help me decide on which days to go to each park

[muffyn]

traveling march 1 & 2. cant decide which park to go to on what day.
I thought maybe friday would more crowded for disneyland, (since it is a friday, ) but not so sure with magic morning/extra magic hour going on.

thursday:
Disneyland
park hours 8-8pm
extra magic hour 7-8
magic morning 7-8

Disney california adventure 9-8

friday
Disneyland
park hours 9- midnight

disney california adventure 9-11pm
extra magic hour 8-9
food & wine festival 10:30am - 10PM


shoot, there is a food & wine festival.. how does it compare to the one at epcot?

also how long should we expect the security bag check to take around opening?

 

[Lesley Wake]

traveling march 1 & 2. cant decide which park to go to on what day.
I thought maybe friday would more crowded for disneyland, (since it is a friday, ) but not so sure with magic morning/extra magic hour going on.

thursday:
Disneyland
park hours 8-8pm
extra magic hour 7-8
magic morning 7-8

Disney california adventure 9-8

friday
Disneyland
park hours 9- midnight

disney california adventure 9-11pm
extra magic hour 8-9
food & wine festival 10:30am - 10PM


shoot, there is a food & wine festival.. how does it compare to the one at epcot?

also how long should we expect the security bag check to take around opening?

First-I would get a park hopper. Yes, it is more money, but so worth it since the parks are so close together! Then you can easily switch if one gets too busy.

If you are doing only 1 park per day, I guess I would recommend DCA on Friday and DL on Saturday. The Saturday hours are much longer so the park should be super empty later in the evening. And food and wine is very good, but I would try to avoid on Saturday. It will be the first weekend, so lots of locals will descend on the park to try things. And, definitely people imbibe a bit too much, more of a risk of that on a weekend. They probably will have some soft openings on Friday if you really want to try some of the options.

 

[muffyn]

First-I would get a park hopper. Yes, it is more money, but so worth it since the parks are so close together! Then you can easily switch if one gets too busy.

If you are doing only 1 park per day, I guess I would recommend DCA on Friday and DL on Saturday. The Saturday hours are much longer so the park should be super empty later in the evening. And food and wine is very good, but I would try to avoid on Saturday. It will be the first weekend, so lots of locals will descend on the park to try things. And, definitely people imbibe a bit too much, more of a risk of that on a weekend. They probably will have some soft openings on Friday if you really want to try some of the options.

thank you for your reply.
however we only have thursday & friday . no park hoppers.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

thank you for your reply.
however we only have thursday & friday . no park hoppers.

DCA on Thursday. DL on Friday. I'm assuming you don't have early entry since you don't mention it, so pick the park without early entry that day so you are on even footing when starting the day. I like the Food & Wine event at DCA, but it doesn't sound like you are necessarily excited about spending a lot of extra money (you already rejected the park hopper idea), and the first day at this kind of event isn't always the best since the kinks haven't been ironed out yet but the local crowds flock in anyway.

 

[Lesley Wake]

thank you for your reply.
however we only have thursday & friday . no park hoppers.

Oops, sorry-I meant DCA thurs and DL Friday then. (Long day at work so I wasn’t reading clearly!)

 

[gottalovepluto]

Only been to the holiday festival but it was about a dozen booths in the space of about 15% of the length of the walkway around the Epcot Lake. It was great being able to hit so much food in such a small space!! But it's a lot of food, especially since you'll just have one day so hop online and review the menus before you get there. (Which they will post someday, c'mon Disney!)

As far as what day, I agree with doing whatever Park did not have Early Entry. Why start in a park that has full lines?

MaxPass will be your best friend.

If you get done with DCA early on Thurs you can always go to the ticket booth and upgrade your ticket to a park hopper day of.

 

[muffyn]

DCA on Thursday. DL on Friday. I'm assuming you don't have early entry since you don't mention it, so pick the park without early entry that day so you are on even footing when starting the day. I like the Food & Wine event at DCA, but it doesn't sound like you are necessarily excited about spending a lot of extra money (you already rejected the park hopper idea), and the first day at this kind of event isn't always the best since the kinks haven't been ironed out yet but the local crowds flock in anyway.

even footing sounds good ( I just thought disneyland would be more crowded on A friday). I am just not a park hopper person. we dont do it in florida. I just like staying at one park for the whole day.
we liked the wine & food at epcot, but it was just a plus since we were there anyway. if it will bring in more crowds I will pass.. thanks.

 

[muffyn]

MaxPass will be your best friend.

.

yep we have those already in our hands....

 

[theluckyrabbit]

... I am just not a park hopper person. we dont do it in florida. I just like staying at one park for the whole day...

You don't have to park hop at DLR to have a great time, but remember that hopping at DLR is a totally different experience from hopping at WDW. DL and DCA are like one great big park. They are only about a football field length apart. Seriously. You don't even have to go through security to get from one park to the other. So walking back and forth is not a big deal. And with MP, you can get FPs for one park while you are in the other park. I know people who send a runner for food that is available at DCA to bring back for the folks in DL. It really is a "one big park" mindset. So you don't have to park hop to have fun, but don't write it off automatically just because you don't do it at WDW. If the one park is crowded, hopping to the other park can save your day.

 

[sherilaine]

I agree with the others - Thursday at DCA and Friday at DL. I was originally going to say that due to Fireworks on weekends only at DL but there are no fireworks during that time due to construction.

We arrive on that Friday and start our park days on Saturday.

Have fun!

 

[gottalovepluto]

...If the one park is crowded, hopping to the other park can save your day.

True. We had a day one trip when all the good stuff at DCA seemed to break and hoping over to DL was like a fresh start!

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

even footing sounds good ( I just thought disneyland would be more crowded on A friday). I am just not a park hopper person. we dont do it in florida. I just like staying at one park for the whole day.
we liked the wine & food at epcot, but it was just a plus since we were there anyway. if it will bring in more crowds I will pass.. thanks.

Well, if it's not a money thing, then I would definitely get hoppers and MaxPass for the flexibility. The gates for the two parks are right across from each other. Still start your day each morning at the non-early entry park, and then move back and forth between them depending on interests and crowd levels. You can hit the food and wine festival in the late morning/early afternoon on the Friday before the local crowds come in the afternoon/evening.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Particularly because of the weird hours on those two days, I'd absolutely do parkhoppers. Then you could hit DL at 8am on Thursday (just start "on the left" with Frontierland/Adventureland to avoid the MM crowds... you'd still get to walk into DL first, which is always a nice start to the trip. Enjoy that extra hour at DL, and then start booking FPs at DCA and head over there after it opens (maybe 9:30 or so to miss the opening lines). DCA runs out of rides to FP much more quickly than DL since there are just fewer rides there, so that way you could start booking DL FPs again for later in the day...

FYI, it's likely that at least some of the food and wine booths will be running on Thursday for soft openings. I'd start at DL again on Friday (no MM, so start at Fantasyland if you care about those rides).

If you're really set on NOT buying parkhoppers, then I agree to do DCA on Thursday and DL on Friday. But you'll be missing out a bit!

Regarding bag check, I usually plan for 20 minutes on the Harbor side - sometimes it's shorter, sometimes it's longer. There's also a line to get into the park. I'd plan on at LEAST 30 minutes for that whole process, more if it's super-important to you to be near the rope for rope drop...

 

[Leslie0915]

I would suggest park hoppers and max pass. The parks are so close together and with only two days you can really maximize your rides with the max pass and hopping between parks. We did a Friday and Saturday only in mid January and did DL on Thursday morning, there for rope drop, went to Indiana Jones first with no pass needed, had pass waiting for Space Mountain. Rode Pirates, HM and BTM and the Space Mountain all in the first 70 minutes. We proceeded to get a FP for RSP in DCA for that evening at 5. Played around at DL doing everything but Fantasy Land until 3, napped at hotel until 4:30. Rode RSR, got Soarin FP, had dinner, rode Soarin. And then back over to DL to do Fantasy Land until closing. Next day started in DCA, with a walk on for RSP, FP for Guardians. We had DCA done in a couple hours, there's a lot closed over there. So back to DL!
Max Pass was a huge game changer for us! Plus the photo pass option was great as we met tons of characters as well.

Have a great trip whatever you decide!!!