Planning for Disneyland on points (and seeing the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, too)

[nzdisneymom]

We've finally agreed as a family to make Disneyland our Summer 2009 destination and we're going to use our points to stay at the Disneyland Hotel. We plan to go sometime between June 6th and June 21st and be gone two weeks plus a few days. In addition to the parks at Disneyland, we plan to make a big "car trip" and see both the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, so we'll likely fly into Las Vegas (cheaper airfare for us). So what I need help with is figuring out how many days we should plan for Disneyland to be able to see and do most of it. We were there last in 1999 while DCA was still being built.

So what would you recommend? It will be two adults (me and DH) and our two boys (ages turning 13 and 11 1/2). I'd love to be at DL for the older one's birthday which is on the 16th so I am trying to figure out how many days before and after we should plan to stay to be able to enjoy our time there at our newly-acquired-DVC-owner-pace (meaning not commando). So what do you think? Four days? Five days? Six?

We're thinking that we'd see the Grand Canyon first and then go to DL and see Yosemite on the way back to Las Vegas. Or if anyone has a suggestion for a different airport to fly into for this sort of trip, I'd love to hear about it as well -- I checked SNA (Santa Ana - John Wayne), too, but it was enough more than flying to L.V. to be the difference in the rental car for us for two weeks and then some.

Also, have I read correctly that we can make reservations for the DL resort hotels without the $95?

Thanks for your input.

 

[DebbieB]

I've stayed at DL twice this year on points. There is no $95 fee. Also, points stays are not charged the $11 resort fee (which is for internet, parking, newspaper). I would allow 3 1/2 to 4 days to do both parks at a slower pace.

I flew into SNA both times, it is very convenient and was cheaper than LAX.

 

[Escape Artist]

We flew into LAX. It was a lot cheaper for us, too.

DL Resort - I'd allow 4 days. That's plenty of time to enjoy it and not feel rushed. Grand Canyon - unless you're hiking it, it does't take much time. And in June, I wouldn't hike there very long! We spent two days, one doing the National Park and another doing an airplane flyover/slot canyon tour/rafting trip. Yosemite is awesome! Plan at least 2 days there, and any more is a nice bonus. If you enjoy hiking or photography, Yosemite is just this side of heaven. If you have more time, get out of the valley and go see Tuolomne Meadows, the sequoias and Wawona.

The earlier in June you start this trip, the better. Each of these places gets more crowded as the month goes on. As I'm sure you know, none of them are very close to each other, so you're going to need some travel time. I'd be inclined to fly into LAX and just do Yosemite and Disneyland, and save the Grand Canyon for doing a National Parks tour of Utah, instead. There's so much to do when you're already in California!

Sue in Texas
...loves to camp in Yosemite...

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you plan to stay at park lodging at either of the two parks, make sure you get that reserved as soon as possible to get the best choices. We stayed at the Grand Canyon and had a nice little room, two beds and a bathroom. I think it was the Yavapei Lodge or something like that. Not modern in the least. We did the south rim of the canyon.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Thanks for the tips, especially the reminder about securing lodging at the Grand Canyon and Yosemite -- which makes it even more imperative that I get my dates nailed down.

We made a similar trip in 1995 as I had a conference in Phoenix and DH had one in Anaheim. We flew into Phoenix two weeks earlier than my conference, drove to San Diego and then up to Anaheim for DH's conference - and then on up to the San Francisco area, back down to Yosemite, across to Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, and then to the Grand Canyon before returning to Phoenix for my conference. We had picked up our rental car with 8 miles on it -- we returned it with over 3,000 So we were thinking we'd do a modified version of that trip by cutting out the southern Arizona, San Diego, and San Francisco portions. And of course this time we'll have two kids in tow.

On our only trip to Disneyland, we flew into LAX when the boys were 3 and 2, so we also had car seats to deal with and craziness. DH and I have both had to fly out to the area individually since then and we absolutely love flying into Santa Ana, so that's why we were considering flying into there as our starting and ending points, but then Las Vegas is so much cheaper to get to from here. Geez, I need to get my map out

Anyway, thanks again for the thoughts, and any others that have experience or such to share, please do! My children know WDW like the back of their hands and they are really wanting to get to Disneyland, so we're excited that we can use DVC points to make it happen. That's good to know about the resort fee being covered by points... it's nice to not have any extra costs, and that will definitely help me with our budget planning for this trip.

I so love DVC

 

[JimMIA]

Another option might be to use an "open jaw" flight itinerary -- fly into one place, fly home from another. If you do the trip from South to North, you would start at Grand Canyon, then DL, then Yosemite.

For Grand Canyon, you could fly into either Phoenix, Las Vegas, or LA. From Yosemite, you could fly home from San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, or even Sacramento. That gives you a pretty good variety of fares to check.

Another important consideration would be rental car fees. Sometimes you will pay no fee at all for a one-way rental. On one trip a couple of years ago, we flew into LAX and drove to San Diego. Then we returned to LA for a couple of days, then Yosemite, then San Francisco for 3 days, finally flying home from SFO. We got a great rental car (minivan, actually) price, and paid zero drop-off charges.

You really have to check carefully, though. If we'd done that same trip flying into SFO and out of LAX, we would have paid almost $400 in drop-off charges. It makes no sense, but very little about travel pricing makes any sense, so you just have to look at ALL the options.

Even if you have to pay drop-off charges, an open jaw may save you a ton of back-tracking and literally add days of productive time to your vacation.

I've flown back and forth to California a lot in recent years, and I almost always find LAX the cheapest fares in Southern California, and also the best rental car prices. In the Bay Area, I usually find SFO the best fare, but once San Jose was better.

However, a lot of that depends on where you live. For me, flying from Miami, LAX and SFO offer the best flight options and the lowest fares. That may not be true for your city.

 

[JimMIA]

National Parks tend to be one place where ONSITE really makes a difference, because in some parks offiste actually means far away from what you want to see. Both Grand Canyon and Yosemite offer a wide variety of lodging inside the parks, from luxury to primitive backcountry camping. The luxury hotels are worth the money; the budget places tend to be pretty spacious, rather spartan, but very clean and workable.

FWIW, we usually stay in the middle of the road accommodations in National Parks...like Yosemite Lodge at Yosemite. Big clean rooms, right in the middle of everything -- but don't expect plasma TV's. You actually probably won't find ANY TV.

There are two key dates you need to understand about booking lodging inside a National Park. One is the earliest date you can book, and the other is the cancellation deadline. At Yosemite, I believe the earliest is a year and a day from checkin, and cancellation is two weeks out. I'm not sure about Grand Canyon because it's a different concessioner, but you'll be able to get that info easily.

The reason those dates are important is that if you miss the early date, a LOT of people cancel close to the deadlines. A good strategy is to protect yourself somewhere (like the Yosemite tent-cabins) and then keep calling to try to improve.

The place to start with any National Park is the website of the specific park. Grand Canyon's website is www.nps.gov/grca Yosemite's is www.nps.gov/yose

There are dozens of great NPS units to visit in AZ, UT, and especially CA. You can also go to www.nps.gov and use the park locator to look at parks within a specific state.

NPS websites tend to be a little clunky, and you have to drill down through several menus to find what you want. On the home page of each park, you'll usually see buttons on the left margin, and one of those will be "Planning your visit" or something similar. Click on that, and then click on lodging and you'll get lots of info about lodging options and usually links to the concessioners' sites.

Have a great trip!

 

[JimMIA]

Also, for the kids, check out the Junior Ranger programs in any park you visit. Not every NPS unit has a Junior Ranger program, but I'm pretty sure GRCA and YOSE do. The Junior Ranger programs are usually free, but a few parks charge a nominal fee.

Usually the kids are given a book with activities to do during their visit. When they complete the required work, you take the book to a visitor center, a Ranger checks the work, and the kids are awarded their Junior Ranger badges. Sometimes, that's just, "Here kid," but often there's a little ceremony and a photo op. The kids love it, and they learn a lot.

Hopefully, where you're going, they will learn that each park is about much more than beautiful views. Both also have very rich histories, interesting and unique wildlife, and lots of other cool stuff.

As a parent, one of the best ways to see any National Park is through the eyes of your child. Kids are usually unimpressed by spectacular scenery, but they'll be fascinated by a pinecone or tiny flower. They may not understand history, geology, or anthropology like we do -- but they SEE nature better than we do. They're built closer to the ground than we are, so they see a LOT of things we don't see. They also don't come with pre-conceived ideas of what is there...so they'll find some incredible things. And they haven't lost their sense of wonder yet, so they can really open our eyes sometimes. Your kids will be your best tour guides!

 

[La2kw]

Yosemite books up extremely fast, 365 days in advance. If you don't already have a reservation made for June of 2009, the only thing available may be a tent cabin. Sometimes you can get a cabin without a bathroom this late, but not very often. It is extremely competitive getting a room on the Valley floor, and people book day by day a year in advance to get them. If you find even one night in a cabin or lodge room, jump on it! Don't plan on being able to do any cooking, unless you happen to get a room at Housekeeping Camp, or decide to camp. Cooking is banned at all other lodging due to the bears. Also, never leave food or ice chests in your car. The bears will open the car up like a can opener and trash the car.

The Grand Canyon is not as hard to get, but you want to book that ASAP also to get the best rooms. Our favorite is the Maswik Lodge, which is about a 5 minute walk from the South Rim. It also has our favorite cafeteria. Yavapai is a similar lodge, but not very close to the rim. There's also the El Tovar, which is the premium lodge, as well as Thunderbird, Bright Angel, and Kachina Lodges. Prices vary from about $90 to $200 a night. There's no a/c, and it gets hot there in the summer. We usually go at Thanksgiving and have had great weather, and even snow at times.

As already mentioned, these are National Park lodges and are more in the line of camping rather than hotels. It's a fantastic experience though, and worth any inconveniences that may arise.

It's about a 7 hour drive one way to Yosemite and to the Grand Canyon from L.A.

 

[JimMIA]

Great advice on the lodging. We have been able to protect ourselves with tent cabin reservations, and then switch to Yosemite Lodge on both of our last two trips. One trip was in May and the other was in early November. Your luck will vary according to time of year, but they do have a lot of cancellations, so don't give up.

It's about a 7 hour drive one way to Yosemite and to the Grand Canyon from L.A.

We make it quite a bit quicker than that from LA to Yosemite -- I think we make it in about 5 1/2 hours, even stopping for lunch.

We go I-5, then CA 99 to Fresno, then CA 41 through the Fish Camp entrance to the valley. That route brings you into the valley in the most dramatic fashion possible. You're driving along through thoroughly unremarkable landscape when you come to a tunnel. The tunnel is the Wawona Tunnel, and traveling in this direction, it opens up onto a spectacular view of Yosemite Valley. You're about halfway up the cliffs, so you have great views both above and below you.

This viewpoint is so famous, it's called simply the Tunnel View, and it's the typical picture you see of Yosemite. Half Dome is straight ahead, El Capitan is to the left, Yosemite Falls is farther ahead on the left, Bridalveil Falls and Glacier Point are to the right. Spectacular sight, and a wonderful first look at what I consider our most beautiful National Park. Scenic grandeur just doesn't get much better than the Tunnel View at Yosemite.

It's almost 200 miles farther from LAX to the Grand Canyon, and you have to drive right through LA, so that could easily take 7 hours.

 

[JimMIA]

Another thing to remember about visiting Grand Canyon and Yosemite is that both parks are quite remote. Don't expect 500 channels of cable, because you probably won't have any TV at all except in a hotel lobby or lounge. You probably will not have any Internet access, and you might not have cell phone coverage.

Things may have improved in the last couple of years, but the last time we were at Yosemite, there was very little cell coverage. I have AT&T and I had cell coverage in some spots in the valley, but Verizon and Sprint customers had nothing at all.

National Parks are really not about text messaging and surfing the Web from your I-Phone. You can do that in many places here in Everglades, but if you expect that out West, you're going to be disappointed. Personally, I love being out-of-touch, although I must admit it takes a day or two to adjust. And of course, you're never really out of touch -- you can still be reached through the hotel, although many lodges do not have phones in the rooms.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Thank you all for the great information, particularly about planning for reservations at the National Parks. See if this makes any sense to you all....

1. Get a reservation made at Yosemite for one or two nights, depending on what is available. This will be our Base date to plan the rest of the trip around.

2. Make DL reservations with DVC points for 5 nights (giving us 4 full days at the DL parks) for either before or after Yosemite. Depending on time, maybe stay for 7 nights at DL and plan to see some of the non-DL sights in the LA area.

3. Try for Grand Canyon reservations that will mesh with the rest of the trip - if we miss the GC, then we'll catch it another time, or if we can't get Yosemite, we could do Grand Canyon as our Base date.

4. Decide if / where to stay between destinations of Yosemite, DL, and GC.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Having seven nights at the DLH would be very nice. Its a pretty decent location within L.A., its only about 30 minutes to Huntington Beach (one of my favoirte beaches anywhere, it has some really nice restaurants, shopping and lots of surfers to watch). There is also the new Garden Walk area in Anaheim that has a bunch of new restaurants and shopping. Frankly, I can easily spend a week at DL. In fact last year, we did 9 nights at the DLH, we saw the parks, went to the beach a couple of times and had a wonderful time. There is a lot packed into those two parks as far as rides and shows and the crowds on the weekends are pretty heavy. But for sure, at least five days. We love the DLH, its not as deluxe as the WDW deluxes but we really enjoy it. Grand Californian is also very nice and very deluxe in feel. Its much more when paying cash, when using points its not that much higher. I recommend a view room at the DLH so that you won't be looking at a parking lot or smoggy city view. At the GCH, I never book a view room, although the theme park views are incredible. You are so close to everything at both of those hotels. You will love that aspect of Disneyland!

You can also check into Ontario airport, about the same distance as LAX, but my expereince has been the traffic is easier, its much smaller than LAX and doens't have all the international travellers so its not that busy. I believe its part of LAX, it has a lot of cargo airlines like Fed Ex and UPS that fly in and out of there.

Long Beach is also very close to Disneyland, I haven't flown into it but a lot of people swear by that airport.

 

[tidefan]

One other thing to consider might be Zion National Park in Southern Utah. It is only about 2 hours from Las Vegas and we all liked it much better than the Grand Canyon. It is a must see, absolutely gorgeous. Also, Bryce Canyon National Park (for which Big Thunder Mountain RR is themed) is only about an hour away from that, so you may want to do those.

 

[PEANUT1]

sounds like a wonderful trip. I hope to do the same type of things when my girls are much older.

 

[nzdisneymom]

One other thing to consider might be Zion National Park in Southern Utah. It is only about 2 hours from Las Vegas and we all liked it much better than the Grand Canyon. It is a must see, absolutely gorgeous. Also, Bryce Canyon National Park (for which Big Thunder Mountain RR is themed) is only about an hour away from that, so you may want to do those.

With this information, I can see us doing a separate trip to see the Grand Canyon / Utah (as someone else also suggested earlier). I didn't know about the theming for BTMRR so that's an interesting fact and something that the boya will be interested in seeing.

Thanks for the other airport tips as well - I'll add Ontario to my Kayak search (I love kayak.com for searching out airfare).

And I have been to Huntington Beach (in 2005) and have to agree about how nice it is there! I was only there for two nights but it was nice and restful just sitting out. With the time-difference (we're eastern time zone), I was up early enough to get a good walk on the beach as the sun was coming up, but yawning by sunset!

Thanks again for all the thoughts, feedback, tips....

 

[gracelrm]

We did a 3 week trip out West in 2006 and did Grand Canyon, DL, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Zion. We did our second trek out West this summer doing Custer State Park in SD, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, OR, Redwoods, San Francisco, Yosemite, Death Valley (urg), and Zion. I'm leaving out several places from both trips - but you get the idea. Of all the stuff we've done on those trips, my kids (15, 12 & 8) were so disappointed that we didn't "raft" in Yosemite. We stopped at an area and watched other families who were rafting in a very tame stream and our kids wanted so badly to do that. We hadn't planned for that and didn't have the time to devote to it. We've been home for a little over a month and all three of them at one time or another have mentioned how they would've liked to have done that.

Also, if you do GC & Yosemite - you might check out the Natl. Park Pass. We purchased one for each trip and certainly got our money's worth. And we live 30 minutes from Mammoth Cave - so we'll take a trip there before the year is up.

 

[JimMIA]

Also, if you do GC & Yosemite - you might check out the Natl. Park Pass. We purchased one for each trip and certainly got our money's worth. And we live 30 minutes from Mammoth Cave - so we'll take a trip there before the year is up.

The national park pass -- called the America the Beautiful pass -- is good not only for any National Park Service site (there are many other types of sites in addition to Parks - preserves, seashores, battlefields, monuments, etc), but also most federal lands which charge an entrance fee (national forests, wildlife preserves, etc). It covers more than a thousand places with entrance fees. Most national parks now charge $25-40 for a seven-day admission.

The annual pass costs $80 and is good for one year from purchase. The pass generally covers your entire car-full of people, so you only need one. It also gives you discounts on camping, and sometimes on other events depending on the unit you visit.

If anyone is 62 or older, they are eligible for a Senior Pass. The Senior Pass costs $10 and does NOT expire...ever. It has all of the benefits of the annual pass. The only time you'd need to buy another one is if you lose it.

Both passes are BIG money-savers, and both can be purchased an any federal land site which charges fees. For persons with disabilities, there is an Access Pass which is free and never expires -- also with the same benefits.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Also, if you do GC & Yosemite - you might check out the Natl. Park Pass. We purchased one for each trip and certainly got our money's worth. And we live 30 minutes from Mammoth Cave - so we'll take a trip there before the year is up.

Great idea! As it turns out, my boys and DH are going to Mammoth Cave today

That's a great tip about the Pass because I do believe we would get our money's worth. I'm going to check on Yosemite today and see if I can get some dates nailed down. It sounds like I need to do some reading up on what all there is to see / do there so that I can plan enough nights there so we don't walk alway with a lot of "wish we hads". Although I always tell my family that the "wish we hads" are just seeds for a return trip!

I used to always get some Disney Dollars with whatever cash I had left over when we'd go to WDW pre-DVC. I called it my "seed money" for our next WDW vacation.

 

[JimMIA]

One of the challenges of planning any National Park trip is choosing what to see and what to leave out. If you start looking at your map, you'll drive yourself nuts.

For example, there are 26 National Park Service sites in California, 22 in Arizona, and 13 in Utah. And that's just NPS sites (we have more than 390 sites nationwide). There are dozens of additional national forests, Fish & Wildlife sites, Bureau of Land Management sites, and on and on and on. Plus state parks, of course.

And many of the national parks have widely-seperated and vastly different sections. The alpine backcountry at Yosemite is as spectacular as the valley, but it's an hour ride or more from the valley floor. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is just as pretty as the South Rim, much less crowded, but more remote. It's only a few miles away as the Condor flies, but it's a four-hour drive by road!

The other question is how long to stay. Many people don't even stay overnight at Grand Canyon. They go to the rim, take a few pictures, and leave. I could easily spend a couple of weeks, four times a year, at any of the large parks -- there's just so much to see once you get past the scenery!

I can tell you from experience that a park becomes a MUCH different experience for you if you spend a few days there, rather than a rushed "cross-this-one-off-my-Life-List" visit. Or in NPS terminology, a "Passport visit." (We have National Parks passports, and many visitors go to every visitor center they see to get their passport stamped!)

If you stay a few days, you start to feel the place and you have much more time to do the things you'll remember for a long time.

Have a great trip!