advice for trip in march, DL, new york, cruise, vegas!

[yoyo72yoyo72]

hi everyone we are taking the kids to disney in late march, kids are 11, 15 and 18. we took the eldest when he was 4 and the now 15 year old was a new born with their dad, long story but the trip didnt turn out as awesome as we hoped and hubby always vowed we would take them back.....again to make a long story short my lovely husband passed away 9 years ago and i have remarried and so im doing the big trip with the kids and now hubby #2 (who doesnt have any interest in anything disney unlike hubby #1) so want to make it totally awesome for them. we are staying at howard johnsons for 6 nights doing DL and 1 day at knotts. then off to NY doing a cruise on quantum of the seas, back to NY for 6 nights then off to vegas for 4 before going home. i would appreciate any cool places to go, must dos/sees and anything that will help keep costs down! ive heard about eating passes with soda? and whats the deal with front of the line tickets? also im yet to purchase disney tickets am i better off to get them now? will prices rise if i buy in 2015? also anyone know anything about the new york pass? and we also want to do an nba game in NY not sure where to buy tickets?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Welcome to the Dis and the ANZAC section of the boards.


That's a great trip you have planned with the family and I wish you happy planning.

Are you planning on spending all 6 days fully in Disneyland? Or do you plan to get out and about to see a bit more of SoCal during that time? If you are planning on getting out and about...did you rent a car?

Aside from Disneyland there are other theme parks in SoCal that you could go to. It just depends on what your family is interested to see.


There are a number of restaurant chains that might be worth signing up to. One of them is Laudry's (which is a casino chain as well but there are a number of restaurants in their portfolio). You will get a $25 welcome card and if anyone has a birthday during your travel duration, you might also get another $25. I think you might want to check out the fineprint for how long the cards are valid for and perhaps sign up closer towards your departure time?

ESPN also do something similar and there are probably a few others out there that do the same.

I tend to look for hotels that include breakfast in their room rate. That usually helps keep some of the food costs down. Otherwise, we have no issues in getting cereal and fruit from the supermarket and eating in the room.

I haven't bought a Disneyland ticket in a while and my research is a bit dated. Someone else will probably have more up to date info to share.

The city passes are usually fantastic value if you check out which attractions you want to do and see if they are included in the city passes. I bought a NY one in 2007 and it worked out great for my family.



Good luck with your plans.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Welcome aboard. While at DL with 6 days take advantage of eating outside of the parks in some of the places along the road between Howard Johnson's and Gardenwalk. Mimi's cafe right next door used to have very good meal deals and lots of food for example. Several places to choose from and cheaper than eating in Disney especially if you come back for a swim for the afternoon and eat an evening meal outside the parks. But others who have several children may have better advice than me (with only 1). Anaheim/Orange County coupons website has discount coupons too. Print out just before you go to get the non expired discounts. (see anaheimoc.org).

Plan your time in DL -what you might like to see most, see things in the one area not rush to and fro in the parks, learn about using Fastpasses to minimise queues, avoid the crowds between 12 and 3 by going back to the hotel for a swim and lunch, and that way hubby might enjoy it more than he thinks rather than standing in the heat or being jostled in lots of queues.

I see you have NY and a cruise in there too! For NY there are several passes, decide what you will most likely do then research which pass is the best deal for you. Tripadvisor has lots of info comparing the assorted NY passes. I forget which one is which but I know one was much better value unless you were planning on fitting in a ton of stuff. I haven't been to an NBA game but others who frequent the boards have and no doubt will advise you. Happy planning!

 

[yoyo72yoyo72]

we are not planning on venturing into LA at all will be doing some shopping at citadel? there, will be spending as much time at the 2 disney parks as possible and just doing the one day at knots for the more extreme rides for the kids. we didn't get breaky with the room unfortunately but we were going to go to the supermarket and get lots of junk (lol we are on holiday with teenage boys) all my son is worried about is easting himself sick on twinkles! i still don't understand these ride pass things, do you have to buy them how do they work?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Disneyland offers fast pass (FP) on some of their rides. Disneyland does not charge extra for guests to use the FP system.
There will be a list of rides that the FP system applies to. I'm sure you can easily google for it rather than us listing them all out for you.

For FP rides, there will be a board that will provide you with the wait time for the stand-by queue as well as the RETURN time for the FP. You will need to decide whether you want to get a FP or get in the stand-by queue.

Assuming that you pull a FP, the paper FP that you will get will look like this.






You need to take note of the return window of your FP. You need to be back at that ride between that return window. Disney Cast Members now check your end time. If you are later than that time, they will turn you away.


The other time to take note of is the time you got your FP. You cannot get another FP until the start of your return time or 2 hours after you got that FP; whichever comes first.

There used to be exceptions to the rule at Disneyland. The exceptions used to be a FP for World of Colour and Radiator Spring Racers. These were 'independent' to the wider FP system although I have the recollection that I read that they have now linked RSR back to the wider system so it may just be WoC. There is also the Fantasmic! Fast Pass that was recently added. I haven't read up on it or done any research. I don't know if that is also 'independent' to the wider FP system or not. What this means is that you can pull a FP for these 'independent' attractions and immediately get another FP (the 2 hour or start of your return time rule does not apply to these independent attractions).

Also, I haven't checked up on it lately or tested it out but the FP systems for California Adventure is separate to that for Disneyland park. So, you could park hop from one to the other and hold a FP ticket for rides in both parks without having that rule apply. But you might want to check if this is still the case or not.


For attractions that offer FP, there will be a machine that you can get the passes from. In order to claim the passes, you need to insert your park ticket into the slot and the machine will spit out the pass. One pass for each valid ticket.
A ticket is considered valid if the holder of the ticket has entered the park i.e., adults have had their fingerscanned completed at the turnstiles and the ticket scanned for that day entry.


The key things are that someone in your group needs to read up and understand the rules and attractions that a FP is offered. They also need to keep watch on the time that you have pulled a FP and be prepared to be a 'FP runner' to claim your next FP. That runner needs to hold everyone's valid ticket.

Have fun!

ps. It will all seem really easy once you've pulled your first FP.

 

[Montanabel]

hi everyone we are taking the kids to disney in late march, kids are 11, 15 and 18. we took the eldest when he was 4 and the now 15 year old was a new born with their dad, long story but the trip didnt turn out as awesome as we hoped and hubby always vowed we would take them back.....again to make a long story short my lovely husband passed away 9 years ago and i have remarried and so im doing the big trip with the kids and now hubby #2 (who doesnt have any interest in anything disney unlike hubby #1) so want to make it totally awesome for them. we are staying at howard johnsons for 6 nights doing DL and 1 day at knotts. then off to NY doing a cruise on quantum of the seas, back to NY for 6 nights then off to vegas for 4 before going home. i would appreciate any cool places to go, must dos/sees and anything that will help keep costs down! ive heard about eating passes with soda? and whats the deal with front of the line tickets? also im yet to purchase disney tickets am i better off to get them now? will prices rise if i buy in 2015? also anyone know anything about the new york pass? and we also want to do an nba game in NY not sure where to buy tickets?

What a wonderful holiday for you and your family.

As Aussie Wendy said, there are plenty of places to go eat outside of the Disneyland Resort that are cheaper than in the park. We always make at least one visit to the Cheescake Factory. It looks nothing like the one in the Big Bang Theory but the servings are huge and quite often I just order a slice of cheesecake for dinner, but even then I can't finish it. But perhaps your teenagers will have better luck

New York is fantastic. Not sure if any of your family are interested in comics or superheros, but when we were there last year we did 'The Superhero Walking Tour of New York' and got to see where a number of superhero films were filmed (Avengers, Spiderman, Ghostbusters, Superman) as well as buildings were famous comic book writers had lived. If anyone in your family is interested in comics, I can highly recommend it, its about a 2.5 hour tour.

We also went and saw the Yankees play at Yankee Stadium (we were there in mid April). We bought our tickets from 'Stubhub' who sell tickets to a number of different sporting events (and concerts) in the US. Over the years I have bought tickets to see a number of baseball games in a couple of different cities and never had any issues.

In Las Vegas I enjoyed shopping but kept the kids entertained with trips to M&M World and Pet Comedy Theatre (I should add my kids are younger than yours). DH went off to a shooting range on one morning and on another he went to the Mob Museum. Be warned they have photos from crime scenes (so a bit too adult for my kids) but he found it really interesting. DH and I also renewed our wedding vows so that was a bit special (and funny).

 

[elphaba91]

I'm just back from New York and Disneyland, so I'll give what tips I have.

We got the New York Pass. I haven't done the maths yet to see if it was worth it financially (but I think it was off the top of my head), but we did a lot of things that we mightn't have done otherwise, simply because they were included on the pass, and they ended up being some of our favourite things.

We did a walking tour of Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown and it was fantastic; we wish we'd done the walking tours of other neighbourhoods too. We also loved the Radio City Music Hall Tour, although that was extra special at Christmastime as we got to see the decorations, watch some of the Christmas Spectacular and meet a Rockette! The Circle Line Cruise was also fantastic, although in retrospect I would only do the half island rather than the full island. However, you can see the Statue of Liberty from the free Statten Island ferry.

If you want to see a Broadway show (or six) there are a few different ways to get discounted tickets. I would highly recommend the TodayTix app as you can buy them a few days in advance and don't have to stand in a queue. The most popular option is probably the TKTS booth in Times Square, which has great deals but long queues. Last is from the theatre itself; each show has different rush and lottery policies so I would look them up online in advance. Your odds of getting cheap tickets depends on the show, so I would keep your options open if you want to get discounts.

For Disneyland, definitely look for a hotel with breakfast and fill up! We found we only really needed a snack and then one meal. It is also cheaper to eat outside the park and we unfortunately found that even McDonald's was better than a lot of the quick service options available.

I would also look outside the park for some souvenirs (not all of them, of course!), especially if the kids want things for their friends. Target had cute Disney keyrings for $2, which was a lot cheaper than $8+ at the park. I would also look at the Disney store in Times Square as we found some amazing deals that were WAY cheaper than what was in the park (although that was the Black Friday sale...before Thanksgiving...). Both the Disney Store and Disneyland did have purchase with purchase discounts available, so if you spend a certain amount you can buy a certain item at a discount. I got a $30 ornament for $10 in NYC and a $40 throw for $20 at Disneyland. However, if you see something you love at Disneyland, don't wait, buy it then and there! There were a few items that we saw everywhere the first couple of days, but when we went to buy them they were sold out. Nice women's clothing seemed particularly rare (and the men's just didn't fit right), so if you see something snap it up!

I will be doing a trip report soon, so hopefully might give you some more ideas and tips in there!

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Welcome to the boards!

I'm not much help with Disneyland (all though I do remember there is a great Mexican restaurant just outside the gates).

I recommend stocking up on bananas, apples and granola bars for your room and on while the move, just to make sure everyone is getting some vitamins in while in the land of soda, salt and cheese! LOL.

Buy the memory maker package for all your ride and other photos in the park (I assume Disneyland has this, I know WDW does)

In NYC, the hop on hop off buses are great for your first trip.

Make sure you take your ID and go to the visitors centre at Macys and Bloomindales for an additional discount card.

Century 21 was good for shopping as well. Take a walk over the Manhattan bridge and come back across the Brooklyn bridge (you'll be close to Century 21 that way, and the 9-11 memorial - wall street and battery park aren't much more of a walk from there either). This will probably take you 2 hours and you'll get some great photos.

Be brave and take the subway, it is a great way to get around (free wifi on the system). I second the Statten Island ferry for great shots of the statue.

If you haven't done the landmarks, empire state, top of the rock or the park, get the pass that includes them all. The Guggenheim is great, as is the Met, but allow a stack of time for them, especially the Met, it is huge.

Check out Bryant Park (free wifi) and a whole lot more. I'm retiring there so I can see it all. LOL.

With broadway and sports tickets, we found that going to the actual box office worked for us for good tickets, but I know there are a stack of other ways to buy as well.

If you like Italian food, check out Eataly - if you are at the flatiron building, you are almost on top of it!

If the boys are into graffiti, NYC is home to many famous Banksy artworks, perhaps look them up and you can point them out and be the cool mum! ;-)

Do the highline if you get a chance - starts in the meat packing district and goes down to the waterfront. will take about an hour to walk.

in Vegas make sure you register for the Premium outlets VIP coupon before you leave and get your additional discount at the shops. The Duce Bus seems an effective way to get up and down the strip from what we saw.

HTH, you'll have a great time!