Early Planning - June 2019

[DisPhanatic]

My family has been to Disney World and Universal a few times. We are currently working on planning our first trip to Southern California. We are thinking 3 nights at Disney on property and then moving to a house rental near the Studios (Burbank / Hollywood Hills) for a week. Please let me know what you think about this.

- Timing? The kids (both boys, will be 13 and 11) will be in school until potentially Thursday June 13. I am thinking of flying out Thursday and staying at Disney through Sunday. Is there a benefit of Th-Sun vs Fri-Mon? I am thinking that driving to the house rental on a Monday evening won't be great. I know park crowds are pretty tough to predict. We will be post-grad nights. Other thoughts?

- Where to stay? I was thinking the Disneyland Hotel. My husband loves Walt and is a grad of the intern program at WDW. The Grand is out of our price range. Is the extra cost worth it over Paradise Pier Hotel?

- Length of stay? Is three park days enough? We are pretty hard hitting park tourers and would do all day Fri / Sat and most of the day Sunday before leaving. Would adding Thursday evening make a difference?

- Surrounding areas? How is our plan to switch locations? Is 6 days enough or do we need more? I know we would like to see: a studio tour, Hollywood from Griffith Observatory, Santa Monica, some hiking / wildlife, Petersen Auto Museum. Maybe another theme park day - Universal or Knott's Berry Farm. What other recommendations would you have?

Like I said, we are in the early planning phases. I have a Southern CA guidebook I ordered that I haven't read through yet. Would really appreciate the feedback!

Thanks,
DisPhanatic

 

[figment_jii]

At this point, I would say it's really hard to guesstimate what June of 2019 will be like. DLR has announced that Star Wars Land will open in summer of 2019, but they haven't been any more specific than that. If you go after Star Wars Land opens, then all bets are off about crowds and touring...other than it'll be super-crowded!

In terms of number of days (ignoring Star Wars Land), it really depends on what you mean by "enough". I think three days is enough to do a lot, but it's not enough to do and see everything. You'll need to prioritize which rides, shows, characters, meals, etc. you want to do and go from there. I would nominally say that only two nights will not be enough to take in all of the night time entertainment (assuming they're offerings WoC, PtN, F!, and fireworks), unless you're content with saying you saw the show but not necessarily from a good/great viewing spot.

 

[smartlabelprint]

5 Disneyland days.

Wait until you see what the annual pass situation is. Right now I wouldn’t recommend your dates. 6/29 I believe is when the lower ap’s are blocked out. I wouldn’t come until after that.

But there is supposed to be a big shake up in the annual pass system, yet to be seen.

 

[azdisneylover]

I agree with 5 day park hoppers. Staying on site is a good idea since Star Wars Land will be opening. I think they would make sure people staying on site get in to see the new land. I would push the vacation back a couple of weeks to make sure I would miss all the Grand Nites.

 

[HydroGuy]

This guide by my favorite DIS poster should be able to help with the questions you are asking and the ones you do not yet know you should be asking:

"A DLR Guide for WDW Vets" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1162599

 

[beachdreamr1229]

This guide by my favorite DIS poster ...

You're not just a bit biased, right? Seriously, it's the best summary of literally everything you need to know though. I don't know why we don't just refer to you as a god around here.

I've been in summer many times. I also live in southern California, so I may be of some help with the surrounding area. First off, timing. As mentioned above, it's going to be hard to tell this far out. Typically, that time of year is busy. But, depending on the official SWL opening date, you may get lucky. If, say, SWL doesn't open until late June, you could probably get in with fewer crowds as a lot of people will wait for it to open. But, if you care about SWL, you may want to wait and go later in the summer.

Where to stay? Onsite, I'd pay the extra for DLH over PPH if you're only going to do Disneyland once in a lifetime. If you will be a frequent flyer, it won't matter as much. DLH is beautiful though and if I could afford it, it would be my top pick. If you are concerned with cost though, I recommend looking offsite. The hotels on Harbor across the street from Disneyland are a closer walk than onsite options in many cases.

Length of stay--As a local, I still could easily fill 3-4 days with park fun and would go 5 if I thought I could make it work. It depends on your touring style and if you want to see everything or just the highlights. If you skip the things that are cloned or clones of WDW attractions, 3 days will probably be fine.

For all of your other So Cal activities, it will depend on how you stack it. Another theme park is 1 full day. The Petersen Auto Museum and Santa Monica could be done in the same day. Griffith Park has hiking, so you could hit the observatory and hike/see wildlife in one day, too. I would take an entire day for a studio tour and choose the WB tour. But if you're going to Universal Studios, you could just do the VIP tour there and skip other studios. They're all very similar. If you haven't been to Hollywood, check out the walk of Fame, the old Chinese theater, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and the wax museum. They're all in the same neighborhood roughly, so it's easy to park in a parking structure and walk everywhere. If you'll have a car, which you really should in L.A., I recommend going up the PCH (highway 1) a little, maybe the day you do Santa Monica, and have an early lunch or dinner at the Paradise Cove Beach cafe. It gets packed, especially in the summer, and parking is challenging as it gets fuller, but it's a great little restaurant and the beach is well known for its role in old Hollywood movies and tv shows like Gidget as well as a Britney Spears music video, American Pie 2, X-men, and more. Plus, you'll get to see one of the world's most expensive trailer parks surrounding it.

 

[DisPhanatic]

I love the suggestions. Thanks so much!

I have been watching the Star Wars opening news closely. I would prefer to go before that happens and hope that people will wait to travel to see it. Who knows what will happen??

 

[theluckyrabbit]

...I have been watching the Star Wars opening news closely. I would prefer to go before that happens and hope that people will wait to travel to see it...

I think at this point the best way to plan your trip before SWL opens is to try to visit before summer 2019. I would try to visit before Memorial Day 2019, if possible. That way, you should be in the clear. I don't think people will wait to travel to see SWL -- I fear the opposite will happen.