Disneyland Early December Genie+?

[Wendylet]

Hi DIsneyland experts! I am planning a trip first week of December with extended family, so 10 of us (6 adults and 4 littles aged 4-9). I have been to Disneyland several times but never at this time of year, and never with this size of group. We are trying to decide about park hoppers as well as genie+. In the past we have done 1 park per day tickets and added genie+. Can anyone advise how busy this is likely to be and if it's advisable to add these features on or not. Are we looking at great long lines for attractions (We will be in the parks 4 days likely Sun/Mon and Wed/Thurs)? There is quite an additional cost to add both features on, even adding genie+ adds about $1100 for the 4 days. Since I am gifting the tickets to the family I would have liked to add genie+ at the start(when purchasing the tickets) instead of the hassle of deciding to do it each day or not. Anyway all your expertise is greatly appreciated!

 

[BobaFettFan]

Went on a four day trip with my wife and six year old. First week of December last year.

We did Genie + and park hopper.


For our small group, park hopper was a good thing for my son. He wanted to do webslingers every day. Which is fine, but we'd be bouncing between parks which added a lot of steps. If we had told him "One park a day", we could've planned for just the one park and maybe optimized more? Added in my son wanted me to carry him on my shoulders and it was a lot. Happy to do it! But still a lot.

If I told him one park a day, he'd just accept it.

For a larger group, that's a lot of back and forth that's unnecessary. You will not have a bad time without park hoppers. It'll make a lot of the trip easier.


Park hoppers for older people are better because DCA is normally not a full day park and you can go back to Disneyland proper. There's just not enough there. But for our 6 year old, there was the redwood Creek challenge trail area. He loved it. We spent hours there. At first we were like "come on dude... There are rides!" but it was his trip, too and he was getting so much enjoyment.

This means 2 days DCA and 2 days Disneyland single park tickets would work for us. Also one of the DCA days could be downtown Disney time, too.

Now add in reservations! Gotta get everyone from one park to the other for a meal? Difficult. Unnecessary.


Genie+ lightning lane is a must. While it is expensive, you are gifting everyone a fun day at the park. You could be gifting them hours of line standing instead. Even at lower crowds the lines were long and we just walked past it with LL. Rides kept breaking down, so people would wait in line only to be told to come back. LL gave you a better chance to hit a window of opening for some rides. If they broke down every hour and the line is 1hour 5 minutes, you missed your shot. And yes they broke down that much. Yes I'm looking at you MMRR!

Also, when a ride breaks down and comes back up, they let a LOT of LL in first so the standby line sits stagnant. Imagine thinking how you could've paid that extra money while watching a marching bands worth of people stream in.

We got everyone magic bands (and magic band clip savers!) and our son had a blast clicking into the rides. He looked forward to it and would get his little wrist ready. Very fun. Expensive but a nice souvenir.


Enjoy your trip! Honestly, you're an amazing person to be helping everyone so much. When I think about winning the lottery, I think about doing what you're doing. Congrats on living my dream!

If you have any more questions feel free to PM me since my trip was so recent/mirrors yours.

 

[Wendylet]

Thanks so much for your wonderful and in depth reply. I see many similarities in our trips, not the least of which is that I will have three boys 4, 5 and 7 with me! It does sound as though you had a lot of running around to do! So if you had just the 1 park per day tickets would your son have been happy with just a 1 or 2 day experience with Webslingers?

You are convincing me regarding the genie+ as with these young boys the waiting in lines may be an issue (for some of the parents also)!

Thank you for your kind words about my generosity. My feeling is to take family on a few holidays where I can see the kids and grandkids enjoying themselves especially at times when the grandkids are young and money can be tight for young families. I hope that one day you will be able to do the same for yours!

 

[BobaFettFan]

Thanks so much for your wonderful and in depth reply. I see many similarities in our trips, not the least of which is that I will have three boys 4, 5 and 7 with me! It does sound as though you had a lot of running around to do! So if you had just the 1 park per day tickets would your son have been happy with just a 1 or 2 day experience with Webslingers?

You are convincing me regarding the genie+ as with these young boys the waiting in lines may be an issue (for some of the parents also)!

Thank you for your kind words about my generosity. My feeling is to take family on a few holidays where I can see the kids and grandkids enjoying themselves especially at times when the grandkids are young and money can be tight for young families. I hope that one day you will be able to do the same for yours!

My son is a very mellow kid. He might say a couple times how he wished he could have done web slingers, he'd probably be more focused on having fun at the park we're in. We're doing the soft parenting thing and do a lot of talking and explaining to him normally. He's used to us saying no provided a reason is given. So yes, he'd still have a good time.


If anything, we'd tell my son "Ok we have two days per park. The first day we'll do as much as we can and sample everything. The second day we get to visit our favorites and see anything we might have missed on the first day!"


Around 6 is a very easy to please age. We went to the beach an hour away and got a cheap hotel. My son was OVER THE MOON happy because "we were staying at a hotel" and "ordered pizza".


If your family says at the very beginning "we are doing one park a day" and they don't know about park hopping, then they'll just be happy and accept it as is. If the parents say something about "We could have .." or something then maybe they'll be more upset? But that's not your problem.


If this is the trip that your grand kids learn to appreciate "only doing one Disney park a day", then so be it. That's for their parents to work through. Again, that's not your problem.


Just remember you are not gifting a good time. You're gifting tickets to disney for the family. Good time is implied and expected but not promised. Kids will get tired, complain, not eat any of the food in the parks (My son ate a lot of PBJ's and maybe french fries or corn dog if he felt adventurous), not want to go on Pirates of the Carribean because it has a "dip" in it but demand to go on Thunder Mountain Railroad numerous times, etc. Once you click purchase, just absolve yourself of any "good times requirements". You did a good job. You got the family to disney. That's like top 1% of the world type stuff. My son had a melt down because I wanted him to watch the fireworks and he wanted to sleep and I pushed one too many times. The other nights I just let him sleep. I wished he would've watched the fireworks but that just wasn't on his "to do" list.



You giving them non-park hopper tickets isn't a bad gift. It's a wonderful super gift which they could upgrade at the gates if they want with their own money.

 

[Kit Jackson]

If your budget only allows for one, Genie+. Less time waiting in line means more time for other things (like possibly a midday break at the hotel if the younger ones need it). Also, Genie+ includes PhotoPass.

 

[BobaFettFan]

@Wendylet

Are you guys flying or driving to the hotel/park?

Are you going to the parks the same day you fly in?

Are your flights late or early?


I have some other suggestions depending...

 

[crystal1313]

We are not fans of genie+ at all. That being said, we buy it every trip now. It makes our day more enjoyable. We don’t like spending the money. We just factor that into the budget. It stinks. But, it also stinks to get into a line that says 30 minutes and ends up being 2 hours. It makes us all cranky and irritable and tired! We had that happen multiple times on multiple trips before we finally just broke down and bought genie. Now we are having more fun at the parks and enjoy our downtime more too instead of feeling like we have to get into another queue right away to “maximize” our time/money.

Since you are going 4 days, I would consider doing one park per day tickets to offset the genie cost. Keep an eye out on undercover tourist as they just had a good sale on adult tickets for kid prices.

I would also consider maybe having a rest day Monday, as Mondays tend to be very busy for some reason.

Hope that helps and have fun!!

 

[Wendylet]

@Wendylet

Are you guys flying or driving to the hotel/park?

Are you going to the parks the same day you fly in?

Are your flights late or early?


I have some other suggestions depending...

We are flying into Orange County and then some type of transportation to our hotel. We would be arriving in the afternoon but don’t plan on a park that day. We have scheduled one day in as a rest day. We could do Monday as a rest day instead but just trying to avoid too many consecutive park days for the littles. Our days there are Sunday to Thursday.

I have suggested Great Wolf Lodge on a rest day as all the kids love to swim.

I was just speaking with one daughter about how many days in which park and now I am totally confused. The oldest grandchild loves the roller coaster in DCA and had hoped to do more than one day in that park but to me that seemed like a one day park and three in Magic Kingdom. I suppose it would be helpful to have a hopper in this case. Too bad you can’t get it just for certain days…

 

[BobaFettFan]

We are flying into Orange County and then some type of transportation to our hotel. We would be arriving in the afternoon but don’t plan on a park that day. We have scheduled one day in as a rest day. We could do Monday as a rest day instead but just trying to avoid too many consecutive park days for the littles. Our days there are Sunday to Thursday.

I have suggested Great Wolf Lodge on a rest day as all the kids love to swim.

I was just speaking with one daughter about how many days in which park and now I am totally confused. The oldest grandchild loves the roller coaster in DCA and had hoped to do more than one day in that park but to me that seemed like a one day park and three in Magic Kingdom. I suppose it would be helpful to have a hopper in this case. Too bad you can’t get it just for certain days…

If you're going to be "around" for the day you arrive, please consider getting an extra 5th day for your tickets. It's like $20/each extra or some negligible price (4 day ticket to 5 day) and it allows you to get to the parks the day of as a "free day". Also for you that means your first day would be Saturday so there would be fireworks. I can't remember if they had fireworks on Sundays at that time, but for me Disneyland Fireworks are always the highlight for me. My family has been to the parks 4 times in the past 6 years and every time we say "4 days" it sends up at 4.5. For you, it would be technically speaking 3 days Disneyland 2 days DCA.


Your daughters off hand remark about what they would do is very telling.


Listen to your daughter. She has ideas that are different from you. They are equally as valid. Park hoppers means flexiblity in lou of a solid plan. Do your childen envision the whole group stuck at the hip for 4/5 days? Will they want to break off and have a "just our small group" day or half day? These are the kinds of questions you need answers to before buying your ticket. We did this on our last trip (my group split in two and we each did our own thing until 4pm) and it worked fabulously.


Before you click and book those tickets, Don't be afraid to tell your loved ones what you're willing to pay for and ask if they'd want to chip in for the extras or keep it as is. Not everyone is good with being open about money, but for me the less "guess work" there is on a trip of this magnitude the better. My mom went on a trip with her coworker who "gifted it" to her only to spend a week basically caring for her (she was older and less physically fit for the area they went to)/lugging her bags around/not doing much that she wanted to do while she was there. All of us are super clear now in my family about what is and is not expected.


My father in law got it in his head to offer a family trip this December. Honestly, you and I might be walking past each other in the parks this year. That being said, when Grandpa made the statement, "I want to pay for everyone to go to Disneyland!" he did not know the price. I sent him an itemized list of everything that goes into a trip except food/gifts (Hotel, flights, tickets, mobile scooter rental, etc). It was double what he envisioned. We told him that if he just took his grandson to the movies on the weekend, he'd still love his grandpa all the same and still be happy.


But Grandpa was determined to have a Family Disney Trip! So I asked him what was he comfortable paying for the trip, took the difference, and asked the rest of the family if they'd split that cost. The answer was a resounding, "Yes!" We were going to get two separate hotels but found a double room for the same price as a single which saved a ton. Told him how food for our son was just PBJ's we make and we only splurge on red wagon corndogs and not sit down reservations $$$. He was super happy and relieved but that side of the family finds those kinds of talks difficult.


Honestly, if you ask your kids, "I want to pay for park tickets and Genie+, but if you guys want flexiblity you could chip in and just pay for the park hopper options. Otherwise we'll just plan on solid park days." I'd be shocked if they dropped their monocole, let out an audible gasp, and looked aghast that you would ask such a question.


We don't do rest days but my sister in law wants to do Universal Studios Hollywood which will "break it up" but our family loves the Disney parks. We are rope drop to shut down for as many days as we go. Great Wolf Lodge is good, but I wonder if being in that water might mean a higher chance of people getting sick? Not to sure. I'm risk averse and usually stick to the parks.


Good luck! If you do ask them about chipping in please update.