Help me get 6 kids to Disneyland!

Mommyof2Boos · Mar 3, 2015

NavyDad01 said:
Unfortantly I cant get the military discount

You guys are really making me think on the park hopper option. Can you guys just explain how it would benefit vs going 1 whole day at each?

If you use the park hopper you can do both parks each day. This would be helpful if you wanted to spend the day at DCA but eat dinner and catch the fireworks or parades at DL the same day. To be honest, if you do multiple days and dedicate one to DCA I do not see a need for Park Hoppers in California, but that is just me. If you look at the maps at DCA and decide there is not enough to do in one day maybe getting a hopper would help, but you could also just go part of the day and spend the rest someone else like the beach or at your brother's having a barbeque.

SplashMo · Mar 3, 2015

Park hoppers are nice as you can go to one park and then hit the evening show in the other. Also if DL gets crowded after lunch you can head over to DCA and it may be less crowded. You can hold FP in both parks at the same time and send a FP runner to one park while others ride or eat, etc in the other park.

Geemo · Mar 4, 2015

NavyDad01 said:
Unfortantly I cant get the military discount

You guys are really making me think on the park hopper option. Can you guys just explain how it would benefit vs going 1 whole day at each?

The two parks are SO CLOSE together. With hopper tickets you can act as if it's one big park.

You could start with one day/one park tickets and I believe you could upgrade to hoppers if you decide to.
If you limited them to one park a day, they'd be just fine.
Remember their kids, I really don't think they'll know the difference.

It's easier to spend for hopper tickets when you aren't buying tickets for 6 kids. Especially when only one kid is under 10.
I never really understood 10+ = an adult rate.

With 6 kids, for their first visit, I feel one day / one park would work. Be sure to look at each park schedule before you go so you know what's going on. In June this might not be an issue but since we always go off season, there are times certain shows don't run every day. Mickey and the Magical map isn't preforming the first two days of our visit..... THAT BEGINS TOMORROW!

Look at your budget and go with what works. It will at least give everyone the Disney Magic.

Geemo

SMD · Mar 4, 2015

Try looking at it from the perspective of someone commuting each day. OP and the whole party of 8 is going to drive in early from 25 miles away for an 8am opening and an 11pm or 12am closing, then drive back. They might be better of doing one park per day and maybe leaving early than hopping to maximize the full 15-16 hour operating day.

NavyDad01 · Mar 4, 2015

Thanks for all the input. I'm leaning towards adding more Disney days and leaving out Universal. Knotts is a must right now only because the kids are excited for the roller coasters there plus its not that expensive at $235 for everyone.

Do you guys know when they would announce if there are so cal ticket specials for June? That would help on two of the kids thanks

SMD · Mar 4, 2015

NavyDad01 said:
Do you guys know when they would announce if there are so cal ticket specials for June? That would help on two of the kids thanks

There won't be one. It's been offered 11 of the last 12 years, and only once has it extended into June, ending on the 5th or 6th. The year it wasn't offered, they said that they didn't need to offer it because of the previous summer's attendance. That's why it ends on May 21st this year. Because they think that summer attendance will be high enough.

NavyDad01 · Mar 4, 2015

HydroGuy said:
DL Park on a Sunday has the advantage of no grad nights and no EMH. It also has the advantage of lower traffic from Pomona than on weekdays. It has the disadvantage of being a Sunday which does tend to be pretty busy. I would choose that day over your grad night day on June 17. But I would choose Friday over a Sunday if possible. If you can't make it work then go for Sunday.

I clicked on the link that you have for estimated park hours and it shows DL as having EMH. Should I just disregard that? (sunday June 14th)

2tinkerbell · Mar 4, 2015

EMH are for those guest staying onsite. And June 14th is Father's Day. I would plan on being there as early as possible on that day.

NavyDad01 · Mar 4, 2015

NavyDad01 · Mar 4, 2015

2tinkerbell said:
EMH are for those guest staying onsite. And June 14th is Father's Day. I would plan on being there as early as possible on that day.

I was under the impression that EMH was not on Sundays. Also I think you may be wrong about fathers day isn't it on the following Sunday?

longtimedisneylurker · Mar 4, 2015

NavyDad01 said:
I was under the impression that EMH was not on Sundays. Also I think you may be wrong about fathers day isn't it on the following Sunday?

There are no official hours posted yet for June. I'm guessing any link you followed was either a history of previous hours or an unofficial prediction of future hours. As mentioned by HydroGuy, DL has early entry hours on Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and DCA on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. There are occasionally times when this pattern changes due to some special event or quirk of scheduling. Disney doesn't tend to post calendar items until six weeks out, so you have a while yet until June hours will show up. I would expect Sunday to not be an early entry day for Disneyland.

You are correct that June 14 is not Father's Day. June 21 is.

gottalovepluto · Mar 4, 2015

SoCal ticket specials for June are highly unlikely in my book, you never know but please don't plan on them announcing anything. With the 60th anniversary in full swing there is no reason for them to try to encourage more locals to visit the parks. The current SoCal ticket is valid through May 21. The anniversary celebrations officially kick of May 22, I don't think they picked the 21st at random for cutting off the discounts

With a crew this big simple is your friend. I am a HUGE fan of parkhoppers but with this many little ones and they fact you are staying far offsite I actually vote for not hopping between parks. This would simplify your life as you'll be able to say this is the park we're doing today and that automatically cuts the rides the kids can choose between in half (well, not exactly, but you get the idea). Staying in Pomona I don't see you being able to go rope-drop to close so I don't think you'll run out of things to do in either park. More than 2 days will be nice because there will be rides the kids want to repeat. If you find yourself eating in Downtown Disney Earl of Sandwich is the best bang for your buck FYI. Dropping the day at Universal is wise, totally more teen geared. As for will the kids chicken out at the roller coasters at Knotts? It's fine if they do. There is a nice area of kids rides there as you can see online. If you are worried some of them are going to back off the roller coasters don't waste the money on the fast-lane option because that gets you onto mostly roller coasters. Best of luck! It sounds like the kids are going to make some wonderful lifetime memories!

2tinkerbell · Mar 4, 2015

I was totally wrong about the Father's Day thing. It is on the 21st. Wow that is a surprise for me. My father passed away on the 10th of June, right before Father's Day. For as long as I can remember Father's Day happens the Sunday after the 10th. I will have to check out the Graduation schedule for Riverview because that always happens on Father's Day. Yikes! I don't like it when they change things. Sorry.

Okay, back to your regularly schedule thread of helping NavyDad.

Nicolette11785 · Mar 4, 2015

I wanted to add that if the youngest loves dinos take him on the Disneyland Railroad. He will love the dinosaur part.

SMD · Mar 4, 2015

2tinkerbell said:
I was totally wrong about the Father's Day thing. It is on the 21st. Wow that is a surprise for me. My father passed away on the 10th of June, right before Father's Day. For as long as I can remember Father's Day happens the Sunday after the 10th. I will have to check out the Graduation schedule for Riverview because that always happens on Father's Day. Yikes! I don't like it when they change things. Sorry.

Okay, back to your regularly schedule thread of helping NavyDad.

It's the 3rd Sunday in June, so it will always be between the 15th and the 21st. Last year was the 15th and this year it's the 21st.

aliceindisneyland · Mar 5, 2015

You will make amazing memories on this trip! Since most of the kids are not local (and if you decide against Universal and/or Knott's) you can do a lot of sightseeing for practically free -- like Griffith Observatory, La Brea Tar Pits (museum costs but the actual tar pits are free so you don't need to do museum), LACMA (art museum) offers free kid and chaperone tickets with Next-gen program, etc.

In the Parks, everyone but the tiny one is big enough to run back and forth between the Parks (and he/she will be in a stroller so that's easy), so Parkhoppers would be fine, but with just two days you will see more of each Park if you don't hop. If you're paying for tickets for your entire party $40 extra per person adds up to a huge amount.

I would only bring snacks/sandwiches that fit under your stroller. Or you could bring in a picnic lunch and put in a locker (pretty small and around $7) or just leave it in your car -- you will see lots of folks in the parking structure eating out of their trunks.

No need to bring in water since you can get it free at any counter service restaurant -- often they have tons stacked up so you don't have to wait in line just for water.

Skip the tiny kid's meals and ask if you can order your entree without the side (fries, chips, apples) unless someone really loves those items -- you will save about $2 per entree.

You can also order many items a la carte -- like at the Mexican restaurant on the wharf (DCA) you can order a tamale for about $3.50 and at the pizza place across from the swings (DCA) you can get 2 huge meatballs with red sauce for about $2.50.

NavyDad01 · Mar 5, 2015

Okay so If I get 3 day tickets 1 park a day from wildatwork it comes to $1439 for 6 adult tickets and 1 child ticket. How do I figure out ahead of time the cost to add a day when I get to DL if in fact I want to. Also by when do I have to add it?

In regards to Universal I think I was holding on to that because I really wanted to ride Jurrassic park, studio tours and I really really wanted to the Transformers show ( I hear its really good)

SMD · Mar 5, 2015

NavyDad01 said:
Okay so If I get 3 day tickets 1 park a day from wildatwork it comes to $1439 for 6 adult tickets and 1 child ticket. How do I figure out ahead of time the cost to add a day when I get to DL if in fact I want to. Also by when do I have to add it?

In regards to Universal I think I was holding on to that because I really wanted to ride Jurrassic park, studio tours and I really really wanted to the Transformers show ( I hear its really good)

The tickets are encoded with what you paid, so upgrading will be the difference between what you paid and the gate price. There are also some categories of tickets, such as convention tickets that can't be upgraded, so you'll have to read the terms on the tickets.

There have been times when resellers like Orbitz may have their own ticket special such as buy 3 days, get a 4th free where the full value was given when upgrading. But that is the exception, not the rule, so you can't really predict when it will happen. In general if you want 4 days, you should buy 4 days.

If you do upgrade you have until the end of the last day, but also within the original 13 days since first use. So with 3 day tickets, if you use them on March 1st, 3rd and 5th you have until the ticket booths close on March 5th to add the 4th day. You couldn't show up on the 6th after using 3 days and upgrade. Also, you couldn't use day 1 on March 1st and day 3 on March 13th and add more days to extend. (This year's miltary and So Cal offers do not have the 13 day restriction, but neither apply here.)

longtimedisneylurker · Mar 5, 2015

NavyDad01 said:
Okay so If I get 3 day tickets 1 park a day from wildatwork it comes to $1439 for 6 adult tickets and 1 child ticket. How do I figure out ahead of time the cost to add a day when I get to DL if in fact I want to. Also by when do I have to add it?

The thing about buying discount tickets and then adding on a day or some other upgrade at the parks is that you lose the benefit of the discounts. You will have to pay the full difference between gate price and what you paid up front. Current gate price for 6 adult and 1 child 4 day, 1 park a day tickets is $1805, so it would cost you $366 to add on a day once you are at the parks. Some people occasionally report having the good fortune of getting full price ticket value applied when upgrading discounted tickets and that's great if it happens, but it can't be counted on.

As far as when to upgrade, you can do so right up until park closing time on your last day of use, so you could wait until your third day in the parks to add that fourth day if you want.

NavyDad01 · Mar 5, 2015

After seeing the King kong 3d thing Universal is a must for me.

Help me get 6 kids to Disneyland!

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