In our most recent trip to Disneyland Paris, we stayed in Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe. As the cheapest of the onsite hotels, it’s no wonder that this more budget-friendly choice is popular with families, large groups and anyone watching their pennies. So what do you get in the rooms at Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe? We’re giving an introduction here in this blog!

Overview

Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe was originally designed to be themed around towns in the the American South-West. A refurbishment a few years back adapted this theming by making the resort themed around Disney and Pixar’s Cars films. As such this is the perfect place for avid fans of those films! This theming can be seen in the landscaping, the amenities, and of course in the rooms.

Finding your room

This is a pretty big hotel, with a lot of rooms crammed in (although it’s not the biggest on site by any measure – Newport Bay Club holds that honour). The rooms are all housed in 2, 3 or 4 storey buildings designed to look like they could be residences alongside the classic Route 66. To help people orientate themselves the resort has been split into 4 sections named after 4 of the Cars characters – Luigi, Mater, Sally and of course Lightning McQueen (or as he’s known in France, Flash McQueen). You can tell which area you’re in by the trim around the top of the buildings, the signage, and even the colour of the trash cans!

If you’re not sure what section your room is in though, each building is individually numbered so you can follow the numbering instead (although it’s not always that logical). Your room number consists of your building number, your floor, and then the number of your room on that building’s floor. So when we stayed there we were in building 46, in room 440 (the 40th room on the 4th floor). As such our room number was 46440. Each door has a clear room number on.

One thing I will say is within the buildings the corridors do all look pretty much the same, so make sure you’ve not wandered into the wrong building – we encountered some folks who had done just that!

Getting access to your room

When you check in you will received your Magic Pass, themed to Hotel Santa Fe. This little card not only acts as your room key, but also your park tickets, and will be the record of any dining credits you have. As such each person in your party will have one, linked to their name. Any of the cards for folks staying in the room will be able to open the door with their Magic Pass (handy if anyone wants to head back to the room early while others stay on in the parks).

It’s worth noting that for the power to come on in your room you need to insert one of the Magic Passes into the slot near the door while you’re in there. Remember to take it with you when you leave the room though as you’ll need it to get into the parks! (You might be able to use another card in the slot okay, honestly we didn’t try it).

What’s in the room?

If you’ve ever been in a Travelodge and thought ‘What this place needs is more traffic cone themed decor’ then boy do I have the resort for you!

Actually, that’s being a little unfair as Hotel Santa Fe has a lot more whimsy and charm than a Travelodge, but it’s worth remembering that this is the most value of the onsite hotels and as such the rooms going to be rather smaller and more basic than those you find in some of the other Disneyland Paris hotels.

Rooms at Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe are certainly on the small side. On one side as you enter the room you’ll have some shelving, complete with a hanging pole for clothes and a room safe. It’s really handy for storage for small cases, clothes and Disney purchases of course! On the other side when you enter will be the bathroom – it’s a single sink with counter top space, a toilet, and a bath / shower combo. Water pressure in the shower is okay but isn’t amazing. There is a hairdryer in the room attached to the wall, but honestly if you need one I’d bring your own. It’s not very powerful.

Beyond this you have the main space. It’s dominated by two double-beds, complete with runners featuring Cars characters and lighting fixtures above featuring traffic cones and number plates. Next to the beds on the wall is some Cars artwork. The curtains over the window feature traffic cones. It’s worth noting that the beds are European doubles, so may seem small to our American friends!

Opposite the beds you’ll find the TV above a three drawer dresser. There’s a cute traffic-cone lamp on the dresser. Next to this is a low chair.

The TV we had was a smart TV, so you could choose items to watch or stream to it if you prefer.

The last items in the room are your rubbish bin, and a little shelf ledge above an empty space that was obviously built for a fridge – but there isn’t one! You could use it as storage for a suitcase instead.

Around the top of the wall is a cute trim featuring license plates and Cars characters.

What are the beds like?

We found the beds reasonably comfortable. As someone used to memory foam I found it a bit firmer than I’d like. There’s also only one pillow supplied per person who could fit it in the room (so four in total). That means if you’re a two pillow person you’ll need to either pinch from elsewhere in the room (as we did as only two people), or ask housekeeping for more. The pillows were pretty comfy though.

I think the biggest thing folks might struggle with is the size, as an European double they are a bit compact, and as we have a king-sized bed at home we found them a bit small!

What isn’t in the room?

Notably not in the room is air conditioning! There’s a ceiling fan and a radiator, but no actual thermostat or air conditioning. We coped okay in a somewhat chilly November but I can imagine the rooms being pretty sweaty in the summer.

Also not in the room are any tea of coffee making facilities. To compensate for this Disney have stationed around the hotel hot drinks dispensers which you can access by touching your Magic Pass, and get two free drinks per person per day. The hot chocolate is pretty good! We expect this to change at some point with the addition of coffee machines in the rooms, as has already happened at Hotel Cheyenne.

Room views

Obviously your room view is going to depend on where in the hotel you are saying. We opted to choose a room nearer the river, which is the walking path to the parks. As a result we had a lovely river view! The downside though is that we were further from the hotel amenities like the restaurant.

We’d expect most rooms to have views of inner courtyards of the hotel, theming details, or car parking.

Would we recommend it?

The rooms at Hotel Santa Fe are pretty cheap (by Disney standards!) and cheerful. If you just want the onsite perks with a place to lie your head, or are balling on a budget, it’s a good choice. And Cars fans will love it!

The compact room size though might be a challenge over several nights with a larger family, especially if you’re planning on spending a lot of time at the resort. We admit we prefer the theming, and air conditioning, over at Hotel Cheyenne; but that is more expensive! If you go in expecting the more basic of the Disney hotels then the Hotel Santa Fe should fit the bill.

Have you stayed at Hotel Santa Fe? What did you think? Let us know!