Our Trip Out West Is Shaping Up!

Our trip out west is shaping up!  We are officially booked to stay 4 nights at the Disneyland Hotel, 2 nights at the Legoland Hotel, and 5 nights at Paradise Pier, a Disneyland Resort Hotel.  (The Grand Californian was a bit too grand for our budget.)

Disneyland has 3 on-site resort hotels for guests and several “good neighbor” hotels that offer some Disneyland perks.  Even though we are paying more to stay on property, the husband and I talked it over and we wanted that experience.  Even with the convenience of staying on-site, we are still navigating transportation, dining, etc.  Staying on-site was a decision to make at least a portion of our vacation planning “easy.”

Of the 3 on-site resort hotels, pricing varies with the Grand Californian being the most expensive, followed by the Disneyland Hotel, and Paradise Pier, while not cheap, is the least expensive.  We designed our stay to take advantage of any savings. 

The first “leg” of our trip is 4 nights—all week-days.  Therefore it made sense to spend this part of our vacation in the most expensive, to us, resort.  Disneyland Hotel it is!

The week-end, Friday and Saturday nights, are the most expensive nights when staying on Disney property.  We, then, decided, to head to Legoland for the week-end.  We got a reasonable “advance rate” which does require full payment and a really good deal on tickets for Legoland Park, the Water Park, and the SeaLife Aquarium at a buy one day, get one day free rate.  More good news is that our stay includes breakfast!  There are also many fun things to do at the Legoland resort which we will do our best to take advantage of.  Oh, and guests get to select the theme of their room, based on availability of course.  Choices include Pirate, Adventure, and Kingdom all appropriate for either boys or girls.  The vote at the Williams' household was "Pirate."  (Our travel agent predicted that one!)

The last “leg” of our vacation is 5 nights.  Staying the least expensive resort made sense due to the length of our stay.  We are looking forward to exploring Paradise Pier.

Park tickets have also been secured—a 4 day Park Hopper on each leg.  This will give us plenty of time in the parks and some time to play on “non park” days. 

Now, to figure out dining. . .