New to Disneyland

[gilby]

I am planning a trip to DL in May, we would like 4 days @DL, undecided if we should do hopper passes or 4 one day passes. What are your thoughts?
After 4 days at DL, we would like to spend 2 days at Universal. My plan is to stay at a neighborhood hotel, then either shuttle the two days to Universal or move to a hotel by Universal. I would like input on which would be the easiest/most economical to do. Plus how do you shuttle back and forth to Universal, or move to a hotel by Universal, as we will not be renting a car.
Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[figment_jii]

I am personally a fan of park hoppers because it's so easy to hop between the two parks. The ticket gates are less than 110 yards apart from each other (you can see the DCA gate from inside DL and vice-a-versa). Have park hoppers allows you to treat the two parks as basically one big park. I also think having hoppers makes it easier to schedule nighttime entertainment. You could, for example, opt to spend the day in DCA and then hop over to DL to see the new parade and fireworks. Also, DL tends to open later than DCA, so once DCA closes for the night, you could hop over to DL and get in a few more hours of attractions.

 

[22Tink]

We always do hoppers! The parks are so close we bounce back and forth a lot. Definitely do hoppers!! We always rent a car when we go to attractions other than Disney, but there are lots of shuttle companies and touring companies that have transportation to US. Compare the cost though, if you're doing 2 days it might be cheaper to stay in a hotel? I'm not sure on that one but someone else might know. Happy planning!

 

[Indiana Scott]

We always do them as well. The parks are so close that it's more like having access to one large park. It also nice to be able to go to the other park when one is too crowded or you just want a change of scenery.

 

[chickapin parterre]

What days in may???

Hoppers allow for you to have the early morning hours in Disneyland and late evening hours in Disneyland. Also allows for early entry for a day with a "T" to Disneyland.

 

[gottalovepluto]

At four days definitely hoppers! LOVE hoppers at DL!

 

[Davin_Felth]

Hoppers are the only way to go at DL. The parks are only about 100 yards apart from each other, it's quick to go back and forth. I highly recommend this thread to help with your planning.

http://www.disboards.com/threads/a-dlr-guide-for-wdw-vets.1162599/

 

[taniahappy]

Hopper...

 

[gilby]

We are thinking the week of May 16th. My daughter graduates from Mayo school of health science as Cardiovascular invasive specialist degree on 5/13, so this is her grad present.
are crowds pretty low at this time of year?

 

[wdwfan22]

Definitely hoppers. As for Universal, I would move to a hotel close by. That is a long drive back and forth for 2 days. Although I'm not really sure you need 2 days at Universal. It is not like Universal Florida. I've seen everything in one day easily. Maybe if Harry Potter is open by then. They are saying spring 2016, but that could or could not mean May.

 

[SMD]

Harry Potter will probably be open by next May. I think you'll be better off staying near Universal to get an early start.

 

[pindecisive]

I also totally agree on the Hoppers. I've gone without and wished I'd sprung for them!

On the Universal end, I was not a fan of Universal when we went while staying at Disney. For us it was a definite "end" of the magic. We made it about a half day. Knowing that, for myself I'd probably move to a hotel near Universal and make those days all about Universal, instead of comparing them to Disney when you come back at night... though I agree 2 days may be too much unless you plan some pool/ relaxation time.

 

[Winnowill]

Agree on hoppers. Not just because of the ease of hopping back and forth, but also because the FP systems for the two parks are not connected, so you can have FPs at both. Even if we were planning to spent the bulk of our day at DL, for instance, one of us could run over to DCA in the morning to grab some FPs for RSR later so that we could run over, ride it, and go right back to DL. Took no more than 40 minutes, depending on how long it took to get on RSR.

 

[jrsharp21]

Yup, park hopper is the way to go. I have gone to DL a couple of times on a work trip where I was only there for one day and only bought a single park single day ticket. I found myself wishing I had a park hopper to go over to DCA for a few hours. Sometimes you just have to break up the parks into half days for crowd reason or just to break up the monotony. We will often go to DL in the morning, hop over to DCA for the afternoon, and then come back to DL for the evening. Or if it's a DCA day, we will go for the morning until late afternoon and then hop over to DL for the rest of the day.

 

[Chris9ty]

One thing to consider is its only $15 more to have a 5 day Disney ticket. Next week we are taking a bus to Universal through Viator ( there are several companies to choose from) they pick us up at our hotel. We added the Universal Front of the line pass so we could hopefully do it all in one day and spend an extra day at Disney. We didn't want to move hotels since we have a good rate.

 

[ilovevacation]

Hi. We just did our first dl trip this year and we are self proclaimed disney experts. We only did 3 days and felt like we got everything done. That being said we are young, healthy, move fast and don't have kids to slow us down. We did do the hopper. You will be in dca quicker than you could walk to the monorail at mk. That being said, some of the major attractions were down for refurbishment, so I think I would do 4 days next time. It was also much more crowded towards the weekend, so I would go mid week if possible. We love the old fast pass system and with it in play at dl we were able to see everything. I can't speak to the unversial part. I will suggest you look for a good neighbor hotel that is close. I got my suggestions from the dis, we stayed at best Western park place inn. Also, we did actually rental a car to go to torrey pines to watch the farmer open. The car was reasonable and we picked it up at downtown disney, couldn't have been more simple. We drove in a Sunday so traffic wasn't a problem, I can't speak to traffic any other time. Have a great trip!