WDW vet 1 day trip to Disneyland

[mickeyinthehouse]

I need some tips for a 1 day trip to Disneyland. I will be in San Francisco with my husband for a business trip. I made sure that Disneyland was "on my way home" so I'm flying to Orange County to spend one day. I should arrive by park opening and I will purchase a park hopper. My plan is to hit both Disneyland and California Adventure then hit up Downtown Disney once the parks close. I will pick up a rental car from the airport, where should I park at Disneyland? I thought since I would end my day at Downtown Disney I should park in that area? My hotel is a short drive away so parking at the hotel is not an option.

I don't plan to visit any characters and probably won't see any shows other than World of Color. I don't plan on taking time to eat other than snacks...I will likely eat more at Downtown Disney that night. Disneyland had EMH that morning which I can't attend. Should my plan be to start at California Adventure, get a fastpass for World of Color, hit those rides and then head to Disneyland until World of Color? I will be doing single rider for as many rides as I can and also utilize fastpass. Does these seem like a good plan? Thanks for your help!

 

[dshimel]

Your best parking option will be the main Mickey and Friends parking lot off Ball road and Disneyland Drive. $18 a day. There is a Downtown Disney parking lot, but you only get like 2 hours free if you eat at a restaurant in DTD, and like 4+ hours becomes far more expensive than the parking garage. The trams to/from Mickey and Friends drops off right in DTD.

What you do first depends a lot on how much running you want to do, if you want to re-do the stuff is only at DL, do stuff that is at WDW too.

Part of me thinks you should do DCA first, grab RSR FP and WoC FP, do a couple things waiting for RSR FP time, then run to DL to get hyperSpace FP.

Another part of me thinks that will lead to too much back and forth between parks and you should do more at DCA before moving to DLR.

Ugh. it is like 1 day really isn't enough time.

And when? Summer when ToT will be back open as Guardians of galaxy?

 

[Chiomaca]

I agree on the idea of doing DCA first - RSR Fast Pass or hop in the single rider line and then try to get a FP to ride in the evening. I've never managed to time it right to ride at night, but it's on my list of things to do in the future. After that, grab WOC FP and hit whatever other rides you're interested in - California Screamin' used to have a single rider line, but I don't remember seeing it the last time I was there (couldn't ride, so didn't look too closely).

I don't mind bouncing around the parks if we're there for a while, but I'd like to get as much done as possible in one before going to the other if it's a day trip. My DCA favorites: RSR, Cali Screamin', Goofy's Flight School, Soarin' ...that's about it for rides I can't miss. TSMM, but until it gets a FP, I watch closely for decent wait times and sometimes skip it altogether. DL has more rides that I want to do, Matterhorn usually has a single rider line, Space Mountain (FP if possible), Big Thunder, Indy, Peter Pan if the wait isn't insane.

I like the Kozy Kones for snacks (and the prickly pear soda) at DCA for a quick bite, but I'm more apt to stop in DTD for lunch as a break between parks. The milkshakes over by Soarin' are pretty good. I like Uva Bar on a nice day for lunch outside (DTD). I don't tend to snack in DL for some reason, unless I grab some fruit. The key is to download the DL ap and watch wait times to decide what to do if you already have a FP.

 

[mickeyinthehouse]

Great suggestions, Thanks! The trip will actually be on Valentines day next week. The weather should be nice so I'm hoping to get a lot of things done. I did notice there are a lot of rides down so that should limit some options of what I will ride. Soarin is one of my favorites so I'm hoping to get a few rides of that in using the single rider line. Most other rides I don't anticipate needing to ride more than once unless the line is really short. I don't mind going back and forth between the parks, I'm used to commando touring when I am by myself. What is my best option for buying the 1 day park hopper ticket? If I purchase online and print the pass I assume I will still need a hard ticket to get fastpasses. If I have to stand in line to get the hard ticket should I just wait to get to the park and purchase it there?

 

[hsmamato2]

If you hit soarin' first thain in the morning you should be able to get a couple of rides with almost no line

 

[cruisehopeful]

The maximum rate for parking in Downtown Disney is $36. It may be more convenient to do that rather than to park in Mickey and Friends and have to walk back there after everything is closed and the trams are no longer running.

The last time I had a print out from home ticket, I went straight to the turnstile and they gave me a hard ticket there which I used for fast passes. That was about a year ago. You will want to avoid the ticket booths if you can. For some reason, those lines/transactions take a really long time.

Soarin doesn't always have the single rider line open. You may want to grab a fast pass for that ride.

 

[mickeyinthehouse]

Shopping?? So if I see WOC at 8:15 it should be over by 8:40. Disneyland closes at 9:00 - should I rush back over there to do some shopping on Mainstreet or should I just head to Downtown Disney and hit the stores there? I wasn't sure if the shops stay open past park closing or which park may have the better stores. I'm not looking for anything in particular...just interested in looking around.

 

[poohnpigletCA]

Where is your hotel? We have used Uber many times and depending on where the hotel is it runs $5. and up. It might be easier to leave your car at the hotel and uber in and out. Mickey & Friends can add quite a bit of time waiting for a tram. We will also be in the parks that day. I would not mind pulling fast passes for you I just would not know where to find you.

 

[mickeyinthehouse]

I will be getting a hotel closer to LAX as I have a flight out the next morning. My flight gets into Orange County at 8:00am and it was cheaper to get a rental car than uber to the park and then to the airport the next day so I wanted to head straight to the park so I could be there at opening at 10:00. It would be fun to meet up sometime during the day but I don't want to alter your current plans.

 

[Nevada Jen]

Ticket. Purchase it through the app. Show your phone at the gate and they give you a hard ticket. Take a photo of it with your phone. IF you can get the WOC dessert party, do that. It will save you tons of time and get and actual seat.

Plan: park at DTD. rope drop DCA. Get soarin fastpass. And ride it or go ride toy story or ca screaming. Check return times for rsr on app. If they are in the 5 pm hour head for fastpass machine. If not, go use your soarin fastpass and then get WOC of you didn't do dessert party. Then get rsr for night time ridE. Everyone says you should ride in the day and at night but really, you just need night. Move on to Disneyland. Grab space or star tours fastpass and head to Indy single rider. Eat Bengal BBQ if the line is not to long. Or harbor house. Big thunder usually has reasonable lines at this point. Ride that. Head to tomorrow land. Grab buzz fast pass. Use your space or star tours fast pass. Use buzz. Ride space or star tours single rider. If you still have time before your rsr fastpass you are on your own. Shop in new Orleans square or on main street. I happen to like the dca shopping better. Head back to dca, use rsr. do woc. If you get the dessert party you really don't need to arrive more than a half hour before the show.

 

[mickeyinthehouse]

Thanks for the touring plan itinerary. How is the single rider line for RSR? I wasn't sure I would need a fastpass for this ride if the single rider line was available. I would like to ride this one once during the day and once at night.

 

[Nevada Jen]

The line is usually between 20 and 45 minutes long. More often than not I've seen it at 45 minutes. Honestly there is nothing in the day that isn't better at night. Its not real reliable in the morning and you have to walk all the way there to find out the single rider wait. You might have to choose whether you want multiple rides on soarin or two rides on rsr. Personally I would choose 2 rsr. Soarin annoys me now because the movie is so distorted. You might get lucky and find a really empty day until 5 or so.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Shopping?? So if I see WOC at 8:15 it should be over by 8:40. Disneyland closes at 9:00 - should I rush back over there to do some shopping on Mainstreet or should I just head to Downtown Disney and hit the stores there? I wasn't sure if the shops stay open past park closing or which park may have the better stores. I'm not looking for anything in particular...just interested in looking around.

I would go to Main Street for window shopping. Downtown Disney has the large World Showcase store, which is really good, but overall Mainstreet shops have more variety. I am not sure if they still do this, but they used to let people continue to shop on mainstreet for a while after the park closed. I would shop there and then hit Downtown Disney when it was my only choice left.

How is the single rider line for RSR?

It's normally around 20 minutes on a non crazy busy day. I would get a fast pass for RSR at night and ride it single rider during the day. Since you want to do Soarin, maybe get a Soarin FP, ride Soarin in regular line, get a RSR FP and then ride it in the single rider line. That would give you 2 rides on both rides. I am not sure you'll need any other FPs in DCA. I think Grizzly will be closed and you may or may not need a FP for Screamin.

 

[VandVsmama]

Do NOT park at DTD if you're going to be at DL all day. The first 2 hours are free at DTD, but after that it's some insane rate like $6 every 20-30 minutes. And your total for the day can go up to $36. Pay $18 to park in Mickey & Friends or the Toy Story lot.

By the way, you can purchase parking ahead of time, print out the bar code receipt and just show them that at the parking lot.

And buy your ticket ahead of time. Don't wait until you get there and stand in a long line at the ticket booth. The ticket booths can take forever sometimes. Just buy your ticket through the Disneyland website or through the Disneyland app on your smart phone. Both options work just fine and are really convenient.

 

[mistyinca]

What time will you be in town. For the best chance at hitting everything, you'll want to be at the parking garage (Mickey & Friends) no later than an hour before the earliest park opens. Get in for rope drop and hit some of the biggies first thing.

 

[mickeyinthehouse]

I ill definitely be there for rope drop. I am getting pretty excited!!

 

[gingerfeathers]

Shopping?? So if I see WOC at 8:15 it should be over by 8:40. Disneyland closes at 9:00 - should I rush back over there to do some shopping on Mainstreet or should I just head to Downtown Disney and hit the stores there? I wasn't sure if the shops stay open past park closing or which park may have the better stores. I'm not looking for anything in particular...just interested in looking around.

Don't spend all your money along Main Street--there are several really unique stores in DTD that I really enjoyed. In fact, DTD is my favorite part about DL. It's SO much fun.

 

[slusher]

DH and I are east coast WDW vets and had a chance to go to Disneyland for a day, just two days ago in fact. We drove down from where we were staying in Culver and got parked around 9:30 am in Mickey garage. Tuesday is an early entry day so we knew there would be people ahead of us. Security was thorough and quick, we waited two trams and were at gate, there was no line to purchase tickets. $310 later (multiply that by our exchange rate, ouch!) for one day hoppers and we decided to do CA first, specifically the non-WDW areas first. We wanted to save DL as an entire experience. According to TPlans, the crowd level was a 3 (actual 4) so we weren't too worried about time. We entered CA and followed the crowd to the Radiator FP machines then went to TSMM (because no line, how weird was that coming from the TSMM mess that it is at WDW) then california screaming. Mickeys wheel was closed (disappointed), we werent interested in the midway as it did seem like Santa Monica which we had just been at. Grizzly was also closed.

Over to Carsland and we decided to just wait for RR, as our FD was several hours away. I timed our wait, it was 32 minutes. We have never seen the movie but the ride was fun. Theming was good but again, we just came from Utah and Grand Canyon. Luigis was closed due to weather, the Mater ride looked like teacups with trucks so we skipped, and we did eat at Cozy Cone and you should have a cone there.

We walked through Hollywood (just been to the real one), DH cannot handle the Soaring ride so we skipped. (can do coasters but can't do simulators/screens) We had done 3 rides in the park, and felt that we were done. ToT was gone, Grizzly, Wheel, Monsters were closed, we were going to draw at Animation as that is no longer in WDW which we loved, but the waiting was full of little children and it is not a good experience when it is entirely kids. Maybe later. We looked at each other and said onto the other side. We got FP for World of Color and switched parks. It was the right decision because then Disneyland felt like a full park and was immersive. Think of it was going from Hollywood Studios to Magic Kingdom.

 

[mickeyinthehouse]

Good analysis. That sounds like my plan exactly. I'm mainly interested in getting a good feel for the parks so that I can plan a trip with the whole family at a later time.

 

[Nevada Jen]

I'm so jealous. I am half tempted to join you as a Valentines day present to myself! You will have a great time no matter what you do!