First DL trip week after Thanksgiving! Help with questions please!

[atisikitabasket]

We are heading to DL for a family trip (I went 23 years ago) our kids have never been. We arrive Saturday Nov 25th first day in the park is Sunday 26th and Friday Dec. 1st we plan half a day then start drive home. We are staying at the Homewood suites Anaheim. We have 5 day tickets right now with no park hoppers thought we would do parks Sun, Mon, Tues, Thurs and half day Friday. Our kids are 14, 7 and 3.

1. Which day should we do morning magic?

2. We are going to take a day to ride train to San Diego and hit the zoo. We thought we would do this on Wed. We talked ourselves out of universal seemed like a big hassle to get to. Is the Zoo a good choice?

3. Is the Christmas parade at night like at WDW or during day? Is it done everyday?

4. Is WOC usually only on the weekends?

5. Do you think we need park hoppers if going for 5 days?

6. When do they post park hours and when can you make ADR's?

Any other info you want to throw out there I would love it! The more the better.

 

[chickapin parterre]

Wednesday is the best day for Disneyland, so change your SD to another day,.... wednesday has no MM, it is usually not bookend to a weekend and folks are exhausted by wednesday

tuesday is the best MM, as everyone is exhausted and moving slowly while everyone flew or drove in on Wenesday and are ready to go thursday morning.l

with the vast range of ages in your group, I would not do park hoppers, unless one adult is going with the 14 year old to DCA to ride the thrill rides while the other stays in disneyland. so upgrade one day to park hopper, which would happen after your first visit to DCA and how the 14 year old reacts to all the thrills.

 

[jonahsmommy]

Park hours for the dates that you are going won't be posted probably until early Fall. We go every year in November and it feels like it takes forever until the hours are posted. The Disney hotels should have their Christmas decorations up so make sure you find some time to go visit and see the decorations.

We love the SD Zoo but plan on bringing your stroller for your 3 year old, its a lot of walking.

 

[mom2rtk]

The Christmas parade used to run day and night. Last year it only ran during the day when we were there (not sure if that changed when it got closer to Christmas) with the exception of one odd day it ran at night because of a special event scheduled (either the Mariah Carey taping or the Small World Anniversary or both).

Don't count on the schedule to be firmed up until a few weeks out. They will post general park hours a bit earlier (not much) but things like shows and parades can be very late to be filled in.

ADR's can be made 60 days out.

WOC is generally every night.

 

[joseph821]

We are heading to DL for a family trip (I went 23 years ago) our kids have never been. We arrive Saturday Nov 25th first day in the park is Sunday 26th and Friday Dec. 1st we plan half a day then start drive home. We are staying at the Homewood suites Anaheim. We have 5 day tickets right now with no park hoppers thought we would do parks Sun, Mon, Tues, Thurs and half day Friday. Our kids are 14, 7 and 3.

1. Which day should we do morning magic?

2. We are going to take a day to ride train to San Diego and hit the zoo. We thought we would do this on Wed. We talked ourselves out of universal seemed like a big hassle to get to. Is the Zoo a good choice?

3. Is the Christmas parade at night like at WDW or during day? Is it done everyday?

4. Is WOC usually only on the weekends?

5. Do you think we need park hoppers if going for 5 days?

6. When do they post park hours and when can you make ADR's?

Any other info you want to throw out there I would love it! The more the better.

Yes you definitely park hoppers. The Christmas Party I believe is twice a day. WOC is usually every night. Most weekends - Friday, Sat and Sun WOC will have 2 performances. Resrevations are made 60 days in advance and hours should be posted by early October. The Zoo is a great choice. Magic Morning on Tuesday would be best.

 

[catmegs]

We'll be there the same week as you (we're doing Mon Nov 27 thru Sat Dec 2). We have 3 kids, 9, 8 and 3 so if you see us say hi !

1. Play the magic morning by ear (tues or thurs), depending on how awake and up your are. In the past I've had the best of intentions of making early morning hours and my kids have dragged the ball, causing me to get grumpy. If you are raring to go Tuesday, do it. If not, you have Thursday.

2. I would not even try and do train to SD and zoo in one day with a 3 year old. No way!! The zoo is huge, the train ride long, and you'll be way to exhausted for the rest of your DL days.

3/4. Going by past years calendars, Christmas parade will be at 4:15pm every day. Fireworks should be at 8:40pm tues, wed and thurs (weather/ wind permitting). Haven't looked up WOC yet, just check the same week last year for an idea. (should be every night).

5. Yes to park hoppers. Absolutely. We park hop constantly even when our kids were really little.

6. Park hours- look up park schedules for the last two years and they remain pretty consistent. I have written down Tuesday (DL 10-9, CA 10-8), Wednesday
(DL 10-9, CA 10-8), Thursday (DL 8-9, CA 8-8) and Friday (DL 9-12, CA 9-10). DL magic mornings start an hour before opening. Book your ADRs 60 days out

Enjoy!!

 

[mfleeting]

I personally would say no to park hoppers. We get them every time we go and we never use them. We spend 1 day at California Adventure and that's normally enough for us. However, I think you can upgrade while your there if you feel like you need them.

 

[figment_jii]

1. Magic Mornings are usually offered on Saturday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I would personally use the Magic Morning as early as possible on your trip. For my family, we tend to get more tired as the trip progresses, so it gets harder and harder to get up that early.

2. The zoo is a lot of fun and well worth a visit, but I'm not as sure about taking the train. I've never ridden the train down in Southern California, so I don't know how long the trip would take, but my experience with trains elsewhere in CA has been that it's a long, slow ride. According to Google, the train will take about 3 hours to get from Anaheim to San Diego, so that means over 6 hours of travel to spend a few hours at the zoo...I probably wouldn't do that.

3. As others have said, they haven't posted the entertainment schedule yet. The operating calendar is usually posted 45-days in advance and entertainment is added after that. I would probably plan on the parade running at least once per day, but it's hard to say what they'll be presenting at this point.

4. WoC is usually presented nightly, but we won't know which show is being presented (or when) until the entertainment calendar is posted.

5. That's a tough call...with five days, I'd be inclined to say that getting park hoppers would be worth it because it gives you more flexibility. It does take some time to hop between the parks, but the two parks are very close together (100 yards apart) so it's easy to hop.

6. As others have said, dining reservations are typically available 60-days in advance. That being said, if you go online on the 60-day mark and something shows as unavailable, it's far more likely that they haven't yet loaded it into the system (opposed to already being fully booked).

 

[coolbrook]

Thanks everyone for the helpful information!

 

[oakleycat]

I love the zoo but I would not recommend it unless you really want to do it and are willing to rent a car for the day. Driving would be approximately 1.5 hours each way, taking the train you will have: Uber/taxi to station (10-15 min), 3 hour train ride, Uber/taxi/public transportation to zoo (20 min - hour). So about four hours transportation each way, plus lots of walking (and hills) at the zoo would make for a brutal day especially with a little one. We've taken the train to SD with ours when they were little several times and loved it (my oldest was obsessed with trains as a toddler) but always do an overnight in SD to break up the trip.