Spill your secrets on affording Disneyland!

[JadeDarkstar]

`well if me or fionce had car and he had licince i would drive to but it almost as much in gass lately ..flying just easer.
I tryed to get my dad mom and sis to be abel to go this trip but they cant. if they coudl wed drive and save 500 lol but hay flying will be fine. at least dont need pass port in the states..

 

[Monica D]

We only go every three years or so, because we like to enjoy ourselves and spend when we want. We've also been fortunate to have my dh's parents pay for our hotel stay on several trips, and that makes a huge difference. Sometimes we fly and sometimes we drive...just depends on the airline rates.

 

[Blackunicorn]

OK... question here.
This is actually none of my business... nonetheless I am going to pry because I am intrigued as to how people afford their Disneyland trips (and cruises, and trips to WDW, etc.) MORE than 1 time per year.

Between paying for airfare,the Disneyland Hotel stay, Parkhopper tickets X 6 days, balcony seats for Fantasmic, Medieval Times, oober munchies, and a few souveniers... it takes me a year to save up for the trip. The minimum I have to save to pay for all this is $4000.
(now the above is our annual routine, our traditional things to enjoy, and absolutely non-negotiable).

And this is for only TWO people folks.

Have you worked for the same company for 20 years and have the option of 6 weeks of vacation time available? (I have to hoard mine all year in order to get my two weeks off in a row).
Do you charge it to your Disney card and pay it off monthly?
Are you in constant Disney debt?
HOW do you do it?

I get the feeling I am missing out on something important.
Actually, I feel like I am getting ripped BIG due to missing out on something important I should know.

Fill me in gang... I'm all ears...

Well, the first thing I see is that you're wasting money on your tickets. You don't say what time of year you visit, so I guess this could be an incorrect assumption on my part. Let me tell you what we do.

--We make sure that we go to Disneyland two years in a row. We like to stay an average of 6 days a year, so we buy annual passes and make our second year trip one week before the passes expire. If you compare the cost of a 5 day parkhopper versus an annual pass, the difference is $50 for adults and $80 for children--if you make two 5 day trips, it's well worth it. We do travel in slow season, if you travel in peak season then it wouldn't work as well because there are so many blackout dates. Annual Passes also give discounts on dining, shopping, and hotels.

--We travel in slow season, which is an automatic drop in hotel prices.

--We have a Disney Visa, which we use as much as possible to get the Disney rewards, then use those for our vacation spending. It's not a huge amount, but it's something. The goal is to pay it off monthly, of course.

--We *don't* do balcony seats for Fantasmic or Medieval times. I'm not saying cut those out--it's your vacation and you should enjoy it. But that could be one reason why you're spending twice what my family of four does.

 

[Twinprincesses]

Our Airfare was $89 each way for the 4 of us. Due to the horrible flight experience last year we each had a $50 voucher to use so it really ended up being $39. ( we are coming from Indiana).

We are staying at the Ho Jo for 3 days for the $54 entertainment rate. B-fast is either eaten at the hotel continental b-fast or we will get some donuts for our room.

My husband works for Chase so we get a good discount of 3 day park hoppers.

We limit ourselves to the Princess Meal and the Minnie meal (we are passing on Blue Bayou this year).

We take bottled water and goldfish crackers for the kids.

We do not buy suveniors till the last day. This gives us time to see what we really want and not do impulse buys.

I buy the girls lightup things before we go or bring ones from home.

Due to the 3 hour time difference we do not do fireworks.

We have done Medevial times before so we do not do that everytime.

I think all together airfare, tickets, rental car, hotel, meals and suveniors we might spend $2000 and that is at the most.

 

[Misskitty3]

DangerMouse, as usual I agree with most everything that you say......but ONE SNACK A DAY !!!!!

That dog wouldn't hunt in the Hound family.

Churros, Dole Whip Floats, Tigger Tails, Root Beer Floats, fudge, those White chocolate/macadamia nut/coconut cookies the size of a 45 record....., slushees, corny dogs, mickey bars....etc....etc....


One reason i won't do concierge again is that it cut down on the snack grazing. Oh...& if on a budget, get the Dole Whip Float with two straws.


hound <----is thankful that all snacks in DLR have -0- calories and have the nutritional value of steamed brussel sprouts and lima beans.

Where do you get Root Beer Floats at DL?

 

[kelmac284]

My strategies are the same as most of yours. We have always flown and can usually get fairly cheap tickets from Sac to LA BUT driving is EVEN cheaper when you have 5 or 6 people going. We always stay right across the street to maximize park time and thus usually can get a room around the 100/night price. We eat breakfast outside the park (at hotel if it has one) and counter service for lunch and most times eat outside the park for dinner before coming back after our mid day break.

We do buy souveniers. (We only get down there a few times a year and with 2 small kids it is hard not to walk away with SOMETHING) and we have AP's. THAT saves a huge amount.

I agree about the hotels. Now I have been to DW twice and staying on property there is a LOT different then here but even there we opt for our time share as we save a TON of money.

And everyone is right, truly you mostly just sleep in your room and the hotels here don't even have the really cool themed pools like Florida.

As everyone has said it is all in what you are willing to give up to have/do more.

 

[Danauk]

We only go every three years or so, because we like to enjoy ourselves and spend when we want. We've also been fortunate to have my dh's parents pay for our hotel stay on several trips, and that makes a huge difference. Sometimes we fly and sometimes we drive...just depends on the airline rates.

We are the same. Our American Disney trips are usually 18 months/2 years apart. Our main problems are 1) Due to our jobs we have to travel at peak times and 2) As we are flying from England at peak time air fare is approx $1400 per person (luckily there are just 2 of us!)
As we have to do this we figure we might as well save up more and splurge on the trip anyway. So our USA holidays are usually 2 - 3 weeks long.

I would love to live closer, then I would go a few times a year and do cheaper trips.

As to how we manage this, we have the same amount of money put into a holiday savings account each month. It is taken out straight after our monthly pay goes in to our account so we don't notice it is missing.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

well we are gona use our hotel for more then just sleeping. we are going to stay in one day in between the trip we also like the neverland look of the pool

 

[auntyjenn]

Ok, I'll admit it. There have been times I have allowed a churro AND a dole whip on the same day. I'm not a Disney snack nazi or anything!

No popcorn for you!

I, on the other hand, am a snack nazi. That's why the kids like it when the grandparents come. They barely have to think, "Mickey head icecream bar" and Grandpa is over at the cart buying one for everyone. (We bring lots of snacks. It's partly about the money and partly about not throwing off my touring groove.)

 

[DangerMouse]

We are staying at the Ho Jo for 3 days for the $54 entertainment rate. B-fast is either eaten at the hotel continental b-fast or we will get some donuts for our room.

Don't know if I read this right, but just wanted to make sure you knew that the HoJo doesn't offer a cont. breakfast. They do have a great gift shop where you can buy overpriced cereal and milk though!

 

[TheZue]

Our big thing is the share food at the restaurants. The portions are HUGE at some of the places and we often look at the menus ahead of time since it all looks SOOOO good when you get there. I've never been hungry enough to snack lol We bring water into the park as well. We always stay off site too...I have had good luck with the best western across the street. The other thing we do that really helps is collect reward points from visa and local stores. It's surprising how many of them let you turn them in for park hoppers so we rarely pay for those. Depending on where you live it might be worth driving. For us air fair would be a minimum of $250 each plus tax....or we can spend $350 in gas and $200 in hotels to get there...we also packed our plug in cooler with deli meat for the drive down. The drive is fun anyways

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

Flying for us is about $200 per person too, so that would be $600 to get there and back. It costs us $200-250 total in gas, so it's well worth it for us to drive instead of fly. We actually enjoy the drive for the most part anyway. DH and I get a lot of talking time, and it's just part of the vacation to have that road trip!

But like I said if we lived further away or if I could some reason find really great rates I'd fly (even though it scares me to death! LOL).

 

[DLR29]

Oh yeah I would totally fly to WDW too, that's way too far of a drive for us! To DL though we usually leave at 4 am, which was nice my son would sleep most of the way. He's 9 now though and unfortunately I sleep more in the car then he does! LOL Anymore then 8-10 hours drive and I'd probably fly!

This Saturday we leave on a 6 week road trip which includes WDW. We leave here, Nor. Cal, and plan on getting to WDW on July 8th, stopping in AZ, NM, TX, AL for a couple nights here and there. It will definitely be a different experience.

 

[Vanvmom]

We go to DL for a week each Nov (plus some additional trips now and then). Normally we drive, but with gas prices being what they are, the cost difference between flying and driving is less than $300 (family of 5). We stay at a good neighbor hotel-the two we like are $89-113/night, depends on which one we choose... the cheaper one actually has bigger rooms, sometimes we get a suite for the lower price. We've stayed on-site before, and to me the rooms are not nice enough to pay the additional money. I've stayed in nice resorts before, and for those I am willing to splurge, but at DL, only the Grand CA comes close to being nice enough for me to justify the additional money (and normally we choose to spend our vacation money on other things).

We eat breakfast for free in the hotel. We budget one meal in the park/day, and often share entrees (this works great at Pizza Port- love the chicken fusilli). Two-three dining options in the parks offer 1 free refill, so often we dine in one of these places so that we can get our refill as we finish our meal and head back out to conquer the park. Our 3rd meal is "snacks" from home, or sandwiches we've made from supplies we purchased at 7-11, and stashed in the lockers outside the main gate. Either way, we spend no more than $60/day on food/drinks for the family of 5.

During the year we make large purchases on our Disney Visa (and pay them off as soon as the bill comes) so that we have "points" to use for souveniers for the kids. We don't do credit card debt, we've seen the havoc it can wreck on families, and don't want to go there. Like another posted mentioned, we pay for our vacations in portions. For instance, I've already purchased our plane tickets for the next trip, and money is in savings already to pay for the hotel. We are budgeting the tickets now, and waiting until the fall packages are available (then we upgrade to APs). As part of our vacation planning, last November we paid our deposit for the DCL cruise we're planning for 2009, and we've saved enough flight and hotel points to take care of our surprise trip to Hawaii this Dec. Where there is a will to vacation... there is a budget to make it happen.

 

[eargal]

We're just stinkin' filthy rich.

 

[Master Mason]

We're just stinkin' filthy rich.

Could you adopt me then?

 

[eargal]

Sorry, my family is complete. No additions allowed.

Plus, I may have exaggerated just a tad regarding our affluence.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

lol now thats funny
magic is the way we all go..some how we come up with the money needed

 

[DangerMouse]

Hi Wendy!

I snuck a peek at your cruise website. Would you mind if I pm'd you to pick your brain about doing a Disney Cruise with 3 kids? I have read a lot, but would love some individual advice from someone as experienced as you.

Now back to our regular scheduled programming. . .

 

[Carter'sMommy]

We're just stinkin' filthy rich.

POOF... so are we but I did not want to rub that in!!!