REMINDER: Today, Feb 12th, is the very last day to get an extra $50 off our Discounted Group Trip to Disneyland!
And as another reminder, your entire trip DOES NOT have to be paid for today. You can also put it on their layaway plan and make payments until it’s time to go on your trip!
I have been thinking and working on this for a few months trying to figure out the best way to do this. And I’m excited with what we’ve come up with! If you are new to Freebies2Deals, for the past 3 years I have put together discounted group trips to Disneyland for all of us. We’ve had hundreds of families come! It’s been a lot of fun and something that you guys & I look forward to each year!
Well this year, we are shaking things up a bit. In the past, I’ve had to pick a week that I thought would work well for most families, try to pick a lower-traffic time of year and negotiate rates for all of us to make sure we were getting the very best deal.
But when I was looking at options for discounted group trips, I kept running into a few issues:
Issue #1: The Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration that runs until September 2016 has made it a lot harder for the Disney Resorts to offer us group rates that are good enough. Typically, by going all together at the same time, we would get a really deep discount. But that’s not the case this year.
Issue #2: All of the new Star Wars Attractions at Disneyland have made it a very popular location this year–more than in years past.
So what happens when Disneyland is selling out of rooms earlier and even selling out? They aren’t as willing to negotiate us a steeper discount to help fill rooms because they are already doing that themselves.
Do those issues mean that you can’t still get an incredible deal at Disneyland. NO WAY! Of course we still can! It just means that we don’t have to go during the same dates to get the best price that can be negotiated! YAY!!
So This is What is Happening This Year:
#1: You get to pick when YOUR family wants to go to or can go to Disneyland. Plan it around your schedule and not off the date that I pick.
#2: GetAwayToday has put together a very exclusive discounted deal page JUST for us! This page will update regularly, but it will have the very best deals for Disneyland, San Diego, LEGOLand and more.
Right now, our Exclusive Deal Page has all of the very best prices for Disneyland that were negotiated for us.
At the very top of that page, you will see our current exclusive coupon code F2DLayaway. Until February 12th, 2016, it will take off an extra $50! You can use that ON TOP OF whatever price, deal, free night special and tickets deal you combine for your trip–making it even cheaper and clearly the very best deal you would be able to find.
Code F2DLayaway for an extra $50 off can be used on any 2 Night or longer stay vacation package to Disneyland with a 2 ticket minimum.
IMPORTANT: So you all know–if you pay in full for your trip, code F2DLayaway will take off an extra $50. If you are wanting/needing to do the Layway Plan, it’s cost is normally $50, using the F2DLayaway code will basically make the Layaway free for you. But you won’t get an extra $50 off the trip cost. Make sense??
#3: GetAwayToday has a Lowest Price Guarantee. And they’ve proven that to me personally a few times over the years! Now, they are even price checking at least once a week on all of the deals & prices listed on their site to make sure they have the lowest possible prices on every hotel, ticket option and more.
#4: You can still use the GetAwayToday Layaway Option, like we have on our past discounted group trips! Why is this so great? Because you might not have all of the money for your trip just sitting in your bank account. But if you wanted to head to Disneyland at the end of September to hit Disney’s Halloweentime before it gets busy, you could book your trip now with all of the deals mentioned above and make monthly payments for the next 6 months until it’s time for your trip! It makes actually heading to Disneyland a possibility and more affordable!
To take advantage of the Layaway plan, all you have to do is put down $125 towards your trip when you book. That’s it! Then, you can start budgeting and making monthly payments towards your trip until it’s time to go. GetAwayToday does charge a $50 non-refundable fee when using a Layaway plan. But if you use that $50 off coupon code I mentioned above, that will take care of that fee and make it possible for you to use that service without a charge and still get a great discounted price on your trip.
Here are some of the current deals to put your Disneyland Trip Together:
Adults at Kids’ Prices: Save up to $16 per ticket on 3-Day and longerDisneyland® Resort Park Hopper® Tickets for travel in January, February, May, August, September and November 2016
Get a Day Free: Get five days for the price of four when you purchase a 4-DayDisneyland® Resort Park Hopper® Ticket for travel throughout 2016.
Save up to 20% at the Disneyland®Resort Hotels: Valid most Sunday – Thursday nights now – March 31, 2016. Book by 3/10/16
4th Night Free at the Anaheim Wyndham:Exclusive free breakfast, parking and shuttle to Disneyland
4th Night Free at the Holiday Inn Anaheim: Free parking, exclusive free breakfast, in-room microwave and fridge
3rd Night Free at the Stanford Inn & Suites: Value hotel with free breakfast, free parking, in-room microwave and fridge
4th Night Free at the Anaheim Springhill Suites Maingate: Free breakfast daily, exclusive free parking ($15/day savings), in-room microwave and fridge
3rd Night Free at the Embassy Suites Anaheim South: All-suite hotel, free cook-to-order breakfast daily, in-room microwave and fridge.
EVERY SINGLE BOOKING also gets:
- 1 Lanyard per adult ticket (great for storing all of your Park Tickets & Fast Passes)
- 1 Disney Sling Backpack per Child Ticket
- Over $300 in Downloadable Coupons for shopping and dining! They have added more coupons this year too. You’ll see 10% off a bunch of Downtown Disney restaurants like La Brea Bakery, Tortilla Jo’s and more. (We’ve ate at both of those places and they are yummy!)
- They will also send you an electronic “Packed with Fun” email that has free printable countdowns, games, etc. to get your kids excited & keep them occupied during your car ride or plane ride to Disneyland.
Not Sure When to Go to Disneyland? Here Are My Tips:
1: Use TouringPlans.com to check traffic levels with their Crowd Calendar. You can see the next 30-days for free. So above, you can see that March is a pretty crowded time for Disneyland–because of Spring Break! March 4th would be a great day to go because the traffic levels are 3 out of 10. But you will want to stay away from levels 8-10 when planning your trip. I “try” to stay away from traffic levels higher than a 6. And that’s what I have done when planning all of our group trips in the past.
If you want to check specific dates for your trip, you will need to upgrade to their premium service. It’s $12.95, but FULL of so much information–like Crowd Levels for each park, they’ll put together a Touring Plan for your family telling you which rides to ride & at what times in order to get to them all and not wait in lines, information on the best places to eat, wait times for rides and more. We used them for our 1st Disney World trip and it was SO worth it!
2: I would really try to stay away from Summer Months & Spring Break when kids are out of school, IF you can. They are the busiest times of the year for Disneyland and the crowds are insane. If Summer or Spring Break is the only time you can go, use the TouringPlans website again to help you pick the right dates.
3: Since they are actually doing construction on the huge new Star Wars Land that is opening in a few years, a few attractions and rides are being shut down permanently. And every year, Disneyland always does refurbishments on rides. Before you book any trip, I would highly recommend that you check the Disneyland schedule. It will tell you if any rides are scheduled to be shut down during the dates you want to go. And it might look something like this, depending on your dates:
Here are this year’s important events and dates to note when planning for your Disneyland Trip:
- March 12th- April 10th: Spring Break Time!
- March 27th: Easter
- April 7th: Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens at Universal Studios Hollywood. **If you want to hit Disneyland and the brand new California Wizarding World of Harry Potter, you totally could! And GetAwayToday will have discounted options to add that on as well!
- May 4th: Unofficial Star Wars Day (May the Fourth Be With You)
- May 6th- 8th: Tinker Bell Half Marathon Weekend (busy weekend)
- May 13th- June 17th: High School Graduation Nights at California Adventures.
- Season of the Force – Originally ending in May. But now they have no end date set. (You can see my video on it over here.)
- May 27th-30th: Memorial Day Weekend
- Fantasmic Show will be closed down until approximately July 2, 12016.
- September 5th: Labor Day and Final Day of the Diamond Celebration
- Mid-Sept – Oct 31: Halloween Time *
- Mid-Nov. – early January 2017: Holidays at the Disneyland Resort**Official dates haven’t been listed, but they are always mid-month and typically begin on a Friday.
If you haven’t been to Disneyland in awhile, or want to see what a certain event is like–like Halloweentime (my all-time FAVORITE time to go!), I’m going to link you to a few Disneyland Videos I have done. Some of them are kind of old, but they are my most-watched videos and F2D readers have said they were super helpful.
So there you have it! Go book your discounted group trip price (without having to go on a certain date)! You can book online with the coupon code by going through our exclusive deal page over here.
Or if you want help with booking your vacation, picking the best hotel for your family or if you have any questions, you can call GetAwayToday at 855-GET-AWAY. All of the agents have stayed at the different hotels and can tell you which one would fit your family best. **MAKE SURE to give them the actual coupon code F2DLayaway over the phone, or you won’t get that extra $50 off.
For those of you who still want to go when I am going, I haven’t planned that yet—but more than likely it will be that last week of September because I just can’t get enough of Disney’s Halloweentime! 😉
**To get your family excited about your Disneyland Trip, make sure to request one of the FREE Disney Parks DVDs that are available right now from Disney!
To watch any of the above Disneyland How-To Videos, head over here. ENJOY!
Hannah
This is so helpful! We are planning to go in September. I know Halloween is awesome, but would crowds be better earlier in the month? I am determined to go with the least amount of traffic that month.
Melea Johnson
I would use the TouringPlans program to check. I’ve had friends go that week after Labor Day and it was still really busy. I would think half-way through September you would be more safe. But rides might be down getting ready for the Halloween transformation.
Hannah
Just thought I’d let you know the touringplans.com is only $7.95!
Shelise
I hope you still do the group trip in a few years when we will finally go for the first time. I love that you do this! I’m thinking the 2nd week in September would be best; after Labor Day, before Halloween.
Morgan
Thanks for all your hard work! This is awesome! Will there be any trips for Disney World? We are planning on going in Jan. 2017.
Melea Johnson
I probably won’t be putting anything together group-trip wise to Disney World. There wasn’t enough interest. But anytime I see a deal on it, I will definitely post!
Victoria Figueroa
Please do if you find something. I’m looking into a trip but I was hoping you were putting together another group trip.
Maddi
We are going in October, so this is perfect timing! Right now flights for that time from SLC to LAX are around $200.00 a piece. Should I plan on spending that much for flights, or would you hold out and wait for a cheaper price? Do you have a price point that you aim for when flying to California from Utah?
Melea Johnson
Flights from SLC to Long Beach and LAX usually go on sale for $79 each way. I have seen them go cheaper than that, but I wait until they are at least that price before purchasing.
Laurie
do you know when they go on sale? or could you post those? I feel like I need the tix, before I can plan the trip. Also. Do you have suggestions for good suites that fit kids? We’ve stayed in 2 down the road a bit that had kid suites, and they were ok, but we’re wondering if you have knowledge of any others, possibly nicer? We have 5 kiddos.
Kim
Check out Allegiant. They regularly have tickets from Provo or Ogden to LAX for $49 one way.
Nicole
Tix right now on JetBlue for $116 round trip slc to long beach
Lauren Earl
How can I find a deal like that?
Sarah D.
I have been looking at going to Disneyland the first part of March and I have been pricing it out with Get Away Today and the site you referred me to doesn’t have any greater discount than when I have been looking before I saw your post. Is there any additional discount by going through the Freebies2Deals Special Site?
Melea Johnson
Hey Sarah! So basically, Get Away Today already does the lowest prices possible across the board because they don’t want competitors to beat out their prices. On our exclusive page, they are sharing the very best deals and any exclusive offers just for us–like the extra $50 off coupon code to make it even cheaper. So if prices drop or change, they will guarantee the lowest price on any package you book and we also get that extra $50 off that is very exclusive to just us. 🙂
Angela
Do you know how we would add a day to a Disneyland trip to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios? You said in your post there is an option to add it on for a discount but I’m not seeing that option on the site. Thanks!
Melea Johnson
Hey Angela, it’s not on our exclusive deal page because all of the deals there are just for Disneyland right now. But if you call them, tell them you want to add on a day at Harry Potter World and they can help you figure out the best and cheapest way to do that. 🙂
Callie
Just want to share I noticed that the Stanford Inn and Suites is one of the options on the group page., I highly recommend it! I stayed there myself just in December. I learned about it from the Unofficial Disneyland Guide Book and we booked it with GetAwayToday. It was cute, our room was very clean and it’s WAY CHEAP! They had cute Disney decals on the wall and I know they have some rooms with bunkbeds for families. It had a shuttle stop right out front that was pretty zippy and never full. It had free breakfast, free parking and a fridge in the room. Never used the pool so no idea on that. When I did some sample dates for a couple in Oct with the 3rd night free it was $566 for 3 nights and 3 day non hopper tickets! That’s crazy!!!! I added 4 kids just to see and figured the nightly hotel rate went up by only $10! That includes taxes and all the awesome benefits of Getaway Today!! I love Getaway Today!
Check it out!
Callie
Oh, wanted to add they have free wifi, an in room microwave and a laundry room. And their family rooms sleep up to 7 people! For a few extra bucks you can add a 2nd bathroom to get you to rope drop on time. Seriously, a great way for anyone to do Disneyland on the cheap.
Callie
Whoops! it was only the 2 day tickets I was looking at. Melea, feel free to delete me post.
Cindy
We are planning on going the 2nd week in May… Is there any hotel deals for 7 people? I am having a hard time finding a decent deal.
Thanks!
Melea Johnson
Try something like Staybridge suites!
Michelle
I already booked my trip with Getaway Today last month and we are going the first week of March. Do you think there is a way I could get the $50 off ?
Nicole
I am in the same boat as Michelle! I seriously just bought tickets two days ago. I waited and waited watching your site for deals and finally had to buy some before our trip came up. Ugh! That would be cool if they would credit us the $50.00 back!!! Any thoughts Melea?
Melea Johnson
Im not sure they will rectroactively give you that extra money off. You can always ask!
Melissa
Do you have to book a package to get the $50 off or can you just book a hotel?
Melea Johnson
It has to be off tickets as well.
Shilo
Is it possible to combine the deals?
IE: get adult tickets at kids prices and 4 days for the price of 5?
Melea Johnson
Yep! you should be able to. 🙂
Michelia
In case someone happens to miss the Feb 12th deadline for the code, if you or someone you know is a BYU alumni you can get tickets off the BYU alumni page for Disneyland cheaper than GetAwayToday without the code.
Kristy
Thanks Michelia!
Emily
A BIG thank you for the $50 off code. We now have our trip book and cant wait to go! You are the best.
Nicole
I just booked our vacation and I’m so excited! It will be our first time going there. I did have a question though. Since we did not do layaway, I just paid straight out, they couldn’t take an additional $50 off of our package. They said the $50 was just waved for the layaway. She did give me a $10 discount – – she called it the blog a discount. Is this accurate? I would really like to save an extra $40 if they are supposed to do it for us, but she didn’t sound like we were supposed to. Thoughts?
Melea Johnson
Hey Nicole, if you paid in full, they should have taken off $50. So i’m guessing that agent might have just not known about our special promotion. You will want to call back up and get that fixed. 🙂 If you have issues, let me know and Ill forward it on.
Nicole
They did it for me. Thank you!
Lauren Earl
JUST booked mine! !! Thanks for helping us get a great deal. Btw…the guy I spoke to told me how much they love you, Malea! !!!
Laici
yay we booked our trip for the last week of September to try the Halloween stuff you rave about. Do you know when the tickets to mickeys Halloween party go on sale? We also have a Disney debit card will that get us sooner access to the tickets?
Melea Johnson
Hey Laici! Tickets typically go on sale for the Mickey’s Halloween Party in July. If you have the Disney Debit, you will have about a week early access to purchase. And your tickets will be cheaper. So you’re on the right track! 🙂
Karis
Hey Melea!! We just got our Disney passes in the mail, but no lanyards 🙠Our invoice has the freebies2deals code on it, so I think I did it right?