Walking to the Parks?

[redleader74]

As an aside, I'll note that the physical on the ground length of those city blocks around DL feel much longer than they look on Google maps. Of course, you're excited to be there, upbeat and are a good walker, you'll do fine. Just ot be safe though, I would just do a "virtual" walk on Google street view so you can get a feel for the crossings, traffic, etc.

 

[Pookie9922]

That's a farther walk than I'd like. Personally I'd move my car to the Garden Walk parking structure (Harbor & Disney Way) - It's $18 a day for parking and less than 10 minute walk. DL & DCA are much much smaller than WDW, but even so, at the end of the day you're still tired!

I'd do 3 days at DL & 2 at DCA. There are a lot of good rides at DCA, good food and it gives you multiple chances at Webslinger. If you've never been you can easily do 2 days worth and you won't have to feel like you're rushing or missing things.

 

[laugard]

That's a farther walk than I'd like. Personally I'd move my car to the Garden Walk parking structure (Harbor & Disney Way) - It's $18 a day for parking and less than 10 minute walk. DL & DCA are much much smaller than WDW, but even so, at the end of the day you're still tired!

I'd do 3 days at DL & 2 at DCA. There are a lot of good rides at DCA, good food and it gives you multiple chances at Webslinger. If you've never been you can easily do 2 days worth and you won't have to feel like you're rushing or missing things.

Just wondering because I keep seeing posts mentioning the $18 parking at Garden Walk. I know at one point they were offering that for Disney parking, but their website no longer states it and does list $25 for Anaheim attractions. So I think that may have changed once Disney started getting busier. Would be interested to hear if anyone has parked at Garden Walk recently for $18.

 

[Pookie9922]

Just wondering because I keep seeing posts mentioning the $18 parking at Garden Walk. I know at one point they were offering that for Disney parking, but their website no longer states it and does list $25 for Anaheim attractions. So I think that may have changed once Disney started getting busier. Would be interested to hear if anyone has parked at Garden Walk recently for $18.

Yes the website has changed in the beginning of June. Bummer.

 

[StuckInKS]

We could spend 2 full days at DCA. Cars Land is amazing and Radiator Springs Racers is my favorite ride ever! We rode 9 times 1 day. I agree about getting the hopper. Then you can decide for yourself!
ETA: Just saw there are 11 in your party. I don’t know how adding park hopper works.
I haven’t been since RotR and Web Slingers, so can’t speak to that.

Yes, Cars Land is one of the things we are most excited about. I have wanted to visit DL since that opened, but we always default to WDW since it is a little cheaper for staying onsite and we can go 2 full weeks. Now that Avengers Campus is open, my boys (4 of them) are looking forward to that, too.

Parkhoppers times 11 people...that sounds expensive. I think a better splurge would be getting one of those $200 a night rooms that are super close.

They are released at the same time. If you have park hoppers you possibly could get Rise at one release, ride it, and then get Webslingers at the second release, or vice versa. In my case I did not have park hoppers. I did Rise on the Disneyland day and Webslingers on the California Adventure day on my two day trip. I'm sure the constant refresh method would work as well in Disneyland as it did in Walt Disney World. My personal experience was that I was faster trying to time it half a second early than the other two people in my party who were constantly refreshing. If you get a boarding group that is too early of a time slot and you show up late they'll let you ride.

So on the hotel, can you tell me which $200 a night rooms are super close? We were set on Hyatt Place but may now do Radisson BLU after checking Disney packages. Is there anything else closer in that price range? Onsite hotels are $400/room/night, so that is out.

2) DCA - If not getting Hoppers, I think doing 2 days at DCA will come down to how big of a fan are your group of 11 with the Cars and Marvel movie franchises?

Personally, I could easily do two days, as I'd want to visit Avengers Campus and Cars Land multiple times, see both lands during the days and nights. Plus I could do Soaring, GRR and Mission Breakout multiple times and not get tired.

Yes, Cars Land and Avengers Campus will be our main priority. Since we visit WDW so often, my kids want to mainly ride the things that aren't available there, and there seems to be more of those at DCA I think.

You can only get Rise and WS in the same day if you have Parkhoppers and you can’t get them at the same “drop”. You would get one at 7am and then if your BG has already been called by 12pm you would be eligible to try for the other ride.

But the bigger problem I see for you is that you must be scanned into a park already to be eligible for the noon drop. If you don’t go to the parks until 3-4pm you will not be able to join a Virtual Queue for either ride at noon. You can try the 7am drop but your BG will almost certainly be called before you plan to go to the parks.

After reading someone else's post, I realized that those two rides aren't even in the same park, so we wouldn't need them on the same day. So that shouldn't be a problem. As far as the time of the drops, we will be in the parks earlier for those if we have to, but I think someone else said you could do it from home? For Rise at Hollywood studios we had to be in the park at 1pm to get the reservations, so we adjusted our plans to get to the park early on those days. Since we can't stay on site at DL, we will probably just go to the park earlier anyway. One of the reasons we don't make it to WDW parks until the afternoon is because we are enjoying the resort. However, we may spend some time exploring the hotels or DTD before the park if we don't have to be in the park by noon.

 

[pharmama]

Yes, Cars Land is one of the things we are most excited about. I have wanted to visit DL since that opened, but we always default to WDW since it is a little cheaper for staying onsite and we can go 2 full weeks. Now that Avengers Campus is open, my boys (4 of them) are looking forward to that, too.



So on the hotel, can you tell me which $200 a night rooms are super close? We were set on Hyatt Place but may now do Radisson BLU after checking Disney packages. Is there anything else closer in that price range? Onsite hotels are $400/room/night, so that is out.



Yes, Cars Land and Avengers Campus will be our main priority. Since we visit WDW so often, my kids want to mainly ride the things that aren't available there, and there seems to be more of those at DCA I think.



After reading someone else's post, I realized that those two rides aren't even in the same park, so we wouldn't need them on the same day. So that shouldn't be a problem. As far as the time of the drops, we will be in the parks earlier for those if we have to, but I think someone else said you could do it from home? For Rise at Hollywood studios we had to be in the park at 1pm to get the reservations, so we adjusted our plans to get to the park early on those days. Since we can't stay on site at DL, we will probably just go to the park earlier anyway. One of the reasons we don't make it to WDW parks until the afternoon is because we are enjoying the resort. However, we may spend some time exploring the hotels or DTD before the park if we don't have to be in the park by noon.

You don’t have to be in the parks for the 7am but you must have scanned into the park already for the 12pm. You could certainly scan in and turn around and leave to go check out DTD. You’ll likely be walking past the park entrances anyway. You don’t have to physically be in the park for 12pm- you just have to have scanned in.

 

[wiggy500]

So on the hotel, can you tell me which $200 a night rooms are super close? We were set on Hyatt Place but may now do Radisson BLU after checking Disney packages. Is there anything else closer in that price range? Onsite hotels are $400/room/night, so that is out.

When we went, the Desert Inn and Suites was the cheapest of the options that were also very close. There's a crosswalk near an IHOP in the middle of Harbor where everyone entering the parks from that side needs to enter. I'd look at Google maps and see what hotels are near that spot and see how much they are for your dates. Someone recently posted a list many of hotels and how far away they all are. I didn't quickly find that post.

Since you mentioned exploring hotels...I thought the Grand Californian resort hotel was really cool to just check out. I can't imagine paying that price to stay there, but I loved walking around it.

 

[MaxSkywalker]

We're staying in the neighborhood just west of the Mickey and Friends Parking lot. It is just a 10 min walk to the lot, but with trams out, is that going to be too far to walk all the way from our house to DL?

 

[crystal1313]

I quickly looked up your dates through Hilton honors (free to join) and the brand new home 2 suites and Hilton garden inn are $207 and $191 a night. Might want to check it out! Here they are on a map. I highlighted the walk in purple on the map. The home 2 suites and Hilton and right next door to each other.

 

[PirateBrigade]

When we’re kid free and staying near the convention center, we’ll usually take the ART shuttle/bus in, saves us some walking in the morning.

the problem was in the evenings when the parks closed at 12am/1am and the last ART shuttle was at 12:30am…that won’t be an issue this month, but check the schedules anyway.

It was like a ~30 min leisurely stroll (15 mins brisk pace), so not bad, and the pedestrian path is offset from the street south of the parks. If you go north, you’ve got cars whizzing by you with barely any distance. The only major street you cross is Katella, but that’s a doozy—just pay attention and walk quickly.

Side note: we usually stay at GCH/VGC when we have the kids — $400/night is one of the lowest prices I’ve seen for the property in the last few years. The lowest I have ever paid for hotel there was $333/night for midweek January in like 2017/2018. I know it’s out of your posted budget, but do consider it if this is your one and only trip for a while. I’d even consider staying there 2-3 nights and going sub-$100-$150 further away for nights 4-6 (especially if you utilize the ART).

the beauty of DL and Anaheim is you can pretty much change most aspects of your trip right up to your departure!

 

[pindecisive]

I stayed at the Ramada Maingate about 15 years ago and still to this day palpably recall the exhaustion walking back to the hotel at the end of the day. Even flying in for the day and flying out in the evening doesn't compare. You might not think it will be that long of a walk, but after 7+ hours at the park, it is a long walk.

Something I will recommend that many people won't is if you live in a nearby state to CA or in CA, consider flying in for the day. I'm Northern California, the flight is like 50 minutes or less. We pack a medium backpack with snacks, get a locker for our jackets, and enjoy the park from about 9am - 4pm. We both have pre-check (TSA takes like 15 minutes) and priority pass, so we chill at a lounge with free food and drinks while we wait for our flight. We also usually pay for our flights with points so our only real charge is the tickets, and the transit costs (Lanksy/Lyft/Uber).

I think the concept freaks a lot of people out, but honestly - we did the same thing at WDW when we stayed in Miami. It's a pretty cool hack and for me personally, is no more exhausting than packing stuff to sleep somewhere else, checking and getting baggage, dealing with check in, dealing with finding dinner, not sleeping well somewhere not my bed, packing everything up, and doing it all again.

I've driven down to DL, stayed at a budget hotel for $40, stayed at some maingate hotels, and onsite (PPH), and overall - I still much prefer flying in for the day.

 

[PirateBrigade]

I stayed at the Ramada Maingate about 15 years ago and still to this day palpably recall the exhaustion walking back to the hotel at the end of the day. Even flying in for the day and flying out in the evening doesn't compare. You might not think it will be that long of a walk, but after 7+ hours at the park, it is a long walk.

Something I will recommend that many people won't is if you live in a nearby state to CA or in CA, consider flying in for the day. I'm Northern California, the flight is like 50 minutes or less. We pack a medium backpack with snacks, get a locker for our jackets, and enjoy the park from about 9am - 4pm. We both have pre-check (TSA takes like 15 minutes) and priority pass, so we chill at a lounge with free food and drinks while we wait for our flight. We also usually pay for our flights with points so our only real charge is the tickets, and the transit costs (Lanksy/Lyft/Uber).

I think the concept freaks a lot of people out, but honestly - we did the same thing at WDW when we stayed in Miami. It's a pretty cool hack and for me personally, is no more exhausting than packing stuff to sleep somewhere else, checking and getting baggage, dealing with check in, dealing with finding dinner, not sleeping well somewhere not my bed, packing everything up, and doing it all again.

I've driven down to DL, stayed at a budget hotel for $40, stayed at some maingate hotels, and onsite (PPH), and overall - I still much prefer flying in for the day.

I do a lot of same-day FIFO to so-cal from the Bay Area, and Disneyland is a great one to do under an AP. We did this for F&W festival at DCA.

I would do mixed airport—fly into SNA or LGB, then catch a 1205am flight out of LAX (which still required leaving the park way before close). Not sure what those late flights look like now.

I personally wouldn’t do that right now, either, with full price tickets, given my want to linger past park close and maximize the day, as well as line up/VQ/BG considerations in the morning.

Right now my strategy is arrive late evening the night before and be in position to hit the parks rested before rope drop.

My FIFO trips will return in 2022 along with APs!