As you might know, we took our kids to Disneyland for the first time in February, thanks to my generous parents providing everyone's park passes as a family reunion/Christmas present. I hadn't been to Disneyland since I was a kid, and hardly remembered it.

I was SO excited, but SO intimidated for so many reasons! What to pack? How much will it cost? Where to stay? Is it possible with a newborn? Can we afford it?

Figuring many of you have many of the same questions I did, I have created this brace-yourself-thorough “Disneyland On The Cheap” series for you so I can share my new wealth of knowledge to…well…anyone who's willing to listen, really. (Not picky here, folks.)

We will start with PART 1: What it Costs, and how to afford it.

First, a slight disclaimer: I am a Disney newbie and don't claim to be an expert by any means. However, many many hours of research, info from Disney experts, and personal experience concluded in lots of fabulous tips. We went to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA so that's what I'll be covering. We have 4 children, ages 5 to newborn. So while my personal experience was for adults & young children, many tips are general enough that you can make them adapt to YOUR family situation! Oh and no, this post isn't sponsored by Disney – Disney doesn't even know I exist, actually. Yeah, I'm kinda sad about it. WARNING: These posts are LONG and WORDY! But I hope the endless hours I put into it answers every question you could ever have. Let's hope!

That being said, let's get on with it, shall we?

PART 2 covers packing, travel, and all things prep. Part 3 covers everything you need to know about life inside the parks. See them all in one place on my Disneyland page!

Check out this FREE vacation planning DVD for additional details HERE!

Here's what this post will cover in full detail:

• The truth about doing Disney “on the cheap”
• How much does Disneyland cost?
• Magic Morning
• Park Hopper, or no Park Hopper?
• Discounted Disney Park tickets
• How many days should we do Disneyland?
• Where should we stay?
• Why we chose a condo
• Cost breakdown for our Disney trip
• Detailed info on the costs
• How to budget/save up for Disneyland
• Spreadsheet printable to help track savings
• How to use the spreadsheet
• Getting your family involved in saving
• Our itinerary for the week
• Why we scheduled our week the way we did
• What time(s) of year are best to go
• The best way to learn everything about Disneyland

Ready to jump in?? Let's get started!

The truth about doing Disneyland “on the cheap”:

When I started announcing our plans to go to Disney, everyone kept using the phrase “Disneyland on the cheap!” when they expressed excitement for what I was going to share in this series. We all know I'm a family finance/frugal living guru. We all know my expertise and personal mission my entire adult life has been stretching a dollar and showing YOU how simultaneously. So…

Fair warning that you might not like what I'm about to say…

There is no “on the cheap” when it comes to Disneyland.

Sure, there are DEFINITELY ways to stretch your dollar, corners to cut, tricks to try, knowing when to splurge and save. Don't worry, I'll share all those tips with you. But…as with most vacations, it's an investment. And a serious one. It's expensive. Plain and simple. So my personal philosophy is:

If you're going to do Disney, do it right, do it well, and plan properly for it.

If you want a “cheap” vacation, camp in your back yard. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, that sounds like some pretty amazing memory-making to me. But if you want to do Disney (I mean, who doesn't?) just be sure you have a realistic expectation of what a trip to Disneyland – no matter how simple or extravagant – will do to your bottom line.

It kills me when I hear people decide to do a “quick, spur the moment trip” to Disneyland. I'm sure they calculate in their heads (as I would) “a couple hundred for park passes, we'll find a cheap hotel, we'll drive to save on airfare, we'll pack snacks in the park, it'll be no biggie!” $2,500+ later that amount of money could be the difference between a family being able to buy a house or not. Remember, every dime counts – especially in the long run. And every dollar has to come from somewhere;

…for every dollar spent, something has got to give somewhere else.

The good news? Disney isn't going anywhere. In fact, it gets better every year! And (spoiler alert), I think it's even more fun for older kids than it is for super young ones like mine.

However, Disney is MAGICAL and really is the happiest place on earth! So now that you have committed to doing Disney, we are going to work for the rest of this post series on switching our mindset from “doing Disney on the cheap” to

“Doing Disney right, and getting the very most out of every dollar”.

Capish? Sweet. Now let's get to the nitty gritty!

How much does Disneyland cost?

Let's start with the basics – park passes. (Again, talking about Disneyland and California Adventure in Anaheim, CA in these posts. Just check online for other Disney park costs.) As mentioned, my parents bought the park passes for our entire family so we could all gather for a family reunion of sorts. (Generous, right??) We did 3 day passes with no park hopper (full details below). For the sake of this post I will break down cost as if we had purchased them for our family.

In 2016 Disneyland introduced new demand-based ticket options to choose from. This means ticket prices vary depending on the dates you visit, but the more days you visit, the cheaper each day becomes. Here's the list from their website:

Note: Their prices do change about once a year, so visit their website for the most update pricing.

Kids 2 and under are free which helped eliminate 2 tickets for my family.

• Another thing to consider when planning the budget for your Disneyland trip is a layaway vacation package. Get Away Today is the top of the line when it comes to Disney packages, and their layaway options make it possible to pay on your vacation month-by-month. Check out their site to get the details on how it would work for you, and your vaca!

Magic Morning

With Magic Morning you get to arrive at Disneyland park 1 hour before it opens to the general public and you can use one Magic Morning per ticket. It only works on select rides, attractions, restaurants inside Disneyland park. It only works on select days. For us, we used ours on Tuesday. Magic Morning is great! While it is often a perk included with staying at a Disneyland Resort hotel, you can also get Magic Morning with 3, 4, and 5 day passes – so don't let that be the tipping point between staying somewhere expensive or not.

Park Hopper, or no Park Hopper?

Park Hopper passes are about an extra $40 per ticket. With a Park Hopper you can bounce back and forth between Disneyland and California Adventure within the same day.

The two parks are right next to each other; their front gates face each other. We decided to NOT do these Park Hopper passes, and in the end, we are all glad we didn't do them!

Why?

Cost was part of it. For the 9 of us (7 adults + 2 kids) it would have cost an extra $360! Ultimately, we just felt like it wasn't needed. We did 1 park per day and barely got to do all we wanted to do. Plus, the parks are HUGE! By bouncing back and forth I feel like we would have wasted lots of time walking. I'm not sure if I feel the need to ever buy a park hopper. Maybe if we bought 5 day passes, or maybe if we had teenagers that were old enough to go off on their own, since California Adventure has more thrilling rides for older kids/adults. But in my opinion, if I'm going to pay that much money I would want to stay together as a family and create memories together. But that's just me.

Either way, we were all happy with how we did it.

Discounted Disney Park tickets:

Yes, it's possible to get a discount on Disney tickets! However, going back to the fact that there is no “cheap” way to do Disney, understand ahead of time that the discounts aren't earth shattering. But hey, every dollar counts right?

Here are some ways to get discounted tickets:

• My mom got a discount through AAA. For the 8 passes she bought (my little bro is local and bought a season pass instead) it saved her $100.
• Get Away Today is a travel company that offers discounted tickets, and recently offered up to $26 off per ticket as mentioned here.
• You can buy a SoCal City Pass which gives you up to 25% off admission to 3 different parks.
• Disney cast members get 16 free passes per year. Know a friend? Call them up!
• Military discounts! They are awesome, according to many military freebs who chimed in on social media.
• Undercover Tourist offers discounted Disney tickets
• If you run any of the races at Disney, you get discounted tickets (or so I've heard)
• Sams Club sometimes sells discounted Disney gift cards.
• If you live in Southern California special discounted tickets are offered on occasion.
• Timeshare presentations! They are excruciating and you have to say no about 50 times, but a reader said she got 4 free tickets for attending one at a hotel near Disneyland!

For details on these, you'll have to go to Google because most of these are tips given from readers. See even more ideas from amazing Freebs like yourself on this Instagram post, and this Facebook post.

How many days should we do Disneyland?

For us, this was a family reunion and we all had to travel in, so we decided to make a full week out of it (7 days for us, 5 days for everyone else). As mentioned before, we did 3 day tickets with no Park Hopper passes.

I asked around A LOT and almost everyone said 3 days was plenty. Guess what?

They nailed it.

We did 2 days at Disneyland, 1 day at California adventure. Our group ranged from 2 months old to 58 years old (sorry Dad) and 3 days was perfect for everyone. In fact, our kids (who are 5 and younger) could've been happy stopping after 2 days.

Keep reading down a few sections to see how our week itinerary looked, and why we did it the way we did.

Where should we stay at Disneyland?

I'm going to be honest…I'm pretty novice when it comes to hotel prices at Disneyland. I know you can buy package vacations through Disney hotels, which gives perks like more Extra Magic Hour (sorta the same as Magic Morning), arcade tokens to use in the hotel arcade, a shuttle to/from the park, etc. If you do that, I trust Get Away Today. I've worked with them before and they are awesome and legit. I did some searching and you'd be lucky to get even a cheap-o hotel around Disneyland for $150/night.

*DEAL ALERT* If you book your stay with Get Away Today you can book your trip with their layaway plan with a small down payment.

For me and my family…

We recommend Condo stays. HANDS DOWN.

Why we chose a condo.

My family has ALWAYS been a vacation condo/rental house kind-of-a-family. It's roomier, more comfortable (especially for 6 or 7 nights), has a kitchen so you aren't forced to eat out every meal, is more fun for kids, typically has a yard and/or pool of some kind, and typically comes stocked with beach toys, beach chairs, toys, movies, board games and some even have bikes and strollers. Not to mention it tends to be cheaper!!

Several families can share 1 place, instead of each needing separate hotel rooms. The condo we found was only $167/night at our condo because February is low season. But even during peak season ($260/night), split 3 ways is only $87/night!! (Psst…get an extra $10 off per night! Details below the video.)

Our Suite Escapes Condo was amazing. It had 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, full kitchen, garage, walking distance from the park, and came with everything you can imagine: 2 pack-n-plays, a double AND single stroller, board games, umbrellas, shows already recorded to the DVR, 2 air mattresses, and even a closet of Princess dress-up dresses. When I say everything, I mean everything.).

P.S – Suite Escapes did NOT pay me to say this. I was so impressed (we all were) I made a video to show you that you might be crazy for not considering this place:

Good news! I approached them about a discount for you (of course), so tell Suite Escapes you heard about them from this blog and they may be able to offer you an extra $10 off per night!! You just need to like them on Facebook and follow them on Instagram for the discount. Easy peasy.

Either way, they offer additional discounts for booking 7 nights or more! So contact them, mention you are a Freeb and heard about it from FCF, and they'll hook you up 🙂

If you are more of a hotel-stay kind of family, Get Away Today has hotels that are similar to a condo-stay, in that you can have space to stretch out; but different in that they offer more hotel conveniences. These hotels offer kitchens, free breakfast, maid service, grocery pick up and so much more. Could be a nice alternative if you are looking for more of a hassle-free stay!

Cost breakdown for our Disneyland trip:

We are going to use our family as an example so you can get an idea of cost. We were pretty frugal in many ways, but also enjoyed park food and souvenirs. ASo this will hopefully give you a conservative/balanced view of what a trip like this could cost you. At the time of publishing our cost included:

• Park Passes: $918
• Gas: $275
• Snacks: $85
• Condo: $612
• Outside Park Purchases: $500
• Park food: $450
• Souvenirs: $200
• Parking: $51
• Dog sitter/house sitter: $130
• Disneyland nanny: $68
• Cleaning ladies: $125
• Optional: Matching shirts: $30 per person

TOTAL: $3,414 (ish)

I say “ish” because I had to estimate and round on some of this (and might've missed something), but at least you get a good idea. I'm sure there are ways to do it even cheaper than we did, but since we were with a large group we didn't want to drag everyone down or hold anyone back, so we feel we did pretty well considering!

Detailed look at that cost breakdown:

• 3-DAY PARK PASSES: $918

• GAS: Filling up 5 times throughout the trip at $55 per tank on average: $275
  • FLIGHTS: If were to have flown from Utah – $130 each way, per person on average for February it would have been $1,300.
• FOOD & SNACKS FOR THE DRIVE: $85(ish)
  • We bought groceries before leaving for snacks that we used in the car & park
  • We packed lunches and snacks that we ate in the car on the drive, so we never had to buy food on our drive on the way there.
  • On the way home we bought lunch and dinner.
• CONDO: Our condo in Feb $169/night x 7 nights = $611.66,
  • The base total was $1,183, but split between our 3 families, our share was $611.66 (we were there 2 nights longer than everyone else). Read the fine print because there are always cleaning fees and potentially other fees.
  • Again, we went on off-peak times. It goes up to $260/night depending on the time of year.
  • Again, tell Suite Escapes you heard about them from this blog and they'll give you an extra $10 off per night for any bookings for any dates, as long as the booking is made by April 30!!! You just need to like them on Facebook and follow them on Instagram for the discount. Easy peasy.
• PURCHASES OUTSIDE THE PARK: $500
  • This included groceries [we bought most groceries for all 11 of us], souvenirs, gifts for the kids, trip prep items, etc. See PART 2 for a further breakdown of this.
• PARK FOOD: $30 per person, per day on average = $450
  • We ate lunch and dinner in the park, and packed snacks for the kids but usually bought at least 1 snack or treat inside the park. Hey, it's a long day!
  • It was roughly $10 per person, per meal + snacks or drinks throughout the day.
• SOUVENIERS: $200.00
  • We will have more on this in PART 3, but we told our kids they could pick out one souvenir each, and budgeted for $50 per kid (excluding the baby). We were almost dead on with the $50. The rest of the $200 covered my Christmas ornament souveniers that I insist on buying everywhere we go, and Mickey necklaces for the ladies.
• PARKING: $17/day = $51
  • We could've walked from our Condo (my brother/SIL did one day) or taken a shuttle, but with our kids and all the stuff we packed, we opted to park…and are glad we did. It might've been fun at the beginning of the day, but the end of the day would have been a nightmare.
• DOG/HOUSE SITTER: $130
  • Don't forget to factor in dog sitting, and/or babysitting! We have a huge dog (follow #PoorChubbyOllie on Instagram!). Kenneling him would've cost $30/day, or $210 (and he HATES being kenneled). We opted to hire a young couple to house sit/dog sit for us. It included two 30-minute walks per day, feeding Ollie, grabbing our mail, watering our plants, and keeping our house safe. They had free range of our house and food + $130 in exchange. It was a win-win for everyone!
• DISNEYLAND NANNY: $68
  • I will cover this more in PART 3. But by Friday (our last day in the parks) our kids were done-zo. It had been a long week and by 3pm they were all having epic meltdowns (quite literally). We called a friend we knew that lived 15 minutes away and had her babysit the kids at the condo for us so they could nap and veg out, while us adults enjoyed riding some final adult rides and having some sibling/parent bonding time. It was expensive ($12/hr is what I paid) but it ended up being great money spent. It was a splurge but allowed us to enjoy every moment of our final day in the parks! Again, come back to PART 3 for more details on this.
• CLEANING LADIES: $125
  • As you'll see in the video to be shown in PART 2, it's tradition that we have a cleaning crew deep-clean our house, top to bottom, while we're gone on vacation. In my opinion, it's the best money we spend. Our house gets TRASHED when prepping for a trip and it's all I can do to stay on top of the surface mess. To come home to sparkling floors (and everything else) is dreamy. Splurge? Totally. Worth it? Um…yeeeehhhhsssss.
• MATCHING SHIRTS: $30/pp+
  • My mom surprised us all with adorable matching shirts. She ordered them off of etsy and they were personalized, embroidered, and very high quality. They cost her an arm and a leg (as hand-made items do!), but really were such a fun touch! I, personally, would probably just opt for matching t-shirts from Walmart or something. However you do it, be sure to factor that in to your trip budget if it's something you want to do!

Remember, costs for flights, parking and admission tickets change but this should give you a good place to start saving and budgeting.

How to afford Disneyland:

I assume we're all pretty much in agreement that Disneyland isn't exactly a cheap vacation. But hey, there's nothing wrong with that! In our family we have a saying we live by and it's,

We don't say, “we can't afford it”…

…we say, “HOW can we afford it??“

That's where the book, Disneyland On Any Budget comes in. I believe where there's a will, there's a way. Keep in mind, if your family has urgent debt such as credit card debt, overdue bills, or other pressing issues, I recommend doing the responsible thing and putting every dime you have toward those debts until they are paid off. Get them off your chest and out of your hair, THEN enjoy Disneyland as a family. It may delay the trip by a year (or a few) but again, Disneyland isn't going anywhere, I promise!

That being said, here are a few creative ways to making it possible to afford Disneyland on whatever budget you have:

• Save up (see next section)

• Have your kids earn enough to pay for their own park passes. Mow lawns, babysit, save their allowance and work it off, get them involved and take the pressure off you as a family! The more they contribute, the more special the trip will be for them. My kids are saving up for a dirt bike and trampoline right now…and they are only 5 and 3! I'll post about it soon if you're interested, but get the scoop on Instagram for the time being.

• Hold a yard sale (see “how to hold a successful garage sale” for info)

• Pick up a seasonal or part-time job

• Cut back on conveniences, pampering, and other non-essentials and put that money toward your trip (eating out, drive-throughs, lawn services, pampering/beauty, shopping, extracurriculars, impulse-buys)

• Gift the trip to your family INSTEAD of Christmas gifts (see “How much to spend on your kids for Christmas” series for ideas)

How to budget/save up for Disneyland:

Our trip was about $3,400 but let's round up and say you need $4,000 for the sake of easy math. Here's an example of what this would look like if you had one year to save up:

TO SAVE $4,000 IN ONE YEAR YOU WOULD NEED TO SAVE:

• $333.33 per month
• $77 per week
• $11 per day

1.5 YEARS:

• $222.22/month
• $51.28/week
• $7.31/day

2 YEARS:

• $166.67
• $38.46/week
• $5.48/day

And in case you are the go-getter type…

6 MONTHS

• $666.67/month
• $153.85/week
• $21.92/day

Initially when I saw $77 per week (on the 1-year savings plan) that seemed like a lot to me, but for some reason $11 per day didn't seem so bad. That's avoiding one item at the grocery store, or one drive-through run, or opting to split a meal with Bubba at a restaurant instead of buying my own…or avoiding Target. Just avoid it. Just don't go. Gets me every time…

Simple way to track your budget/savings:

In general, here's how I track my budget each week. For Disneyland savings, I have created a simple spreadsheet that you can use. I made a page for monthly, weekly, or daily savings, so you can decide how you'd prefer to track it.

TO USE THIS SPREADSHEET:

First, GO HERE. Click FILE > MAKE A COPY. Rename the copy and save it as your own Google doc. Now you can edit and customize your sheet. Fill in your amount if different than $4,000, do the math to figure out how much you'd need to save each day/week/month, and edit the sheet accordingly.

As you fill in the amount you save each day/week/month, it will automatically calculate how much you have left to save in the AMOUNT REMAINING box. If it doesn't work for some reason, click HELP and type in what you're trying to do to see a Google Docs tutorial (or YouTube it. I swear that solves all my life problems…).

Get your kids involved in saving!

Our oldest child is only 5, but we got them investing – literally – in Disneyland regardless. About 8 months prior to our trip we made a Disneyland jar which was once cute but became a fatality of slippery 3 year old fingers…so we opted for a plain Jane jar.

We told the kids that once they reached the top line of the jar (just under the printed “Prego” on the glass), we could go to Disneyland!

We already had committed to the trip and had it on our calendar for February, but they didn't need to know that. We just made sure they earned the final amount of pennies just in time to go. Amazing how that works, eh parents? 😉 In fact, my son's bday is January 26 (our trip started Feb 1). His last birthday gift was a handful of pennies, so he got to put them in the jar and they were just enough to put it over the line. Best gift ever 🙂

(Sad story tangent. I spent over 25 hours making a 35 minute, really detailed, pretty awesome [if I do say so myself] video of our entire disneyland experience, with all the tips and fun in full detail. My video got deleted somehow before I was able to upload it to YouTube. After 4 hours of trying to get it back, I realized it was a lost cause. Yes, I wanted to cry. I don't have time to recreate that amazing video so instead you'll see snippets throughout the posts. Maybe someday I'll be able to go back, but most likely the next project will come along and will need the priority of my time. WAAH! Regardless, I hope you enjoy these little snippets and know they were created with a broken heart!)

Anywho…

The kids earned pennies almost every day by helping around the house, exhibiting good behavior, being extra helpful, doing additional chores, doing well in school, practicing piano, etc. It was a great motivator for them. Once they finished earning the pennies, they screamed, hollered, and were on cloud 9 for about 2 days. They couldn't believe they did it! 8 months is a long time, even for me! I was proud of them and they really earned every moment of fun they had.

Be sure to get your family involved, no matter the age!

Everyone can (and should!) contribute. You only need to save $11/day based on the scenario above. If a child contributes $.50 that day from their allowance or piggy bank, that literally makes a difference! Remember,

…the more you work for something (and the longer you have to wait for it), the more special and memorable it will be.

SO!

Now that you've saved up for Disneyland, it's time to plan out your week. See everything I know about Disneyland INSIDE the parks in PART 3. For now, here's an overview of our how our week went:

Our itinerary of the week:

A big question we had as a family was…how should we space our our week? Do all 3 park days back to back at the beginning? Every-other day? Back-to-back at the end of the week?

We did lots of research and here's what we ended up doing:

• Sunday: We arrive at the condo (we drove and got in 1 day before everyone else).
• Monday: Everyone else arrives. Grocery shop, get settled, go to bed early.
• Tuesday: Disneyland (from the early Magic Morning hour, until park closed)
• Wednesday: Day off. Sleep in, nap, swim, grocery shop, Downtown Disney.
• Thursday: California Adventure
• Friday: Disneyland
• Saturday: Everyone else flies home.
• Sunday: We drive home.

Here's why we decided to schedule our week this way:

• We drove in on a Sunday because it takes us all day (12 hours) to drive. We got in late and didn't want to have to turn around and wake up early and hit Disney the next morning. We wanted 1 buffer day and are glad we had one.

• Everyone else flew in on a Monday because it was considerably cheaper.

• We did Disneyland first (Tuesday) because we had decided to do Disneyland 2x (and California Adventure only 1x) since Disneyland is the bigger park with more shows, parades, rides, and attractions. Especially for little kids. We decided to use our Magic Morning on this day.

• Wednesday: Initially we had planned to do California Adventure on this day. But after seeing how exhausting a full day at Disney is with little kids, we decided to take a day off. BOOOOOY am I glad we did. We were miserably tired. There's no way we could've done 2 full days in a row.

• Thursday: Woke up early and had a full day at California Adventure.

• Friday: Our one non-negotiable was to hit up Disneyland on this day. Why? Many rides are closed for updating and repair during the slower times of year (see next section). A few rides were opening back up specifically on Friday, and we wanted to take advantage.

• Saturday: Everyone else flew home. We hit the pool and hung out as a family, cleaned the condo and packed. Recover and rest before the long drive.

• Sunday: Drive home.

What time of year is best to go?

The best times of year to travel in general anywhere you go (not just Disneyland) are:

• February, or late late January (after the holidays, before Spring break)
• September/October (kids are back in school, be aware of crowds and early park closures due to Mickey's Halloween Party)
• Early November (after Halloween, before Thanksgiving)
• First week of December (after Thanksgiving, before Christmas break)

Sure, you'd have to pull your kids out of school to go those times. My kids are in Preschool right now so I can't relate to anyone with kids in Jr High or High School. All I know is that my parents weren't afraid to pull us out of school for vacations or experiences, and it never hurt me academically in the long run (I was valedictorian, as proof).

This goes back to the “Doing Disney right and getting the most out of it” mindset. If you go during peak times, you WILL spend most of your time waiting in line. There's no getting around it, no matter how many fast passes or park days you have. For the money we were spending on this trip we decided our priority was to take off work/ditch school and go during the least busy time so as to spend as much time riding rides and having fun as possible. Again, trying to get the most out of every dollar.

Not telling you that you are right or wrong for not pulling your kids out of school, that is a very personal decision. I'm just trying to be devil's advocate so you can make the best decisions regarding your investment (yes, Disneyland is an investment).

I had read somewhere that the first week of February is statistically the least-busy week of the year at Disneyland. Not sure if that is true or not, but all I can say is:

We went the first week of February (Feb 1-7) and it. was. AWESOME.

The longest line we waited in was maybe 30 minutes (the Dumbo ride at Disneyland, and the Radiator Springs ride at California Adventure). Most were more 10-15 on average. It was FRIGGIN FANTASTIC! It allowed us to take our time, enjoy long lunches, shows, and parades, while still being able to ride everything we wanted to ride at least once.

If you want help planning your time to maximize your time at the Parks, Get Away Today offers pre-made itineraries for different kinds of fans! From little kids, to big kids, to adult thrill-seekers, they help you lay out your trip to get the most enjoyment with your crew! Such a handy tool to have if you aren't a Disney-loving crazy person like me!

The best ways to learn everything about Disneyland…

Wow, if you're still reading this post, you deserve a purple heart for bravery. I warned you that this would be a doozy! (which is why it's taken me 5 weeks to write just Part 1). Since, again, I'm no Disney expert (and don't claim to be), here are additional resources to learn lots about Disneyland:

• YouTube (search “Disneyland” and all sorts of goodies will come up)
• Get a free Disney DVD
• Buy, borrow, or loan (from the library) a Disney guide. Tip? Make sure it's current to that year, and make sure it's an UNOFFICIAL guide. That means it's not written or sponsored by Disney, so there won't be biases in the book.
• Pinterest has great Disney resources! (Check out my Disney board, for example)
• Ask friends who have been there!

And of course, be sure to check out PART 2 and PART 3! (Just subscribe to our email list and those posts will drop directly to your inbox)
Check out all these amazing bloggers with FABULOUS Disneyland posts while you're at it!

P.S – if you like this post, you'll love my How To Cruise With Kids post series and my other travel posts too!