Plans for a first timer...

[Sarah84]

I know it's a long way off yet, but I enjoy making plans/itineraries for my trips while waiting for the months/weeks to go by till it's time to go =) plus its handy to see if i have enough time to fit in everything we want to see & do.

We (myself & boyfriend mid 20's) are visiting South California & Vegas from London for the first time this september, 1st-17th.

A rough plan so far while we are in Anaheim is:

Tue 1st Sep- Mon 7th Sep - staying at Sheraton Anaheim

Tue 1st Sep: Land at LAX around 2.30pm collect hire car and drive to hotel in Anaheim, guessing we will arrive around 5pm?

Wed 2nd Sep: No plans for yet, probably just a relaxing day by the pool (im hoping for very nice hot weather)

Thur 3rd Sep: Disneyland, spend the whole day here as i figured this will probably be the best day as its your Labor day weekend and hopefully the crowds won't appear till friday? will it be likely all the shows, parades, fireworkd etc will be shown?
Will probably arrive for opening and as we have a 3 day ticket may use early entry and as we will possibly stay till closing if its long hours, we may take a break sometime in the afternoon

Fri 4th Sep: Spend the day at the beach, probably Laguna or Newport or if possible visit both?

Sat 5th Sep: DCA, will we need a whole day for this park? is it best to arrive early or could we have a relaxing morning and be ok to arrive sometime in the afternoon?

Sun 6th Sep: Go to Santa Monica for the morning/afternoon, i know its a bit of a drive but i don't mind driving and as its the day of the Disney 1/2 matathon figured it would be best to avoid DL untill later in the evening.
We will the spend a few hours here in the evening probably till closing to see the fireworks, parades and have one last stroll around the park

Mon 7th Sep: Drive to Las vegas and drop the rental car off at the Mirage, where we will also be staying.

We are staying in Vegas from 7th-11th at The Mirage then flying to San Diego staying there 11th-14th no hotel booked yet and getting the Amtrak to LA and staying in Hollywood 14th-17th at the express by Holiday Inn before sadly flying home on the 17th.

And comments, hints, tips, suggestions are very welcome and much appriciated.

Are all shows, parades etc in DL likely to be showing on the thursday? or are some likely to only be weekends?
I'm not even completely sure what shows, parades they do have so if someone could list them all that would be great

 

[joseph821]

I know it's a long way off yet, but I enjoy making plans/itineraries for my trips while waiting for the months/weeks to go by till it's time to go =) plus its handy to see if i have enough time to fit in everything we want to see & do.

We (myself & boyfriend mid 20's) are visiting South California & Vegas from London for the first time this september, 1st-17th.

A rough plan so far while we are in Anaheim is:

Tue 1st Sep- Mon 7th Sep - staying at Sheraton Anaheim

Tue 1st Sep: Land at LAX around 2.30pm collect hire car and drive to hotel in Anaheim, guessing we will arrive around 5pm?

Wed 2nd Sep: No plans for yet, probably just a relaxing day by the pool (im hoping for very nice hot weather)

Thur 3rd Sep: Disneyland, spend the whole day here as i figured this will probably be the best day as its your Labor day weekend and hopefully the crowds won't appear till friday? will it be likely all the shows, parades, fireworkd etc will be shown?
Will probably arrive for opening and as we have a 3 day ticket may use early entry and as we will possibly stay till closing if its long hours, we may take a break sometime in the afternoon

Fri 4th Sep: Spend the day at the beach, probably Laguna or Newport or if possible visit both?

Sat 5th Sep: DCA, will we need a whole day for this park? is it best to arrive early or could we have a relaxing morning and be ok to arrive sometime in the afternoon?

Sun 6th Sep: Go to Santa Monica for the morning/afternoon, i know its a bit of a drive but i don't mind driving and as its the day of the Disney 1/2 matathon figured it would be best to avoid DL untill later in the evening.
We will the spend a few hours here in the evening probably till closing to see the fireworks, parades and have one last stroll around the park

Mon 7th Sep: Drive to Las vegas and drop the rental car off at the Mirage, where we will also be staying.

We are staying in Vegas from 7th-11th at The Mirage then flying to San Diego staying there 11th-14th no hotel booked yet and getting the Amtrak to LA and staying in Hollywood 14th-17th at the express by Holiday Inn before sadly flying home on the 17th.

And comments, hints, tips, suggestions are very welcome and much appriciated.

Are all shows, parades etc in DL likely to be showing on the thursday? or are some likely to only be weekends?
I'm not even completely sure what shows, parades they do have so if someone could list them all that would be great

All the parades and shows will be available daily through Labor Day - Monday September 7. By the time of your trip, most vacationers will have visited Disneyland. Crowds will much less than the summer peak season. Labor Day Weekend is not the bad crowd wise. Sept. 6 - the day of the marathon - it would be OK to drive out of the Anaheim area but many roads will be blocked off..maybe you should enjoy the pool in the morning and then hit the parks later.

Fantasmic
Disneyland Celebrate Parade (new for 2009)
Fireworks
Main Street Electrical Parade in DCA.

With your 3 day park hooper ticket, you get a Magic Morning when you can enter Disneyland - 1 hour before Disneyland's opening time (so if Disneyland opens up at 9AM - MM opens up at 8AM) and enjoy selected attarctions in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Magic Morning is available on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Since the Marathon is Sunday Sept. 6, there might not be a Magic Morning that day. There was no Magic Morning on Sunday, August 31, 2008 which was the date of the 2008 Marathon.

 

[Sarah84]

Thanks for the reply Joseph, we plan to use our magic morning day on the thursday as thats the day we plan to concentrate on Disneyland park.
Thanks for the tip about the roads being blocked of around Disney on the sunday, i hadn't thought about that.

 

[joseph821]

Thanks for the reply Joseph, we plan to use our magic morning day on the thursday as thats the day we plan to concentrate on Disneyland park.
Thanks for the tip about the roads being blocked of around Disney on the sunday, i hadn't thought about that.

Your hotel will probably have information about the road blockages but it might be best to sleep in and enjoy the pool that morning.

 

[Sarah84]

Your hotel will probably have information about the road blockages but it might be best to sleep in and enjoy the pool that morning.

Thanks, will deffentaley rethink our plans for that day

 

[HydroGuy]

I know it's a long way off yet, but I enjoy making plans/itineraries for my trips while waiting for the months/weeks to go by till it's time to go =) plus its handy to see if i have enough time to fit in everything we want to see & do.
Thur 3rd Sep: Disneyland, spend the whole day here as i figured this will probably be the best day as its your Labor day weekend and hopefully the crowds won't appear till friday? will it be likely all the shows, parades, fireworkd etc will be shown?
Will probably arrive for opening and as we have a 3 day ticket may use early entry and as we will possibly stay till closing if its long hours, we may take a break sometime in the afternoon

Sat 5th Sep: DCA, will we need a whole day for this park? is it best to arrive early or could we have a relaxing morning and be ok to arrive sometime in the afternoon?

DL and DCA are adjacent to each other. Those familiar with parkhopping at WDW can throw that out the window because it is entirely different at DLR.

What I am saying is that the "1 day at DL and then 1 day at DCA" approach is really not the way to go. Most of us familiar with DLR hop at least once every day and sometimes multiple times. It makes for more efficient touring and allows you to fit in more shows, etc.

See "Why I ParkHop at DLR" by Hound 109 www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1491961

Are all shows, parades etc in DL likely to be showing on the thursday? or are some likely to only be weekends?
I'm not even completely sure what shows, parades they do have so if someone could list them all that would be great

All the parades and shows will be available daily through Labor Day - Monday September 7.

I am not sure if this is true based on the last few years.

If you look at the week before Labor Day in 2008 (Labor Day is the first Monday of September, which in 2008 was September 1) you see reduced park hours and some reduced entertainment offerings (no Fantasmic). For example see

http://www.disneymouselinks.com/Calendar.aspx?Disney_Calendar=08-28-2008

and

http://www.laughingplace.com/Guide-Cal-dlr2-200808.asp

(Note that Laughing Place's info for Sept 2008 is broken for some reason, which is why I included mouselinks 1st)

If you take the previous advice to park hop then you can (and should) hop to DL on Saturday as necessary to catch entertainment you might have missed on Thursday. And according to your current plan you will also have Sunday to catch entertainment at either DL or DCA you might have missed the first two days.

To joseph's list of entertainment I would add the Aladdin stage show at DCA if it is playing (there are rumors of it closing in favor of a new stage show). The Aladdin show is a 40+ minute Broadway quality show that is very, very good.

And finally, your 2 1/2 days at DLR will not be enough. Three full days is considered the minimum to get a reasonable DLR experience, and four days is better. I think with 2 1/2 days you will leave DLR wishing you had spent more time.

 

[Sarah84]

DL and DCA are adjacent to each other. Those familiar with parkhopping at WDW can throw that out the window because it is entirely different at DLR.

What I am saying is that the "1 day at DL and then 1 day at DCA" approach is really not the way to go. Most of us familiar with DLR hop at least once every day and sometimes multiple times. It makes for more efficient touring and allows you to fit in more shows, etc.

See "Why I ParkHop at DLR" by Hound 109 www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1491961



I am not sure if this is true based on the last few years.

If you look at the week before Labor Day in 2008 (Labor Day is the first Monday of September, which in 2008 was September 1) you see reduced park hours and some reduced entertainment offerings (no Fantasmic). For example see

http://www.disneymouselinks.com/Calendar.aspx?Disney_Calendar=08-28-2008

and

http://www.laughingplace.com/Guide-Cal-dlr2-200808.asp

(Note that Laughing Place's info for Sept 2008 is broken for some reason, which is why I included mouselinks 1st)

If you take the previous advice to park hop then you can (and should) hop to DL on Saturday as necessary to catch entertainment you might have missed on Thursday. And according to your current plan you will also have Sunday to catch entertainment at either DL or DCA you might have missed the first two days.

To joseph's list of entertainment I would add the Aladdin stage show at DCA if it is playing (there are rumors of it closing in favor of a new stage show). The Aladdin show is a 40+ minute Broadway quality show that is very, very good.

And finally, your 2 1/2 days at DLR will not be enough. Three full days is considered the minimum to get a reasonable DLR experience, and four days is better. I think with 2 1/2 days you will leave DLR wishing you had spent more time.

Thanks for the advice Hydroguy, much appriciated

I have read alot about people park hopping at DL and understand how close the parks are to each other, however I firgured by devoting a day just to DL I would get more from it this way, and have plenty of time to really stroll around the park taking it in & enjoying it all. I understand its much bigger than DCA so takes more time to see, so I thought by spending a whole day there and then maybe hopping between parks for the other 2 days I wouldnt miss much if anything at all am I completely wrong with this thinking?

Could we see most of DCA in a day? say we got there around 2pm and left at closing (if its 9pm like previous Labor weekend days)? We probably wouldn't do all rides, but most of them and for the majority (the faster rides/coasters) it would only be myself going on them?

Thank your for the Disneymouse link, very helpful with looking at show, parade times etc I had known about the Laughing place one but sep 2008 doesnt show up for some reason.

Thanks for the mention about Aladdin too, i had read some about this but wasn't quite sure what the show was like, i think i'll certainly make sure i catch this

I see you have been to DL quite a few times have you ever been the week before Labor day weekend? i wondering how the crowds, ques times might be in DL park on the thursday before Labor day.

 

[HydroGuy]

I have read alot about people park hopping at DL and understand how close the parks are to each other, however I firgured by devoting a day just to DL I would get more from it this way, and have plenty of time to really stroll around the park taking it in & enjoying it all. I understand its much bigger than DCA so takes more time to see, so I thought by spending a whole day there and then maybe hopping between parks for the other 2 days I wouldnt miss much if anything at all am I completely wrong with this thinking?

We sometimes do spend a whole day at DL so there is nothing inherently wrong with that approach. If you plan to hop the other two days that will work fine. Mostly I was trying to get you used to the idea that frequent parkhopping at DLR is a good idea and it is different that WDW parkhopping.

Could we see most of DCA in a day? say we got there around 2pm and left at closing (if its 9pm like previous Labor weekend days)? We probably wouldn't do all rides, but most of them and for the majority (the faster rides/coasters) it would only be myself going on them?

You could see most of DCA in a day. But most of us tend to take DCA in pieces over 2-3 days, at maybe 2-5 hours at a time. If you got to DCA at 2PM and stayed until 9PM that alone would not be enough time. Especially because you would not be able to get many FASTPASSes. Starting early one day at 10AM would work much better.

Thanks for the mention about Aladdin too, i had read some about this but wasn't quite sure what the show was like, i think i'll certainly make sure i catch this

To catch Aladdin would make it even harder experience DCA starting at 2PM.

I see you have been to DL quite a few times have you ever been the week before Labor day weekend? i wondering how the crowds, ques times might be in DL park on the thursday before Labor day.

I have not been to DLR around Labor Day for many years and am not a good person to ask. Other folks around here hopefully can jump in.

BTW, I just got back from the UK two weeks ago. I spent a couple days in Scotland, 5 days in Derbyshire on business, and 4 in London with my son. We got to see Stone Henge for the first time! Very cool.

Here is a Stone Henge pic with me and DS15: http://hydroguy.smugmug.com/gallery/7281085_43zXP#468120657_DU2wK-A-LB