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This audio is from our free course that helps you plan a vacation to Disneyland. In this module, we cover the various special activities available at Disneyland to enhance your visit with some magical experiences.
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All of the Activities Listed Here Require Reservations
Now let's talk about special activities, which can seem a little confusing because there's so many special activities that you can do at Disneyland.  I was actually even struggling with how to name the specific section, but there are some special activities that are available at the Disney parks that have an extra cost and need reservations ahead of time, but they can be really magical experiences.
Special Activities At Disneyland
 Now, the thing that I will tell you about these four main special activities is that they are all a little pricey. So if you have a really tight budget, I would go ahead and skip this module. They all are amazing experiences, people really love them, which is why Disney can charge so much for them, but they do take a significant amount of time from your day so if you only have one day in the parks, this might not be the trip for these special activities, and there's so many other things to do in the parks that are included in your ticket. If you're on a tight budget, know that you can come back and do these for another trip. While they are magical, if it's going to stress you out by having that extra cost, again, stay focused on the things that are most important; and if this isn't a most important thing for your group, then it is completely okay to skip it. It is very, very rare for us to do one of these special activities, so you can still have a great day in the parks without doing these.
Now let's go into these four special activities. One more thing to note about all of these special activities is that you have to have a reservation for the activity in advance, you have to have a park reservation for the park in which the activity is located in, and you have to have a park ticket. So you have to have all three of those things in order to participate in any of these experiences. Now, for all of these experiences, it never hurts if you weren't able to get a reservation, there are sometimes walk-up reservations that are available, so it never hurts to pop your head in and find out if they have any available spaces.
 Let's go through each of the different activities, who they're for and why people love them.
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique: Princess or Knight Makeover
The first is the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, and this is available for kids ages 3 to 12. Boys generally will have a knight makeover and girls will have a princess makeover. For the princess makeover, there are several different levels where you can purchase different quality Disney dresses and get hair and makeup done. They do the Princess Bun up the top, they do glitter and then they have a Magic Mirror that reveals them as the beautiful princess that they are, and then they get to take pictures in front of Cinderella's pumpkin carriage. People love this activity, they say it's definitely worth the cost, but it is very pricey; we're talking usually $100 to $300 or more depending on the package that you're getting, and it does take about 1-2 hours, depending on the package, allow about 30 minutes to be able to be checked in and get started. So I usually recommend at least blocking off 90 minutes to about 2 hours for this. Most people really like to get an early morning slot so that their little one can be a princess or knight for the entire day at Disney.
When To Book Reservations
If you want that early morning reservation, you need to book exactly 60 days in advance. So starting at 60 days before, the day that you will be in the park, check in to see when those reservations will drop.
Unlike the dining reservations, these special activity reservations don't always drop on the exact day that we expect them to, so you might have to check back multiple times. Just like dining reservations, people cancel these all the time, so if you weren't able to get the reservation you want, keep checking back. And you could also visit our friends at Mouse Dining as they have an app that will send you an email. And if you're a paid member, a text alert if a reservation becomes available. And that's true for all of these activities with exception of maybe the tours.
 Alright, now let's talk about Savi's Workshop. Savi's Workshop is designed for the Star Wars die hard lover. I took my son to this and I may or may not have cried, it was an amazing experience. You get to build a lightsaber in Galaxy's Edge in Disneyland. It is really immersive where they really go into the Kyber Crystal, and you get to pick the kind of hilt that you want and they get to pick all of the accessories and they build this very custom lightsaber that is metal and heavy and lights up and it makes the vibration and the noise. It is amazing. My son loved it, even in his preteen years. This was an amazing experience, they had a whole ceremony but it is a customized piece. If you just want Luke Skywalker or Ahsoka or Anakin Skywalker's specific lightsaber, there is a store called Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities, which is located right over Smuggler's Run and the food location called Docking Bay 7. And in there that's where they have the character specific lightsabers.
Savi's Workshop: Building Lightsabers
For Savi's Workshop, you are building a custom one. It is not based specifically on any of those one characters, but you do get to select the style of the hilt and the Kyber Crystals, which, if you're not a Star Wars fan, the Kyber Crystal is what gives the light saber its color. And so you can pick all of those and they do have red if you choose to be a Sith. They also have purple, blue, and green.
If you think you want to do this, make sure you get your reservations booked out. This is another special activity that books out very quickly, so as soon as you hit that 60 day mark, start checking to see if there are reservations available.
As you book this, make sure you think about how you will get this home. Disney does have a shipping option but you can also carry these on most airlines, but be sure to check to make sure any policies have not changed.
The next activity is a little bit easier to get into for your Star Wars fan if you didn't have as much notice for your trip. It's a little less expensive and a little less immersive than Savi's Workshop, but it's still really fun, and that's Droid Depot. In the Droid Depot, you are going to build your own droid. You there's two types of droids that you're able to make; one is the R2D2 style astromech, and one's more like BB-8, where it's got the little ball and it rotates. They are remote controlled robots that you can drive around. There's only one little tiny place in the park where you're able to play in Galaxy's Edge with your robot, so just make sure you set expectations with smaller guests appropriately, that we can play with the droid when we get back to the hotel or right after we build it only in Galaxy's Edge. They are really fun droids.  My kids really love building them, you get to customize the color, there's additional stickers; so in your budget, look at how much the droid would cost and then add on a little bit to buy customized stickers or customize add-on packages that they have available as well.
Droid Depot: Build A R Series (Astromech) or BB Unit
The reservations for Droid Depot tend to be more readily available than Savi's Workshop or Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. So if you are booking last minute, this one is a little bit easier to get into. Again, really fun, less expensive than Savi's Workshop, but really great experience.
Guided Tours at Disneyland
 And the last special activity is tours. There are two different kinds of tours that are available at Disneyland. There's some general tours that rotate depending on the seasonality where maybe it's one more about the history of Walt, or maybe they have one called 'Cultivating the Magic' where it's more about horticulture in the parks, they have different tours that are available.
These take a majority of the day anywhere from 2-4 hours, and you usually will be able to be walked on a couple rides; each tour is very different. You do have to have a park ticket in addition to the cost of the tour.
The other option is the VIP Tour. Now VIP Tours are going to cost you several thousands of dollars, more than likely. There is a minimum number of hours and depending on the day that you are attending the park, it's going to be anywhere from $400 to $800 an hour. That changes quite often so don't quote me on that, but it ends up being pretty expensive. You are walked around with your personal VIP Tour and basically you have a fast pass for almost every ride in the park. They walk you from ride to ride, they make sure you have the best possible experience. It is a wonderful experience. It's the same thing that you know, really famous celebrities get. You might see these people walking around with plaid outfits that are guiding a trip. It could be that it's somebody famous, it could be somebody who just paid for the VIP Tour. I will tell you that VIP Tours are a really magical experience and they are wonderful, but they are very expensive. If you have the money, they can definitely be fun, they definitely will make it so you spend less time in line, especially if it's your first time to go to Disneyland and have somebody walk you through exactly what to do, and they can give you tips on what to do on each ride, for the ones that are interactive, it can be a really great experience. But again, not required, you can have a wonderful time without any of these activities. These are the special activities. I just wanted to make sure that you knew about them so if you weren't interested in them, you could get them booked as soon as they become available; again, usually about 60 days prior. You can cancel these up to really close to I believe within 24 hours of your reservation. And if you don't have those, if you're not able to secure a reservation again, you can keep checking back. You can also set up alerts with our friends at Mouse Dining, and they will send you an alert when a reservation becomes available. When that notification comes through, you do need to be very proactive and click on it right away.
So that's everything for special activities. So now that we have that, we can move on to some of the other last steps that we need to do to plan our trip before we arrive at the Disney parks.
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