Could someone please help me?

[Wackiemommy]

Hello, new gal here! I've been reading these boards for a couple of years and now I've finally gotten up the nerve to ask a question. We've been to WDW several times but never to DL. My DH and I are thinking of suprising our 3 DS (ages 3,8,&10) with a trip June18-24, 2006. The only thing we have so far is lodging (we're using DVC point from our friends to stay at the Disneyland Hotel). I was planning on getting 5 day passes to the parks. I'm unsure of which airport we should fly into (we'll be coming from the Baltimore/DC area)?
Also any suggestions for which park we should visit on which day? Any suggestions/ recommendations would be welcome! Please help me plan a special trip for my family!! Thanks!

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

I would highly suggest you fly into John Wayne airport in Orange County. It's a much shorter drive to Disney and a much less hectic airport then LAX. I have flown into both and will never fly into LAX again unless I have to.

 

[BrerMama]

It really depends on what you want/need from an airport. I would rather not fly into LAX, but with our 3 kids (5, 10 and 11), we don't want to do a connecting flight. And it is really difficult to find direct flights into John Wayne unless you're coming from a Western hub city. We've been stuck in Atlanta twice for 6+ hours and survived, surely we can survive getting out of LAX and getting back home.

We'll be there the week before you! I'm not going to do as much planning re: which parks, which day as I do for WDW, but I'm started to make a list of restaurants we'd like to try. Have fun planning!

 

[disney-super-mom]

I completely agree. It's much better to fly into John Wayne Int. Airport. We flew into LAX the very first time we went to DL, and ever since we've flown into John Wayne. We learned the hard way. Not that LAX is bad or anything. If you find a great airfare going to LAX from your location, by all means book it, but if the airfares are about the same flying into either airport, definately go to John Wayne Int.

As far as which days to visit what parks, I'd visit Disneyland Park, or both DL and DCA for that matter, during mid-week days if possible (Tues, Weds, Thurs). Mondays aren't bad either. If you're there during a Fri, Sat, or Sun, DCA may be a bit lighter in crowds than DL, although there isn't as much to do or see at DCA, but it's still fun. Plus, there'll be a new ride open at DCA when you're there themed around Monsters Inc. Should be FUN!

Have a terrific time on your family vacation! Wow, what a surprise for your three girls! Did I mention I'm a girl and up for adoption? Just kidding...seriously though...

 

[superdisneyfan]

We just came back and flew into Long Beach airport. John Wayne is the closest airport, but JetBlue didn't fly into there. Long Beach is the next closest. LAX is the farthest.

DCA was a little disappointing. You'll find that DL environment is much different from WDW where everything is spread out. You can walk from the hotels to the parks and from DL to DCA to Downtown Disney. So if you don't want fast food all the time, you have eat at nice restaurants.

 

[stampinshauna]

Even though LAX is the farthest, it isn't that far. Maybe about 45 minutes to Disneyland. John Wayne (SNA) is about half the distance. Long Beach is somewhere inbetween. I'd base your flight on price and connections. I'd rather have a direct flight and fly into LAX than save 25 minutes driving. Connections take longer than the extra driving time.

DCA is less crowded, so maybe plan to do that on weekend days. It will be more crowded than on weekdays, but much less crowded than Disneyland. One nice thing is that it isn't far from Disneyland to DCA, so you could go back & forth without too much walking.

Have fun. Just be prepared for crowds. I've been in June and it is hot and crowded, but it is still magical!!!

 

[kristasmom]

Ontario International (ONT) is never crowded and is only 30-40 minutes away from Disneyland.

 

[Eeyorecln]

I would suggest ridemax for avoiding long lines. We used it last summer and loved it. I would recommend Blue Bayou for lunch, my boys loved it as much as Sci-Fi Dine at MGM. The fireworks are a must see in my opinion,view from hub so you get the whole show. We watched it first from TL and my DH thought that we didn't need to see it again from the hub(silly hubby ) He finally got why I wanted to wait an hour to see it from there afterwards. My DH and DS's loved the matterhorn part. Have fun planning.

 

[sierranevada]

My thoughts on the following airports: LAX - huge international airport - long security lines - it can take any where from 45 minutes to almost 2 hours depending on when you arrive/depart. I arrived once at 5:45 pm - smack dab in the middle of rush hour and it took a good 1 hour & 45 minutes to the DLH. SNA (John Wayne)- great small airport - usually takes about 20 minutes - never taken me more than 30 minutes. ONT - another great small airport - arrived on Sunday morning - took 40 minutes to DLH. Left DLH Thurs evening at 6 pm and took 1 1/2 hours to the airport because of rush hour.

Southwest Airlines major airline at SNA - never offers discounts into SNA but frequently does to ONT. LAX - more selection of flights, especially nonstop from east coast.

I have not yet flown into Long Beach (LGB) but will next month. I have heard great things about the airport and that it is only about 5 minutes further than SNA. Jetblue does have direct flights from both Boston & DC to LGB so I would say they are definitely worth checking out.

This is the order in which the airports are closest to DLR:
SNA, LGB, ONT, LAX, BUR (don't bother with Burbank).

 

[abby]

My suggestion is whatever day you go, especially week days, be there before they open, have decided before hand what the first four or five things you want to do and go for it. We were able to do all the kid stuff (dumbo, tea cups et al) in less then an hour, would have taken several hours later in the day. Mostly I suggest take your time and enjoy.

 

[dvccruiser]

We just fly from bwi to lax on oct 1 and returned oct 5
We flew southwest direct flight great price great flight
Used the magical express bus think it was 28 round trip also worked great
Southwest is the first stop in lax for the bus so it works out well drops off a dlh. Drive time was about 45min each way.
dont know how june will be but our trip was great
Ive been to wdw many times and didnt expect much from dl
It is smaller but it really grew on me. Everything is walking distance.
Have a great time keep asking questions no matter how silly thats what this is all about. It stopped me from making a big mistake. Was not going to see fireworks or fantasmic (that was close there where great)also probably wouldnt have seen aladin without this.

 

[tmt martins]

We went last week of june this year .
Flew BWI to LAX not a problem stopped off at san d peir on way down before check in.
We did the Southern CA pass 3 days Dl 1 Knotts 1 SW and ! sand Zoo .
We stayed at PP and it was great stayed at a notsonice place on our midweek trip to san d.
3days was enough time to go at a nice pace on everything including all shows .Fastpass is nice because the parks are not as big as WDW and it's easy to go back for your times.
Anyhow have a great time and if you get a down night go to the POOLDECK of PP and watch the fireworks from there you get a wonderful veiw of them.

 

[caliangel528]

I would really suggest to fly into John Wayne Int. It's closer. You would just have to get onto the 5fwy from there and go north and you'll be there in like 15-20 minutes. I actually live 5 minutes from John Wayne and we usually go to DL, trip is about 15-20 minutes for us.
And since you'll be gettin 5 day passes...I would just suggest you take your time and enjoy every moment of your trip. My friends and I usually get the one day park hopper ticket since we don't have our AP anymore and we have a blast. Enjoy it all!
Check out Crushes Live show (in DCA, Hollywood Pictures Backlot area)...your kids will enjoy that. It's really cute. Aladdin show too. And for the rides that are really popular you should try to go to those in the morning when people are just startin to enjoy their day. Durin the day and later in the day the lines will be really long for the popular rides.
If you have any more questions...ask away! I don't mind answerin. Your family will enjoy the trip in the summer. It'll be warm but it'll be fun. Plus you can always cool off in Bugsland. Have a great day!

 

[HydroGuy]

Also any suggestions for which park we should visit on which day? Any suggestions/ recommendations would be welcome! Please help me plan a special trip for my family!! Thanks!

It looks like you got a lot of answers to the airport question. On your other question, I do not know whether DLR will still be selling the same parkhopper deals next June. If they are the same as this summer, then you will have to deal with EE. With parkhopper tix you get one EE day. EE days this year were Mon/Tue/Thurs/Sat. In addition, since July DLR has been allowing DLR hotel guests in for each EE day. This has been an experiment, and may end at any time.

To the point, use EE as much as you can to ride the FantasyLand rides. If you go to DL on an EE day, but you yourself do not have EE, then DL will already be somewhat crowded before you ever get in. This means that DL EE days when you do not have EE are better days to go to DCA. If you do go to DL, avoid FantasyLand on such days. If you go to DL on a non-EE day then no guests are in the park at all when it opens. Do FantasyLand right away, especially Peter Pan, Dumbo and Alice. Weekends are also good days to go to DCA.

If you want to do everything casually, then ignore my next advice. If, on the other hand, you want to plan things out so you can avoid lines as much as possible and get on more rides, then the best times to be in the parks for rides are in the mornings and late at night. The worst time for rides is 1-6PM. I recommend people get up early, leave in the afternoon for a lengthy nap, and come back and stay until park closing.

If you want to be the park in the afternoons, you may want to do some shows or go on rides like Tiki Room, HISTA and Mark Twain. At DCA, the Animation Studios are a good choice in the afternoon.

I have written up some tips in lengthy topics linked below, FYI.

RideMax Critique Plus Conventional and Unconventional Usage on August 1-4 Trip
--- See http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885134
Getting the Most Out of FastPass During High Season
--- See http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885132

 

[Wackiemommy]

Thank you all for your answers!! I'm feeling a lot better about planning this trip. Thanks again!

 

[gssmks]

I would suggest ridemax for avoiding long lines. We used it last summer and loved it. I would recommend Blue Bayou for lunch, my boys loved it as much as Sci-Fi Dine at MGM. The fireworks are a must see in my opinion,view from hub so you get the whole show. We watched it first from TL and my DH thought that we didn't need to see it again from the hub(silly hubby ) He finally got why I wanted to wait an hour to see it from there afterwards. My DH and DS's loved the matterhorn part. Have fun planning.

What is ridemax?

 

[HydroGuy]

What is ridemax?

See my link from an earlier post:

RideMax Critique Plus Conventional and Unconventional Usage on August 1-4 Trip
--- See http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885134

 

[albianne]

Sorry this is not about airports but in Eeyorekln's post in this thread you mentioned Sci-Fi diner at Mgm, can you elaborate, is this a good place to eat at Universal studios?

 

[luuuceee]

Sorry this is not about airports but in Eeyorekln's post in this thread you mentioned Sci-Fi diner at Mgm, can you elaborate, is this a good place to eat at Universal studios?

Sci-Fi is actually in WDW, at the MGM studios park.

 

[JennyG999]

airport - I would fly into whatever is easiest from the airline perspective. I personally would prefer a direct flight over being closer to DL (but that is just me! We all would prioritize differently!) It also may be much cheaper to fly into LAX.

BUT, there are often deals into the smaller airports also (SNA, Long Beach, Ontario & Burbank.)