Oh how I loved our Disneyland & California Adventure vacation last March! Are you thinking about heading to sunny California or sunny Florida this spring? Oh it's so beautiful in California (I haven't been to DisneyWorld yet). See some of my pictures of the flowers last March in CA.
Here are a few tips for you when planning your Disney Vacation this spring or summer.
Tip #1- GET THIS BOOK AND READ IT COVER TO COVER!!
In my opinion, this book helped me the "planner" execute a thrifty and well rounded Disneyland and California Adventure trip with almost 4 year old and a 6 year old. Last March was our first time taking kids to the parks. I needed insider tips and this book was IT! It comes out each year with new hotel ratings, dining, hotels, attraction updates, and how to's for hitting the rides at the right times for Disneyland (believe it or not it touches on other S. California attractions like Legoland, Universal Studios, The San Diego Zoo, and more). I got my book off Amazon.com but your local library might have an older addition. There is a separate book for DisneyWorld. I wanted the current one for our trip so I got the 2009 edition-They have a 2010 addition!
Tip #3- Get your souvenirs at home and take with you or ship them to your hotel if you are flying. Go to the dollar stores, Disney store clearance racks, Target, Walmart or where ever! You can also hit a Disney outlet on the way to Anaheim. We hit it on the way home. I never bought the Mickey Mouse ears. I took pictures in the store wearing the princess ears. I know I am a thrifty gal, what can I say!?! There's a sign for the outlet on the freeway for it. Here's the building.
Tip #4- Plan on eating at the hotel for breakfast. By this I mean eating out of the mini fridge with stuff you brought (oatmeal, cereal, fruit etc) or the included breakfast at the hotel. Why not use the microwave for oatmeal if you don't have a breakfast included? Bring your own utensils, plates, and napkins too. We stayed at the newly remodeled Best Western Stovall Inn. This Best Western had granite counter tops in the bathroom/kitchen area that is a WOW for a Best Western! The hotel had a nice downstairs breakfast room that included cold cereals, muffins, oatmeal, fruit, danishes, hard boiled eggs, coffee, water down juices, and milk for breakfast. Get there early and fill up. Grab a snack for the rode too!
Tip#5- Eating while on vacation. Smuggle in a few snacks in the "diaper bag". We didn't have anyone in diapers but took a kiddie pack full of healthy snacks (carrots, granola bars, Disney themed fruit snacks, apples or bananas from the breakfast at the hotel, PB & J's (I made them in my hotel), and empty water bottles into the park. You can fill up the water bottles in the park because they don't let you take liquids in the park. They didn't search us heavily last year and nothing was obvious but in the "diaper bag" or my mountain climbing neat fanny pack shown here in the picture. It's from the SLC Olympics 2002! I also kept my digital camera in fanny pack ready to snap pictures at any time!
We chose to either at dinner in the park or left to go to a restaurant off site (refer to the book for price ranges and quality). It gets expensive to eat at the park especially if you have a larger family so get over it and save up for it and just do it (not every day though). The book list the price ranges of places to eat in the park and off site as well. Review the on site and off site restaurants , plan ahead, and go for it! Here we are eating in the park one day-My daughter took this photo of us.
Here are a few tips for you when planning your Disney Vacation this spring or summer.
Tip #1- GET THIS BOOK AND READ IT COVER TO COVER!!In my opinion, this book helped me the "planner" execute a thrifty and well rounded Disneyland and California Adventure trip with almost 4 year old and a 6 year old. Last March was our first time taking kids to the parks. I needed insider tips and this book was IT! It comes out each year with new hotel ratings, dining, hotels, attraction updates, and how to's for hitting the rides at the right times for Disneyland (believe it or not it touches on other S. California attractions like Legoland, Universal Studios, The San Diego Zoo, and more). I got my book off Amazon.com but your local library might have an older addition. There is a separate book for DisneyWorld. I wanted the current one for our trip so I got the 2009 edition-They have a 2010 addition!
Tip #2- GO on the off season for your first time. We went Monday-Friday and BEFORE the Spring Break crowds which was mid March last year. We missed out on the Saturday night parade but sometimes you have to pick and choose rides or parades/shows in the summertime! Disneyland had the most up to date daily schedule available at the gate on our first day. Grab one.
The new editions of the book also list the Anaheim convention center schedule of conventions. They list who is going to be there and when. I advise you to AVOID those times like the plague. It can be 20,000+ people sometimes at the Anaheim convention center at once not to mention other visitors there. Did I say I love that book full of information, yet? Get it!
It's a Small World was redone when went last year. It was updated and current!The new editions of the book also list the Anaheim convention center schedule of conventions. They list who is going to be there and when. I advise you to AVOID those times like the plague. It can be 20,000+ people sometimes at the Anaheim convention center at once not to mention other visitors there. Did I say I love that book full of information, yet? Get it!
Tip #3- Get your souvenirs at home and take with you or ship them to your hotel if you are flying. Go to the dollar stores, Disney store clearance racks, Target, Walmart or where ever! You can also hit a Disney outlet on the way to Anaheim. We hit it on the way home. I never bought the Mickey Mouse ears. I took pictures in the store wearing the princess ears. I know I am a thrifty gal, what can I say!?! There's a sign for the outlet on the freeway for it. Here's the building.
Tip #4- Plan on eating at the hotel for breakfast. By this I mean eating out of the mini fridge with stuff you brought (oatmeal, cereal, fruit etc) or the included breakfast at the hotel. Why not use the microwave for oatmeal if you don't have a breakfast included? Bring your own utensils, plates, and napkins too. We stayed at the newly remodeled Best Western Stovall Inn. This Best Western had granite counter tops in the bathroom/kitchen area that is a WOW for a Best Western! The hotel had a nice downstairs breakfast room that included cold cereals, muffins, oatmeal, fruit, danishes, hard boiled eggs, coffee, water down juices, and milk for breakfast. Get there early and fill up. Grab a snack for the rode too!Tip#5- Eating while on vacation. Smuggle in a few snacks in the "diaper bag". We didn't have anyone in diapers but took a kiddie pack full of healthy snacks (carrots, granola bars, Disney themed fruit snacks, apples or bananas from the breakfast at the hotel, PB & J's (I made them in my hotel), and empty water bottles into the park. You can fill up the water bottles in the park because they don't let you take liquids in the park. They didn't search us heavily last year and nothing was obvious but in the "diaper bag" or my mountain climbing neat fanny pack shown here in the picture. It's from the SLC Olympics 2002! I also kept my digital camera in fanny pack ready to snap pictures at any time!
We chose to either at dinner in the park or left to go to a restaurant off site (refer to the book for price ranges and quality). It gets expensive to eat at the park especially if you have a larger family so get over it and save up for it and just do it (not every day though). The book list the price ranges of places to eat in the park and off site as well. Review the on site and off site restaurants , plan ahead, and go for it! Here we are eating in the park one day-My daughter took this photo of us.
Tip #6- Leave any kids under 40" in height at home with Grandma. This is my just my opinion! I wanted and needed a vacation so bringing a 2 year old isn't very relaxing. We left our barely 2 year old with Grandma in Utah and it was GREAT! She couldn't ride a lot and it was nice because my other daughter was just 42" with shoes on and she felt like a big girl and went on almost everything. NOTE: All of the ride height restrictions & scariness factors are covered in the book!
Tip #7- I am big into memory making. Here's what I did to capture the moments. The first day we went to Disneyland at about 5:00 pm after driving to CA. We had already had eaten dinner. I brought my video camera that day ONLY and taped the kids first reactions to the park, had them interviewed on tape, their reaction to the music, Sleeping Beauty's castle, a few rides, the parade (if it's shown the day you are there), fireworks, and a few characters we saw. After that I only carried my digital camera in my fanny pack ready to capture the moments. I didn't want to miss anything and have to dig in a diaper bag in the double stroller. My kids like to watch the parade I taped, characters, and the experience of Main street again and again. I do too!
Tip#8- I only got a few autographs of our favorite characters on my own papers and with my own pen! I didn't by those useless autograph books and over priced pens. I wanted the character's autograph next to my child's picture with them. Plus, I hate waiting it lines for autographs. Imagine a 8 x11" pink piece of paper with Sleeping Beauty's signature on it and my child pictures with her off the the right. It was a great scrapbooking page! We did this at the Princess area at Disneyland and in California Adventure where there are more characters and shorter lines.
Tip #9 Bring your own princess or character costumes and wear them in Disneyland for great photo opportunities. We did this first thing one day on a 5 days at Disneyland. They are so expensive to buy there. I did their hair cute that morning in pin up hair-dos' and they wore capri's and white t-shirts. Then we put their Princess dresses over their white t-shirts (the dresses can be sheer). They also wore crowns. I didn't bring fancy shoes I tried to cut their feet off in the photo because they were wearing sneakers and socks for lots of walking. Oh and choose outfits that easily slide over their clothes (and can be hidden like capri's) while you wait in line! We have great photo memories and this was a true highlight of their trip!
Tip # 10- Take a double stroller with you even if they are 6 and under! My kids were 6 and 4 when we went and we were so glad we took it. It's not a pain to park it. We bought an groovy 1980's "el cheap o'" double stroller at a garage sale and it worked great. I didn't want to be bring my best one there just in case. Their feet were so tired at the end of the day and we were so happy to have it all day. Plus, we wanted to "book it" fast to a few rides at various times!
Tip #11- Read the book it really does covers all the bases that I could post here in a blog post. I could go on and on but the book is really great. I am a planner type of person so it really helped me follow a plan to get on the rides without many hic-ups. It was great tool. You'll know what I mean when you get the book. I want to go back soooooo bad.
I love Disneyland!
THese are great tips!! I was going to post a bunch of tips that we learned from our trip 2 years ago, but never followed through. Here http://creativehomemakers.blogspot.com/2008/06/tie-dye-for-disney.html ...is one thing that we did that worked wonderfully in keeping track of one another!
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