Figure out which ticket is best for you
We highly recommend the two day one park per day ticket. Seeing both parks in one day is hard to do (but can be done!) and is A LOT of walking! A park hopper is also an additional $60. A 2 day 1 park per day is $255 regardless of the day or time of year you go (same price for weekdays, weekends or holidays). BUT we love buying tickets with our friends Undercover Tourist (click here). As of today, 5/19/22 a 2 day 1 park per day ticket with Undercover Tourist is $248 and that saves you $7, that’s a snack in the park! But if you get a 3 day 1 park per day ticket with Undercover Tourist you can save $18 per ticket! So make sure to check them out!
With that being said, we usually recommend the 2 day 1 park per day ticket BUT sometimes, buying TWO 1 park per day tickets can be cheaper. Let me explain.
If you look at the month above, September 2022, you can see that some days are $104, $119, $149, etc. The individual day tickets vary in price depending on the day (weekday vs weekend) or time of year (holidays). If your dates are flexible, it would be cheaper to buy two 1 day tickets! Like you could go September 6 and 7, pay $104 for each day, totally in $208. Compare that to the 2 day 1 park per day ticket for $255!
Booking a hotel
At Disneyland you have 3 on property hotels to choose from, the Disneyland hotel, the Grand Californian and the Paradise Pier Hotel. We usually do not stay on property because these hotels tend to be expensive. When booking a hotel off property we aim for 3 things:
Price: we are all about doing our trips on the Dime! So we like to find a hotel that is nice but not too pricy. We like to find a hotel between $90-$150 (depending on the time of year).
Proximity: we like to book a hotel within walking distance so we do not have to pay to park at Disney. To park at Disney it is $30 a day.
Breakfast: we like to book a hotel with breakfast so we don’t have to buy food in the parks! It’s also nice to start a long park day with a good meal in your belly.
We love using different hotel search engines like Priceline and Kayak to find the best deal (use the map feature!)
Booking flights
I like to call myself a seasoned traveler 😉 I’ve spent my fair share of time researching and trying to find the best flights. What I have found is that using a search engine like Google Flights or Kayak to be very helpful. When booking a flight we recommend flying into John Wayne airport. If you fly into this airport (and have a hotel in walking distance of the parks) there is no need to rent a car. This airport is just a short 20 minute Uber or Lyft ride away. We suggest downloading BOTH the Lyft and Uber app because there prices can be drastically different from each other depending on the time of day, amount of drivers available, etc.
Grocery shop and bring lunch to the parks
Grocery shopping and bringing your own lunch into the parks can be a big money saver! If you do not have a car you can order groceries online (Walmart is $8-$10) and have them delivered to you hotel! They will (usually) deliver them to the front desk and if you’re not there stash them til you can come pick them up. Some of our favorite packed lunches are
-lunchables
-salads
-tuna and crackers
-uncrustables
-buy a whole loaf of bread and nutella and bring both to the park for lots of sandwiches!
More quick tips to save
- Bring a refillable water bottle ($5 a water bottle at the parks!)
- Bring your own stroller ($18 a day to rent)
- Buy pins in advance if you want to trade
- Buy dollar store poncho
- Buy dollar store glowsticks