There's No Dining Plan at Disneyland!

There’s no dining plan at Disneyland—well sort of.  When we made our first trip to Walt Disney World in 2006, one of the things that drew us was the Disney Dining Plan.  I have this thing about having meals paid for ahead of time and not worrying about budgeting for meals so the Disney Dining Plan fit the bill.  Twelve trips later, we’ve added the basic dining plan to our Disney vacation each time.  We even tried to not have/use the dining plan once and ended up adding it to our vacation less than a month before we left. 

So, with Disneyland having no dining plan that is similar to Walt Disney World’s options of Quick Service, Basic, or Deluxe, what are we going to do?  We are going to take advantage of the pre-pay option for character dining at Disneyland.

When making Disneyland reservations either on-line, by phone, or through a travel agent guests can select to “add character dining.”  This option allows guest to pre-purchase vouchers for enjoying character dining at Disneyland.  This option is available for guests staying on-site or at good neighbor resort hotels. 

Character dining is divided in to a regular category “Character Dining” and “Premium Character Dining.”  The differences are the restaurants available to the different level of  voucher and the cost.

There are five different character dining experiences at Disneyland—three in each of the on-site resort hotels and two in the parks—one each at Disneyland and California Adventure. 

When we first made our Disneyland reservation, I added two sets of vouchers in each of the categories.  As of yesterday, that changed, and we added another voucher for the regular “Character Dining” so that we can dine at all five of the character dining locations!  Oh, the things I do. . .

Is this going to save me money in the long run?  YES!  The vouchers include gratuity and tax for the meal.  And, with Disneyland having a hefty resort fee as a part of taxes, pre-paying saves us money.  While the Plaza Inn—Breakfast with Minnie & Friends in Disneyland is slated as the most economical character meal, the cost of the meals averaged out among the restaurants will again yield savings.  Most importantly, I will have peace of mind that these meals are already paid for!

As for gaining that same piece of mind with our other meals and saving money?  Well, each time we purchase a Disney gift card at Target we save 5% using our Red Card.  The husband already designated those to pay for meals. 

Random Thoughts As We Get Closer To Our Summer 2015 Disneyland/Legoland Vacation

I sort of have this running check-list in my head along with other random thoughts and questions leading up to our summer Disneyland/Legoland vacation.  In addition, I’m keeping an eye out for anything we might need for our next Disney Cruise in December.

While our vacation is booked (and even some portions paid for) I have yet to figure out transportation.  I logged into Super Shuttle’s website to inquire about costs—it’s going to be expensive—only to have my e-mail inbox ding with a 5% discount message from Super Shuttle.  That’s a start!

Good thing that Disneyland has a 60 day window to make Advanced Dining Reservations as we are not ready.  Oh, I’m sure we could be ready.  I remember pulling together a twelve day Disney World vacation right at the 180 day mark and very quickly compiling a list of restaurants.  So far, we’ve printed the list of restaurants from the Disneyland website and have selected ones we would like to try.  Interestingly, some of the restaurants we want are part of special dining packages such as World of Color and Fantasmic.  And, we’ve added character dining to our reservation—prepaying for vouchers that include the meal, tax, and gratuity. 

Packing is another random thought.  I know, we’ve got PLENTY of time.  First, we needed a new suitcase—one with wheels!  Each year, we’ve added a new suitcase/duffle to our arsenal and I just ordered and received a new rolling duffle to complete the checked luggage.  Our luggage takes a beating and the wheels are the first to go—though the suitcase we acquired two years ago is still going strong!

Another packing issue is that we are flying with a new-to-us airline this trip and there checked baggage weight limit is 40 pounds.  Every other airline we have flown with has a 50 pound limit.  And, I’m pretty good at estimating when we are close to or have hit the 50 pound limit (to .8 of a pound!) so I’m going to have to readjust my “scale”.  And, I may also employ the same type of packing we did last summer which was a bag for all of us for each “leg” or portion of our trip.  That way, the other bags can remain closed until the contents are needed for their portion of the vacation.

Also, this trip, no rolling carry-on bags.  Again, this new-to-us airline charges for carry-on bags!  $15 per bag per way--$30 round trip!  That would make it $90 for each of us to take a carry-on rolling bag with us and there is a weight limit for those, too!  Historically, I have packed at least one rolling bag full of shoes.  So with a reduced weight limit on checked luggage and no carry-on bags, I told the husband that each of us would be carrying a pair of shoes in our “personal” carry-ons, which are still allowed free of charge.  I’m actually looking forward to navigating the airports without the rolling carry-on bags—just not the packing challenge.

As far as the December cruise goes, I’ve got alerts set for Kayak to notify us of flight price changes.  Since our sailing includes a formal night and is over New Year’s I’m looking at dresses and have added several to my Amazon “save for later” cart.  My goal is to get the dress for FREE using gift cards earned through Swagbucks.  Speaking of free and wardrobe for our winter Disney vacation—I snagged a new denim jacket for the boy on Amazon for free.  I had the jacket in my “cart” and noticed that the price was reduced dramatically—over half—so I used gift cards already in my account and it is on its way along with a new rash guard.  I told the husband that I was already working on the wardrobe for our December trip.  He just smiled, knowingly.  He’s well aware of the running check-list!

We'll Be At Disneyland For the 60th Anniversay Celebration!

Did you know that we will be at Disneyland for the 60^th Anniversary Celebration for the park?  Well, we didn’t know. . . at first.  But we do now!

I stumbled across the opening date of Disneyland with a “Daily Disney Trivia” question posed on the Williams Family Blog Facebook page.  I then dawned on me that we would be in the thick of the celebration during our vacation this summer.

Then, I called Disneyland, well, the reservation number, as I had questions.  A great Cast Member, named Peter who sounded more like he was from the East Coast than the West Coast and when I asked him about that he said he “gets asked that all the time” but assured me he was a West Coast native.  Back to the point—when talking to Peter he told me that many great things are planned for the 60^th Anniversary Celebration.  Whew hew!

Already, announcements are being made for the celebration, like a new nightly fireworks show just for the occasion.  The new nighttime fireworks show will actually start sometime in May.

When the Williams Family was talking about this over dinner, we started to daydream about the possibilities. . . would there be new or unusual characters to meet?  A “dream squad” magically making guests’ dreams come true?  And then there’s the news of MagicBands and FastPass+ expanding to other parks.  We mused about the idea of being selected to test MagicBands at Disneyland this summer or better yet, that the service would get to Disneyland even before our arrival.

You might be asking if we planned our trip to Disneyland based on the 60^th Anniversary Celebration.  The answer: No.  The timing of our trip and the celebration is serendipitous.  And at the same time, it’s not the first time we’ve stumbled into some Disney Magic!

We're Headed West to Disneyland!

The Williams Family is headed West this summer to tour Disneyland.  We’re excited, curious, and feeling like “newbies” when it comes to planning a Disney vacation.  So where are we with our planning for a vacation that is six months away from today?

Flights—the flights are booked.  We got a great deal on direct flights from an airport 90 miles from home.  As a part of the flight booking process, we also paid for luggage and seats.  Done!

So we know our dates.  We’ve got 12 days and would like to spend a few/days nights at one Disneyland Resort, then head off to Legoland to stay and play in their theme park, water park, and hotel, then return to the Disneyland and give another resort a try.  Always researching. . .

We’ve hit a bit of a snag and I sent an email to our travel agent to help us find out more.  Transportation to/from the airports to the Disneyland Resort is available—for a fee.  Motorcoaches have specific operating times, not like Disney’s Magical Express in Orlando.  The buses start running at 6:00 am and our return flight is at 8:15 am so I’m wondering if getting on that first bus would give us enough time to get to the airport and make it to our flight.  Otherwise, we will have to make alternative transportation arrangements.

Then, there’s getting to Legoland.  Just like Disney to think of everything and adding transportation to Legoland and/or other Southern California destinations is something guests can add on to their vacation package.  What I need to know is the timing of that transportation and is it such that we can take our luggage with us?  The answers to this question will determine the types of tickets we want/need for both Legoland and Disneyland.  And, we obviously want round-trip transportation, just not on the same day.

For example, if the transportation to Legoland is early in the day, then there is no sense in having a Disneyland park ticket for that day.  Maybe there is enough time to have a character breakfast before going to Legoland. 

Walt Disney World planning veterans would be making dining reservations as today marks our 6 month window, but not Disneyland.  Dining reservations are available 60 days ahead.  Good thing as we are not ready to make them yet.

We’re already noticing the differences, just in the planning stages.  We’ll keep you posted!