You have booked your flight, right? I hope that you booked it going into John Wayne/Orange County. That’s seriously the best airport for anything in the Disney area. LAX is crazy and not worth the stress. Not to mention it is much farther away.
The first thing you need to do is find a hotel. You can stay at one of the gorgeous, convenient resort hotels on the property but, I heard there is a 5-day limit and I checked prices, they are ALWAYS insane! Disneyworld, however, has many affordable hotels on site for as little as $99 a night (oops we are still talking about DL not DW). Anyhow, there are many decent hotels all around Disneyland. I recently stayed at the Sheraton, but it was just a little too far for me to stay again. If you have younger kids I would recommend staying at the Howard Johnson Anaheim on Harbor Blvd. It is directly across the street from Disneyland, literally walking distance and they have a shuttle if you don’t feel like walking. They also have a super cool waterpark for kids. It has slides pools, and all sorts of fun things to keep your kids busy for hours. Since it is on Harbor Blvd. there are lots of restaurants within walking distance (unlike the Sheraton). There is an Ihop, Tony Romas, McD’s and several other restaurants within a 5-minute walk. Not to mention you are right across from Downtown Disney, the motherland of all fun restaurants. I think it’s important to have a decent hotel that is close by because you will need a midday break somewhere close by and something for your kids to do while you rejuvenate to prepare for round 2 at Disneyland. If you are one of the lucky ones, perhaps your kids will even take a nap. I am not so lucky.
Now that you have a place to stay, you need to think TRANSPORTATION around and to Disneyland. I often travel as a single parent and LA is no place for a single tourist with impatient kids to be driving a rental car. I recommend taking a shuttle from the airport. I LOVE Disneyland Resort Express. It’s $48 round-trip and your kids are free (up to 3 per adult). It picks up at the airport every hour and is a straight shot to your hotel. When your trip is over it picks up every hour and is a straight shot back to the airport. It’s $48 round-trip from LAX and I think it’s even cheaper from John Wayne airport. You don’t need a reservation ahead of time and they even play a Disney movie on the way to the hotel. Don’t be fooled though. There are many “Disney Express VANS” driving around trying to imposter the real deal. The real Disney Express will ALWAYS be a big giant coach bus and there are Disney decals on the side, right now it’s CARS themed. Anyhow, you can’t beat $48 for transportation that is comfortable, convenient, efficient safe and stress free. Once less thing for me to worry about. You won’t need any transportation if you are staying in a hotel near Disneyland because most hotels have their own shuttles everywhere. Most of the hotels charge for parking, so unless you are trying to see Hollywood or San Diego in the same trip, skip the car and skip the stress.
All right, most of your budget was already spent on your flight, your hotel and your transportation. Now it’s time to plan your fun on a budget. I have been looking for months and can’t find any great deals on Disneyland tickets. They never go on sale and there are never any deals or discounts. AAA/Costco has their tickets for $6 off, that’s not even worth my drive to the their office to get them. The best way I found to save money was to purchase Disney gift cards from Safeway using my Air miles credit card. I bought two hefty ones (Safeway only sells them up to $500). I used one to buy the tickets with and the other to buy all of our food, souvenirs, snacks and fun with. I was able to get 3 x the fuel points, plus earn airline miles. I earned so many fuel points that my next couple tanks of gas will be free. Thus, I really did save money, just in an indirect sort of way. I saved a lot more than I would have using AAA or Costco. A friend of mine used her Target “RED” card and got 5% back, and that will save you some money but not as much if you use those fuel points. If you think you will be able to go twice (or more) in the same year, get the annual pass.
Now that I have told you how to save money. Now it’s time to save you some time as well. First buy your tickets online before you go with the gift cards you got from Safeway. Disneyland will email your ticket to your smart phone. On the day of your arrival go through the gate and they will scan your phone right there-don’t go to the ticket booth, go straight to the gates, they will take your photo and you are in. They will give you a paper ticket at that time so you can get fast passes. I am still not sure why there are always lines at the ticket booths if most people get their tickets ahead of time, but there were lines all hours of the day at the booths. Not long lines, but expect to wait a bit if you don’t buy ahead of time. If you can’t decide what ticket to get, I recommend getting the Park Hopper option (add $40 per ticket, not per day) and getting the 3-day ticket, as there is not much of a price difference from the 3-day to the 2-day. The 3-day ticket will be enough to see it all and give you access to the Magic Mornings. The one and two day tickets don’t have the Magic Morning option. The Magic Morning option gets your into the parks one hour before opening, and trust me when I tell you that that 7:00-8:00 hour is golden. It will literally be the only time you don’t wait in lines and can run from ride to ride with a 5-10 minute wait time. If you plan on going on the super cool rides, you will need this option. Radiator Springs Racers will run out of fast passes within an hour of the park opening and the Frozen show in DL will be sold out in a couple of hours, so plan your day wisely. Another time saver is the Fast Pass. If you haven’t heard about the fast pass, it’s a ticket that lets you skip the line. There are special fast pass lines for all of the popular rides. The fast pass is tricky because you can only get one at a time for the most part. At the bottom of each fast pass it tells you the time you can go and get your next one. These fast passes will be the only things that keep you sane during the day when the lines are a mile long and they will truly dictate your schedule. One thing that I learned this trip is that the fast passes for the shows are different from the fast passes for the rides so you can hold them both simultaneously. You can also get a fast passes from California Adventure AND Disneyland at the same time. The next thing you can do to save time and money is to buy their Photo Pass. If you buy it ahead of time it’s $69.99(14 day advance purchase requirement) and if you buy it day of it’s $99.99. It’s fabulous! If you buy it ahead of time they will mail you a redemption certificate. Once you are into the park there is a photo shop that you can go into and get your pass. Everywhere you see a Disney photographer they will scan your pass and take your photo. At the end of your trip you have EVERY single picture that was taken at the park for FREE. You own all the rights so you can print them out for a decent price. They even give you free hard copies if you have any meals with the characters. This pass pays for itself in just a few hours, let alone a few days. Another time saver is to splurge and do the character dining. You will get to see all of the characters in one place. This will free you up from waiting in long lines in the parks when you see characters. The Character breakfast at The Plaza in is the most affordable and right there on Main Street in DL. It has all of the traditional characters. They will take photos with you and sign autographs. They will each come to your table while you are eating. The only down side it is a breakfast buffet, but for a buffet it is VERY well done. It’s $30 for adults and $15 for kids and they have every breakfast item you can think of. If you want to see the princesses do lunch or dinner at Ariel’s Grotto. That was around $50 for adults and $20 for kids. You are guaranteed 4 princesses plus Ariel. They too, come to your table for autographs and photos. Between those two you should be able to see the most popular characters. Next time we are going to give Goofy’s Kitchen a try. The only reason we didn’t is because it was in a hotel and we were short on time. When making the reservations do these meals at odd times. You will get to see the characters for a longer amount of time AND if you plan a late breakfast or early lunch, you can get away with only buying two meals that day.
Another hint that you must take is “Take a midday break”. You will buy back time and energy if you can go back to your hotel from 1-5 or 12-4. This is the busiest time at the parks and you can avoid that chaos and come back later. You can take a nap, eat lunch and lay by the pool. It will revitalize your energy bank, rest your feet and let your kids rejuvenate. After a cool shower, fresh clothes and a couple hours of rest, I feel so much better and am ready to start over. The park is open until midnight and the later it gets, the lines dissipate. Midday is certainly the craziest. This is where the longest lines, most people and it is insanely hot.
I hope you enjoy Disneyland and California Adventure as much as I do. My 5 year old is in love with Disney and can’t stop talking about it. I know that her excitement for this park may dissipate in a few years, so if you have littles go now. I can do Mexico and Hawaii when she is a teenager, but for now I am going to cherish my time while she is still little.
