How to plan a Disneyland vacation without breaking the bank

We are taking our first big family vacation this coming fall to Disneyland. Money is tight in our household. But we’ve got ways around that.

Let’s start with airfare. We’re flying from Denver to Orange County. We’re flying Southwest for a few reasons. The first being that all bags fly free – well, 2 checked bags per person. Besides likely two suitcases (plus carry ons) we are also checking a carseat and an umbrella stroller. That’s a minimum savings of $30 right there. Second, we are enrolled in the frequent flyer program and have enough miles for at least one free ticket right now. It’s possible we have enough for one free round trip and one free ticket one-way (you pay per each flight, one price for there and one price for back). Finally, I will have earned a $50 Southwest gift card through Swagbucks. So… if prices for November stay roughly the same as prices today (the schedule is only available through September, currently) full price for our fares would be approximately $735. With one free round trip and a $50 gift card, that brings it down to $440.

Next, let’s talk rental cars. No, you don’t NEED a car if you plan to spend your entire vacation at Disneyland Parks. You could catch a cab to your hotel and walk to the parks. However, I have family in the LA area, and my husband has never been to Los Angeles, so I want to do some sight-seeing the three days we don’t go to the parks. We are going to be renting from Hertz, using $75 in gift cards that I have earned through my Wells Fargo debit card. I am part of the rewards program, and have been saving all my points to use for something special. I have enough points for $75 in savings. We will be renting a compact car – no need for anything major. The only time we’ll have it full is on the way to and from the airport. If you pre-pay your car, you save almost $50. Combine that with the $75 in savings and we will pay under $200 for the week.

Now we come to the hotel. There are definitely ways to save on a hotel when you travel to Disneyland. We are not using any particular method, we are just choosing to stay at an off-site hotel a block away from the entrance to the park. We are not overly concerned about a luxury hotel as we only plan to use it to sleep. I did take the time to read reviews to make sure we’re not staying at a dump – but to be totally honest, most of the hotels within walking distance of Disneyland Parks are decent. They WANT people to choose their hotel, so they have to be. The hotel we picked has a light breakfast served, which will save us money. It also has a refrigerator, so we can purchase bottles of water or pop to chill in there to bring to the park with us – saving us some more money on beverages. There are other ways you can save money on motels and hotels. You can become a member of a rewards club (i.e. Mariott Rewards) and earn points. You can redeem gift cards earned on Swagbucks, MyPoints, etc to save money. For us, we chose to just pick a reasonably priced hotel and use our gift cards other ways. However, I do have $125 in Visa gift cards saved up that we certainly can use towards our hotel should we decide to. Our total cost for our reservation is $412, so that would bring our total cost down to $297. You can also earn Visa gift cards on search sites or rewards sites. This may be an option for you!

Finally, how to save money at Disneyland and Disneyland California Adventure. There really isn’t such a thing as “discount tickets” to the park. The best you can do is to buy a multi-day pass. We are buying 3 day park hopper passes, which is $214 for adults. A one day park hopper pass is $105. You save a lot of money by buying the pass – plus you also save $10 by purchasing online.

We are putting out a plea to friends and family this year who would normally buy birthday gifts for us to consider purchasing a Disney Gift Card. Many grocery stores carry these in their gift card section, and you can also order them online. We have $25 in these gift cards already, and hope to have at least $100 by the time we go. We will either put them to use purchasing admission tickets, or let my daughter pick out gifts for herself at the park. I have yet to find a rewards site that offers these tickets.

So as you can see, if you start planning ahead well over a year out, there are plenty of ways you can save money on a Disneyland vacation. I am certain that our vacation this coming fall will be one we will never forget!