Today is Father's Day.
My intention today is to share some mo-nay saving tips for family holidays - specifically in Disneyland, but I wouldn't feel right posting this frivolous business before taking a minute to acknowledge the fantastic amigos in our lives.
There are four fellas in our lives who are making a tremendous difference in our kids' lives.
My brother, Garth.
My father in law, Keith.
My Dad, Murray.
And my husband, life partner, and baby Daddy, Blake.
In my life, I have never known anything but a positive, and truly, reliable, male influence.
I never doubted that my Dad would be there. That my Uncle Matthew, 6 houses down, or my Grandpa, one block over, would be there.
They just always, were.
I realize now that this isn't always the case and it breaks my heart a little bit. These guys have exemplified feminism before I even knew what this was. Encouraging the women in our family with a quiet pride, so that we would always think that we could be, or do, anything.
I knew what I valued in a husband before I ever met Blake, because of all of the Dads who'd been part of the village who raised me. He checked the boxes. I wasn't sure children would be in the cards we were dealt. They were. And he is the most amazing Dad to the three kids at our house.
Happy Father's Day, guys!
OK, so I want to share a few things about our Disneyland trip that saved us MEGA bucks. Like, mega.
Numero, Uno.
Book. In. Advance. (If you can.)
We booked our trip almost a year in advance. Through a travel agent. (I will refer to her at the end). This allowed us to pay off our trip when we had some extra dough. I personally don't have $5G in an account to spend on a holiday - or else I'd be on one right now! So, we paid when we could, and don't owe a darn thing now that we're home!
#2.
Book a hotel with a kitchen. This was really key for us. We are a family of 5. That's a LOT of food. It is 2018. Groceries can be delivered right to your hotel. We did this twice. In 7 days. Family of 5 = LOTS of eating. Like, lots. Snacks on snacks on snacks...and ice cream, and chips, and...we packed our lunches for the parks. I'm quite sure packing our own lunches and snacks saved around $500 alone. We also never wasted any time waiting in very, very long lines waiting for things like hot dogs. Don't get me wrong, we ate snacks at the park, but the requirement was that it needed to be something special. Anything shaped like Mickey was an automatic yes. We also brought our own stainless steel water bottles. Filled with ice, we just need to find a water fountain to top up and had ice cold water all day. Lemme' tell ya? A thirsty kid is a real bear, and to have to wait in line for a $3(USD, remember!) bottle of water would have been horrible!
#3
Book your park tickets during the Canadian citizen special. It's been going on for a few years, and usually comes out around February, so hopefully they have this promotion in the future. You will save 25% on your tickets - which is basically exchange, so that helps a lot!
D)
Book a hotel that is very close to the park, or close to a Disney parking lot. We never spent a dime on travel. Our hotel was saddled up right next to the Toy Story parking lot, so with a short 5 min walk we jumped right onto a bus and were dropped off in front of the parks. 20 min door to door and saved our feet!
4.
I was very, very careful to choose the hotel we did as it had full breakfast and ALSO had, what was advertised as, a "happy hour". Every morning, as early as 630, if we so chose, we ate a good breakfast. Eggs, waffles, sausage, cereal, toast - lots of options! Then, Monday through Thursday, we made sure while we were taking our break at the hotel from the crowds at the park, we grabbed this "light dinner" to eat by the pool. The evening food was plenty enough to feed our whole family. Burgers, soup, salads, crackers and cheese and fruit, and each night had a theme so there was loads of variety. FA-REE, YA'LL!! Free food is where we did most of our cost savings, truth be told. Also, it's much easier to make wiser choices when there's salads up in yo' face! Friday, and Sunday, we also ate dinner at the hotel. There were BBQ's by the pool so we just ordered groceries to BBQ and ate by the pool while the kids swam! We went for one dinner and one lunch. That was it.
Last one, I swear!
Give your children a pre-loaded Disney card. Only for them, and one for each of them. You want that little trinket/piece of trash/memorabilia? Better get your card out! Once it was used up, that was it. Do not ask me for more money, you had lots. I found the kids were pretty good once they realized the limitation of the card. Not much whining, which is not normal for this crew! We also asked for Disney gift cards over the holidays leading up to our trip, so we went into our trip with several hundred dollars to spend at the park on Mickey-shaped ice cream and such.
If you are planning a trip to the most magical place on earth (it is NOT, I repeat, NOT, the happiest place on earth), then I highly recommend the Homewood Suites (link below). The staff are phenomenal, and it was reasonably priced, and all of the other reasons as mentioned above. I also recommend using Sue Faraschuk, from Discover with Sue. She was awesome to work with and could totally handle my hot-mess-ness! Let me know if you have any other cost-saving tips!
http://homewoodsuites3.hilton.com/en/hotels/california/homewood-suites-by-hilton-anaheim-resort-convention-center-ANADLHW/index.html
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