Budget for 4-day Park Hopper trip!

[califlorican]

Hello! (edited now because trip has changed from 2 days to 2 half-days and 2 full days, and everything is paid for yay!)
We are on a budget, so I wanted to keep this as inexpensive as possible while still enjoying ourselves, since it's an early 1 year anniversary trip.


flight: $230 roundtrip for both of us
tickets: 3 day park hoppers with one day free on Orbitz- $530 for both after $20 cash back from ebates
hotel: Super 8 on Katella for $225 for 3 nights
Super shuttle to and from SNA airport: $40
food: $220 for $250 worth of gift cards, using discount target GC's and 5% Target discount
Total- $1245! It's all done and paid for, so we hopefully won't need to pay out of pocket for much.

 

[figment_jii]

I would recommend picking up or taking breakfast foods with you to be eaten in the motel room before heading the parks (if Castle Inn does not provide breakfast) to help save some money. In terms of dining, it depends on whether you're planning only quick service meals or any table service meals. I think you can get by with $100 per day for the two of you at quick service locations without to much difficulty ($25 per person per meal), but it gets tougher if you add in any table service meals. You'll also have to be careful about snacks...those can add up quickly!

 

[CaliforniaAllie]

Depending on your dates you may be able to get a decent hotel for cheaper than $215. Are you staying over a weekend? I have used Priceline and gotten nice hotels such as the Crowne Plaza for less than $80 per night. I use this forum to help me with bidding. www.betterbidding.com

You can use the money you shave off your hotel stay to stretch your dollars in the parks. And I think $100 per day in food is totally doable. Especially if you bring your own snacks and water.

Good luch and congrats on your upcoming wedding!

 

[Melora]

We are planning a trip for 4 for 4 nights.
Our budget is as follows:
Passes (we are purchasing the CA Select on the payment plan): $384 down payment
Hotel for 4 nights: $542
and Food about $125 per day for all 4 of us. $500 total.
Breakfast at the hotel and if we are not overdoing it, at the counter service we can eat for $10 - $12 each (so about $50 twice a day).
We don't ever buy soda and if we buy snacks in the park we usually split them. The kids are super light eaters.
So budget is around $1400 give or take so your budget seems reasonable!

 

[cherice95403]

Definitely bring breakfast foods and snacks to take in the park with you. $100 a a day is doable for quick service.

 

[disneychrista]

Tickets - are whatever they are
Hotel - Check out the Super 8 on Katella, a little further walk but usually cheaper than those right across the street.
Food - $10 - $12 per person per meal. Drink Water it is FREE!
Gas - is whatever is is. Use Gas Buddy to find the cheaper stations.

 

[califlorican]

I'm back to update, since we never ended up going to Disneyland in April. We're going from November 14-17 now yay!
We found cheap tickets on United for $116 each round-trip from San Francisco, and the Super 8 on Katella (thanks disneychrista for your suggestion!) was only $220 for 3 nights, so we are so far at $455 for our trip.
Tickets, I think have gone up since I last had looked...so that will be a little more money, but I don't think there's any way around that.
And thanks again for suggestions on prices for food. I will definitely do that! Breakfast is included at the hotel, and I know it won't be very substantial, but it should be fine for a few days. I'm so excited for our trip

 

[VandVsmama]

Best Western Plus Pavilions is a couple of doors down from BW Stovall's and they have free parking. Free grab-and-go breakfast items. We stayed for 1 night in June for $119, but that included tax. Before tax, it was just under $100/night.

 

[VandVsmama]

I forgot to add that $100/day for food sounds about right.

 

[carrierael77]

Very doable. 3 of us spent way less than $100 per day on food

 

[lalasmama]

Hello!
My fiance and I are getting married next month (yay!) and I really want to go back to Disneyland with him soon after getting married. He likes Disney but doesn't like the prices, which I understand. Because of this, I'm trying to figure out how I can do this in the most inexpensive way possible. So far I have...

(This is an edit for our now-November trip; was originally for an April trip)
flight: $230 roundtrip for both of us
tickets: 3 day park hoppers on lmtclub.com are $260 each
hotel: Super 8 on Katella for $225
shuttle to and from airport: $40
food: I'm thinking $80 a day!
Total- around $1250. Any way of getting it down, other than going down to 2 day park hoppers?

Okay, this is how I would do it:

flight: $230 roundtrip for both of us Can't comment on this, not sure where you are coming from. Have you checked out JetBlue? That's where our cheapest tickets are, and we LOVE them!
tickets: 3 day park hoppers on lmtclub.com are $260 each Are either of you military, or military dependent? If so, use Salute tickets ($150/each). Otherwise, this is about the going "promotional" rate.
hotel: Super 8 on Katella for $225 $139/night at DIS, across the street from the entrance. Motel 6 (about the same walk as Super 8, comparable rooms, newly remodeled, for $83/night.
shuttle to and from airport: $40 Not sure what airport, so I can't comment on this.
food: I'm thinking $80 a day! $10 for quick service (hot dogs/corndogs, turkey legs, kabobs, pizza, etc. and a drink); $16-18 for counter service (Gourmet hamburgers, fish-n-chips, etc), $25-32 for table service, and $40+ for fine dining, $5 for snacks. We eat the continental breakfast (or bring granola bars) for breakfast, we bring our own drinks (buying at a convenience store outside of DL cuts the price of a soda in half!), do a quick service lunch (usually corndogs), and then do a counter service for dinner. For a family of 3, I plan $90 per day between us all; that allows us to save money on several days so we can do a "splurge" day where we do a fine dining meal.
Total- around $1250. Any way of getting it down, other than going down to 2 day park hoppers? Three day non-hoppers would cut your price. Eating cheaply (bringing meals in, eating outside the parks) would cut your price. Look around at different airports (LGB, SNA, and LAX are all in the area, with SNA and LGB being closest, so the cheapest transportation to/from the DLR area). You could stay outside the resort area; that will take room prices down to the $60 range, however, then you have to count ART or parking pass costs into it. Going to the parks/staying in the area on weekdays instead of weekends will lower your prices.

 

[RemainSeatedPlease]

It's hard to cut the other parts of your budget, but the food part is under your control. You can bring food into the parks, so I recommend bringing snacks and maybe even a lunch. When I am at DLR I try to eat only one meal in the parks a day, usually counter service for dinner. There is a CVS on the corner of Harbor and Katella where I know you can buy bread, peanut butter, and jelly, as well as some other basics. I often end up with peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an orange from that morning's continental breakfast, in the backpack to be eaten for lunch. I road trip to DLR so it's a little easier for me to just bring food from home and put it in the hotel room fridge, but there are ways to do it even if you fly in and don't have a fridge.

 

[V.I.N.C.E.N.T.]

May be too late, but if you sign up for a hotel credit card (my preferred is Hyatt) they usually give you enough points for two nights free. Several years ago, they issued the points upon approval. Now it takes a set amount of dollars spent in the first three months to get the points. its still possible for a November trip, but you would need to spend the min amount within the first month to get the nights free.

 

[MommyJKM]

I'm back to update, since we never ended up going to Disneyland in April. We're going from November 14-17 now yay!
We found cheap tickets on United for $116 each round-trip from San Francisco, and the Super 8 on Katella (thanks disneychrista for your suggestion!) was only $220 for 3 nights, so we are so far at $455 for our trip.
Tickets, I think have gone up since I last had looked...so that will be a little more money, but I don't think there's any way around that.
And thanks again for suggestions on prices for food. I will definitely do that! Breakfast is included at the hotel, and I know it won't be very substantial, but it should be fine for a few days. I'm so excited for our trip

You may want to do Von's grocery delivery to your motel and save on food. Someone mentioned snacks and they really do add up. We also bring water bottles and get free water refills all day (I like Swell bottles because they don't get condensation).

 

[CAmommy]

Call me crazy, but I've been known to bring in peanut butter sandwiches that I made in the hotel for lunches. I hate spending time and money on food, so I really try to keep it to one decent meal in the parks per day.

 

[ishbit92]

How exciting! I went last year around the same time. It's a really good time to go. The Christmas decorations should be up, and the time you're going shouldn't be too busy, especially on the Monday and Tuesday. Another way to cut costs: share meals! Some Disney portions are really big, and easily shareable. The Monte Cristo from Cafe Orleans, Chicken dinner from Plaza Inn, and Beef Stew from French Market are good to split.