Discover the Magic: Traveling to Disneyland on a Budget with a Large Group! 🎢✨
"Family fun is as necessary to modern living as a kitchen refrigerator." - Walt Disney
Traveling to Disney with a large group and on a budget! 👨👩👧👧💲
Recently Disneyland Dreaming’s Nana and Papa traveled to Disneyland with my brother, sister-in-law, and their five children.
Yep, you heard that right five kids!
As you can imagine going to Disneyland can be expensive enough for the average family add a few more mouths to feed to the mix and ouch! You could be giving away your life savings if you’re not careful.
So how did a party of 9 people do it and do it on a budget?
Let’s dig into some of our top tricks and tips for visiting Disney on a budget and with a large group.👇🏻
Getting There! 🛫
If you’re not careful airline tickets alone can break the bank. Thankfully through continuous searching and knowing where to find the best deals there is a way to fly to Disney on a budget. In fact, believe it or not, they were able to fly all 9 of them down to California for only $1,500! And that was for round-trip tickets! Break that down and they spent only around $166 per ticket.
We’ve shared our favorite airline to fly before and still believe it’s one of the best options when you’re looking for the best deals. Southwest Airlines' low fare calendar can get you tickets for sometimes as low as $120 round trip per person depending on the time of year and the airport you choose to fly into. It’s a steal! And with Southwest you get two free checked bags for each ticketed traveler, saving you even more money! Plus, that means you can pack as little or as much as you want! 🧳
Unfortunately, there were not any good deals through Southwest for the travel dates our family was visiting. But Nana and Papa found another great deal through Avelo Airlines, a newer airline to the skies. However, like other cheaper airlines, Avelo doesn’t allow you to bring on carry-on baggage without paying extra, so keep details like this in mind when considering the total price. They got creative though because they were allowed backpacks as personal items, they were able to pack a decent amount of necessities into those bags and then opted to check three bags total only costing them an extra $45 per bag per trip.
Don’t settle for expensive flights and waste tons of money just getting there. Trust us when we say great deals on flights are out there if you have the tenacity and drive to find them!
Park Tickets! 🎡
This little trick we haven’t yet shared on the blog. Our favorite way to save on park tickets is through Undercover Tourist. They always have a discount on park tickets and sometimes they even run fantastic deals where you’ll get an extra day free. There is no advantage for you to go straight to Disney for your park tickets so save yourself some money and use Undercover Tourist.
Because of the discounts Undercover Tourist was offering at the time, they saved the amount of extra money they would have spent on Genie+ if they booked directly through Disney’s website. Meaning they got 3-day One Park Per Day tickets WITH Genie+ for all 9 of them for the price on Disney’s website for One Park Per Day ticket WITHOUT Genie+.
*If you don’t know what Genie+ is, it’s Disney’s new Fast Pass system that allows you to skip the standard line queue by going through the Lightening Lane. Check out more details on Genie+ directly from Disney here.
Where to Stay! 🏨
Bunking up with five kids can prove to be challenging when it comes to most hotels. Thankfully a lot of the Good Neighbor hotels around Disneyland Park now have rooms that have fantastic set-ups for families. The exact one our family stayed in was a 10-minute walk to the park gates and had a family suite set up with double over double bunk beds for the kids and a king bed for the adults. The rooms were even set up so that the kid's bunks had their own little room making the room feel more like a two-bedroom suite.
They stayed at the Desert Palms Hotel, a boutique hotel, that offered great pricing on their rooms. The entire party of 9 only spent a total of $2,852 for 6 nights and two rooms. That’s only $237 a night plus tax for a hotel super close to Disney during peak travel season. Plus, they offered a continental breakfast that offered even more savings, and when you are feeding a group of that size that can make a huge difference!
Here is a list of other hotels in the area that offer the same type of setup for families and that are within walking distance of the parks:
There are many more hotels we'd recommend end too if you don't need a suite setup such as:
Other ways to save some 💰!
Traveling to Disney doesn’t have to be expensive. There are so many ways you can save money and still have a magical time. ✨
Some of our other favorite ways to save money while visiting Disneyland are:
Eat dinner at IHop - There are a couple of IHops near and around Disneyland Park. Want to know a secret? Kids eat for FREE after 4 pm. So, if you’re looking for a sit-down dinner meal this is a great way to save a little money.
Order Instacart groceries - You’d be amazed at what you can cook up with just a microwave and a mini-fridge. Save money on meals by ordering groceries instead of eating out for every meal.
Pack a lunch – Yes, you can pack food into the parks. Save money on snacks and meals by packing food into the parks with you in a backpack.
Buy souvenirs ahead of time – You are going to want the Mickey Ears, let’s just face it. Save yourself the $35 and buy these things before your trip on Amazon and Etsy. That way you’ll be less tempted to splurge on these things while you’re in the parks.
Bring your own water into the park – Just as you can pack food into the parks, you can also pack in water bottles. We always carry backpacks and pack Thermoflask water bottles with us. Plus, there are plenty of bottle refill stations in the parks for refills. Another tip, if you go to any of the quick service restaurants in the parks, they will give you a cup of iced water for free. Don’t pay for the expensive bottled water, it’s not worth it!
Bring your own stroller – Yes, you can bring your own stroller into the parks. Yes, you can also rent them but for one you are not going to want to stand in another line to rent a stroller and for two it’s going to cost you extra money for a not-so-great stroller that you will have to return before you make the trek back to your hotel anyways. Save your back and your money by just bringing your own.
There you have it! Disneyland doesn't have to be an expensive vacation.
Want even more suggestions on how to save money on your Disney vacation? Respond to this email with your questions and we’ll help ya out! 📩
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