Please help son's school project

[mickeyluvsjess]

Hi! My son is writing this with me so we are not cheating. He is a freshman in high school and Disney world is already taken as I have many books and resources on that location and is also our favorite We are planning a trip for him only (hypothetical) with a $3000 budget. He has to plan a trip for one, including transportation, hotel, meals, sightseeing,souvoenirs,and anything else needed. He has to plan the best possible vacation (but no date restrictions or amount of time nessisary) Because he said Disneyworld we can do California but technicaly other countries that use Disneyland in the title could be substituted. He has a week and a half to perform this using power point, or brochures but no posters to present project. We do not want to bother any travel agents with a trip that will not result in comission. If anyone can help with info or can PM us with a brochure they can send we would appreciate it. Thank you so much in advance and if ever I can help with advice on Walt Disney World in return as that is my passion please pm me.
I know I can do this but would be PROUD to include DISSers in our project Thank you friends in advance.

 

[DizNee Luver]

You could always just go to the Disneyland website & price out the trip. You would need to pick some dates, price with the 3 resorts & then price some of the Good Neighbor Motels. The package would include motel & parkhoppers. You also would have the option of adding the dining package, airfare & ground transportation. You can do all of this without purchasing.

To figure meal costs, go to allears.net & go to the Disneyland menus. He can pick which restaurants he's interested in & then price each meal. Remember you have tax to include on the meals & souvenirs. (8.75% I believe)

This is how we budget every trip. I can get pretty close on the amounts by doing just that.

T-shirts run about $22, sweatshirts upwards to $55, keychains around $5, etc.

That would be a good starting point.

 

[sonnyjane]

Diznee gave you some good advice. Unfortunately Disneyland (like almost everywhere else) has veered away from printing tangible brochures in favor of putting everything on their website. Someone on the boards might be able to send you a park map, but there aren't really detailed brochures like in "the good 'ole days". I work at the zoo and we have a big rack of brochures for local attractions and the Disneyland one that we have is only a single sheet - no folds or anything, just a sliver of paper front and back telling you to check out the website!

 

[mickeyluvsjess]

well, I got a price quote from the disney site, the only thing I was confused on was the meal plans and transportation. I am used to disney world. With the meal plan is it like table service or counter service like WDW? Also the character meal add on does that add an extra meal or is it just paying to upgrade your meal to a character experiance? Then we added the "citi" something option which added other parks to a 3 day hopper. Does Disney provide the transportation to those parks because I saw another option to add parks more ala carte and some came with transportation. (wow! this is getting crazy but I have to admit I got excited and although I love WDW it has me kinda curious about going) This "project" may be going somewhere else LOL And the days you are at another park that means you have to eat on Disney property before and or after you go so you would have to budget for meals there, right?

 

[DizNee Luver]

well, I got a price quote from the disney site, the only thing I was confused on was the meal plans and transportation. I am used to disney world. With the meal plan is it like table service or counter service like WDW? Also the character meal add on does that add an extra meal or is it just paying to upgrade your meal to a character experiance? Then we added the "citi" something option which added other parks to a 3 day hopper. Does Disney provide the transportation to those parks because I saw another option to add parks more ala carte and some came with transportation. (wow! this is getting crazy but I have to admit I got excited and although I love WDW it has me kinda curious about going) This "project" may be going somewhere else LOL And the days you are at another park that means you have to eat on Disney property before and or after you go so you would have to budget for meals there, right?

The Disneyland dining plan is NOTHING like the WDW one. The plan gives you vouchers to use as payment. You get $15, $10 & snack ones. The amount you get varies on how many days you pay for. You save no money on these & they do include a few of the character meals. You don't get change back on the vouchers, so you actually could lose money on them. The other character meal vouchers are for Ariel's Grotto & Goofy's Kitchen which are the 2 most expensive character meals.

I would not add the dining plan in & go to the allears.net site to budget the meals.

We've never got the CityPass before, so have no idea if that includes transportation or not. As for the meals, you'd probably end up eating off property on those days, depending on what time you left & got back.

Here's an idea for a "brochure". You can go into almost any travel agency & ask them if they have Disneyland info......most carry a brochure/book with lots of info in them. We do this every year & have NEVER booked thru a travel agent. Those books are there to entice people to go to Disneyland.

 

[NStramler]

1. I would price the trip through Costco and the Disney site, of course using the lower priced trip - pick a hotel that offers breakfast
2. Go to Priceline and get your flight
3. Have him get the coupons online that can be used in Anaheim to save costs
4. Vons delivery for snacks, water etc.
5. Mention going to Walmart and the Disney outlet for some of the souvenirs to save money


Show the teacher how a wonderful trip can be affordable... bet he gets an A+

 

[Markie Mouse]

I use getawaytoday.com to price trips about every week. I have found their plans to be the best priced as they include fees and taxes in there quotes. $3000 is a more than enough to have a incredible trip for one person. Thats about my budget this year for 1 week with my family of 5.

 

[nunzia]

Why are you planning for parks other than the Disney parks on the hypothetical trip ? I would price out a nice 4 day Disneyland Resort trip with no other parks added. You do understand that once you are at DLR you walk between the 2 parks (which have about 80% of all the attractions in WDW)...so your hopper is really a 'hopper'? Once you price airfare and shuttle service to the resort, you have no need of any transportaion until you leave to go home. If you stay onsite there are lots of places to figure you'll eat, whether in the parks or Downtown Disney which is connected to the parks..in between them in a sense, so you would not need to eat offsite much if you didn't want to. If you stay offsite there are plenty of walking distance great hotels and lots of restaurants, fast food, etc., so you can easily eat for lower than expected prices.
The dining plan at DLR should really just be gotten rid of..it is not something many do and is really not a value at all.
Between Disney's website, allears and asking about pricing at offsite restaurants (if you go that route) you could have a pretty dandy presentation put together quickly.