I never buy drinks in the park (unless I am splurging on a mint julep). I always take the small packets of crystal light and the like, and fill up at one of any of the drinking fountains within the park. With many the water tastes fine, and the few that it does not, I flavor with the packets. Water is almost three bucks a pop for a small bottle. My DD has a small water bottle on cord. I can refill that all day and she carries it around with her and can have all the water she wants.

By the way, You do not have to register online for the Free on your birthday, but it does make things quicker when you get in line to get your pass. If you already have a park admission, then you just show proof of your birthday with an id (or with a birth certificate for children that do not have a government id) and you will receive a Disney gift card in the amount of one day’s admission. This can be used at many of the shops, but is not good for food. IF you would rather, you can get a fast pass for several attractions for up to five people in you party in lieu of the Disney fun card. I think the other option is a one day ticket good for any time within the next year. (just a quick note…even if you do register, you still must show proper government id or birth certificate)

If you are staying at a hotel that has a bit of a walk, I would suggest looking in to see if the hotel in on one of the ART (Anaheim Resort Transit) routes. You can get a pass for one or several days and take the ART trolleys to and from the resort as well as surrounding attractions (the Gardenwalk, the mall, etc). That way, if you do not want to walk or catch a cab, you simply hop the ART. It usually runs around the same time as the resort is open. (You can find the ART at http://www.rideart.org/index.php?loc=1)

Oh and another fun tid-bit, you can ask a cast member if it is ok to ride with the Capitan on the Steam boat ride and they may let you, if they do then you get to sign the guest book up there, the kids get a Certificate saying that they are steam boat drivers and it is free!

Have Fun!

Jemelene’s last blog post..Explaining My Rant

Transportation – there is a shuttle bus you can get a ticket for which we used a lot. It runs very often throughout the day and is nice when your feet are just too tired. It is a long 3-5 block walk that takes about 10-15 minutes depending on the kids but is nice. There was a small parking lot at the hotel but I don’t know if they charged for it because we didn’t need it (we flew).

We would eat lunch in the park and then dinner outside of the park. Our meal in the park for the 5 of us generally cost us $50-$80. We never spent less than that even for a hamburger meal. The girls carried fanny packs that had their autograph books in them and a pen so that they had them on their bodies at all times – that way I didn’t have to be responsible for them. We also got ticket holders (lanyards that are wide that pins can go on) that have a plastic pouch at the bottom for your ticket and ID, etc. You need them to get into the park and off and on throughout for fast passes, etc. The kids always wore theirs and we wore ours. My husband and I carried backpacks that had our cameras, the ponchos, and the snacks in them. We bought a ton of snack food before hand and took it down with us. We bought beef jerky, pretzels, microwave popcorn (use the microwave in the morning before you go), candy, granola bars etc. etc. that we split up in large ziploc bags. Might not matter with your kids but we split them all into 5 separate bags so when yours was gone you couldn’t cry that someone ate all the *****. We also bought a flat of water down there at a store (we had a car one day when we went to Hollywood) and so we carried 2-3 bottles of water each day per backpack. They do have drinking fountains in the park but we didn’t like the taste of the water and to buy it was expensive. I think the snacks saved us a lot of $$ each day. We would buy things to snack on occasionally but it eliminated a lot of the junk. The park staff does look through your bags when you enter the grounds but no one ever said anything about bringing food and drinks in (and we did not hide it).

We brought those really cheap dollar store ponchos that we wore on water rides. If it’s not really warm then you end up walking around wet for a while. If you don’t want to wear them then you can at least wrap them around your bags for the rides. They are small and can store in a backpack until you need them. They sell them for $7 at the gift shop there but you can buy two for a dollar walmart – back in the hunting outdoors area. We would hang them off the backpack to dry after the ride and stuff them down inside the pack until we needed them again. Loved them.

We did get into pin trading (didn’t think we would) while we were there and the kids loved it. If I had known that I would have purchased a bunch of pins beforehand (online) so that we had some to trade. Purchasing them in the park is expensive. It was fun to trade with the Disneyland staff and my girls loved it.

Feel free to email me with any questions and have a great time. It is a great experience and I’m sure you will enjoy it – even more with cash!!

My only tip is to watch out for Splash Mountain for your 6 year old. My six year, girl, loves roller coasters, etc. But this ride scared her because she is so tiny that she literally felt like she was going to fly out of the car because there is no seatbelt. We bought the picture because it was priceless, just wish hubby was on the ride with us because it would have been an awesome Christmas card.

When we were there the Finding Nemo submarine ride was brand new. We took advantage of having early morning admission to ride this, because honestly, I would have not stood in the long lines for this ride. The girls liked it but it was too hyped and a disappointment to me.

Also, don’t forget about websites like
http://allears.net/index.html
http://www.mouseplanet.com/