Aghh!!! WDW "expert" so confused with DL!

[larina]

I am hoping for 6 park days on our next trip. I think we'll need it with Cars Land now. 5 days is nice, but the extra day will just help us do it all at our speed.

 

[runmommyrun]

Thanks for your input! I think we will try to make reservations for 5 days. I don't want to feel so rushed that it is not enjoyable. Already looking forward to it!

 

[Cinderpamela]

Thanks for your input! I think we will try to make reservations for 5 days. I don't want to feel so rushed that it is not enjoyable. Already looking forward to it!

I think you will find that 5 days is a great length of time! You can get a lot done in that time, and still have your afternoons to relax a little.

And definitely check out the sticky threads at the top of the DL forums... there is some great information... especially the DL for WDW vets report that Hydroguy wrote up!

 

[redbonec]

In June we went for 3 days our first time as a family.

We so wish we had gotten 4 days, and definitely could have done 5 days!

In 3 days, there was so much we did not get to.

I didn't see if you were taking breaks in the middle of the days--if you do, then I found that by the time we got back to the park after an afternoon break, we watched the parade (Love that daytime parade!!!), ride a thing or two, eat, ride a thing or two, then it is time to get a spot for your nighttime show, then after that you may be going back to your hotel. So, I did not have as much time going to attractions afters the break as I thought we would.

ALso, your boys will want to ride certain rides multiple times! THat takes a lot of time too, time well spent!

And not only rides, but other things--would they like the Jedi Training in Tomorrowland?
The show outside the The GOlden HOrseshoe (times listed on the Daily TImes) was good.
THings like that that are not just rides.

And with that many days you all can take time on Main street too--when we were walking down we saw someone in one of the store windows coloring an animation picture--he saw us looking at him, and he turned toward us so we could watch him better, and he continued working.
In another store, I think a bookstore on Main STreet, I saw an older boy watching a cast member showing him different ways to shuffle cards.
Anyway, those were just a few things that were neat that made me want to linger on Main Street and explore, but couldn't because when you don't have "extra" time except to get in your absolute things, you can't.

I Hope you all have a great time!

 

[HydroGuy]

Yes we've done all that in 2 days And has even included character breakfasts and visiting Mickey in his own house. I think it would be much more difficult now with Cars Land included, though.

In any case I don't recommend it as it is more efficient than it is fun, but it is possible. And I think 5 days is much nicer.

And you went on all the rides too?

 

[cyclenut]

Yes we've done all that in 2 days And has even included character breakfasts and visiting Mickey in his own house. I think it would be much more difficult now with Cars Land included, though.

In any case I don't recommend it as it is more efficient than it is fun, but it is possible. And I think 5 days is much nicer.

I have no idea how that is physically possible. I am sure you were able to do what you wanted, but logistics alone suggest you can't do it all in 2 days unless you skip things.


Several years back now we did everything in three days. All shows, all rides ... Both parks. That was before bugs land or cars land. We leveraged fast passes heavily and were there from open to close every single day. It was over the summer and over a weekend. We had a great time but by the end, many things were a bit of a blur. It required significant advance planning including mapping out the route, using a fast pass runner and carrying food with us ... Stopping only for one meal each day.

Don't see how even that is possible today. Even that schedule will take 4 days now and 5 days is far more reasonable.

 

[MsDisATC]

Yes this was definitely pre-Cars land, so DCA was easily a half day park even with the Aladdin show and returning for WOC and ElecTRONica (at the time). Plus DCA had the shorter hours that made it possible to slip in things at Disneyland Park before and after. I don't think it'd be really possible this summer. And for full disclosure the Matterhorn was down as well at the time. And yeah, food and sleep were the two things that really got pushed to the side to make it happen.

 

[HydroGuy]

Yes this was definitely pre-Cars land, so DCA was easily a half day park even with the Aladdin show and returning for WOC and ElecTRONica (at the time). Plus DCA had the shorter hours that made it possible to slip in things at Disneyland Park before and after. I don't think it'd be really possible this summer. And for full disclosure the Matterhorn was down as well at the time. And yeah, food and sleep were the two things that really got pushed to the side to make it happen.

Excuse my analytical side, but I find your claim so hard to believe I had to crunch the numbers.

Take two weekend days or high season summer days - which you must if you want to do "everything" - otherwise shows are not running - and you will have DL open 8AM-Midnight. So 16 hours per day. Over two days that means 32 hours in the parks.

Seeing all shows and doing other necessaries takes the following amount of time - assuming a minimum time to queue into each viewing area and just see the show without necessarily a good view:

1 hr - WOC
1 hr - F!
0.5 hr - fireworks
1 hr - Aladdin
0.5 hr - Soundsational parade
0.5 hr - DCA night show (ElecTRONica, Mad T Party, whatever)
0.5 hr - see some street shows at DL
0.5 hr - see some street shows at DCA
0.75 hr - Billy Hill and the Hillbillies
0.5 hr - Jedi Training Academy
0.5 hr - Princess Fantasy Faire
0.25 hr - Pixar Play Parade
2 hr - Lunch and Dinner over 2 days, time to queue, order and eat - very fast
0.5 - Quick personal breaks to the loo


The above totals to 10 hrs, which leaves 22 hours for rides. My last count has 70 rides at DLR. 70 rides over 22 hrs is less than 19 minutes per ride. That is time to walk to each ride, queue each ride, load each ride, ride each ride, and exit each ride. And it would have to be on busier weekend days in order to see the shows.

Some rides are short like PP for maybe 2 minutes. Some are long like POTC (16 minutes) and Mark Twain. I would say it is fair to say that each ride on average takes 9 minutes to board, ride and exit.

Of the 19 minutes per ride that leaves 10 minutes to walk to each ride and wait in each queue.

In between days 1 and 2, let's day you are at the GCH or another real close hotel. You should be able to be to bed by 12:30AM and will need to wake up by 7AM in order to get to the gates by 7:30/7:45AM and be one of the first into DL to ride the Fantasyland rides and start collecting FPs. That leaves 6.5 hrs for sleep.

One day a few summers ago we were did a day trip to DLR where we were there for rope drop and my kids convinced me to stay until 11:45PM - with no breaks except for meals - so about 16 straight park hours - and we parkhopped I think 3 times. I was so exhausted that evening and the next day I could barely move. In the above scenario one would have to wake up on Day #2 and do the whole thing again on a short night sleep.

Aside from the exhaustion factor, I still cannot see how anyone can manage to walk to each ride and wait in each queue and have that average 10 minutes per ride on a weekend day.

My experience is that would take at least 20 minutes minimum - which would require another 12 hours for 70 rides - or a third day at the parks - going commando all three days opening to close without breaks and limited sleep.

That is why I and many others would say DLR requires four days minimum to experience most all the rides and shows.

 

[dsneygirl]

We just did 5 days in June and it was perfect. We probably could have done a 6th day but we were exhausted.

We also had time to do some repeats of favourites. And now with Carsland being so busy you need to add a lot of time.

If you have the time why rush? I mean you could pack in 3 full days sun up to close but why if you don't have to? Watch the parade, see some shows, do Jungle Cruise 4x (or maybe that is just my 6 year old)

 

[MsDisATC]

I don't disagree with you HydroGuy, it's a very exhausting way to do things. I think the trick was no kids, 2 fit adults who chose to eat mostly snacks on the go, walk very quickly, be present from 7:30am to after midnight (for shopping), liberal use of FP and Single rider, and a little pixie dust . And of course no new DCA.

Please don't mistake the fact that we did it for something that is normal or a good idea. It was for an out of town friend with only 2 days who asked that we try. I would never choose to see any Disney park in this manner or recommend it to anyone planning a vacation for their family.

 

[KCmike]

If your staying offsite then 4 days is probably plenty but if your staying on site then I would bump it by a day or two. I guess it also depends on if your building in any "days off" or anything. My family personally loves to stay at least 5-6 days but we also want to take in as much as possible. That means every little ride and attractions. Too many people miss the little things that are at Disneyland and not at WDW. Now with two boys I would probably error on the side of less is more.

 

[Gipperland]

We are also WDW vets and have visited DL a handful of times. We took our children 12 and 15 (at the time) for 5 days in Feb 11', stayed at HOJO, and had a blast. It was our children's 1st memorable trip. Going for 5 days makes it a nice laid back paced trip. Allowing us time to go to DTD, have a nice dinner, ride the monorail and see WOC. We will be going back to DL for 3 days in Aug. with hopper tix. We will not do the extras because we won't have time. The length of time really depends on your family and the pace they like to move. At the end of 5 days we were all done, which is nice because we never feel done when we go to WDW...

 

[nunzia]

I think 4-5 days is about right. When we go in 2014 we are thinking about doing Knotts since haven't done that forever..I heard about the Trolley, but how does that work? Would also like to do Medieval Times (on a Trolley too?) since when the kids were little we never did it because one DS had an odd phobia about meat on bones so there would have been nothing for him to eat..he still can't do chicken on the bone..tendons and blood pockets bug him...and he's a cop so go figure..I digress.so I'd really like to do it now.

 

[rsleleux]

We went to DLR in May and had 3 day parkhoppers! We spent 5 days in San Diego and so this was all the time we had for DLR. While it was a nice visit, we did not get to see "everything" on our check list! We saw WOC with Dinner package and Fantasmic and and Soundsational Parade,rode several rides but not every ride we wanted! We are used to going to WDW every year and I thought 3 days would be plenty but it wasn't! We did take a mid day break on the 3rd day because we were just plain exhausted! Now that Carsland is open, we are going back for 2 more days but we are not park hopping since I want to go to Halloween Party! So our plan is one day at DCA to experience Carsland and the rides we missed out on (TSM does not have FP so we didnt wait for it since we go to WDW and get the FP)and then the Party at DL and save the last day for where we sit fit! We may spend a second day at DCA to get more time at Carsland. So with the 2 trips we have 5 days to see "Everything"!

I think 3 days is definitely not enough, 4 days is better but 5 will make for a much more relaxing trip, esp if you are staying at DLR hotel! IMHO