A little about my family and this trip: 2 adults and a boy (8) and girl (5). This would be a “once in a lifetime” trip to Disneyland as we don’t anticipate being able to return any time soon. Hopefully, we’ll be able to take the kids to Disneyworld when they’re a little older! We wanted to do as much as possible while spending the least money necessary. I reviewed specific services and tools we used in bold below. In the next post I'll give a run-through of each day because that would’ve helped me get a little perspective into crowds and what all could be done in a day. This board has been so helpful and I wanted to give back a little! We arrived May 31, spent 5 days in the park, one non park day with character meal and half day cabana rental, and left on June 6 around 2pm.
David's Vacation Club Rentals: added our name in the queue early to be booked 7 months out when GCV opened for all DVC members...we had no problem booking the reservation. David’s staff was professional and answered all my many questions quickly (within 24 hours via email). I added a room request about a month out and they did it without hesitation. While we didn’t get our first choice, we did get a theme park view and I could see WOC and the Fireworks from our patio (with obstructions on both sides). This was a completely smooth transaction. Highly recommended! $1738 for 6 nights in a studio at the Grand Californian.
Grand Californian: Beautiful, amazing staff, and the best location from the parks! Walking through Downtown Disney or through the GC entrance kept us within the Disney bubble the entire time…we always felt we were part of the magic. The only negatives were that they didn't give us enough coffee for each day and wanted to charge us for extra, and then since it was DVC, we only got trash and towel service on day 4 (no sheet service and we kept trash to a minimum). Otherwise, everyone there went above and beyond for us. Another high recommendation!!
CheapTickets through Ebates: Bought 5 day park hoppers for the price of 4 (pre-price increase), $1126 for 2adults/2kids. We received a $10 Target gift card for joining Ebates and $77.42 cash back after the purchase. We gave our print out to the reservation desk at the Grand, who gave us our tickets upon checkin. No problems! Amazing deal & again, highly recommend!!!
Lansky's: professional, prompt, helpful, and super clean vehicle. $180 for round trip from LAX, with grocery stop at Ralph's, for the 4 of us, and he provided and installed the boosters for my kiddos. Highly recommend for your airport transfers!
Photopass Plus: The best $69 spent! We took pics with every photopass photographer and character interactions I could find and asked for magic shots (2 different Tinkerbell, 1 Stitch, 3 different Cars characters, and 3 frozen magic shots!). We walked away with 350 photos and the CD with another 350 stock images. My iphone died on day 4 so this was a lifesaver! The only problem we had was that day 2 was so crowded in the parks that I didn’t see any, literally, not one photographer, outside of character meets in the park (DL). Otherwise, all our images were loaded correctly and we love, love, love them!
Bippity Boppity Boutique: I’m kind of torn on this one. We booked the castle package (“the works”) and while I think it was worth it once, I wouldn’t do it again. Some of the Fairy Godmothers will be “in training” forever as they seemed to forget what it was about and just wanted to get it done. Lots of people in a tiny space, fairy godmothers rushing around and I saw more than one snarky side eye when parents weren’t looking. In the end, my girl felt dolled up (I don’t know that I would say “special” since they had so many people crammed into the small space), loved her pics, loved skipping the line to meet the princesses, and loved all the comments walking through the park afterwards in her getup. So, overall worth it, but just let it roll and know what you’re really getting into. Next time, I’ll save the money, get her dolled up at E&As, and take pics myself and with park photographers.
Blue Bayou Fantasmic: Just do it. It was expensive, but the atmosphere and food were amazing and the seating for the show can’t be beat! Unfortunately, the fireworks were canceled due to the wind, so I was bummed. It seemed like very few CMs knew what was going on with seating. We had to walk all the way around to be seated in the front. Both the Blue Bayou and River Belle F! dinner guests were seated together in the same center section. We arrived around 8:30 and it was already a bit crowded, but you really couldn’t have a bad spot in this section. However, they parked late arriving ECVs right behind us and a lady almost ran over my son because she couldn’t brake the damned thing. We had to invade the space in front of us because she stopped literally an inch from his head and couldn’t reverse. Then she talked (yelled?!) the whole show. I was a little annoyed at that woman, lol! But whatever…the show was AH-Mazing!
Paradise Pier’s Surfs Up: Easy walk across the street from GCV. Got there at 9:15 for a 9:20 reservation and really needing coffee, but we had to wait for people to take their initial pic w/Mickey. We saw Pluto then Minnie right away after being seated. Stitch came by & was super playful. He stole things from nearby tables & hoarded them at another. He danced with his reflection in a spoon. He took my son’s cell phone (‘cause he was playing on it!) & pretended to throw it, then talk on it for a bit. Then he took the girls phone from the table & talked on them both. After all that, he settled in for hugs & pics. It took Daisy a while to come by which caused a lot of anxiety in my daughter, but she was so happy with her when she did. She was sweet, loving, and gave lots of kisses! The food was your run of the mill breakfast buffet food, but everything we ate was really good! Totally recommended!
Cabana rental at Disneyland Hotel became available at 2 on our off day. The main pool is huge, and the monorail slide was awesome! It was one of our coldest days so the pool wasn’t crowded, but it made the short wait for the slide kind of miserable. The cabana was awesome and service was great! We received 6 mini Dasanis, a fruit bow with apples (1 green, 1 red), a pear, 2 bananas, small bowl of grapes, and several large strawberries. The tv had all the room channels. There was a ceiling fan, 6 port usb to charge devices, bluetooth enabled radio, a mini fridge, loveseat, couch, coffee table, 2 loungers with umbrellas and a whole rack of towels. This was probably another splurge I wouldn’t do again, just because my kids were just as happy at the GCV pool. It was $165 ($150 plus tax) for 4 hours, from 2-6. Fun to do if you have the money to burn and really want to hit another pool, but I wouldn’t do it again.
Pinnochio’s Workshop: Basically a drop-in daycare at GC. It was great for a few hours sans kids. Both my kids really enjoyed it. They ordered dinner, had story time, and from what I gather, my son played Minecraft on a computer while my daughter did crafts and played air hockey with another little girl. They couldn’t be happier. We made reservations a week out. It’s $13/hour per kid, 3 hour minimum. I think we were right at 3 hours and it was $90. The best thing I learned was that they have a private deck they take the kids to watch the fireworks if they’re there at 9:30…if I wasn’t so exhausted I would’ve tried to time it right to get in on this with them.
Grad Nights: Didn't bother me, but we were mostly there at opening, done early afternoon, and only went back for reservations and shows. I saw a few kids running around, a few amorous embraces, and once, a kid getting off a ride behind me cursed in my ear with excitement. I imagine he saw me tense and I didn't even have to turn around and use my mom voice before he whispered an apology, got really quiet (lol!) and backed off from my family a bit. I think the grads may have added to a very crowded Tues in the park, but honestly, there were way more large families and other folk than groups of rioting kids. On the opposite side of the spectrum, my son was literally run down from behind by a lady on an ECV (who did not apologize even when I gave her the evil eye as I helped him up from the ground!), had another come an inch within his head while waiting for F!, and had him get literally shoved aside by another grown-*** man (this all still obviously makes me very angry!). I saw way more grown people, large families, and stroller pushers be less aware of their surroundings causing havoc.
Chase Visa Southwest Rewards: We signed up for these (1 each/separate cards) months before the trip, were able to get enough points for free airfare from Austin to LAX for the 4 of us. We paid $100 annual fee per card, and another $100 in early bird fees to get all an “A” seat ($25 each round trip ticket), for a total of $300 on airfare (and still earning points!)
Chase Disney Visa: I waited until the points on the SW card’s cleared and then applied for one of these (in case we couldn't do both); no annual fee. I earned a $200 Disney Giftcard to spend on our trip!! I should’ve had my husband apply but didn’t think about it. Caveat: it may take up to 8 weeks to get your giftcard, so do this sooner rather than later.
Day-by-day run down coming up!
David's Vacation Club Rentals: added our name in the queue early to be booked 7 months out when GCV opened for all DVC members...we had no problem booking the reservation. David’s staff was professional and answered all my many questions quickly (within 24 hours via email). I added a room request about a month out and they did it without hesitation. While we didn’t get our first choice, we did get a theme park view and I could see WOC and the Fireworks from our patio (with obstructions on both sides). This was a completely smooth transaction. Highly recommended! $1738 for 6 nights in a studio at the Grand Californian.
Grand Californian: Beautiful, amazing staff, and the best location from the parks! Walking through Downtown Disney or through the GC entrance kept us within the Disney bubble the entire time…we always felt we were part of the magic. The only negatives were that they didn't give us enough coffee for each day and wanted to charge us for extra, and then since it was DVC, we only got trash and towel service on day 4 (no sheet service and we kept trash to a minimum). Otherwise, everyone there went above and beyond for us. Another high recommendation!!
CheapTickets through Ebates: Bought 5 day park hoppers for the price of 4 (pre-price increase), $1126 for 2adults/2kids. We received a $10 Target gift card for joining Ebates and $77.42 cash back after the purchase. We gave our print out to the reservation desk at the Grand, who gave us our tickets upon checkin. No problems! Amazing deal & again, highly recommend!!!
Lansky's: professional, prompt, helpful, and super clean vehicle. $180 for round trip from LAX, with grocery stop at Ralph's, for the 4 of us, and he provided and installed the boosters for my kiddos. Highly recommend for your airport transfers!
Photopass Plus: The best $69 spent! We took pics with every photopass photographer and character interactions I could find and asked for magic shots (2 different Tinkerbell, 1 Stitch, 3 different Cars characters, and 3 frozen magic shots!). We walked away with 350 photos and the CD with another 350 stock images. My iphone died on day 4 so this was a lifesaver! The only problem we had was that day 2 was so crowded in the parks that I didn’t see any, literally, not one photographer, outside of character meets in the park (DL). Otherwise, all our images were loaded correctly and we love, love, love them!
Bippity Boppity Boutique: I’m kind of torn on this one. We booked the castle package (“the works”) and while I think it was worth it once, I wouldn’t do it again. Some of the Fairy Godmothers will be “in training” forever as they seemed to forget what it was about and just wanted to get it done. Lots of people in a tiny space, fairy godmothers rushing around and I saw more than one snarky side eye when parents weren’t looking. In the end, my girl felt dolled up (I don’t know that I would say “special” since they had so many people crammed into the small space), loved her pics, loved skipping the line to meet the princesses, and loved all the comments walking through the park afterwards in her getup. So, overall worth it, but just let it roll and know what you’re really getting into. Next time, I’ll save the money, get her dolled up at E&As, and take pics myself and with park photographers.
Blue Bayou Fantasmic: Just do it. It was expensive, but the atmosphere and food were amazing and the seating for the show can’t be beat! Unfortunately, the fireworks were canceled due to the wind, so I was bummed. It seemed like very few CMs knew what was going on with seating. We had to walk all the way around to be seated in the front. Both the Blue Bayou and River Belle F! dinner guests were seated together in the same center section. We arrived around 8:30 and it was already a bit crowded, but you really couldn’t have a bad spot in this section. However, they parked late arriving ECVs right behind us and a lady almost ran over my son because she couldn’t brake the damned thing. We had to invade the space in front of us because she stopped literally an inch from his head and couldn’t reverse. Then she talked (yelled?!) the whole show. I was a little annoyed at that woman, lol! But whatever…the show was AH-Mazing!
Paradise Pier’s Surfs Up: Easy walk across the street from GCV. Got there at 9:15 for a 9:20 reservation and really needing coffee, but we had to wait for people to take their initial pic w/Mickey. We saw Pluto then Minnie right away after being seated. Stitch came by & was super playful. He stole things from nearby tables & hoarded them at another. He danced with his reflection in a spoon. He took my son’s cell phone (‘cause he was playing on it!) & pretended to throw it, then talk on it for a bit. Then he took the girls phone from the table & talked on them both. After all that, he settled in for hugs & pics. It took Daisy a while to come by which caused a lot of anxiety in my daughter, but she was so happy with her when she did. She was sweet, loving, and gave lots of kisses! The food was your run of the mill breakfast buffet food, but everything we ate was really good! Totally recommended!
Cabana rental at Disneyland Hotel became available at 2 on our off day. The main pool is huge, and the monorail slide was awesome! It was one of our coldest days so the pool wasn’t crowded, but it made the short wait for the slide kind of miserable. The cabana was awesome and service was great! We received 6 mini Dasanis, a fruit bow with apples (1 green, 1 red), a pear, 2 bananas, small bowl of grapes, and several large strawberries. The tv had all the room channels. There was a ceiling fan, 6 port usb to charge devices, bluetooth enabled radio, a mini fridge, loveseat, couch, coffee table, 2 loungers with umbrellas and a whole rack of towels. This was probably another splurge I wouldn’t do again, just because my kids were just as happy at the GCV pool. It was $165 ($150 plus tax) for 4 hours, from 2-6. Fun to do if you have the money to burn and really want to hit another pool, but I wouldn’t do it again.
Pinnochio’s Workshop: Basically a drop-in daycare at GC. It was great for a few hours sans kids. Both my kids really enjoyed it. They ordered dinner, had story time, and from what I gather, my son played Minecraft on a computer while my daughter did crafts and played air hockey with another little girl. They couldn’t be happier. We made reservations a week out. It’s $13/hour per kid, 3 hour minimum. I think we were right at 3 hours and it was $90. The best thing I learned was that they have a private deck they take the kids to watch the fireworks if they’re there at 9:30…if I wasn’t so exhausted I would’ve tried to time it right to get in on this with them.
Grad Nights: Didn't bother me, but we were mostly there at opening, done early afternoon, and only went back for reservations and shows. I saw a few kids running around, a few amorous embraces, and once, a kid getting off a ride behind me cursed in my ear with excitement. I imagine he saw me tense and I didn't even have to turn around and use my mom voice before he whispered an apology, got really quiet (lol!) and backed off from my family a bit. I think the grads may have added to a very crowded Tues in the park, but honestly, there were way more large families and other folk than groups of rioting kids. On the opposite side of the spectrum, my son was literally run down from behind by a lady on an ECV (who did not apologize even when I gave her the evil eye as I helped him up from the ground!), had another come an inch within his head while waiting for F!, and had him get literally shoved aside by another grown-*** man (this all still obviously makes me very angry!). I saw way more grown people, large families, and stroller pushers be less aware of their surroundings causing havoc.
Chase Visa Southwest Rewards: We signed up for these (1 each/separate cards) months before the trip, were able to get enough points for free airfare from Austin to LAX for the 4 of us. We paid $100 annual fee per card, and another $100 in early bird fees to get all an “A” seat ($25 each round trip ticket), for a total of $300 on airfare (and still earning points!)
Chase Disney Visa: I waited until the points on the SW card’s cleared and then applied for one of these (in case we couldn't do both); no annual fee. I earned a $200 Disney Giftcard to spend on our trip!! I should’ve had my husband apply but didn’t think about it. Caveat: it may take up to 8 weeks to get your giftcard, so do this sooner rather than later.
Day-by-day run down coming up!
