Is five days too much?

[Partridge4ever]

We're going at the end of July. At Disney World, we tend to be commandos who stay until park closing, although we usually don't get to the parks before 10 am. How long to do we need to see everything? At WDW, we often try to save a day of park tickets by doing Downtown Disney and a water park. We plan to spend part of a day at a nearby beach. Should we get 4 day tickets and use the 5th day for DD/beach? Can we get by w/3 days? Or should we go ahead and get the 5 day pass?

 

[Judy from Boise]

I would think that 4 days would be enough, even factoring in late morning starts, if you are willing to close the parks down. You might want to suck it up though and do both early and late with a nice break in the afternoon.

 

[CalGal]

Going at the end of July...I think you are going to have a hard time getting your fill with 3 and perhaps even 4 days if you wait until 10 to start your day. It seems I can get more rides in those first 2 hours than just about the rest of the day combined. If you are OK with riding the more popular rides only once or twice and missing a few rides altogether, you could get by with 4 days. The price difference between 4 and 5 days isn't much though ($10 each?)

 

[LucyKate]

3 is the minimum, and 4 is just right (IMHO) BUT,as mentioned above, given the crowds in July maybe 5 might be worthwhile.

Certainly no less than 4 to see both parks properly.

 

[Dobie]

Dear Bird:

You may wish to reconsider a 10:00 start. Since you will have the time lag on your side, you might want to start your day at 8 and tell yourself that it is 10. It is so much incredibly more fun to be at DL without crowds; and things start to build up between 11 and noon.

Just a thought.

Dobe

Ps. I don't know where you are staying, but there are tons of places around DL that are literally a few steps away. This makes it mucho easier to get there early.

 

[Partridge4ever]

I'd be there at park opening and stay until closing if it was up to me. Unfortunately, the DH, in-laws, and 2 kids have some say in the matter.

I haven't decided where to stay. It's so confusing. I want to be in walking distance to the parks, but w/a 2 week trip and 6 people we can't afford on-property. The places that are in our price range don't get good reviews on Trip Advisor. We're leaning toward Homewood Suites even though it is over a mile away. DH sprung this trip on me a few days ago. I'm used to planning closer to a year in advance. We're driving from Alabama, visiting friends in Pinetop, AZ, staying a few days in Las Vegas, then heading to Anaheim. I'm scouring these boards for any info. Thanks!

 

[LuvTigger]

I think you'll be able to find a suitable hotel right across the street on Harbor Blvd. that will fit your budget. One of my friends who has a family of 5 likes Desert Inn and Suites. I like the Howard Johnson, but haven't stayed there with more than 3 people.

I also like the Best Western Park Place Inn, but I'm not sure if they have rooms that accommodate 6 people.

In terms of the number of days, I agree that at least 4 days would be adequate. I spent 4 nights there a couple of Octobers ago, and we found that to be the perfect amount of time that allowed us to do the parks at a leisurely pace, although October is a much slower time of the year than July.

 

[Bill Lumbergh]

I did five days. They weren't all full days though. Still, I was able to do 99% of the rides once and my favorites 3-4 times (sometimes more!).

 

[MickeyManiac]

I always vote for 5 days. Especially in July. The price difference is so minimal that you won't feel like your missing anything if you leave for a meal, a swim or a nap.

There are so many hotels within walking distance. Look for ones around the 1700 block of Harbor Blvd. We like to stay at the Carousel Inn & Suites. (DH's company offers a great discount) This hotel is literally infront of the park. You pass a couple others getting to the main entrace, but it's an easy walk. In the evening you can see the fireworks from their glass conference room.

Hope this helps. Have a great trip!

 

[HaleyB]

Too much? There is no such thing as too much Disney!

You asked if 5 days were too many. The simple answer is no. You can easily fill 5 days at Disneyland, and with a party of 6 I am sure you will need the extra time (unless you are really good about going pee all at the same time ).

I like to open the parks. Get an airhorn like comando Nicki and wake those sleepy heads up. You get about half your rides in by noon if you start at open.

I am currently trying to pick a hotel too. I don't care as much about being walking distance as I do value and cleanliness... I think it is fun to ride the parking lot tram over to DTD

OK went happy face crazy again, they are so darn cute... but I wonder if anyone is on dial up still, might be not so cute in that case...

 

[PamNC]

I guess it depends on when you go and how busy it is. We went to Southern CA in mid-May. Spent 6 nights total and did DL/CA Adventure 2 of those days with our 2-day park hoppers. 2 days was enough for us to do everything we wanted to do. CA Adventure is truly a half-day experience. 3 days would be the max I would go. I'm confident you can do it all in 3. Definitely take some beach time - we went to Laguna Beach and had a blast. We spent a day in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills...that was fun.

I think 4 or 5 days would be overkill...especially since you like to commando tour.

PamNC

 

[geffric]

we went to DL/DCA a few years ago and had 3 day hoppers.. not enough for us!!!.. we usually go to WDW for 2 weeks - so this year it is 5 days for us..but we are also going July 4th week.. so we figure that between standing in line and fast passes we will need 5 days..

 

[TiggerCate]

I have spent 5 whole days there in the past and I ended up having severe burn-out (this was pre- California Adventure days.) The last time we went, we were there 4-5 days total, but we broke our days up a lot by doing other things (going to the hotel and swimming or napping, visiting other area attractions, etc).

 

[KMH1]

We just spent five days there, and it wasn't enough time to do everything!

Of course, we have a one-year-old, so we aren't running around commando anymore, but we still staked out parade spots early, etc. so we lost time there.

Also, we had leisurely sit-down meals...it took nearly two hours to see all the characters at Goofy's Kitchen and the Princess Breakfast.

We were really tempted to extend our trip one more day, but Delta wanted to charge us $150 to change our flight, so we ended up (sadly) leaving at the end of our 5th full day.

Amy

 

[*Robin*]

I'm really surprised you guys say that...I really thought 3 days would be plenty for DL... I just wrote that on another thread, and now I feel bad...I've been there so much, and get to WDW so little, maybe I'm a little jaded...(DL is still my home park, and my favorite, only because of so many memories) but it just seems so small compared to WDW...

hmmmm....

 

[Partridge4ever]

We're going w/the five days. Thanks for all the replies! Now to decide on character meals. I definitely want to do the Captain Mickey one. I'm debating on the Princess one. DH isn't a morning person as I've said and I've read you can meet most Princesses in Animation Courtyard. Having been to WDW so often we've met them all before. mmm. I usually plan this stuff way far in advance and now we're already less than 60 days out.. (We're going to WDW in January and I'm just waiting til the 90 day mark so I can make my PS).

 

[KMH1]

We went to all five character meals just two weeks ago, so feel free to PM us if you have any questions.

Captain Mickey's was one of our favorites.

The Princess breakfast is a lot different than the two Princess breakfasts at WDW. It is a much bigger restaurant and while there are more characters (the day were were there we saw Belle, Mary Poppins, Fairy Godmother, Cinderella, Perla, Jasmine, Aladdin, and Snow White), we really don't think the "expectation" is that you will see all of them. We ended up staying there for two hours and we managed to see them, but there doesn't seem to be any "rhyme or reason" to the table rotation.

Amy

 

[Mary Anne]

I've made a decision today to go with the 5 day pass, as I'll be there from 6/25 to 7/2. I really wanted an Annual pass but the cheaper ones were pretty much blacked out for the time we're there, so that would not work.

We've got 5 day Disney passes; and two day's we've got tickets for baseball (one day @ Angels, one day @ Dodgers. I've been reading we can upgrade to the premium annual pass once we get there if we really need it, so I'm going to use that as my last option.

I'm thinking the time difference (east coast to west) will help us by there @ opening at least the first couple of days.