Only 6 hours....question

[disfan07]

My 13 year old cousin and I are planning on going down to DL this saturday. It's about 90 mins from where I live. DL opens at 8AM and we are planning on leaving here about 6:30 to drive down.

However, she has to be home by 5PM because of previous plans for that night. So we are really only going to be at the parks from about 8-2PM. So about 6 hours.

Would you pay the extra $20 for the PH ticket if you only have 6 hours?

Usually when I go, we are there for 2 days so we always get PH tickets.

I can't do any of the roller coasters or splash mountain (so no space mtn, matterhorn, big thunder or splash and no tea cups either...even though i'm not sure if my cousin will want to do those by herself) and pirates is closed while we are there. So the rides we would want to do are:

DL:
Haunted Mansion
Buzz Lightyear
Jungle Cruise
Peter Pan
Pinocchio
Roger Rabbits Cartoon Spin
Snow White
Winnie the Pooh
Mr. Toad

DCA:
Soarin
TSMM
Grizzly River
Little Mermaid

I am really thinking that it is not worth the money because the rationale part of me is thinking that there is no way we would actually go over to DCA. It just seems crazy to try and do that in 6 hours. But Soarin, TSMM and Grizzly are 3 of my favorite rides. So I need you guys to either talk some sense into me and to NOT buy the PH or to agree with my craziness and say that you would buy the PH!...haha

So I'm just curious what you would do (or have done) in this limited amount of time.

 

[skiingfast]

I see the dilemma. I would try to leave earlier to make sure you are in line at the gate at 8am not parking at 8am.

I would probably choose DL. While you miss your favorites, she will get hers. Remember the single rider line on Splash and Indy. And don't forget Star Tours didn't see that on the list.

 

[AlohaPolynesian]

Hey there! Had this "dilemma" on Friday. We had both been to DLR but only I had been to DCA, so we were trying to decide what would be the best. We had Angels tickets for the night game and I wanted to arrive early.

We went with just doing DLR. We figured if we spent the extra money on PH but the lines were long at one park or the other, we wouldn't be able to take full advantage of everything. Also, Haunted Mansion was closed as of Friday because they were changing it over to the holiday theme.

I would just do DLR. Lucky for you, you are only a 90 minute drive away so you can come back again soon Have fun!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

Why not go to another day?

 

[Kittyskyfish]

Do it another day. It's one thing to do a half-day when you're already visiting the Anaheim area and have some time to kill, but it sounds like you both are locals. Why not get the most value out of your park ticket by going when you both can enjoy a full day? Besides, driving three hours (round trip) eats a lot of gas, so you have to factor in that cost as well. Not worth it, imo.

 

[Sherry E]

I have to agree with Kittyskyfish.

It would be a different story if you guys were already down in the vicinity and figured you'd kill a few hours at Disneyland. But I wouldn't want to make a 90-minute drive to Anaheim, only to have to turn around and leave at 2 p.m. for another 90-minute drive back. It would be better to do a one-day trip on a day when neither one of you had to be back home so early. Six hours at the price of even a one-day/one-park ticket seems like a not so great value.

However, if, for some reason, this is the only chance you will have to visit DLR for a long time and you really want to be there on Saturday, I would skip California Adventure and stick with Disneyland. Normally I am a big advocate of park hopping even for one-day trips, but this trip will be too short to park hop, I think.

Since Halloween Time will be in full swing in Disneyland on Saturday, I would just focus on that. Wander around, take in the Halloween sights, visit the Halloween Round-Up, etc.

 

[feb30th]

I agree with everyone above. 6 hours is just too short of time to visit even just one park. I could spend nearly 6 hours just wandering around Downtown Disney alone. To fully enjoy all that Disneyland offers you would need at least 3 days.