Thanks for sticking with me through this long personal odyssey through three days in Anaheim.

Here is the simple expense report for three days in Disneyland, two adults and two kids:

Calculating Price per Ride
Another facet of the story is revealed if we analyze the data making up my park experience.

With my $199 three-day ticket, I experienced twelve characters, thirty rides, three walk-throughs, four parades and one fireworks show.

Obviously the "ride" is the base unit of entertainment in the resort, but I needed numbers for character interactions, parades etc., so I came up with relative values to those activities and tweaked them until my total price equalled that $199.

Thus my trip can be dissected into 30 rides at $4.70 each, twelve character visits for $2 each, three walk-throughs for $3, four parades for $5, and a fireworks show for $5.

I could also divide the price by the total number of hours being entertained to the Disneyth degree, but I'm not going to bother. I'll just tell you it was well worth it.

A Crowded Park is Less Entertaining
The data reinforces the sense that you get a lot more for your dollar when the park isn't crowded. For example, we were able to experience 47% more fun on Friday at a wide-open California Adventure ($76.10) than Saturday at a busy Disneyland ($51.60).

Both Nick and Alisha had a story of the ultimate deserted Disneyland experience on a day when it was lightly raining.

Park Hopper Tickets are unneccessary.
For $15 more per ticket per day, you can give yourself the flexibility to visit both parks on each day. In most cases, this is not neccessary. This is like buying a $100 gift certificate that works at both Macy's and Nordstrom for $120. I recommend just commiting yourself to one park per day. It isn't like you are going to run out of things to do at Disneyland.

Check out Disneyland Ticket prices here.

The Ticket Hack
If you really want to cheat the ticket price, share your tickets. Buy the six-day tickets, use them for three days and transfer them to another family for the final three days. The tickets are good for 13 days after you first use them, and that fourth, fifth and sixth day are amazingly cheap.