Questions from someone who has never been.

[csmommy]

My brother lives on Oregon & is planning to take my 4 year old niece to DL. We have never been. Is it like WDW? I mean resort wise? He is a postal worker, & my SIL is in school, so we aren't talking tons of money here.

Do they have special rates for Gov. workers? Where/how can they get the best bang for their buck? They want to go the 3 rd week in March, & do not need to stay over on the weekend.

Thanks in advance.

 

[peagreenid]

The packages at Walt Disney Travel- Basically have no markup over what you are receiving. If you want really budget hotels, that may not be included in the Walt Disney Travel group, you can also check out Funjet vacations. They have some of the lower priced hotels. There are several offers pre-june- buy 3 nights get 1 free at several hotels and all of the 3 day park hopper passes are giving you 5 days.

smiles Patty

 

[daannzzz]

I usually save money by booking the componants myself.
It is not like WDW at all. Everything is in one place. The Disneyland resort is located in the middle of the suburbs and so is surrounded by motels and hotels that don;t belong to Disney. Some of the motels are as close or closer than 2 of the 3 Disney resorts. See this link. http://www.beachcalifornia.com/dlmp.html
You can book a motel right across the street and walk to Disneyland in 5-10 minutes or less if you are excited and walking fast. Two of the Disney resort hotels are hotels built by other interests so are not as themed on the outside as the WDW counterpats though the Disneyland Hotel is great fun on the interior. The Grand Californian Hotel is awesome.
My favorite places to stay are the Howard Johnson and The Candy Cane Inn. www.candycaneinn.net.

 

[Sonya in Boise]

check out www.anahiemoc.org and order thier visitors center book and ask for the Adventurecard. They are both free and very helpful in planing a DL trip.

There are many of-site hotels that are walking distance (5-10 mnutes). It is not necessary to stay on site at DL. Most area hotels offer shuttles and Anaheim has started the ART (area resort transit) shuttle service. For about 3.00 per day, an adult can have unlimited rides to and from their hotel. You get a shuttle brochure from the hotel. You can also request info from the Visitors center (www.anaheimoc.org).

DL is much closer and compact than WDW. Park hopping is very easy because the front gates of the parks are only steps away from each other.

Check your library for the Unofficial guide to DL as well as the Official guide. They are also helpful.

There are several different ticket options. Right now the special is 5 day hopper for the price of 3 (114.00 adult, and I think 90.00 child) deal is thru next January. These have to be bought in advance. Disneyland.com or if they have a Disneystore near them they can buy them there also. If you buy at the gate you pay full price. So have them get their tickets early.

Check Disneyland.com and look at the black out dates for the Annual Passes. The Southern California Annual Pass is only blocked for the Fridays and Saturdays in March, so if they were going Sunday-Thurs they could buy those AP's for 106.00 each. That would be cheaper for the Adults than the park hopper. They can still park hop and get some food discounts.

You do not have to live in Southern Cal to purchase the passes. My dad and stepmom just bought them in January and they live in Idaho. These have to be bought at the gate though. They could buy their daughters park hopper early to get the special then buy the APs at the gate for themselves. (save 16.00, thats a meal)

If you have the time to web surf and check prices, you can save some money on a budget trip. We drove from Boise, ID to Anaheim thru Las Vegas, rented a Van for a week, had 3 adults and 2 kids (only had to pay for 1) and did the 4 days at DL for less than 1,000 including the van charges for those days. (432.00 of that was just park tickets)

 

[disneefamily]

Disnee Dad Says...................................I can't express enough how different WDW and DL are. Mostly size. DL fits in the World Showcase lagoon at EPCOT, meaning that DL/DCA combined is about the size of EPCOT. The real world surrounds DL, you pull out of the parking lot and into the real world, no wide roads with miles of greenery. Your feet will love it though!! Compact means a lot less walking. Walk from one park to the other in two minutes!
WDW has Pirates, DL has Pirates of the Carribean, the difference in the title is the difference in the ride, DL's is twice as long.
WDW has It's a small world, DL has It's a really tiny microscopic when we say small we mean small world!!! My wife gave birth on the ride and the kid was walking before the ride was over!
Blue Bayou! Matterhorn! Indy! Roger Rabbit!, there is enough so it will be different than WDW.
As you sit in your offsite room that is closer to DL than any on site place is to MK, getting there in five minutes after you leave the parks, not a half hour or more you realize smaller may not be better, but smaller is definately not worse!

 

[year2late]

If money is a real issue, I would suggest Priceline for a great hotel. I would use Anaheim - Disneyland - 3 star options. I have stayed at Hilton/Marriott/WestCoast Anaheim/Hyatt Regency for bids of around $30. All of these have had very good shuttle service. The only thing I consider a downside is that if you bring your car, there is a fee for parking . I have used this on 4 of my trips last year with great success

For information on getting the best bid for priceline, you can use the website Bidding for Travel

On DLR property, the least expensive option is Paradise Pier. I have heard of rates as low as $79, but I have never been as lucky.

A great family oriented hotel is Candy Cane Inn and the prices are around $69 with a discount. It is walking distance, but they have a great hotel run shuttle service. They have a nice breakfast buffet that is included. The staff is exceptional.

Have fun!!!!!

 

[dletz]

Definately not like WDW. The parks are right next to each other, and on site really doesn't mean much here. You can get special packages with Good Neighbor hotels that give you almost or the same priviliges as staying on site. I'd stay at an outside hotel if money is an issue.

Third week in march probably won't be too bad crowd wise, but keep in mind that a lot is down for rehab right now. They're trying to finish up some work that's taken longer than planned, and they drained river's of america, and they're putting the finishing touches on the pooh ride. I don't remember the exact dates, but I know splash will be down for awhile since they're closing all of critter country to do some stuff for the pooh ride. They might also have the train closed because of it, but they might not. Matterhorn, carousel, and small world are all scheduled to come back up next week, but we'll see. Matterhorn was supposed to be up begining of december, and carrousel was supposed to be up by this time last year, they've had to completely revamp it.

Alsoa the new Playhouse disney show won't be open yet, that's scheduled for April (i think it was the 13th I don't remember). I haven't read any news lately on the pooh ride (right now they're hiping the playhouse disney show to the CMs, in fact I just checked the CM site and they don't list pooh ride, but do list playhouse disney), but the last I read it was supposed to open in april also.

 

[csmommy]

Thanks to everyone, they booked a trip are are very excited!

Thanks again