Disneyland and California Adv. two or three days

[justjeepin]

My wife and I are planning a trip for our family of five (three boys 5, 7, and 10) to Southern California. We're trying to decide whether we can do Disneyland in one day and California Adventure in a day. We'd be going the last week in September so I'd think it wouldn't be two crowded. Any thoughts?

Our possible itinerary:
Sun - Fly in from Cincinnati and check out Hollywood
Mon - Disneyland
Tues - California Adventure
Wed - Newport Beach / Disneyland or California Adv
Thurs - Legoland
Fri - Fly home to Cincinnati

Anything I'm missing? I had thought about Knotts Berry Farm but am afraid it'd be too much like my local park Kings Island.

Danny

 

[mom2rtk]

This is actually the WDW forum. You might want to ask the folks over on the DLR forum.

 

[mesaboy2]

http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=26

 

[justjeepin]

This is actually the WDW forum. You might want to ask the folks over on the DLR forum.

I thought the DIS boards covered both just like the two DISUnplugged podcasts. So the DLR forum is a whole separate forum, not just a section of the DIS boards forum?

 

[siskaren]

I thought the DIS boards covered both just like the two DISUnplugged podcasts. So the DLR forum is a whole separate forum, not just a section of the DIS boards forum?

DIS boards is divided into a lot of sub-forums. There are sub-forums for broad topics like Disneyland and DVC (as well as non-Disney topics), as well as numerous sub-forums within the WDW section for things like resorts, restaurants, transportion, etc.

 

[gilesmt]

I would do three days if you can. You probably could get it done in two but you would miss some things like shows, three days gives you the buffer to go over some of your favorite things and make all the shows and both fantasmic and world of color. Also you can never tell how the crowds are going to be, unless maybe if you are diffenately going Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but early sept is less crowded than later sept and to me it was crowded early sept last year, no not like summer but definately a long wait for things like RSR, soaring and space, to me 30 minutes is a long wait and many days the lines to those rides where over an hour and we went second week in sept. last year was the first year we did not take naps and our youngest was 7, if your 5 year old may need a nap to make late nights than you will definately need 3 days. And remember even if they can make it at home it is nothing like walking Disney, last sept on a Saturday at 2 pm we were in PP of DCA and could not figure out way everything was walk on. We realized that night it was because we were the only ones use to the 103 temps, everyone else went back to hotel because it was so hot, but we are use to 103 to 112 temps living in a dessert.it can be extremely hot still down there at that time of year, usually not, but kids don't do so well if it is that hot and going commando style.

Hope that helps.

 

[Dizneydaz]

My wife and I are planning a trip for our family of five (three boys 5, 7, and 10) to Southern California. We're trying to decide whether we can do Disneyland in one day and California Adventure in a day. We'd be going the last week in September so I'd think it wouldn't be two crowded. Any thoughts?

Our possible itinerary:
Sun - Fly in from Cincinnati and check out Hollywood
Mon - Disneyland
Tues - California Adventure
Wed - Newport Beach / Disneyland or California Adv
Thurs - Legoland
Fri - Fly home to Cincinnati

Anything I'm missing? I had thought about Knotts Berry Farm but am afraid it'd be too much like my local park Kings Island.

Danny

Late September can actually be pretty crowded but you should be okay since you aren't planning weekend days. Halloweentime starts early at DLR and packs them in!

You might find that Newport (what exactly are you planning on doing there-the beach and anything else?) only takes a partial day and you could end the day at DLR.

HTH.

 

[juliebug1997]

We were there last October, middle of the month and hit one of their Halloween parties. It also turned out to be the Utah version of Jersey Week at WDW.

I've read a bit about DL and they do call it a local's park. I'm not sure how to describe it, except that I would agree. There seemed to be a lot more local people there than I have experienced at WDW. Plus, by late September, most of the CA resident passes no longer have any restrictions on them, so the locals are out in full force.

It was fun, but it was still too busy, even on a Monday, for us to get onto Radiator Springs in DCA. We're going to try to go back another time and try to stay at the Grand Californian so that we can sneak into the park and get one of the coveted FPs for Radiator Springs.

PS: Definitely go check out the DL side of this. They were pretty helpful, although it's not nearly as busy as over here.

 

[mesaboy2]

I thought the DIS boards covered both just like the two DISUnplugged podcasts. So the DLR forum is a whole separate forum, not just a section of the DIS boards forum?

You get there by clicking on the link in my previous post.

 

[justjeepin]

You get there by clicking on the link in my previous post.

I noticed that. I put it where I did because it says Disney trip planning. I guess they need to change that to WDW trip planning.

 

[mesaboy2]

I noticed that. I put it where I did because it says Disney trip planning. I guess they need to change that to WDW trip planning.

It's a natural assumption, and you're not the first to make it.

 

[Mrs D]

I went to DLR for the first time last Oct. we spent a full day in each DL and DCA plus entered DL for the Halloween party at 3pm. I am still crushed that we didn't get to ride Radiator Springs Racers as our FastPass return time as 10pm then there was an hour line through the FP return line (one little one was already asleep and the other was hallucinating due to being overtired).
I will tell you that next time we go we will be spending 2 full days in each park and staying on site or at least getting a ticket that we can get early entry on.

 

[Karebear]

I would plan on 3 days if you can. Sept. can still be crowded. They sell reduced priced APs to So Cal residents and the parks can be crowded with "locals". Hope that you have a great trip!

 

[mummabear]

3 days. You can easily spend 5 days there. I would suggest getting hoppers we go back and forth between the two as if they are one park.
With your limited number of nights you would want to do F! one one night, Fireworks on one and WOC on the 3rd (or any order).
If you havent got a hotel booked yet I can highley recommend the Hojo across the road.
We were really dissapointed with Knotts, only park ever that we had to wait for enough people to get on a ride for it to go! Frankly the P&E in Vancouver is as good