Being Vegan in Disneyland Paris | What I Eat in a Day

Eating vegan can be a challenge at the best of times, but is especially difficult in Disneyland. It took a lot of planning and, although some mistakes were made, I did my best and learned from my experiences. Here’s what I ate:

We arrived in the mid-afternoon on Monday, so only really had one meal there. We had been travelling for most of the day however (myself in particular, as I was coming from Newcastle rather than Southampton), so we’d already eaten a fair bit that day. The day before we had both stocked up on snacks, and I had made a risotto which I brought with me to have for lunch on the train over. Having travelled down to London the night before, I got myself the vegan breakfast burrito from a Starbucks as I made my way over to St. Pancras. I do my best not to buy from Starbucks normal (if they paid their taxes it might be a different story), but I also want to show support for their new vegan range and this burrito was almost too good to be true!

After an evening in the park, we then headed over to Vapiano in the Disney Village - a European restaurant chain which we’d heard had some good vegan Italian food. Sure enough, they had some vegan pasta options, but I ended up having one of their veggie pizzas without cheese. It was honestly so tasty, and much more than I was expecting to get – you could watch them making them, which is always fun. The system was a little confusing, as we had to scan a card at each food station as we ordered and then scanned it at the end to pay, but we managed it in the end. I’m easily confused. 

When we returned to the hotel after a bit more time spent in the park, we had some of the Tesco Dark Chocolate Digestives I had brought with me.

As we didn’t have breakfast included at our hotel (it didn’t look like it would be very vegan friendly so we decided against it), we had some energy bars on our way into the park for the day. They did the job well enough. 

That day we had booked ourselves a table at Chez Remy in the Studios, and it was lovely. The restaurant is Ratatouille themed and was so cute. All around us were massive pieces of crockery, cutlery, plants, and even a copy of Gusteau’s Anyone Can Cook which was about twice my height. We had a great time just walking through to our table!

For the starter, we had the soup of the day, which was carrot, as well as the bits of bread that came beforehand. The soup normally came with a splodge of cream cheese in, but I obviously had mine without that. 

Then for the main, I had a vegetable and tofu navarin, basically vegetables and tofu cooked in some kind of sweet oily sauce. As I ate it I wondered whether or not there was butter in there, and I still have no clue and wish I’d asked before I’d ordered. I decided not to make a big deal of it however, as my body isn’t intolerant to lactose yet so I wouldn’t have a reaction later, and I did my best and would know to be more vigilant in the future. I guess I’ll never know exactly. It was delicious though, even with its price (I paid €38 for the meal and a drink, and, after the accommodation and travel, it was the main expense of the trip by itself). 

We stayed in the Studios and then the Disney Park for the rest of the day in order to make the most of the rides and see the fireworks, so had to get some food there. We ended up getting a portion of chips for about €3.50 I think. I won’t lie, they were kind of small and kind of cold but they were food and we didn’t have many options at that point. We also shared the pack of salted pistachio nuts I’d brought along with me from the UK as a snack. Snacks from home are such a necessity going to Disneyland and if you’re going soon and will be eating vegan there, make sure you bring plenty. 

After eating our chips and people watching around the castle, we then headed over to Victoria’s for and iced tea. They had four different flavours and were so tasty. I can’t remember the price right now, but I think they were somewhere between €5-7.50. They were so tasty and I will definitely get another if I go back anytime soon.

Whilst waiting for the fireworks to start, we bought ourselves a bucket of candyfloss to share – as always, fabulous (although we didn’t finish it all, we were too busy crying at lights). 

Our breakfast on our last day was similar to before – cereal and energy bars, and a stop off at the Starbucks at our hotel (I didn’t get anything but I did notice that they had options for non-dairy drinks – only soya milk, but it’s still an option). 

We left around 2ish, so had enough time for lunch before we got our train. We went to Fuente del Oro, a Mexican Restaurant in the Disney Park, not too far from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We’d seen a vegetable chilli on their menu when we walked past it on our first day, and made a mental note to come back before we left. I ordered the chilli and Amy ordered loaded fries. Despite not stating on the menu, mine came with some cheese melted on top along with what seemed like cheesy nachos. I did my best to scrape as much of it as I could onto Amy’s plate (please take note of the before and after images down below), but I must have consumed some bits of cheese accidentally. Despite this, it was absolutely lush and really filling. I would definitely recommend, just make sure you ask for no cheese even if it doesn’t say anything cheese-related on the menu!

how it came originally

after I'd removed as much cheese and nachos as possible

After lunch, we had a little more time left to go on Space Mountain a few more times, and then got our train back to London, where we made use of the combo of a student discount and Green Wednesdays to get a cheap Yo! Sushi meal at St. Pancras before properly heading home. 

I hope this has been useful. For me, whilst planning this trip, vlogs and blogs were my main source of information and advice when figuring out how I was going to survive as a vegan in Disneyland – a task which can seem a little impossible when you don’t know your facts. My main pieces of advice would be:

1) To always ask about ingredients, even when the menu doesn’t mention animal products, they sneak in everywhere.

2) Bring plenty of your own snacks. You know what’s vegan and you may need a little boost every now and again. I brought lots and I’m glad I did, even if I didn’t finish my biscuits entirely. 

3) Do your research but don’t get too caught up in sticking to the plan. Know where to go as a backup, but also keep an eye out for any options which may have vegan potential – you never know where they may pop up.

4) Don’t stress. It’s okay to make mistakes – hell, I made loads of slip-ups on this trip but I tried my best and that’s all I can do. It’s all a learning curve, take the mistakes you make into your stride and use them to do better next time. Disneyland is also a place where it becomes very difficult to avoid waste. I had my trusty reusable water bottle (and definitely made the most of it) and it did my best elsewhere, but it was generally more difficult to reduce waste. We were given paper straws with our drinks at Victoria’s, which made me very happy, and had less waste when we ate in at Chez Remy’s, but apart from that most places had disposable wrapping. Again, it’s about doing your best where you can. 

If you liked this post you might like: OOTD // 3 Days of Disney Bounding

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