Disney land. Doesn't that word just make you giddy inside? It sure does me! I can't help but think about pirates, princesses, ice cream, happiness, fun...etc. I could go on and on about Disney Land and the AMAZINGNESS of it! I was lucky and was born into a family that believed Disney Land was a necessity growing up. I have since passed this tradition onto my children (without force) and my husband (with force).
So you see this great commercial on TV about Disneyland and you think, 'I would LOVE to take my kids there!' You get super excited and start to plan it out in your head. We will go for an entire week and stay in the Disney Land Hotel and eat ice cream all day long! Then reality hits. You look at ticket prices and think, okay...maybe we can do this. Then you look at hotels...ugh...can we do this? Then you look at flights...okay we can't do this. Then you give up. Does this sound familiar? I did the same thing the first time I looked at pricing when we wanted to take my daughter. How in the WORLD can people AFFORD THIS! That was seriously my first thought. Then I called my parents, "HOW did you guys AFFORD to take FIVE KIDS to DISNEYLAND?!" My mom's answer was 'We just did it'. The more I thought about it, the more I looked into finding the CHEAPEST way to Disney Land. After a couple years...I think I have this down pretty well! :)
First thing to do: Plan a date at least SIX MONTHS in advance.
There is a reason we plan our Disneyland trips months in advance. Everything is cheaper farther away! Booking a hotel six months in advance will guarantee the cheapest price. They don't know how busy they will be at that time so they are just cheap. Flights are ALWAYS cheaper in advance. So first you want to decide when to go. Ask for time off work. Save up those paid time off work days for your vacation. Make sure it doesn't conflict with anything your kids do. I promise that planning that far in advance is NECESSARY for a big trip.
Second: How long are you going?
This will help you decide a lot of things! How many days you want to spend in the park? Do you want to go anywhere else in California? We usually like to go to Disneyland for at LEAST three days. With two kids, getting around Disneyland can be crazy and slow moving. If your going to go, you better have enough time to get in most of what you want to do!? Right? We also like to go during the week days. Weekends are CRAZY at Disneyland (obviously...). So we usually spend two or three days going on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Then we spend one day on a weekend like a Friday. That way we can see all the fun stuff that is only on weekends, but avoid most of the crowds on the first few days.
Third: How are you going to get there?
I personally like to fly. I don't want to drive for 12 hours with two kids. That is not fun to me. Every person is different so I will do pros and cons of each.
Flying
Flying is expensive, UNLESS you know how to get around that. It is ALOT faster, less stressful and less tiring. It is expensive, time consuming in different ways and scary for some.
Driving
Driving is still expensive with gas prices the way they are, it is extremely time consuming (2 days for JUST travel), tiring, annoying, boring....etc. Driving does give you the option of having a car to drive to other places and it is convenient.
These are three things you must decide before you can even begin planning much of your trip! Once you have made up your mind on those things, then you can move forward with trying to save money on each part of your trip.
My next blog post will be about getting to California for Cheap! I will explain how I received four round trip flights for $22.50, driving for cheap and traveling tips with children as soon as I can!
Brianne
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