1st Trip to Disneyland

[gdrj]

headed there last week of June landing late Monday visiting the parks on Tues Wed Thurs 6/25-6/27. We will have access to Extra Magic Hours all 3 days, and will also being doing Max Pass. Its just 2 adults no kids, frequent WDW visitors.

We plan on doing Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps Tour.
We obviously will plan on going on as many rides as we can
We have ZERO INTEREST in Star Wars

Should we do the dessert party for World of Color (primarily for viewing purposes)? Or is FP good enough. Having a seat wouldn’t be a bad thing.
While we dont want to miss park time, DTD, and Trader Sam’s is there a restaurant that is a must for a 3 day trip? Or other in park musts?

I’m assuming we will do DL on Tues and Thurs and Wed we will DCA (we do have Park Hopper tickets)

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

These two thread (from the stickies up at the top of the first page) have lots of great information for you:
A DLR Guide for WDW Vets
World of Color Superthread
Read the first post of the WOC thread very carefully -- all the information is there to help you make your decision on Dessert Party vs. Dining Package vs. Free FP. All areas have good-to-great viewing. And all areas have the risk of poor-to-very poor viewing. It all comes down to how much money and/or time you are wiling to invest in doing the research and waiting for your spot.

 

[2 Pinks]

I apparently haven't posted enough to be able to do a "reply"!

theluckyrabbit - Those are really helpful links, thank you! We are going in September and bringing my MIL, I didn't realize the dessert party offered chairs so we will probably go that route rather than a dining package.

 

[gdrj]

Thank You LuckyRabbit!

 

[RemainSeatedPlease]

I hope you have a fun trip! I will recommend not alotting too much time for Downtown Disney. It's basically just a nice outdoor mall that isn't really that big. But, I rarely spend much time in the parks shopping, so I've never really seen the appeal.

 

[gdrj]

I hope you have a fun trip! I will recommend not alotting too much time for Downtown Disney. It's basically just a nice outdoor mall that isn't really that big. But, I rarely spend much time in the parks shopping, so I've never really seen the appeal.

I was thinking more of dining/drink, I’m sure my Wife will spend lot so time and $$$ shopping in the Parks, Hotel, DTD. She is already asking me to find the local UPS/Fed Ex to ship stuff home.

 

[HydroGuy]

I hope you have a fun trip! I will recommend not alotting too much time for Downtown Disney. It's basically just a nice outdoor mall that isn't really that big. But, I rarely spend much time in the parks shopping, so I've never really seen the appeal.

I was thinking more of dining/drink, I’m sure my Wife will spend lot so time and $$$ shopping in the Parks, Hotel, DTD. She is already asking me to find the local UPS/Fed Ex to ship stuff home.

There are some good dining options in DTD, and the hotels. Smaller than Disney Springs by a long shot, but I always go to hit at least one or two of the restaurants. Lots of shopping options too.

If you have EMH every day you are staying at one of the Disney hotels which means you will be walking thru DTD every day anyways.

Have a great trip!

 

[ktlm]

We are WDW vets that also love DLR and have been going there as well every year for the last 9 years. I would recommend the WOC dessert party, for the seats, particularly if you have short people in your party. We usually either do the dining package and then go in the wet zone (and we bring ponchos- because depending on the way the wind is blowing you can be dry, or you can be soaked), or we do the dessert party. While I love the view from being closer, especially if we are right at the rail and I can see everything without people in front of me, there is definitely something to be said for waiting while seated at a table eating and drinking.

As far as must do restaurants, our opinion is that the CS food is much better at DLR than it is at WDW. We don't worry that much about dining reservations.

Being a WDW vet, you may find that DL/CA feel like one big park to you, instead of like 2 parks.
Hopping is basically walking across a plaza the length of a foot ball field-- it is closer than a lot of the park bus stops at WDW, and you don't have to go through security again to hop. I would kind of liken it to EPCOT where you have two very distinct separate sides- with a separation between them. Hopping is about a 5 minute time investment, unlike at WDW where hopping can be an hour or more time investment. We hop all the time if the app shows lines are shorter in the other park; max pass shows a FP available that someone wants to do; or someone just wants to ride something in the other park. DH has been known to leave us at DL, sending us to ride Small World while he hops for the sole purpose of getting a beer from the Karl Strauss truck on the wharf at California Adventure. Typically, by the time we have waited for and ridden Small World, he is already walking back into DL.

The one thing that might give you some issues is that you are there within the first few days that Star Wars Land is not reservation only. I know you are not interested in Star Wars, but I could see that increasing the crowds in the parks in general. I would be sure to hit the parks at opening, as in our experience the first couple of hours in the day are almost always pretty low lines even when the park gets really crowded later.

Our favorite thing about DLR is how flexible and easy it is! Have a great trip!

 

[gdrj]

Thanks ktlm