Two or three days?

[spellhex]

Hey guys! Next month, a friend and I are going to take a quick weekend trip down to Disneyland, and I'd like some advice about whether to buy two or three day park hoppers. Some background:

• I used to live in LA and had an annual pass. I've gotten to the point where I can do everything I want to do in a single day.
• My friend has only been to Disneyland a few times, but recent enough that she knows where everything is, what's crowded, etc.
• We're driving down from Sacramento (with a stop in Oakland) on a Saturday and returning on a Monday. At least one of those days will be a park day.
• We are crashing at a friend's house in LA, so going to the parks will mean fighting commute traffic on 5 (which I thought I escaped when I moved away...). This also means any Magic Morning perk will most likely not be taken advantage of.
• We are both on the [recent] college student broke side.

I would love to do three day hoppers, but I'm not sure if it's worth it, especially given how much money they are. Any opinions, or ideas on how to make this work?

 

[luulu1999]

The only thing I can say is if you are able to make it work...the longer the better!! Good luck!

 

[kylie71]

As long as you are able to be there! More is Better!


--Lori

 

[Cheshirecatty]

I personally, would always do 3 days over 2, if given the choice, and the money, BUT…..

Since you are both broke college students, and have been to the Resort before, and feel like you can get through everything in only one day, then maybe you should just stick with the two day tickets, have a great time, and not stress over spending the extra cash for a third day?

 

[mummabear]

Personally I would do 3 but maybe you could buy 2 days then add the 3rd before leaving on the 2nd day if you want to at that point instead of committing to it right off

 

[Baxhappyplace]

My family normally goes 3 days, but on the third day we are asking each other what we want to do because we did all we wanted to in the first two days. I think you could easily do it in 2 days instead of 3, especially when you are on a budget.

Just a suggestion, we normally always purchase our tickets from way.com. They are lower priced and we have never had a problem with them. Just allow a few days, don't purchase them last minute. Sometimes you get the tickets emailed right away but once it took almost two days to get them.

 

[chabelita545]

If you do 2 days instead of 3, would the savings mean you could splurge for a cheap, local hotel room for Saturday or Sunday night? You could hit the parks early the next morning and take advantage of the low crowds. You could also justify staying until park close, since you wouldn't have to drive back to LA when you are tired. And if you get a close hotel with free parking you save $ parking at DLR.

 

[bouds]

Do you want to do both parks, or just DL? Have you been recently enough that you've seen Carsland and/or World of Color? If not, you might want extra time to check it out.

 

[rtfelt]

Of course more is always better--especially on a Disney forum, but it can be cost prohibitive. You're young adults, so you can probably go commando style all day, so if you can do RD to close, you can probably see most if not all the biggies. I've been a "tour guide" to out-of-state family several times with only a 2 day hopper. They had young children, and I was able to get most things done with a good plan.

 

[Fantaluminishes]

Personally I would do 3 but maybe you could buy 2 days then add the 3rd before leaving on the 2nd day if you want to at that point instead of committing to it right off

I was just debating this myself. So it IS possible to add a day to a hopper? I'm going to buy a 3-day, but might want to add a 4th while I'm there.

 

[Baxhappyplace]

I was just debating this myself. So it IS possible to add a day to a hopper? I'm going to buy a 3-day, but might want to add a 4th while I'm there.

If you are thinking about doing this may I please suggest Orbitz. Right now they have a buy 3 days get the 4th day free for $265. If you go through Ebates you could get cash back. They have it listed at either 1% or 3% cash back. I would contact them to see which one you would receive. We did this last year, it was really easy. You get one voucher for all your tickets, then take it to the ticket booth or front desk of any of the three onsite hotels to exchange for the actual park hopper ticket. We exchanged ours at the GCH and then used it the next day.

 

[jbravo78]

I do 3 days every time I go... 1 day disneyland, 1 day Cali Adve, 1 day back and forth

 

[Fantaluminishes]

If you are thinking about doing this may I please suggest Orbitz. Right now they have a buy 3 days get the 4th day free for $265. If you go through Ebates you could get cash back. They have it listed at either 1% or 3% cash back. I would contact them to see which one you would receive. We did this last year, it was really easy. You get one voucher for all your tickets, then take it to the ticket booth or front desk of any of the three onsite hotels to exchange for the actual park hopper ticket. We exchanged ours at the GCH and then used it the next day.

Great tip. Thanks!

 

[spellhex]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! I think I'm going to try to do three days/2 full days (Saturday afternoon, all of Sunday, and Monday morning), because only 1.5 days seems too little. Of course, this depends on whether my friend is up for it as well. It's definitely not an insignificant amount of money, but I guess I can think of it as a celebration of my new job and her getting into grad school, right?

I was thinking about getting a hotel on Harbor, but the rates for walking distance hotels the weekend we're going are a lot more than I'd want to pay. A hotel would have to be cheaper than $93 with parking included to be worth it financially, and I didn't see any hotels under $115.

I'll definitely check out Orbitz and Way - any way to save is great! I'm definitely not used to buying tickets after having an AP this past year and being able to go whenever I wanted, haha.