Questions About Trip to Disneyland, Haven't been in 12 years!

[taylor1293]

I "may" have an opportunity to go to CA in October. DH will be in Santa Barbara for a week, and I may join him on the Columbus Day weekend.

If so, I was thinking that we could go to the Disneyland parks that weekend.

We were at Disneyland twice, but it's been 12 years, so I really remember very little of it.

Excluding the onsite hotels, aren't there hotels right around the park itself? Any recommendations for nicer hotels? We will be celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary also. We don't mind taking a shuttle to the parks since we won't have our children with us.

When we were there 12 years ago, it was just Disneyland. What is name of the other park they have now? If you had to pick one of the two parks, which one would you pick, and why?

Thanks in advance for all the help!

Teresa

 

[ADisneyPrincess]

There are a ton of hotels all around Disneyland. A couple of the favorites are Candy Cane Inn and Howard Johnson. CCI offers a free continental breakfast (pretty good as far as continental breakfasts go) and their own shuttle. You can get really good rates at the HoJo (I got $49/night in February) and they are across the street from Mimi's Cafe which has really good food at decent prices. Both are about a 10 minute walk to the parks.

The new park is called Disney's California Adventure. They have more traditional rides as opposed to Disneyland's themed rides. The exception is Soarin' Over California which is incredible. If you are a WDW regular, it also has Muppet Vision 3D and It's Tough to be a Bug. They also currently have an Aladdin stage show which many people enjoy. It's a beautiful park, but many people don't find it to offer a full day's worth of entertainment.

If you only have one day, I would probably pick Disneyland, but if you have two days I would see if they are offering a two day park hopper and hit both parks. I say DL because it has changed quite a bit in 12 years. If you're a big Disney fan you could consider the Walk in Walt's Footsteps Tour to give you a different perspective of the park. It's $49/per person and includes lunch.

Also, the Downtown Disney area is now open, right outside the gates of both DL and DCA. This area has shops, restaurants and a movie theatre.

 

[taylor1293]

ADisneyPrincess - Thank you for all the great information! It was very helpful. I had no idea they had a Downtown Disney area there also!

Now I just have to convince my DH that we want to spend our weekend at Disney, lol!

Teresa