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.

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.


 

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.