How many days??

[AndreAggie]

I'm taking my 73 year old mom to Disneyland for her first trip in August. She's active and in good health, so don't let her age fool you! We fly in on a Saturday and land at SNA at 9:30 in the morning. Staying at Grand Californian, so I think we can be in the parks by lunchtime if flights are on time. There's no way we'll make it all evening because we'll be on a 2-hour time difference and will have gotten up at 4:00 Central! And we have all day Sunday. Currently we have all day Monday too, and fly out Tuesday afternoon. So we can go to the parks on Tuesday morning too.

I'm contemplating moving our flights to Monday evening...that gives us 2 partial days and one full day in the parks. But I don't want to feel rushed! I've done DL in 2 days and I've done it in 5! Our goal isn't to see and do EVERYTHING. I just want to take her and show her around with little planning in advance. Might make a couple reservations, but for the most part, just go and take it all in. Thoughts? Leave it as is or cut a day off?

 

[ColoradoLime]

If your primary concern is not feeling rushed then give yourself as much time as you can. I love doing a park day and then flying out late but then I’m also constantly worrying about the time to make sure we leave when needed so it’s not exactly a worry free day.

Is there a specific reasons why you want to change your flight?

 

[Pluto468]

I would stay for longer. That way you can really take your time and not feel rushed. Have fun!

 

[varyth]

We were just there last week with park hopper tickets and no Genie+. No rope dropping (though I was in the parks within an hour of opening due to being an early riser) and my husband slept in and met up with me whenever he woke up (thanks to the convenient location of GCH).
By the end of our third day, we felt we've been on all the rides we were interested in and watched all the nighttime spectaculars in both parks without rushing. The fourth and fifth (half) day were just to take it slow, eat, shop, and revisit any rides.
I think three full days was the sweet spot for us. Any additional days was just for us to loiter.

 

[ColoradoLime]

I think three full days was the sweet spot for us. Any additional days was just for us to loiter.

If you could only pick one place to loiter, this is a good one.

 

[gelatoni fan]

So right now, you're planning to do Saturday evening to Tuesday early afternoon and are contemplating changing it to Saturday evening to Monday early afternoon?

How much of a priority is getting good spots for World of Color and Fantasmic? With Virtual Queue, there's a potential you forget the time, are too slow or otherwise fail on both Saturday and Sunday. Staying for Monday night gives you another opportunity at it even if it's not guaranteed. But if you are OK standing off to the back/side or booking a dessert party (dining package if those return), then staying for Monday may not matter.

With that caveat, I think flying out Monday night is fine if you don't need to do everything.

 

[smartlabelprint]

Personally I’d feel rushed with 2 half days.