How many days at each park? 4 day ticket

[Boardwalk_bride]

What did you wind up booking? We're going to DLR for our first time this summer and I'm looking into this as well.

We booked with Anaheim Tour Company - they get good reviews on these boards, tripadvisor, etc., and responded to all my questions via email. We booked the LA in a day tour and the OC beach/whale watch tour.

Our original plan was to rent a car and spend time in OC and San Diego, but with work being so busy, and now pulling a kid out of school, we landed on just a one week trip, so this seemed easier. TBH - I'm happy to have someone else pick us up and drive us around

 

[Music City Mama]

We booked with Anaheim Tour Company - they get good reviews on these boards, tripadvisor, etc., and responded to all my questions via email. We booked the LA in a day tour and the OC beach/whale watch tour.

Our original plan was to rent a car and spend time in OC and San Diego, but with work being so busy, and now pulling a kid out of school, we landed on just a one week trip, so this seemed easier. TBH - I'm happy to have someone else pick us up and drive us around

My plan was to rent a car, too, but 1) I'd have pay for the rental for the week, 2) I'd have to pay for parking at the hotel for the week, and 3) I don't like driving and even though my DH normally doesn't mind it, he gets very agitated when driving in an area/city he's not familiar with, so I'd rather avoid him driving, lol. And like you, I was looking at most days at the parks, but one day for beaches and one day for the Hollywood area, so I really appreciate the info on the tour company.

What is your plan to/from the airport? Uber?

 

[ComeToSocialize]

Great, thanks. I think we might go with that. I'll look into all the things we really want to do at DL - I also realize toontown might add an extra layer. We did take our daughter to Canada's Wonderland last week, and she had no interest anymore in smaller kids rides (carousel, etc.) and just wanted to line up for coasters kind of similar to Thunder Mountain and the Goofy one. So, I'm hopeful we can at least remove smaller rides from the list!

I'd say DCA overall has more "carnival / county fair" type kiddie rides than DL. Jellyfish, Swings, Golden Zephyr, Jessie's Carousel are straight from a temporary fair (Goofy's Sky School is also an off the shelf wild mouse coaster that you could also find at a larger state fair). Inside Out and Mater's are really just themed up carnival rides too.

Take those away, and you have Guardians, Soarin, Grizzly River, Radiator Springs, Incredicoaster as "thrill" rides and Spiderman, monsters inc, toy story mania, Luigis, little mermaid and the ferris wheel as more elaborate non-thrill rides. You can do all of that in one day with rope drop and G+.

In DL, while there are lots of Kid rides, the only ones that I think your daughter will perceive as "kid" rides would be Dumbo (which is still iconic), Astro Orbiters, Carousel, and Casey Jr. Of course the fantasyland dark rides are kid rides but they're so much more than that.

 

[ottawamom]

Thanks for starting this thread. DH and I are heading to DL in May and this has been top of my mind lately as well. We have PH but I still need to decide which park to start the day in.

We also have 5 day tickets (starting May 1) so I think we will do DL,DCA,DL,DL,DCA. Thursday is May the 4th so we won't start the day in DCA (too busy).

 

[Boardwalk_bride]

What is your plan to/from the airport? Uber?

I'm not sure....I assigned that task to DH

 

[Boardwalk_bride]

I'd say DCA overall has more "carnival / county fair" type kiddie rides than DL. Jellyfish, Swings, Golden Zephyr, Jessie's Carousel are straight from a temporary fair (Goofy's Sky School is also an off the shelf wild mouse coaster that you could also find at a larger state fair). Inside Out and Mater's are really just themed up carnival rides too.

Take those away, and you have Guardians, Soarin, Grizzly River, Radiator Springs, Incredicoaster as "thrill" rides and Spiderman, monsters inc, toy story mania, Luigis, little mermaid and the ferris wheel as more elaborate non-thrill rides. You can do all of that in one day with rope drop and G+.

In DL, while there are lots of Kid rides, the only ones that I think your daughter will perceive as "kid" rides would be Dumbo (which is still iconic), Astro Orbiters, Carousel, and Casey Jr. Of course the fantasyland dark rides are kid rides but they're so much more than that.

This is where I get stuck. We have similar rides to many DCA ones at Canada's Wonderland, where we have annual passes. But for DH and I, DCA looks so much different than all the WDW parks, so I was thinking we would want to explore that more. DH and I are not into marvel - our daughter hasn't see any of the movies but knows all the characters and reads books about them. And she is super into Cars. I think I'll look to see where we would get the most out of the Genie plus rides.

 

[ComeToSocialize]

This is where I get stuck. We have similar rides to many DCA ones at Canada's Wonderland, where we have annual passes. But for DH and I, DCA looks so much different than all the WDW parks, so I was thinking we would want to explore that more. DH and I are not into marvel - our daughter hasn't see any of the movies but knows all the characters and reads books about them. And she is super into Cars. I think I'll look to see where we would get the most out of the Genie plus rides.

Yep, it's a tough call! Avengers Campus is pretty small at DCA (and honestly kind of underwhelming other than the spontaneous character appearances/shows that happen). Cars land is much more impressive, which aligns with your daughter's interests!

Either way, whether you do 3x1 or 2x2, you'll be able to fill up 4 days really well!

 

[ComeToSocialize]

Duplicate, sorry

 

[wench]

Oh we will def do that! It's more like the 'jumping jellyfish' or other midway types that we have at parks near us.

Oh, I totally agree on those. Of course I’m scared to death of heights, so that might factor in to some of those rides for me!

 

[Music City Mama]

We booked with Anaheim Tour Company - they get good reviews on these boards, tripadvisor, etc., and responded to all my questions via email. We booked the LA in a day tour and the OC beach/whale watch tour.

Hi @Boardwalk_bride, I hope you had a nice trip! I just wanted to see what you thought of the tours. We're scheduled to do an LA and OC beach one next month with the same tour group.

 

[Boardwalk_bride]

Hi @Boardwalk_bride, I hope you had a nice trip! I just wanted to see what you thought of the tours. We're scheduled to do an LA and OC beach one next month with the same tour group.

We did! We did 4 days DLR and one day on Hollywood/La and one day whale watching/beach trip with Anaheim Tours. Do you have/are you bringing kids? That could change my response.

The tours are well organized and they tour guides are friendly, professional, entertaining - really couldn't be better. Vans are very clean.

LA/Hollywood - OMG the traffic! I have never experienced anything like it. Be prepared to spend half, minimum, of your time in transit. That said, there is no way we could have seen everything we saw in one day on our own. It really is just a quick hit of the highlights. It was a lot for our 6 year old to handle, and she is on the mature side. DH and I are very glad we did it. Lunch stop at the Grove is fun, beaches and Hollywood sign were the highlights.

The OC beach tour is pretty amazing. Laguna beach is beautiful but only a 40 min stop. We didn't get to see much of Newport, as we opted for the whale watching tour (which is well done). Newport looked really nice - it was our daughter's fav from the small part we saw. Huntington is HUGE and busy (we were there on a saturday), but beautfiul. The bathrooms are disgusting and the restaurants don't let you use theirs, even if you are a paying customer. Everything was super $$$. This one is way better with kids, IMHO.

Hope that helps!

 

[Music City Mama]

We did! We did 4 days DLR and one day on Hollywood/La and one day whale watching/beach trip with Anaheim Tours. Do you have/are you bringing kids? That could change my response.

The tours are well organized and they tour guides are friendly, professional, entertaining - really couldn't be better. Vans are very clean.

LA/Hollywood - OMG the traffic! I have never experienced anything like it. Be prepared to spend half, minimum, of your time in transit. That said, there is no way we could have seen everything we saw in one day on our own. It really is just a quick hit of the highlights. It was a lot for our 6 year old to handle, and she is on the mature side. DH and I are very glad we did it. Lunch stop at the Grove is fun, beaches and Hollywood sign were the highlights.

The OC beach tour is pretty amazing. Laguna beach is beautiful but only a 40 min stop. We didn't get to see much of Newport, as we opted for the whale watching tour (which is well done). Newport looked really nice - it was our daughter's fav from the small part we saw. Huntington is HUGE and busy (we were there on a saturday), but beautfiul. The bathrooms are disgusting and the restaurants don't let you use theirs, even if you are a paying customer. Everything was super $$$. This one is way better with kids, IMHO.

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the response! We've got older teens so that shouldn't be a problem. I think we're doing a slightly different tour for LA/Hollywood than you did. Ours includes the Warner Bros Tour, but I know it's a very long day too (in fact, I think it may be slightly longer than yours). I'm prepared mentally for the traffic -- it's better than us being the ones driving in it, though.

Our beach tour is on a Tuesday. First, I can't believe you can't use their restrooms at the restaurants if you're dining there! I'm sort of confused about the timeline and getting off/on. From their website:

The OC Beach Bus Tour is a 3-hour loop of Orange County with two on-and-off stops along the beautiful Pacific coast, plus a beautiful photo stop on the Cliffs in Laguna Beach.

With daily pick-up locations throughout the Anaheim Resort, the OC Beach Bus Tour allows you to stop in Laguna for a 10-minute photo stop in the morning before continuing on to Newport Beach and the Balboa Fun Zone, where we stop for about 3 hours to explore, sightsee, shop, or enjoy the beach.

Then, when the Cruiser comes around again, you reenter the tour and continue on to the real Surf City – USA, Huntington Beach, for an additional 3 hours! Enjoy the ride in our comfortable tour vehicle with full driver narration! It’s an amazing day of great stops at the most fun and exciting places along our Orange County Coastline!

It sounds like you got to stop in Laguna for 40 minutes vs the 10 minutes described above? It also says that they stop in Newport for 3 hours. I know you said you opted to do the whale watching...how does that work, do you get onto a boat from there? Did you see any whales? And then you're in Huntington for another 3 hours? Do they just tell those on the tour to meet back at a certain spot a certain time? You're making me hesitant about the Huntington part. Do you know if you can just stay in Newport and not move on to Huntington? Or even if I have that option, should we go to Huntington anyway? Did you all pack for the beach with towels, etc. and actually spend time laying out in the sun and playing in the water? I'm just trying to figure out what to bring with us that day...

Last but not least, how did you like DLR? It's our first time there, too, so curious to how you thought it compared to WDW. We've got 5 day park hoppers so I think it will be a lot more leisurely than WDW even when we have 7-9 days there.

 

[Boardwalk_bride]

I'm not sure what happened to the formatting here....

So, to clarify about the bathrooms, this was our experience in Huntington. The place we ate at had signs that there we no customer bathrooms, and we noticed that in others we passed. Seriously the HB toilets, which there are many, are the WORST experience I have had, probably ever, and I travel and camp a lot.

We booked the beach tour with whale watching option, so it was all done ahead. We also thought it was just 10 min stop in Laguna, but it was 45mins. It was beautiful, and quiet, so we were thankful. You cannot just stay at one beach - you are with a group (so same driver, van, etc), so you continue on with the schedule. I still think HB is a must. We brought towels and played in the water, looked for shells, spent time on the sand. It was wonderful.

I was shocked at how $$ everything was. I think HB was the worst - I think the Grove (for LA tour) was okay. Omg, the donut place in the Farmers Market there is amazing! As Canadians, we normally feel like we are paying less (even though with exchange it is about even or more), but everything was priced in $US higher than we pay here, which means we paid WAY more for food in California than at home. DLR was probably cheapest in terms of meals. We also ate across from our hotel a lot (we stayed at Hampton Inn and Suites, which I don't really recommend, except it is close to a lot of good fast food options).

In terms of DLR, I feel bad saying it on this board, but I'm definitely team WDW. But, we always stay on property in WDW, and we got married there, time zone is the same, so it is different experience for us. We found Disneyland park specifically to be very crowded by mid day - like it was almost impossible to move through. We have been to WDW at Christmas and haven't had that problem. We LOVED DCA. I'm not even into pixar, marvel, etc., but it was soooo cool. I think because it is so different from WDW, food is better there than DL, and the cast members for some reason were way nicer. Cars land is beyond amazing. We thought we would do three days in DL and one in DCA, but we did 2/2. DL is pretty similar to MK, and I think the layout for the star wars area is similar, but I didn't really go to the one in HS/WDW. DH thinks it is the same.

So, we had an amazing trip, and I don't regret anything, but my future Disney trips will definitely be WDW (and Disneyland Paris, when our daughter is old enough).

 

[Music City Mama]

Thanks so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it. Sounds like y'all had a great time.

So, to clarify about the bathrooms, this was our experience in Huntington. The place we ate at had signs that there we no customer bathrooms, and we noticed that in others we passed. Seriously the HB toilets, which there are many, are the WORST experience I have had, probably ever, and I travel and camp a lot.

Ugh, thanks for the heads-up, though.