[LuckyRobin]

We've been to Disneyland about 7 times I think in the last 11 years. I would never dream of going during anytime that kids are out of school. This includes spring break, summer break, the entire Christmas holiday, Thanksgiving 5 day weekend. Never, ever even think about going there on New Year's Eve. You may as well just shoot yourself in the head as go then.

The absolute best time to go is January 2 or 3 and stay for a week. If you go then you get to see all the Christmas decorations without any of the Christmas crowds. You get to see the Christmas parade, too. We try to time it so our first day there is a Sunday so that our last day will be Saturday and we will get to see the regular parade, also. At this time of year we have been able to simply walk onto rides like Indiana Jones or Splash Mountain. We spend more time walking the line than we do waiting in it. It tends to rain a lot that week so we always bring rain gear. Rain thins the little crowds there might be.

The next best time to go is February and then after that last two weeks of March, or October. We've gone in May once but the lines were around 30 minutes to an hour then. We'll stick with fall and winter. We get more than our money's worth.

At least at Disneyland there are a myriad of restaurants just outside the main gates. Reasonably priced ones like Ihop's, McDonalds, Captain Kid's, and my all time favorite, Millie's (which is down home American food, huge portions that can be easily divided into more than one meal). You can google for a list of restaurants around Disneyland and alot of them have websites with menus posted so you can see prices. We always get a suite so we can have a fridge and microwave so we can eat leftovers in the room when we come back for a mid-day rest.

Not all Disney food is too badly priced. If you look at Mouseplanet you can get to the menus, I believe from restaurant reviews, and they list prices so you can plan to go to the less expensive ones if you want to eat in the park. We found the River Belle Terrace and the French Market to not be badly priced and the Bengal Barbecue is well priced but I'm not sure they are keeping that one. You can get a great chili in a breadbowl from the Golden Horseshoe that is really filling and not badly priced. Everything on mainstreet is ridiculously priced though.

We bought Mickey Mouse water bottles the first day on our first trip and they have let us take them back into the park for years, since you can get cheaper soda refills with them at certain restauraunts. They originally came with coke but we just refilled them with water. Having water keeps us from buying the $3 or $4 cokes which is where they really get you. Most of the restaurants would fill our water bottles from their filtered water taps when we explained about the prediabetes Rose has and how we don't like to drink soda in front of her because it makes it hard for her. They were very gracious. If nothing else, there are water fountains to fill them from.

If you really plan well for it, you can beat the costs. But that means more than a one day visit with a ridiculously priced ticket.