May the best vacation win!!!

[dreamn_Disney]

My dd (16) and I are each planning a 2008 Christmas vacation. Who ever has the best plan at a reasonable rate wins. She wants DW and I want DL. Price is a big consideration to who wins. I figure I need to find two things that will help a lot.
1. cheap but clean room. The hotel/motel does need to have a pool. I would love some names so that I do not get cheap and dirty. We need no frills as we only use the room to sleep and change cloths.
2. We usually fly Spirit Air as they seem to have great prices. Any other ideas for a flight. We leave out of Detroit Metro.

Since we are not actually going till 2008 Christmas I have some time to plan. Any other info you think will swing this trip my way would be great.
TIA

 

[hlbtimes2]

My personal choice in hotels would be the candy cane inn. It is a bit more spendy then some of the other hotels near by- but its clean, nicely decorated, beautiful grounds, and includes breakfast which does help offset the price.

You wont find them on any of the online book sites, such as expedia or travelocity. You can book them direct at www.candycaneinn.net or thru disney travel. You can find reviews at trip advisor.com They are typically rated in the top 3 for the area.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

If you're looking for budget - also check out the Ramada Inn Maingate & Tropicana. Both offer simple continental breakfast, both have snack shops, and the Ramada Inn Maingate also has a foodcourt.

The HoJo has a great splash area for the younger set & is a moderate hotel. All three are within walking distance, though you might want to get the ART shuttle for the HoJo for the trip back to the hotel after a long day at the parks.

 

[wvnative]

The kid stayed at the Tropicana April '05 on a school trip and it seemed pretty nice. We opted for a different hotel since we weren't actually part of the school group. Ramada Lmt North. It's just across the 5, but was a bit of a hike. The rooms were decent enough but we probably wouldn't stay there again if we could get into one of the closer hotels.

LIke you, we pretty much are only in our room longenough to sleep and shower so I don't wanna pay for a lot of frills. We stayed at the Anaheim Plaza in Oct. and it was o.k. Our room was clean and I didn't think the walk was that bad. They were running a special ($59/nt) then. We are staying at the Desert Inn in May ($109) and hopefully I'll get it together to do a trip report. My friend from Australia stayed there when they came to Disneyland in Oct. and they seemed to like it.

I'd really like to try out the Candy Cane Inn. A lot of people rave about it but it's been a little more than I want to pay normally.


As for flights, you could always check Southwest. Their map says they fly out of Detroit and I know they fly to SNA, and LAX. They've often got $49 or $59 each way tickets. You don't even have to get there quite so early if you check in online the day before. We just check in the day before, print our boarding passes, hand our bags to the skycap when we get there, and off to the gate we go. (after security anyway) This trip we are flying USAirways. Phoenix is the hub for America West so sometimes we can get spankin' deals.

 

[nurse.darcy]

Candy Cane Inn, Jolly Roger. . .you can even get smoking deals from hotels.com at Hilton and Marriott. . .free shuttles to disneyland make it worth your while. . .