrived. We only needed our tea (or dinner if you’re not from Yorkshire!), basically the last meal of the day. We’d had an epically long journey to get to Disneyland Paris and really wanted a sit-down meal so the little one could be in a highchair. We stayed at the Newport Bay Hotel so we took advantage of one of their restaurants and ate at the Yacht Club.
I REALLY wanted to try the vegan pavlova but couldn’t find much info on what else was available.
As with most eateries, the staff at Disney didn’t seem to know either. It was a case of ‘maybe’, with a shrug, sit down, and hope for the best. Not the greatest when you have baby-led time restrictions, tired bones, etc. It really ruins the Disney experience when you can’t just have a magical time as you would in most of the parks in the US. Such a shame.
My veganism is a choice but for those who are intolerant, I can’t imagine what a stress it must be.
We were told they could adapt a quinoa dish. It was basically quinoa, aniseed-flavoured turnip, and rocket. Not great at all BUT edible. I couldn’t help feeling ripped off. Luckily the pavlova was amazing! I can’t for the life of me imagine why you would serve such an exclusive vegan pudding without having a main to go with it. I do feel like they would let you go in just for the pavlova though so if that’s something you want to do go ahead, it’s worth it and the quinoa is not.
Day two was our first full day. We had discovered that Starbucks in the Disney village had nothing on offer and couldn’t find a single banana anywhere the day beforehand, which would have been a great breakfast option but, shockingly, our room service menu had a full vegan breakfast on it! There were selections to make for a continental breakfast which wasn’t great and was super expensive but the vegan breakfast was actually good value and tasted nice. It consisted of vegan sausages, beans, potatoes, tomato, and bread. We had this for two mornings in a row and they always brought us a vegan croissant each for free too! They did serve it on trays with butter and stuff that wasn’t vegan so be careful and check labels if you order it yourself.
For lunch that day we went to toad hall. I was itching to try the vegan fish and chips (or ‘breaded vegan’ as they call it) but it was closed on the first day when we went to go there for tea. Turns out that Toad Hall closes way before the park so check the opening hours if you intend on going there.
This is another fast-service type place which doesn’t fill me with the greatest joy but it was actually quite lovely and calm inside. There’s outside seating too if the weather is nice. There are some juice little nooks to sit in and we sat in one that only had about four tables so it never felt too busy or noisy. Plus the little one could go in a high chair for an added bonus. I’ll get to what she ate at the end of the post.
The fish and chips were ok. It wasn’t amazing, I’ve had better, but I’m so glad they offer something like this. It was a nice change from pasta.
They do have things like pasta at Colonel Hathi’s which we got last time and various chili and spicy things which just aren’t my vibe. Check out this Instagram account for some major tips.
For snacks, we alternated between an offering of two vegan cookies. They had apricot and chocolate hazelnut. Both were lovely, the apricot one was perfection! We had them both the full days we were there. Yum!
For our tea, we went to Vapiano’s in the Disney Village. We were absolutely lost on what to do. I’m really glad they have that place. We got it to take away too which was super handy.
Day three was our second full day. We had the hotel room service breakfast again. Absolute winner.
For lunch, we were at the Studio’s park today so we had a hot dog with cheese and onions. I didn’t enjoy it but my partner thought it was nice. I really wish I had booked into PYM Kitchen as that actually looked to have some cool options but it was booked up. Everywhere else we ate we were able to book on the day apart from there.
They have a few food trucks called Hollywood and Lime in this park and one of them has quite an extensive vegan menu. They had falafel and magnums, etc. worth noting for snack time.
We also got a tub of mango for our baby from one of the random food carts in the park. Finally some fruit!!
For tea today, in our desperation, we booked into Cape Cod at our hotel. An all-you-can-eat buffet-type situation. Fully prepared to be ripped off and only be able to get pasta if even that. The staff seemed to be giving mixed messages (even the chefs) as to whether anything was vegan or not. Luckily this was the greatest place to eat of them all. Plenty of stuff was labelled and we were actually able to fill a plate (or two). We even had puddings!!! AND…. Drum roll please… they had bananas. We may have taken a few bananas.
We ATE AND ATE THAT night. I 100% recommend it. The menu is always changing but you can get in and take a good look around then change your mind if you need to. We were fully prepared to do that.
For our final day, we only needed breakfast and we had a lot of bananas so we were good! There are only so many room service breakfasts a person can take.
If you do get stuck for lunches and snacks don’t forget you can head over to Pret in the train station. They have a good selection of fruit (although they were sold out of bananas when we went) and some snack pots at the very least.
About the baby.
My baby was a week from turning one, still on her formula milk, and doing baby-led weaning. Finding food for her was hard. I took some food pots and tried to pick up fruit where I could but there was little variety and availability.
We got by but the ‘Mum guilt’ was immense and she had more than her fair share of apple purées which was all I could find at some (not many) food places in the parks. I thought they would be more readily available for sure as it says on the website that baby food is offered at Disney hotels but ours didn’t have any. They had spoons or whatever but no food at all. The concierge sent us to the shop for it and the shop sent us right back to the concierge. Like I say, we got by but only because I took a bunch of food pots. She basically had those, some Vapiano pasta, apple purées, and then wolfed down strawberries and bananas from the buffet of the last day. Everyone’s situation will be different depending on what you feed your child, etc, but I thought it was worth mentioning as info is hard to find both for adults and children alike.
Disneyland Paris has certainly improved their vegan options and has some really great offerings. It’s so nice to see things being added all the time and it’s going to be so much to go in the future and not have to take time to struggle to find food and just be immersed in the magic of Disney.
