First trip to Disneyland and Anniversary Trip???

[Sharron379]

Hello everyone,

First off this is my first trip to Disneyland as an adult. I havent been since I was 11 and that was a long time ago.... We go to WDW every year with the kiddos but we wanted to do something different for our anniversary trip. We thought Disneyland was something we can do over a long weekend. So I have tons of questions bc I have no clue how to plan for Disneyland.
1. Where to stay? On site or a neighboring hotel? Which one would you suggest? We want something nice bc it is our anniversary?
2. Do we need to rent a car?
3. How does dining work? Do we need to do the plan? What restaurants would you do? We would like one nice night to celebrate our anniversary?
4. Can you drive from Disneyland to Universal? Or do we need to change hotels for this?
5. How busy would it be for the weekend of August 12-16? I know it is insane in WDW but is it as bad at Disneyland?
6. Any suggestions or advice. We are planning on booking this week! I know its last minute but hopefully it will work out.

I so appreciate all of your help?

Thanks,
Sharron