DL in June 2004

[cheesehead]

Well, my DH and I finally have made our plans for our 10th Anniversary celebration...we are taking my Mom and our 3 kids to California for 10 days. We plan to stay with my Aunt for the majority of the trip but will venture over to DL for about 4 days and stay at one of the resorts.

I have absolutely no knowledge of DL or how to go about beginning our planning... it is unbelievable how much I research and plan on our WDW trips so it seems shocking to see such little info available. I usually enjoy the planning or should I say overplanning I do when we goto WDW.

One of my biggest questions at this point since we are in the "early" planning stage is where should we stay? I would love to stay at a Disney hotel but from the little bit of info I have found, it seems like it isn't as important to stay "Disney" at DL as it is at WDW.

Does anyone know how much in advance they advertise the packages for June? Right now I can't seem to get any pricing because the package dates don't go out htat far in advance online.

Any tips, suggestions, help would be very much appreciated. I had my heart set on the Disney Cruise, but my DH talked me into DL and a much longer trip to California...I hope it is a good decision!
Lisa

[Barb D]

Im so happy you get to go. What part of June will you be going? Ive gone twice the end of june early July and I love that time. Its toasty warm and w never had bad crwds by plannign right.

Ive stayed twice at a hotel across the main gate (The opposite end of the Disney hotels) called Park Place. Its a best Western and we got it for about $90 or about $100 I think each night. It included either a pancake breakfast (No meats or drinks in the free part) Or you can go upstairs and get toast, pastries, ceral and juices. There is a hotel right next door about $20 a night cheaper but it didnt have a hot tub and my husband has Muscular Dystrophy and he needs the hot tub after a day of walking. The hotel was clean and we had great service both times.

I have also stayed at Paradise Pier (One of the Disney hotels) It was nice too and it was Christmas time that year. We got it for $109 a night so it was a great buy too. I have never been lucky enough to stay at the Disney hotel or Grand Californian yet.

I know that www.mousesavers.com lists savings packages as that is how I found the Paradise pier one back in 2001.

One thing to note if you dont stay at the Disney hotels or near one of the ones near the Best Western I listed be careful if they say walking distance. I went Summer 2001 and I stayed at one near the convention center and the Walk was like 2 miles just to get to the edge of the parking lot, then we had to ride a tram in a pretty long ways to get to the gate. The word Walking distance to me was pretty exagerated. We ended up moving to the Park Place one when I stopped to see how much it was and even with no notice it was the $100 a night (Approx, as I cant remmerb exactly anymore) We had a queen bed for my husband and me and then a divider to the couch that folded out to a bed for our teenage daughter, It was like she had her own room with that little divider.

I hope to hear more about your trip plans. I love the California Aventure too. Its a whole different park and a lot fo different fun too.

Barb