How many days needed?

[iHEARTflorida]

we plan on going to california for our summer, 3 weeks san francisco, hollywood and palm springs.

do get the full experinece of the two parks and downtown disney how many days do you think i will need?

were a family of 5, with older teens and have done WDW before.

 

[HydroGuy]

Three days minimum. Four days will be better.

 

[Mom2micayla]

Being summer, I'd say at least 3 or 4. Preferably 5.

 

[talie95]

I just got back and we had 2 days and definitely would have needed one more to really see everything and this was off season. If you're going in the summer I'd say to try for 4 days.

 

[Dakota_Lynn]

Four days for sure! If you were going in the off season I would say you could do it in three days as long as those three days were weekdays. But if you're talking about summertime, then no less than four days! Don't forget Universal Studios while you're there. I love that place! You only need one day there though.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Three days minimum. Four days will be better.

Exactly what I was going to say. We were there in Sept for the 1/2 marathon. We had three day tickets. Four days would have been better and we could have done a little more time at the parks.

 

[iHEARTflorida]

Three days minimum. Four days will be better.

3 days min!!!! i was only thinking of doing two days, one at each park and the evening in downtown disney.

really i need at least 3 days, is this to do like every ride or something???

 

[Deb & Bill]

Toontown and Fantasyland at DL are both so much bigger than WDW. They have many more attractions that you will want to see. Pirates at DL is much longer and way better than WDW. There is an entire story to DL POTC, while WDW just puts you in the middle of the pirates fighting the town.

Do not miss Aladdin. I hope it will be playing again when you arrive. It was dark when we went in mid-Sept, but we saw it in June and loved it. Fantastic show. You'll want to do Fantasmic at DL because the show is much better - no Pocohontas stuff (thank God), they have Peter Pan instead and makes much more sense.

The Paradise Pier area of Cal Adv is neat at night. Teenagers will enjoy this part of Cal Adv. And once they see it, they may want to do an extra day here.

You can probably do it in two days, but you will either miss lots of things if the lines are long or you will be rushing around. DL hours are not as long as WDW, either. They open later in the AM and Cal Adv often closes earlier in the evening. Check the website to see what hours they will have when you go.

 

[HydroGuy]

3 days min!!!! i was only thinking of doing two days, one at each park and the evening in downtown disney.

really i need at least 3 days, is this to do like every ride or something???

That is assuming you want to visit both parks, and see some of the shows. There really are a lot of rides in California. In fact, there are almost as many rides at DL and DCA than there are at all four WDW parks put together. And three days will not be enough time to do all of them - even four days would probably not be enough if you took time to see shows. So the number of days is not based on "seeing everything", it is based on how much time you need to feel like you had a good experience. Sure, you can spend two days, or even one day, and have a fun time. But you will feel like you missed a lot. Especially during a high season time like summer.

How many days do you usually spend at WDW? A good rule of thumb is if you like to spend say 8 days at WDW, then 4 at DLR would be a rough equivalent. In other words, plan to spend half the days at DLR you would spend at WDW.

 

[HydroGuy]

Do not miss Aladdin. I hope it will be playing again when you arrive. It was dark when we went in mid-Sept, but we saw it in June and loved it.

It is supposedly coming back sometime in October with a new cast.