Disney Guide Part 1: Planning + Budgeting

Despite my best intentions to write this planning post before we left, it just didn’t happen. And now that we’ve gone, we have all the memories fresh in our minds, and I have some photos and fun things to share from our most recent trip, I’m excited to take a deep dive into Disney Planning. In today’s post I’m talking all about trip planning, hotel, budget and a Day at Disney. Next up will be all about what to take and where to find the things. If you caught my Instagram Live with my friend and Disney Travel Agent, Michelle, this is a lot of repeat information from that conversation but I’m sprinkling more from my most recent experience as well.

So you want to go to Disney… and want to know how much it costs.

I have booked Disney park trips a few different ways. I’ve done a la carte where I flew into Orlando, stayed at a hotel, and purchased tickets the day of. I’ve booked a trip for my family through Costco. And I’ve booked a trip with a travel agent. As the primary Magic Maker in my house, these kinds of trips can fall onto me to plan and execute which can make vacations feel kind of burdensome. Worth it? Yes. But also, it’s a lot. For this most recent trip, we worked with my friend Michelle (@pixiemousemichelle) and I cannot tell you how much more magic there is when you’re not the one planning. A travel agent’s services are free to you, and you then have a personal contact should anything go wrong during your trip. You have a person to call if a reservation falls through, if your tickets don’t show up, whatever. It also meant that when we decided we wanted to go on vacation, it wasn’t my job to make it happen. I got to be the wish-maker and got to ask for what we wanted on this trip and didn’t have to handle anything but paying for it and packing. And I didn’t pay a penny extra for that. PLUS I get to support a wonderful person’s small business and that’s a really big deal.

I contacted Michelle back in November and said we wanted to go Disney sometime in the late Winter/Spring. The two details I had to have ready for her were budget and dates. Since we homeschool and are more flexible with our timing, I asked her for a 4-night stay at the best Disneyland resort hotel we could get within our budget sometime in February-March. She came back to me with multiple date and hotel options and we ended up at the Grand Californian for 4 nights, Monday-Friday, and 3-Day Park Hopper Tickets for $4200. There was a deal going on because of the dates we chose and Jack is still under age 3, which makes him free to stay and get into the parks. But that means that for our family of 5 (with one person being under 3), it was about $1,000 a day to stay at The Grand Californian in a Premium View Room. Our room had 2 Queen beds, a twin pull out sofa bed, and a balcony with a view of the pool.

We chose to fly in early Monday afternoon which gave us about half a day to explore Downtown Disney and go to the pool for a while. We spent Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday in the parks, then we had our Character Breakfast at Storyteller’s Cafe Friday on morning at the Grand Californian before our early afternoon flight home.

I’ve now stayed at all three of the Disneyland Resort Hotels and while all three are great, The Disneyland Hotel and the Grand Californian are worth it for their pools and proximity alone. This trip, staying at the Grand Californian could not have made our days easier. There’s an entrance to California Adventure straight from the hotel and it’s the shortest walk through Downtown Disney to get to the gates of Disneyland. It also has 3 pools, a big hot tub, restaurants and cafes, and a ton of room options. It really was worth the money for us to stay there because it just made our stay so much easier and if you’ve ever travelled with 3 kids, you know that anything that makes it easier is worth its weight in gold.

Disneyland Hotel is a hop skip and a jump from the Monorail which is really convenient (if the Monorail is up, it was down during this trip and often goes down when it’s too hot). But it has great pools as well and is right across the street from the entrance to Downtown Disney, maybe 5 minutes longer of a walk than the Grand Californian. Paradise Pier is currently going through some renovations, but being the cheapest of the resort hotel options, it also has the fewest amenities and is the furthest walk from the parks. It is still a great hotel and we loved our stay there, but I felt more like we were on vacation staying at The Disneyland Hotel and The Grand Californian.

Extras and Add-Ons

Of course there is a lot that is not included in that price. Namely: transportation, Genie+, and food.

We do Disney to do Disney. We don’t make it a trip to SoCal, we don’t venture around or go to the beach. We go to submerge ourself in Disney for 3 days and that’s how we like it. All that to say, we don’t rent a car. We took a Karmel shuttle directly from John Wayne Airport to The Grand Californian Hotel and then on Friday we took one back to John Wayne. It cost about $100 each way + gratuity and they were there on time and got us where we needed to go with no hiccups.

I’m not exactly an expert on Genie+, so if you’re looking for a more detailed explanation on what it is and how to use it, definitely head to Michelle’s Instagram. If you’re familiar with the previous FastPass system or MaxPass system, then Genie+ is basically that with the addition of a smart assistant to help you plan your day more efficiently instead of manually searching for rides and times. Genie+ Is $20/day per person. So we paid $80/day since Jack didn’t technically have a ticket. And I know that the price is steep, but here’s how I looked at it.. 1 - when you look at it compared to the overall cost, it’s not all that much. And probably more importantly, if someone had said “for $240 you won’t have to wait longer than 30 minutes for any single ride in the park and you’ll get to do everything you wanted to do during your stay.” Then there would be no question about it. And that’s exactly what buying Genie+ did for us. There are certain rides that are so popular that you have to pay an additional fee for the Lighting Lanes. We paid additional fees to get onto Radiator Springs Racers, Rise of the Resistance, and Web Slingers (twice - big Spidey fans in this house). In total, those probably cost us an additional $150 to get onto which, again, is steep, and I know is not feasible for everyone. But I was willing to pay for the convenience of walking onto rides this trip.

As for food, there are a few different options and we used all of them. But I will say we purchased snacks at Target to bring with us and that served as our main fare between meals. Things like applesauce pouches, yogurt covered raisins, and Mickey goldfish crackers were life savers while waiting in line and while hustling to our next Lightning Lane. If you’re going with small kids, definitely take like twice the number of snacks you usually would to the playground for an entire day and thank me later.

For our meals, we mainly grabbed breakfast and coffee at Starbucks. Both parks have a Starbucks on Main Street and the Starbucks in Downtown Disney closest to Sephora usually has mobile order that I’d do as we were walking out of the hotel room and would pick up on our way in.

For lunch and dinner, we would usually do Quick Service and use Mobile Order which is all available on the Disneyland app. As soon as we got in line for our ride right before lunch, I’d do a mobile order while we were moving through the line and it’d be ready for pickup once we got off the ride. And of course there are pretzel and churro carts every 100 yards or so, so it’s always easy to walk up and grab a snack. Our favorite quick service meal was definitely at Pym’s Kitchen in Avenger’s Campus at California Adventure. The food was tasty and it was just fun with all the crazy portion size differences.

We did 2 sit-down restaurant reservations during our stay. We lunched and Lamplight on Pixar Pier and for all 5 of us to eat, and for Tomas and I to have a cocktail, that meal ended up being about $150. We also had a character breakfast at Storyteller’s Cafe in The Grand Californian the morning of our flight home. This was a prix-fix buffet meal and it was $50/adult and $30/kid over the age of 3, plus gratuity. This meal ended up being about $200 total and we got plenty of pass-bys by Mickey and his pals which Jack LOVED.

A Day in the Life at Disney

Going to Disney with little kids is both extremely fun and very exhausting, for everyone. I know there are lots of different philosophies on how to do a day at Disney but both times we have gone with little kids, we have kept this daily routine and it’s been perfect for maximizing fun and minimizing exhaustion and tantrums. I’m not saying this is the right way, but it has definitely worked out for us.

6AM - Up and at ‘em. Our kids are early risers, so it makes sense for us to get up and get ready to be at the park when it opens. We’d get up, fill water bottles, replenish snacks, get dressed and do our first round of sunscreen then head out. As everyone was putting shoes on, I’d do a mobile Starbucks order for coffees and breakfast sandwiches. We’d eat on our way in and while waiting in the entrance line. We usually ended up inside the park sometime between 7:30 and 7:45.

7:45 - Book your first Lightning Lane (usually within the next hour) and head to a ride with a short wait. A lot of people like to run to the most popular rides first thing . I don’t have that kind of hustle and I’m willing to wait for a Lightning Lane later in the day. So we book our first LL and head to something with a short wait time like Star Tours (one of Tomas’s favs), Astroblasters, or something else we can all go on. We basically go from ride to ride until 11:30 or so switching off between Lightning Lane rides and rides with shorter lines. We kind of make it a rule to never go on something with a standby time of more than 30 minutes. During wait times, that’s when we do snack breaks, water breaks, and sunscreen reapplication which takes up the time quite nicely. If you used a Lightning Lane to get into the ride you’re waiting for, this would be the time to use Genie+ to book your next one.

11:30(ish) - Lunch time. After 4 hours in the park, we’re ready for lunch. I mentioned above but during our 4th or 5th ride, close to 11AM, I’ll look for a Quick Service nearby and order our food. By the time we’re off that ride, we go to pick it up and have some lunch. You cannot Park Hop until 1PM, so we start our afternoon in the opposite park from which we started. During lunch, I try to book a Lightning Lane in the opposite park for about 2:30/3:00 because…

12-2:30PM - And this is probably the most controversial part of our day… we leave the parks. And I get it. You might want to power through the day and squeeze everything you can out of it, but there’s a reason I choose to be there for at least 3 days and it’s so I don’t have to hustle. This early afternoon time is is notoriously the most busy and the hottest part of the day, neither of which are my favorite. So we take this time to head back to the hotel. I mandate a nap/rest time much to the twins’ chagrin (Jack still takes a daily nap and needs it), and once we’re up, we go take a break in the pool while it’s hot and most people are in the parks. After an hour or so in the pool, we head back to the room, freshen up, reapply sunscreen, fill up water bottles, and head to our second park.

2:30- This is kind of a fresh start in the afternoon after some rest and some chilling at the pool, so we approach this part of the day like we do in the morning. We hopefully already have a Lightning Lane booked to head to for this time so we do the Lightning Lane/Short Line trade off until it’s time to find a sweet treat or caffeine break in the afternoon.

5:30 - I usually order dinner from a Quick Service about this time and we all take a break and regroup to plan the evening. Since they’re early risers, our kids are usually early to bed as well. So depending on the day, we may be back in the hotel by 7:30/8 or if we’re feeling like staying, we stay until Fireworks.

8-9PM - Showers for all, tidy up the hotel room, and lights out for the kids. Tomas and I always bring a Sound Machine for the kids and once they’re asleep, we bring an iPad and watch a show while sharing an ear bud for about an hour just for down time before going to sleep ourselves.

And that’s all! Well, that’s all for Part 1. Part 2 will be here ASAP with all of our recommendations for packing, park bags, and small shops to get you ready for your own Magical vacation. If you’re interested in booking, definitely head to Michelle’s website and request a quote! See you real soon!