How many days do you do?

[disneychrista]

In general we do 2.5 days (2 full days plus day of arrival) but we have been many times and do not need to see or do everything every trip. I would aim for 5 park days (since that is the max ticket they sell).

 

[lcp9]

4 full days has been the longest we've gone and is the max my husband would ever go (2 of us plus 3 kids - 5, 3, 10 months.) I don't do super hard core planning but we're pretty efficient in what we do, and we've always been able to do everything we want to do plus most favorites twice. And that's including having to utilize rider switch on a lot of rides. By day 4 we're pretty spent and so are the kids. Just depends on who's going and their tolerance.

 

[ParksPixar&Pizza]

In general we do 2.5 days (2 full days plus day of arrival) but we have been many times and do not need to see or do everything every trip. I would aim for 5 park days (since that is the max ticket they sell).

Im going for the first time (only 2 park days/wish I could go longer) and I cant decide if I want to get a park hopper. I know it's HEAVILY suggested in DL, but Im thinking that I really want to absorb DL and DCA. In WDW, I could spend days in MK, so I know I want a FULL day in DL, but DCA can you make it a full day?

 

[disneychrista]

Im going for the first time (only 2 park days/wish I could go longer) and I cant decide if I want to get a park hopper. I know it's HEAVILY suggested in DL, but Im thinking that I really want to absorb DL and DCA. In WDW, I could spend days in MK, so I know I want a FULL day in DL, but DCA can you make it a full day?

Yes, with only 2 days get the park hopper. Many times DCA opens later & closes earlier that DL. With the park hopper, you can start off at DL, then hop over to DCA and then hop back to DL when DCA closes.

 

[planningjollyholiday]

Im going for the first time (only 2 park days/wish I could go longer) and I cant decide if I want to get a park hopper. I know it's HEAVILY suggested in DL, but Im thinking that I really want to absorb DL and DCA. In WDW, I could spend days in MK, so I know I want a FULL day in DL, but DCA can you make it a full day?

There is plenty to do in each park to spend more than a whole day there. Especially if it is your first time. I would do your first day at disneyland and your second at DCA. If on your second day you feel you would like to go back to DL and do more there, then I would upgrade your tickets to a park hopper. But in the mean timejust buy nonhoppers and play it by ear.

To the OP, we usually do 6 full days and 2 half days but we buy AP's because we know we will be back the following year for a trip before our passes expire. If you don't want to commit to the large price of an AP then I would do the max they offer which is 5 days.

 

[smartlabelprint]

If you can get Australian 10 day tickets get those.

 

[ParksPixar&Pizza]

Yes, with only 2 days get the park hopper. Many times DCA opens later & closes earlier that DL. With the park hopper, you can start off at DL, then hop over to DCA and then hop back to DL when DCA closes.

There is plenty to do in each park to spend more than a whole day there. Especially if it is your first time. I would do your first day at disneyland and your second at DCA. If on your second day you feel you would like to go back to DL and do more there, then I would upgrade your tickets to a park hopper. But in the mean timejust buy nonhoppers and play it by ear.

Thank you so much!

 

[xlsm]

We're WDW vets who made our first trip to DLR in June. We did 5 park days and an LA day, a beach day, and a whale watching day in addition. It worked well for us flying into SNA and renting a car. We stayed at HoJo because parking was free for the rental, and it's easy access to wherever you want to drive. It's also an easy walk to the parks.

We did:
Day one: Disneyland
Day two: California Adventure
Day three: Disneyland evening
Day four:California Adventure
Day five: We hopped, Disneyland morning and DCA afternoon

Have fun and enjoy!

 

[bluefunnel]

We usually only do two days with an extra morning at Downtown Disney since we usually only get a long weekend(taking Friday or Monday off). We can squeeze in a lot but usually miss something.

About 4 park days would be ideal, still going at a decent pace but enough time to be sure we're not missing anything. Two DL, one DCA, one hopper day.

Once a year we do a week with non-park day in the middle. Plenty of time to do everything at a slow pace but this year and last we attended/will attend the Halloween party.

 

[Jedi Mouse]

You can get in just about everything you want to do in 4-5 days depending on your pace.

 

[BriannaRuth]

We used to do 6 days, but that was before they stopped selling 6/7 day tickets. Now the longest ticket you can get unless you're AP or from out of the country is 5. We always do 5 and wish we could still do 6. We usually take a one day break in the middle for a hotel pool day.

 

[stardusty21]

We are from Oregon and make it down once every couple of years. We get a 5 day park hopper and stay 6 nights. If we want to do a beach day or an LA day, we add on an extra night.

 

[BrianL]

I think 3 days is good, maybe 4 at DLR. If I had 10 days in the LA area I would also go to Universal Hollywood (1 day is enough here, but I like it so much better than the Orlando one, mostly because it is an actual working movie studio). The Warner Bros. Studio tour is great too. There is a lot to see in LA.

 

[Kindermouse]

I think it depends on how many people are in your party as well. I usually do 4 days with just me and my son but on our trip last week we had the 2 little cousins with us too so we did 5 days. 5 days was not enough when we needed so many breaks for the little ones and everyone wanted to do different things but no one had the stamina to do the commando park style that would be required for us to do all those things. 6 park days would have been great along with 1-2 days off from the park to do other things.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

We are DW vets who did our first DL trip this summer. While 10 days would be a lot in just DL, we found there was a lot more that we wanted to do in CA. I thought I was being a little overzealous when I booked 10 days, but we enjoyed all of them. We spent about 3.5 days in the DL parks, but we also visited the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Universal Hollywood (VIP tour), LA tourist attractions, WB Tour, a movie at El Capitan, and a concert (actually the reason we planned this trip). We could have easily filled several more days.

 

[nikerbokers]

10 days would be great for a SoCal vacation. 3-4 days at Disney, go to Knotts, Universal, travel around Hollywood, San Diego, go to the best SoCal beaches.

I would say 4 days would be perfect for a first timer at DLR. We usually do 3 days and we go annually or more.