Cheap Cheap Cheap! Disney on a dime PTR *Concluded

[luulu1999]

we aren't doing a counter this trip...I have this vision...I take my kids to their Nana's in the morning, I get everything packed up and ready to go, I wait...and wait for their dad to get off work and then he gets cleaned up and ready we go get the kids and tell them we are leaving for Disneyland....they know we are going but really have no concept of time so don't understand when...I am going to TRY really hard to keep it to myself the last couple weeks before our trip so they will be surprised.

 

[Rubygoose]

I booked our rental car for our arrival day, since I had enough air miles. We'll pick up the car at SNA, stop for groceries and then drop the car off in DTD after we check into the hotel. The cash price for doing this is outrageous! It would be nearly $300 USD! So it's a great deal to use air miles to do this, since it was around 400 air miles plus a $10 air miles fee and about $9 taxes and fees to be paid when we pick up the car. Now we just have to try not to get lost from SNA to DLH!

 

[pepe3penelope]

Loved reading your PTR! Now I thought I was a planner! I am so impressed with your planning and budgeting skills! Wow!

We are locals to DLR and are lucky enough to be current DLR passholders. We didn't renew January 2013 so we became Legoland passholders. By November, I had SERIOUS Disney withdrawals and bit the bullet and renewed to Deluxe passholders but didn't renew our Legoland passholders in January 2014 when they expired. HOWEVER...our family has REALLY missed the Legoland Waterpark. It's open again and next weekend they are opening another waterpark adjacent to the new water park. It looks toooooo cool! We are going to renew again!!!

You mentioned that you are unsure whether or not to do the water park. I'm not sure if this is your first time to Legoland. Since you're driving from DLR in the morning and going back that day/night, I'm not sure if you'll have enough time to enjoy the park and the water park. As a family, we easily spend most if not all of the park day at the water park! We really think the water park is a LOT of fun. We actually stayed at the Legoland Hotel last September for DD's birthday and it was so cool.

Curious to know what you decide to do. BTW, it's good when your trip will end because DLR's 1/2 marathon weekend starts. Crazy busy!

 

[Rubygoose]

Loved reading your PTR! Now I thought I was a planner! I am so impressed with your planning and budgeting skills! Wow!

We are locals to DLR and are lucky enough to be current DLR passholders. We didn't renew January 2013 so we became Legoland passholders. By November, I had SERIOUS Disney withdrawals and bit the bullet and renewed to Deluxe passholders but didn't renew our Legoland passholders in January 2014 when they expired. HOWEVER...our family has REALLY missed the Legoland Waterpark. It's open again and next weekend they are opening another waterpark adjacent to the new water park. It looks toooooo cool! We are going to renew again!!!

You mentioned that you are unsure whether or not to do the water park. I'm not sure if this is your first time to Legoland. Since you're driving from DLR in the morning and going back that day/night, I'm not sure if you'll have enough time to enjoy the park and the water park. As a family, we easily spend most if not all of the park day at the water park! We really think the water park is a LOT of fun. We actually stayed at the Legoland Hotel last September for DD's birthday and it was so cool.

Curious to know what you decide to do. BTW, it's good when your trip will end because DLR's 1/2 marathon weekend starts. Crazy busy!

I decided to just get the regular Legoland pass instead of the water park pass. The water park looks really fun, but I don't think we'll have enough time to see everything in Legoland if we go to the water park.

Yeah, I purposly booked the trip for before the marathon weekend. The DLH was booked up on the Friday night anyway. Once we get home on the Thursday, we'll have a few days to get unpacked and ready for back-to-school on the Tuesday.

 

[pharmjenn]

I just signed up for my free sandwich from Earl of Sandwich for my birthday and $30 gift certificate from Patina group. The EOS one is good for 1 month after your bday and Patina, who own Catal, Naples and Tortilla Joes in DTD, is good for 2 months after your birthday. My bday is in July, so this works well for our August trip. Last year when we went in July, they didn't ask for any proof that it was my birthday. We won't use the Patina group one at Tortilla joes this time because the food wasn't very good and it was quite expensive for Mall foodcourt quality Mexican food. Thank goodness we got $30 off. We got a comfy booth, though, and DS took a nap while the rest of us ate dinner. I think this time I'd like to try Naples.

I found your report a few weeks ago and just got caught up. We are going in early July, but not planning as much as you are. We will be upgrading to annual passes, and hope to enjoy an entire year with Disney!

I had not ever heard of these birthday clubs, but just signed myself and DH up. Plus added DS6 to the EOS club. Didn't see any age limit on that one.

Did you know about the Landry Select Club? You pay $25 to join, and get $25 credit to use on your next visit. Then every year you get $25 on your birthday, to use within a month of your birthday. The first visit, if in the birthday timeperiod, combine. I did this at T-Rex in DTD, but it is good at Rainforest Cafe in Anaheim (and a host of other restaurants)
Your kids may enjoy that.

 

[Rubygoose]

My friend Annette and her family are at DLR right now and they ended up on Fox news!

http://www.myfoxla.com/story/255526...enter-the-magic-kingdom#.U3rv3WZIzrY.facebook

Her husband is the first person they talk to who says "really pricey" and then later they talk to Annette right as the interviewer says "So, what are people doing?" And they even talk to 3 year old Amber in the stroller! Annette says that they really edited down what they said to make the story negative. She said she really wasn't that negative in what she said. It's funny, though, because the price hikes don't affect Annette's family since they got there on Friday and already had their tickets.

I'm really glad that I got my deluxe AP from way.com ahead of time, because it was $475 compared to the new price of $519. Still have to upgrade DD, DS and DH's five day hoppers to APs, but I don't think it's that steep of an increase (and the passes were free from airmiles anyways, so it's still a significant savings over buying another set of 5 day hoppers next year.)

 

[saleshopper]

We were on Fox News too yesterday! They totally made us sound more negative than what we actually said.

 

[pepe3penelope]

My friend Annette and her family are at DLR right now and they ended up on Fox news! http://www.myfoxla.com/story/25552664/disneyland-price-hike-itll-cost-a-little-more-to-enter-the-magic-kingdom#.U3rv3WZIzrY.facebook Her husband is the first person they talk to who says "really pricey" and then later they talk to Annette right as the interviewer says "So, what are people doing?" And they even talk to 3 year old Amber in the stroller! Annette says that they really edited down what they said to make the story negative. She said she really wasn't that negative in what she said. It's funny, though, because the price hikes don't affect Annette's family since they got there on Friday and already had their tickets. I'm really glad that I got my deluxe AP from way.com ahead of time, because it was $475 compared to the new price of $519. Still have to upgrade DD, DS and DH's five day hoppers to APs, but I don't think it's that steep of an increase (and the passes were free from airmiles anyways, so it's still a significant savings over buying another set of 5 day hoppers next year.)

Saw the news that you attached. I'm a local and my DH and I don't like watching channel 11 Fox News. We especially do NOT like Cristina the reporter.

 

[MommyJKM]

I booked our rental car for our arrival day, since I had enough air miles. We'll pick up the car at SNA, stop for groceries and then drop the car off in DTD after we check into the hotel. The cash price for doing this is outrageous! It would be nearly $300 USD! So it's a great deal to use air miles to do this, since it was around 400 air miles plus a $10 air miles fee and about $9 taxes and fees to be paid when we pick up the car. Now we just have to try not to get lost from SNA to DLH!

Try to stop at Whole Foods for groceries in Newport Beach. Right by the beach and Roger's Garden's and on the way to DL and they have golf cars that drive you from your parking garage to the store and back! We LOVE stopping there!

 

[Rubygoose]

I submitted my final project for my class yesterday and got feedback from my prof that I have now completed the class! So now I've switched back into Disney planning mode until my next class starts on July 15. I'm going to beg my prof to let me get started on the readings early because I have to be done the class before our trip in August.

I got a couple more things checked off the list today. I ordered our Photo Pass plus and booked a rental car for the legoland portion of our trip. I decided to just use cash this time instead of Air Miles, since it's only $35 and I didn't want to waste 400 or more air miles on that.

After thinking about it for a while, I've decided not to do Blue Bayou like I had originally planned. It's just way too expensive and I don't think any of us would really enjoy the food.

Another thing DH and I have been trying to figure out is what to do about renting a stroller. I would love for this to be our first trip without a stroller, but DS just won't be able to handle that much walking. Last year we rented a double from Anaheim City Strollers and it really came in handy. This year DD will be 7, so hopefully she will be able to hoof it most of the time and we can cut costs by just renting a single stroller.

Our count down on the kitchen wall says 88 days. Getting closer...

 

[luulu1999]

We are officially 60 days from our first park day I am beyond excited!! I am still very much undecided on a stroller my DD5 is L A Z Y so I know she would slow us down a TON but I also know that if I get a stroller my DS6 will want to get in it too and they are so convenient when it comes to storing stuff!!

 

[Rubygoose]

We are officially 60 days from our first park day I am beyond excited!! I am still very much undecided on a stroller my DD5 is L A Z Y so I know she would slow us down a TON but I also know that if I get a stroller my DS6 will want to get in it too and they are so convenient when it comes to storing stuff!!

The double stroller sure came in handy on our last trip, but DD will be 7 this time and I think she may even be too tall for the height specifications on the strollers. I wouldn't want her to stick her foot out and get it crunched on something. It was great for waiting in line at the gates in the morning because the kids had their own little bit of shade and they could just sit and eat their breakfast in there instead of running around and driving me nuts like they do in the grocery store!

 

[DenaRox]

60 days!!! WooHoo!!!! how exciting!

 

[Rubygoose]

Ok, we're 73 days away from our trip and DH goes into panic mode about our finances. A lot of our trip is paid for, but we still have the hefty cost of the DLH looming! Couple that with recent "stage 2" teacher job action (which made it so teachers aren't attending workshops, so I'm not getting a lot of subbing calls), an upcoming full out teacher's strike likely next week and the fact that our lovely premier has decided to doc our pay by 10%. Needless to say, it's not a good time to be a teacher in BC, and it's a really bad time to be a substitute teacher saving up for a trip to DLR! So, this morning I made a reservation for 3 nights at HOJO instead of spending the full 7 nights at DLH. DH didn't want me to talk to him about it this morning before he went to work because his mind wasn't ready to process it that early, I guess. But I told him I'd go ahead and make the reservation but I won't cancel the first 3 days at DLH quite yet. He is really opposed to doing a split stay, so I'm trying to get him to come around. It'll save us $800 by splitting our stay up, and we'll really only lose 1 day of EE, since we'll do Legoland on a HOJO day instead of a DLH day.


Another thing I did this weekend was make the kids autograph books. I'll swing by Staples this afternoon and pick them up. I simply got 5x8 index cards and printed cute little pictures in the corners and then made the front and back cover with 8 1/2 x 11 photo paper that I trimmed down. I actually found a use for the disc of stock photos that comes with the PP+. I used a photo of splash mountain for Gavin's cover and a photo of the castle for Annie's cover. Then I brought them to Staples to be bound. Cost be about $7 for the pack of index cards, I already had the photo paper from a different project, and it cost $13 to coil bind both books. Much cheaper than buying two $25 autograph books in the parks!

 

[Rubygoose]

We picked up the autograph books and they look great!

Annie's castle themed book:






And Gavin's Splash themed:





The blank pages are the same as the inside front page that says "autographs". The kids are pretty excited about the books!

DH has gotten onboard with doing a split stay, and is actually looking forward to spending some time at HOJO because of the good reviews on trip adviser. I called Air Miles and they were able to change my car rental booking from 1 day to 4 days. So, we'll pick up the car on Thursday and then drop it off on Sunday after we switch hotels. And it's free parking at the Hojo. I only had enough miles for a Nissan Versa, but if it isn't big enough we can upgrade to a larger car when we get there.

 

[kaoden39]

So cute! Love the autograph books! I have heard great things about Hojo's. Looks great!

 

[luulu1999]

Cute autograph books, I am so not creative so I just ordered my kiddos a new one for this year..hopefully they take better care of them than they did the last ones (the decided to add their own autographs to the blank pages)

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Those autograph books are so cute!!

 

[4theloveofmykids]

Hi Kati!

I will definitely be following your TR. We are headed to Disneyland in September (1st week) and are attempting to do it cheap, cheap, cheap too. We have our flights booked on Airmiles and we're staying at a condo just across the street from Disney. We booked with two friends and it brings the cost WAY down. If you haven't considered it, look into VRBO. I love money saving tips though, and will look forward to seeing how you do it.

Thanks
Jodi
PS: My son's name is Gavin too.

 

[Rubygoose]

Hi Kati!

I will definitely be following your TR. We are headed to Disneyland in September (1st week) and are attempting to do it cheap, cheap, cheap too. We have our flights booked on Airmiles and we're staying at a condo just across the street from Disney. We booked with two friends and it brings the cost WAY down. If you haven't considered it, look into VRBO. I love money saving tips though, and will look forward to seeing how you do it.

Thanks
Jodi
PS: My son's name is Gavin too.

Thanks for following along. If I get a chance, I plan to do a little summary of all of the savings that I've made before we go on our trip. Yes, I looked into VRBO, but we love the DLH so that's where we're going again this year (for part of the time.) I think if we went with another family, we'd probably choose a vacation rental for the extra space.