First Trip to Disneyland!

[arftle]

In March my 8 year old daughter and I will be taking our first trip to Disneyland!!! We are so excited and are already counting down the days (months!). We are on a budget and I'm considering the Park Vue Inn...I've read some good reviews, but has anyone stayed there recently? Any opinions? We are going to do the whole lunch at Ariel's Grotto thing, of course, but need to know other "must do's" for our first time adventure. We will be going the first week of March for three days...think that will give us enough time for both parks? Thanks for sharing!

 

[FlameGirl]

Congrats on the trip...you will have a wonderful time.

Everything you could possibly ever want to know about DLR and planning is in the stickies at the top of the page. Out resident expert HydroGuy has mad it very easy to know what to expect with his expert advice inside those stickies. You should start there.

Good luck and welcome.

 

[skiingfast]

3 days is great, but 3 weekdays would be incredible if those are your days.

Look at disneyland.com for tickets and wait to buy them you may find a special promotion as the time gets closer.

PVI is really close. I'm sure you would like it. If you want to save money look into other places on that block of Harbor.

 

[arftle]

Thanks! Yes, we are planning on being there for three weekdays...arriving Sunday and leaving Thursday. Luckily my daughter goes to a small school, with one on one teaching, so I can take her out of school for the week (before the "official" spring break) and not have to worry about her missing anything. I figure we'll be there before most schools are on spring break.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

We have not tried Park Vue, but I have seen some positive comments about it on these boards. It and Best Western Park Place Inn are as close as you can stay to the entrance. There are several other places along Harbor across the street from Disneyland that are nice places to stay and may or may not have cheaper rates, so I would recommend you shop around a little bit. We have stayed at Tropicana, Fairfield Inn, and Howard Johnson's. HOJOs is our favorite and the one we most often find good rates at. There is an excellent entertainment card rate sometimes for certain dates, no March dates posted yet, or a 15% discount offered to disboards and other Disney fan site readers. Here is the entertainment card link: http://www.hojoanaheim.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=14
Tropicana and Fairfield were also nice, clean, safe, and a little bit closer than HOJOs.

Disney often offers spring ticket deals, so you will want to wait until closer until your trip and keep an eye out for those deals. In the past, they have offered adults for kids prices and 5 days for the price of 3 tickets.

I suspect you will beat a lot of the spring break crowds with your dates, especially with Easter coming so late in April this year and a lot of schools still planning their spring breaks close to Easter.

Since you comment that this is something of a budget trip, you may want to look for threads on here about budgeting and money-saving tips. It's a great idea to bring your own breakfast foods, bottled water, and snacks to carry into the parks, for instance. If you are flying and can't bring a lot of this stuff with you, you might want to look into grocery delivery. You may also want to consider getting the Disney Visa credit card from Chase. You can earn points toward Disney purchases, although it may not be as good a rate as other credit cards you already have. In addition to the points benefit though, there are other Disney Visa perks, such as a free meet and greet in DCA with a free 5" x 7" photo, 10% discounts at a small number of dining locations, and 10% off of $50 or more store purchases.

 

[arftle]

I imagine we will probably eat breakfast at the hotel and I've checked into a grocery store for delivery. That way we can go back to the hotel, have lunch, etc. I have a Disney friend who is getting tickets for us, so we won't have to worry about that. We'll be flying into LAX, which will be an experience in itself! LAX is quite a bit bigger than our Fayetteville, Arkansas airport! ha!

 

[HydroGuy]

Congrats on your first trip. Your dates are off-season dates. That has plusses and minuses. Plusses are lower crowds. Minuses are reduced entertainment and more rides closed. Understanding that will help you have the best trip possible.

"What You Should Know About Off-Season at DLR" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=18462889

 

[skiingfast]

I imagine we will probably eat breakfast at the hotel and I've checked into a grocery store for delivery. That way we can go back to the hotel, have lunch, etc. I have a Disney friend who is getting tickets for us, so we won't have to worry about that. We'll be flying into LAX, which will be an experience in itself! LAX is quite a bit bigger than our Fayetteville, Arkansas airport! ha!

Many of the hotels have a cold breakfast. Cereal, fruit, pastries and toast is very common.

If you cover that for free, or at least part of the hotel cost, you can find good things in the park to eat and save over buying groceries.

 

[FlameGirl]

I imagine we will probably eat breakfast at the hotel and I've checked into a grocery store for delivery. That way we can go back to the hotel, have lunch, etc. I have a Disney friend who is getting tickets for us, so we won't have to worry about that. We'll be flying into LAX, which will be an experience in itself! LAX is quite a bit bigger than our Fayetteville, Arkansas airport! ha!

You can also pack a lunch and stash it in a locker if you don't want to go back to the hotel.