Info/tips for first time arrival

[SPJoeG]

Family of 4, doing a 2 week SoCal trip, and we doing 2 nights 3 days staying at DLH. Our first day we'll be driving up from Carlsbad in the morning and I have reservations for DLR that day and repurchased Genie+. I assume I should go right to the hotel and I'm also assuming they have their own parking lot? Where do I get park tickets, or will the just show up on my phone? When can I start using Genie+, and any other tips would be appreciated.

 

[Christine]

I just got back yesterday from my first ever trip to Disneyland and stayed at DLH. Yes they have self-park and valet park. We did self-park (not far). The resort does charge your $35 per night for parking. Yes, you can go right to the hotel and drop all your luggage off with Bell Services. They will hold it for you until your room is ready. We go there at 9AM, dropped off our bags, checked in at the desk (I had a military discount so was required to show ID). We were given our room keys at that time, though the room was not ready. If you are doing Club level, you do have access to the E-ticket lounge right away though. So we went there and had some breakfast, then off to the parks.

It sounds like you made park reservations already so your tickets should be loaded already onto your Disneyland app (if you bought through Disney). Get familiar with that app right now and check all that stuff out before you go.

You can start using Genie+ to reserve rides right after you scan into the park with your phone/ticket.

My #1-- Parks were very crowded (VERY) after about 10AM. Make use of rope drop which, for us, was 8AM, so we were through the gates around 7:30. We did a LOT of rides in those 2 hours and could have done Rise of the Resistance in the first hour for free if we wanted to do the 45 minute wait. That was the shortest it was all day.

Plan out your meals as well as you can. We got caught short on our first day because we just couldn't get our bearings. Ended up eating a hot dog and really no "dinner" like my daughter wanted. The dining options seems limited compared to WDW but there's certainly plenty there.

 

[Kit Jackson]

There are not nearly as many table service places as WDW but there are tons of quick service/counter service that have great food.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

In addition to the advice above, also get familiar with mobile ordering. It is very helpful to be familiar with how to get to menus and experimenting with how your days will actually turn out by seeing what return windows are available when you think you would be ordering. Similar for using Genie+ - use the Tip Board to get a sense for what wait times are like throughout the day, and how return times for LLs and ILL$ progress throughout the day. The only ones that regularly sell out are RotR and Space Mtn in DL. Sometimes Indy does as well. In DCA I haven't seen quite as much consistency, but GotG seems to get late earlier in the day than other rides. RSR and WS don't go nearly as quickly as RotR, but I have seen both of them sell out by the evening.

Depending on when your stay is, you might also have early entry available. They have not yet announced when it will start or what exactly it will look like, so all we know is 'sometime' this summer.