My kids have been telling me for the past few months that they have discussed it between them and decided that they don't want toys for Christmas! So I asked them if they are not going to ask for toys then what are they asking Santa for.... To my suprise they answered that they want to ask Santa for tickets to Disneyland! Tricky little kids! So since they are still to young to be told Santa can't get everything and they are old enough to understand time my husband and I decided to do it! So now I am planning 2 big vacations!!! Our cruise is in February and we decided Disneyland in April over my sons birthday!
The PLAN:
The kids are going to get everything they will need for Disneyland (character shirts, hats, luggage, hip packs ect.) for Christmas along with Disney calendars (marked with the tripdates and stickers for counting down)and "Tickets" (basically fancy "were going to Disneyland" pictures I will make on my computer). Then after our cruise is taken care of we can focus our extra money on Disneyland! Not to mention a portion of our tax return!
So now I will blog about planning 2 trips! Sometimes I think I'm a little crazy!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Vacation!!! The Countdown Begins.....
Today I booked my 3rd cruise with the Disney Cruiseline. I am sailing on the Disney Dream in February of 2012. That puts me one step closer to my life goal of sailing on every Disney ship and going to every Disney theme park in the world. I am so excited. As I go through the process of planning my trip I will be blogging about the process.
Booking my cruise was a breeze. I did it online at http://www.disneycruiseline.com/ After going to the website and finding a cruise that fit my criteria I simply hit the Book Now button. I had to provide information on everyone who would be sailing in my party. You are required to provide passport information but you can add that after booking. I had 3 options on how to pay my deposit. I could pay by a certain date (in this case it was June 8), I could pay the deposit amount now or I could pay the entire balance. And that was it! My spot is reserved and I'm on my way to paradise! Well I will be in February......
Booking my cruise was a breeze. I did it online at http://www.disneycruiseline.com/ After going to the website and finding a cruise that fit my criteria I simply hit the Book Now button. I had to provide information on everyone who would be sailing in my party. You are required to provide passport information but you can add that after booking. I had 3 options on how to pay my deposit. I could pay by a certain date (in this case it was June 8), I could pay the deposit amount now or I could pay the entire balance. And that was it! My spot is reserved and I'm on my way to paradise! Well I will be in February......
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Eating in the Happiest Place on Earth....
When you plan your Disney vacation food is a very big, expensive part of your trip planning. I NEVER go to the park without planning exactly where we will be eating. I spend alot of time reading food reviews, looking at menus and studying my park maps. I try to find places that are reasonably priced (around $10 per adult and $6 per child, including drinks). I know that alot of people believe that you save alot of money by leaving the park and eating at one of the many surrounding food establishments, I don't think you do. I have a few reasons I feel that way. One, you have to take the time to exit the park and walk to a restaurant, sit down, eat, and then walk back to the park. That's alot of time wasted to only be saving a couple of dollars. The second reason I feel this way is that there really isn't alot of "fast food" around the park. There is a McDonald's across the street but think of it as a airport McDonald's. In other words no value menu.
If you do your homework you will find that eating in the park is both affordable and really fun. I have 3 resources that I have used again and again and am always happy with the information I find. The first is a travel guide book called: The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland. It has a red and white cover and is updated every year. They are honest and the book has information about EVERYTHING to do with Disneyland and the surrounding area. The next resource I use is disneyfoodblog.com this blog is really great to read reviews on resteraunts and other food offerings in Disneyland and Disney World. My last and possibly best resource is allears.org this website has the menus for EVERY resteraunt, walk up counter and kiosk in Disneyland and Disney World. They update there menus about every 6 months with new food offerings and prices.
I hope with these resources you will find that Disney really does keep there prices reasonable and the food is delicious and unique.
If you do your homework you will find that eating in the park is both affordable and really fun. I have 3 resources that I have used again and again and am always happy with the information I find. The first is a travel guide book called: The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland. It has a red and white cover and is updated every year. They are honest and the book has information about EVERYTHING to do with Disneyland and the surrounding area. The next resource I use is disneyfoodblog.com this blog is really great to read reviews on resteraunts and other food offerings in Disneyland and Disney World. My last and possibly best resource is allears.org this website has the menus for EVERY resteraunt, walk up counter and kiosk in Disneyland and Disney World. They update there menus about every 6 months with new food offerings and prices.
I hope with these resources you will find that Disney really does keep there prices reasonable and the food is delicious and unique.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Ready, Set, Go......
Planning a Disney Vacation can be a daunting task. Even with the hundreds of resources out there. Different travel agents, books and websites all have different ideas about vacation planning. So who do you listen to? Who do you trust? Where do you start? In every trip that I have ever taken or planned for families I always start at the same place. A BUDGET!
The first step in setting a budget is to decide how much you can afford to spend on a vacation. Be realistic when setting a budget. Understand that your budget should include EVERYTHING. Heres an example of what I budget:
Tickets: $700 (2 adult 2 children for 3 days)
Gas: $200
Hotel: $350 (5 nights @ $60 a night plus fees)
Food: $700
Spending: $90 ($30 per adult $15 per child)
Emergency: $100
Total: $2,140
Now understand that this budget takes into account that NOTHING is free. I always over budget. For example even if my hotel offers breakfast I budget money to eat breakfast. Why? Because if I don't someone will be starving and I will have to spend I didn't plan on feeding that person and then I feel guilty about over spending. Another way to cut cost is travel when most people don't. Meaning stay home on holiday and summer breaks. Ticket prices go down from September to April, that is also when Disney does all there specials. In the past the Disney company has had some great deals during the "off season" i.e. everyone gets in at kids price, buy 3 days get 2 free etc. Hotel prices also go up and down with the seasons. So if you want to save some cash travel from September- April. Another HUGE saver is to budget your spending money. There is so much stuff at Disneyland its very easy to let your spending get out of control. I gave each of my kids (ages 2 & 4) $15 and told them that's it. They spent the first 2 days we were there looking for the perfect souvenir. It was fun for them to search out what they wanted for the amount they had.
I hope that this will help you get a budget started. In my next post I'm going to go over planning your meals and how to budget and save in that category.
The first step in setting a budget is to decide how much you can afford to spend on a vacation. Be realistic when setting a budget. Understand that your budget should include EVERYTHING. Heres an example of what I budget:
Tickets: $700 (2 adult 2 children for 3 days)
Gas: $200
Hotel: $350 (5 nights @ $60 a night plus fees)
Food: $700
Spending: $90 ($30 per adult $15 per child)
Emergency: $100
Total: $2,140
Now understand that this budget takes into account that NOTHING is free. I always over budget. For example even if my hotel offers breakfast I budget money to eat breakfast. Why? Because if I don't someone will be starving and I will have to spend I didn't plan on feeding that person and then I feel guilty about over spending. Another way to cut cost is travel when most people don't. Meaning stay home on holiday and summer breaks. Ticket prices go down from September to April, that is also when Disney does all there specials. In the past the Disney company has had some great deals during the "off season" i.e. everyone gets in at kids price, buy 3 days get 2 free etc. Hotel prices also go up and down with the seasons. So if you want to save some cash travel from September- April. Another HUGE saver is to budget your spending money. There is so much stuff at Disneyland its very easy to let your spending get out of control. I gave each of my kids (ages 2 & 4) $15 and told them that's it. They spent the first 2 days we were there looking for the perfect souvenir. It was fun for them to search out what they wanted for the amount they had.
I hope that this will help you get a budget started. In my next post I'm going to go over planning your meals and how to budget and save in that category.
I'm finally doing it!!!
For years I've had people tell me that I need to create a blog and share all my knowledge of Disneyland. So I finally decided to do it. There isn't anything I like to talk about more then Disneyland. It's my passion and some might even say obsession. I have spent may vacations at The Happiest Place on Earth and many hours researching little known facts. To save my wonderful husbands sanity I'm going to use this as my Disney outlet. I'll focus mostly on Disneyland but I'll also share what I learn about DisneyWorld and The Disney Cruise Line. I'm super excited about this and hope you are too.
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