Need a little advice on planning my daughter's bday trip

[StephanieCG]

Hi everyone!
We are taking my daughter to Disneyland for her 4th birthday next month - she chose a trip to DL instead of a party. We've been to WDW a few times but never disneyland, and that threat for WDW vets has been helpful but I still have a few questions.
We will be using the 3-day military salute pass. We plan on using one day in June for my youngest's birthday, then in July for the older daughter's bday, and then some other random day before my hubby deploys and the tickets expire (which happens near the same time, coincidentally!) One question I have about that is can I upgrade that to an Annual pass? MWR wasn't able to answer that...I know you could with the WDW ones but the rules seem to change every year. And I'm assuming Magic Morning and EE are the same thing, similar to EMH at WDW?
We do not have Magic Mornings on our pass, and the three resort hotels are waaaaaaaaaaay out of our budget...her birthday is on a Thursday which is an EE day at DL, but not at California Adventure. My question is would it make more sense to do CA that day instead of DL??? Her favorite stuff would be over in DL (Tink, Alice, Peter Pan, Hook, Princesses) and she likes the pixar stuff but not as much as Tink and Princesses. We haven't done either park yet though so I have no clue what to really expect...
I did get reservations at both the Minnie and Friends breakfast at the plaza, and the Ariel's grotto lunch...I won't do both, but I wanted to have both reserved until I figure out what park we will do.
So for the veteran DLR vistors...what would be less crazy/more magical: Option 1: morning at California Adventure, do as much as we can until our lunch time at 1:30 at Ariel's, then go over to DL and try to find Tink, Captain Hook, Peter Pan, and all the other stuff over there - for her birthday I bought her the Zarina the pirate fairy costume, and I'm sure she's going to want to wear it all day long (she loves to dress up!)
Option 2: breakfast with Minnie and Friends at 7, then spend the entire day at DL.
Another detail - we are driving up from San Diego, probably will not be staying overnight.
Also, my daughters LOVE characters...probably about as much as rides. If anyone has some advice on how to maximize finding characters, I would love to hear it...I'm having trouble trying to find who is where. And while she'd love to see Elsa and Anna, we might wait until it's my other daughter's bday (on a wednesday in July, when DL is not an EE morning).
Thanks everyone! Sorry if I rambled a bit!

 

[Drusilla99]

What a fun bday yo have planned for your daughter! I always side with dl over dca when given then chance, so I would start with breakfast at the plaza. Ariel's Grotto is good, but you'll be more likely to see multiple characters at the character breakfast. Anna & Elsa's meet & greet has been averaging around a 2 hour line for the past month or so, so unless that's top of the list, I'd skip that & head over to the princess meet & greet and/or pixie hollow to meet tink or other fairies. The fab 5 can generally be found scattered around Main Street. I haven't noticed characters as plentiful in dca. Dl is very similar to the magic kingdom at wdw, where Dca is unlike any other park, so that's what you'll have to decide you want to see. I hope this helped.

 

[mummabear]

IMO she asked to go to DL and I think what she has in her head is DL rather than DCA.
We have done both Character meals and enjoyed them but found Minnies way better value.
Did you know you can order a cake to either one?
Since she is into Princesses have you considered doing BBB?

Don't forget a birthday button.

 

[mummabear]

Also Characters are much harder to track down, they are set as much as at WDW.
Is there anyone in particular your DD is keen on finding? My DD's have loved autograph books around this age.
Also on their birthday we decorated their hotel room while they were sleeping and woke up to a birthday letter from Mickey inviting them to celebrate in the park.

 

[Vintage Mouseketeer]

I am sorry I do not have any answers to the AP upgrades question, but I vote visiting Disneyland over DCA.

Your DD favorite rides are in DL. You will probably be able to meet more characters in DL as well since you will be doing the Minnie's and Friends breakfast (which I personally prefer over Ariel's) and since DD will be dressed as Zarina she needs to stop by Pixie Hallow to say hi to Tink and Friend. There is also Princess Fantasy Faire and Big Thunder Jamboree area for even more characters.

Also if time allows, try to be in the town square for the Flag Retreat. They do a great job of honoring the military

 

[StephanieCG]

Thanks for the advice! my main worry is going to DL on an Early entry day, when we don't have early entry tickets. We do have a reservation for Minnie's at 7:10 am, I've read that they will let you in the park. Is it crazy crowded like at Wdw on emh mornings? I remember going to MK on a morning that was EMH and it was nuts, so I didn't know what to expect here. So that's why I was wondering if DCA may be easier crowd wise, even though DL has all the favorites.
In addition to princesses, she loves the Peter Pan characters - Tink, fairies, Pan, Hook, Wendy...and of course the fab 5 and Alice (her namesake actually ). I'm assuming those ones are in Fantasyland? How many princesses are at fantasy faire? Is there a fast pass for that like at wdw? We will probably skip the Frozen girls this visit, I already told her they may be in Arrendelle for the summer.
I'm hoping to get a birthday button at breakfast, I didn't know they did cake too I will check that out. I'm hoping that disney will do their thing in helping her feel special on her bday...they were great at that in wdw.
We probably won't be doing BBB this time, we did that last summer at WDW....I might save that one for a girls trip later this year when dad is at sea.
Also, is there a list of what rides have fast passes? Thanks again!!

 

[whjensen]

The fast pass rides in DL are:
Autopia
Big Thunder
Indiana Jones
Roger Rabbit
Space Mt.
Splash Mt.
Star Tours

And the fast passes for DCA are:
WoC
Screamin'
Goofy's Sky School
Grizzly River Run
RSR
Soarin'
ToT