The Wood Between the Worlds

We sought out to do Disneyland in as little money as possible.  It was Brent's first time to Southern California and Disneyland, and he has been really reluctant to go.  Mostly because he prefers nature adventures.  And because he does not prefer huge monstrous crowds.  And he is very frugal.  Well...I talked him into going because I was pregnant for two years in a row, and I REALLY wanted to make it up to the kids by doing something fun together as a family.  Here are some of the ideas we came up with to do a frugal Disneyland trip.  These are some ideas that worked well for us:

Only go for 1 day:
There is no way we could see everything in one day.  But we really did not have the desire to see everything.  Everyone told us that if you go for 2 or 3 or more days that you save money.  That is NOT true.  While the cost of your day pass is cheaper each additional day you go, you still end up paying more than going for one day.  AND you end up spending more in the park.  AND we decided that we were going to check out what else there is to see and do in Southern California besides Disneyland.
By the way, we ended up buying our tickets at the main gate on the day we went to Disneyland.  I know it is not the cheapest way, but we felt it was the most scrupulous way to buy tickets...as there are no discount tickets out there for one day.
(And looking back, we are SO glad we only did one day.  We were SO beat!)

Find a cheap motel with free parking, close enough to walk to the park and save money on parking at Disneyland:
It doesn't need to be a super nice motel.  We did not plan on spending any time at our motel other than sleeping, showering and dressing.  We did not drive all the way to Southern California and pay big bucks for Disneyland to lay around a luxury motel.
Our pick was Abby's Anaheimer Inn.  It had a very low rating online.  But it was cheap and clean and had everything we needed.

Pack as much food as possible into the park.  Do NOT leave the park to buy dinner:
Before we left Oregon I made about 100 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and packed them in the bread bag that the loaf came in.  We also had chocolate milk cartons from costco, apples, bananas, oranges, dried fruit, bagels, cheese, turkey jerky, fruit leather, granola bars, etc...and we brought our own water bottles to fill up in the drinking fountains.  We did not ever stop to eat, to save time...because time = money!  We carried all of our food and water bottles in the basket of Oliver's stroller.  Between rides we would swoop over to the stroller and grab food, and eat it while waiting in line.  The only money we spent in the park was for dinner, and we spent around $12 TOTAL for 4 people.  We bought barbecued meat and vegetable shishkabobs in Adventureland.  And we saved a lot of time by not leaving the park...because remember, time = money!  If we ever go in the future and don't have a stroller, we would pack backpacks for each individual.

Pick the time of year to go to Disneyland WISELY!!:
I did some research on the internet before we decided to go and everywhere I read said that March was a good time to go to Disneyland.  Most spring breaks start in April, so March is safe.  So we were VERY surprised to find that the park was PACKED on the day that we went.  SO VERY PACKED.  It really wasn't worth it.  We made the best of it and had fun anyway, but the lines were all SOOO LOOOONG.  I don't want to complain about it too much, but we waited in some lines for two hours and then ended up leaving because we felt like we were wasting time.  I have learned an important factor in timing your Disneyland trip.  Take a look at the blackout dates for the season ticket holders.  Season ticket holders are mostly locals, and they are only allowed to go in the less busy times of the year.  Don't plan your trip the last week before their blackout dates.  If you do, Disneyland will be packed with locals.

If the park is not packed, use the Fast Passes.  IF it is packed, the Fast Passes are no good:
We tried using the fast passes and the line to get in with a fast pass was almost as long as the line without a fast pass.  AND the fast passes ran out about 2 hours after we got there because they got used up for the day.  Boo.  We discovered that instead of using all our time to wait in the really long lines during the busiest parts of the day, we would get more out of our money by doing all the rides with the little tiny lines.  We also spent a lot of time on Tom Sawyer's Island because the boys loved it and it wasn't crowded at all.  Then later after the crowds died down we were finally able to get onto some of the bigger rides like the Matterhorn.

If you're bringing a baby:
Babies can go on a lot of the rides.  We took Oliver on a ton of rides.  I had my ergo baby carrier and wore him on the front so that I didn't have to take him out to get on the rides.  He napped in there.  He nursed in there.  He pretty much stayed in there all day.  We didn't even use the stroller much, except to carry our food.  If you do go on a ride that a baby cannot go on, request a ride swap pass.  Usually you wait with the baby at the exit ramp and then when the other person gets off the ride you swap the baby and go up the exit ramp, so you don't have to wait in line again.  It's a good idea in theory...and I'm sure it works great on days that are not so busy...but we still had to wait 45+ minutes on rides like Indiana Jones because we got in line behind a herd of people with fast passes.  Ug.

Anyway, like I said we still had a lot of fun.  Part of the way through the morning we had to reevaluate our strategy, but after we did that we had a lot of fun.  We stayed at the park and went non-stop from opening to closing and didn't get back to our motel til almost 1 in the morning.  Our kids are at really great ages to stay at the park all day.  And we definitely got the most out of our day, considering the situation.
The boys' favorite rides were:
Toby: The Matterhorn and Pirates of the Caribbean
Joshua: The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean