If we can't get in the park early, should we still go in?

[mobopolo]

Here's the dilemma. We arrive around 10:30 am on wed. May 21st at the Long Beach airport, from a red-eye flight! Kids and Dad have no problem sleeping on the plane. Me, not so much. We are staying at the Candy Cane Inn. We'll be renting a car, as we plan to go to Lego-land and Seaworld later in our trip. Since check-in isn't until 3 pm, we need to kill time. I'm sure we'll be hungry too. Should we just go straight to the park? I'm guessing this would be around Noon? Or find lunch and maybe see if we can hang out at the hotel pool, maybe nap? Then just start early the next morning? This will be the boys' (ages 8 and 5) first trip! I'm looking at buying the 3 day park hopper. What would you do or have you done in this situation?

 

[dizneekrazee]

We have a kinda similar situation. We are driving in, and will be leaving home around 6am and arriving between noon and 1pm, depending on the kids of course! We are also going doing the 3day PH, and we will not be going into the park the day we arrive, just lunch, DTD, etc. I know we want to get 3 full days of DISNEY!!

Have a great trip!!
Brandy

 

[bumbershoot]

I would play it by ear, but have a plan should you decide to go in.

I probably wouldn't head to Fantasyland, and might not think I could get on Nemo without a wait, but I would go in and have some fun, most definitely!

If you guys go in and they've slept but you haven't, you could always go check in and take a snooze, then meet everyone back up later.

 

[avalon451]

When in doubt, go in! Just my opinion, of course. It's only $15. more for a 4 day park hopper. You can go in, grab a couple of fastpasses for later, get some lunch, enjoy the sights... maybe ride POTC or HM if the lines aren't too bad... whatever.. then go check in to your hotel and have a nice snooze. Come back refreshed and enjoy using your fastpasses. (DH tells the kids, "You can sleep when you're in a retirement home.")

But, whatever works for you! Have a great time!

 

[Danauk]

I would go in too. I know DH and I don't have kids, but we will be on an 11 1/2 hour flight arriving at LAX at about 2:30pm (10:30pm our body clock time having been us since 4am!!). We plan to drop our bags off and head straight into the parks as soon as we get there!! We figure we will be excited enough to be there so the adrenaline will get us through a few hours in the park before we have to sleep!!

 

[twinspluscade]

Oh, that's a tough one! I also would have a hard-time sleeping on the plane. I've never taken the red-eye before, but bet that I would get maybe an hours sleep, if that.

If it were me, I would first try and see if you can check into the hotel early. After the red eye, just taking a quick shower and maybe a brief nap will make everyone feel much better. Then, after that I would plan on heading to the parks...maybe at 2 or so. Spend a few hours, and plan on it being an early night.

 

[TiredX2]

We were not planning on going the day we got in. But then I looked at the difference in ticket prices here:
http://www.getawaytoday.com/TicketListing.aspx?dest_id=2

Like another person said, I'm sure I can get the "extra" enjoyment out of just a few hours once I have already bought the park hopper. I'm thinking maybe that first day we'll just mostly enjoy the sights, get a snack and maybe ride a couple things if we can. If you can take a nap in the afternoon it might be an easy day to watch the parades and/or fireworks.

 

[noryglory]

Just did this last week. GO. GO. GO. For us it was $10 a person more. Even if you just look in the shops on Main Street, or take the train around the park, or eat a meal, or go on 10 rides, or get in late just to see the fireworks from the hub, or X or Y or Z....it is so worth it.

DO IT!!

 

[DisneyNic]

I understand your concerns about having no sleep. I too can not sleep on an airplane no matter what time it is. I took my first red eye in Feb from Utah to Florida. I did manage to sleep for about 45 minutes out of the six hours it took us to get there. But once we were actually there, I was too excited to be tired. We were going, going, going all day and I was so excited about all of it that I had forgotten about the lack of sleep. Until I sat down for a few moments at the hotel at about 8 pm. It was lights out after that. Anyway, my opinion is to GO. Adding an extra day to park hoppers is actually pretty cheap and more than worth it even if you just spend a few hours walking around and taking everything in. Plus, you can scope out your gameplan for the next day and see if anything has changed since your last visit.

 

[Hound 109]

Just did this last week. GO. GO. GO. For us it was $10 a person more. Even if you just look in the shops on Main Street, or take the train around the park, or eat a meal, or go on 10 rides, or get in late just to see the fireworks from the hub, or X or Y or Z....it is so worth it.

DO IT!!

& Avalon said:

When in doubt, go in! Just my opinion, of course. It's only $15. more for a 4 day park hopper. You can go in, grab a couple of fastpasses for later, get some lunch, enjoy the sights... maybe ride POTC or HM if the lines aren't too bad... whatever.. then go check in to your hotel and have a nice snooze. Come back refreshed and enjoy using your fastpasses. (DH tells the kids, "You can sleep when you're in a retirement home.")

But, whatever works for you! Have a great time!

I really agree with both of the above. For several reasons:

- The extra 1/2 day is only a few $$ more.
- It helps you get your bearings (where the lands are/how FP works/where DTD is/walking routes).
- No hurry, so take some pics, say hi to characters etc.
- Watch the wonderful fireworks (what better way to "kick off" the trip).
- The parks & DTD are SO close to each other...It's NOT like WDW...(where the "we'll do DTD our first afternoon/evening" strategy originated). It doesn't make sense NOT to go into the park after schlepping a couple of hours at DTD. (imo)
- If going the "extra day" results in a 3 day hopper (with MM) over a 2 day hopper w/o MM....It's a slam dunk. MM is SO worth it (assuming you use it effectivly).

 

[ironpig70]

when we go in nov we will be coming by car and it's between 5-8 hours of drive time and we will hit the parks around 4-5 pm and we where going to just skip the parks but to go from a 5 day to 6 day pass was ubber cheap. so we decided to just go in to dl and play it by ear. probaly avoid fantasyland and toontown(have a toon pass and ee). we will get dinner in the park and probally catch the 1st viewing of fantasmic and have an early night.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I got in at 10:30a on a Tuesday a few weeks ago. I didn't, by true definition, have a red-eye but I had gotten up at midnight west coast time so it was essentially the same thing. I also stayed at the Candy Cane. My mom got in at about 9:30a and she got there first and checked in and the room was ready. She went to the Subway across the street and got sandwiches when I called her from LAX so by the time I got to the CCI around 11:45ish we just ate lunch quickly and then headed out to the parks; I think we were in Disneyland before 12:30.

Because it was a weekday, it was not crowded. We accomplished a lot ride-wise and we were also able to get our bearings in the park by walking around at a relaxed pace. We didn't push it too much, and we ended up leaving the park at about 7:30 and we were asleep by 8:30.

It definitely was worth it; we were able to to all of Tomorrowland as well as the Pixar Parade at CA, among some other things.

 

[mobopolo]

You guys are great! I think we will go for it! We'll all be to excited to relax! We can catch up on our sleep later!

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

We plan to go in! We'll be arriving around 9 am from the airport. So I figure we'll be getting in to DL around 10-10:30am. I like to be there at opening, but hey, that's still the entire day (even at noon I'd look at it that way). The more time the better!

 

[disney-inspired]

Since it's right before Memorial Weekend, I'm not sure how the crowds will be. If you see that DL is pretty busy, head over to DCA. They have great stuff to do for all ages.