Best # of Days for Disneyland?

[AshleeH]

Hi all! We are tentatively planning a trip for 2013 and I'm curious about the number of days needed to get the best experience. Last time I was at Disneyland, I was 3 years old and I know it's nowhere near the same park it was in '85. However, we are WDW people and can do all four main parks easily in a week (doubling up on three of them) and I also know that Disney World is huge in comparison, so would 3 days cut it for Disneyland?

The reason I ask - I'm terrified of flying now (a new phobia, but DH has said he'll never fly with me again ) so we will be driving, which means a 30 hour road trip in our future. We won't be driving all the way through (that would be insanity). Because we always go on vacations during my son's fall break from school, that really limits our time (and this year he has struggled in one subject, so as of now, I would shy away from taking him out of school for a few days). I'm trying to plan travel time in advance, but before I do that I need to know what the best number of days would be for the park .

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[sonnyjane]

How long is his break? Just a week? That is a LOT of driving. I'd hate to think that you're basically driving for more days than you'd actually be experiencing the parks! Even though WDW is much larger in area, Disneyland Resort has nearly as many attractions in its two parks as WDW has in all four. This is something that a lot of WDW vets don't take into account, and then end up missing things because they figured "oh, Disneyland is so much smaller!" Three is my personal "magic number", but I travel either alone or with one other person only (so we accomplish things faster), and I skip out on a lot of the smaller shows. You'll likely hear others recommend four or even five (or sometimes more for busy times like summer).

After that much driving, I'd at least consider hitting some other SoCal attractions like the zoo in San Diego or Sea World, just to make all that driving worth it.

And on a side note, we have had a lot of posters over the years with fears of flying that have been able to get medication from their doctors that helped to calm them. I'm not sure how bad your fear really is, but driving 60 hours for 3 days at Disneyland seems really extreme!

I wanted to add also, since you're familiar with WDW but not so much with Disneyland, you will really want to read this thread - A DLR Guide for WDW Vets. It's long, but I promise it's very valuable: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1162599

 

[CrazyDuck]

3 is ok... 4 is better... 365 is the best!

 

[jdb in AZ]

If the parks aren't crowded, three daze is fine. There's sooo much other stuff to do in California, you won't have any problem filling up your week. If the weather's nice, I would plan a day at the beach to relax/unwind. All that driving and park hopping is exhausting!

 

[mamaofthree]

I would say 4 or 5. We just did a trip and had 3.5 days in the park and it was perfect. We usually do 2 and feel rushed, and this was sooooo much nicer. We went last week, with limited park hours, but low crowds. We felt like we did it all, but didn't see any shows or parades. So my rec based on Carsland being open then, thus more to see, would be 4-5 park days to do it all.

 

[blackjackdelta]

There are lots of good meds out there that will help you with flying, matter of fact you will not care what the plane does. We like 5-6 days since it is our only vacation for the year.

Jack

 

[Virgoinab]

Well, 3 days is good, but 5 is better.

We generaly go at least 6 to 7 but we make a vacation out of it, and yes, we just do DL and DCA.

 

[AshleeH]

How long is his break? Just a week? That is a LOT of driving. I'd hate to think that you're basically driving for more days than you'd actually be experiencing the parks! Even though WDW is much larger in area, Disneyland Resort has nearly as many attractions in its two parks as WDW has in all four. This is something that a lot of WDW vets don't take into account, and then end up missing things because they figured "oh, Disneyland is so much smaller!" Three is my personal "magic number", but I travel either alone or with one other person only (so we accomplish things faster), and I skip out on a lot of the smaller shows. You'll likely hear others recommend four or even five (or sometimes more for busy times like summer).

After that much driving, I'd at least consider hitting some other SoCal attractions like the zoo in San Diego or Sea World, just to make all that driving worth it.

And on a side note, we have had a lot of posters over the years with fears of flying that have been able to get medication from their doctors that helped to calm them. I'm not sure how bad your fear really is, but driving 60 hours for 3 days at Disneyland seems really extreme!

I wanted to add also, since you're familiar with WDW but not so much with Disneyland, you will really want to read this thread - A DLR Guide for WDW Vets. It's long, but I promise it's very valuable: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1162599

Thank you for the link! I'll be sure to read it all. Unfortunately it is just a week for his break. I think we could probably manage 4 days - I don't think 5 would be possible (although I would love it!). I told my husband this couldn't be a "Disneyland Trip" because that would make us crazy to get there, get there, get there! We would also be stopping in Dallas (it's his dream to see the new stadium) and probably stopping at a few other places along the way, so it would be more of a Southwest vacation with the bulk of the trip revolving around Disneyland.

There is also something that the schools around here offer, which is 10 homeschooling days a year (basically, if you're going on a trip and you go somewhere educational, that is the only accepted reason to take them out of school). I just heard about this a few weeks ago and need to look into it more, but if that's the case we can stop off at a number of places along the way and take him out. It just all depends on how he's doing in his classes at the beginning of next year, since that's the most important thing .

3 is ok... 4 is better... 365 is the best!

If only!

I would say 4 or 5. We just did a trip and had 3.5 days in the park and it was perfect. We usually do 2 and feel rushed, and this was sooooo much nicer. We went last week, with limited park hours, but low crowds. We felt like we did it all, but didn't see any shows or parades. So my rec based on Carsland being open then, thus more to see, would be 4-5 park days to do it all.

Carsland is the main reason for going - my boys are crazy about Cars (shelves and buckets of cars are filled around the house) so we want to get out west before they outgrow this phase. Three days would be our absolute minimum - I would shoot for 4. My kids like the parades, but I think we would skip them in favor of the attractions (and I'm the only one who likes the shows at WDW, so they could easily pass on those).

There are lots of good meds out there that will help you with flying, matter of fact you will not care what the plane does. We like 5-6 days since it is our only vacation for the year.

Jack

I've been looking into it . The weird thing is, I never had a problem flying before (I've been to Europe and Poland and the Bahamas and Arizona and California) but the one and only trip I took with my husband was the first time I'd flown since 9/11, I was 4 months pregnant with my second child and we left our oldest at home, so I think it all culminated in one really bad experience. I told him I'd take a class at some point to get over the fear, but the nearest class is two hours away.


Thank you, everyone!

 

[sonnyjane]

T

I've been looking into it . The weird thing is, I never had a problem flying before (I've been to Europe and Poland and the Bahamas and Arizona and California) but the one and only trip I took with my husband was the first time I'd flown since 9/11, I was 4 months pregnant with my second child and we left our oldest at home, so I think it all culminated in one really bad experience. I told him I'd take a class at some point to get over the fear, but the nearest class is two hours away.

4 hour drive roundtrip and meds means no 60 hour drive roundtrip later I'm not pressuring you it's just that's quite the trip!!!

 

[AshleeH]

4 hour drive roundtrip and meds means no 60 hour drive roundtrip later I'm not pressuring you it's just that's quite the trip!!!

Ha! Very true . But last time I checked, it was a multi-day class, so it's a hassle either way.

DH isn't against driving there though (and he does the bulk of the driving on trips, so if he was against it, alternatives would be used) so it's mainly making it easy going there and back and finding lots of interesting sights to stop at along the way - he's already referenced the Griswold Family Vacation once, but I hope we're more fortunate than Clark and Ellen lol!

I actually wouldn't mind the drive (when my parents took me in '85, we drove the same distance) but I just want to make sure I plan it perfectly so we're not rushed when we get there, because I'm betting the Disney experience is just as wonderful as WDW and I don't want to shortchange the kids

 

[zendisney]

Crazyduck, that would be awesome! How cool would it be to be involved in a project... 365 days of Disney. What an amazing cool idea. I may have to pitch that to the Mickey's in charge. Imagine what kinds of fantastic adventures one could have

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Once DCA is fully open I don't think 3 days will cut it anymore. I think 4 would be a minimum if you aren't going during a busy time.

 

[AshleeH]

Thank you, everyone! We talked about it a bit last night and we think we found a workable plan that will give us 4 full days at Disneyland (and possibly one day at the San Diego zoo). We'll really get into the details at the end of this year (have to get through this fall's WDW trip before planning DLR ) but you all have been so helpful! Thank you so much!

 

[theokris]

4 day park hopper is the way to go, best of luck

 

[joelnkelly]

we are going for a week in june and are buying a 6 day hopper. you can never have to many days at disney, since this will be our first visit and who knows when or if we will get back we planned the max number of days. this will also allow us to go in the evenings on days we have other things planned during the day.