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Disneyland California and West Coast Trip Planning Disneyland California and West Coast Holiday Planning Questions, Suggestions and Tips.

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Old 12 Aug 19, 07:44 PM  
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#1
Kinggie
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Join Date: Mar 09
Wow! Can’t believe the prices! Is it out of reach for us!

Just started looking at maybe doing a little road trip there next summer and I’m astounded by the price for hotel room per night so wondering if it is beyond our reach and maybe I shouldn’t even consider it.

We usually stay in Orlando off site and for 2 adults and 1 teen we usually pay about £5500 all in flight, hotels, car, park ticket, meals ... for 2 weeks. We have flown bot. direct and indirect so not too worried about flying indirect to make it cheaper.

Looking at school holiday next year. Do you reckon we would be able to do 2 weeks to include SF, Yosemite, some wine valley and maybe a beach for that amount of money or is it just too expensive.

Did 3 weeks Cali road trip 17 years ago before kid and could fly anytime and I don’t remember breaking the bank but probably flew low season.

Edited at 07:57 PM.
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Old 12 Aug 19, 07:59 PM  
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KayLouise
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It's so expensive isn't it!? We are planning our first West coast holiday and have had to literally half our list of places we wanted to do as we just can't afford them all. We are just doing southern Cali and Disneyland this trip and plan to do another trip in the (hopefully not too distant) future to see San Francisco and Yosemite etc.
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Old 12 Aug 19, 10:36 PM  
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landandword17
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Yes but it will take a lot of research. Using Tripadvisor, Yelp and Expedia type sites to find reasonable hotels with good reviews. Booking cancellable rates so you can cancel when the price drops. Book car with Andy at DFCH and he’ll adjust it when the price drops. For food stay away from the tourist areas where there’s a mark up. Flights are cheaper than Orlando even direct. There’s 2 of us but we always get a room with 2 beds and we’ve not paid over £5,000 yet in 3 West Coast trips.
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Old 12 Aug 19, 10:55 PM  
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jengibbo
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Hi,
We went to California at Easter as I’m a teacher and we have two children. We booked our flight with BA as a fly drive Man to LAX via Heathrow. Two hour layover on the way out and 4 on the way back. With the car the price for 2 adults and 2 children was £2200. We had Sat - Wed in the Best Western Stovalls Inn at Anaheim. Booked on booking.com for just over £500. The room was a bit dated but was clean, had free WiFi and breakfast. Two pools and hot tubs. It was a 15 minute walk to Disneyland. I bought our Disneyland tickets off Expedia and got 3 day hopper passes. We also went to Knotts Berry farm for the day tickets on Expedia. Eating wise we had breakfast in the hotel not amazing but filled a hole, lunch in the park (expensive but it’s a Disney) and then had takeaway pizza one night and two local restaurants the other nights. We then had night in Palm Springs about £100 for the room. We then drove to Grand Canyon and stayed in the Holiday inn in Tusayan which is directly outside the GC park. Approx £500 for three nights, again free WiFi, free breakfast and indoor pool. We made sandwiches for our lunches and ate in the food court of a hotel in the GC. Finally we drove to San Diego and had 4 nights in the Best Western Palms on shelter island. I think it was £600. No free breakfast but two pools and WiFi. In SD we ate at Cheesecake Factory, Denny’s for breakfast, got pizza and ate in local Mexican restaurants. We had a great trip did everything we wanted. All the hotels were clean and comfortable. We didn’t do much shopping because the exchange rate is so poor. I think we spent 6k and had an amazing trip.
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Old 13 Aug 19, 09:08 AM  
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miss_mouse
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I'm taking lots of snacks for this trip.
With the kids now 17 & 20, it's 4 adults and food becomes very expensive.
I'm taking cereal bars, pre packed pain au chocolat & bagels for breakfasts and snacks.

We aren't doing any of our regulars like IHOP and Applebys as I know from when we went to Cali before it's so much more expensive than Florida.
I priced up our usual Ihop order and we are looking at a good $100 by the time you've added tax and tip and I refuse to do that when it can be so hit and miss.

We also find by having a shared dominoes one night and a Panda Express another and having a couple of lower food budget days it really helps.
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Old 13 Aug 19, 09:58 AM  
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pinkandfluffy
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We went this year, 2 adults and 2 older teens so needed either a 1 bedroom suite or 2 separate rooms. We managed to get flights with VA for £312 in the flash sale last August so I booked them on a whim without doing my research first. I was really surprised by the cost of the accommodation but at that point we were committed so had to deal with it.

We splurged on some places and saved on others. For example we had a log cabin with a hot tub in Yosemite for 3 nights which was £1300 but a motel in Monterey for 2 nights which was £400. Yosemite and San Francisco were the most expensive.

As others have said, eating out can get expensive and we did book two hotels that included breakfast. One hotel we booked had an evening social between 5pm and 7pm that we didn’t know about when we booked. This included pizza, beer and wine! A welcome bonus and we did make full use of that on our first night there.

While just the general cost of everything seemed more expensive than our Orlando holidays it was by far the best holiday we have had and we did some real bucket list stuff! Yosemite absolutely blew us away, so much so that most nights I sit watching YouTube clips of it and pricing up options for next year!
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Old 13 Aug 19, 10:11 AM  
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400ixl
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Prices for hotels will be quite high at the moment. As people have said, book cancellable rates and keep an eye on them as they will most likely drop.
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Old 13 Aug 19, 11:16 AM  
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kirkdalewdw
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we tend to book Choice hotels as they do a free breakfast, you can get some good rates. We tend to stay within a 15 min drive to Disney as the price goes down if you stay closer to Knotts Berry.
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Old 13 Aug 19, 11:34 AM  
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Mrs Toolman
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Originally Posted by pinkandfluffy View Post
We went this year, 2 adults and 2 older teens so needed either a 1 bedroom suite or 2 separate rooms. We managed to get flights with VA for £312 in the flash sale last August so I booked them on a whim without doing my research first. I was really surprised by the cost of the accommodation but at that point we were committed so had to deal with it.

We splurged on some places and saved on others. For example we had a log cabin with a hot tub in Yosemite for 3 nights which was £1300 but a motel in Monterey for 2 nights which was £400. Yosemite and San Francisco were the most expensive.

As others have said, eating out can get expensive and we did book two hotels that included breakfast. One hotel we booked had an evening social between 5pm and 7pm that we didn’t know about when we booked. This included pizza, beer and wine! A welcome bonus and we did make full use of that on our first night there.

While just the general cost of everything seemed more expensive than our Orlando holidays it was by far the best holiday we have had and we did some real bucket list stuff! Yosemite absolutely blew us away, so much so that most nights I sit watching YouTube clips of it and pricing up options for next year!
Don't suppose you worked out how much the holiday cost in total did you? Still trying to work out a rough price for us and 2 adult kids 21 and 23 before I commit to buying flights. I swing from 'you only live once and it's only money' to 'omg this holiday could bankrupt us'!
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Old 13 Aug 19, 01:29 PM  
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pinkandfluffy
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Originally Posted by Mrs Toolman View Post
Don't suppose you worked out how much the holiday cost in total did you? Still trying to work out a rough price for us and 2 adult kids 21 and 23 before I commit to buying flights. I swing from 'you only live once and it's only money' to 'omg this holiday could bankrupt us'!
Erm, no not really, ignorance is bliss I guess! Apart from the SF and Yosemite accommodation, we booked everything on a free cancellation through Agoda and Booking.com. I cancelled and re-booked the same accommodation on 3 separate occasions over 6 months as the prices came down. Yosemite log cabin was £1300 for 3 nights and the 2 hotel rooms in SF came to just under £1000 for 3 nights. The rest of the accommodation came to around £3000 as I had factored that in on my Monzo card before I added spends. Occasionally there was a resort fee added which I hadn’t factored in. Car hire through Alamo was cheap and fuel costs low.

We didn’t do Disney or Universal but did do Six Flags and Knotts Berry Farm and I purchased the tickets before we went via ATD. I also paid for Monterey Whale Watching and Dylans tour in SF before we went to soften the blow.

All in all I don’t regret a single penny spent, it was an amazing trip that kept us all on our toes and excited for what was to come. A different experience every 2 or 3 days and no time for the kids to get bored or too comfortable.
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