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We are planning on going in Oct 2008. I have lots of questions. When is the best time to buy tickets? What's the best place to stay? What are the pluses of staying at a Disneyland hotel versus a good neighbor hotel? I have only stayed at good neighbor hotels and this is my first trip there with kids so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, what special meals or things should we plan? Dd will be 6 and ds will be almost 4:mickey:
Disney hotels are great. I love them. Expecially if you can get a government rate of a hotel industry rate. As for off property the only one I would stay at is the Sheraton Anaheim. The reason. It is actually a pretty easy walk on the baclk side but it has a private shuttle. Most of the good neighbor hotels you pay for a shuttle and it is 2.00 each way per person. That adds up very quickly. There are some great AP discounts available and it pays to have 1 person have an AP for the group to get these discounts.
Ask away I live for Disneyland.
Kim
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Herbal Vaporizer
The hotels I am thinking of are across the street and you don't need a shuttle. Everytime I have gone, the shuttle was free. What does AP mean? Thanks.
AP is annual Pass. The hotels across the street you can walk to but they aren't as high end as some of the others and often so busy. My cousin went in may and the shuttle cost every time and they stayed at the Best Western Stovals.
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Toyota supra history
Ok, thanks. Is there anything else I should know? Where's the best place to book the tickets, hotel, shows, airfare, etc?
I think it depends on where you are coming from with the airfare. If southwest flies in your area download the ding program and watch for specials. I have heard a lot of people getting deals with JetBlue, Ted, and Spirit but we only have JetBlue in Houston and it only flies to the Northeast.Quote:
Originally Posted by Candi
tickets - if you don't want to get them from disney I think tricia was mentioning a new merchant with discounted tickets. Disneyland might be included. I'd check on one of the other areas for that thread. It could help you.
I've never been to disneyland so I'm not too sure what is over there show or hotel wise but maybe someone else will see this and help. Things tend to be slow on the weekends.
Shows, there are none. Character breakfasts really suck actually but at Storytellers in the Grand Californian they have a free one. You order off a regular menu and they have lots of characters come through. Tons of amazing restaurants there inside and outside at Downtown Disney. Make reservations though. Like for the Blue Bayou that is one that you shouldn't miss. It is in the Pirates of the Carribean ride. As for Airfare, it is just as cheap for me to fly from San Francisco to LA as it is to Orlando.
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LovelyWendie
I'm a DLR vet too. :mickey:
You won't be able to book anything this far out, unfortunately. But when you do, shop around. Hotels & packages can vary a ton from site to site and depending on when you look. I've personally booked with www.getawaytoday.com several times and really liked them. They are generally consistantly cheaper than other places (like travelocity, expedia, etc) and don't charge room tax which definitely helps! I've also looked at Costco travel and they are pretty fairly priced too. You get a free character breakfast by booking through them, as well as MTTMM. So I'd factor the price of the character meal in from them vs. other sites if you're sure you want to book a character breakfast.
On-site or not is a personal preference. I personally prefer NOT to stay onsite because I feel my money is better spent elsewhere. To me it's just not worth it when it means I might have to give up some character meals, souvenirs, etc. But again, that's a personal preference. I guess if money weren't an issue I'd probably stay onsite. But I'm budget minded (aka cheap ;) ) so I prefer offsite. There are quite a few decent hotels offsite that are within walking distance so you wouldn't even need to use the ART. The most popular in the area from most Dis'ers is Candy Cane Inn and Hojo's. Hojo's offers entertainment book discounts (limited availability, of course) if you have one.
There are no ticketed shows at DLR right now. But you definitely want to make time to see Aladdin when you're there.
As to dining, reservations to the sit down restaurants can be made 60 days in advance. Balcony seating for the dessert buffet for Fantasmic is 1 month in advance. For character meals, my kids (2 boys, 2 girls) like Goofy's for breakfast and Ariel's for lunch. There is always a wide variety of characters at Goofy's plus the food is decent. Ariel's IMO is pretty hit or miss. But seeing my daughters' excitement at seeing the princesses makes up for the mediocre food to us. A lot of people love Blue Bayou. It's not my kind of food so I've never eaten there. Plus IMO they are very expensive. But you're paying for the ambiance (sp?). I agree with Kim that there is tons of good restaurants in DTD.
Here's a link to a very good site to get an idea of what menu items each restaurant carries and their prices. Of course things my change by 2008 but at least you get a basic idea. :) http://www.dlresortinfo.com/
Hope that helps. I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have too if you still need help. :hugs:
I use mousesavers as well. They help out a lot. I have used priceline on 2 occasions and gotten the hyatt on one and the Hilton on the other and then driven in.
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Herbal shop