Trip was put on hold, and now we're going but really need some help please!

[Mazzy]

Our trip was put on hold due to uncertainty about DH's job, but now we are good to go, problem I have is that we leave in a week's time and I'm WAY behind with my trip planning! I wonder if anyone could help me out with an itinerary or at least guide me in the right direction, we have been once before to Disneyland, but only for a couple of days, and it was 3 years ago so I can remember very little.

We will be there for 4 nights, giving us 3 and a half days in the parks, which will be a Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then half day on the Sunday before we leave for the airport to go back to the UK.

The only thing I have booked is the picnic for World of Colour for our Thursday night, and that's it, I have no other plans at all. It's just DD and yours truly on a Girly Trip, DD is 20, we want to do most of the rides, especially want more than one ride on Indy as we loved that last time, see the shows, see Fantasmic, also any parades, and would also like to ride the monorail and see the Disney hotels, the Disneyland Hotel in particular looks really interesting.

We are staying at the HOJO so will be walking into the parks each day. Would appreciate any help you can give, we don't need to book meals as we're on a really tight budget so it's counter service all the way, but I'm getting a bit panicey about my lack of daily plans, we are WDW vets and I always like to have a daily plan or I know we'll just wander round aimlessly, lol! I'm at the moment sorting our itinerary for San Diego, which is the other half of our trip, so would really appreciate any help anyone can give for the DL section.

Thank you!

 

[skiingfast]

To tour the Grand Californian I would stop for lunch there one day at White Water Snacks.

As far as basic planning. I would go for rope drop at DL each day and get FPs and ride a few big attraction then go over to DCA for it's rope drop. Did you get park hoppers? In DCA you can get more FPs. One parks FP are not connected to the other so you don't have to wait for Space Mountain FP window to open to get one for ToT in DCA.

In DCA you will probably want to do Toy Story first. The line will be long the rest of the day and there are no FP for it. Also Paradise Pier attraction close at 8 for WoC.


At night since DL is open later you can do the opposite. Go to DCA as it closes and then to DL for it's last couple hours. Only problem is if the fireworks are about to start Main Street will be full of people.

Also if you go a 3 day park hopper you get one Morning Madness entry. You can use it on Sat, Sun Tues or Thur. It lets you into DL an hour early.

 

[Jazziered]

I would make sure that I understood how FP worked. IE: Make sure your in the parks at rope drop and start collecting FP right away. And collect them as fast as you can during the day. And that FP do expire right after the window of time, so even if the window says return between 2 and 4 you can still use it after 4. They really expire at midnight when the park closes.

If you like an itenerary, I wold look into RideMax. You can schedule in breaks for parades. I love RM and find that it is worth the money.

Here is a link to the Disneyland website calender. You can see what time things are, the days you are going to be there so you can plan you time.

http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/calendar/daily/daily?name=CalendarDailyPage

 

[DizNee Luver]

I'd just look the disneyland.com site to see all the attractions you really want to do & check out the map & go from there. As the last DISer said, pick up FP's early in the day....as some may run out of them by mid-afternoon. If you're interested in any Fantasyland rides, do them first thing or during a MM....otherwise this area will stay packed until closing.

I know a number of people use a program called RideMax....but I am not familiar enough with it to advise. We usually play it by ear on the rides. The only thing I tend to schedule is meals & entertainment. On the disneyland.com site, you can look at the daily schedule & pencil in which shows/parades you're interested in & see what time they will be.

Good luck & have fun!!!

 

[Karenann*]

One of the best ways to do an itinerary short notice with not much familiarity of the parks would be to invest in RideMax and let it plan out your times.It's $15 for 3 months use. It downloads instantly to your computer is very non techy/user friendly. It only takes a short time to play around with it to create your itineraries, then you can take the next few days to look forward to this special time together! I'd also read HydroGuys tips for touring high season and collecting fastpasses. Then, enjoy each day and let the pixie dust fly!

 

[Mazzy]

Thanks everyone for such great replies!

Yes we have a park hopper, so will be doing the Morning Madness one of our days, could you please tell me which rides the Morning Madness includes?

Can't really stretch to the $15 for the Ridemax, unfortunately, but I will have a look for HydroGuy's thread, would appreciate a link to it if anyone could help please.

 

[Karenann*]

Here is the link for Hydroguys tips

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1072276

What days will you be in the parks? I copy and pasted the helpful hints he had to refer to when we are there.

 

[Mazzy]

Here is the link for Hydroguys tips

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1072276

What days will you be in the parks? I copy and pasted the helpful hints he had to refer to when we are there.

Oh thanks so much for posting the link. We will be in the parks Thursday, Friday, Saturday and half day Sunday.