My "Truth" about DLR

[AussieDisneyNut]

It is now approaching our one year anniversary since we last visited DLR and I want to share our "truth" about Disneyland.

6 days were not enough!

I know we visited in Spring Break, which was very busy, but even without that I believe that we did not have enough time to "experience" Disneyland as well as go on most/majority of rides. There is so much more to Disneyland than just the rides. One of my daughter's favourite experiences was playing musical chairs with the Mad Hatter. My other daughter really wanted to walk through the castle, which believe it or not, was not possible because of time restraints. My son loved the Jedi Training Academy, but was sorry that he didn't get to spend more time in ToonTown. We just tried to jam pack everything in!

So my advice to visitors is to add an extra day to your visit, especially if you are coming from afar ... there is just so much to do in both Disneyland and California Adventure Park. Just my two cents worth!

What do others think?

 

[CrazyDuck]

It is now approaching our one year anniversary since we last visited DLR and I want to share our "truth" about Disneyland.

6 days were not enough!

I know we visited in Spring Break, which was very busy, but even without that I believe that we did not have enough time to "experience" Disneyland as well as go on most/majority of rides. There is so much more to Disneyland than just the rides. One of my daughter's favourite experiences was playing musical chairs with the Mad Hatter. My other daughter really wanted to walk through the castle, which believe it or not, was not possible because of time restraints. My son loved the Jedi Training Academy, but was sorry that he didn't get to spend more time in ToonTown. We just tried to jam pack everything in!

So my advice to visitors is to add an extra day to your visit, especially if you are coming from afar ... there is just so much to do in both Disneyland and California Adventure Park. Just my two cents worth!

What do others think?

That's why people from Australia are able to buy 14 day park hoppers (jealous)! Here is CrazyDuck's rule of thumb: For every hour you spend in a plane = 1 day in DLR. So for us it takes 6 hours of plane time to get there so we have to spend at least 6 days in the park... When we were living closer (only a 2 hour plane flight), 2 days would suffice since it was so easy to go back multiple times a year!

How long was your plane flight?

 

[AussieDisneyNut]

So 15 hours = 15 days! I like it! Just have to sell the idea to DH ... the kids would be in Disney Heaven! I am secretly planning another trip, just have to work out how to fund it!

 

[m-tinkerbelle]

I should stay there for 12 days then XD
Wait...
We have to travel for an aditional 2 1/2 hours by train to make the flight connection... does it count? And add some 5 hours more between airport time, security controls and stuff

I guess we'll have to move closer to a disney park. It'll be cheaper

 

[awdsmama]

Here is CrazyDuck's rule of thumb: For every hour you spend in a plane = 1 day in DLR.

Can I apply this to "how many hours you spend in the car" also since from my place in Oregon it's about a 16hr drive ;-)

 

[Sally_fan]

I totally agree!!!! On our last trip (Christmas-time in early December) we had 7 days....7 days!! And we still did not get to everything we wanted to do. There are so many little details that we like to stop & look at, so many places to eat/treats that we want to try...there is never enough time! We are only getting 5 days on our upcoming trip & I am already coming up with a list of things that we will have to choose to miss.

 

[gardener14]

I totally agree that six days is not enough for a vacationer who can't visit often. I'm very surprised and baffled as to why Disney does not sell tickets for seven or eight days to American visitors like they do for foreign visitors. We easily could have used a seventh or even eighth day for our vacation to Disneyland (which only occurs every 3-5 years. We don't have much use for an annual pass with its blackout dates, but a slightly longer parkhopper ticket for a slightly higher fee would be appreciated.

Back home on the east coast, it's amaing how many people don't understand how much there is to do at Disneyland. People here all seem to think it's so small compared to WDW, but they just don't get it. I'm afraid even Disney doesn't get it or they'd offer tickets for longer stays. There are just so many details and nuances to Disneyland/DCA that we could spend just as long there as we do at WDW (where they offer up to a ten day ticket, btw).

My hope and suspician is that after the expansion of DCA opens, Disney will offer tickets for longer stays. After all, they used to until just a few years ago.

 

[pixiewings71]

I totally agree that six days is not enough for a vacationer who can't visit often. I'm very surprised and baffled as to why Disney does not sell tickets for seven or eight days to American visitors like they do for foreign visitors. We easily could have used a seventh or even eighth day for our vacation to Disneyland (which only occurs every 3-5 years. We don't have much use for an annual pass with its blackout dates, but a slightly longer parkhopper ticket for a slightly higher fee would be appreciated.

Back home on the east coast, it's amaing how many people don't understand how much there is to do at Disneyland. People here all seem to think it's so small compared to WDW, but they just don't get it. I'm afraid even Disney doesn't get it or they'd offer tickets for longer stays. There are just so many details and nuances to Disneyland/DCA that we could spend just as long there as we do at WDW (where they offer up to a ten day ticket, btw).

My hope and suspician is that after the expansion of DCA opens, Disney will offer tickets for longer stays. After all, they used to until just a few years ago.

Because locals were buying the longer tickets and selling them per day to park visitors at a large discount. As we all know Disney tickets are non-transferable so this is very much against the rules, the easiest way for them to stop this from happening was to stop selling them that way.

I must say, I very much approve of the Duck's strategy. Well done CD, well done!

 

[soaringirl]

This won't work for me!! 3 hours = 3 days only!! No way!! Did that in 2010 and as said, we weren't able to see half of the things Disney offers.
Now we're getting a 4-day parkhopper and it just doesn't seem enough!

 

[CrazyDuck]

Can I apply this to "how many hours you spend in the car" also since from my place in Oregon it's about a 16hr drive ;-)

No this rule doesn't apply to car travel because you don't "have" to drive... There is a faster option... Also, you are not trapped in the car. You can pull over and take a break and stretch your legs. Also time zones don't change either.. Basically, 1 day for every 500 miles you travel. Also the number of days you calculate is a "Minimum" number of days you must stay. So if you travel 3 hours then 3 days is the minimum you must stay but more days is always better.

You can use this rule for all your travel planning as well... Use google earth and measure how many miles from your house to wherever you are going then divide by 500. Thats your baseline for how many days you want to stay away. For example, it is 7000 miles from my house to London. That works out to 14 days as a baseline. A solid 2 days will be spent traveling (1 going 1 returning) that leaves 12 days of vacationing which seems like a long time but realize that a good 2+ days will be spend getting over the jet lag for a trip to the other side of the world.

I don't want to hijack AussieDisneyNut's thread so I'll detail my rule on it's own thread later and also talk about the Destination Fun Factor (DFF) variable! I'll write it up in detail the next couple of days!

 

[pixiewings71]

No this rule doesn't apply to car travel because you don't "have" to drive... There is a faster option... Also, you are not trapped in the car. You can pull over and take a break and stretch your legs. Also time zones don't change either.. Basically, 1 day for every 500 miles you travel. Also the number of days you calculate is a "Minimum" number of days you must stay. So if you travel 3 hours then 3 days is the minimum you must stay but more days is always better.

You can use this rule for all your travel planning as well... Use google earth and measure how many miles from your house to wherever you are going then divide by 500. Thats your baseline for how many days you want to stay away. For example, it is 7000 miles from my house to London. That works out to 14 days as a baseline. A solid 2 days will be spent traveling (1 going 1 returning) that leaves 12 days of vacationing which seems like a long time but realize that a good 2+ days will be spend getting over the jet lag for a trip to the other side of the world.

I don't want to hijack AussieDisneyNut's thread so I'll detail my rule on it's own thread later and also talk about the Destination Fun Factor (DFF) variable! I'll write it up in detail the next couple of days!

Oh but CD....you are completely incorrect here!! Time zones DO change! My family lives 600 miles away (10 hr drive) and they are an hour earlier than I am, for awdsmama, they are coming from 16 hours BUT they still may not change time zones! Time zones are tricky around here.....

 

[CrazyDuck]

Oh but CD....you are completely incorrect here!! Time zones DO change! My family lives 600 miles away (10 hr drive) and they are an hour earlier than I am, for awdsmama, they are coming from 16 hours BUT they still may not change time zones! Time zones are tricky around here.....

but if you are driving you will only change around 1 or 2 time zones per day of travel and you can acclimate to the jet lag within that time you spent driving. The 10 hours driving would only put you 1 time zone away, in your case, which would be easy to recover from by the next morning... compare that to 10 hours of flying which can set you back up 6 or 7 hours which you would need a good day to recover from.

 

[PinkBudgie]

I have to say I feel better reading someone say that 6 days is not enough. Whenever a WDW vet comes over here and wants to know how many days is enough, I always say a minimum of 5 days but even that isn't really "enough" . Then a bunch of other people come on after me and say no, 3 days is really fine, you will be bored longer than that, and so on. I was starting to think I was nuts even for a DLR board.

We are 8 hours by car and with our APs we arrive Sunday and leave Sat (block out day) each summer and have a short visit in between summers. With Carsland opening this summer it may take us all 5 1/2 days just to get on the rides there.

 

[Aust]

I completely agree - our first trip we spent 6 1/2 days in the park and didn't do/see everything - last trip was the same - so this trip we are going by the 14 hour flight = 14 days at DL rule. To be fair we'll do a couple of day trips so not 14 full days in DL, but close enough.

 

[taaren]

I like CrazyDuck's rule, but we also live a 5 hour flight away, and 5 days is definitely not enough ... we had 9 park days last fall and we still missed stuff!

CrazyDuck, I would like to see your thread expounding on this rule (maybe on the community board?). I guess it works for a minimum amount ... though I only have a half hour flight to Aulani and 3 days felt like _almost_ enough.

Perhaps the cost of the flight should figure into it? Two days at Aulani might have been enough if the flight were not almost $200 RT per person ...

Back to the OP - part of it is when you go, though that balances out too I guess. If one goes at busy times there are more park hours but it still seems like you get less "accomplished", but if you go during less busy times the park hours are shorter. We're okay with the latter personally. I think I'd always want more time at DLR unless I was working there ...

 

[bumbershoot]

I think the "rule" only kicks in once you're 6 or so hours away. Because 4 full days in the parks was NOT enough, and that's about how long our flight took.

Flying is exhausting (as is driving!!!!!), and even a 4 hour flight can mess with your body (ask my poor ankles!), and you can't forget that you're at the airport 2 hours before, meaning you left your house maybe an hour before meaning you got up 1 or 2 hours before that....a 4 hour flight doesn't just take 4 hours!


I like a lot of time at Disneyland. Also at WDW. Our first WDW visit was 10 days in the Disney parks and 4 at the Universal parks, and it was NOT enough. For either! Second trip was about the same...again, not enough! On this trip we could have had 5 days in the Anaheim parks but got 4 full, then could have had 6 days at Universal Orlando parks (yes it was a weird trip, and the lesson learned was that we should have started with Universal Orlando and ended with Anaheim) but took a day out to visit family in Daytona, and NO it was not enough! I was just getting into the swing of vacation in the last 2 days of it, and then we had to go home.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

I have NEVER understood the attitude of "3 days is good enough, 4 tops or you'll get bored" that I am told so frequently, even when I try to explain that spending $2000 just to get to DLR means this is an extremely rare, probably once/lifetime trip for us. The shows alone mean you need lots of days. I want to see
-Aladdin
-F!
-WOC
-Phineas & Ferb
-Jedi Training Academy
-The Hillbillies
-Fireworks
-Parade
all of which take away time from rides. No way could we do all that in 4 days while also getting on the rides we want.

 

[gardener14]

Because locals were buying the longer tickets and selling them per day to park visitors at a large discount. As we all know Disney tickets are non-transferable so this is very much against the rules, the easiest way for them to stop this from happening was to stop selling them that way.

I must say, I very much approve of the Duck's strategy. Well done CD, well done!

How is this possible when the multiple days are on a single ticket? Anyway, it seems they could prevent this by installing a personal id/scan system used at the gates off WDW and at Busch/Sea World parks. I still hope they start offering tickets for longer stays again after the expansion. It's a better deal for vacationers than any other option currently.

 

[Aussie Princess]

I am a fellow Aussie Disney nut my trip in oct will be my 4th in 4 years.
Usually we get a 4 day pass and do other things as well like citadel baseball plenty of other things.

Thi trip I am meeting my sister in LA and am purely there for Disneyland and new DCA so I am getting a 6 day pass so will be interesting to see how that pans out for me as I'm used to 4 days.

 

[mybestieismickey]

I think that it also kind of depends on who is going. We are taking DH's family with us on our next trip (11 hr drive 1 time zone) and how many days was a big debate. DH and I would have preferred more, but I knew DFIL would not do well with more than 3. Last trip with them we did 2. We're slowly training him to get him to WDW for a week (he'll love it he just doesn't know it). DBIL is only now starting to get interested and we've been planning this trip for 8 months. Thank goodness the wives want to go. DH and I solved our problem by choosing to get AP's and have another quick trip planned in July.