Planning a bare-budget trip - help!

[50sjayne]

To the OP- you CAN easily do this for $1500!!

My family of 3 will be going the end of this month for approx. 9 days and our total cost is $1500. This includes gas roundtrip for driving down, 7 nights in a hotel and all our food. The only thing not included is our souviners, which should not be much since DS has his money all saved and will be spending his own money on his souviners. So our total buget is around $1500.

Now I know you have a bigger family then me but if I can do 9 days at $1500 then you can do 5 days at the same! Just thought you might like some positive thinking!

Here's what we are doing:

Driving from WA to CA- 19 hours. Leave Wed night after dinner and drive straight through. Gas (which I calculated based on miles and mpg for our car) is $125. Pack all food for driving, bring mini BBQ and cook at rest stops along the way.

Arrive at Grandma's retirement home on Thursday late afternoon and spend 1 night in their guest apartments, $55. Food is covered- free.

Travel to HoJo's on Friday night, spend 6 nights. Entertainment rate $59 plus tax, so approx. $70 night, total of $420.

Bought discounted tickets from Disneyland.com for 5 day park hoppers for price of 3. Total $522.

Will make muffins and cook breakfast at hotel. Bring in lunch, snack items, all drinks. Eat in park at CS or carts and split meals between the 3 of us. Total per day for 4 days approx. $50, total $200. Will take one day of rest to play at water park/pool at HoJo's and cook meals in room on BBQ.

Leave Wed night after dinner and drive straight home, 19 hours. Total for gas one way, $125.

Now I've overestimated on gas prices and food as these may be more expensive then I've budgeted. However I did look at menus for the parks and tried to figure out the cheapest places to eat while inside the parks. I suggest allears.net. Some days will be around $50 and other days only $25-30 for food. By overestimating on these 2 things, I've given myself room to spend a bit more. Like buy a souviner or eat lunch at In N Out!

We also will not be staying at a hotel on the drive down and back, which saves us about $200. By packing all our own food for the drive that saves us roughly another $100. Now this sounds crazy to alot of folks, but it works out great for us! It's definately not for the faint of heart!

Check out the Entertaiment card rates at the HoJo's- amazing deal! I looked into AAA for park tickets but the promotion they were offering ended the end of April. So it was actually cheaper to buy directly through Disney. You can buy just park tickets on their website and choose to print them out so that you can avoid the "will call/pickup" fees.

I also suggest that you pack in as much of your own food as possible. Especially for the kiddos! My family of 3 will usually split 2 adult plates, or 1 ice cream treat and we always bring in our own sodas, juice, water bottles- those drinks can really add up! DS doesn't eat much of the food in the parks, no cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets etc so if I know we are going to be eating someplace he won't, then I will make a PB & J and we are good to go. You can also try the turkey leg carts, we don't like the turkey legs but do eat the chimichanges they sell there, at $5.50 each- you can't find a better deal! The corn dog/hot dog carts are also a good deal! For a more filling meal we love the soup and bread bowls and will usually buy 2 and share for a total of $18.

Total $1447 for a family of 3 for 9 days total. You CAN DO IT!!!

Great post! Sounds very similiar to us except we only eat in the park if they are very hungry and don't feel like making the trek to HOJO. I only ate in the park twice last time-once at Whitewater sancks, and one corndog at the corndog cart on mainstreet. We brought in sandwiches and snacks-granola bars, jerky, dried fruit. BTW You will want to park hop CA is fun and the new World of Color show is something you will want to see.

Because we have young kids who will need mid-day naps, staying close enough to walk back for naps is important. The HOJO across the street for $59 a night sounds perfect for us, especially with the fun pool and kids' play area.

I like the idea of barbecuing but that may take more effort than I'm willing to expend at the end of the day. Something like a fresh salad with tuna, quick and tasty without cooking, or meals frozen at home and brought in a cooler to warm in the microwave like chicken curry or chili, could be very affordable and easy at the end of the day, though. Also, I'm thinking that I could put something in a crockpot in the morning and have dinner ready in the room when we return. I may consider that for a few meals instead of going out. That could shave another $100 off of our budget, and if I could get the tickets with a bit of a discount, it may be possible to make it happen for closer to $1000. Awesome!

If you use a crockpot get crockpot liners-they are cheap and there's no clean up.

 

[SnapPea]

Crockpot liners sound like a great idea. A hot meal ready when we get back to the room sounds pretty awesome to me! Maybe I can do chicken in it one night and then have a cold chicken salad the next night for even less work.

I think the park hopper is in our future now matter how we do it, since a 3 day pass without hopping isn't available. We'll see if we end up hopping, but I'm pretty sure we're going back for naps in the afternoon since we have cranky kids without naps!

 

[skiingfast]

Because of the ages of you kids, if you go to San Diego, they are right for Legoland.

I'd also suggest looking at www.hotels.com Sometime they have deal for staying a few days or just a special where they knock 25% off the hotel's rack rate.

Also I didn't see it mentioned, there is a Denny's about 100 feet from the entrance of DL on Harbor Blvd. I don't know the details but they have some sort of kids eat free with an adult.

If you do wait and your younger son turns 3 you'll need a ticket for him. Don't despair though, he's more likely to enjoy gand remember going, need less naps, and less diapers.