My little family took a trip to Disneyland a little while back. I hadn’t been there in well over 20 years.  Disney World seemed to somehow become the go-to Disney destination as I got older. It’s a great place, one that I hope to go back to some day since there are so many more park options than there used to be, but there is just something about the charm and character of the original park that I truly love.


In planning our trip, I was a little surprised by how many fewer reviews and recommendations are out there compared to Disney World. There are a few really great ones, but few and far between compared to its counterpart on the opposite coast. While we are still very new to the Disney vacation world, I thought I’d share a few of the tips and tricks that we picked up during our trip!

First up, I’m sharing a few of the money-saving strategies we used   to help make sure that our little vacation didn’t end up breaking the bank.

This really depends on what you’re up for. We chose to go during the “off season” because of work obligations and our desire for a slightly less crowded park experience. We used this calendar to get an idea of what the crowds would be like on the days we were considering taking our trip.


There were still some pretty long waits during the “ghost town” days, but overall we were pretty pleased! The downside to this though is that the park typically chooses this same time to conduct maintenance on some of the rides. Depending on when you go, some of the rides may not be available.


Check the “Closed for Refurbishment” section at the bottom of Disney’s daily park schedules to see what will be closed during your visit.

Whatever you do… please know that the week between Christmas and New Years is truly the WORST time to go if you’re travelling with littles.

We purchased ours at the gate.  If I had it to do over again, I would definitely purchase online. Purchasing online gives you a bonus “Magic Morning” when you’re going for 3 or more days… a definite bonus if you’re not staying at one of the Disney Resorts.

Magic Mornings allow you early admission to the park and select attractions, before the park opens to the general public. It’s a great way to beat the crowds and enjoy a little extra elbow room, even if for just a little bit.

We assumed we could get the same offer at the gate, but apparently it’s an online only deal.  Luckily we ended up with the Magic Morning through the persuasion skills of my husband anyway, but next time I’d rather avoid the hassle and just buy them online!

Lodging
Disneyland has several affordable places to stay directly across from the main entrance to their parks. In our case, we stayed at the Park Vue Inn. We were going during an off season with a toddler, so it didn’t seem worth the extra cost to pay to stay at a Disney resort. Now, these hotels/motels are certainly not as fancy or cute as a Disney hotel, but they definitely provide a great value if this is where you’re looking to save money. We would definitely do this again in a heartbeat!

Spending
When we travel, we always plan on spending a little extra money. We don’t vacation often, so it isn’t something that I worry about too much once we’ve made the decision to go and saved the money for. However, I do try to plan our spending responsibly instead of throwing complete caution to the wind.  These are a few ways that we chose to save money on our trip:

 Food 

Outside food and drink are not permitted in the park. They DO offer picnic areas outside the park and nearby lockers where you can store a cooler if you want to bring your own lunch. We were not particularly interested in purchasing a dining plan. I know a lot of people enjoy going this route and feel that you get a lot of food for what you pay for; however, we just did not feel the value was there for us personally.

We settled on one meal a day at the parks, and each day planned around whether that would be lunch or dinner. There are plenty of places to eat in Anaheim, In our case, if we left the park midday for nap time we ate lunch nearby before heading back to rest and then planned on leaving a little early one evening towards the end of our trip to catch dinner outside the park. Our motel offered a free breakfast, which really wasn’t half bad depending on what you choose, so we never spent money to have breakfast in the parks.

For snacks… we brought our own.(shhhh… don’t tell) I packed a TON of stuff from home (a variety for the little one and us) into the one bag that we checked when we flew out to CA. It lasted us through the week, and we still had enough for the trip home. They DO check your bags going into the park entrance, but when you’re traveling with kids there are plenty of bags and places to stash things. It was one of the best decisions we made. It was great to have a fall back if little man needed a break, or if we were looking at a pretty decent waiting period before the next show, parade, etc.

For drinks… we just packed empty water bottles and filled them up as needed around the parks. Worked like a charm!

If you are eating at the park, keep in mind that they may only present full meal options on the menu, but you can always ask for individual items a la carte!

Photos
There are a lot of photo ops around the parks. And no shortage of photographers ready to snap your photo! One thing that we didn’t know about until the END of our trip is the Disney PhotoPass + service. It’s a special offer that basically gives you a $30 discount on the purchase of the photos you take during your time at the parks…. AND includes shots taken on some of the rides around the two parks.

There really are some shots that just turn out better with the Photopass photographers, and we ended up purchasing the Photopass package while we were there because there were so many photos that we loved. Next time, we’re definitely doing the PhotoPass + service!

Just one heads up on this… you have to purchase it at least 14 days prior to your trip, so you’ll want to make sure that you plan ahead if you decide to go this route!

Souvenirs
There are SO MANY options out there for saving money here! This may come as a shock, but souvenirs inside the park tend to be a bit pricey. Take advantage of stores like Dollar Tree, Target’s Dollar Spot, Walmart, etc. You can find just about anything you might be looking for! Disney themed snacks, candy, puzzles, socks, accessories, etc. These stores are great for picking up shirts too without having a pay a small fortune!

I stocked up on a few Disney items to bring with us. Some were used as a “welcome” gift to get our little guy excited about going to the park and others were kept separate and we used them as distractions during long wait times, before parades, etc.

For the items that you DO purchase at the park, keep your receipt. If your child ends up having buyers remorse or desperately decides that that they need something else they will allow you to return previous purchases. If something you purchased breaks, definitely check with the store. They will typically replace the item.

Also, if you spend a small fortune on one of their amazing balloons (because they really are so tempting) but it ends up getting popped, they will replace it for free!  This can also work with dropped ice cream.

Light Up Toys
Planning on staying in the park after dark?  You should… it’s a lot of fun!  I would definitely think about buying lighted toys in advance though.  These typically start at $15 inside the park, but I have seen them for less than half of that price at local dollar stores, toy stores, Target, etc.

If you don’t have time to go searching, we purchased ours through Cool Glow for a great price. We ended up going with a spinner toy for our son, mouse shaped necklaces for all of us to wear, and a lighted Minnie headband for myself for a TOTAL of $15. They had a ton of other great options to choose from too if you have a Buzz Light Year fan, pirate enthusiast, princess, etc.