First family trip!

kiwigirl

Earning My Ears
Joined
Aug 14, 2010
Hi please could I have planning advice. This is our first family trip overseas and we are saving for September 2016. We would love to have a magical Disney experience on a budget. What are the nicest places to stay offsite but walking distance, how long should we book for, is it best to move elsewhere once disney is visited, what other places and attractions are great to see?

Hope that's not too much to ask! We are coming from nz with two kids and hopefully grandparents too. Thanks so much! Ps where are the best places to get park tickets etc in advance?
 
Hi kiwigirl,

You're going to have so much fun! There is so much to tell you, but I'm a bit sleep from just having returned from Disneyland this morning. I will write a little, and then write more when I'm awake:

1) From NZ, it's a long trip- how old are the kiddos? The younger they are, the longer it'll take for them to "acclimatise" before they can really get into it
2) Disneyland is expensive, and budgeting and planning is a great idea. Start saving as much as you can, because there will always be things to spend money on (not just tickets and rooms, but souvenirs, food, photos, etc)
3) Most hotels are within walking distance (usually less than 15 minutes). The DLR hotels are MUCH more expensive, and IMHO, not completely worth it especially if your budget is tight. They have a few "magical" things that the others don't offer, but I don't think it's worth paying 2-3x more than other hotels. And they're not necessarily closer to the theme park entrances either. This time, we spent nights at both the Park Vue Inn (directly across the road), and the Candy Cane Inn (about 10 min further up the road), and both were great. And there's a pool, which the kiddo will love.
4) Spend as much time there as you possibly can, as there is lots to see. We've been there 3 times (for a total of probably 20+ days, and we still get to explore new things). 4 days I would think is a minimum ( 2 days in each park)- but I would recommend a 5th day (a rest day in between).
5) If you have a car and the time, nice places nearby include: San Diego Zoo, Legoland (if your kids are young, or into Star Wars), a pier (great views) at either Santa Monica, or further south (eg. Oceanside)

Start with that, and get planning! That's really fun.
 
Thanks for your reply, my kids are aged 8 and 11, my youngest has health issues so rest times will be important for her. We are nervous about driving in america so would prefer to have someone else do that for us while we enjoy the travel!
 
Hi please could I have planning advice. This is our first family trip overseas and we are saving for September 2016. We would love to have a magical Disney experience on a budget. What are the nicest places to stay offsite but walking distance, how long should we book for,

Congratulations of starting the planning process in plenty of time! How awesome to have a family trip in the works and I wish you happy planning.

You mentioned about having a magical Disney experience on a budget. I personally think that Disney is magical on any budget.....and I sure hope that when your family vacation happens, you'll feel the same way. Having said that....

Your key is the 'budget'. Have you looked at your rough costs? If not, I would start with that and work out how much you want to spend:
  • airfares and transfers
  • accommodation per night
  • food per day (Including tips)
  • tours/experiences
  • shopping and souvenirs
  • incidentals e.g., passports, ESTA, insurance, etc

Once I've worked out my budget and compared it against the total amount I think I want to spend, I usually find that I can adjust the per day rates to fit the vacation within my budget. In some cases, I've also adjusted the duration of the holiday accordingly. If you already have this worked out, the per day numbers give you a rough guide on what to look for and what to exclude.

There are a number of good neighbour hotels within walking distance to the DLR gates. It really does come down to how much you want to spend per night. And if you have a family, there are also vacation rental homes that you could look at. I know that there are a number of the Anzac Dis-sers that have successfully rented homes close to Disneyland.




is it best to move elsewhere once disney is visited, what other places and attractions are great to see?

Perhaps you might think about what places and attractions might appeal to your family. There are a lot of things you could see and do around Southern California; beaches, museums, tourist traps, theme parks etc. LA is a very big city and quite spread out. Whether you move or not depends on what you want to see and how you plan to get around. Generally, I take the viewpoint that it is better to move closer to the attractions I want to see...but I have also stayed all my time at Anaheim and then driven down to San Diego and/or into downtown LA to visit the sites I want to go to.
I know you mentioned that you were nervous about driving in America but renting a car or a people mover may be the most cost effective way of getting around.





Hope that's not too much to ask! We are coming from nz with two kids and hopefully grandparents too. Thanks so much! Ps where are the best places to get park tickets etc in advance?

If you're asking about just Disneyland tickets, then there are any number of TAs and/or sites to get park tickets.
If you're asking about SoCal theme parks, you might want to check out the SoCal City Pass and working out if that combination of tickets suits you.

Can you provide more context around what you specifically want to see and do?
 


I guess up to $200 per night for accommodation but more if we get a holiday home rental and combine with my parents. If it's walking distance to Disney could be ideal instead of connecting rooms.

I've given us plenty of time to save and will borrow the rest as this is our version of a make a wish trip for my daughter.

Would like to go to Knotts berry farm, maybe universal, Legoland SeaWorld some San diego, if we could get a cheap deal possibly add a short cruise, my ideas are open.
 
We are off to Disneyland for the first time in September this year. My advice to you so far is book your flights early especially if you are going in the school holidays. You'll find flying via Australia is actually a lot cheaper but depends if you can trade that extra travel time with the cost. One of our boys will only be 2 so we've decided for us it's worth the extra money to fly with Air NZ mainly because it's an overnight flight but if he was older I'd happily trade an extra 4 or 5 hours travel for a $1500 to $2000 saving.
 
You dont mention how long you are going for, but check out the 10 day hopper pass that is only available for aussies and NZ tourists. It wil allow you to go between both parks, Go for half days and pop back in the evenings etc. it is only about $10 dearer than a 5 day pass. You can get it your local travel agent.

Also check out the photo pass plus, this little card allows you to get the whole family in all the photos of your adventure, you can get photos with the disney characters too.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/guest-services/photo-pass-service/

Create an account on that link, you can then order the photos pass, it took 21 days to get to me in australia, so don't leave it too close to your departure to order. Once you create an account, you can then book dinner/character meals/breakfast reservations for within disneyland, 60 days out from arrival, and it keeps it all in one place for you, so you can keep track of where you are eating.
 
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Also too, if you are thinking of visitng San Diego, I would defiantly recommend staying there for a few days, we stayed in Anaheim and did day trip tours to sea world and the zoo, was an easy quick drive going down but was a horrible long 3 hours return one day and 4 hours return another day...made for such a long day.
 
How exciting! Sounds like a great family trip!

I'll start off with my recommendations for accommodation. If your youngest has health issues and will need regular breaks, it may be worth taking proximity to the parks over 'niceness'. Keep in mind that September is pretty much the hottest time of the year in Anaheim, and walking to/from the parks is pretty much in full sun.

Desert Inn & Suites is just across the road from the entrance to the parks (literally a 5 minute walk) and offers large 2 bedroom (4 queen size beds + full size sofa bed) 2 bathroom suites which could accommodate your family and your parents. We stayed there for our last trip, and I think it was just over $200 per night for the largest suites. It's just a motel, but the rooms were clean, spacious and relatively modern. Pretty much all of the hotels in that area are basic motel style accommodation, and much of a muchness really, but the Desert Inn & suites was the only one with 2 full bedrooms Some have kids suites with bunk beds, which would be fun for your kids, but wouldn't fit the grandparents, so you would need 2 rooms.

If you're looking at rental accommodation, I can recommend Enchanted Stays. To be fair, we haven't actually stayed there yet, but the booking process was very easy through VRBO and it looks so nice! We're staying in the Enchanted Cabana, which is less than $200 USD even taking into account the cleaning fee. This one has 2 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. The master has a king bed, and the second bedroom has a single bunk over a double bed with a single trundle, plus there's a queen sofabed, so it would technically fit everyone. If you wanted to be more comfortable though, the Enchanted Villa has 3 bedrooms (but only 1.5 bathrooms). These are both in the same complex, with 3 pools and playground. Plus, you have the laundry and kitchen facilities you can use in the house. This complex is about a 10 minute walk to the car park, where you can take the free tram to the park entrance.

With your youngest needing regular breaks, you'll probably want to maximise your park time. I would recommend getting one of the 10 day passes if you can and spending at least a week in Anaheim. There is a LOT to do and see there, and September will have the off-peak shorter hours. The more time you have there, the more relaxed your touring can be, and you won't be tempted to push your daughter too hard to try and see/do everything. You can get the 10 day passes through Australia or New Zealand based travel agents.

Someone else has recommended the photopass card. I would second this recommendation, especially as it seems like it will be a special trip being your first big one as a family and having the grandparents there. You can pre-purchase the photopass + card, which includes all your ride photos and character meal photos too. It can be good value if you think you'd get a lot of these types of photos anyway.

Character meals are a great way to make a trip special, but are very expensive for what they are. If your kids aren't too concerned about which characters they see, I think the breakfast at Storytellers Café is the best value. The characters can be obscure (we had Kenai and Koda from Brother Bear, Chip, and Meeko from Pocahontas), but the interaction was good, and at one point they had a little dance with the kids (hokey pokey etc). There is no official photography at this place, but you can take whatever photos you like with your own camera.

Not sure how old your kids are, but one thing that is popular for little girls is the Bibbidi Bobbidy Boutique (princess makeover). This is very expensive, but you could do your own version on the cheap and your little girl could still feel like a princess. Get a cheap princess dress and tiara before you go. Take your make up and some glitter hair spray. Spend one morning giving her a makeover with some subtle lip gloss and sparkly eye shadow, paint her nails and do her hair nice, then she can wear the dress and tiara to the parks. It's worth noting though that kids over 8 aren't allowed to wear costumes. You could still do the makeover part though and just wear a nice sun dress (in blue for Cinderella, yellow for Belle etc).

Also make sure you all get First Visit buttons from guest services, and Happy Birthday/Anniversary buttons if applicable. These are all free and make great souvenirs!

By next September, the Harry Potter expansion is due to open at Universal Studios. If your kids are Harry Potter fans, it's definitely worth making the trip. You can buy passes with transportation (bus tour style), but it would work out expensive for 6 of you. Public transport isn't very good in the greater LA area, so it could be worth hiring a car for the day. Driving on the wrong side of the road is surprisingly easy if you're already used to being a pedestrian. It could also be worth keeping the car for your visit to Knott's, and perhaps driving down to San Diego. I haven't been to Knott's, but I believe you can take the ART if you're not keen on driving.

If there are a few things in San Diego that you want to see, I would spend a few days down there, rather than coming and going from Anaheim. If you don't want to drive, there is a train from Anaheim to San Diego. I haven't been, so I'm not sure what public transport is like once you're down there.

You will find lots of help here. Ask away with any questions you have.
 
You are going to have the best time. We've stayed at the best western park place inn and suites with our family of 6. The rooms have one bathroom, two queensize beds and one pullout couch. It is all in one room so no real privacy or breaks from the kids but it is very close. Rooms are standard rooms, clean and fine and good for sleeping in. We found that we don't spend much time in the rooms, even when we stay at the disney hotels, so as long as we have somewhere to sleep we are good :) We go for over ten days at a time usually but if we get hopper passes we get one of the adults a annual pass and use it for savings on meals and merchandise. Mind you we usually do stay at a disney resort so having an annual pass saves us a lot of money with accomodation there so you could work out whether it would be worth the extra money for you :)

I agree with photopass cards definitely worthwhile We bought photopass plus and loved it.
 
we get one of the adults a annual pass

We did exactly that. We went a little overboard and got Annual Passes for all 3 of us (we stayed for 12 nights). When we added up the hotel (we spent 6 nights at DLH, and the rest off site), food, merchandise, etc, etc, we saved over US$800 (more than the cost of one AP)
 
Personally I think for a low budget trip not staying onsite, an AP will not be worth it. With the recent price increase and the dollar continuing to fall, it's now several hundred $$ more than a 10 day pass, so you'd need to spend thousands on accommodation/dining/merchandise for the discounts to even cover the difference. It's worth looking at, but make sure you really do all your sums.

FWIW, I had an AP on my last trip (only because my first day in the parks and my last day were more than 14 days apart, so a 10 day pass wouldn't cover it). I spent 13 days in the parks overall, and didn't come anywhere near recovering the difference between the 10 day pass and the AP in discounts (even with my husband and parents using it for discounts too). We stayed offsite.
 
Wow, so much info, thanks. I hadn't realised that sept was so hot, thought it would be quieter being off season but we could go any time of year if you guys have recommendations. My husband is the only one in our family who loves heat! I would prefer cooler but not busy season.

Has anyone booked a cruise Disney or otherwise? My friend took her family on carnival a couple of years ago and paid a couple hundred each for inside cabins and loved it. Thought it might be an affordable way to travel.

Thanks for the advice on accommodation, I think the closer the better is a great idea as my daughter tires easily some days. Is it better to find one with breakfast included to save money on this meal or is it easy to buy basics and make your own in the morning?
 
We always go the week after thanksgiving. Crowds are very manageable and its like an airconditioned holiday for us. It can be cold cold cold some nights but others quite comfortable jeans weather. There is hardly any humidity so its really nice.
 
September has traditionally been quiet, but is becoming much busier now with a few events happening that month. The start of Halloween time always brings lots of people, and there's an event called Dapper Day which has quite a large following too. We were there for the middle weekend of September last year and it was hot and crowded, even more so than the Labor Day long weekend! It was better than being at home lol! But it did take some getting used to!

I would recommend late February/early March. On our first trip we were there the last week of February and it was so nice and quiet. A lot of rides were walk ons and it was so easy to get around without having to thread our way through large crowds. The shows were easy to get good spots for too. The days were nice - jeans and t-shirt kind of weather - but the nights were quite chilly. This year we were there for one day on 4th March and again, it was super quiet and perfect weather too! The spring version of Dapper Day seems to happen in early March. If your visit coincides with it, that weekend will be pretty busy, but it does tend to be mostly locals that go, so it shouldn't affect your week days too much. They do offer spectacularly discounted rates at the Disney owned hotels, so it might be worth attending (you just dress up nice for your day in the parks) and make your trip REALLY special by spending a few nights at the Disneyland Hotel.

If you go in the off season, you will need to be prepared for ride/show closures, as that is when they tend to do most of their maintenance. However, next year will probably be quite good for closures since they've done so much this year in the lead up to the 60th anniversary. If you go in March next year (not sure whether that's too soon for you), you will catch the tail end of the celebration. September might be too late. Also be aware that in the off season, most of the shows are only shown on weekends (just off the top of my head, the fireworks, Fantasmic! and Mickey and the Magical Map). It's easy to work around. Just make sure you include a couple of weekend days/nights to catch all the shows you want. World of Colour has traditionally been on every night, and the Aladdin show is on daily too.

Personally I would not consider a Disney cruise an affordable way to travel. Also, there are not nearly as many Disney cruises that leave from the LA area. There may be other cruise lines that offer good specials from LA (I think there are a few that leave from Long Beach), but obviously they will not be as magical as the Disney ones. I'm not a cruiser, but there are heaps of people here who have done Disney and other cruises who can chime in.

Personally an included breakfast is not a high priority for me. A lot of the included breakfasts are very basic (just cereal, toast and pastries). We just bought some cereal, milk, juice and yoghurt from the 7-11 (5 minute walk) and made our own breakfasts when it wasn't included. When it was included, we tended to just grab a quick bagel to tide us over, then have a late brunch in the parks or DTD anyway.

I meant to say in my first post too (but I'm sure you're already aware), definitely make sure you get good, fully comprehensive travel insurance. You definitely don't want to be out of pocket for medical expenses over there! With your daughter's pre-existing condition, I would look at travel insurance first (even though it's not as exciting lol!) just so you're ready to purchase a policy as soon as you start making bookings. A lot of travel insurance companies will cover pre-existing conditions for an additional fee.
 
Wow, so much info, thanks. I hadn't realised that sept was so hot, thought it would be quieter being off season but we could go any time of year if you guys have recommendations. My husband is the only one in our family who loves heat! I would prefer cooler but not busy season.

Has anyone booked a cruise Disney or otherwise? My friend took her family on carnival a couple of years ago and paid a couple hundred each for inside cabins and loved it. Thought it might be an affordable way to travel.

Thanks for the advice on accommodation, I think the closer the better is a great idea as my daughter tires easily some days. Is it better to find one with breakfast included to save money on this meal or is it easy to buy basics and make your own in the morning?

I personally like November/December in SoCal as a travel period. It can be a quiet period of the year for Disneyland; but you may want to check their calendar and see when they pull down/put up the holiday decorations. They usually will be taking down the Halloween decorations in early November and putting up Christmas ones a week or so after.

Do you have to coincide your travel with school holidays? If so, then September is a good time to head over. It can be a bit on the warm side still; but it is bearable.

I haven't booked a cruise (I get seasick) but there are others that have. Hopefully someone will have the information.


My family are breakfast people. So finding a hotel that includes breakfast does save us some money. Personally, I price breakfast at about $10 per person per day. For us, that's $25 - $30 worth of value in a hotel breakfast. But I do look carefully at what is on offer. I tend to look for hotels/motels that includes a hot buffet (and yes, I know a hot buffet can be dodgy) that rates well on places like Trip Advisor. We have also bought bagels/cream cheese, cereals, milk, yoghurt and fruit for breakfast in the room. Both options work well for us.
 
I agree with PiO. We travelled with 7, states at hojos ( two rooms). Although if you've got a child that needs to nap a suite would be perfect.

A big saver for us was a grocery delivery from vons. We ordered cereals, yoghurt, fruit, milk, and snacks to take to the parks (raisins and granola bars aka sultanas and muesli bars!). We intended to only buy dinner. However, we did end up buying most lunches too. We did one character breakfast too but we did the latest sitting so we could skip lunch. It was so much fun ever the 12 year old boys had a blast.

We purchased the socal pass, we stayed in Anaheim for five nights, during this time we hired a car and drove to Universal and back. We then took the train to San diego and stayed three nights visiting SeaWorld. We ended up giving our zoo tickets away as we spent time touring sandiego.

We found early December quiet and the weather was great. Although we returned to our hotel to rug up at night. If I returned to DL I would add a couple more nights to the Disney parks. Christmas theming in the parks is beautiful.
 
I agree with PiO. We travelled with 7, states at hojos ( two rooms). Although if you've got a child that needs to nap a suite would be perfect.

A big saver for us was a grocery delivery from vons. We ordered cereals, yoghurt, fruit, milk, and snacks to take to the parks (raisins and granola bars aka sultanas and muesli bars!). We intended to only buy dinner. However, we did end up buying most lunches too. We did one character breakfast too but we did the latest sitting so we could skip lunch. It was so much fun ever the 12 year old boys had a blast.

We purchased the socal pass, we stayed in Anaheim for five nights, during this time we hired a car and drove to Universal and back. We then took the train to San diego and stayed three nights visiting SeaWorld. We ended up giving our zoo tickets away as we spent time touring sandiego.

We found early December quiet and the weather was great. Although we returned to our hotel to rug up at night. If I returned to DL I would add a couple more nights to the Disney parks. Christmas theming in the parks is beautiful.

I recently read about someone getting a grocery delivery from Vons on the DL thread. Do you put the hotel in as a business address? I do like the thought of this. The post I read had a picture of their little fridge at DL hotel jammed full with fruit, berries, milk and drinks, this would certainly save some $. I'd worry about when it gets delivered to the hotel that they actually put the cold things in a fridge for you, if you are not in your room.
 
I signed up first to get a free delivery offer. Then used the hotel address. We were at the parks when our delivery came. All perishables items were packed in the fridge when we got to our room! I also always pack five plastic (not disposable) bowls, five spoons, a sharp knife, tea and some plastic knives and forks.
 
I also always pack five plastic (not disposable) bowls, five spoons, a sharp knife, tea and some plastic knives and forks.

I forgot to mention this! I bought packets of plastic disposable bowls and spoons before we left and packed it in my suitcase. It was very handy for breakfasts in the room.

Glad to hear about people's experiences with Von's. I'm considering using them for our next trip since we'll have a condo with full kitchen. What sort of time frame do they give you for delivery? Do you just pick morning or afternoon, or can you narrow it down to an hour? We will have to make sure we're 'home' for delivery.
 

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