Disneyland: How we Book It!

Two weeks ago we were blessed to be able to spend a week in sunny California! Every time I travel south, I make sure I can get in some Disney!

As my friends know, I have visited Disneyland dozens of time throughout my life.  I love it! I love it so much that I am already ready to go back!  A lot of people have asked my advice when booking a trip to Disneyland. Well, here it is! This is how the Dobsons do Disney!

 

In the past, when travelling with friends, we've always squeezed in a cheap hotel room and done everything on a major budget.  This time I was excited to have a larger budget and to be able to research different booking options for our group! 

 

1. Pick your time of travel: There are crowd calendars you can find online that tell you when the busiest and least crowded times are to go.  In the times that I have gone, I can tell you that September is the best time to go.  After Labor Day weekend, everyone is back in school and the crowds decrease incredibly from the busy summer months.  This time is considered slow season so you will see decreased park hours and some of the attractions are closed for refurbishment.  The Haunted Mansion is closed at the beginning of September every year to get transformed into a Nightmare Before Christmas theme but you can expect it to be open mid month!  Fireworks, parades and shows are usually only available on Fridays at this time as well. With that said, if you can look past those things, it's so worth it to only have to wait in line10 minutes for a ride!

 

2. Choose your hotel:  Trip Advisor was a huge help in this department. Of course we would love to stay in one of the Disney Resorts but they are totally out of our price range.  I wanted to find to Disney Good Neighbor Hotel that was walkable distance to the park, had a good pool, was clean and of course had good review! I ended up choosing the Howard Johnson Anaheim with the Castaway Cove water park and It was perfect!

 

3. Price Comparison: We had the option of booking things separately or as a package.  If we had airline miles, hotel rewards or anything like that, booking separately may have been a better option.  For us, it was comparable to book everything as a package so that's what we did! We booked it through Disneyland's website. Kids fly free under two and are free into the Disney parks under 3 so we only had to pay for Justin and I!

 

4: Book It: Disney made this process really easy. Enter your traveler information, pick your dates, hotel and flight and boom! You're done!  Disney really goes above and beyond after you book your vacation.  They send you a fun packet confirming all the vacation details and a few weeks before your vacation we received a second package with our passes, hotel verification, luggage tags and coupons for free merchandise!  Plus everything is wrapped in Disney packaging which makes it all the more magical.  Booking separately would have resulted in a bunch of confirmation emails so the option we chose was so much more fun!  We also received one Magic Morning (getting in an hour before the park opens to the public) with booking through Disneyland.

 

5: Transport: There are many different options when deciding how to get from the airport to your hotel. We had a group of 11 so we went with a limo!  At less than $30 a couple, it was the cheapest and most fun option.  Our hotel set us up with the service they use and it worked out great! You can also book a cab or shuttle if you had a smaller group.  When booking the limo I found out that our toddlers didn't need car seats.  It was wonderful not to have to lug that around! Also check with your airline to see what baby items can be checked for free!





So that is what I did! Pretty straight forward... The most important step is step one.  The time of year you go really makes or breaks the trip.  I would highly suggest going when the crowds are down since it makes the trip so much less stressful and leaves you able to really experience Disney for all it has to offer!