Fulfilling a childhood dream...first time going to Disneyland

[choirboy501]

I'm finally doing it - I'm going to Disneyland.

Going to either of the Disney parks had been a dream since watching Wonderful World of Disney on NBC on Sunday nights as a kid. I remember snippets of the parks during the title sequence for the show. Also, I remember the special broadcast in 1975 for the opening of Space Mountain. Obligations, commitments, life has gotten in the way, and although I have made it to WDW twice in my lifetime (currently planning a Spring 2017 trip), I never made it out to DLR. In fact, I've not spent more than 5 days total in California in my life.

But now is the time.

PREPARATION

I first made the decision to go Fall of 2014. I know some about DLR, mostly from listening to various podcasts, but knew I needed to know more. I started checking out The DIS forums/blogs/info more frequently. I bought the Unofficial Guide. I signed up for Touring Plans and downloaded the Lines app. Now, when to go?

A DATE

When I've visited WDW, I have gone in the spring - March/April. I figured that would also be a good time to visit DLR. So, I started checking out crowd calendars. Initially I backed up the date a bit, to late January 2015, between New Year's and the February holidays, when crowds would be low. But the scheduling didn't work, and I couldn't get the free time. So I started aiming for the same time frame in 2016.

But then I made a commitment to attend a conference in Kansas City the last 3 days in September. I started thinking...hey, save some bucks by combining both trips! I live on Oahu, so making a stop at LAX enroute made sense. OK! But how many days?

I'm military, and Disney offers the Salute the Troops discount tickets for DLR, a 3 day park hopper ticket. Hmmm, 3 days might not be enough time to see everything. Then again, it leaves the desire to return and visit again. 3 days it is.

I started monkeying around on KAYAK to get the cheapest flight combination that would also allow me three full days at DLR without having to add extra days (and extra hotel nights) on the way to the conference. The conference starts on Monday, Sept 28, and I did not want to arrive the day of. Working backwards, use Sunday to travel from LAX to MCI (Kansas City, not to be confused with MCO, Orlando).
So, three full days would be Thursday through Saturday. Touring Plans says crowds in the parks with be 3/10 on Thur/Friday, and 4/10 on Saturday. Good.

So September 24-26, 2015 it is.

 

[ShanaMouse]

How exciting!!! And the combination of trips is definitely something I would have done as well. I am all about strategizing lol. I am currently planning our first trip to DL as well, going over Labor Day weekend this year

 

[choirboy501]

PARK TICKETS

As I said, I'm military, I'm using the Salute the Troops park hopper ticket that Disney offers to service members, either Active Duty, Reserve or National Guard, and their families. IIRC, the believe the limit is 10 tickets, though I don't remember if that is at one time, or during the year (though I'm not sure how they would track that). It's a great bargain - 3 day park hopper for DLR listed at $132.00 (mine was $129.75). Tickets have to be purchased ahead of time at ITT/MWR locations on military bases. That might be difficult for some who do not live close to any base (any service will work), but since I live on "Fortress Hawaii" it was easy.

At the time that I bought the ticket, they told me the expiration for the offer was in October 2015. Keeping up to date with various podcasts and websites, I let the sales person know that Disney had extended the offer into December 2015, though that wouldn't affect my trip. "We don't know anything about that." When he rung the ticket up on the register and printed the ticket, he made a point of showing me the expiration date. "Hey, you're right. How did you know that? Let me show my manager." So I waited another minute as he took the time to show my ticket with the extended expiration to his manager and other sales associates. Glad I could help.

He also stated that with the ticket I could go straight to the turnstiles and have it scanned without going to the ticket booth when arriving. I'm not sure; I plan on showing up plenty early (want to make rope drop) so I might just ask anyways.

OK, ticket purchased. I'm trying to do this as cheaply as possible, so the discount ticket was a big help. Spent so far this trip: $129.75.

 

[choirboy501]

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

This is the step that I figured would give me the most problems. First, trying to get the lowest cost, especially since I was booking flights less than three months out (I purchased my tickets last week). I did not think I would get anywhere near some of the cheap flights I had seen when I first started looking at flights 6-12 months out for various dates (based on crowd calendars and my work schedule) last fall, some as low as $430 round trip from HNL to LAX.

The additional problem I thought I might face was late flight times from HNL. As a general rule, flying from HNL to the eastern US requires a red-eye flight out of HNL to make connecting flights heading east. I've flown to the mainland several times a year, but only once have I flown to a location west of Kansas City. (as an aside, I try to avoid flights heading east that connect in California. Get as far east as possible. The best is a non-stop Delta has daily to Atlanta, but it is a bun-burner).

So, I started looking at flights leaving Tuesday evening, to arrive at LAX Wednesday, and have my first full day at DLR on Thursday. Everything was putting me into LAX super early times - like between 1 and 4 am. Booo. On a whim, I tried moving my flight to Wednesday morning, and actually got a combination of flights for the trip that put me into LAX just before 5pm on Wednesday, and ALSO was the cheapest combination of flights of all the ones I had tried.

The bad news was that is was 4 flights on 3 airlines, round-trip. It required going to each airline's website and purchasing the flights individually. But, it saved me some bucks, several hundred dollars.

Total spent for airfare: $701.63. It's a little high, but it includes all flights, including to the conference. I wouldn't know quite how to split it out, and will just leave it in, since I'm not being reimbursed for the flight to the conference, though other costs are being subsidized. Has to do with professional accreditation.

Spent so far this trip: $831.38.

 

[kaoden39]

I'm glad Disney does the tickets for military. They should! Flying is expensive and flying into LAX. Is smart because it is cheaper. You picked a good time to go. How wonderful to be going on your first trip to Disneyland! I really hope you enjoy the parks!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

joining in! We are doing our first trip to DLR this October so definitely interested in following along with your experiences.

Glad that this is working out for you and for multiple stops over multiple days that seems like a reasonable airfare - so glad you got that.

Thank you for your service!

 

[choirboy501]

joining in! We are doing our first trip to DLR this October so definitely interested in following along with your experiences.

Glad that this is working out for you and for multiple stops over multiple days that seems like a reasonable airfare - so glad you got that.

Thank you for your service!

Thank you for your thanks, and for your interest. I hope that I can post something that people will find both interesting (who wants to be known as boring?) and helpful when it comes to planning a trip to DLR. I doubt that I will post anything groundbreaking (King Solomon stated that "there is nothing new under the sun"), but maybe it will help someone.

If anything, I hope some folks on the boards can answer some of my questions and provide hints on how to do things to help me in my planning.