Itinerary - which day to day trip?

[TulipsNZ]

I had everything all planned until the new longer park hours for the end of Sept were released.

Our current plan is:
Sunday 21st Sept: Arrive LAX - drive to LEGOLAND, do the waterpark in the afternoon.
Monday 22nd Sept: LEGOLAND - stay at the hotel that night.
Tuesday 23rd Sept: San Diego zoo
Drive to Anaheim - check in to DLH that evening
We know this is a long day
Wednesday 24th Sept: Disneyland/DCA
WOC dining package and WOC
Thursday 25th Sept: Day trip and catch up with old friends
Friday 26th Sept: Character breakfast - Surfs up
Non park day - quiet day due to MHP
MHP
Saturday 27th Sept: Parks day
Fantasmic dessert package
Sunday 28th Sept: Parks day
plan to get a good spot for the Fireworks
Monday 29th Sept: 1/2 park day before flying home to NZ

Now the hours are still short on the Wednesday 10-9 but long on the Thursday 8-10 at DLR but there is no WOC which we really want to do.

I have Fibromyalgia - while on a good day I can run on a bad day I hobble and sit a lot. This is why we are planning the dessert package and pre finding a fireworks spot. I think if we don't do WOC on the Wednesday we won't get to see it? Are the long hours on the Thursday worth it? Is there any other way people can see to fit in WOC?

We are coming from New Zealand and this is our first and possibly only trip to Disney in any form.

 

[zanzibar138]

I had everything all planned until the new longer park hours for the end of Sept were released.

Our current plan is:
Sunday 21st Sept: Arrive LAX - drive to LEGOLAND, do the waterpark in the afternoon.
Monday 22nd Sept: LEGOLAND - stay at the hotel that night.
Tuesday 23rd Sept: San Diego zoo
Drive to Anaheim - check in to DLH that evening
We know this is a long day
Wednesday 24th Sept: Disneyland/DCA
WOC dining package and WOC
Thursday 25th Sept: Day trip and catch up with old friends
Friday 26th Sept: Character breakfast - Surfs up
Non park day - quiet day due to MHP
MHP
Saturday 27th Sept: Parks day
Fantasmic dessert package
Sunday 28th Sept: Parks day
plan to get a good spot for the Fireworks
Monday 29th Sept: 1/2 park day before flying home to NZ

Now the hours are still short on the Wednesday 10-9 but long on the Thursday 8-10 at DLR but there is no WOC which we really want to do.

I have Fibromyalgia - while on a good day I can run on a bad day I hobble and sit a lot. This is why we are planning the dessert package and pre finding a fireworks spot. I think if we don't do WOC on the Wednesday we won't get to see it? Are the long hours on the Thursday worth it? Is there any other way people can see to fit in WOC?

We are coming from New Zealand and this is our first and possibly only trip to Disney in any form.

Honestly, I would stick to Plan A. If one of the parks is closing early on Thursday, the one that is left will be busy. Also, it looks like you've put a lot of planning into making sure you see each of the night time shows. I think your plan looks perfect

How many days have you got on your passes? If you've got an extra day, you could always pop in for some early rides before your day trip, or afterwards to catch some Disney magic at the end of your day. Sounds like it will be busy enough though, you might need that day off!

 

[TulipsNZ]

Honestly, I would stick to Plan A. If one of the parks is closing early on Thursday, the one that is left will be busy. Also, it looks like you've put a lot of planning into making sure you see each of the night time shows. I think your plan looks perfect

How many days have you got on your passes? If you've got an extra day, you could always pop in for some early rides before your day trip, or afterwards to catch some Disney magic at the end of your day. Sounds like it will be busy enough though, you might need that day off!

We have 4 day park hoppers, very good point on the open park being extra busy

 

[kazbar]

Your plan looks good but my concern is that you haven't considered how totally horrid you can feel on the first day after such a long flight (especially if you don't get much sleep on the plane).
We try not to plan too much for the first day, it is hard enough just driving on the wrong side of the road

 

[TulipsNZ]

Your plan looks good but my concern is that you haven't considered how totally horrid you can feel on the first day after such a long flight (especially if you don't get much sleep on the plane).
We try not to plan too much for the first day, it is hard enough just driving on the wrong side of the road

Thanks, we are only flying from Edmonton, Canada so staying in a similar time zone. We go NZ, London, Canada, LA, NZ. We are trying to take it easy after each long flight, I'm hoping by that stage the Edmonton-LA flight won't seem so bad

 

[SweetAlex]

Thanks, we are only flying from Edmonton, Canada so staying in a similar time zone. We go NZ, London, Canada, LA, NZ. We are trying to take it easy after each long flight, I'm hoping by that stage the Edmonton-LA flight won't seem so bad

Honestly, I wouldn't plan to do anything on travel days, especially if you have kids and have a busy next day planned. We flew from Vancouver, Canada and were still totally exhausted our first day there. We had dinner reservations and plans to tour DTD that night but we only lasted maybe an hour. Travelling is so tiring with driving, security gates, flights, shuttles, hotel check ins, etc. having time to unwind for us is now a must or we regret it.

Other than that, looks great! What a fun holiday! Hopefully Edmonton isn't you're only taste of Canada .

 

[zanzibar138]

I think it will entirely depend on your family, and even how you're feeling on the day, whether you do the Legoland water park that first afternoon or not.

For us Aussies, a 3.5 hour flight really isn't a big deal. I've happily flown 4 hours to Perth just for a weekend (and will happily do so again). Personally, I only start being really affected from flights if they're overnight ones. Having said that, we managed to pack our first day in Paris with sight-seeing (walked about 12km!) after arriving from Hong Kong at about 6am that morning

The thing that could mess with your plans is if you hit massive delays either with your flight departing/arriving, or getting through arrivals at LAX. How much you get affected by delays will probably depend on your arrival time though, which I don't know.

I think the water park is a great activity for that first afternoon! Plenty of people spend their first afternoon in the pool at their hotel. This just means you have the opportunity to include some fun slides if you want to Plus, it's flexible enough that if you're running a little late due to delays or wanting to have a nap before you go out, it won't really matter.

 

[TulipsNZ]

Honestly, I wouldn't plan to do anything on travel days, especially if you have kids and have a busy next day planned. We flew from Vancouver, Canada and were still totally exhausted our first day there. We had dinner reservations and plans to tour DTD that night but we only lasted maybe an hour. Travelling is so tiring with driving, security gates, flights, shuttles, hotel check ins, etc. having time to unwind for us is now a must or we regret it.

Other than that, looks great! What a fun holiday! Hopefully Edmonton isn't you're only taste of Canada .

I wish we could fit in more time in Canada but with leaving our three youngest kids at home time was tight. I'm sure we will get back at some stage.
I'm honestly thinking water park throw kids in a pool sit on the side and drink something cold with my feet in a pool.
If we don't get to the waterpark it will be fine, if we do it's a bonus
The kids are good travellers, we regularly do a 9 hour return drive for a weekend break and we all cope well with that. I'm hoping a plane will be less tiring as we won't be driving the whole way.



Zanzibar, we arrive in at 11.05am. Hopefully no delays etc but we will see, anyway the weather could be awful and we could all just want to nap. All plans may have to be adjusted it's the nature of life we just have to plan the best we can and be preapred to cope with any fallout

 

[zanzibar138]

Zanzibar, we arrive in at 11.05am. Hopefully no delays etc but we will see, anyway the weather could be awful and we could all just want to nap. All plans may have to be adjusted it's the nature of life we just have to plan the best we can and be preapred to cope with any fallout

It sounds like you're going in with a great, flexible attitude. It's nice to have plans in place so that if you do feel like doing something when you arrive you don't waste all your time trying to decide what to do at the last minute. I think you'll have a great afternoon, whatever you end up doing