How to divide up five days in Disneyland and California Adventure

[petals]

petals --

Hmmm... Let me think about it for a minute. I'm not sure exactly how I would break up 5 days from start to finish, except for that I would probably do World of Color-Winter Dreams on a separate night than Fantasmic, and on a separate night than the Believe in Holiday Magic fireworks.

I, personally, might try to hit Fantasmic on one night, BIHM fireworks on another night and Winter Dreams on yet another night. I might do the Christmas Fantasy Parade on the same day as BIHM fireworks, though, and catch the Winter Castle in icicle lights on that same night.

Viva Navidad was happening during the day and at night, from what I recall, but I think I would see a daytime Viva Navidad and then do Winter Dreams later that night.

If I had a few hours to spare on any given night outside of the parks, I might stroll around Downtown Disney and enjoy the festive atmosphere, and also walk to the Grand Californian Hotel and the Disneyland Hotel to either eat or check out decorations (such as the cute gingerbread house near the entrance to Storytellers Café at the GCH, and the giant fake gingerbread Castle at the DLH, in the Fantasy Tower lobby). I might visit Trader Sam's at the DLH, for some fun adult beverages and to see their whimsical, themed holiday décor. I might sit down and relax for a while in the GCH lobby, enjoying the Carolers and/or the pianist playing holiday music.

Then again, I always set aside "hotel time" to explore and see what the decorations are like!


I do agree with the others who have said that it is not as necessary to have a solid plan when you have 5-day Hoppers. The Hoppers allow great flexibility, so if one park suddenly becomes too crowded, or your group gets bored, you can just walk across the Esplanade to the other park. If you plan on seeing something or doing something on the first or second day and don't make it, you still have more time to get to those things.

Five days is a good chunk of time to get things done in both parks (though no amount of time ever seems to be quite enough!).

According to this schedule from November 2013, unless I am imagining things or somehow not reading it correctly, it appears that Fantasmic was running the entire week of Thanksgiving (which was on 11/28 in 2013), including the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of that week.

If that same sort of Fantasmic schedule applies this year, then F! would run every night from Friday, 11/21 through the rest of your trip (and beyond). So you would have quite a few chances to see it, I think -- if that same holiday week schedule is applicable this year.

The Holiday Time tour can tackle several things for you at once -- seats for A Christmas Fantasy Parade, and priority loading/boarding (essentially, like the equivalent of Fastpasses) on It's a Small World Holiday, Jingle Cruise and Haunted Mansion Holiday. IASWH and HMH are very popular -- especially during a holiday week -- and the seats for ACFP are really helpful. The tour -- while not crucial to the holiday experience -- could be a way to get all of those things done more efficiently and, in the case of the parade, more comfortably. I would probably do the latest tour available that day, which may be in the range of 3 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. (somewhere in that timeframe), which would put me at IASWH around the time when the colored lights go on (if I am not mistaken).

OOooh thanks, I'm going to copy all this and print it out for the trip planning folder
I was thinking of doing the 18th (Mickey mouse's birthday) as DCA because of the fact we fly for so long the day before and there's less in that park we want to do.
DL on the Saturday. DTD and hotels on Sunday and then go back to both parks the mon-wed before we go home just because I'd prefere to have the last few days as nothing but Disney.

We were thinking of doing the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour but I'm wondering if the Holiday tour might be better as Momma isn't really interested in anything but the pin on the Walt tour