Help with Disneyland/San Diego trip - doing it on a budget??

[Hooliesmoolies]

We are planning to go to Disneyland with a 5 & 7 year old in August 2016. Our plan is to do three days of Disneyland parks and 3 days in San Diego (including the zoo). The hotel near Disneyland is coming in at £147 per night. This is for a 'kids room' - a room for parents and a room for children. Which would be lovely. But it doesn't include food and I'm getting worried about al the costs adding up to crazy levels.

So, please - any recommendations for cheap nice hotels? Also, how much is food likely to cost, for a family of four, for say - lunch and dinner in the park? How much would it cost outside the park? The breakfast prices at the aforementioned hotel also look crazy expensive - are there places outside we could find? How much would they cost? How is it best to do Disneyland? Any tips?

For the San Diego bit - where should we stay? And same questions about costs. We are planning to go to the zoo, and the beach. Not sure if we'd be missing anything else wonderful? What sort of cost would you expect for lunch and dinner?

I know these are probably crazy questions, given it depends on where you go, but I'm trying to work out what our budget a) must be (e.g. minimums) b) should be (e.g. averages) and c) could be (e.g. if we were splurging a little).

Thanks so much!

The Dibb website : www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/ should be able to help.

Are you flying to San Diego from the UK as that will cost a fortune?

The Disboards forum is really helpful for Disney.

Presumably you have been looking at hotels in the city of Anaheim with regards to Disneyland. There are plenty of hotels and restaurants around there and some of these are opposite the entrance to the park as well.
Unlike the Florida parks, the two Disneyland parks still use the Fastpass system so if your children for instance are huge fans of Cars (the movie) then it would be adviseable to go on their Radiator Springs ride first. That is located in their California Adventure park

If you look at Google maps of the area around Disneyland, it should give you far more info as well.

Chains like Embassy Suites include breakfast as part of the room rate but no meals is pretty much standard. Many Anaheim hotels provide shuttle buses but these can and do get very crowded because many people still want to get there for opening.

Are you planning on only going there for a week?. Its a long long way to go there for simply a week. Would you fly into and out of LA and drive down to San Diego?. (BTW BA are the only carrier that flies direct into San Diego from the UK).

Thanks so much for the link to the Disney boards and for the info. I will have a good look at all the info!

In terms of the trip, we are doing a return flight to LA, but in total we will be in the US for a month. The first 10 days will be in Texas (where we are doing a 'stop-over' - this is the main part of the holiday because we are visiting family) then LA (which is our add-on to the family visit), and then back to Houston for 10 days. Amazingly, because we are essentially on flights to LA via Texas the addition of LA is only about £200 more for the whole family. But it is the costs once we are there which are mind blowing. But I don't think we have a budget hotel (it has been added to make a 'package' which makes it all slightly cheaper).

Is three days in San Diego enough? I could make it four quite easily. As long as we can keep our expenses reasonable.

I read the sea world thread so we won't be going there. But we will do the zoo. i am not sure if there is other stuff, other than the beach, which will excite a 5 and 7 year old.

Off to Disney boards now

The Dibb site is AMAZING!

I have already decided to add an extra day in San Diego

The advice is so helpful!!!

I am so excited!

Your children may also like visiting the USS Midway aircraft carrier in San Diego.