The Perfect Disneyland Vacation (Anaheim, California)

There is a saying that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. This is especially true when it comes to travel. I have heard some horror stories of trips to Disneyland that were not planned well and went very badly. A trip to Disneyland can be very expensive. It really makes sense to take the time to plan to make the most out of a trip that costs so much. The first thing to think about is the time of year that you plan to go. Consider which times of year the weather is comfortable in Anaheim. The summers are usually hot and humid. Spring and fall offer pretty pleasant weather in that part of California.

Another thing to think about when deciding what time of year to go to Disneyland is the crowd size. Summer and holidays are very crowded. The best time to go to Disneyland is from mid-September through late-November. Early December is also a good time to go. The crowd is also typically smaller from the second week of January through spring break. Another plus to going when the park is not so busy is that the prices for Disneyland tickets, hotels and airline tickets are usually either lower or you can find great specials of which you can take advantage.

Once you decide what time of year you will go, you need to decide where you will buy your tickets. I did some shopping around for my recent trip to Disneyland, and the best value I found for tickets was to purchase the Southern California CityPass. This is a bundle package which includes admission to 5 different attractions from Hollywood to San Diego. It was worth it to us because we planned to go to San Diego anyway. The savings are significant if you plan to go to more than just Disneyland. You have 14 days in which to use the tickets. You get three days of admission to Disneyland Park and Disney's California Adventure Park, a day at Universal Studios Hollywood, a day at SeaWorld Adventure Park in San Diego, and the choice between the San Diego Zoo -- in Balboa Park -- or the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park just north of that city. The best price that I found for these CityPasses was through Costco. You can purchase these from the Costco website. However, there is a big benefit to purchasing your tickets through AAA.

There is a feature that is only available through AAA and Walt Disney Travel Company. It has to do with the Fastpass system. Fastpass allows you to skip past long lines at the rides. If the attraction features Fastpass, you can use your ticket to get a Fastpass ticket from the Fastpass machine for that ride. It will print a return time later that day. If you come back to the attraction at the return time, you get to wait in a shorter line and be on the attraction within ten minutes. This standard Fastpass capability comes with every park hopper ticket. But there is an upgrade to the standard Fastpass that is only available if you book through AAA and stay at one of the 3 resort hotels. We decided to book through AAA just to take advantage of this feature, and we stayed at the least expensive of the three hotels-The Paradise Pier. The upgrade to the standard Fastpass is called multiple Fastpass. This allowed us to get more than one Fastpass at one time. Otherwise, we would have been able to have only one at a time until the time on that one expired. So this upgrade enabled us to gather several fastpasses at once and get on more rides than we could have otherwise.

Staying on site was actually a great idea. It was so convenient to be able to rest during the most crowded and hottest time of the day. We walked to our hotel and played in the pool, then we soaked our sore feet in the Jacuzzi and took a nap in our hotel room. Once we were refreshed and energized, we went back to the park for more fun!

So careful planning can really pay off when going to Disneyland. It is important to go at the right time of year, to buy your tickets from the best source, and to really consider the pros and cons of where you will stay. In my next article, I will share the best tip of all to minimize time spent waiting in lines. Stay tuned!