How to Visit Disneyland on a Budget

I know, I know, Disneyland and budget shouldn’t be in the same sentence. With prices rising across the board, it’s hard to imagine that you can visit Disneyland on a budget. But let me tell you, there are many choices you can make in order to make a visit to the happiest place on earth more affordable. I believe that a trip to Disney shouldn’t break the bank, so I’m going to tell you everything I’ve learned about saving money from my many visits to Disneyland over the years.

I know some of you are still skeptical about if it’s possible to do Disneyland on a budget. A lot of people have actually balked at the prices at Disneyland recently and have decided to take their tourist dollars elsewhere. But hopefully this Disneyland on a Budget guide can help you stay within budget if a trip to Disneyland has been on your bucket list for years. It really is a magical place that everyone should experience, so I hope this post helps you plan and save a little bit of money so that you can make that trip happen.

So without further ado, here are my tips!

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Visit in the Low Season or on a Weekday

If you want to save some money on your Disneyland trip, the best way to do that is by visiting during the low season. Not only will park tickets be cheaper, but hotels will be a lot cheaper as well. As with any other hotel and tourist attraction, the larger the demand, the more expensive prices will be. So visiting during the low season is crucial if you want to save a lot of money and do Disneyland on a budget.

I have a post that goes over the best and worst times to visit Disneyland. If you’d like to learn more about when to go to the resort, definitely check it out! But to summarize, visiting during holidays and school breaks will mean higher prices for tickets and hotels, while visiting in off-season months like January and February will mean cheaper prices.

It’s worth noting that, for park tickets, only 1-Day tickets vary in price depending on the day you visit. For all other tickets (2 to 5-Day tickets) the price for them remains the same no matter when you visit. If you’re planning on visiting for more than one day, then you could theoretically go at any time and still pay the same rate (although hotels around Disneyland will still be affected by when you go). That being said, you still don’t have to pay full price for park tickets if you’re going for 2 or more days. I will outline ways to save on those tickets too in another section below.

The other thing you need to take into account is ride closures. Going in the off-season may save you a ton of money. However, you’ll also find that a lot of rides are closed for refurbishment during the off-season. If this isn’t a problem for you then definitely consider visiting in the off-season. If, however, you want to experience all the headliners, then maybe you can find a time of year that is between busy and not busy, like May or the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Stay at an Off-Site Hotel

In my opinion, Disneyland is the one Disney destination where staying off-site makes the most sense. There are a ton of great, value-priced hotels just steps away from Disneyland (sometimes they’re even closer to the parks than the actual Disneyland Resort Hotels). The cheapest Disneyland hotel (the Pixar Place Hotel) costs around $500 per night. Meanwhile, you can get hotels around Disneyland for $150 a night. The amount you can save by staying off-site is huge, and you’ll find that most guests do this anyway.

But aside from the price, you’re probably wondering why I advocate against staying at a Disneyland Resort hotel. Well, the main reason is because, unlike staying at a Walt Disney World hotel, you don’t get any benefit from staying at a Disneyland hotel. Disneyland used to offer Early Entry for hotel guests, but they slowly scaled back that benefit until it was removed entirely.

Now they replaced that benefit with a lightning lane benefit for hotel guests. Now before you get excited, the benefit is just one Lightning Lane per person per stay. Not per day, per STAY. That means if you were visiting the parks for 4 days, you would only get 1 lightning lane return time for all four days of your visit. To me, this doesn’t justify the hundreds of dollars extra you would be paying to stay on site.

The off-site hotels are, for the most part, really great. Their rooms aren’t as nice as the Disney hotels, but considering you’re going to be at the park for most of the day, they’re good enough as a place to rest at the end of the day. Some hotels even have suites that are much cheaper than the Disney suites but still come with all the amenities and space you could need. If you want to save a lot of money and do Disneyland on a budget, definitely consider staying off-site.

Buy Costco / Klook / Third Party Ticket Deals

I won’t sugarcoat it: Disneyland tickets are expensive. Sometimes it feels like you need to sell an arm and a leg to afford to go to Disneyland. But the bright side is there are things you can do to lessen what you pay for Disneyland tickets. And my biggest tip is to do this: buy from a third party.

I know what some of you may be thinking: why would I book with a third party when I could book with Disney directly? Well sometimes third parties have ticket deals that are better than what Disney can offer. Sure, Disney has offers sometimes, but they’re usually only confined to Southern California Residents. So if you aren’t from Southern California, then you’re better off booking your tickets from a third party to get some form of discount.

One of the best places to buy tickets is Klook. Klook tickets are always discounted and they sometimes come with some add-ons too. Note that even though you book tickets through Klook, or any third party, you still need to make park reservations on the Disneyland website. I have a link you guys can use to save a little money when you book Disneyland tickets through Klook. You can access it here.

Another third party with a lot of ticket deals is Costco. Costco will usually have a deal where they bundle tickets with a park hopper option and Lightning Lane Multi Pass included for a very reasonable price. The number of park days usable with the ticket may vary, but it’s usually anywhere from 2 to 4 days. The best part is that anyone can use them, not just Southern Californians. So if you have a Costco membership, you may be able to save a lot by buying through them.

Finally, there are many theme park websites and travel agents you can book tickets from. These include Getaway Today and Undercover Tourist, which are my two favorite websites to check out for discounted tickets. Getaway Today in particular is great as it allows you to bundle your hotel with your park tickets.

I remember I bought 6 nights at the Castle Inn and Suites from Getaway Today and it only amounted to $1000. That’s an insanely good deal. They also regularly have ticket deals where you can, for example, pay for adults tickets with kids prices. I would highly recommend checking out their website, which I will link here.

Take Budget Airlines or Drive to Anaheim

To save on airfare, I would recommend arriving in Anaheim via a budget airline. When it comes to short haul flights, there are many different options around LA and Orange County. My favorite has to be SNA or Long Beach as they have convenient transport options to Disneyland and the surrounding hotels.

Do note that it’s best to arrange your transportation before you arrive at the airport. Also, be aware that some budget airlines don’t include baggage. So if you’re planning on buying your weight in Minnie Ears, then definitely take that into consideration.

In terms of airports to fly into, I would recommend SNA first, then Long Beach, Burbank, and LAX in that order. LAX, even though it may have the most flights, is also just a pain to deal with. You’re better off arriving at the other airports, but if you don’t have a choice, then just do your research and make sure you have your transport option arranged before you fly into LAX.

If you live relatively near Disneyland, I would actually recommend driving to get there, especially if you’re traveling in a group larger than 3 people. Gas will probably cost you less per person than airline tickets would, but only if you’re traveling in a group that is, as mentioned, larger than 3 people. Anything less than that and you may be better off flying, depending on where you’re coming from. Doing these will help you do Disneyland on a budget.

Rope Drop and Stay Till Park Close

Now we’re getting into the ways you can save when you’re at the parks. One way you can save money is by rope dropping the parks and staying till park close. How does this save money, you ask? Well if you decide to rope drop and park close, then that means you’ll be able to do a lot of rides in the morning and evening with little to no wait. Because of this, you won’t need to buy Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Lightning Lane Single pass.

Remember that, for a family of 4, buying Lightning Lanes for the day will cost you around $150. Cutting this cost will save you a LOT of money if you go for multiple days. If you can get on most of the headliners during these times then you have no need for Lightning Lane at all. But again, getting on these rides means you need to have a good strategy for the day, especially for rope drop.

I have a few resources you can use to plan out a good rope drop strategy. Here is my Disneyland Rope Drop guide and my Disney California Adventure Rope Drop guide as well. Hopefully they give you all the info you need and answer any questions you might have about what rope drop is and how to do it.

The secret here is that you shouldn’t just have a good rope drop plan. You need a good plan for park close too. I usually am able to do more rides at park close than at rope drop. Lines will essentially dwindle after the fireworks and will slowly vanish as the night goes on. I have done up to 7 rides in an hour right as the park was closing. Combining that with Rope Drop and you can get through almost every major ride in the park in those 4-5 hours that make up rope drop and park close. It’s an underrated way to do Disneyland on a budget, so keep that in mind and do the best you can to have a good rope drop and park close.

Bring in Food from Outside

One thing that’s nice about Disneyland is that they allow outside food and drinks into the park. Many people don’t know this but you can bring almost anything into Disneyland when it comes to food and drinks. The only things you can’t bring in are loose ice and alcohol. Other than that, it’s all fair game.

Sometimes I buy some bread, cheese, cold cuts, and other things from the supermarket so that I can have a sandwich in the park. There’s an abundance of tables and chairs that you can use in the park that are located adjacent to restaurants that even non-restaurant goers can make use of them. I would recommend just spreading out on one of these tables and eating your packed lunch or dinner.

You can do the same thing for snacks as well. If you don’t want to pay $5 for a churro or even more for an ice cream, then simply pack snacks from outside the park for your kids to consume while at the park. This is another Disneyland secret that many don’t know about, and since food spending at Disneyland can get pretty high pretty fast, it’s good to know that you can save a bit of money by preparing food yourself.

Utilize Disney Gift Cards

Another way to save is by utilizing Disney Gift Cards, and there’s a certain promotion that Disney does that will allow you to save a little money. Basically, sometimes stores sell Disney Gift Cards at discounted prices. It’s not a huge discount, and is usually only about 10%. This means that if you buy a gift card worth $50, you’ll only pay $45 for it.

Now if you buy $500 worth of Gift Cards, that’s an estimated savings of up to $50. That’s a huge deal if your goal is to do as much as possible without breaking the bank. Not a lot of people know that Disney does these little promotions for gift cards, so I would consider buying them if you need to visit Disneyland on a budget.

Bring a Water Bottle

This might seem like a weird tip, but the cost of bottled water can accumulate substantially when you’re at the parks. You may end up spending a ton of money just on this, especially in the summer months. To combat this, bring a reusable water bottle to the parks and just keep refilling it at restaurants so that you can avoid paying for water again and again.

Notice I said restaurants and not drinking fountains. That’s because restaurants will actually give you a cup of iced water for free as many times as you want. If you need cold water to combat the heat of the day, then just head to the counters of quick service restaurants and ask for iced water. You can even get as many cups as you like! If you’re visiting Disneyland on a budget, then definitely remember this tip.

Take Home Free Souvenirs

Disneyland souvenirs can be expensive. Not everyone has $80 to spend on a spirit jersey. The good news is that Disneyland has a bunch of souvenirs that you can get for free! They might not be as flashy or exciting as a spirit jersey, but they’re cool ways to remember your trip to Disneyland.

The first is a guidemap. You can get maps of both DCA and Disneyland for free at the entrances to each park. Another popular free souvenir are the special buttons that you can get for special occasions. They were meant to commemorate occasions like weddings, graduations, anniversaries, birthdays, and first visits to Disneyland, but you can also get a generic “I’m Celebrating” button and cast members will even write down what you’re celebrating on the button.

My absolute favorite free souvenir has to be the Animation Academy drawing. Animation Academy is an attraction inside the Animation Building in Hollywoodland at DCA. During a drawing session, you will be led by an animator as you learn to draw different Disney characters. The best part: you get to keep your drawing afterwards! It’s a fun way to commemorate your visit to Disneyland.

Some attractions also have paper goodies or stickers that they give out. You can get a decoder from Indiana Jones, or a sticker from Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. You can also get a free paper drivers license from cast members at Autopia. Another thing Disneyland gives out for free are on-ride pictures. You can get them at Space Mountain, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters at Disneyland and at Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission BREAKOUT, Radiator Springs Racers, and Incredicoaster at DCA. Just be sure to input the right code on the app to receive the pictures on your phone.

And that’s all my tips! I hope they’re able to help plan your Disneyland trip better, especially if you need to visit Disneyland on a budget. Are there money-saving tips you think I missed? Feel free to reach out to me on my socials if you have any more tips! Also, send me a message if you have any questions. Have an amazing time at the parks!

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