Copied over from the Budget Board

[fabshelly]

I was told to post this here instead of the Budget Board. Am I the only one who feels like the DL area is slightly ghettoized here? It's not even counted as "Disney"! ~ Shelly

How do we save money there?

Well, eat at Mimi's across the street, go down the street to Target to get snacks and water.

Find a hotel that serves a full breakfast, not just coffee and danishes.

At DCA, go to the Grand Cal and eat at Whitewater Snacks - their French Dip serves two beautifully.

Free tortillas and sourdough bread!

I've been trying to find "Kids eat free" deals at local restaurants.

At Knott's Berry Farm:

10 chicken legs for 5.00 at the Chicken-to-Go.

Food - 4 - Less is a block away - get a 12 pack of Shasta lemon-lime for 1.89, and buy the 4.99 Boysenberry punch concentrate, and make your own, instead of paying 4.00 per drink!

Rally's - if you buy something there, on the back of the receipt are coupons. Some are lame, but one of them is 6 cheeseburgers for 3.99! and their cheeseburgers aren't small - it's the same as Checkers on the East Coast.

There's Grocery Outlet one block down and two blocks over. Cheap, good snacks and staples for your hotel room.

Anybody else?
_________________

 

[blackjackdelta]

Thanks for the tips. For the most part I have found the budget board useless.

Jack

 

[disneegrl4eva]

Thanks for the tips. For the most part I have found the budget board useless.

Jack

I have to agree with ya Jack...mostly theres nothing on there that we dont know already as for myself, I wouldnt even go truthfully if I couldnt enjoy that part of the trip to indulge myself in snacks and the food but thats just me

 

[Alex2kMommy]

I initially got a lot out of the Family and Budget boards. Never having been to DL before, I found a few tips very useful:

Grocery store run: We did hit a grocery store upon arrival and stocked up on water, snacks, cereal (& bowls & spoons.) We carried water and snacks into the park each day, and most days had breakfast cereal in our room.

Disney Dollars: I gave the boys Disney Dollars in their Easter baskets and for rewards (for good behavior and other achievements), and told them they could use the money to buy any souvenirs they wanted, no questions asked. I think that probably cut down a lot on the 'gimmees'. We did buy a few "mother approved" souvenirs for them also, but not as much as I expected.

Character meal: I suppose this is more of a time savings rather than cost savings, but when you think about the time it would take you to stand in line for 6 separate characters plus a meal, we thought it was a great idea. The boys got pictures and autographs of so many characters, and nearly half of them were from two character meals we attended. This allowed us more time in the park for other activities.

Photopass: This came into existence at DL just a few days after our trip last September, and I am so looking forward to using it this fall! I paid something like $65 for 6 5x7s (from 3 or 4 photos.) With Photopass you can now get park photos (taken by a park photographer) stored on a CD for $100, as many photos as the CD can hold. What a huge savings! For a change I'll be able to be in the photos with the family instead of being the photographer. I'm going to stop at different locations at DL and DCA and make the most of the opportunity. Can't wait!

 

[Judy from Boise]

personally I would wait until I could afford a little more magical trip. Even if i stay on Harbor, I don't wander much from one of the closest motels, and Denny's. Besides that I am on Disney property. It would completely break the mood to go to a store etc.

Just personal preference.

 

[funnygarcia]

The typical ones come to mind:
Share meals

Order Kid Meals for everyone

If you have no need for side items, order them without the sides for a dollar or so less.

Drink ice water instead of pop (soda). Most of the counter service/scramble service places have cups and a filtered water spigot for anyone to use. For variety, I bring single serve packets of iced tea or Crystal Light.

Some restuarants take AAA, 10 % off:
Goofy's Kitchen
PCH Grill
Ariel's Grotto
Plaza Inn (not just for the character breakfast)

Eat breakfast in your room. Bring granola bars, oatmeal packets, cold cereal.

Have an idea of what is on the menus, plan ahead.
http://www.dlresortinfo.com/DisneylandMenus/dlmenus.html
http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/menus/dl/menus.shtml
http://allearsnet.com/dlr/tp/dl/dl_rest.htm

McDonald's $1 menu... the closest McDonald's (across Harbor) does have the $ menu, it is hidden behind a cooler. They also have a 10% off coupon on the Anaheim web site
http://www.anaheimoc.org/Articles/Archive/Webpage10153.asp

Character Warehouse, an outlet store with Disneyland merchandise. I read recently that clothing is not that great of a bargain (10 to 30% off) but stationery items, toys, gift items are the best value. I have picked up spinners for buy1 get 2 free, small tins of candy buy 2 get 3 free, etc.
Info here (click on stores)
http://www.ams-liquidation.com/index.htm
10 % off coupon here
http://www.anaheimoc.org/banner_admin/ads/disneycharacter041507.gif

 

[fabshelly]

Actually, I live in Buena Park, so wouldn't be using a hotel/motel - I just wanted to get the ball rolling. One DD, and a new DS and DD, and still looking for a job after the school where I taught was bought and closed - we want to have fun, but don't have a lot of money.

 

[Leofoenget]

Food - 4 - Less is a block away - get a 12 pack of Shasta lemon-lime for 1.89, and buy the 4.99 Boysenberry punch concentrate, and make your own, instead of paying 4.00 per drink!

I would not do that, way too much work. Get the small powder packets of like crystal lite tubes that you pour into bottled water. Much easier AND CHEAPER than buying concentrate junk for $5. My friend gets the bubblegum flavor at 7-11 for cheap.

 

[fabshelly]

I didn't know they made Knott's boysenberry Crystal Light!

Where do you get it? My kids are crazy about the Boysenberry Sprite and I'm crazy about the Boysenberry Pepsi at Knott's, and this is how we get it without spending 4.00 per person. Thanks!

 

[Leofoenget]

I didn't know they made Knott's boysenberry Crystal Light!

Where do you get it? My kids are crazy about the Boysenberry Sprite and I'm crazy about the Boysenberry Pepsi at Knott's, and this is how we get it without spending 4.00 per person. Thanks!

I didnt' mean boysenberry specifically. I guess if you want boysenberry Sprite then doing it your way is the best. I thought you were saying to do your deal to save money in general, and I was saying just get the tube packets for the bottled water to save money.

 

[fabshelly]

I can't do Aspertame, so CL is right out for me. With the kids, I know not to give it to them either, as it does often have negative effects on developing brains (that's why they suddenly stopped making children's cereals and snacks with it a few years back).

 

[tyluvsdis]

We tried to save money on anything we could! Some of the things we did were:

Watched airfare for about five months, booked and still kept watching it for another couple months. The price came down again and called the customer service rep. They credited us back the difference and will use it to take an adults only trip. Yay!

Called around for different rates on hotels. Asked for a manager and talked to them, letting them know when we would be there, how many of us there would be (two families, with a total of ten in all) and would they be willing to give us a better price. They eventually lowered the price for us and we were so excited.

Stopped at Target when arriving and picked up snacks, paper plates and utensils, and also picked up cheap carseats. (we were a little leary of the car rental car seats.) We will sell these carseats at our annual yard sale.

Shopped around for a twelve passenger van (you don't even know how hard it is to find one of these! Found one, reserved over a discount site on the internet, called and mentioned our AAA card and they lowered it even more.

Stayed at a hotel right across from the park. Didn't have to pay parking. Kids ate free dinner, breakfast was free and were right next to IHOP so kids also ate free there.

Had the kids carry water bottles on a belt loop lanyard. This was a wonderful thing. This saved probably the most, because when they complained that they were thirsty, we simply told them to have a drink of their water or pay with their hard earned money.

Anyway, we had a great time. There were many other things that we did, but I'm sure that this is long enough for today!

Have a wonderful week, everyone!

 

[TwingleMum]

Thanks Shelly for yours and others hints to save money. Having cases of water, so we can bring bottled water into the park is sopmething we always do. Usually we go to Costco or BJs but I don't know if there arte any near DL.

 

[chanchiluv]

Propel makes a drink mix that's sugar free and is made with sucralose (main ingredient in Splenda). They come in Lemon, Berry and Kiwi Strawberry flavors. HTH!!

 

[PeterPansPixie]

Does anyone else buy Disney Dollars or gift cards ahead of time to reduce the actual amount spent once you are there? I have been buying Disney Dollars every time we are at a Disney Store for our trip in June. I have $200 already (planning on $300 before we leave in June) and we will use this for meals in the park and merchandise.

Our last trip, we didn't eat in the park at all with the exception of churros (we split them) and ice cream bars one afternoon. I think we spent less than $75 in the park that trip and that includes two t-shirts and postcards.

For this trip, we want to be able to eat at least one meal a day in the park and I want to be able to buy whatever I want without feeling guilty.

 

[disneegrl4eva]

Thanks Shelly for yours and others hints to save money. Having cases of water, so we can bring bottled water into the park is sopmething we always do. Usually we go to Costco or BJs but I don't know if there arte any near DL.

I do the same thing...last time I waited till I got to Anaheim to buy the water at Food4Less but you know I think Im gonna get it before I leave and take it in the car down with us because I dont want to go to the store once I get there...im too tired and its annoying...

 

[cedarparkgirl]

Stayed at a hotel right across from the park. Didn't have to pay parking. Kids ate free dinner, breakfast was free and were right next to IHOP so kids also ate free there.

Anyone know of any other local area restaurants that offer Kids Eat Free? We are staying off-site so hitting a restaurant on the way home may just be the ticket for us!

Thanks!

 

[Pixieshouse]

I would love to know about the kids eat free thing as well! We are going soon and with the park closing earlier than midnight we will get dinner outside of the park.

We also stop at Target or a grocery store on our way in from the airport. We rent a car because we do other things around the area and find it cheaper with AAA and coupons to do this rather than shuttles. Anyway, we pick up water, cereal, milk, snacks etc. and then while in the park the only snacks we pick up are the churros, ice cream or the dole whip, yum!

 

[Zoemakes5]

Does anyone else buy Disney Dollars or gift cards ahead of time to reduce the actual amount spent once you are there? I have been buying Disney Dollars every time we are at a Disney Store for our trip in June. I have $200 already (planning on $300 before we leave in June) and we will use this for meals in the park and merchandise.

Not only do I do this, I do it through a link on Sunshinerewards and they've had a promo going that you got 8% back for purchases through Disneyshopping.com. During that promotion, I bought over $180 worth of GC's. I then will use the money I get back to order Disney cards through SR. I'll have $30 or more to be able to order within the next week or so! Whoo hoo! Basically free Disney money!

Other than that, I comparison shop for hotels. I look through all the discounts I have, such as Entertainment, AAA, etc and see what the best deal is.

I get my tickets from my work and reduce the cost by $10 per person.

We bring our own drinks in. In part, that's to reduce costs, in part, that's because I drink Mt. Dew!

We bring our own ponchos. Can get them for cheap at Walmart or Target before we go.

I bought the kids those spinners at the Disney Store recently using the 15% off coupon that they recently sent out.

That's about all I can think of that hasn't already been said.

 

[allyn]

Photopass: This came into existence at DL just a few days after our trip last September, and I am so looking forward to using it this fall! I paid something like $65 for 6 5x7s (from 3 or 4 photos.) With Photopass you can now get park photos (taken by a park photographer) stored on a CD for $100, as many photos as the CD can hold. What a huge savings! For a change I'll be able to be in the photos with the family instead of being the photographer. I'm going to stop at different locations at DL and DCA and make the most of the opportunity. Can't wait!

the price of the photopass cd has gone up to $125 but you can add borders and graphics to the images and these are included on the cd.