Tip Tuesday: Thinking of going to Disneyland? First you have to get there

Welcome to another Tip Tuesday!

This week, I wanted to start a series of tips related to my recent Disneyland trip this May.  I spent about six days in sunny (really sunny and hot) Los Angeles, and managed to get in a few days at Disneyland and California Adventure.

As I planned for this trip, one immediate difference struck me between this trip and my past trips to Walt Disney World.  It was so obvious that I really took this major difference for granted -- how was I going to get there?

Well, duh... I was going to fly.

As I said, this was so obvious that I just took this decision for granted, but as I started to research further, I quickly found that this was not so simple - where was I going to fly to?

You may not be aware that the greater Los Angeles area has not one, but five airports - all served to some degree or another by airline carriers.

The main airports are the Los Angeles International Airport (better known as LAX), LA/Ontario International Airport (ONT) and John Wayne International Airport (SNA).  Smaller airports are the Bob Hope Airport (BUR) located in Burbank and the Long Beach Airport (LGB) located in Long Beach, as the name implies.

While LAX is, by far, the largest airport in the LA area, it is not the closest to Anaheim.  That would actually be the John Wayne International Airport, located in Santa Ana.  From this airport, Disneyland is about a 20-40 minute drive, depending on traffic, whereas the drive from LAX to Anaheim is at least twice that long, if not much longer.  The Long Beach Airport is a close second, while the Bob Hope Airport is the furthest away.

So as you can see from the map above, in terms of distance, John Wayne or Long Beach are the best airports to fly into if you're going to Disneyland.  But... there's more to consider -- airfare.

Depending on what airline you fly, you might find a cheaper fare to LAX or ONT than SNA or LGB.  The good news is that Delta has many regular flights to SNA, which were cheaper than flights to LAX or ONT.  It all depends on what airline you use and what day and time of year you're flying.  The best thing to do is go online and check airfare for all the LA airports and see what you can get... and then check it again, and again, and again until you think you're found the best price.

Another benefit to John Wayne is that it's a MUCH smaller airport that LAX, which means it's far easier to get into and out of than the behemoth that is LAX.  Anyone who's been through LAX knows what I mean.

Before I wrap this up, I'll add one more variable to the mix.  Don't discount San Diego.  Yes, it's about a 90 minute drive to Anaheim (assuming no serious traffic issues), but it's a beautiful drive up I-5 and I've often found flights into San Diego (SAN is the airport code) can be even cheaper.  Remember, Disney don't provide any free ground transportation from any of the airports, so you're likely renting a car anyway.

Every Disney Parks fan needs to visit Disneyland at least once (I recommend visits every few years), so I hope these tips will come in handy whenever you start to plan that trip out west!

Tip Tuesday: Disneyland lodging

Welcome back for another Tip Tuesday!

With a trip to Disneyland the near future, I thought I'd share a tip about lodging when it comes to planning a Disneyland vacation.  One of the first major questions to answer is this:  to stay on property or not.

This is a key decision that must be made because it can impact many aspects of your trip.  Here's something you might not have considered before.

Do the Disney resorts give you closer access to the parks than off-site resorts?  Well the answer is both yes and no.  Certainly the Grand Californian provides the closest access to both parks - it is part of Disney California Adventure and has it's own special entrance to that park, so there's no beating the Grand Californian when it comes to proximity to the parks.

But what about the Disneyland Hotel and the Paradise Pier Hotel?

Click image for a larger view

If you take a look at the map to the right, you'll see the locations for the Disneyland Hotel, Paradise Pier Hotel and the Good Neighbor Resorts on Harbor Boulevard.

Do you see how far away both the Disneyland Hotel and Paradise Pier Hotels are from the main esplanade between Disneyland and California Adventure?  True, there is the monorail station in Downtown Disney that is fairly close to the Disneyland Hotel providing transportation to Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom, but overall, it's pretty clear that the Good Neighbor Hotels, especially those right across from the main pedestrian entrance provide closer walking access to the park entrances than do the Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier Hotel.

Now, I know location is only one factor to keep in mind.  There's also theming, which you certainly will not get with any of the Good Neighbor Hotels.  I've stayed at these hotels before and will be doing so again soon and I'm not under any illusion that these hotels provide anything more than a clean room with decent amenities.  If you're looking for any sort of theming or experience, you'll find it at a Disney hotel, not at any of the Good Neighbor Hotels.

On the other hand, there's the price to consider and there's simply no way the on-property resorts come anywhere close to the inexpensive rates of the Good Neighbor Hotels.  Some of the rates you can find along Harbor Boulevard will be half (or more) the rate for the on-property hotels.

It's all about determining what your priorities are.  If you are focused mostly on proximity and/or price, then the Good Neighbor Hotels are the way to go.  If, instead, you're focused more on amenities and experience, then you need to seriously consider one of the on-property hotels.

Once you've got an idea of where you want to stay, you'll next need to think about how you're going to get there.  I'll share some thoughts about that in a future post.

What do you think?  Which is the better option?  Staying on-property or off?  Post a comment!

Tip Tuesday: Remember where you parked!

Welcome to another Tip Tuesday -- from Walt Disney World!

While I sit here at the Boardwalk Resort allowing my feet to recuperate from Sunday's full marathon.. (I did finish, so my thanks to all the well-wishers), I did want to bring you a quick tip I happened to think about after overhearing at the Friendship boat dock by Epcot's International Gateway trying to determine who to best get to Animal Kingdom.  Here's the hitch - the time was 7:45 p.m.  Animal Kingdom had closed about an hour ago.  I can only assume this family had parked at Animal Kingdom, park hopped to Epcot for the afternoon and was trying to get back to their car.  I also can only assume they decided to park hop using Disney transportation as opposed to driving their own car so as to avoid paying a second parking fee (or so they maybe thought).

So here's the tip for this week, and this comes from the "a little bit of planning makes a huge difference" department.  If you're planning to park your car at one theme park and will be hopping to another park, you should go ahead and drive between each park.  Once  you pay for parking at one theme park, you won't be required to pay additional parking fees at any other parks on the same day. 

So just drive and don't worry about trying to get back to a different park.

The only exception to this might be between Epcot and the Magic Kingdom - just keep an eye on when the monorails stop running -- one hour after regular park hours end (NOT after evening Extra Magic Hours end).

Until next week!

Tip Tuesday: Avoiding the "grunt work"

Welcome to another Tip Tuesday!

This week, Disney announced a new series of big discounts and incentives for the fall and winter seasons. Since the new offers came out, people have been booking (and re-booking) like crazy. The result is a slower Disney Web site and tied up phone lines.

To be honest, the task of booking a trip and making ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations) can be a real hassle. It takes a while to go through all the steps required to book a trip and then there's always the chance that Disney will announce a new, even better offer - one you might not be aware of.

So how can you avoid the grunt work of booking while also ensuring you are getting the very best deal, even if that means re-booking your trip after a new discount is announced?

That's pretty easy -- use a Disney specialized travel agent!

I know, I know. You may be thinking that a travel agent just adds more cost to the trip and you can book it cheaper directly through Disney. Well, that's not the case, especially if you use a no-fee travel agency.

What do I mean by no-fee agency? A no-fee travel agency doesn't charge their clients any fees for using their services. No agency charges for the initial booking, no agency charges for any re-bookings, no agency charges for making ADRs, even no agency charges for planning advice!

So how do these agencies make their money? Disney pays commission on every booking. If you book through a travel agency, that commission goes to the agency. If you book directly through Disney, that commission goes back to Disney. The rate a travel agent can quote will be at least as low as Disney posts online and often times will be better because the agent can take advantage of a discount or other offer you might not be aware of.

It's important to remember that not all travel agents and agencies are no-fee, so you have to do your homework. You'll want to go with an agency that is licensed, bonded, insured and is trusted in the travel industry. There are quite a few fly-by-night agents out there, so you want to make sure you're working with someone you can trust and who knows Disney.

So how do you know who to use? I recommend looking for an agent or agency that is an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. These are agents and agencies who are specially identified by Disney as the top Disney vacation planners and so may call themselves "Authorized Disney Vacation Planners" and use the logo shown above. In short, these are the agents and agencies who are the cream of the Disney crop. If you book with an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, you know you are working with someone who knows Disney inside and out.

But getting back to why using a travel agent or agency is so helpful, let me give you some real-world examples. Earlier this week I was talking with Beci Mahnken from MouseFanTravel, who told me that she was spending literally hours and hours on the phone (while on vacation, I might add) booking trips for various clients. Beci wasn't the only one. My own personal MouseFanTravel agent (yes, I personally use and highly recommend MouseFanTravel), Vicki Damanti, worked for a solid 18+ hours making bookings (including for me - thanks Vicki!!), and then was up early and at it again the next day for another 18+ hours. It's a safe bet that many, many other Authorized Disney Vacation Specialists were up for many hours.

Why all this time? As I mentioned at the top of this post, Disney announced some pretty major discounts/incentives this week. As a result, there have been a lot of new bookings, but also a lot of RE-bookings. While a new booking doesn't typically take all that long, a re-booking is a completely different matter. Vicki told me she has spent anywhere from 30 minutes to upwards of two hours on hold with Disney to re-book for a client to take advantage of the new discounts.

Let's stop and think about this for a minute. Let's say about a month ago, you booked a Walt Disney World vacation at the Contemporary Resort for this December directly through Disney. At the time there were no real significant discounts available. Then, this week, you hear about the new major discounts, including a 40% off room-only discount for certain deluxe resorts including the Contemporary, or a $500 gift card offer or free dining. You realize you could save hundreds on your upcoming trip and decide to call Disney to re-book your package. Well, you're not alone as thousands of other people are doing the same thing. This means a lot of hold time. You would end up spending hours on hold waiting to speak to a Disney representative to re-book your trip. That's a lot of time you could spend doing other things. Wouldn't it be nice if someone else could handle all that grunt work? If you used an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, you wouldn't have to do a thing! They will take care of all the grunt work for you.

Best of all, you shouldn't even have to ask. Again, I'll use a personal example: When I first booked my Disney trip for June 2010 at the Beach Club, the Annual Pass discounts had not been announced. Before I even knew the new AP discount had been announced, I got a call from my MouseFanTravel agent Vicki Damanti telling me she had re-booked my trip and saved me about $200.

A good Disney-specialized travel agency will take care of all those details for you and it doesn't cost a cent to you. So why NOT use a Disney-specialized travel agency? You have nothing to lose and everything to save.

Disclosure notice: in no way have I been compensated by MouseFanTravel or any other agency for the opinions expressed in this post.