Quick Last Minute Trip to Disneyland

[Christine]

Hey all, first time on this board! I've never been to DL. Been to WDW numerous times, feel like an old hand there. Made a last minute decision to visit my son in San Diego and we decided to take on 2 days at DL because I've never been an want to experience it. I will be there from 12-14 June. What I did between yesterday and today:

Using military discounts, I booked a Premium Club Level Room at the Disneyland Hotel. There will be 3 adults in the rooom (me, the Mom, and my two adult children).
Purchased military 3-day Park Hoppers with Genie Plus. Even though we won't use 3 days of tickets, it was the same-ish price as a Disney 2-day and gives me a tad more flexibility. My son, who lives in CA, will have the rest of the year to use his 3rd day. My daughter and I will likely just "waste" ours if we don't get back out before December. I made park reservations as follows:

Day of Arrival: Sometime Sunday morning as we drive up from San Diego. Plan on hitting California Adventure that day but we'd also like to have time to look around the hotel. I can also park hop.
Full Day on Monday: Disneyland reservation with ability to park hop.
Half Day on Tuesday (our flights leave in the afternoon): I reserved California Adventure in case we really wanted to do an early morning park. The plan is NOT to do a park but relax, pool etc, weather permitting.

So, I'm a DL novice. Not sure which park is going to be my favorite. Not overly concerned about dining (everything is booked anyway).

I've been reading about Genie+ for weeks and LL and I'm still really confused. I bought it but I feel like I"m gonna hate it and I don't want to be that calculating, but we don't have a ton of time and I'm sure I'm going to want to have *some* shorter waits. I'm not asking for anyone to explain it to me but if you have any links to where it's explained really well, I'd appreciate them.

But basically, I'd love your DL tips or just pros and cons of the parks. TIA I'm so excited!

 

[DLgal]

Genie+ is actually great at Disneyland. Don't stress about it. It is going to be very helpful.

Your plan sounds good and I love Club Level at the DLH!

 

[Jason2015]

Genie+ is actually great at Disneyland. Don't stress about it. It is going to be very helpful.

Your plan sounds good and I love Club Level at the DLH!

I echo this Genie+ is fairly user friendly at DLR. Though if you want to ride Racers don't buy LL, just go in the single rider line. Have a great time.

 

[Jason2015]

Also, want to quibble a little, planning WDW 3 weeks out would be a last minute trip. Planning DLR 3 weeks out might as well be a year. Now 3 days out MIGHT be considered last minute. Its why I love DLR more than WDW. The ability to be Crush and go with the flow. dude.

 

[Kit Jackson]

The theming in CarsLand is beyond amazing, and Radiator Springs Racers is fantastic. If you can, try to ride it in daytime and nighttime because it is a difference experience after dark. Use single rider line to save time.

 

[PirateBoatDropRide]

Genie+ is decent at DL versus what I've heard about WDW. My only complaint is that you can only use it once for each attraction per day. That shouldn't be much of an issue for you since you'll be there multiple days with park hoppers.

Hopefully you'll find DL to be very pleasant and convenient compared to WDW. I can't promise that it won't be crowded (it probably will be), but the walkability and charm of the Disneyland Resort is really unmatched.

I'm sure you've heard much of this before, but my must-do attractions specific to the DL Resort (depends on your thrill tolerance):
-California Adventure: Radiator Springs Racers, Incredicoatser, Grizzly River Rapids, Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Break-Out
-Disneyland: Space Mountain, Pirates, Indiana Jones, DL Railroad, Matterhorn (if you don't have a bad back)
-Several other attractions I enjoy (such as Haunted Mansion), but the ones above have something unique and special to them versus WDW.

As far as food, I really recommend leaving the park and heading to Downtown Disney for dinner if you want table service. Yes, it'll require some extra time away from the park and more walking, but prices are a little more reasonable for what you get, food is generally better IMO with some exceptions and you can do walk-up. DTD restaurants I recommend: Jazz Kitchen, Naples and Tortilla Joes. (People love Black Tap, I think their burgers are very average.)

So much more to say, but thought this might be a helpful start. Have a great time with your family!

 

[Pluto468]

Sounds like a great trip! The only thing I would suggest is having Disneyland as your "just in case" park on your last day. There's so much to see there and you might want a little more time.

A few weeks ago I did club level at DLH and it was wonderful! You'll have a grea time. We actually wished we had more time to relax at the hotel.

 

[Christine]

Also, want to quibble a little, planning WDW 3 weeks out would be a last minute trip. Planning DLR 3 weeks out might as well be a year. Now 3 days out MIGHT be considered last minute. Its why I love DLR more than WDW. The ability to be Crush and go with the flow. dude.

Noted! And a relief to hear. I'm so used to the extensive planning at WDW, it's hard to get used to this.

 

[Christine]

Sounds like a great trip! The only thing I would suggest is having Disneyland as your "just in case" park on your last day. There's so much to see there and you might want a little more time.

A few weeks ago I did club level at DLH and it was wonderful! You'll have a grea time. We actually wished we had more time to relax at the hotel.

Yeah I went back and forth on that. I guess I'd need to cancel and rebook that.

 

[Pluto468]

Yeah I went back and forth on that. I guess I'd need to cancel and rebook that.

It's so tricky with hopping starting at 1:00. In the old days you could just pick which park you want to start in on the day-of.

 

[StarlitNight05]

I strongly encourage you to take advantage of the third day, if even for the first hour or so of opening. That's the golden time and you can get so much done! If the day will go to waste anyway (for you and your daughter at least) might as well take advantage! I'm always an early riser even on vacation though, so that may just be my style.

 

[1Disneylandfan]

Using military discounts, I booked a Premium Club Level Room at the Disneyland Hotel.

If you don't mind me asking, how much of a discount was the military rate on the room?

 

[Christine]

I strongly encourage you to take advantage of the third day, if even for the first hour or so of opening. That's the golden time and you can get so much done! If the day will go to waste anyway (for you and your daughter at least) might as well take advantage! I'm always an early riser even on vacation though, so that may just be my style.

I'm definitely an early riser. Not sure how my 27 &30 year old will be feeling about that, lol!

 

[Christine]

If you don't mind me asking, how much of a discount was the military rate on the room?

When I called to ask about the discount, the CM looked at her system and said "yes, we do offer the discount here during your time and it's up to 40% off." She then gave me the prices of:

Premium Club Level - $1589 (2 nights, 3 adults)
Premium Regular - $1,112
Standard - $900

Now that I go back to the Disney page to see rates, all the rooms are gone so I can't actually tell what my discount percent was. I have some numbers written down but that's when I was checking for 2 people at 2 nights and I can't remember what it jumped to when I added in the 3rd person. Just looking a head a few weeks, I can find a Premium Room with the rate for 3 adults x 2 nights. Based on that, the discount looks to be about 30% which lines of with previous discounts I've gotten at WDW with the military rate. They always quote the potential of 40% but that must be during a slow time or if they end up with a glut of rooms for some reason.

 

[smartlabelprint]

I'm definitely an early riser. Not sure how my 27 &30 year old will be feeling about that, lol!

You can go alone!

Do military tickets expire in one year? Regular hoppers expire in 14 days after first use.

 

[Christine]

You can go alone!

Do military tickets expire in one year? Regular hoppers expire in 14 days.

They expire on December 17th, 2022.

 

[Gladys Belcher]

That is great if you can get the discount.

What we might add is riding 'Grizzley Peak" at night. It becomes a dark ride not knowing what is going to happen. Laughed ourselves to pieces