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When planning your vacation to Disney, most people plan on visiting the various theme parks available! For those of you planning on visiting Disneyland, the following parks are available: 1. Disneyland, 2. Disney California Adventures. For those going to Disney World, there are the following parks: 1. Disney World, 2. EPCOT, 3. Disney’s Hollywood Studios, 4. Disney’s Animal Kingdom. In addition to these theme parks at Disney World, also available are the two water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon.
Tickets for the parks can be purchased at the theme parks, but are also available online at a discount. For those purchasing Disneyland tickets, ARES Travel is among the best location to get the greatest discount on tickets before your date of travel. Typically, the best priced Disney World tickets can be purchased from Undercover Tourist. I have purchased tickets from both vendors and feel confident in their services. Disney tickets are cheaper per day the more days purchased, thus the need for planning is great to help you save money!
When you are ready to plan your vacation, you should take a moment to really think about the details of your vacation in order to help you settle on the number of days tickets you will need. For example, if you and your family are planning a vacation that lasts from the 1 – 6 of any particular month, you know you have a total of 6 days. However, on your day of arrival, if you do not get into the Disney area until 4 PM, you will may not want to go to the parks on that day. Also, if you know you will be leaving the Disney area on the last day of your vacation at noon, you may also not want to go to the parks on that day. Also, when planning consider the other offerings available that you might instead enjoy over going to a theme park on one of your vacation days.
Here is a possible plan for your vacation to Disneyland:
Day 1 – Arrive, Dinner at Resort
Day 2 – Disneyland
Day 3 – Disney California Adventure
Day 4 – Pool at Resort, Downtown Disney, Tour of Surrounding Area
Day 5 – Disneyland/Disney California Adventure
Day 6 – Downtown Disney, Leave
Here is a possible plan for your vacation to Disney World:
Day 1 – Arrive, Dinner at Resort
Day 2 – Magic Kingdom
Day 3 – Hollywood Studios/Animal Kingdom
Day 4 – Downtown Disney, Blizzard Beach
Day 5 – EPCOT
Day 6 – Downtown Disney, Leave
In each of the above scenarios, you will need 3 days of tickets. Both plans would require a park hopping ticket so you could travel from one park to the other. However, a park hopping ticket does cost more than a ticket that does not have this added feature. If you do not believe that you would like to pay for this feature, the plan would need to be changed to accommodate. Also, if you look at the prices published for the tickets and find that the cost of the 3 day tickets is too much or that you would get a better deal on 4 or 5 days worth of tickets, you could alter the plans accordingly.
I hope that this gives you an idea of the importance of planning the days of your vacation. One final note, please remember to check the park times when planning your days to the parks. In the above instances, we assumed you would be arriving at 4 PM and that going to the parks would not be worth the price of admission. This may be true if the parks are to close at 9 PM. However, there are many days when the theme parks are open for much more extended hours. With this in mind, you may want to consider going to the parks on that day as well!
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We are fairly local, so most of our trips are just for the weekend, and we usually hit the park once. However on longer trips, we might do two different parks, and then hit Epcot in the evenings with our After 4 pass. Sometimes, sitting by the resort pool and relaxing is much more fun than battling the crowds of the parks!