Disneyland Paris - Sequoia Lodge

This is important to know about me: I am a huge Disney nerd. My family visited Disney World frequently when I was a kid, I worked there for almost two years during and after college and grad school, and I’ve gone back multiple times as an adult. I’ve always dreamed of going to all of the Disney parks worldwide, and one of the reasons I chose to go to France alone in November was because I knew none of the friends I’ve traveled with before would want to spend time at Disneyland Parc. Then my mom and sister and brother jumped on the bandwagon and it turned into a 2/3 family vacation.

We wanted to stay on site to make the most of what we figured was a once-in-a-lifetime trip there, so we chose the Sequoia Lodge. I’m a huge fan of the Wilderness Lodge at WDW, as well as the real National Park lodges out west that it’s based off of, so I was pretty excited since this seemed to be a close approximation of those. The lobby was pretty and well-themed, but lacked some of the grandeur that the Wilderness Lodge has.

We took some family pictures by the lobby's Christmas decorations.

As WDW veterans, we were not surprised to have to check in with security when driving onto the property. We were unprepared to have to show proof of our reservation though and it took me several minutes to dig through my phone in search of the confirmation. (I was saved by Google’s new-ish Trip app, but that’s a story for another post.) They also required us to pop our trunk for a quick peek before we were let into the parking area.

I dropped my mom off so she could check in while the rest of us parked the car. When the rest of us came in we were surprised to find more security there. My sister and I had to put our purses through an x-ray machine and we were all wanded with a metal detector before being allowed to enter the building. The security was a little off-and-on, so when we came back in hauling our large suitcases, no one was manning the checkpoint and we just walked in. The whole thing felt like security theater., which I hate. The whole thing just felt silly since none of the other doors even had key card locks to limit access to registered guests.

Other than the security show making me roll my eyes a little, we were thrilled with the hotel. One evening, we wandered through the Hotel New York and Hotel Cheyenne and were even more happy with our decision. The interior theming at the New York hotel was almost non-existent (although I thought the outdoor ice skating rink a la Rockefeller Center was a nice touch for Christmas) aside from some large apples decorating the check in counter. I liked the theming at Cheyenne a lot, but it’s very spread out and would’ve been a long walk to/from breakfast and the parks.

We woke up to snow flurries on the first morning.

We had had to make some modifications to our reservation to add my brother who decided to come at the last minute, and somehow while calling the reservation line my mom got us upgraded to a Golden Forest room at no extra cost. This entitled us to a special check-in area (basically there was a desk and chairs you could sit down at and a bowl of Disney chocolate coins that I may or may not have taken a whole pocketful of), guaranteed room in the main lodge, an upgraded breakfast, access to a lounge with free pop, water, and hot beverages in the evening, and an extra Fastpass per person for each day of our stay.

Having the room in the main lodge was by far the best aspect of it. We didn’t realize until the second night that there were separate buildings that had exterior walkways. This wouldn’t be an issue in the summer, but it was cold when we were there.

I also enjoyed the upgraded breakfast. I don’t really have a frame of reference for what it compares to, but the scrambled eggs were way better than the usual breakfast buffet ones, and I had about three helpings of perfectly cooked bacon each morning. We didn’t get much of a chance to use the lounge in the evening, but I did discover on the second night that they would give you cans of pop and bottles of water to take back to your room, so I walked out with an armful of drinks to share with the family.

Our room had a perfect view of the parks and getting to see the landmarks when we first checked in was incredibly exciting. On our second night, after the parks closed, there was some kind of special fireworks and “bonfire” presentation on the lagoon outside of the hotel. Instead of standing outside in the cold for another hour, we just went up to our room and watched from the window in our nice, toasty room.

The room was large by European standards and had plenty of room for the four of us. Our only complaint was the lack of outlets. There were only three places to plug things in in the room, and one of the outlets was controlled by the master light switch so it couldn't be used when the lights were off at night. If you’re planning on traveling with a larger group, bring power strips or splitters because plugging in all of our phones, cameras, Fitbits, and other assorted electronics was a challenge.

We never hit up the bar in the lobby, but it had a roaring fire and was packed with people who looked like they were having a fantastic time. Instead, we spent our only real evening there attempting to use the pool. The Sequoia Lodge is the only place I’ve stayed at in Europe that actually has an indoor pool. We had to walk (run, actually) outside to get to the pool building. The map of the hotel we’d gotten when we checked in made it look like it was an enclosed walkway to get there, but it was not. And it was very cold. You entered the pool area through a locker room that had showers and a sauna, and for some unexplained reason a bunch of men were wandering through all of the changing areas.

I thought the pool area was very pretty and I liked the fake rock formation that housed the waterslide. My mom and sister were not pleased that you had to swim through the pool to get to the hot tub though. I found it a bit perplexing, but I went for a quick swim anyway. The hot tub ended up not being as hot as I’m used to and having to jump in the cool pool to get out of it kind of negated the effect, but I would’ve spent some more time there if the others hadn’t been waiting for me to leave. I settled for a couple runs down the waterslide and we headed back to the room. I had brought my waterproof camera on the trip just for this pool, but I sadly discovered that it does not work well indoors at all. I've gotten some gorgeous shots with it at several different beaches, but this was the first time I had used it inside. I didn't end up with a single usable picture, sadly.

The hotel also has a great luggage storage area outside of the lobby and they took our crazy amount of luggage with no problem. We found out as we were rushing to leave that there was a quick shuttle from the hotel entrance to the train station, which saved us from having to powerwalk all the way there and try to figure out how to put our giant suitcases through the tiny bag scanners at the entrance to Disney Village.

I would definitely recommend the Sequoia Lodge if you're planning on staying on-site at Disneyland Paris. It seems to have the best combination of theming and location, and was pretty reasonably priced compared to the higher-end resorts at the American Disney parks.

Read more about our trip to France, Belgium, and Luxembourg:

• Caen and Bayeux, France
• Arromanches-les-Bains
• American Normandy - Omaha Beach
• Disneyland Paris - Disney Village