You are here: FatWallet Blog > View Blog Entry

How NOT to save money on your trip to Disneyland

April 1, 2010 | Posted By: Troy Redington

WOOO, you won a gold medal in the Olympics and the first clichéd words out of your mouth locked you in to a fun financially frightening trip to Disneyland! Is there a cash prize involved with Olympic medals? You better hope so because as entertaining as Mickey Mouse is, the park is filled with bad investments and ATM machines.

Here's a list of vacation blunders for you to keep in mind if you're not into the whole 'save time & money' thing, or if you prefer to go home broke, sunburned, and still a space mountain virgin.

Don't you DARE use Disney's FREE 'FastPass' service. This simple system allows you to schedule your rides on all of the major attractions in the park, saving you an average of 45 minutes of time waiting in EACH line. Enjoy the rest of the park instead of waiting in line, who would want to do that??

Enjoy a nice sit down meal. Why bring in your own sandwiches, lunchables, or even In-n-Out burgers and sit on the available free seating when you can shell out $20 for a mediocre bowl of clam chowder!?.

Meet ALL of the Disney characters. They're obviously the real deal, so go ahead and wait in line for 45 minutes to meet each one. Make sure you get all of their autographs on an official Disney autograph notebook with an official Disney autograph pen. This will set you back about six hours and twenty bucks.

Go to California Adventure as well. When you plop down your $72 per person for entry into Disneyland, the award winning Disney customer service will present a bonus offer to hit up the neighboring California Adventure for only $25 per person. What a deal! Turn around and look at it. There's no lines to wait in! There's no crowd to deal with! Just a big, open, barren, kind-of-amusement park. I talked to a few locals about California Adventure - all of them winced when I mentioned it, so clearly they've had some good times there.

Stock up on souvenirs. You can't let your kids come home without a pair of Mickey Mouse ears, right? Why not go the extra mile and plop down $45 for the giant Mad Hatter top hat with attached blaze orange afro-like hair in the back? It only weighs a few pounds, and it will surely help you keep your head warm in the 100 degree California sun. For the kids, you can now get a wide variety of hats with Mickey Mouse ears attached. They don't need to look like EVERY other kid with the same $15 hat, they can look like 1/10th of every other with the same $25 hat. Don't forget to get their names embroidered on the back for $3 extra.

Opt for the upgrade when renting your car. Only $60 additional per day to get out of a Hyundai and into an Infinity? Sign me up. It's super important to look awesome when you're stuck in traffic on the way to the park AND on the way home. Plus it will magically make finding a parking spot in the Puumba lot much easier. Especially if you arrive at noon, when the park is already full.

Buy single entry tickets when you're a California resident and can score a season pass for 300 bucks. Season passes let those lucky Californians hit up Disneyland AND California Adventure 315 out of 365 days a year!

Smile. You're on vacation. Let loose and have a good time. It's perfectly acceptable to spend money on things that you normally wouldn't; however, a little bit of thought and planning will get you more for your money.

Share this:

Comments

April 1, 2010 | Posted By: stelfson

"...or if you prefer to go home broke, sunburned, and still a space mountain virgin." Haha, great blog!

October 27, 2010 | Posted By: gujupike

Maybe its me, or maybe its the author, but I can't seem to understand which ones are sarcastic and which ones aren't. It seems as if you are promoting buying a season pass, why would you do that? Shell out an extra 200 bucks so you can come back and shell out more money later on in the year? Best way to get into disneyland? Find a friend that works there and have them let you in. Every southern california resident has a friend that works at disneyland, or has worked at disneyland and still has connections.

November 19, 2010 | Posted By: BigBoyMichigan

I would think you would do a topic on "How to save money on your trip to Disneyland" of course my idea would be to go to a few Travel Agents and see if you can get a great deal and get it in writing. I did this with car repair shops and I saved over $125 in repairs on the same job, but of course thats another story!

November 26, 2010 | Posted By: michgirl

I slept in a Holiday Inn and feel great

December 11, 2010 | Posted By: jcantanixon

Regarding the comment mentioning Disneyland employees..it's not just employees of the park. Anyone who works for any of Disney Corp get in free and can let up to three others in free at the same time.

January 11, 2011 | Posted By: dazviking

Although we had to wait in line for every single Disney character's signature for my daughter, my wife smartly purchased a 'blank' notepad/scrapbook approx 6" x 6" with heavy duty cardstock. The character signed one page, and we left the other page blank, to be later filled with pic of her and that character. We still have this book after 5 years. We also purchased Disney World sweatshirt at local drug store for much cheaper. (We did splurge on Minnie Mouse Ears/Hat that she wore for a longtime afterward.)

May 20, 2011 | Posted By: mandyboyle

Totally agree on the food. Most of the food I ate in Disney was so so and wayyyy over priced. Granted, I knew that walking in, but next time, I'll pack a lunch or go elsewhere.