Disney Hotels - Cheyenne vs. Santa Fe
We’ve taken 3 trips where we’ve booked packages through Disney and we’ve stayed in the Cheyenne Hotel twice, and the Santa Fe hotel once. This post is to help you decide where to stay when you visit!
Why stay in a Disney hotel?
We are big fans of staying onsite at Disneyland Paris, mainly because of the meal plan, the ease of getting into the parks, the free parking, and the ability to meet Disney Characters in your hotel lobby!
If, however, your budget doesn’t stretch to a Disney hotel, you can enjoy a number of Disney’s partner hotels close by which also have shuttle bus services to the parks, and you can still purchase a Disney meal plan if you are staying in those hotels.
Disney’s Hotel Cheyenne
Hotel Cheyenne is a 3 star hotel at Disneyland Paris kitted out in Toy Story theming! However, it’s only really the rooms and the decor that give off the Toy Story vibe. There is very little difference for example in the Character meet and greets that you get as the same characters tend to do the rounds in each of the Disney Hotels, and these can change with the seasons! For example, in our Christmas Disneyland Paris trip, you could also meet Santa (Père Noël) at breakfast in the hotel on Christmas Day!
So although this is a 3 star hotel, in reality, you’re not going to be spending much time in it. This is our rating based on what you ACTUALLY need from a hotel at Disneyland Paris.
Cleanliness: 5/5 - the hotel is always clean, the beds are always made while you’re out at the parks, and really the cleanliness cannot be faulted at all!
Food: 4/5 - it’s nothing special, but it IS really good for fussy kids!
Staff: 5/5 - Disney’s staff are pretty much always top notch, if you need anything, you’ll have no trouble finding someone to help you.
Comfort: 4/5 - the rooms are pretty basic, but you are going to be SO TIRED from full days of Disney fun that sleeping should not be a problem!
Overall: 4.5/5 - we genuinely loved staying here and had an amazing time! Yes the more expensive hotels have a pool and Cheyenne doesn’t, but honestly, we wouldn’t have had time to use a pool anyway with all those rides to be getting on. However, given that Cheyenne is now rated the same as Disney’s Sequoia Lodge, I certainly wouldn’t say no to having those extras if the price was coming out the same as a stay at Hotel Cheyenne! Given the choice between the two at the same cost, I probably would choose Sequoia Lodge, but there is nothing wrong with Cheyenne at all.
Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe
Hotel Santa Fe is a 2 star Disney hotel with a Cars theming throughout. We stayed here for our Christmas 2018 trip (linked above) and had an amazing time. Santa Fe is the cheapest option of the onsite hotels, but we consider it to be on par with Hotel Cheyenne. There is really very little difference between the two except for the food and the theming!
So here’s our rankings for ACTUALLY useful things at Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe…
Cleanliness: 5/5 - again, Santa Fe is always clean, the beds are always made while you’re out at the parks, and just like in Cheyenne, the cleanliness cannot be faulted at all!
Food: 3/5 - not so good for fussy kids but better for adults! It has a 3 because the options are mainly Mexican themed foods and if you’re eating at the hotel every night, that can get a bit boring. It is worth noting that if you have a meal plan you can book to eat at other Disney hotels than your own too!
Staff: 5/5 - no difference from Cheyenne - Disney’s staff are brilliant as always.
Comfort: 4/5 - again, the rooms are pretty basic, but there is not really anything additional that you get in the rooms by staying in Hotel Cheyenne rather than Hotel Santa Fe. The beds are the same too as far as my tired eyes and body can remember!
Overall: 4.25/5 - it’s really only a marginal difference between Santa Fe and Cheyenne, and so, if you’re on a budget, we would say go for Santa Fe because it’s really no different to Cheyenne (which at the moment seems to be charge quite a lot more!
