Disneyland, Walt Disney's first baby. A brand that has expanded to 3 other countries in the world. Disneyland was the first, and the model of the parks after it. Disney is one of the most powerful companies on the planet.
Also, it is my family's first love and possibility only love. You could say that I grew up in a Disney Family. I have seen almost every Disney Movie released. Yes this includes the oldies,
like the Apple Dumpling Gang, Pollyanna, the first Pete's Dragon, and many others. You don't want to challenge me to Disney song trivia, you will loose I guarantee it.
I grew up going to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I honestly can't tell you how many times I have been there. Lets just say I need two hands at the least. I only been to Disneyland a couple times, the most recent was May, 2018.
Now I can go on and on how you hack Disney World, but I feel like there is not a lot of hacks that are well known for Disneyland. So that is what this blog post will be about. How to "hack" Disneyland to save the most money as possible.
You can find Disneyland in San Diego, California. Disney was originally made for the working/middle class family of 4. An adult ticket for Disneyland, in the first year it was opened, costed $1 (which was in 1955). I know you can't even fathom going to Disney for $1! While looking at that, you have to keep inflation in mind. The US dollar was worth a lot more back then, and $1 was the price point for the average working/middle class.
As we look at the prices now, Disney has moved it's target audience to more of the higher middle class.
The first hack we are going to talk about is choosing the day you go. Disneyland does have off season and peak season prices, just like any theme park company would have, so do not get mad at Disney for this, this is actually really normal.
On the off-season days, a day ticket can be found as low as $97. On the peak season days, they can be found to be around $120. So you can also save a lot of money choosing the time of year you go. If you are scared about going in the colder months of the year. Disneyland is found in southern California, there is not a bad time to go. You also have to keep in mind the number of days, ticket prices go down if you bundle the days. So if you're going for three days, the second and third day ticket price will be cheaper than the first day.
The second hack I am going to mention are plane tickets. Not only do you need to correlate your trip on off-season ticket prices, you need to look at airline tickets as well. This is mostly for the people who are not in driving distance. So if you are driving, just skip a couple lines down to the next hack. So as mentioned before, Disney has off season and peak season time frames, airlines usually have this as well, and conveniently, they correlate with each other. To save extra bucks on the plane tickets. Pick a week out of the year you want to go, compare prices of multiple airlines, and fly the cheapest day with the cheapest airline. Usually the
cheapest day is a Wednesday.
The next hack I would like to mention is the number of days you want to visit Disneyland. Unlike Walt Disney World's four parks, Disneyland only has two, and if they want to buy land and demolish businesses around it, they are not expanding that anytime soon (which they will never do). When I went to Disneyland in May, 2018; we went for three full days.
Personally, for the two parks there; three full days was too long in my opinion. To save the most money, buy a two day ticket, not a park hopper (a park hopper means you can go to both parks in one day, it is also more expensive). My advice, one ticket for one park for two days to save the most money in that aspect of your trip. Since the acreage of the area of Disneyland is on the smaller side, the content of each park is actually less than a Park at Disney World. So if you've been to Disney World, you can use that statement as a point of comparison between the parks of Disneyland.
Now you have figured out when you are going, how you're going to get there, how many days you are going to be there, now you have to figure out where you are going to stay. Disneyland has only one onsite accommodation.
This is the hotel off of Disneyland's California Adventure. Now this hotel is very nice, you can literally just walk into a park from the hotel's personal entrance, meaning no line to get into the park at the front entrance. The bad part is, it is really expensive. So if you're trying to save as much money as possible, I would avoid this.
The advantage of the location of Disneyland is that it is in the middle of the city of San Diego, which means there are hotels surrounding the park. This part of San Diego is also very safe and walk-able, meaning you can stay down the block and have a comfortable stroll the the entrance of the park.
Since the hotels are not under the Disney name, they are a lot cheaper, but the hotels do have a partnership with Disneyland. So if you are having trouble with your tickets or itinerary, if the hotel is close to the park (meaning they will most likely have a partnership with Disneyland), instead of calling customer service, you can actually go down to the front desk and they will help you out.
Having close walk-able hotels can also be a huge advantage if you are a points member of a hotel chain. Disneyland is surrounded by different hotel chains. So if you are a Hilton or a Marriott points member, you can stay at one of their hotels to save money and still be on the same street as the parks! My family had enough points to stay at a Marriott for free and it was right across the street!
When you are planning a Disney vacation, one of the most expensive parts of the trip is eating. This is the part that most people forget about and are usually not prepared for. This can turn a Disney trip into a big money pit, bigger than you thought. Take it from a girl who's experienced every dining experience there is. If you do have little kids, a character meal might be the highlight of the trip, if so look into a dining plan. Disney has different levels of affordability of dining plans which include character meals (this is not just Disneyland, this
goes for Walt Disney World as well). If you do not have little kids, and they don't care about eating with a character meal venue, you can save a lot of money. So do not book it.
Lets be honest, Disney is not just for little kids. I am 22 years old and I went Disneyland with my parents and I was the youngest one in our party. If your party is like ours, Disney has really go quick service restaurants. Like really good.
You do not need to go sit down and be served to get a decent meal. My favorite meal by far is in California adventure, it's basically Tex Mex. You can even get margaritas.
Since we only did quick service meals, I don't know a lot about the dining reservations, so here is a link to a blog that is dedicated to just dining services at Disneyland.
Now the hack I am going to mention is how to hack the Fast-pass system. Disney introduced the Fast-pass system about 10 years ago, and it has been evolving since.
Now the system is actually different at Disneyland than it is at Walt Disney World, and honestly... the system at Disneyland is a lot more efficient in my opinion. This might be because Disneyland gets a lot less foot traffic, but either way it was a better experience. At Walt Disney World, you actually pick your fast passes 30 days in advanced. So you pick your Fast-passes before you even step food into the park.
At Disneyland, the fast-passes are all connected to the Disneyland App. This way you can register for Fast-passes remotely, so you can do it anywhere in the park. You can monitor when you can select them, so that means you have to stay on top of it to register for as many Fast-passes you can that day. Just a quick tip, pick the Fast-passes for the big rides in the morning because they become less available as the day goes on.
I know this is probably the longest blog I have wrote so far, but can you blame me! Disney is one complicated planning mess! It is the perfect vacation, but it takes a lot to plan it with a lot of money. If you have anymore questions about these "hacks" for a cheaper and easier Disneyland vacation, just plot them down in the comment section and I will be happy to help you out as much as I can! Till next week, have a magical day!