Although, I'm not sure how it all works but my neighbors went to Disneyland earlier this year for $50 each/day. They bought their passes from Ebay. It sounded like someone bought these passes and they rent them out for a day. It was a super good deal!! So you may want to check that out. I can ask my neighbors for more detail if you're interested in that route.

HAVE FUN!!

You can't get "discount" or "sale" tickets for Disneyland. We bought the 5 day pass (knowing we were going to be using 2 days of it), then sold the other 3 days on Ebay. Tickets expire 13 days after the first use. Our tickets ended up costing us about $25/each (after we sold the other 3 days). We dropped them off at a hotel near Disneyland where the people who bought them were staying.

If you don't want to go to that trouble, Costco sells passes that are a little bit discounted. But they are usually SoCal passes (include Sea World, etc). There are also "Go" cards which offer discounts in SoCal.

If you do a search for Disneyland blogs, there are quite a few blogs out there that give tips on how to save at Disneyland. A lot of saving at Disneyland is common sense - don't buy souvenirs at the park (we went to Walmart near the park), take your own food (you can bring in coolers and whatever else), etc.

One of the best and least expensive hotels is the Candy Cane Inn - from my research! http://www.candycaneinn.net/ 



Tripadviser pics & comments Link


Rated #1 by tripadviser.com 2008, #3 2009
$95 per night + tax (Less than most hotels)
FREE Deluxe Continental Breakfast (Tons of stuff offered)  This saves $$ for breakfast every morning!
FREE Round trip Shuttle (Most hotels charge round trip minimums of $3 per adult, $1 per child) It costs $14 per day to park at disneyland!
In-room compact refrigerator - make your own lunch, dinner etc... 
250 yards from the Disneyland Main Gate entrance
A non-smoking hotel
Free Pack N Play

Plus a while ago  a 3 day park hopper pass has been $99 at Vons grocery stores in California.

I priced it out at Getawaytoday.com because I thought that would be great too - but getting my own hotel & tickets will save almost $250 versus getaway!

I too buy souvenirs elsewhere - like the Dollar Store  or Wallyworld! Take your own glowsticks and the kids will love you forever! I bought some 50 cts for $3.00 at Maceys this past July    But they have them at the dollar store as well.

I'm going the week of Dec. 1st.  Will I see you there? (I included a download pdf of their brochure below)

Thanks this is all great advice!  I'm getting so excited!  And I knew you'd all have great advice on how to go there for less, which we always love right?  Thanks a lot!!

Even cheaper:  (Not as nice as the Candy Cane Inn, but my CA friends say it's clean/comfortable)

Super 8 Anaheim Near Disneyland
415 W Katella Avenue
Harbor Blvd and Katella Ave
Anaheim, CA 92802-3607 US

About $45 per night 

.06 miles to Disneyland - an easy walk
continental breakfast
refrigerator

Super 8 Disneyland

I am so picky about where I will stay.  I tend to splurge a bit on my housing.  We love the Disneyland hotels because they are so magical.  So if price doesn't really matter, that would be my first choice.  We now stay at any of the Marriott's close by.  There is one across the street (Fairfield Inn).  Last month we stayed at the Courtyard, we have stayed at the Residence Inn - all  Marriott.  I did the Marriott rewards program so I earned free nights every year.
 I have five kids so seven people do not legally fit into a single hotel room anymore.  We now have to get a suite.  We paid for the "shuttle service" but found we could walk the distance in about the same time as waiting for the next bus to come around to pick us all up. 
We actually just bought into a Disney Vacation Club at the Grand Californian.  We are so excited because we will have a two bedroom condo like hotel room, complete with a full kitchen, washer/dryer, all on Disneyland property.  This will cost us less than we spend for our large family each time we visit.  (We go every year). 
  Just have a fun and magical time there and soak it all in.  It's the only place where you can feel like you are a kid again - no worries.

We went to Disneyland last October and had a great time! It was a first for our kids (12,8 & 3). We found several message boards dedicated just to Disney(Disney4less, Disboards***, Allears.net) Disboards gave us the best tips and info on nearby food and where to stay. We splurged last year and stayed at the Disneyland Hotel. It is a little more pricey but they are having deals out there for the resort hotels right now. It was very convenient, you could take the monorail directly into Disneyland without having to go to the main gate. Downtown Disney is right next door to the hotel and we were given coupons to eat at some of the places.

It was recommended to me to stay at the Howard Johnsons hotel next time. If you have the Entertainment card, you can get a room for anywhere between 50-75 a night. They just redid their pool area into a Pirate theme so the kids would have fun swimming.

I also did the Photo pass. I went onto the disboards.com message board and shared the price of a photo pass. They give you passes and you walk up to one of the Disney photographers and they scan your pass and take your picture. When you go home you view your pictures online and order your CD. When I did the photo pass share, I was able to share the cost with other people going approx the same time just different dates and one person was in charge of ordering the CD for everyone and when she got the CD, she made copies and mailed them off to each of us. I think I ended up only paying $12 total compared to the $79-$99 for the same deal.

We brought our own empty water bottles and brought our own bottled water into the park. We also bought those one serving powder packets of like Gatorade, lemonade etc... and put those into the water to drink. We bought one of those sourvenir drink cups for $8, and then refilled them for free through out the day. We did bring a few snacks but they do try to check your bag.

We checked out the food ahead of time on the disboards to plan out the best and economical places to eat.

We took full advantage of the Fast Pass, you go to a Kiosk and scan your ticket stub/card and get a ticket for a particular ride at a later time. This way you don't have to wait in line as long. We even scanned our 3 year old's ticket to get a pass even though she won't be going on the ride. This way, our boys can go a second time soon after.

Another great deal we did is subscribed to ridemax.com. It costs $15.00 but you are able to plan out what rides you want to go on each day and ridemax will give you an itinerary of when to go to each ride so you don't have to wait in line too long. They also tell you when to get a Fast Pass. It helped us save a lot of time in lines and we were able to go on more rides during our trip. For example, we started in Disneyland on a Sunday, Ridemax told us to go directly to Splash Mountain, the farthest away from the entrance and get in line. My boys and husband were able on the  ride twice in a row because no one had gone over to that part of the park yet. My 3 year old and I got to go on the Whinnie the Pooh ride like 5 times in a row while waiting for my husband and boys. There was no wait at all. Ride max also tells you where to sit during the parades and fireworks. It was very helpful. I found some printouts of Disney stuff and put them in a folder for the kids to draw, and do crosswords on the plane ride.

We mailed ourselves snacks, water, and powdered drink packets in flat rate boxes 3 days before we flew out so we had some snacks there when we got there.

Lastly, I went to www.farecast.com to check on flights. You can enter in all your information and the airlines that you want to check on and they will scan all the deals. When the flights were over $400 per person, I used farecast and one day the price went down to $209. Our travel agent didn't even know about this deal.

I hope you have a great time in Disneyland. We really want to go again. Now we just have to buckle down and start saving.

Betty