Suggestions for first trip...and solo trip?

[ToyStory3]

I've been going to WDW my entire life but I've never been to DL. I will be going to Laguna Beach for work in early March so I'd like to extend my trip and go to both parks. I can only stay for a weekend so I'll really only have most of Friday and all of Saturday. Will be heading to the airport mid-morning on Sunday. Any advice or suggestions?

I'd like to be in the parks as much as possible. No problem going from rope drop to close but I won't get there until around 1 pm on Friday. Trying to stay in a walking-distance hotel near the property. I'm thinking about focusing on DL on Friday and DCA on Saturday. I read something about locals going to DL on Saturdays. Not sure if that's correct.

I want to hit as many headliners as possible since I may never get the chance to go back. Will probably only eat at quick-service since I'm going solo.

I'm bummed to see that Soarin (my favorite ride), World of Color, and Splash will all be down the weekend of 3/6. But, soooo excited that I may get to go!!!

 

[crystal1313]

How fun! I've been once for a day trip alone and it was awesome!! Our go to hotel is the Candy Cane Inn. We used to love the Ramada Maingate too, but their prices have gone up and they now started to charge for parking

We are trying the Desert Inn and Suites in March and Hojo in July. I've never stayed at either one, but they are both within walking distance.

Make sure to take advantage of the single rider lines at the parks! Have a great time.

 

[ciao_gina]

Ditto the single rider line! There are 3 people in our family and we often split up two and one with one adult going to a different ride.

We usually go to the Ramada Main Gate but it has been a couple of years. A lot of people like the Candy Cane Inn.

Enjoy the Cars ride. It is so fun!

 

[ehrawn]

How fun! I've been once for a day trip alone and it was awesome!! Our go to hotel is the Candy Cane Inn. We used to love the Ramada Maingate too, but their prices have gone up and they now started to charge for parking

We are trying the Desert Inn and Suites in March and Hojo in July. I've never stayed at either one, but they are both within walking distance.

Make sure to take advantage of the single rider lines at the parks! Have a great time.

I'll second Candy Can Inn. It was my family's go to place, growing up, but there are plenty of great, affordable hotels along Harbor with shuttle service.

DLR is predominately a locals resort. The parks are emptiest in the mornings, fill up as tourist wake up from their vacation slumbers, and then get packed for the evening parades and shows. You don't "have" to be there at rope drop to take advantage of this. In fact, I am a fan of waiting until just after the scheduled park opening to walk through the turnstiles.

With only a half day on Friday and no WOC crowds to deal with, I would focus on DCA that day. DL has the larger crowd problem and the attractions can fill a whole day. Also, The single rider line can't get stressed enough. Use it.

 

[ToyStory3]

Thanks for the great suggestions everyone! Is there a list of rides that have single rider lines?

 

[crystal1313]

From the Disneyland website:

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/attractions/#/single-rider-line/

 

[Keels]

Hiya!

I took my first trip to DLR this past summer - and it was a solo trip! I did two full days (rope drop to fireworks/WOC) and was able to do everything! What I did notice is that, even during the summer, I could've probably skipped rope drop one of those days and still been able to ride super popular things like RSR multiple times because of the single rider line. The parks will get full on the weekends, but it's a late arriving crowd - like 11 a.m - noonish is when things really started to feel busy.

As far as dining goes, I didn't even bother with sit-down restaurants because the QS options were so great! And I loved the different bars at DCA, which made for a perfect midday break for me to sit down for a bit, do some people watching and plan the rest of my day.

I bought a two-day park hopper ticket off of Way.com and going forward, I'd never do DLR without park hoppers. When lines at DL were too long, or I decided I was tired of waiting in line by myself for lengthy amounts of time, I'd go over to DCA and there would always be a ride (or four) that I could walk directly on.

I also went ahead and purchased a month-long subscription to RideMax. In the end, I didn't use any of the plans it came up with for me, short of the start of the day FP strategy ... but it did really help me figure out what I could realistically accomplish in the two days I was there (which was see everything and ride everything).

I don't know that I would do WDW by myself over two days, but the proximity of the two parks and just the sheer number of attractions made DLR a great solo trip, in my opinion!