I have had a lot of people ask me some of my best tips for a good Disneyland trip, so I thought I would share some of the things we do that make our trips easier, less stressful, and more fun. So here we go. First things first:
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T WAIT
DO NOT tell yourself to “wait til your kids are old enough to remember it”. There is nothing more magical than watching a toddler meet a princess for the first time, or ride winnie the poo or pinocchio or dumbo or any fantasyland or kiddie ride for the first time. They may not remember their whole trip, but they will remember snippets and the feelings they felt while on a fun-filled vacation with their family. And they will remember it until the next time they go because they will be asking you to go again for years and trust me, that will keep the memory alive and stoked for a while. (And also kids under 3 are free soooo…..no harm no foul right?)
DO NOT tell yourself to “wait til you don’t need a stroller”. A stroller at Disney is YOUR SECRET WEAPON! Especially if you go in the winter or fall when you will want jackets once it gets dark. If you don’t want to lug around the biggest backpack ever, you will love having your stroller with you. It’s the perfect pack wagon for snacks, jackets, spare changes of clothes, water bottles, blankets/mats for watching parades, glow sticks (for parades!), souvenirs, etc. I’ll make a packing list too but trust me. Packing up a stroller with the essentials is a huge help. PLUS getting kids from place to place in a stroller saves a killer amount of time. Not having to drag a kid around on foot saves so much grief and whining and TIME. I will probably use a stroller until my kids are like 7 or 8!!
CHOOSE YOUR DATES. I have made a solemn vow to NEVER go to Disney in the summer or during spring or winter break. Disney is crowded enough now, that it’s pretty full even in the off-season. Going during busy season means you will literally have like 10 inches of personal bubble space and will certainly be moving along at a slow shuffle in a densely packed crowd of people. Maybe when you have older kids that could be doable, but with little tinies, it sounds like a nightmare. I realize that makes things tough for school-aged children, but i try to work around random 3 day weekends (that aren’t national holidays) or parent/teacher conference time, etc, and just take the kids out of school for 2 or 3 days. You will have such a better time and your stress levels will take a significant dip. The best way to find good dates to go is through crowd counting sites. I always use isitpacked.com. The last week of January or February are great and the first and second (and MAYBE third) weeks of May are great as well. You dodge winter break, spring break, summer vacation, and the holidays with those dates. I’ve never planned for first semester before but if that works best for you, make sure you check isitpacked.com first.
CHOOSE YOUR LODGING. If you are looking for a splurge, you can choose to stay on site. It’s often convenient (depending on which hotel you choose, some are less convenient than off-site accommodations), you get early park access, and great views from your hotels. BUT if you choose this, prepare to pay 400-650 dollars per night. If you want to save money, STAY ON HARBOR BOULEVARD (the street the entrance is on). Most hotels on Harbor are within half a mile/.75 miles from the park, making it easy to just walk in, and are half the price of staying on-site. Some offer breakfast, saving time and money to grab and go before you leave, and some have fridges and tables in the room so you can just buy cereal or yogurt etc to eat in the morning. Make sure you check reviews before you go though, they are not all created equal. I like to use trip advisor, google reviews tend to all be really high and don’t weed out the seedy ones.
BUY YOUR TICKETS. First, check on the Disneyland website to see if there are any promotional deals or sales. This can save you hundreds. You HAVE to check the website though, because they don’t show up on the app, and they don’t automatically redirect you to the deal if you buy over the phone, you have to ask about the deal. We checked this time, and saved over 500 dollars. You can always link your tickets to your phone once you buy them through other channels. ALWAYS use the app to link your tickets to the app so you can use your phone to get into the park. In my opinion, the best tickets worth buying are MaxPass Park Hoppers. We have done 4 day one-park-per-day once, and 3 day MaxPass Park Hoppers twice, and will only do it that way from here on out. Mainly because you can do all FastPasses on your phone this way (you have to get physical ones if you don’t have a MaxPass), and because all of your park photos are included with a MaxPass. Having to run all over the park to find FastPasses is exhausting and wildly inefficient, and hard to keep track of which ones you can get at which times. It also allows you into the park an hour early on tuesdays and thursdays (Disney only, not CA Adventure). HOWEVER! If your kids are less than 40” tall, and you want to save money, you probably won’t need most FastPasses, so a MaxPass may not be necessary. The only FastPasses available to rides for kids under 40” are Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Toy Story Midway Mania, and Small World, and those lines are pretty tame (except Midway Mania. That line is always INSANE!!!!).
BUDGET. 3 day MaxPass ParkHoppers for a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids, everyone over 3) are around $1500 total (we bought on sale this time so we only paid $1000! It was AWESOME!). Most hotels within walking distance are between $190-$350 per night, depending on star level and time of year. We typically eat at the park for lunch and dinner, and buy treats here and there throughout the day, and each get a souvenir for $30 or less. Food/souvenirs/gas usually total around 600-700 dollars for our family of four for 3 park days. We always drive, but flying is obviously another expense to factor in. We used points for our hotel stay this time, so our whole trip was only about 1600 dollars! I feel like the bargain queen.
That’s it for my prep tips! Check my next post for what to pack!
No comments:
Post a Comment