First Time Trip to Disneyland

[BlueGreen5]

Hi! My family and I booked our first ever trip to Disneyland! We'll be there for four nights during spring break 2025, staying at the Grand Californian. We are long-time WDW veterans and DVC members, but have never been to California. I hear it's a totally different experience. What tips, tricks, hacks, and advice do you have for us?! Tell me everything!

 

[LKing]

Welcome! There are several people on this forum who can help you with tips, tricks and hacks. Can you provide us with a little more information?

• How many people are in your family and what are their ages?
• Does four nights mean three days in the parks? Do you know which days of the week yet?
• What are you interested in? For example, are you looking at DL exclusive experiences, E ticket rides, or anything and everything that the California parks offer.
• Is dining a priority for you? If so, what type of food does your family like?
• Are you rope drop people? Do you like to close out the park at night?
• What shows are you interested in? Parades, Fireworks, World of Color (DCA), Fantasmic (DL)?
• Have you purchased your tickets yet? Did you add park hoppers? LLMP?

Here are a couple of links to recent WDW/first time DL threads. Look through them, and let us know what types of things you think you would enjoy.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/longtime-dw-1st-time-dl-in-january.3952377/

https://www.disboards.com/threads/first-timer-with-a-few-questions.3952412/

 

[BlueGreen5]

Welcome! There are several people on this forum who can help you with tips, tricks and hacks. Can you provide us with a little more information?

• How many people are in your family and what are their ages?
• Does four nights mean three days in the parks? Do you know which days of the week yet?
• What are you interested in? For example, are you looking at DL exclusive experiences, E ticket rides, or anything and everything that the California parks offer.
• Is dining a priority for you? If so, what type of food does your family like?
• Are you rope drop people? Do you like to close out the park at night?
• What shows are you interested in? Parades, Fireworks, World of Color (DCA), Fantasmic (DL)?
• Have you purchased your tickets yet? Did you add park hoppers? LLMP?

Here are a couple of links to recent WDW/first time DL threads. Look through them, and let us know what types of things you think you would enjoy.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/longtime-dw-1st-time-dl-in-january.3952377/

https://www.disboards.com/threads/first-timer-with-a-few-questions.3952412/

Thanks, those links are super helpful! I love getting as much intel as possible about anything I do.

• For this particular trip, my group will include 2 adults, a middle-schooler, and a pre-schooler. So, you can just wish me luck in pleasing both of them at the same time.
  
• Four nights means up to four park days. We typically prefer to fly in the day before and stay off-site to minimize the damage that a flight delay could cause. So, in theory, we could use our check-in day as a park day.
• We don't know what the CA parks offer, so I'm not even sure what we would be interested in!! What's unique/cool there? A typical day at Magic Kingdom for us usually involves rides, parades, limited character meets, and fireworks. We usually do not do sit down meals unless they involve relatively unique characters (like Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs or Aladin). And, at that, those are usually one-and-done for us.
• Fine dining is not a priority for us. We're PB&J on-the-go type people and are staying on-site with a kitchen for that reason. A bold California red, on the other hand, would not likely be passed up.
• We usually sandwich the parks - show up for EE, take a break, come back and close out. That's another reason we are staying on-site.
• We are interested in all of the shows. In our opinion, that's what distinguishes Disney parks from a Six Flags, etc.
• Have not purchased tix - I don't think they are available yet for March/April 2025. Am I wrong? We'll splurge for the hopper and LLMP.

Specific, very amatuerish questions I have right now:

• All things being equal, is it better to fly in to LAX or BUR, if flying non-stop? Or, would you do a short, en-route layover (no plane change) just to fly into SNA? All three options are about the same price. For us, a non-stop flight is about 4 hours, not considering the effects of time zone changes.
• What's the best way to get to the park from the airport? Is there anything similar to Mears at WDW (i.e., a dedicated, non-private shuttle that's reasonably priced)?
• Do you use MagicBands there? Can you charge everything to your room through your MagicBand, like at WDW?
• Do you use the MDE App there? Or, otherwise, what app do you use for the LLMP and photos?

 

[LKing]

Perfect! That helps!

Disneyland Resort (DLR) offers early entry for hotel guests. It is only 30 min, so you would want to maximize that time. I'm local and don't do EE (or even regular rope drop for that matter) so I'll leave early morning strategies to those who are more experienced. The one thing I would pay attention to is that EE is at DL on Tu, Th, Sat and at DCA on W, W, F, Su.

If your choices are just BUR or LAX, definitely choose LAX. Burbank is too far away. That said, SNA is the closest and easiest airport. It is a short uber away. LGB is another option, but it is a small airport so it might not be an option for you. We can help you once you decide which airport to fly into. There is nothing similar to Mears for the Disneyland Resort.

DLR uses MagicBand Plus. It has limited functions compared to WDW. MB+ can be used for park entrance, LLMP entrance, PhotoPass photographers, special effects during shows, and Bounty Hunters in SWGE. MB+ can NOT be used as a key, to charge items to your room or to automatically detect ride photos. For ride photos, when you exit the ride, you will need to take a quick picture of your photo. You then enter that photo number into the Disneyland App.

Disneyland's App is called "Disneyland" in the app store. You can use the app to scan into the park, book LL, enter PhotoPass codes, make dining reservations, mobile order food, mobile check out in stores, etc.

For the shows, I would look at Fantasmic dining packages and choose one that fits your family's budget and tastes. The views from the waterfront are great and it saves you the hassle of having to arrive early to get good standby seat (especially with a preschooler). The added plus is that, if you book the first show, you can watch fireworks from your Fantasmic seats.

For WOC, there is a dessert package which has seating. It is pricey but provides good views for all. There are also dining packages at Wine Country Trattoria and Storytellers. The problem with dining packages is that it is standing only and your preschooler would need to be in someone's arms for the entire show. They do not allow you to put a child on your shoulders in that area. While it might not seem like it is the end of the world to hold your child, I've seen parents struggle to carry a squirming child for the 22 min show.

One thing that is unique about the California parks is that there are a lot of characters walking throughout the parks. There are some designated lines for princesses, Mickey, Minnie, etc., but they can also be found throughout the park.

Next year will be Disneyland's 70th birthday. While nothing has been announced yet, hopefully by spring break we will have new parades and fireworks.

ETA: Regarding hacks, there are hacks, tips and tricks for the LLMP system. Most importantly, you can't start using it until everyone in your party has scanned into the park. Your preschooler will likely be too short for some of the rides that your pre-teen will want to go on (ex. Radiator Spring Racers). Tips, tricks and hacks include ride swap and single rider. Let me know if you are interested in more details about any of those items.

 

[OlliePop27]

You can buy tickets right now through a variety of third parties like UT or others, you just can't make reservations for March yet. You can also buy through Disney and make false reservations for an earlier date than modify them. I'm not really sure why people buy tickets through Disney, as you can easily save at least $30 per person or more by buying through reputable third party vendors. You immediately get an email and link them to the app - easy. I've done this at least a dozen times and never had an issue.

Frankly, I recommend buying tickets in the next month. Disneyland has been raising ticket prices and LLMP prices annually in late-Sept/Oct. If you buy tickets in September, you'll get the less expensive price for your March trip. If plans change, the tickets don't expire until January 2026 and even then you still get to keep the value of the tickets. Some third parties allow you to get a partial refund.

Other questions you asked:

Rides - there's a list on these boards of unique experiences to DL and similar same as WDW. I'm sure someone will post it.

LAX v. BUR - Honestly, neither of these are great options, but LAX is probably better between the two. If you can fly nonstop to BUR from where you are, I bet there's nonstops to SNA, Long Beach, or ONT. All of those three I would recommend over BUR.

Transport - There is nothing like at WDW. There's a variety of private shuttles available, or ride share. Lansky is one. I have used Anaheim Town Car services. Factor in transport cost when deciding on your airport. LAX is cheaper to fly to, but further away so the transport cost is higher. SNA is sometimes more expensive for flights, but cheaper for transport since it's only 15 minutes away. BUR is very far - it will be expensive to transport to/from there, and the drive down is riddled with traffic.

MagicBand - Disneyland uses ONLY Magicband+. Old Magic Bands will not work there. You can also just use your phone.

LLMP - There is a Disneyland App, different from MDE. Download it. LLMP is named the same as WDW, but functions entirely different. It's like the old Genie+ system at WDW, but it actually works. Disneyland and DCA have many more rides in each park than the parks at WDW, and less people use the system, so you can get tons of useage out of LLMP at Disneyland. It is worth getting it. There are 2-3 rides as separate pay options, currently Rise and Radiator Springs Racers. You can't pick a time like at WDW, but they almost always have near immediate return times because not a lot of people pay extra for the separate ride option. Tiana's will likely be included in this once it opens.

I highly encourage you to get park hoppers. It's nothing like WDW. The parks are mere steps apart. Treat it like one big park! You have to choose a starting park, but then you can hop starting at 11:00 am. The parks are also open longer at DL, usually opening at 8:00 am (a huge advantage if coming from the east coast) and during spring break DL will likely close at Midnight and DCA at 10:00 pm. You will have early entry in one park each day since you're staying on site starting at 7:30 am. DCA on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. DL on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Only some rides are open, not everything. In DL it's Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. In DCA it's kind of scattered and all over. Neither of the extra pay LLSP rides are included, Rise or Radiator Springs.

 

[BlueGreen5]

Super helpful @LKing and @OlliePop27 !! I actually just changed our flight to LGB. I was worried about LAX and how expensive it was going to be to get to the park from the airport so I started looking at BUR, thinking my only options were those two or SNA (which is not direct from where I live). It sounds like LGB is a quick Uber/Lyft trip -- is that the best option ("best," meaning "most popular in ordinary circumstances")?

Maybe this is the most basic question, and sorry for asking it, but is DLR the newly refurbished hotel? We're staying at the Grand Californian. Are we not eligible for EE? That seems ridiculous (again, coming from a world where the Grand Floridian is the flagship resort). Are they trying to incentivize the new hotel or something?

Also, for anyone replying after this, no need to post info about rides. That information is easy enough to obtain on my own. It does, though, seem like wait times are much shorter at Disneyland than Magic Kingdom. Can someone confirm?

Thanks again!!

 

[LKing]

All three hotels have the same perks. GCH is the closest to the parks and has an entrance directly into DCA.

 

[BlueGreen5]

Oh, also, does Disneyland do ADRs, like WDW? Do they open at 6am, 60 days prior to check in, like WDW?

I love the idea of the Fantasmic VIP package. We do that all the time at Hollywood Studios, and this sounds like an even better deal at Disneyland because of the show and fireworks combo. Can you see the projections from the seating area? Are the projections different than Magic Kingdom (this sounds SO spoiled, but we're kind of over dealing with the crowds just to see the Magic Kingdom projections)?

 

[Tinkaboo]

Super helpful @LKing and @OlliePop27 !! I actually just changed our flight to LGB. I was worried about LAX and how expensive it was going to be to get to the park from the airport so I started looking at BUR, thinking my only options were those two or SNA (which is not direct from where I live). It sounds like LGB is a quick Uber/Lyft trip -- is that the best option ("best," meaning "most popular in ordinary circumstances")?

Maybe this is the most basic question, and sorry for asking it, but is DLR the newly refurbished hotel? We're staying at the Grand Californian. Are we not eligible for EE? That seems ridiculous (again, coming from a world where the Grand Floridian is the flagship resort). Are they trying to incentivize the new hotel or something?

Also, for anyone replying after this, no need to post info about rides. That information is easy enough to obtain on my own. It does, though, seem like wait times are much shorter at Disneyland than Magic Kingdom. Can someone confirm?

Thanks again!!

You’ll love LGB…quick Uber ride and easy to get in and out of.

Don’t miss our Avengers Campus…unless you’ve been to Paris, there’s not another one around! Same with CarsLand…and definitely do RSR at night…so much better!

 

[OlliePop27]

It does, though, seem like wait times are much shorter at Disneyland than Magic Kingdom. Can someone confirm?

Thanks again!!

The simple answer is that there are just far more rides and attractions in Disneyland Park than at Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom comes closest of the WDW parks, but it is really astounding how much there is to do at DL Park. Also, with California Adventure it's kind of like one big park so there's even more.

It's a bit more complicated than this, but the simple answer is that yes, the wait times are overall lower at Disneyland than Magic Kingdom. More things for people to do = lower wait times.

 

[sophy1996]

Oh, also, does Disneyland do ADRs, like WDW? Do they open at 6am, 60 days prior to check in, like WDW?

I love the idea of the Fantasmic VIP package. We do that all the time at Hollywood Studios, and this sounds like an even better deal at Disneyland because of the show and fireworks combo. Can you see the projections from the seating area? Are the projections different than Magic Kingdom (this sounds SO spoiled, but we're kind of over dealing with the crowds just to see the Magic Kingdom projections)?

Yes, 60 days out, 6 am Pacific (though sometimes reservations are released later). DL does ADRs day-by-day for everyone, even Disney hotel guests, not length-of-stay like WDW. So you’ll have to book each day separately.

Are you talking about the Fantasmic! dining packages? (VIP means the $$$$ private tours, which have a seating area with chairs.) The projections will be on the water screens used for the Fantasmic! show; you can’t see the castle from that area. And be aware that the “seating area” is the sidewalk by the side of Rivers of America. (Unless you book River Belle premium, then you sit on the RB patio.). Unlike DHS, there is no devoted auditorium for DL Fantasmic!

 

[disney-inspired]

I would definitely suggest the lightning lane multi pass as there are more attractions at DL and wait times will be long because of spring break.

As far as flying in - I would suggest SNA if you can get a direct flight as it's the closest airport.

Dining reservations are 60 days out and window opens at 6am PST.

 

[BlueGreen5]

Are you talking about the Fantasmic! dining packages? (VIP means the $$$$ private tours, which have a seating area with chairs.) The projections will be on the water screens used for the Fantasmic! show; you can’t see the castle from that area. And be aware that the “seating area” is the sidewalk by the side of Rivers of America. (Unless you book River Belle premium, then you sit on the RB patio.). Unlike DHS, there is no devoted auditorium for DL Fantasmic!

Yes, the dining packages, sorry. I think the "VIP" term came from the fact that the seating at DHS is called the "VIP" section.

It sounds like you have a different take on the dining package -- not worth it?

 

[BlueGreen5]

DL does ADRs day-by-day for everyone, even Disney hotel guests, not length-of-stay like WDW. So you’ll have to book each day separately.

REALLY good info! That's a big difference for sure.

 

[OlliePop27]

Yes, the dining packages, sorry. I think the "VIP" term came from the fact that the seating at DHS is called the "VIP" section.

It sounds like you have a different take on the dining package -- not worth it?

I believe Fantasmic dining is worth it. The Rancho del Zocalo grab and go is worthwhile if it's still being offered there in March. It might move back to Hungry Bear, but is the same thing just different food (we don't know yet because Hungry Bear has been closed/construction in area).

Fantasmic dining package gets you reserved seating on the ground and a good view for about a 30 minute time commitment. You don't watch the show from the restaurant. You eat earlier in the day and then get a voucher for a dedicated section on the waterfront.

The show is at 9:00 and 10:30 on nights it's offered. If you watch the 9:00 showing, then you can watch the fireworks from your same location that starts at 9:30. It's a two-fer on nighttime entertainment so a good value and use of time IMO. No need to deal with the crowds on Main Street.

 

[BlueGreen5]

It's a bit more complicated than this, but the simple answer is that yes, the wait times are overall lower at Disneyland than Magic Kingdom. More things for people to do = lower wait times.

What rides there have the surprisingly high wait times? Obviously, the more thrilling rides are going to have higher wait times. But, like at Magic Kingdom, you can count on the fact that Small World, Jungle Cruise, and Peter Pan - which, I get it, they're classics, but definitely not anyone's definition of thrilling or incredible rides - often have wait times of 90+ minutes, while something like BTMRR rarely tops an hour. Meanwhile, other classics like Dumbo and Haunted Mansion can be practically "walk on" during some points of the day.

 

[LKing]

Oh, also, does Disneyland do ADRs, like WDW? Do they open at 6am, 60 days prior to check in, like WDW?

Yes, 60 days at 6 am PST. There are certain restaurants/packages that sell out right away. Most are available for hours or days after the 60 days.

Those that sell out instantly include River Bell PREMIUM Fantasmic package, Blue Bayou, and Trader Sams. Lamplight Lounge (DCA) and Napa Rose (GCH) book quickly but not within seconds/minutes.

Can you see the projections from the seating area? Are the projections different than Magic Kingdom

We don't know what fireworks will be shown next April but the projections are specific for that fireworks program. Currently, it is a Halloween related fireworks show.

Below is pic of what the projections look like from RB seating. This was a Pixar Fest fireworks show.



This was the Rancho del Zocalo seating on July 4

 

[BlueGreen5]

We don't know what fireworks will be shown next April but the projections are specific for that fireworks program. Currently, it is a Halloween related fireworks show.

Thanks for the pictures! So, they don't have a standing firework show that potentially remains the same for multiple years (like HEA, or before that, Enchantment at Magic Kingdom)?

 

[twodogs]

Regarding resorts and most recently refurbed, I don’t think DLH nor GCH has had a refurb since pre-COVID. PPH just finished a full refurb earlier this year, but it is the “lowest” level resort compared to DLH and GCH (but still nicer than a WDW value resort IMO). I personally think the GCH is beautiful and I love the craftsman style of the decor. I think the DLH looks tired when we stay there, and it is further of a walk (but not by much, depending on where your room is located at either resort). The DLH just opened a DVC area, which is basically brand new.

 

[sophy1996]

Yes, the dining packages, sorry. I think the "VIP" term came from the fact that the seating at DHS is called the "VIP" section.

It sounds like you have a different take on the dining package -- not worth it?

We like the dining packages. Have done both standard and most recently RB Premium, which was pricy but so nice. I just wanted you to be aware that there aren’t seats for the standard packages—people who are used to DHS can be taken aback to learn there’s no special show area for Fantasmic!—it’s seating on the ground for most people, with some ECVs, wheelchairs, and standers at the back of the section.