Want to go to Disneyland? Here’s What it Cost Our Family in 2023!
A trip to Disneyland from Australia can be a pricey affair, but with a bit of savvy planning, and good budgeting, it's possible to do the trip for under $10K.
We did the trip for $7054 in Jan 2023 as a family of 2 adults and 1 child. Got more kids? I'll talk about this at the end of the blog!
Here's how:
Flight Costs:
We were able to use Qantas Frequent Flyer points and fly the three of us from Melbourne to L.A return in economy class for $1300 AUD, which saved us $7700.
We accumulated the points in less than a year, so it's definitely doable if you're willing to put in the effort!
If you’re curious about points hacking and how we earned our points so quickly, click here to read my intro guide.
You’ll also find a link in that blog to score up to 150K bonus points so you can kickstart your own points hacking journey (and get to Disneyland faster)!
Pre-Travel Costs:
We never travel without fully comprehensive travel insurance, and this, combined with our USA VISA's (known as an ESTA), and two sim cards, cost us $907 in total.
We used SCTI for our travel insurance, and King Sims for our mobile phone data. We were very happy with both, however, we’ve since discovered eSIMs and now exclusively use Airalo when we travel. With Airalo there's no need to swap a physical SIM card in and out, because the simcard is digital, so its super convenient and hassle-free!
Disney Park Tickets:
We purchased our theme park tickets from Disneyland directly and opted for a 3-Day Ticket with Admission to 1 Park Per Day. It cost us $2152 in total, which also included car parking for the three days, and genie passes.
Genie passes allow you to reserve a specific time slot for some rides, meaning you can skip the queues. These enabled us to get through most of the rides and attractions in our three days. However, it is important to note that you can only use the genie passes a few times per day, and they aren't valid for every ride.
Tip: While we booked our tickets directly, it is worth checking Klook first, as sometimes Klook have discounted Disney tickets!
Accommodation:
We stayed off-site at Hotel Peppertree and Suites in Anaheim - a boutique hotel with spanish charm. This saved us BIG!
In total, our accommodation for the Disneyland portion of our trip cost us $1300. If we had stayed on-site at the park, it would have cost us upwards of $5200, or if we had chosen to stay within walking distance, it would have cost us upwards of $2500.
While I acknowledge that you get extra benefits by staying on-site, e.g., early access to the park before the public, to me, it wasn't worth the additional cost.
We could not fault Hotel Peppertree and would happily stay there again.
It's an easy 7-minute drive from the parks, there's secure parking and BBQ facilities, and each room has a fully equipped kitchen, which helps save on eating out costs.
To top it off, there's also a supermarket right across the street, and most nights, there’s a taco truck out the front as well, where you can grab a yummy authentic taco for $3.00 USD.
I dream of these taco's still!
You can check out independent reviews of Hotel Peppertree or book your stay here! It's such a great hotel for families wanting to do Disney on a budget!
Car Hire & Taxis:
Being offsite meant that we needed to have a car, and these costs came in at $485. This included transport from LAX to Anaheim, rides to and from to pick up the hire car, the hire car itself, extra insurance and actual fuel.
We used Lyft instead of Uber, as it was about half the cost, and rented a car through Turo, which is basically like Airbnb for cars.
We were initially a little nervous about renting someone else’s personal car; however, the experience was incredibly positive, and we continued to use Turo when we needed to rent cars for the rest of our trip.
For 50% off 2 x Lyft rides, use my refer a friend code: Kirstin gave you 50% off 2 rides in Los Angeles: Click here.
Food:
Like any theme park, food within Disneyland itself is expensive. You can expect to pay between $8 - $12 for a snack item, $8.00 for a drink, and $20 for a meal.
We kept costs down by bringing our own drinks into the park (you're allowed to bring your own food and drinks into the park) and by eating two out of three meals per day, outside the park.
We cooked at the hotel, because we had a full kitchen, ate tacos from the taco truck, or grabbed a meal from fast food chains such as Taco Bell, and Chick-fil-A.
If we had to pick three favourite things from within the park itself that represented good value, they would be: Churros ($7.49), Mickey Pretzels ($11.95), and the mac and cheese hot dog ($19.41).
Our total food cost for this part of our trip was $660.
Souvenirs:
Like with any theme park, souvenirs are expensive, but you can't go to Disneyland and not purchase Minnie Mouse Ears, right?
We spent around $250 and brought home a few small things we’ll treasure.
Closing thoughts:
- Was Disneyland worth it? Yes.
- Was 3 days enough? Yes, if you are prepared to do 9+ hour days each day, and clock 26K steps a day!
- Would I take kids under 10 to Disney? No. I don’t think our son would have had the stamina at an earlier age. If you do want to go, and your kids are under 10, factor in an extra day or two, so that you can leave the park, have a nap, and come back.
- What if I have more than one child? If you have more than one child, I would add $2500 per child to our total. The flights won't be much more, nor will the hotel (our room at Hotel Peppertree fit 5 people), and car hire will be the same. The extra cost will come from the park tickets, travel insurance and food.
Disneyland is one of those special once-in-a-lifetime trips for a family. I am so glad we did it, and that some good planning enabled us to make it happen.
Got questions? Send us a DM on our Facebook or Instagram and we’ll see if we can help!
Kirstin XO
PS: Would you like us to add a USA Travel Diary & Activity Book for kids to our collection? Let us know.
