Special things happy for the holidays

Snow in Disneyland? It happens. Seriously.

And that’s just one of the wonderful things you’ll see. Over the holidays Disneyland goes all out in a way you can online imagine. The streets change into a winter paradise, giant ornaments replace the signs and even the desert list is updated. There’s few better places to enjoy the holidays at than the park so prepare to be amazed.

Also prepare to see some changes to the rides, shops and shows. Aside from snow there’s also different music, more specials, more characters and on and on. Since a photo is worth a thousand words we’ve included a few.

Crowds & Ride Maximization

It will be busy. Very busy. This should go without saying but we’re saying it just in case. If you travel during the holidays you’ll see crowds unlike anything you’ve seen before. You’ll also see different crowds – less locals and more tourists meaning more general confusion and uncertainty. This is reality and the best you can do is work within what exists.

Come on the right days. If you head to the park a little earlier December you’ll find the park a whole lot emptier. In fact if you show up mid month you’ll find it almost empty. However going late has the opposite effect… people start showing up in mass a week or so before Christmas and the park stays packed through the first few weeks of January.

While you can’t stop the crowds from showing up you can plan smart. Collect fastpasses in the morning [See our guide to smart fastpassing], check the ride wait board and take the big rides when the waits go down, the small ones when they’re longer.

The colder weather helps too. You can easily spend the entire day in the park although if you do so take a good long lunch break and take it easy.

Fireworks & Shows

As you can guess the crowds for shows will be nothing short of… nuts. Your best bet is to get your spots early and guard them with your life (or your blanket). We always prefer the second fantasmic show although it’s still just as full. Dash around after the fireworks and grab a seat but be sure your group joins before the start – once things get too packed the stop letting people into the front areas.

For those really set on a good viewing area just plan to setup shop a few hours early. You can bring a blanket, sit down and chat with everyone else doing the same thing.

Hotels & Accommodations

With so many people in the park you can bet there’s a high demand for hotels too. But that doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune or be completely surrounded by screaming children.

All of the Disney properties book well in advance of the holidays (like 6-12 months in advance) so well, you’re pretty much not going there.

Other properties aren’t quite so bad but they do fill early and you need to book well in advance. This means you have to actually plan in advance. Seriously.

Our suggestion is as always the Hyatt although we also like the Hilton, Embassy Suites and the Crown Plaza isn’t bad either. Prices do go up for the holidays as you can imagine but if you book in advance you can get a good deal. If you have a few months lead time sign up for a emails from the hotels you prefer and check their websites for specials. Longer stays tend to better deals and calling a hotel never hurts.

Getting to the park

Airplanes, roads, it’s all more crowded this time of year but the fundamentals don’t change. Check LAX and Long Beach airports in addition to Orange County and rent a car, take a shuttle or a bus as suits your needs. You can find all sorts of tips about getting from airports, to the place, and so forth on this site.

If you’re driving from Northern California or through the LA Grapevine be sure to check road conditions often. Snow can close the pass and bad traffic accidents often cause hours of backup. As a plan B you can take 101 down the coast – it’s a longer drive but if you have a 10 hour delay, well, enough said.

Consider the average local hotel to go from $75-$150 a night rack rate or about $30-$60 a night using Priceline during non-peak periods.

Food can be brought into the park at grocery store costs but that’s rare. Most people will end up with a cheap lunch for $6-12 per person and a nicer dinner at $8-15 per person. You can easily spend twice that on a meal however depending on where you dine and if you decide to venture to one of the few restaurants that actually take reservations think about typical “moderate” level dining prices.

Snacks and desert aren’t something most people pass up so consider another $5 a day on the very low end (if you bring your own water bottles and power bars) and up to $15 or more if you’re buying sodas and ice cream all day long.

Souvenirs are by far the biggest opportunity to splurge as a simple t-shirt can be almost $30, a shot glass $6 and a pin $5 and up. Just like a Vegas vacation, we suggest setting aside a budget here and spending against it. This is especially important near the holidays as Disneyland sells loads of great Christmas and seasonal items which can easily suck in a fan or become “easy gifts” but at a high cost. Few people leave the park without buying anything but a budget conscious shopper can walk away with just a $50 sweatshirt and a nick nack or two of some sort.

Money Saving Tip: All of these costs from hotel rooms to rental cars to food can be brought down by being smart. Read the smart way to stay AND have a world class experience for ideas on how to spend a lot less but get even more.

Disneyland doesn’t do much in the way of ticket discounts as they get ample business without them. Still there are a few places where you can find deals.

If you’re going to be staying in the area Disney will occasionally offer discounts on tickets with the purchase of a vacation package which also includes hotel. In a good offer this could be as low as $68 a day per person for the off season but there’s often a catch… you generally get just one room with rates based on 4-person occupancy so unless you have a small group this may not do you much good. That said there are still times when tickets are discounts for singles and couples who purchase a hotel stay through Disney. While most other hotels in the area sell tickets few offer discounts but look around popular travel sites like Orbitz and Travelocity as deals do come up from time to time.

In the City Pass Deluxe (sold at Costco in California) offers access to several Southern California attractions including Disneyland. While the price of the package would be much more than just a Disneyland park hopper that you get, it lets you in to other attractions and can be a great deal for anyone trying to do the “SoCal experience” rather than just visit the park.

Southern California Costco’s almost always carry a 4-day play pack which entitles the purchaser to visit one park 3 or 4 times. The tickets are bound to different days so one pack wouldn’t get you and your significant other into the parks for 2 days each but if you both had your own pack you could go to each park for 4 days over the course of a year.

Some colleges also sell discounted tickets although those seem to be less available than in past years.

In the 2008 holiday season Costco also started selling Disneyland passes in select markets at normal price but with a $50 Disney gift card as an added bonus. While this was a limited time offer check Costco.com to see if they have anything similar out when you’re ready to visit.

Here are the current costs as of December 2008. Remember, these prices are subject to change so you should check the website before showing up cash in hand.

• Single Day Single Park Ticket – $69 ($59 children)
• 1 Day Park Hopper Ticket – $94 ($84 children)
• 2 Day Park Hopper Ticket – $143 ($123 children)
• 3-Day Park Hopper – $179 ($149 children) *
• 4-Day Park Hopper – $194 ($164 children) *
• 5-Day Park Hopper – $204 ($174 children)*
• 6-Day Park Hopper – $209 ($179 children)*

Money Saving Tip: If you’re going to be in town for more than 2 days buy a 3, 4 or 5 day park hopper at the tremendously discounted price even if you only plan to go to the park on a few days. This way after your other activities you can still return for a little fun in the evening, fireworks or just a couple of rides without “wasting” a day.

Money Saving Tip: Disneyland will often let you upgrade hopper tickets an extra day but ask before you buy them. This way if you’re not sure you’ll have a third day you can save and buy a 2 day park hopper and come back on the third.

Note: Multi-day park hoppers are currently discounted online. To receive the prices above you must book through Disneyland.com.

* Includes early entry for one morning on designated early entry days

Priceline is the true bargaining tool in the hotel world and can save you a ton and get you a great location… although not every hotel is available through it. If you’re not familiar with the concept, Priceline is basically a middleman with direct access to hotel extra inventory. They know the absolute lowest price the hotel is willing to take for a room you get to bid against that rate with Priceline making money by charging you a fee and taking the difference between your bid and the actual rate.

When the service first started there was a lot of pushback from people we knew who didn’t want to be seen as cheap and some hotels would award “bad” rooms as well. That’s since changed as more and more people use this sort of option especially for last minute travel. In dozens of Priceline booked stays to Disneyland and other locations no one has given us an evil eye about things, in fact we’ve even moved some reservations around at the Hyatt despite being in the “no changes allowed ever” booking class. Remember, an empty room loses money; a room at a very low rate covers the bills so hotels want to sell out.

There’s entire websites devoted to how to bid on Priceline which you can find in the resource center so won’t get too detailed here. But the basics are this…

1. Pick your star level (see: this list of Priceline hotels and star levels),
2. Put a low bid in ($50-$60 a night) and let the magic start.
3. If you get rejected you can try rebidding different dates, star levels or using free bids to go again.
4. If you really strike out just wait 24 hours and try again.
5. When you win, and most of the time you will win, you get assigned a hotel in the star class.

And you don’t have to wait till the last day for Priceline to get you a deal (although that’s fairly common usage). Hotels forecast inventory well in advance and can start discounting months early if they’re afraid of being too empty.

Finally since we get a lot of questions on Priceline we’re going to be very clear on the downsides. Priceline lets you select a general area but makes no guarantee as to which hotel you get. If there’s a place you don’t like that’s 4 stars you can’t opt out of getting in there if you select 4 stars. Priceline also isn’t great about star ratings and people that book lower classes are sometimes not happy with where they get stuck. You also can’t select things like window view, can’t ask for a handicap room in advance or to be near the elevator (well you can ask for all that at checkin time or after your reservation but it’s not guaranteed). For all these reasons we always suggest bidding towards the top of the ladder and why not…

We’ve scored the Hyatt and Hilton for $50 bucks a night and while somewhere else may be a bit cheaper that’s still a lot less than you’d pay for most 2 star motels calling directly.

Ready to bid? Visit this Priceline page to name your own price. Enter Disneyland, CA as your search area and start with a bid of $50 for a 3.5 star hotel. Let us know how it works out!

1. Start with the official Disneyland.com website and look at their rates (they let you book both in-park and out of park properties). Sometimes they’ll offer incentives like discounted tickets to people who book a hotel through them which can make their extra costs disappear.
2. Compare those rates against what you find on Travelocity.com and Hotels.com  both of which let you select the Disneyland area and break things down by star ratings and amenities, offer reviews from their own members and will let you book into your room of choice directly.
3. If you’re booking airfare and/ or a car try running that through Orbitz and Expedia; this may give you a nice discount as a “vacation package”.
4. Once you have found your preferred property see if the hotel’s official website is about the same price (or cheaper). While the booking sites do a great job of getting your reservation in, they also prevent changes by acting as a middle man. Having a direct booking can help with date changes and cancelations but if it’s more than a few bucks difference, skip it and stick with the site offering the best rate.
5. Be sure to use any membership discounts as well. Most local hotels offer $10 or 10% off on bookings to AAA members.