Disneyland Park- one day, two adults

[singingpixie]

Hi! As a side trip to visiting my grandparents in San Diego in early June, my boyfriend and I are going to spend one night in Anaheim.

The plan is to drive up on a Wednesday, stopping at a couple wineries in Temecula around lunchtime. We'd get to Anaheim and check into the hotel (right now planning on the Candy Cane Inn) in the mid to late afternoon, swim, check out Downtown Disney and have a nice dinner (thinking Catal? Napa Rose is a contender but I think we might like Catal better and may be able to eat a bit cheaper) around 7 or 8, and get a good night's sleep.

The next day (Thursday) would be Disneyland- all day from opening to closing, since we'll have checked out of the hotel. The last time we've been to Disneyland was as kids, pre-Fastpass. Any idea of a strategy to see the most we can without killing outselves? We'd like to stay through the fireworks and Fantasmic if offered, and then drive back to San Diego. I'm thinking we'll most likely get fireworks but not Fantasmic on a Thurs night the first or second week of June. Is this likely? What crowds should we expect?

Thanks for your help!

 

[singingpixie]

OK I may have an itinerary in mind-

Arrive at Rope Drop after continental breakfast at hotel.
Matterhorn (because there are no fastpasses)
FP Space Mountain, ride Buzz
Space Mountain w/ Fastpass
Fastpass Splash Mountain, ride BTMRR
Fastpass Indy, lunch (French Market maybe?)
Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and use fastpasses for Splash and Indy after lunch

Hit Fantasyland (Its a Small World, Peter Pan's Flight, Mr Toad) around the time of the afternoon parade (would these be occuring in early June on a weekday)

Use the evening for catchup/repeats (and dinner, TBD counter service) before watching Fireworks, and Fantasmic if showing.

How does this look? Doable in early June on a weekday? Am I missing anything that's "Don't Miss"?

 

[wdwrich]

I would FP Space Mtn, ride Buzz, then ride Matterhorn. Also, the ride back to San Diego (1.5 to 2 hours), is a tough one after such a long day at DL. Drive safely!

 

[singingpixie]

I would FP Space Mtn, ride Buzz, then ride Matterhorn. Also, the ride back to San Diego (1.5 to 2 hours), is a tough one after such a long day at DL. Drive safely!

Thanks- my boyfriend is a night owl, so I'm thinking that even if I'm too tired to drive back, he'll be fine. We will definitely make a point to get a good night's sleep the night before though- both for the day in the park and the drive back.

 

[singingpixie]

I'm going to bump this to ask a more specific followup-

Am I shooting myself in the foot by planning to do Fantasyland in the afternoon? We don't need to do everything, but I'd live to do Peter Pan, Mr Toad and Its a Small World, and as go-with-the-flow as my boyfriend is, I can't imagine him loving the idea of waiting an hour for any of these, lol.

 

[bumbershoot]

If you're thinking of the all day trip on Thursday, that is a MM day. If you don't have MM, it won't matter if you go as soon as you can in the morning or the afternoon, b/c Fantasyland will already be packed by the time you get there.

Many people have much better luck saving Fantasyland for the evening, once many of the littles have gone back to their hotels to sleep, if they can't get in first thing in the morning! Plus it's more romantic.

 

[singingpixie]

That's an option I hadn't thought of- I guess if we are using our morning for the headliners (because lets face it, I'd rather miss out on Mr Toad than Indiana Jones) we can play it by ear as far as Fantasyland. If we get through it in the afternoon, great, but if the lines are awful we'll try again in the evening.