Disneyland Dreaming

 

 Disneyland truly is one of the happiest places on earth for my husband and I. Several times over our relationship, including our honeymoon, we've popped down for a few magical days. It's been about ten years since the last time we did this, and both of us are starting to feel like it is time. Yes, we've been to Disney World since then, but it's really not the same. Because I've been to Disneyland so many times, it's a familiar, comfortable booking process for me, but just in case it's new to you, I thought I'd share my steps.

What Comes First?

 With most trips, you need to decide whether to book the flight or the hotel first. Most of the time this will land on the side of the flight, but because we are blessed with the ability to fly for free with my daughter's airline benefits (she's a flight attendant), the first piece of this puzzle I need to consider is the hotel. Because of the huge variability in hotel and ticket prices with Disneyland, you'll want to probably research both hotel and airfare before booking either. Now, there are three different ways to go with this, and I'll cover them as succinctly as possible.

Using Points

 The first thing I considered was which hotel I could stay at with points. I'm currently saving points for my big 30th Anniversary Australia trip in 2028, so I need to be careful with this. If I were to stay at a Marriott or Hilton property near Disneyland for four nights it would run me between 50,000 and 75,000 points per night, or 200,000-300,000 points for the four-night stay. That's enought for two business class airline tickets to Australia, so I think I'll pass on those. The only decent points redemption option (in my opinion) is the Hyatt House about half a mile from the entrance. That's very walkable (or rollable in my case) and at only 12,000 points per night or 48,000 for the whole stay - including a nice breakfast every day - that's much more reasonable. But points aren't the only option.

Pay with Cash - or Pay Yourself Back!

 Many of the dates I'm considering have very reasonable (for Disney) cash prices as well. One nice, quick way to check these is on Google Hotels. Much like Google Flights, you can choose a hotel and then open the dates box and see the base pricing for a standard room on every night of the month. You can also scroll out to future months to see when the best time to go is. That's so much more practical than going onto the hotel's website and randomly guessing which dates to check. IMHO, the best options here are the Best Western Park Place Inn and the Camelot Inn & Suites. They have the best ratings of all the hotels that are directly across the street from the entrance, ideal if you want to pop back to the hotel for a nap or a pool break mid-day. The Best Western looks like about $1,400 for four nights on my dates and Camelot is running about $300 less. Google Hotels will show you several different booking options including booking directly with the hotel or with an Online Travel Agent (OTA) like Expedia or Booking.com. Often, if you book directly with the hotel, you won't have to pay until you arrive. That might work great for you, but I, of course, have a couple of special deals I'm chasing. The first would be a shopping portal bonus, like one through Rakuten **or Swagbucks. Today, they are both offering 10% cash back on some OTAs which adds up when you're talking about a $1,000-$1,500 purchase. This would require you to actually pay the balance due today in order to qualify for the cash back, but I'm not sad about this because I also want to pay in advance in order to Pay Yourself Back for any travel expense with the Aeroplan® Card. This program allows me to "erase" up to $2,500 in travel purchases per year using 200,000 points. I know, I know, I said I didn't want to spend 200,000 points, but I'm not really. For one thing, these points would cover both the hotel and tickets, and I might have a little left over. The other consideration is that I was able to transfer my Chase points over to Aeroplan with a 30% bonus at the beginning of this year meaning I only needed 153,000 points so I'd be getting a very good value for my points. If your eyes just glazed over reading that, suffice it to say that in this case I'm ok with spending the points, especially if it makes my Disneyland vacation close to $0 out of pocket!

Staying on Property

 Now that's the dream! Staying in a Disney hotel affords so many amenities to your vacation. You get early entry to the parks, the Disney theme is carried over into your lodgings, and you are close to all the action, really close depending on which hotel you choose. The Grand Californian's Downtown Disney entrance is only a 4-minute walk to the turnstiles of Disneyland and it has it's own private entrance directly into California Adventure. It's pretty, it's fun, but it ain't cheap! Staying at a Disney hotel can be as much as 4x more than it's Good Neighbors. Then again, sometimes the experience is worth the price. At this stage, my husband and I often look at trips as the potential last time we will get to do them. If this was my last trip to Disneyland, I'd be awfully sad if I chose to stay at a Good Neighbor Hotel with the intention of staying at a Disney one next time, just to find out there wouldn't be a next time. While it's not cheap, I think Disney will be our preference for this trip because of this consideration. So, how do I make Disney affordable? First, you have to check their offers and discounts page. They typically offer a 25% discount for booking within the next six months, lowering the cost significantly. I was able to find rates closer to $600 per night at the Grand Californian instead of $850 this way. The Villas at Disneyland are an excellent option as well, giving you a suite-style room for as low as $500 per night on sale. And, of course, I can still pay for this with my Aeroplan card and erase $2,500 of the purchase cost.

Tickets

 Now that you've got a place to stay, the real reason you're here is to go to Disneyland, so you'll need some park tickets! If you buy them through Disney, you'll be looking at a base price of $224-$104 per day, depending on the length of your stay. That will get you into one park per day, which is probably fine, especially if you are only there for two days. If you're staying longer, or just for one day, though, you might want to consider the park hopper option that will let you go back and forth between the parks every day. That add-on will cost between $90-135 per ticket depending on how long you're there. Then you need to think about Lightning Lanes MultiPass. This is Disney's "skip the line" premium option that lets you use the app to book your time slot to ride instead of standing in line for hours. So, what is your vacation time worth? Well, Disney guesses you'll say $34 per person per day, because that's what they charge to start, it goes up from there on more popular days. Then we need to talk about PhotoPass, my favorite Disney vacation add-on. Sadly, it's not quite as straight-forward as it is as Disney World. The simplest options is if you decided you wanted to add MultiPass to your tickets. If so, PhotoPass is included as well! If you're not into MultiPass, you can buy each photo for $15 (yikes!), a one-day PhotoPass for $29 or a one week PhotoPass for $78. Only one person in your party needs to have a PhotoPass, just make sure they scan their wristband each time you get a picture. So, your per day, per person ticket price will range from $104-348 - quite a spread! You can buy your tickets elsewhere for a discount, but be careful! Lots of places that offer them are not legit and then you'll be out of luck. One sure-fire place to grab them is from Undercover Tourist, and bonus, they will code as Travel on your credit card so you can Pay Yourself Back!

Can I book a Disney Hotel Cheaper?

 Yes, you can book a package through Costco and save a fair chunk of money. When I priced out the same package at the Grand Californian for the same dates between Disney's site and Costco's the price difference was over $400. There are some downsides to this though. If you book through Disney, your entire package, including tickets, are fully refundable until one month before your trip. That's not the case with Costco, once you purchase those tickets you're not getting a penny back, even if you buy the insurance. Disney will cover that last month for you with insurance if you'd like, and that's what we'll discuss next.

Insurance

 Trip insurance is another important consideration. You've got a few options here: a travel insurance company like Allianz, Credit Card insurance, or Disney's insurance. For my husband and I, a mid-priced plan through Allianz, our historical carrier of choice, would be about $224. Another option is to pay for the entirety of your trip on a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve credit card*. Chase recently changed their coverage to say that only the portion of the trip paid for with the card is covered, so the old, "Put $5 on the Sapphire Preferred and it'll cover the whole thing" trick is dead. This means you couldn't take advantage of the Aeroplan pay yourself back program though, and that could cost you much more than the insurance. Lastly, if you book through Disney, you can add on insurance for only $99 per person. The Disney insurance will cover your hotel and your tickets (if booked as a package). Both the Chase Sapphire insurance and Allianz will cover airfare as well, saving you the additional cost of insuring that separately. Keep in mind that most of these hotels will let you cancel up to 4-5 days out for free (check the fine print on your reservation when you make it to be sure) and people typically know by then if they will be unable to travel. A Disney vacation package is only 100% refundable up to one month out, but that would be a refund of both the hotel and the tickets. Under most circumstances, tickets to anything are not covered by insurance, but when booking a vacation package (hotel + tickets) through Disney it becomes part of the pre-paid non refundable cost of the trip that gets covered, and at over $1,200 for two people's four-day park hopper tickets, that's not insignificant. Which will I choose: the Allianz, paying 100% with a Chase Sapphire, or buying Disney insurance? Well, since we're not needing to insure our airfare, our most practical option is to buy the Disney insurance I think. This allows me to use my Aeroplan card to cover $2,500 worth of the trip but still covers the unforeseen, especially important since our trip is so far in the future.

Here's the Thing: There are a lot of things to consider and a lot of moving parts to arrange when it comes to a trip to Disneyland, but that's half the fun for me! As you can see, I revel in hunting down all the options and cost-comparing them, then seeking out little side deals that can bring my cost down further. It's not all about price though, a trip like this is more about the experience. If you can swing it, do Disneyland in style!

* Earn 125,000 bonus points with Sapphire Reserve® or 75,000 bonus points with Sapphire Preferred®. I can be rewarded if you apply here and are approved for either card.  

** This is my referral link and if you sign up using it we will each receive $50 once you've made $50 in purchases through the portal.