Disneyland on the Cheap

Archived Q&A and reviews ▼

Archived Q&A and Reviews

Questions

Taking the kids to LA on a budget

June 2016

Hello BPN Peers,

I'm taking the kids to Los Angeles area in July. Does anyone know any great deals on hotels, amusement parks like Magic Mountain, and Disney land? We're a low income family, so we do not have a lot of funds, but I did save a little bit up. The kids have worked so hard this year in school, and I want to reward them. I want them to know what it's like to take a trip. We have family to visit in LA, but not close enough to stay with, We don't get to travel a lot because we are poor. Please if you know deals on hotels or amusement parks in the Los Angeles area, giving us advice would be so great to my family. Thanks BPN Peers

Paradise Love

Sorry, but it's just not possible to get a deal on Disneyland unless you win tickets through a radio station or something. The discounts you can find are teeny-tiny (like through AAA or Costco) and still don't make it even remotely affordable. For Magic Mountain you can get a Six Flags season pass and then go to Discovery Kingdom as much as you like (assuming you live close enough to Vallejo) and that would cover your visit to Magic Mountain. I think just two visits makes the season pass worthwhile (still not cheap though). When we did a Magic Mountain trip we found a nice hotel (Hyatt?) on Priceline for a reasonable price. Have a great trip--I hope you can make it happen! Even my middle-income family has only been to Disneyland once

There are lots of fun things to do in LA besides amusement parks, which are crazy expensive both for admission prices and food (and, in my opinion, are not that fun in the summer when the crowds are huge and temperatures are hot).

Everyone thinks you have to drive everywhere in LA, but the Metro system has expanded enormously and can take you from Pasadena to the beach. Here are some family-friendly ideas:

The Santa Monica Pier has a Ferris wheel, small roller coaster and other fun things in a beautiful setting. No general admission.

The beach!! I grew up there, and I miss warm beaches with water that doesn't require a wetsuit. The beaches in Santa Monica have showers and decent bathrooms. Bring a picnic and you're set for the day. You can rent bikes and ride for miles on the bike path along the water.

Ride the Metro to Union Station (really cool old train station), walk a couple of blocks to Olvera Street and visit El Pueblo, the birthplace of Los Angeles. Also get Mexican food!

Also near Union Station is Chinatown. Good food and interesting shops and galleries.

Grand Central Market downtown for great food stands.

Venice Canals.

Grand Performances has free summer concerts downtown.

Have fun! Anon

For accommodations try Airbnb or Hotels tonight. As for tickets for the parks Safeway or Costco. Prices are can be different in the Bay Area or in LA and the change all of the time.

If you really want cheap tickets to Disneyland there are people buy 5-day park passes use them for two or three days and sell the other two. Look on Craig’s list. You can get tickets to the parks for $25 a day per person.

Then there's Craig’s List. You can find inexpensive ticket as well as scammers. The way the inexpensive ticket scam works is people find and collect unused tickets. They will meet you at the gate, you pay them and they will scan through all of the tickets until the find a 'good' one. You'll save some bucks but you kind of look like a fool because everyone has to wait and they know you are scamming the park.

Something else you need to factor in is food. Food in parks is outrageously expensive. At Disney they built it so you have to walk over a mile from the gate to get to a non-Disney restaurant or store.

The package deals might save you a few dollars but it's usually not worth the time.

The deals for the parks are always changing, it's like store coupons. I have some hard core Disney friends who are in the know about the deals. Take a look at sites like yesterland.com, micechat.com mouseears.com allears.net and the forums. If the site looks too commercial it's the wrong kind of site.

The other is Twitter. People like you who are budget minded tweet and share the values and what's going on at the parks.

Having four kids and been to LA and the parks many times I've done my fair share of pinching pennies.

With all of this said the best advice I can give you is don't waste your time with all of these 'deals'. You either wind up wasting a lot of time or getting scammed and you might save $100.

Stay at the DL hotel for a couple of days. But before arrive go to Safeway and stock up on food. When everyone gets hungry take the monorail to the hotel, eat, rest and return refreshed. (You get the advantage of using the hotel’s bathrooms too.)

Get on the unofficial forms non-commercial forms and twitter for other tips. Forget the “money saving” books “Hidden tricks/tips/secrets” books. The information is a year old and it’s all online anyway.

Carefully select the dates you'll go to the popular parks unless you like waiting 2 hrs. to get on a ride. Mondays and Tuesdays are usually less crowded and remember it gets hot. Having the hotel a monorail ride away is a huge benefit. There are the non-Disney hotels with shuttles, but they are such a hassle it's not worth it.

The parks are popular which is why they are expensive. Accept paying the premium and have fun. ANON

I have some more ideas for you after reading the other posts. The California Science Center is an interactive, fun museum and it's free. For a couple bucks you can get tickets to see the Space shuttle Challenger. If you go to Hollywood, see a movie at either Grauman's Chinese Theater or El Capitan. Both are unique, El Capitan is the theater where Disney movies premiere and they always show the latest Disney feature plus have a pre-show performance. You can also see the Hollywood sign from the nearby shopping complex. Griffith Observatory is in the hills and a great view of LA and the Hollywood sign. Have not been to the observatory but heard it's great.

I would warn against what someone suggested last week about getting Disney passes off of Craigslist. Disney captures your photo in the multi-day passes so they can't be used by others. There are really no good discounts to Disney - it costs less per day if you buy a multi-day pass but then you are spending more. Also to know, Universal has annual passes but they have so many blackout dates it's not worth it (weekends and summer). LA traveler

Hi, I had posted about not buying Disney tickets from someone reselling them. Here is a good article about that and buying Disney tickets. http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-parks-tickets-tips-tricks/

One more suggestion- if you think you can afford a day of Disneyland, you will get the most out of it to book a hotel within walking distance the night before and the night after. Then you can arrive early, take a break and come back late for the fireworks, etc. The best way to search for inexpensive, close hotels is with a guide book (we like the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland) which you can get at the library. Good luck with your trip!

LA traveler

How to do Disneyland on the cheap

July 2014

So, we are going to drive to LA to do Disneyland in Sept. 2014. Have been researching 'packages' but they all seem pretty expensive. We don't need all of the bells and whistles (character dining, ESPN stuff - don't even know what some of these things are!). Just 2 or 3 days in the parks... and hotel stay for max of 3 nights. Advice? How did you do it on the cheap? anon

Our family of five just returned from Disneyland, and it was expensive mainly due to our inability to resist souvenirs and snacks in the blinding Anaheim sun. We went with the bells-and-whistles Costco package, and it worked out to about $115 dollars a day per person. I don't know how I would have been able to beat that on my own, but hopefully a savvier traveler can come up with a cheaper route for you. My oldest is over 10, so I believe that bumped her up to an adult entry ticket. We opted not to go for the pricier Park Hopper. Instead, our three-day pass allowed us to visit one park each day. We visited Disneyland, then California Adventure, and then let the children vote for their favorite (D-land) for the third. That worked fine, but it took us a while to get a hang of the Fast Pass system. You need to grab them early in the day before they stop being issued, then go to the less popular attractions or eat, and then sail into your VIP line ahead of the others without passes.

Back to costs: as I mentioned the Mouse has his hand out at every turn. I wouldn't be surprised if there were gift shops in some of the restrooms. Just be firm by setting a firm limit on gifts with the little ones before entering the park. It's perfectly fine at the bag check to have snacks and drinks in your backpack, but they'll only last you so far. $5.99 was perhaps steep for the pineapple smoothie-float at the Tiki Room, but it was sublime on a hot day. $2.99 for a pineapple wedge seemed ridiculous. The Character Meal in the package was worth more than $150, as I recall, for breakfast bunch at Goofy's Kitchen in the Disney Hotel at the other end of Downtown Disney. We met Goofy at reception for a photo (no obligation + our own camera shots were welcome), as well as the Mad Hatter, Princess Jasmine, Balou [sic?], and Chip & Dale at our table. Of course, I was there for the outrageous feast of unlimited Eggs Benedict, Bananas Foster Crepes, omelets to order, BBQ pizza (!), among others. The free 5x7g' photo was nice. You get a photo pass each time a photographer snaps you. We liked the shot across from the Ferris wheel at California adventure. Before you leave either park at the end of your stay, present the photo pass + voucher at the photo shop and receive your free print. You'll see people wearing wide, ribbon-like lanyards with character pins attached. Your freebie' that you pick up with a voucher at one of the big gift shops is a starter, and you may trade any pin with a cast (i.e., staff) member, as long as he or she hasn't already got the same one. We never used the ESPN ($10 value) token voucher and will give it to neighbors soon to visit Disneyland.

Staying offsite is less expensive, as you probably saw. We chose the Sheraton Anaheim 1.5 miles away. It was okay. We watched the fireworks from the pool. Meals are not included, and breakfast was over $60 for the buffet for all of us. Ouch. We learned there are plenty of cheap eats in the area down Ball St. The shuttle to/fro Disney is frequent and free, but we had to fight for free Internet access, which Costco billed as included but Sheraton refused to honor at first. It turned out to be slower than a line to catch a ride on the Radiator Springs Racers. The lobby has 4 speedy desktops free to use.

All in all, it was worth it, but my wife felt like it would be a long time before our next visit. We were pretty wiped out having arrived too late to enjoy the park the first day, thus necessitating a last whirlwind half day. That meant a really late arrival back in the Bay Area, so we booked a last-minute Travelodge in Ventura (cheaper than Santa Barbara) and took it easy on the beach, pool, and downtown in beautifully restored Mission before a leisurely trip up 101.

Good luck and happiest trails on earth! Sean

Disneyland on the cheap: the only thing you can really control is where you stay and where you eat. The tickets are pretty much the same price no matter where you look. So, where to stay: I recommend the Howard Johnson across the street. There is also a Best Western there. It's walkable. For food: try two big meals a day or pack your own. There is a bag check going in to the park, but I bring in snacks and water bottles, and no one cares. They also don't go digging way down into your bag, so packing sandwiches would be pretty simple. If you buy food in the parks, certain places are known for bigger servings: like the food court in CA adventure. The mexican restaurant has HUGE servings (but no tortilla chips, go figure) and you could easily feed 2 people with one burrito unless you all are huge eaters. Don't go to any of the sit down restaurants--they are more expensive. Go counter service with big portions. It may be worth your while to invest in the subscription to Touring Plans (touringplans.com) which also has an app you can download. They have cost saving tips that really work, and show you how to get around the park to pack in the most rides in the least amount of time. It's worth it! Disney aficionado

Obviously avoid buying food in the park. Get a room with at least a fridge and microwave. We were very happy at the Park Vue Inn. Literally across the street, big breakfast included, fridge and microwave, pool, and it's not dirt cheap but it's pretty reasonable. Another tip if you have a Target red card is to buy a boatload of Disney gift certificates at 5% off and use them for all your spending in the park. Park tickets are hard to get at much of a discount. We got 2 day park hoppers at maybe $5-10 off face value from a website but that's not much. Don't buy off EBay or Craigslist - notorious for scams. If you get one park per day tickets they're a lot cheaper but there is a lot of value to the park hoppers - we were definitely able to ride more and wait less by strategizing between the two parks.

Have fun - we did our first trip this spring and I expected it to be fun but it was even better than I expected. Cheesy as it sounds, it really is magical

First, just to get this out there -- if you are going to Disneyland, you have to accept that there is no way to do it on the cheap. Sad but true. Here are some tips, though:

- You should plan on going for 3 days, as there is no discount on 1 and 2 day tickets. Per day, that is the best way to go.

- Skip the extras like character breakfasts - if you are looking at packages, just look at hotel and the park.

- We just bought the tickets and went for the hotel separately. we were able to get a hotel within walking distance for $100 (off peak). I know people who have done hotel/tickets packages as well and felt like they got a good deal.

- Food - you can bring in food, so plan on doing that. The food in the park is pricy. Also, if you stay within walking distance of the park with a fridge, you can take a break in the middle of the day at your hotel and eat there.

I will be interested in other people's opinions! Disneyland goer

Just one more idea for getting a discount on the tickets: If you happen to know someone who lives in Southern Cal, maybe they'd do you the big favor of taking you to the park. They will get a local resident discount for your group, I believe.

Disneyland Deals and Tips

August 2009

I haven't been to Disneyland in years. I'm looking to take my family 2 adults and 4 kids to Disneyland right after shool starts. (I've been told right after school starts is when Disneyland is less crowded. When I looked a the admisson costs I had a heart attack, it's around $80. I've been seeing 5 day ticket packages which brings the cost of admission to $35. I'm wondering if anyone has recently been to Disneyland and can give me some advice on how to save money on admission and where to stay. Thanks

We just came back from Disneyland and had opted for the 1 day pass. Halfway through, we realized we should have bought the 2-day pass. Our 8 and 9 year old loved Disneyland of course. This was their 2nd trip and we still didn't get around to seeing all of the park. If you can swing the 2-day, that would be my suggestion. AAA members get a discount on tickets, but we were told that the discount is not given at the ticket counter, but at AAA instead. We thought this sounded odd because we've always been able to use our card at the time of purchase.

Yay for your family to get to go to Disneyland! It is one of my favorite places. There is so much advice to give but I will keep it as simple as I can.

1) There are a ton of sites on the web that can give you tips on traveling there and saving money. www.mouseplanet.com is a good one.

2)I like the travel agent www.getawaytoday.com for good package deals. Their prices include hotel, park admissions and all taxes. They charge a $20 booking fee but the first prices you see are basically what you get. Book online for a $10 booking fee credit (or mention that deal to a phone agent and they will give it to you as well).

3)Your park tickets will be the majority of the cost of your vacation. There is little you can do about this. Buy them before 8/23 when online ticket prices go up (ticket booth prices have already gone up and are always higher than online prices anyway). I have heard you can sometimes buy partially used park hopper tickets on ebay but I have also heard that there is a high potential for being scammed by that.

4)Try to save $$ on food and hotel to keep costs down(pack snacks,bring your own water bottles, eat outside the park). As far as hotels go, there are some great deals out there. The ones in walking distance to the park are more expensive but worth it to me as you have more flexibility and do not have to pay for parking or shuttles, which can add up. Getawaytoday has a great pdf map on their site that shows where the hotels are in relation to the park.

5) try to look at/buy a copy of the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland befoe you go. I found it helpful when I first returned to Disneyland as an adult with kids. Have a great time! Jennifer

I just went to Disneyland, and last year also, I google tips for disneyland and I found a great website with a lot of advice. But to answer one of your questions, you need to get your tickets in AAA, get one of the package, and maybe if you don't use you can sell. I lost two days the first time and the last time 1 but it was better that buy the tickets per day. Stay in a Hotel across to Disney, and go really early, come back to your hotel around 3 and rest and swim and go back later and stay late when is less people. Also use the fast pass.

We go to Disneyland about once a year with our now 9 year olds. We have stayed at several different resorts including one of the Disney places.

Our favorite place to stay and I think it would work very well for your large family is Residence Inn Maingate (Anaheim). It's an easy walk to the park,(they also have a shuttle, it's extra $, but not expensive) they have large family suites with kitchens and a free continental breakfast. Having a kitchen with a refrigerator and microwave/stove will save you MAJOR $$ for snacks and/or meals. There are several close grocery stores, and the hotel has a grocery service as well.

As for time of year we have been in the fall, at the holidays and in the summer. By far the best time to go is either in the early fall or before the holidays and and after the Halloween decorations come down. For both these times weekdays are best.

Park Hopper tickets are the only way to go. Both parks are fun and older kids especially will enjoy California Adventure.

For meals in the park, we have found the food to be much better in California Adventure. Our favorite is the Boudin Bakery chilli/soup bowls. They are good, filling and reasonably priced. Cal. Adventure closes pretty early in off-season to be sure to notice the times.

Another tip is to check the Disneyland website for park hours and closed attractions so that you will not be disappointed if your favorite ride is closed during your stay. The park hours are dictated by the popularity of any particular time of year, so the days that the park stays open late are more popular (read crowded) times to go.

My last tip is to check the Los Angeles School District website and or Orange County school district website(s) to see if there are any random days off that are not holidays. We've heard of people who planned for an uncrowded day only to be surprised by crowds due to a ''teacher work day''.

Have Fun!!! love uncrowded Disneyland