We're going to Disneyland... How much did you spend on your trip?

[Disneyluv111]

Hi, we will be heading to DL in February. We will be getting a car rental, hotel (not on site), park hopper tickets, and budget for food for 5 days, 4 nights. I'm curious when you went to DL how long did you stay for, did you rent a car and how much did you spent? I need something to gauge our expenses just so I have an idea if I'm overspending or not. I am aware every trip for every family is different.

Park Hopper tickets through company -747.00 for 3 days/park hoppers
Car rental 218 for all 5 days
Airfare 550 for 3 adults
Hotel - N/A (rough estimate 700-800)
Food and shopping - Not sure yet

Thank you!

 

[tvguy]

DW and I went for 3 days. We stayed at the Grand Californian so that was $1,200. No rental car, used the bus from John Wayne Airport for like $60. I think we spent $125 a day for food.

 

[superme80]

My family of 5 is going down in November. It cost us about $2500 for hotel and tickets. I haven't really worked on the food budget yet. My oldest will be 7 when we are there, so I know it won't be super high.

 

[Eighty8Keys]

My adult son and I just returned Thursday night from a five night trip. We usually find that a four night trip gives up plenty of time to do what we want. This time we added an extra night because it's going to be our last trip for a couple of years. We stay as close to the entrance as possible so we don't need a rental car. This time we stayed at the Tropicana Inn & Suites and had two rooms, each with one king bed, for $99 each per night. We took a taxi from Long Beach airport for $45 plus tip and Uber back to the airport for $95. I'll admit the $95 Uber fare took me by surprise because it was only $59 to Orange County airport last February. Still, we felt it was worth the extra expense for the very comfortable ride and extremely friendly driver. We ate all of our meals on Disney property except for one time when we picked up a pizza at The Pizza Press located at the hotel next door. There was a well stocked mini-market located at our hotel. We purchased a few large bottles of water to keep in the rooms and a couple of bottles of sodas. Totaling all food expenses we averaged $37 per person per day. This includes all meals, snacks, mini-market purchases, multiple Starbucks beverages, etc. We frequently shared meals, not just to save money but because there were so many interesting things we wanted to try that we wouldn't have been able to try them all without getting too full. We didn't bring water into the parks but instead took advantage of free cups of ice water at just about every counter service location we visited. That saved us a ton of money over buying bottles of water in the park and easier than lugging a bottle around all day. We spent a total of $50 for souvenirs, mainly a couple of Starbucks/Disneyland mugs and a puzzle. The total for the trip including airfare, two hotel rooms, food, taxi/Uber, souvenirs, and tips came to around $2,450. We already had annual passes so we didn't need to buy tickets. We'd planned for two trips with this AP, but managed to sneak in a third so we could see the 60th anniversary celebration without needing to renew our passes or buy more tickets. We paid for all Disney food expenses with Disney gift cards purchased at an average discount of 20.7%.

 

[lovemygoofy]

We were in DL last year and spent 2500 or so but that included a lot of souvenir shopping for two people.

If you are still looking for a hotel off site, we really enjoy the Springhill Suites on Ball Rd. It is right around the corner and very easy drive to get back and forth or there is a bus stop right in front of the hotel. Budget for parking for hotel and parking at Disney!

Also, I would suggest eating some of your meals at downtown Disneyland area. The meals were reasonably priced more so than most of the meals inside the parks. You have to walk through that area anyways to get to the parks usually and easy to get in and out from the parks.

 

[DizMe]

I would recommend not renting a car. You won't need one for that length of time and you can avoid rental, gas, and parking fees (both hotel and parks) if you don't get one. It's very easy and pretty inexpensive to get from LAX, SNA, or LGB to Disneyland. Stay on Harbor, across from the parks, and you'll just be walking across the street to get into the resort. From LAX, I prefer to take the bus. Google for a coupon and it's pretty cheap (Disneyland Express). From LGB or SNA, take a taxi. It'll be between $40 and $45 each way plus tip. You could also take a shared shuttle (I use SuperShuttle) for $11 each one way ($33 total each way for your party + tip), but I'd just go ahead and get a taxi since you can hop in and go directly to your hotel rather than dropping others off on the way. With only 3 people you won't need a dedicated shuttle and they're a lot pricier than a taxi.

I like Carousel Inn, Howard Johnson (Hojo), and Fairfield Inn. Other very popular motels in the same area are Park Vue Inn, Tropicana, Best Western Park Place Inn (very closest you can get), and Candy Cane Inn (they have their own dedicated shuttle), but I haven't stayed in those myself. I would absolutely avoid parking at DLR if possible! You'll waste a lot of time and money doing that.

Disneyland is expensive. I imagine WDW is too, but I'm not familiar with it. The motels above will run you roughly what you budgeted, maybe less if you keep your eyes open. I can usually get the Carousel for under $100/night. However, most of the area hotels/motels add a fairly hefty parking fee if you have a car, and some add a "resort" fee even though you don't really get anything for that. Hojo gives an AP or disboard discount, or they used to anyway.

I don't find DTD restaurants to be any cheaper than those in the parks, but if you go off site you can do the regular fast food and chain restaurant stuff. In the parks, share meals or get a kids meal if you're not a big eater. Try the wharf area in California Adventure or go over to Goofy's Sky School area and you'll see a big area with many different types of food. In Disneyland, there are garlic cheese bagel twists that make a meal for me over in the Princess Fantasy Faire area. I like the kids meal at Hungry Bear (small cheeseburger, fries, apple slices and a drink for $6.99). Jolly Holiday has great sandwiches for around $10 which I have to share since they're big. At most places, my 2 friends and I order a couple of meals and share everything. Trader Sam's at Disneyland Hotel is a great spot for that (and then you can splurge on a fancy drink).

Hope you have a great time!

 

[bcwife76]

We'll be there the end of next week, woohoo! Getting off our cruise in San Diego and driving up so this is our budget (family of 4, 2 adults, 2 kids).

One way car rental (Ford Focus from Avis) $35 + gas (husband got a corporate deal through work)
Two nights at Castle Inn $85/night (again, a corporate deal through his work)
3 day park hoppers (can't remember US price, but with exchange it was $900 CDN, so I think about $750 US, had enough airmiles to get one adult 3-day park hopper for free.
Budgeting $150/day for food
$200 for souvenirs
Uber to LAX on our last night ($90-$110, using UberXL)
One way airfare LAX to YVR $430 total for the 4 of us

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

We did a "split stay" and stayed at Hojo, went to San Diego, then came back and stayed at the Disneyland Hotel. I must say, it was such a different experience staying onsite, so much more like WDW. I think you'll love the downtown Disney area: we did!
Mousesavers has great info on DLR!

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

Don't forget to price out ONT airport. Distance wise it might be a little bit further to DLR but time wise it is shorter than LAX. I also prefer it to LAX since its a smaller airport.

 

[Golf4food]

I can't imagine any airport being better for a DL trip than Santa Anna/John Wayne if you can get there for a good price. Great clean little small airport that was a breeze. The Disneyland Express shuttle bus was great and cheap (look for coupons, kids free with adults, etc.). No need for a car. We did a split stay with a few nights at the HOJO and a few nights in a DVC 1 BR at the Grand Cali. You can get less fancy rooms for a lot cheaper. We budgeted around $125/day for our family of 3 but we had at least one sit down meal/character breakfast per day so that can be done for less as well.

 

[scottmel]

We did adventures by disney backstage magic and it was fantastic. Includes behind the scenes on rides shows etc . 8500 for 3 of us and that included meals park hoppers and Hollywood leg of the trip. Great way to see disneyland and highly recommend! 6 days but we added on 4 more

 

[My3Princez]

We're going in that general time frame too. Following for any tips ...

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

SNA (John Wayne Airport) is by far the best choice for Disneyland. The drawback is flights there are usually more expensive than LAX.

 

[disrunaddict522]

I went with a party of 8. We stayed at the Howard Johnson across the street from the parks and stayed for 5days. We got 4 day park hopper. I also ran while there. The total cost of the trip without running was like $800 plus food and souvenirs

 

[Nohal]

Haven't been in almost 20 years. We stayed at the Desert Inn and suites which was right across the street. I see that the maximum is 5 day tickets so I'm guessing you can see and do everything in 5 days. When we went there was only 1 park and if I recall we had 4 day tickets. Any comments on the Desert Inn and suites considering doing a spring trip and maybe staying there again.

 

[dcfromva]

We are going in Nov.
Park Hopper tickets (military discount)-2 passes $264.00 for 3 days/park hoppers (have 1 day from ticket we bought last fall--Disney extended the expiration date)
Car rental $189.00 for 4 days
gas $50.00
Airfare $33.60 for 3 adults (using rapid reward points)
Hotel - using our timeshare
Food and shopping - Still deciding.
We are flying into/out of LAX partly so we can stop by Randy's Donuts . I don't know if we will be sorry or not. There is a huge construction project going on at LAX--I think it will be done in 2017. It looks like they might be halfway done with the runways. The last time we were in terminal 1 (we are flying SWA), it looked like they were doing construction there, too --I don't know if that is complete. (I guess we'll find out).

 

[wdwfan1]

We are going for 5 nights in January. Trip for 2 adults. Staying on points at Grand Californian so no out of pocket cost for accommodations. Tickets from Disney website $550. Will check for discounts. Flying SWA and using FF points for one ticket and paying out of pocket for the other--about $600. No car rental. Haven't figured out how we will travel to resort. Undecided about food and dining. Still need to research options. So--as of now we are at only $1150 but I am sure that will probably double.

Hope everyone enjoys their trip.

 

[hsmamato2]

when we went a few years back we got tix from a seller (aero-something?) that was like undercover tourist for WDW.... (found it on mousesavers) we got 6 or 7 day tix for 4 of us- and we entered the parks for 6 straight days- we loved it- it was such a cool place for history and details.... it cost 8-900 for those tix I believe - our hotel was about a mile away b/c it was a timeshare deal(very nice Worldmark) and we just walked in every day- we drove over to Universal for a day (bleh) which added to our costs-I like the area for the many restaurants and easily accessible hotels,etc. my DH didn't like it,as he's used to WDW where it's all encapsulated 'on property'....

 

[CluelessDisFan]

Hi, we will be heading to DL in February. We will be getting a car rental, hotel (not on site), park hopper tickets, and budget for food for 5 days, 4 nights. I'm curious when you went to DL how long did you stay for, did you rent a car and how much did you spent? I need something to gauge our expenses just so I have an idea if I'm overspending or not. I am aware every trip for every family is different.

Park Hopper tickets through company -747.00 for 3 days/park hoppers
Car rental 218 for all 5 days
Airfare 550 for 3 adults
Hotel - N/A (rough estimate 700-800)
Food and shopping - Not sure yet

Thank you!

We went for one week in 2013 and spent 5 days at DLR. We bought 5 day PH tix through Disney YES saved a bunch of money. Son really enjoyed his class. We rented a mini van for the week for about $500. Our condo was free we were gifted points from my aunt's time share. For dining and souvies I purchased $900 in Disney gifts from target at 10% off. Though I will tell you, the food and service was not up to par with WDW. When we go back I will probably budget to eat off property. Our favorite restaurant was cafe Orleans. But wine country trattoria, Ariel's grotto, goofys kitchen, Flo's, and just about everything else we had tried were very disappointing compared to WDW. All that aside we loved the parks, and shows!