First trip in a loooonnnng time, first DL trip and first trip with a kid! Need some help!

[MandNCC]

Hello! I wanted to start by asking some questions all in one post and see if I can get some help. We will be arriving Easter day and staying through the following Saturday. It will be myself, DH and DS (2.5 yo). We have flights into SNA, hotel booked (Camelot) but that is about all. We don't travel much so some of this might be common sense but thanks in advance.

We are not sure if we will be going anywhere other than the resort so I'm not sure we need a car the whole week but was wondering if it is feasible to rent a car from the airport to run errands and get to the hotel and then return it somewhere near DL? If we do that is there a recommended way to return to the airport or would we be looking at renting a car again? I'm not familiar with renting a car, would it likely end up being cheaper to keep it the whole week (and more convenient)?

Where is the best place to purchase park tickets? We may need to purchase direct from Disney with Disney Gift Cards, but if not is there another safe place?

Any stroller rental recommendations? We are hoping to not bring one on the plane but doubt we can make it through the parks without.

As they I'm sure will continue to be closing more and more of the parks with the upcoming construction where would be a good place to see all of this in writing? I do listen to the podcast but usually in the car and want an easier reference to help keep it straight.

Thanks again!!

 

[avalovesminnie]

I can't answer all your questions, but in regards to the stroller, gate checking is very easy! I'd just bring your own if you have one you like.

 

[egritz]

Regarding the car, I wouldn't rent a car. Use the Disneyland Express (run through Greyline). you can arrange grocery delivery through Von's. You usually have to be present to sign for the groceries, and I recommend placing the order early because the delivery slots fill up fast. There is also a CVS not very far from the parks (corner of Katella & Harbor underneath the new Staybridge Suites hotel), plus there are many little markets in several of the hotels along Harbor. In 5 trips with kids, we've had a car twice and not needed it at all (one time we flew, but my in-laws drove and picked us up at the airport, the other trip which was last week we drove and never moved the car during our stay). There is an enterprise and a hertz location at the corner of Katella and S Clementine if you do decide to rent a car from the airport and return it in the area. There are other rental car locations as well, but I'm not exactly sure on the companies & locations.
I would not recommend a private car or shuttle unless you plan to bring your car seat on the plane with you.

Stroller, I would personally bring my own that I'm familiar with. However City Stroller Rentals has come highly recommended:
http://www.citystrollerrentals.com/
we opted to not rent because they ask that you don't allow your child to eat in the stroller and that was not going to happen with our kids. They also rent other baby items which is nice too!

If you belong to a credit union or work perks club check there. We were able to get our tickers for about 10% off through our local credit union. If not, ARES travel has a small discount available: http://arestravel.com/77_attraction-tickets_a18.html

When your trip is about 6 weeks out the park hours will start to be listed on the Disneyland website. They should also include any closed attractions on the the schedule once posted. It will also include showtimes and other event times.

 

[mgmgbook]

Rental car: On one trip, I walked from the Camelot to the Avis Car rental to pick up a car. It's not very far and it's much cheaper than renting one from the airport and dropping at a different location. There are other rental car companies within fairly easy walking distance as well.
Stroller: You may want to consider having the stroller for the airport. Some terminals are a long walk for a toddler. As I recall, you can take them with you to the gate and then they check it into the cargo hold from there. Last I remember, there was no extra charge for strollers. (But I haven't checked in many years - so check with your carrier).
Have fun planning!

 

[ADLFAN]

We rented a car for the weekend from the Alamo at Downtown Disney and it was pretty affordable and easy. You pick up and return the cars right there behind the store.

But it is very nice to get a grocery delivery from Vons and relax for a whole week without trying to incorporate anything outside of the Disneyland bubble! I would highly recommend getting a shuttle to and from your hotel and avoiding driving altogether!

Have fun planning!

 

[Angel Ariel]

We rented a stroller from city stroller rentals and had a great experience. I would do it again!

Eta: for the airport, I wore DD (3) in a beco gemini. She's not walking independently and can only walk short distances holding hands. The beco was easier than a stroller.

 

[VandVsmama]

My thoughts & suggestions on strollers:

1. We rented a stroller from Anaheim City Strollers. They will deliver the stroller to your hotel and will pick it up from there, too. Cost of rental for 4-7 nights is $65.00 for a stroller that fits a child up to 46" tall (max weight 65 lb). That does not include insurance, which was about $10 or so 3 years ago when I last rented from them. Without the insurance, if the stroller is stolen, they charge you the price of a new stroller as a replacement fee. If the stroller is returned excessively dirty, they will charge a $35 cleaning fee. They will pick up the stroller by 12:00 pm on the pick up day. If you need a later pick up time, then you have to pay for an extra day. I was able to steer the stroller one-handed. We had a really good experience renting from them.
2. If your plane trip to Anaheim will result in having to change planes, then you should seriously consider bringing your own stroller and gate-checking it (and, thus, don't rent a stroller in Anaheim). Especially if your kid is a runner.
3. Worst option of all would be to rent a stroller inside Disneyland itself 1 day at a time. this is a bad option because you cannot take the stroller outside of the esplanade. So when you leave DL at the end of the day and you walk back to the Camelot Inn, your very tired 2.5 yr old has to walk or 1 of you has to carry the kid. And that is not very fun.

Regarding car rentals:

1. If you rent a car for the week, the Camelot Inn will charge you for parking. Except for Hojo's, all of the hotels along Harbor Blvd charge for parking.
2. Do your research and compare the cost of a rental car for the week + daily parking fees against the cost of airport-hotel transfers. There's 1 company (I can't remember the name of it) will include a 20 minute stop at Target on the way from the airport to your hotel so you can quickly stock up on some food & snacks.
3. If you go the "no car" route, remember that you can also use Vons (southern california grocery store chain) for grocery delivery to your hotel. You place the order online ahead of time and specify the date & time that you want it delivered. First delivery is usually free.
4. Downtown Disney has an Alamo rental car office where you can rent a car for a day or two or the whole week if you want.
5. If you're getting 5-day park hoppers, you probably won't need a car.

Disneyland tickets:

• Regarding aRes Disneyland tickets - I used them earlier this year. Honestly, it was a huge pain in the neck. I would not recommend it to anyone and I will not be using them again for a couple of reasons. First, you are purchasing will call tickets. this means that you have to go to the Disneyland ticket booth to pick up your tickets. Second, you have to specify the date that you will pick the tickets up. This was a huge pain in the neck because I had previously bought the tickets from aRes during a promotional deal where you got 4-day park hoppers for the 3-day park hopper price. Well, we had to change our travel plans to go later in the year. Because of my new travel dates, aRes said that they had to issue me new tickets and since that old promotion was no longer running, if I wanted to get 4-day park hoppers, I'd now have to pay more money or I could just get 3-day park hoppers for the same price. And they had to do it in 2 bank transactions: 1 to refund the $$ from the original price and the 2nd to issue new tickets. You cannot just get a refund. I purchased half of our tickets this way and the other half of the tickets I just bought directly through Disneyland's website. For THOSE tickets, all I had to do was print out the electronic ticket and take my print out to the turnstiles at the main gate. NO STANDING IN LINE AT THE TICKET BOOTH! And if my travel dates had changed again? For the tickets purchased directly through Disneyland, no problem as long as I was going to be travelling by 1/31/2016 (which we were).
• With all of the hassle I had with aRes tickets, it was not worth the small amount of money that I saved (maybe $30).
• I also looked into getting discount tickets through Tickets At Work . com through my workplace. My employer's website boasted how much less expensive it was. $40/ticket less. Yay! Sign me up! Except the Tickets At Work website added handling fees & taxes to it, so you really only saved $5-$8/ticket. No thanks. Not worth it.
• You CAN purchase Disneyland tickets directly from the Disneyland website using gift cards, but they will only let you pay with 1 gift card, not multiple gift cards. However, from what I've read here on the boards from other threads, you can combine multiple gift cards onto 1 gift card. I just don't know the details of how to do that.

 

[MandNCC]

Thanks everyone!! We don't usually use a stroller because we usually wear him but I know we won't make it through the parks doing that. I definitely want something he will be comfortable in so I don't really want to bring our umbrella stroller.
We will be bringing a car seat for the plane so we will have it if necessary but the shuttle does sound super easy and if we choose a mini trip during the week it's good to know there are places by the resort to rent from.
And I forgot about reading about Vonns we will definitely look into that!
Thanks again.

 

[Ljbadfan]

Also the hotel right next to the Tropicana inn and suites has a rental car place inside it.. We have rented twice from them before

 

[DisneyAndreaM]

Just returned from an 8 day trip with my husband and 2.5 year old daughter. You'll have a blast!

You will ABSOLUTELY need your stroller in the parks. My daughter never likes going in her stroller at home and was in it at least 50% of the time (at her request). There are way too many people beginning in the afternoon to not have it. We brought our own and were so glad we did! The Disney ones did not look comfy and the storage underneath was very small compared to ours.

We bring a car seat on the plane so we check our stroller (goes with the golf clubs etc in the oversize). Many people gate check their stroller as others have mentioned.

We used Disneyland Express and just walked to Target across the street from the Hyatt where we stayed for groceries. We used the hotel shuttle back and forth from the hotel to DLR, so no need to rent a car and pay to park it. We did rent a car mid-trip from the Alamo Downtown Disney to drive up to LA for a day and had a great experience

 

[Angel Ariel]

If you already wear him a decent amount, I'd definitely go the wearing route for the airport and rent a stroller there. Not having to push the stroller through the airport (along with a car seat) was very helpful. Just be aware that if you wear a child through security, they will usually swab your hands to check them for explosive residue. It's not a big deal and doesn't take very long at all (I'm usually done with it before our carry-ons are through the scanner).

I agree you'll definitely need a stroller in the park, though. WRT the City Stroller Rentals and food, I don't recall seeing a notice of the child not being able to eat in the stroller at all. Just that if there's something like dried food on the stroller at the end, there may be an extra cleaning fee applied. DD did snack and drink in the stroller (put her in a high chair for meals). We returned our stroller last Friday and do not have any charges for extra cleaning from City Stroller Rentals on our CC.

I should also say that we added the insurance to our stroller rental (just in case), and also rented a feeding booster seat from them (it was an additional $5 for the week). Having the booster in the hotel for breakfast was very helpful.