2-Day Park Hopper or 3 Day - 1 park Tickets

[livinthelife]

We are doing a quick stop at Disneyland on our way home from Aulani. We will arrive at our off-site hotel about 6:00 on Saturday evening. We will have two full days at the park. The question is...do we go with the 2 day park hoppers which was the original plan and just hit Downtown Disney on Saturday night or do we go with the 3 day - 1 park tickets for about the same price and hit a park on Saturday night?

 

[SMD]

Since the other park days aren't MM, I think you'd get more out of hopping than a few hours on the 3rd day.

 

[Laundress]

I would stick with the 2 day hopper. DTD has some nice shops and street entertainment. I would rest up and hit the parks at rope drop

 

[mom2rtk]

That's a tough call. It might be nice to hit the fireworks and MSEP on arrival night. Fireworks get cancelled pretty frequently at DL. If you go to DL the first night, you have one more shot at actually seeing them and can use your evenings the other 2 days to do rides when everyone else is seeing fireworks and the parade.

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

I would do 3 day for sure

 

[dtrain]

If it were me I'd go with the 3 Day Park Hopper. There's nothing worse than being right there at Downtown Disney and not being able to enter the parks even if only for a few hours. Just sign up free at Last Minute Travel Club (promo WELOVEYOU) and the 3 Day Park Hopper is $281.70.

 

[biochemgirl]

Price out 3 day PH with get away today and undercover tourist. They both run specials frequently. It would be great to catch the parade and fireworks that first night. Have an awesome trip

 

[gottalovepluto]

2 day PH IMHO. It's rare that I would EVER choose that over 3 days in the parks, but I recently got back from Hawaii myself and OMG we were so tired. (Admittedly it was a red-eye flight, so totally not the same as yours!) My thinking:
-Time Change: the time change is 3 hours. 6pm will be 3pm to you and your fam so- win on Sat night! But this means that if the parks open at 8am on Sunday it will feel like 5am to you and your crew, and that doesn't count time to wake up and get to the parks. Only having 2 days I'm sure you'd want to be there at opening.
-Travel Fatigue: how does your group do traveling? We get exhausted, we're tall people and flights are very uncomfortable for us so flying itself is a tiring experience even if it's just a 5 hour flight. Not everyone is like that though! I have seen some very preppy people at the end of those flights who could totally get of the plane and go on to conquer Disneyland. I hate them. But that's my jealousy speaking
-Arriving later than expected on Sat: what if this happens? are you ok with the idea of getting in a couple hours later and only having a few hours in the park? I'm not saying it will happen but LAX is a freaking disaster of an airport, anything can and does happen so "just in case" plans are very important.

You could always buy your tickets on arrival to Disneyland, you'll miss out on early purchase discounts but you will be able to more fully evaluate which ticket is right for you.

Have a wonderful vacation! Aulani + Disneyland sounds AMAZING!!