How to Hack Your Disneyland Vacation on a Budget

Danielle Jul 09, 2024

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Our Travel Hacked trip to Disneyland

I spoke in a previous post about our adventure to Los Angeles, San Diego, and the wonderful world of Disneyland. But I felt like our Disneyland vacation could use a post by itself. I had never been to any of the Disney theme parks before, and my kids kept asking me to go to Disney. The catalyst for our journey was the expiration of two free companion tickets from my American Express Delta Platinum card, sparking the idea to go to Disney Land and visit family in California while we were there. My husband had no interest in going to Disney, so we convinced my dad to come along with us. My son has trouble with large crowds and noisy situations, so I wanted to go to Disneyland at a time that wouldn’t be too crowded. Read on to learn the best way to save on your Disney Vacation.

The Goal: Our primary objective was to optimize the use of the companion tickets while ensuring minimal disruption to our routine and going Disney off-season. Choosing the second week of November 2022, coinciding with the kids' half-day (parent-teacher conference) and the off-days for both Election Day and Veterans Day, allowed us to be away for 11 days while the kids missed only 2.5 days of school. I was able to save a significant amount of money on this Disneyland trip. By using travel reward points I saved 994.40 on airfare and $1,946 on our hotel. We decided on a 3-day ticket, with one at Disney California Adventure Park.

Free Airfare to Disneyland:

American Express Delta Reserve credit cards offer free companion tickets. During COVID, they extended the date to cross over more than 1 year, so I was able to accumulate 2 free companion tickets. I leveraged the two free companion tickets on Delta, purchasing four round-trip tickets from NYC to LA for the price of two. Each ticket, priced at $497.20, resulted in a total of $994.40 for four round-trip tickets from NYC’s LaGuardia Airport to LAX. Getting 2 free airline tickets was a good start to our cheap trip.

Fun at the Hotel in Disneyland

Free Hotel at Disneyland

We stayed at several hotels while in California. While staying near Disneyland Park we stayed at the Residence Inn at Anaheim Resort/ Convention Center, CA from November 5-10 –

Residence Inn at Anaheim, CA was our favorite hotel of the trip (we also went to LA and San Diego). The Residence Inn in Anaheim, CA, was conveniently within walking distance of Disneyland. Featuring a comfortable setup with a separate bedroom and living room, the room's full kitchen helped us save on food expenses, allowing us to buy our own food at the local supermarket. While the pool area was enjoyable, most of our time was spent at the parks. The highlight for the kids was the delightful Mickey Mouse waffles during the free breakfast—a very pleasant and comfortable stay overall.

Disney land travel hacked trip

We used Marriott reward points for our hotel stay, at the time of writing this post The Residence Inn at Anaheim Resort was 219,000 points for 5 nights in November. To get enough Marriott points, I applied for the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card, which has a sign-up offer of 85,000 points. You also earn 4 points per $1 spent on the first $15,000 spent on groceries and dining. So, while trying to gain enough points for this trip, I transferred all of our monthly spending to this card, until I had enough points. There are many nearby hotels where you can use reward points for a free or discounted stay. If you are looking to stay on the property, there is the Disneyland Hotel however, points cannot be used directly for this stay. You can, however, use something like the Capital One Venture magic eraser option as a great way to offset travel expenses that do not have a cobranded credit card. Free hotel stays may come with some additional costs. For example, if you have a rental car, be mindful that many hotels near Disneyland do not offer free parking, so even with a free hotel stay you will likely to pay extra money for parking costs.

Ticket Prices

There are many options for where to buy park tickets. Some options on where to purchase Disneyland Tickets include Disney's website, Get Away Today, and Undercover Tourist. Price shop tickets to see which site has the best prices. Often Get Away Today and Undercover Tourist have better rates than Disney directly. To learn more about budget tickets check out our post "Disney Magic on a Budget: Guide to Discount Disney Tickets". Ticket prices will vary depending on how much time you are spending in Disney parks. For example, the more days you go, the cheaper per day your entry will be. The total cost of tickets will also vary based on the time of year and if you select the park hopper option. There are also kids prices for children under 10.

Disney Star Wars

Safety Items I Invested in For Our Trip to Disney

I was worried about my kids getting separated from us in a crowded place such as Disneyland. I was also worried about our luggage getting lost on the plane. A simple solution to both those fears was Apple Air Tags (see link). I stuck one in each suitcase for the flights. I searched for ways to attach the air tags to my kids while we were in the parks and found these neat air tag holders on Amazon. I just attached them to the inside of my kids’ clothing, and they didn’t mind at all. Side note, I now use Air Tags on everything, my dogs' collars, my keys, my wallet, my purse. For tips on what I bring for efficient traveling check out our post "Traveling with Kids: How to Pack for a Trip Efficiently"

Saving Money While at Disneyland

While at Disneyland, we went to Target on our arrival day and stocked up on groceries since our hotel had a kitchen. The hotel offered breakfast, so we stocked up on snacks, lunch, and a few dinner items. We decided to do one meal a day at the parks but try to do the rest of our meals from groceries. We also brought snacks with us into the park. This allowed us to save money on snacks and spend our food budget elsewhere such as at a character meal. It was a great way to see our favorite characters without waiting in line.

Meeting Winnie the Poo at DisneyLand

Target in Anaheim had a ton of Disney souvenirs and my kids were more than happy to buy most of their souvenir items at Target instead of at the parks. On our arrival day, we went window shopping in Downtown Disney, where my kids found many things they wanted to buy. I was able to find some of them on Disney's website which was running a sale at the time. I quickly ordered a few of their wants, which allowed me to stretch my Disneyland budget a bit further. Added bonus, we didn't have to take those items home with us.

Going to Disneyland on a tight budget is possible. If you are resourceful, you can use points for airfare, hotel, and possibly tickets as well. You can purchase gift cards while saving up some spending money for your visit. We are going to Walk Disney World next week, and I already have food costs covered. Over the past few months, I have been buying Disney gift cards every time I go to the supermarket, and have saved enough to cover our Dining Reservations.

Remember, the point of travel hacking is to use your everyday spending to work for you. Do not overspend to gain more points, and be mindful not to go into debt in order to save money traveling. Our next travel hacking trip this year is to Disney World. Check out our post on how we used travel reward credit cards for a budget trip Disney World.

To learn more about our travel reward credit card strategies check out: