Hi all! I am a WDW veteran, having been over 20 times in my life, but have never been to DLR. This July, I will get to spend ONE day only in the parks as I am chaperoning a trip to Anaheim. I want to get the most out of my day, but don't really know much about DLR.
Any advice, strategies, or tips? Any must do rides or shows, any that aren't worth the time? My most recent DW trip was November and we are going back next summer, so I am trying to focus on things that DLR has that WDW does not, or things that are really neat to see for comparison. I also don't know much about the lay of the land or what to expect for wait times, so while I plan to go between CA Adventures and DL, if you have a strategy for what to do first, etc, I'd love to hear it! Thanks for any suggestions!
We just did DLR for the first time in March. We had two days, so decided to do one day at each park....so like you, we focused on the things we couldn't/didn't do at WDW (we were there last October). Things that come to mind:
-If there is one thing I would IMPLORE you not to miss, it is WORLD OF COLOR. A THOUSAND TIMES, WORLD OF COLOR. Seriously, it's that good. This is more important than probably anything else I say below.
If you have to miss Fantasmic and/or the fireworks at DLP, I think it's worth missing them. Even though both Fantasmic and the fireworks are better at DLP, World of Color beats them all, in my opinion.
DLP
-Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk-through
-Storybook Land Boats (We didn't do this, because I forgot, but I regret it and will next time!)
-Mr Toads Wild Ride! A favorite of mine growing up at WDW, so I was happy to revisit this one.
-Matterhorn....But since you are crunched for time, I think you can skip it. It's nice for nostalgia, but it's not a great ride, IMHO. If you can get on quickly on the single rider ride, may be worth it.
-BLUE BAYOU. People have mixed feelings about it, I know. But my husband and I did that as our only sit-down and we did not regret it.
-Indiana Jones - I love this ride. Light years better than Dinosaur.
-Toon Town - Do a quick walk through, ride Roger Rabbit if it's quick or if you get a FP. Otherwise, I think you can spend better time elsewhere.
-Innoventions - Do the Marvel stuff, if you are really into Marvel movies or comics, otherwise you can skip the rest (a lot of it is the same as Epcot Innoventions). If you don't love Marvel, skip it for time.
-Main Street Cinema - This is one thing I loved at WDW MK as a child that I'm sad is gone, so we stepped in there for a few mins.
-Snow White and Pinocchio - I'd skip these, unless you have strong nostalgia reasons for hitting them up. Classic dark rides that I enjoy, but ok to skip if you only have a day.
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Disneyland Story/Great Moments Lincoln - You may want to do a walk-through at least of the preshow area. I think some of the items in the entryway/preshow area are awesome. I really wanted to see the bench they have in there from Griffith Park where Walt "dreamed up" Disneyland.
-Magic Shop - Another classic that WDW doesn't have. As a Steve Martin fan, I wanted to stop in there.
DCA
-California Screamin. My husband and I both LOVE this ride. We rode it multiple times each, just trading off on single rider (we have a 1-year-old) line, with almost no wait.
-Radiator Springs Racers - Get the FP, for sure. Enjoy some of Cars Land. We aren't really fans of Cars, but we were impressed with Cars Land.
-Bugs Land - walk through, but skip it otherwise.
-TOT - You may want to skip this for time, but there are some small details that are different. We found that the "drop time" was longer (/more drops) than WDW, but the pre-drop ride was shorter (there is no "moving forward" area....it just stops at some floors and opens, and then goes to the top). We are big TOT fans though, so we wanted to do this.
-Grizzly River Run - We skipped it because most places said it was mostly just a basic white water ride like you can find elsewhere.
-Cove Bar - I don't know what ages you will be with, but we took a nice break at the Cove Bar. LOBSTER NACHOS! Great view, relaxing place to take a breather.
All that said, I'd hit DCA first and get your FP for RSR (if you don't get it in the first hour or so, you won't get it) and WOC. (Ideally, it would be best if you could get your RSR FPs for evening.) Then I'd go back over to DLP and do stuff there, before going back to DCA in the evening for WORLD OF COLOR.
Be warned....just getting a small taste will give you the bug! We were literally shocked at how much we fell in love with DLP.....so we decided to plan our next trip to go out there in November, this time for 4 days.
