First trip to the west coast

Ok that was a good amount of questions, so let's see if I can help.

First of all, car rental: I have always gone with my own car since I live in CA. Having said that, the roads in the area Are HORRIBLE! It is REALLY easy to get lost when trying to find some place else like, universal since the "lane arrows" on the highway signs can get confusing. For example, I THOUGHT that I was in the correct lane to continue on HWY 5 (main Freeway that goes by DLR) but nooooo.....I was in the lane for hwy 10....you don't want that. Getting around the immediate area in car is not too bad. I took the kids out the first night to find some other fast food because we couldn't agree on where to eat and I had forgotten about that "fast service" location at the hotel. It wasn't too hard to get back, but I had driven there to begin with. If you want to go explore, then do it....but the other attractions are NOT that close to DLR. For example, universal was at least a 30 min drive north and that was without traffic. You do get charged for parking at DLR but DVC guest using points don't pay for that, the internet or phone services. Nor do they pay the 12% resort tax imposed by the city. There is a lot to do and see at DLR and if you are going to be there at least 4 days then keep to that.

As for a path, well that is tricky. Disneyland park has the "tightest" turns and smaller roads, but I really didn't have too much of an issue. California adventure was made more recently so it has a wider hearth for ECVs to travel and MOST of the lines for the rides are large enough for you to ride your ECV through, although the Cars land ride had a few tight turns. RossYou will generally find yourself either going through the entire line in your ECV or at least a majority of the line until you reach a point where they ask u to take a detour. DL park is a bit different, there are still SOME rides where u still goto the exit to get on whereas the more popular rides they will give you a time to come back (like a fast pass but it doesn't go against your ticket) space mountain is an example, I went to the exit and they gave me a time to come back within two hours later.

I like to start to the left of the circle at Main Street and work my way clockwise, but if the traffic is too much I cut across the Main Street circle to goto another area. Remember each park has a magic morning so try to take advantage. When you can, go get your fast pass at Cal Adventure early in the morning...like first thing so there won't run out. As a guest at the hotel, you can get them earlier than other people...I think as much as an hour early.

Ca Adv is a bit of a battle and you DO want to plan it out given that there are shows you want to see. As you come in, get a fast pass for the river raft ride, it is right there when you come into the park from the hotel. These passes go quickly, so get it soon. Now beeline it all the way to the "upper left" of the park and go to Cars land and see about getting on the radiator springs racer. If you can get a fast pass the. Do so. There is a really nice place to eat here, both breakfast and lunch, it is called flo's V8 and has good food. My son is very picky but he really liked the breakfast so if you think about eating here. If you get into the park early enough, you can actually ride the racers TWICE before the line gets long. So I say ride the ride, then stop and get some breakfast, otherwise enjoy the other rides there. Now start going clockwise around the park, hit paradise pier, then allow yourself to go back to grizzly pass.....it should be time for your fast pass on the river rapids. After getting into the line, You will take a small detour and drive right onto the platform where u park and wait for them yo help you. At this point it might GE a good time to maybe take a break at your hotel room or a swim, otherwise....Keep going clockwise and hit Soarin( or save it for another day) and head over to Hollywood land where you want to Go see Aladdin and try to catch and early show, the later shows are busy as hell. Arrive at least 15-20 mins early (if it is a early show, if later, double it) so you can get a ground floor. You really DONT want to be in the nose bleed sections (like I was) since many of the special effects (like people popping out of no where) are ruined because you see them before others do. If time allows see about getting a fast pass for twilight zone tower and THEN go to Aladdin so hopefully you won't need to wait to long to hit the tower (Aladdin will consume about 60-80 mins of your time) if you still have time before your fast pass to tower, the hang around Hollywood land and see the muppets or something


Wow. That's a lot more than I thought. I hope it helps.
 
Ok that was a good amount of questions, so let's see if I can help.

First of all, car rental: I have always gone with my own car since I live in CA. Having said that, the roads in the area Are HORRIBLE! It is REALLY easy to get lost when trying to find some place else like, universal since the "lane arrows" on the highway signs can get confusing. For example, I THOUGHT that I was in the correct lane to continue on HWY 5 (main Freeway that goes by DLR) but nooooo.....I was in the lane for hwy 10....you don't want that. Getting around the immediate area in car is not too bad. I took the kids out the first night to find some other fast food because we couldn't agree on where to eat and I had forgotten about that "fast service" location at the hotel. It wasn't too hard to get back, but I had driven there to begin with. If you want to go explore, then do it....but the other attractions are NOT that close to DLR. For example, universal was at least a 30 min drive north and that was without traffic. You do get charged for parking at DLR but DVC guest using points don't pay for that, the internet or phone services. Nor do they pay the 12% resort tax imposed by the city. There is a lot to do and see at DLR and if you are going to be there at least 4 days then keep to that.

As for a path, well that is tricky. Disneyland park has the "tightest" turns and smaller roads, but I really didn't have too much of an issue. California adventure was made more recently so it has a wider hearth for ECVs to travel and MOST of the lines for the rides are large enough for you to ride your ECV through, although the Cars land ride had a few tight turns. RossYou will generally find yourself either going through the entire line in your ECV or at least a majority of the line until you reach a point where they ask u to take a detour. DL park is a bit different, there are still SOME rides where u still goto the exit to get on whereas the more popular rides they will give you a time to come back (like a fast pass but it doesn't go against your ticket) space mountain is an example, I went to the exit and they gave me a time to come back within two hours later.

I like to start to the left of the circle at Main Street and work my way clockwise, but if the traffic is too much I cut across the Main Street circle to goto another area. Remember each park has a magic morning so try to take advantage. When you can, go get your fast pass at Cal Adventure early in the morning...like first thing so there won't run out. As a guest at the hotel, you can get them earlier than other people...I think as much as an hour early.

Ca Adv is a bit of a battle and you DO want to plan it out given that there are shows you want to see. As you come in, get a fast pass for the river raft ride, it is right there when you come into the park from the hotel. These passes go quickly, so get it soon. Now beeline it all the way to the "upper left" of the park and go to Cars land and see about getting on the radiator springs racer. If you can get a fast pass the. Do so. There is a really nice place to eat here, both breakfast and lunch, it is called flo's V8 and has good food. My son is very picky but he really liked the breakfast so if you think about eating here. If you get into the park early enough, you can actually ride the racers TWICE before the line gets long. So I say ride the ride, then stop and get some breakfast, otherwise enjoy the other rides there. Now start going clockwise around the park, hit paradise pier, then allow yourself to go back to grizzly pass.....it should be time for your fast pass on the river rapids. After getting into the line, You will take a small detour and drive right onto the platform where u park and wait for them yo help you. At this point it might GE a good time to maybe take a break at your hotel room or a swim, otherwise....Keep going clockwise and hit Soarin( or save it for another day) and head over to Hollywood land where you want to Go see Aladdin and try to catch and early show, the later shows are busy as hell. Arrive at least 15-20 mins early (if it is a early show, if later, double it) so you can get a ground floor. You really DONT want to be in the nose bleed sections (like I was) since many of the special effects (like people popping out of no where) are ruined because you see them before others do. If time allows see about getting a fast pass for twilight zone tower and THEN go to Aladdin so hopefully you won't need to wait to long to hit the tower (Aladdin will consume about 60-80 mins of your time) if you still have time before your fast pass to tower, the hang around Hollywood land and see the muppets or something


Wow. That's a lot more than I thought. I hope it helps.

That is A LOT of info!! Thanks. So, sounds like I probably won't want/need a car. (There are some secondary considerations still outstanding, but just thinking in general). :thumbsup2

So, just quick recap to make sure I got the overall idea.

In DisneyLand, start to the left of Main Street and work clockwise around the park. In DCA, get quickly to the CarsLand area for RSR, then work clockwise around the park. :thumbsup2

Make sure I get FP early for WOC (to get in the Blue Section), or so I've heard from other people. And the same thing for F!. :thumbsup2

DL has narrower routes, and tends to be crowded, but everything is close enough together that as long as I'm cautious with my driving, no real problem. :thumbsup2

I know that this greatly consolidated all the wonderful info you just sent, but in a nutshell, do I have it?

Thanks
 
As for city pass, it doesn't really matter which way you have your tickets, Disney will honor them. HOWEVER, some passes r slightly different than others. Some include a set amount of magic mornings (3day passes or more), some passes only allow you to go to one park a day (no park hopping). I prefer to buy from Disney when I can. If there is ever a problem, they are right there....try getting help from the union or a 1-800 # for a ticket that won't work when your standing in line eat the gate. Also, if you get tickets at the hotel, they can put it on your room key so you only need to carry one card around. I kept having issues finding my ticket for ark hopping or fast pass, but I also had to watch over the tickets for my kids too. Most multi day tickets are good from 14 days of first use, so you can take a break for a day from the parks if you want. The pools at GCH are rather nice.

And don't forget that there are extra events you can do given your a hotel guest. I have a recent listing somewhere around here.

Given your are using a ECV (like I did) keeping your charge is an important thing to be mindful of. According to the info they gave me when I checked in, there are places to charge your mobile devices at the lockers at each park, I ASSUME they are outlets, so you should be able to plug in for a bit. However, the lockers at DL park where not available during my whole stay...I think they too them out and building something there. Even so, I WAS able to find various power outlets around DL park that allowed me to plug in. I had an emergency where I was all the way back in toontown and about to run out. There was an outlet available but it was up two steps right in front of the "city hall" and too far away for my cord to reach. Another guy saw me trying to push the ECV up the steps and he came and helped me pick it up...don't an easy thing to do and my back was not happy.....you might want to find another place.

Ok I grabbed some of the inserts I got while I was there last week. Fast pass locations:
DL: autopia, big thunder mountain, Indiana jones adventure, roger rabbits car toon spin, space mountain, splash mountain, star tours.
DCA: California screamin'; Goofy's sky school, grizzly river run, radiator springs racer, Soarin' over California, The Twlight Zone Tower of Terror.

(About Goofy's Sky School: this used to be called "Moulland Falls"...or something like that....anyway it is much rougher than the other coasters, even Space Mountain, and I have slipped disks in my back....my back was hurts a lot after the FIRST turn on the ride. So much so I had to go back to the room and rest for a while. So be careful.)

Aladdin had show times of: 12:40, 2:20, 4:45 and 6:20 (doors close at these times and show starts 5 mins afterwards) and the show is almost 60 mins exactly.
 
As for city pass, it doesn't really matter which way you have your tickets, Disney will honor them. HOWEVER, some passes r slightly different than others. Some include a set amount of magic mornings (3day passes or more), some passes only allow you to go to one park a day (no park hopping). I prefer to buy from Disney when I can. If there is ever a problem, they are right there....try getting help from the union or a 1-800 # for a ticket that won't work when your standing in line eat the gate. Also, if you get tickets at the hotel, they can put it on your room key so you only need to carry one card around. I kept having issues finding my ticket for ark hopping or fast pass, but I also had to watch over the tickets for my kids too. Most multi day tickets are good from 14 days of first use, so you can take a break for a day from the parks if you want. The pools at GCH are rather nice.

And don't forget that there are extra events you can do given your a hotel guest. I have a recent listing somewhere around here.

Ok. Thanks. I have been eyeing the CityPass, cause I keep thinking I might extend my stay for a couple of days, and the CP does 3 days at Disney, and a day each at SeaWorld and Universal. Since the plan right now is to be "on the ground" for 4 days already, if I added 2 days I could do all 3 places and have a day in the middle to rest (and maybe take advantage of the GCH pools :goodvibes)

I may be wrong, but it is my understanding that as a guest at GCH, I will get early access (EMH? MM? whatever it's called) regardless of my ticket. Or am I understanding that wrong? I know that some tickets include an early day, but I thought that was a reward/incentive to buy multi-day tickets, and was independent of the access given to Disney hotel guests. :confused3

Given your are using a ECV (like I did) keeping your charge is an important thing to be mindful of. According to the info they gave me when I checked in, there are places to charge your mobile devices at the lockers at each park, I ASSUME they are outlets, so you should be able to plug in for a bit. However, the lockers at DL park where not available during my whole stay...I think they too them out and building something there. Even so, I WAS able to find various power outlets around DL park that allowed me to plug in. I had an emergency where I was all the way back in toontown and about to run out. There was an outlet available but it was up two steps right in front of the "city hall" and too far away for my cord to reach. Another guy saw me trying to push the ECV up the steps and he came and helped me pick it up...don't an easy thing to do and my back was not happy.....you might want to find another place.

I've had to use an ECV for the past 8 years, so I've gotten pretty good at maneuvering it around WDW. So, I have learned how to gauge the charge and usage. But having never been to DL, I am not paranoid that even with my experience I will run into 'newbie' problems. :rotfl: Thanks for pointing out that they provide a list of the places where I can charge if needed. Finding outlets at WDW took me a couple of trips. I will definitely keep a close eye on both the charge and my location, with respect to my future plans for the day.

Ok I grabbed some of the inserts I got while I was there last week. Fast pass locations:
DL: autopia, big thunder mountain, Indiana jones adventure, roger rabbits car toon spin, space mountain, splash mountain, star tours.
DCA: California screamin'; Goofy's sky school, grizzly river run, radiator springs racer, Soarin' over California, The Twlight Zone Tower of Terror.

(About Goofy's Sky School: this used to be called "Moulland Falls"...or something like that....anyway it is much rougher than the other coasters, even Space Mountain, and I have slipped disks in my back....my back was hurts a lot after the FIRST turn on the ride. So much so I had to go back to the room and rest for a while. So be careful.)

Aladdin had show times of: 12:40, 2:20, 4:45 and 6:20 (doors close at these times and show starts 5 mins afterwards) and the show is almost 60 mins exactly.

OK!! This is great info!! :banana: I'm not seeing any of the shows listed here, does that mean that they don't have FP? Or that they are they not connected to the ride FP system? From what I've heard, I definitely want to watch Aladdin, WoC, and F!. And I've heard that WoC requires a FP. :confused3

Thanks for the info. You've been a godsend!! :hug: Not that I'm counting or anything, but can't wait for the next 203 days to pass. ;)
 

If you stay at GCH you have access to EE every day of your stay. It won't matter if you use a city pass.


WOC is not connected so you can pull a FP for that and then still get a FP for something else.
 
Lizabu is right, the FP for WoC will NOT count towards your other FPs for the day. The big point about the city pass is you really only want to get if you WILL be going to the other sites, but you also want to make sure you can get to the other locations and as I pointed out, they are not very close to DLR. That is another big difference between WDW and DLR, the closeness of other attractions. For example Sea world is AT LEAST another 45 mins away (longer if there is traffic). I took the kids to Legoland once, and that took almost another two hours to drive down south towards San Diego. Even the beach is at least 45-60 mins away, and requires a number of different freeways to take to get there and gosh help you if u hit rush hour traffic. If you get tired of the food areas around the park, you can hit a few places on Harbor Drive, but to be honest, downtown Disney has some great places to eat including the Rain Forest cafe. There is a Starbucks there too. And if you look around you will see some hidden mickeys.

I REALLY suggest get the burnbaums guide to disneyland, it had some great reading, especially when you are on the plane traveling there and you want to read up on things. They used to include coupons for around the park. There is also a "hidden Mickey" guide for DLR but make sure you get a recent copy. With all of the changes to the resort, some hidden mickeys are gone or not as easy to find. For example in front of GCA gate you could've found a hidden Mickey on the ground behind the giant "R" in the word CALIFORNIA that they USED to have in front of the gate. Those big letters were removed and the gate now looks a lot like the gate to the Disney Studios at WDW. (The CALIFORNIA letters were moved north to Sacramento, where I live, and put in front of the Cal Expo where the state fair is held each year)

As for DVC stuff, they really expanded the discounts for DVC members since my last visit in 2010. Back then they barely seemed to even know what DVC was but now it seems just about everywhere we ate at DLR, they gave a 10% discount, and most of the merchandise shops gave a discount too. It never hurts to ask at least, sometimes the cast members would ask us if we were annual pass holders at which int I would ask if they gave DVC discounts. There is also a location at CGA where you can get a "private" photo with Mickey and you get a free 8x10 photo of it. That is available for many different cardholders of Chase bank cards, DVC and I think pass holders too and is only open during "business hours"(like 10am-6pm) but it is free and a really nice thing to bring home.

Make the most out if your magic morning access each day to get the rides with long lines. Keep in mind that Friday nights at DL park gets rather busy. The annual pass holders in southern CA are VERY loyal and I can't blame them. Many Saturdays are black out dates so the parks are a bit thinned out during this time. Of course I went during the end of summer so Friday night at DL park was PACKED! I can't even recall the MK at WDW being that crowded. You know how crowded Main Street gets around fireworks time? It was like that ALL OVER, everywhere EXCEPT ToonTown.

The monorail is different as well. First you MUST have a ticket for the park in order to ride it. This is because it goes from downtown Disney (almost mid way from DD) to Tomorrowland in DL park. When we took it they said it was one way and we had to get off, but it was crowded. However, it makes for a great pattern to follow if you know your going to goto DD after the park. You can catch the monorail from Tomorrowland goto DD and it will drop you off right by the rainforest cafe, then travel around DD and work your way back to either DL park, or back to your hotel.

Don't feel guilty about counting the days, I do it all of the time. I used to have a widget on my Windows desktop that would countdown the days towards my next trip. They have to still have that app out there somewhere.
 
We just took our first trip out west this past weekend. I would definitely say the vibe at DL is quite different than WDW. It is not as hectic and with everything being right there, it is much easier to manage.

I will say that we liked DCA a little more than DL. Probably the only reason for this is that it is the newer park and thus more spread out. While the wait times at both parks were about the same (no more than 30 minutes on anything other than RSR), DL always felt packed when we were trying to walk anywhere.

We really like staying at Paradise Pier and being able to just walk across the street each morning to get to a park. After dinner we could just stroll into either park and ride a couple more rides. Not needing to take a bus to get anywhere really makes things easy.
 
I will also add that unlike WDW, you will want to definitely use the early entry option for whatever park has it that day. You will get so much more done in your day if you are there right at the early entry opening time.

We did early entry every day we were there and were able to ride everything we wanted to before lunch, grab FPs where needed, and then ride a few more things after lunch. Most times we could ride things multiple times before lunch with very small waits.

Around 2pm or so, the parks started getting pretty crowded, so we headed back to the hotel for some pool time. We would then head back to a park for dinner and a few more rides, or to Downtown Disney for dinner before heading back into a park.
 
We just took our first trip out west this past weekend. I would definitely say the vibe at DL is quite different than WDW. It is not as hectic and with everything being right there, it is much easier to manage.

I will say that we liked DCA a little more than DL. Probably the only reason for this is that it is the newer park and thus more spread out. While the wait times at both parks were about the same (no more than 30 minutes on anything other than RSR), DL always felt packed when we were trying to walk anywhere.

We really like staying at Paradise Pier and being able to just walk across the street each morning to get to a park. After dinner we could just stroll into either park and ride a couple more rides. Not needing to take a bus to get anywhere really makes things easy.

I will also add that unlike WDW, you will want to definitely use the early entry option for whatever park has it that day. You will get so much more done in your day if you are there right at the early entry opening time.

We did early entry every day we were there and were able to ride everything we wanted to before lunch, grab FPs where needed, and then ride a few more things after lunch. Most times we could ride things multiple times before lunch with very small waits.

Around 2pm or so, the parks started getting pretty crowded, so we headed back to the hotel for some pool time. We would then head back to a park for dinner and a few more rides, or to Downtown Disney for dinner before heading back into a park.

Thanks for the info. This will only be my second time staying on Disney, but I've always been a rope-drop person when I've gone. Plan to continue that on this trip. :)
 
Congrats on your upcoming visit. I've always wanted to visit DL in the springtime. Be prepared for upcoming refurbs because of the 60th anniversary starting after memorial day next year but that should make for lower crowds.

Disneyland to me has so much nostalgia in it that it gives me goosebumps when I walk down mainstreet. Knowing that Walt lived and breathed that park just makes it so special. To me it feels like a real storybook when I'm there.
 
Congrats on your upcoming visit. I've always wanted to visit DL in the springtime. Be prepared for upcoming refurbs because of the 60th anniversary starting after memorial day next year but that should make for lower crowds.

Disneyland to me has so much nostalgia in it that it gives me goosebumps when I walk down mainstreet. Knowing that Walt lived and breathed that park just makes it so special. To me it feels like a real storybook when I'm there.

Yeah, DL has always been my 2nd dream vacation. WDW was the first, just because of EPCOT. This spring was the first chance I had to get to go, so I jumped on it as soon as I saw it was available. :thumbsup2

I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't think about the fact that it is the 60th anniversary, because my other time to get to go would have been late July. :sad2:

I'm kind of hoping that Disney will announce a full year of celebration, then I could still get in on some of it. But, we will see. And even going during the anniversary year is going to be pretty cool. :cool1:
 
Yeah, DL has always been my 2nd dream vacation. WDW was the first, just because of EPCOT. This spring was the first chance I had to get to go, so I jumped on it as soon as I saw it was available. :thumbsup2

I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't think about the fact that it is the 60th anniversary, because my other time to get to go would have been late July. :sad2:

I'm kind of hoping that Disney will announce a full year of celebration, then I could still get in on some of it. But, we will see. And even going during the anniversary year is going to be pretty cool. :cool1:

Fingers crossed for you!
 


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