Please HELP an east coaster going for the 1st time!

[tuckerkeys]

Hello everyone!

Well, next week finds my son and I in Santa Monica visiting friends. We are dedicating Tuesday July 14th as Disneyland Day! This is our 1st DL trip! We are used to hitting the world at opening and leaving in the afternoon. Would someone please help me with our plans? My friend told us to spend the day and have dinner, to not even think of driving home before 5.....

Should I make a dinner reservation in the park, or, could we go to one of the hotels for dinner? What are your favorites?

What would be the best route to take from Santa Monica? I believe we'll be ready to go @ 7 or 7:30am we need to get tickets and have plenty of time for opening
many thanks we are very excited at this point!!

 

[ballarinamom]

I would stay as late as you can. Crowds will be high and there are alot of differences between the rides at DL and WDW.

I would do dinner at Goofy;s Kitchen at the DLH. Take the Monorail out of the park and it will drop you very close to the DLH. It's buffet but has a great selection and the character interaction is great. If you have AAA they give a discount

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Figure on a little more than an hour unless traffic has problems.

Two things when you go into the Park. Your first reaction will be "Where is The Castle?!" (since Sleeping Beauty Castle is 75 feet high while Cinderella Castle is 189 feet).

The other is you will get lost in the park, things will not be where you expect them.

But there are lots of attractions that do not exist at WDW which should not be missed.

 

[Krissy Marissy]

Are you planning to park hop? If so, and I would....I would purchase a 1 day park hopper online before I go. That way you dont have to stand in line, and sometimes they can be quite long!

I can't help with traffic but yes, the afternoons get crazy so leaving in the evening would be better than the late afternoon hours.

I would just eat in the park but that's me. There are many more TS places at DL than in wdw and getting a table is much easier for places that do take priority seatings. If you want to browse menus you can go here.

I hope you guys have a great trip!

 

[disneymom2003]

There are also lots of nice restaurants in DTD. Rainforest Cafe', House of Blues and others. I also agree with previous poster to get the park hoppers. California Adventure is great.

 

[Sherry E]

I also agree about getting Park Hoppers- even for just one day - and if you can, do it online as Krissy suggested, That could save you a bunch of time standing in lines at the ticket booths. I also think leaving in the evening is better than trying to leave late afternoon. In fact, I am also doing a one-day trip exactly one week after you are doing your one-day trip and I was just thinking about what time we would be leaving. Evening sounds better. I am in the sort of Beverly Hills-adjacent area (near LACMA and the Tar Pits and the Grove and all that), which is not too terribly far from Santa Monica - about 20 minutes away or so. From my house to DLR, it takes about 45 minutes on a day with no traffic. On a day with lots of slow traffic, it can take twice that long - in fact, that is what we dealt with last year in October and in December.

As for food, there are several places to eat, and you could save yourself some time waiting for tables if you made a Priority Seating plan beforehand. I also love Goofy's Kitchen, but if you didn't want to spend the money for a buffet, you could eat at Carnation Cafe in DL, Cafe Orleans in DL, Wine Country Trattoria in DCA, Storytellers in the GCH, Steakhouse 55 in the DLH, PCH Grill in the PPH, and as Disneymom2003 mentioned, there are lots of dining choices in DTD. If you want a truly unique-to-Disneyland experience, try the Blue Bayou, located inside the POTC ride, although that is a bit costly. Great atmosphere, though. In addtion to the Goofy's character dinner option at the DLH, you could also do a Princesses-only dinner at Ariel's Grotto in DCA.