How many of you travel from East Coast?

[mjl1969]

Thinking of traveling from NJ to LA for 7-8 days total including travel. Love WDW and really want to spend a week at Disneyland to see the true original (and maybe a few other things in LA area).

The only concern is the travel .. have an 8 and 6yo who love WDW, and thinking its probably 2 full days of travel when all said and done, which prob will leave 6 full days. A bit constrained in spending more time due to school and being away from work.

How many of you think all that travel is worth it? How many of you on here do that kind of travel to see Disneyland?

Thanks in advance.

 

[OKW Lover]

DL/DCA is a great take. I've done it from the Boston area a few times, but we are an older (now retired) couple who like to travel. Can't give you any advise about how the children will take to it.

I will say that a week is perhaps too much time for just DL/DCA. Its not at all like visiting WDW. You can easily do the parks in 3 days out there.

 

[mom2rtk]

DL only sells up to a 5 day ticket.

To offer a different opinion, we did 5 park days in 2013 and felt like we wanted more time. But then we wanted to see it all and do it all. And we wanted to do some of it twice.

In 2014 we went with an AP and plan to make our 2015 trip in time to use them a second time. The goal was to have 6 or 7 park days per trip so we didn't feel like we had to stay in the park all day each day we went. Having more days allows you to slow down a little along the way.

Not sure about that long flight. We come from the Midwest and it's about 3 hours 40 minutes direct. It was a very long day of travel. Not sure about making a trip as long as the one you are facing. I'd wager though that with electronic gadgets, your kids will do better with it than you.

 

[brandilee8299]

We will be traveling from upstate NY in a few weeks with a 3 yr old and 8 yr old. I am very nervous! Our flight leaves at 5:30 in the morning to JFK and then an hour lay over and 6 hour flight to LAX. With the time chafe we get there before noon though, but it's going to be a long morning with them up so early. I hope they sleep on the plane, but am not counting on it. They don't even sleep in the car. We will be in DL from Thursday until Tuesday and then drive 7 hours to Sonoma until Friday before we fly back home. I am actually more nervous about the 7 hour drive! They aren't the best car riders now and with us never having been to CA I worried about driving there and traffic. My husband is going to Sonoma for work so we tagged DL on to it. I don't think we'd ever head out there otherwise. I feel like this is a one time trip so want to make the most of it so hope the kids can suck it up and make it through. They have iPads and DVD players. I will also pack lots of snacks!

 

[mjl1969]

Thanks for the feedback and for the record I don't think we will have any problem enjoying 5 days at parks, I love the Disney history and details and can see us doing some rides more than once, and do some swimming back at Hojo which seems like a nice place to stay, even if technically offsite . Will also have no prob burning anotherday or 2 at a beach and surrounding areas. Biggest worry is the travel , like needing a day each way just adjust to jet lag and time change.

 

[disneyfirsttimer18]

My brother and SIL drove from the west coast to WDW a year ago with 4 kids ages 6-10. They said the kids were awesome. They stopped once on the way out and drove straight through on the way home.

 

[AngiTN]

We're traveling from Eastern Time to CA in June. Flying is the only way I'd consider making the trip. We don't even drive to Disney anymore and that's only a 7 hour drive for us.

I don't anticipate any issues with time zone adjusting. I've flown east coast to West numerous times. It has never caused an adjustment period. In the case of Disney I think it's even more to our advantage. I plan to remain on East Coast time and use that to aid us in using the early morning hours every day. Though we are staying site so we can do this. Off site only gets 1 day to do that. It may well make a difference in how you tour

We are planning to pay more for our flights to get a direct flight vs. one with lay overs. It takes our flight from 5 hours to 8 if we don't do that. Other than that we are planning a trip to arrive on a Tuesday and return on a Monday and we have a 5 day park hopper.

 

[shelemm]

Ten nights in the shortest trip I've made to fly across the country. LA is a fantastic city with so many things to do.

 

[Davey Jones II]

We travel from Montreal to California. As with our Orlando trips, we spend about 10 days in California, plus two travel days. On our last trip (and our upcoming one), we spent three days in San Diego (two for the San Diego Zoo, one Sea World -- you could also add the Safari Park if you rent a car) and five days (with park hopper) at Disneyland Resort.

Five days is definitely not too much for the two DLR parks, they are packed with lots of attractions and nighttime events. In fact, I would say five days is a minimum, especially if this is your first trip there.

 

[luulu1999]

We drove from MO--TWICE, we absolutely love California and are hopefully going again next summer, and WDW is closer to us but we have never been We are planning a short Oct trip there this year but only one MK day and a MNSSHP day, I think it is well worth it!! Our first trip we only had 3 days in the park and it was at Christmas but I still thought it was worth it and it gave us an excuse to come back!! The second trip this summer we had 5 days in the park and you could get a lot done in the mornings and not feel so rushed, we would take a break in the afternoon and swim and had some beach days in between it was great!

 

[Spunky946]

We flew last summer from Pittsburgh to Seattle for an Alaskan cruise. We flew from Pit to las vegas leaving at 4:30 in the afternoon and then from las vegas to Seattle. We landed late about 10 pm west coast time, so 1 am est, but the kids slept on the second flight and went right to bed and woke up at 7 am on west coast time.

I was worried and they did great. They were 6 and 10 at the time.

This summer we are flying out to La and san Diego. We are planning on 9 nights 10 days. So super excited.

 

[Kit Jackson]

I'm from the East Coast and just did my first visit to Disneyland. It is totally worth it if the kids like Disney World. 5 days will be enough time to see everything you want in Disneyland, especially with little kids.

 

[Chiomaca]

My family is in CA and I'm in DC, so I travel east all the time sometimes just for a long weekend at Disneyland. In fact, I'm flying out there for two RunDisney races this year. I prefer Disneyland to Disneyworld even though FL is closer.

My brother and his family do the trip in reverse to see me, most recently the kids were 5 and 2. They try to go with evening flights (sleep!) and non-stop whenever possible, to minimize the need to settle in and then get back up and re-organize. Of course, the iPads are essential because Minecraft keeps both boys completely riveted.

 

[d1gitman]

We have taken two trip from Boston to LA for Disneyland trips in the past 4 years. We are big fans of flying on Virgin airlines as coach on Virgin is much nicer than any other airline we've taken.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

We had our first trip to Disneyland a couple weeks ago, mainly for the Star Wars Races. We had 4 day tickets (Park Hoppers) and I felt we got most of what we wanted to do done.

We flew out on the evening on a Wednesday, arriving at like 10PM PST at SNA. We then had 4 full days and flew out Monday.

 

[zanzibar138]

I travel to DLR from Australia. 14 hours in the air each way is totally worth it

There are plenty of people here who do the journey with kids. They get bored and tired, but mainly they seem to do pretty well.

 

[juliekzp]

Totally worth it, I think. We live in IN (Eastern Time Zone) and go to WDW once or twice a year, but went to DL last June for the first time and are going back in a couple weeks. I loved seeing different attractions and parades, mixed in with all our favorites from WDW too.

The time zone change stinks, but you kids are old enough that it shouldn't be too bad. Plus on some days with EMH, a park could be open as early as 7 am, so waking up super early for the first few days can be a good thing.

As for flying time, for us it's about 2 hours to WDW and 4.5 to DL, so I figure it's only an extra 5 hours of travel total.

 

[Davey Jones II]

I travel to DLR from Australia. 14 hours in the air each way is totally worth it

There are plenty of people here who do the journey with kids. They get bored and tired, but mainly they seem to do pretty well.

I guess we're pretty lucky to be closer than you.

On my Disney trips, I've met some families from Australia and New Zealand. Now those are some true fans

 

[Laz]

Nice thing about DLR with young children is that you will not have to push them to their limits. You can take frequent breaks or whole afternoons off and still have plenty of time to see and do everything multiple times. Think about just unwinding the first day you get there and not even go to the parks. Get the kids settled and back into a routine.

 

[MaleficentRN]

OP, have you thought about doing red eye flights? I know I wouldn't be able to do it, but if you and your family are the kind that could sleep anywhere you could hit the ground running on arrival and then spend the entire day in the park on departure day.


We are arriving late morning and plan on a half day at the park. I figure we'll start to fade about 7pm and head back to hotel for an early night. But then we'll be ready to go first thing tin the morning!