WDW Vet does Disneyland. HELP!

[nkereina]

Just found out we'll be in San Diego for a wedding next May, and looking at going up to Disneyland for a few days. Never been or researched, so I'm starting with these questions:

1. ADRs required at DL/DCA? If so, how far in advance?

2. Is MDE or FP+ or Magic Bands a thing at DL/DCA? If so, is FP+ 60 days out?

3. DL, DCA and DTD. All within walking distance of each other?

4. Is rope drop necessary at one or both of the parks?

5. Looking at staying at Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn. Anything to note here? The price is right and it says it's across the street.

6. What are the perks of an on-site resort? The cost is a big factor to us, but we always stay on site at WDW.

7. Our tentative agenda has us doing the San Diego Zoo all day Monday, and heading up to our hotel in Anaheim around dinner time (6pm-ish). Looks like the drive is about 1 hr 45 mins. Will we catch a lot of traffic?

8. We'll arrive at our Anaheim hotel Monday night, have a full day at DL on Tuesday, full day at DCA on Wednesday, and then open on Thursday for whatever we want to revisit. We plan to leave around dinner time (7pm or so) to drive to LA where we will spend a few days before flying home from there. Does this time schedule sound reasonable or are we burning ourselves out? Concerned about how rigorous the commute is there - an hour drive here in Western NY is nothing, but could be grueling out there.


Thanks all!

 

[ImSoExcited]

Just found out we'll be in San Diego for a wedding next May, and looking at going up to Disneyland for a few days. Never been or researched, so I'm starting with these questions: 1. ADRs required at DL/DCA? If so, how far in advance? 2. Is MDE or FP+ or Magic Bands a thing at DL/DCA? If so, is FP+ 60 days out? 3. DL, DCA and DTD. All within walking distance of each other? 4. Is rope drop necessary at one or both of the parks? 5. Looking at staying at Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn. Anything to note here? The price is right and it says it's across the street. 6. What are the perks of an on-site resort? The cost is a big factor to us, but we always stay on site at WDW. 7. Our tentative agenda has us doing the San Diego Zoo all day Monday, and heading up to our hotel in Anaheim around dinner time (6pm-ish). Looks like the drive is about 1 hr 45 mins. Will we catch a lot of traffic? 8. We'll arrive at our Anaheim hotel Monday night, have a full day at DL on Tuesday, full day at DCA on Wednesday, and then open on Thursday for whatever we want to revisit. We plan to leave around dinner time (7pm or so) to drive to LA where we will spend a few days before flying home from there. Does this time schedule sound reasonable or are we burning ourselves out? Concerned about how rigorous the commute is there - an hour drive here in Western NY is nothing, but could be grueling out there. Thanks all!

1) dining 60 days in advance but generally not even necessary 90% of the time.
2) fast pass is day of and you must physically walk to each machine.
3) yes
7) it is 1.5 hours in no traffic and if you leave SD between 4-7 pm it would take 3-4 hours. There is a ton of traffic. I highly recommend having dinner in SD and then driving up to Anaheim.

 

[Aladora]

Just found out we'll be in San Diego for a wedding next May, and looking at going up to Disneyland for a few days. Never been or researched, so I'm starting with these questions:

1. ADRs required at DL/DCA? If so, how far in advance? Yes, but not to the extent as they are required at WDW. 60 days out but you can definitely get ADRs much closer to the date, I've even done day of.

2. Is MDE or FP+ or Magic Bands a thing at DL/DCA? If so, is FP+ 60 days out?
No, DL/DCA still has legacy paper FP.

3. DL, DCA and DTD. All within walking distance of each other? Yes.

4. Is rope drop necessary at one or both of the parks? Depends on what you want to ride. Peter Pan always has a fairly long line, getting there at RD helps.

5. Looking at staying at Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn. Anything to note here? The price is right and it says it's across the street.

6. What are the perks of an on-site resort? The cost is a big factor to us, but we always stay on site at WDW. Early entry to whichever park has it that day. Charging things to your room and having purchases delivered.

7. Our tentative agenda has us doing the San Diego Zoo all day Monday, and heading up to our hotel in Anaheim around dinner time (6pm-ish). Looks like the drive is about 1 hr 45 mins. Will we catch a lot of traffic?

8. We'll arrive at our Anaheim hotel Monday night, have a full day at DL on Tuesday, full day at DCA on Wednesday, and then open on Thursday for whatever we want to revisit. We plan to leave around dinner time (7pm or so) to drive to LA where we will spend a few days before flying home from there. Does this time schedule sound reasonable or are we burning ourselves out? Concerned about how rigorous the commute is there - an hour drive here in Western NY is nothing, but could be grueling out there.


Thanks all!

Some answers in red.

 

[Chumpson]

I have been to DL a number of times and just did a trip to DW, so I will try and give you what I can.


1. ADRs required at DL/DCA? If so, how far in advance?

I am sure if you are wanting to make some you would need to do that similar to DW, but the dining didn't seem as big a deal in Cal as it is in DW, at least from my research.


2. Is MDE or FP+ or Magic Bands a thing at DL/DCA? If so, is FP+ 60 days out?

NO. You take your park pass to a terminal and insert your pass, it spits out a "Ticket" with a time on it that you will come back and ride the ride. The time period is one hour long and is anywhere from 30 minutes from now to hours from now. Read up on FP at DL in Hydroguys sticky thread for more info on this. I have found it is best to have "Runner" get the FPs for the group.


3. DL, DCA and DTD. All within walking distance of each other?

Yep, easy. If you have ever done Universal in Florida, the parks DL/DCA are closer than the parks at Universal as far as walking from one to the other and think of DTD as being closer than Citywalk.

4. Is rope drop necessary at one or both of the parks?

Only if you want to do a lot of rides in short period of time. To me, the only way to do the parks at DW or DL is up early, rope drop, break in mid day and close the park.

5. Looking at staying at Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn. Anything to note here? The price is right and it says it's across the street.

I have stayed there and think the location can't be beat. The breakfast isn't great, but it fills the needs. The hotel isn't great, but the location is awesome. Just as close or closer than the Disneyland hotel, just a different walk. Instead of walking through DTD, you walk on a sidewalk near the tram turnaround.


6. What are the perks of an on-site resort? The cost is a big factor to us, but we always stay on site at WDW.

Early entry of course. Probably having stuff sent back to your rooms. In all my trips to DL we have stayed on Harbor, much like you are planning and had wonderful vacations. We have stayed at HOJO, it was fine, but with our midday breaks we liked the shorter walk. Some will say stay on site and I can't argue that they are wrong, I just like the bottom line and can spend more on food/stuff if I spend less on the room

7. Our tentative agenda has us doing the San Diego Zoo all day Monday, and heading up to our hotel in Anaheim around dinner time (6pm-ish). Looks like the drive is about 1 hr 45 mins. Will we catch a lot of traffic?

Not sure.

8. We'll arrive at our Anaheim hotel Monday night, have a full day at DL on Tuesday, full day at DCA on Wednesday, and then open on Thursday for whatever we want to revisit. We plan to leave around dinner time (7pm or so) to drive to LA where we will spend a few days before flying home from there. Does this time schedule sound reasonable or are we burning ourselves out? Concerned about how rigorous the commute is there - an hour drive here in Western NY is nothing, but could be grueling out there.

Not sure about the commute, haven't ever done that. Just realize if you don't have early morning entry, which you likely won't you might want to go to the opposite parks on your days. This way you have a chance to be one of the first ones through the gates.

 

[detarica]

We are former passholders at WDW who spent a weeklong vacation in Anaheim this past June. We LOVED it. We are already wanting to go back.

1. ADRs are not required, but you may not be able to eat at the big favorites without them. I saw people turned away at Blue Bayou and the Carnation Café who wondered in without reservations. We did the World of Color package for the Wine Country Trattoria, and it was expensive. The view of WOC was amazing though, so it cancelled out. There are lots of great options without ADRs. I would reserve any Must do places and wing the rest.

2. Nope. Still paper fastpasses. And you will be surprised by how few rides have a FP option. Like Toy Story Mania...but the line moves fast on all of those rides without the fastpass line merging into standby.

3. DL, DCA and DTD. All within walking distance of each other? Yes...and its Awesome! We stayed at the DLH and walked through DTD every morning to enter the parks. Exiting one park and walking into the other takes less than 20 minutes.

4. Is rope drop necessary at one or both of the parks? I liked rope drop at DCA because you can walk onto Carlsland rides and get a fast pass for Radiator Springs Racers to ride again later. The extra magic hour was great here too. For Disneyland, there wasn't anything that we wanted to do that we were not able to work in on our 5 day pass without having to be there everyday for the rope drop.

5. Looking at staying at Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn. Anything to note here? The price is right and it says it's across the street. Make sure there is an easy way to get to the concourse...some hotels say across the street, but that can mean a good walk around the park before you can get in.

6. What are the perks of an on-site resort? The cost is a big factor to us, but we always stay on site at WDW. The hotels around vary greatly in quality much like the off-site hotels in Orlando. That being said, we chose to book the Disneyland Hotel through AAA and got a good discount. I feel totally in love with the Disneyland Hotel. It is a Polynesian style hotel with themes from the Tiki Room. The pools and slides were awesome. The view of our room was the pool and we kept the curtains open to see the nice views. We walked through the Grand Californian a few times and used the kids club. It was very nice and has its own entrance into DCA. We used the entrance several times because as a DLH guest, we were allowed to as well.

7. Our tentative agenda has us doing the San Diego Zoo all day Monday, and heading up to our hotel in Anaheim around dinner time (6pm-ish). Looks like the drive is about 1 hr 45 mins. Will we catch a lot of traffic? Yes. California traffic lasts until well into the evening.

8. We'll arrive at our Anaheim hotel Monday night, have a full day at DL on Tuesday, full day at DCA on Wednesday, and then open on Thursday for whatever we want to revisit. We plan to leave around dinner time (7pm or so) to drive to LA where we will spend a few days before flying home from there. Does this time schedule sound reasonable or are we burning ourselves out? Concerned about how rigorous the commute is there - an hour drive here in Western NY is nothing, but could be grueling out there.
We used a 5 day hopper pass and were able to ride everything. So, I would choose what is your priorities and work from there. There are touring plans available to help people see more. But there is more rides in the DL and DCA combination that all of WDW. So, keep in mind that you won't see everything. We focused first on things that are not in Florida...like the Explorer Canoes and the Storybook Boats...so charming to see the original rides.

 

[tiffjoy]

A lot of others have covered your questions, but as a former CNYer , I wanted to highlight the times you are planning to drive. The traffic from San Diego to Anaheim around 6ish will be absolutely horrific. Those who deal with it everyday despise it, so you being on vacation from a place with no traffic with be absolutely frustrated with it. You'll arrive worn out and irritable.

Instead, eat dinner in San Diego. They have some phenomenal restaurants. Check out the Gaslamp district or Old Town for some good Mexican food. Head up to Anaheim no earlier than 7:30, and you should be able to get there in an hour and a half. I'd recommend looking at a traffic site for San Diego area around 6:00 PST today to get an idea of what it would be like.

Same goes for driving to LA around 7:00. I would wait until at least 7:30ish. 7:00 is the ending of rush hour. Give it time to settle down a bit before heading out.

 

[ktlm]

WDW vet here who has developed a real love for DL/CA


1. ADRs required at DL/DCA? If so, how far in advance? 60 days. Not as important, but it doesn't hurt to have them. In July, we decided we would like to do a TS that night at about 4:30. Got online and picked up a reservation for Cafe Orleans at 5:40. It was a great meal. If you want Blue Bayou, you will want to do that in advance. If you want the World of Color Dining Package, you will want to do that in advance. If character meals are important, you probably want to go ahead and book them, but alot of time they will take walk ups especially in the off hours. If you want the Fantamic Dessert package, you definitely need to book that in advance. The booking time for that is 30 days-but not a true 30 days as it is really a month before- i.e. if you want it for August 8 ,you call on July 8.

2. Is MDE or FP+ or Magic Bands a thing at DL/DCA? If so, is FP+ 60 days out?
Thank goodness no! Spent 5 wonderful days there last month without all that garbage. So nice after dealing with it at WDW.

3. DL, DCA and DTD. All within walking distance of each other?
That is one of the best parts of DL/CA. For the parks, there is only a plaza between them, and bag check is on the sides of the plaza so you do not even have to go through bag check again to hop. You can be out of one park and inside the other in 5 minutes. The space between them is shorter than the distance between many of the bus stops where you are dropped off for park at WDW and the gate. By WDW terms the whole thing is like 1 park- we hop all day long. As for DTD Disney it is right outside bag check. In fact, Californa Adventure has a park gate directly to the Grand Californian Hotel which is in the middle of downtown Disney.


4. Is rope drop necessary at one or both of the parks?
If you want to see Anna and Elsa-yes. If you want to ride Radiator Springs Racers it is a good idea. If you want to ride a bunch with short lines, or even see some of the characters like Tink with short lines, it is a really good thing to do. We LOVE rope drop at DL/CA and we are not morning people. You think the WDW parks are less crowded at rope drop, you should see DL/CA. Because they have such a big local presence, the parks are really empty the first hour or two. It is fantastic. We don't always make it right at rope drop, but we try to be there in the first 30 minutes, and rope drop is best.

5. Looking at staying at Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn. Anything to note here? The price is right and it says it's across the street.

No clue- we've always stayed on property

6. What are the perks of an on-site resort? The cost is a big factor to us, but we always stay on site at WDW.

The Disney bubble. We stay at the Disneyland Hotel and we never leave Disney property. We walk to the parks through DTD so we never see the outside streets or outside world. Being used to WDW we like that bubble. Every member of your family usually gets a lanyard with a pin on it. The big thing is that you get early entry every day into one or the other park. If you can make it early enough for early entry, it is fantastic in terms of really low crowds. I think off property in a good neighbor hotel, you still get 1 early entry day- but I'm not positive.

7. Our tentative agenda has us doing the San Diego Zoo all day Monday, and heading up to our hotel in Anaheim around dinner time (6pm-ish). Looks like the drive is about 1 hr 45 mins. Will we catch a lot of traffic?

That is about right. You will probably catch some traffic especially heading that direction. We usually do DL first and then head down to the San Diego area. We usually leave around 3:30 on a weekday and we don't hit any traffic going towards San Diego, but there is always a spot we see coming the other direction that looks backed up. I don't think you will be on the freeway 3 hours or anything, but it might wind up taking you a little longer.


8. We'll arrive at our Anaheim hotel Monday night, have a full day at DL on Tuesday, full day at DCA on Wednesday, and then open on Thursday for whatever we want to revisit. We plan to leave around dinner time (7pm or so) to drive to LA where we will spend a few days before flying home from there. Does this time schedule sound reasonable or are we burning ourselves out? Concerned about how rigorous the commute is there - an hour drive here in Western NY is nothing, but could be grueling out there.

We never head that direction, so I don't know about the traffic that way. We fly in and out of Orange County and split our time between DL and San Diego. As far as your schedule, it would be reasonable for us. We get to DL mid-day on Saturday and head straight to the parks. We then do the parks Sun, Mon, Tues. After we pack up on Wednesday, we head back to the parks and do some of the things we have missed and usually head out for San Diego around 3:30. By then we are ready for a day or two of rest at the beach, and then we hit a San Diego activity. This year we did the Wild Animal Safari Park, which I would highly recommend. I think it is our favorite of the ones we have done (Legoland, Zoo, museums, etc). The only thing I see with your schedule, is as stated above, I'm a big fan of hopping at DL/CA. It is so easy to jump parks if one seems a little crowded, or to fit a certain show or parade in your schedule etc, or to hit Radiator Springs Racers before it gets crowded and then move to the other park etc.

 

[mirage0306]

Former San Diegan here. Do NOT try to drive out of San Diego during rush hour. I am getting the shakes just thinking about it. We actually moved out of socal partly because of the crowding and traffic--it's never great, but 8-10 and 3:30-6:30 or so are just abysmal. I second (third?) the idea to eat somewhere downtown. If you wait until about 7:30 you will have a much better chance of getting up to Anaheim in a reasonable period of time. Casa Guadalajara in Old Town is great and it's not far from the zoo. The Corvette Diner in Hillcrest is also pretty close and is really fun. The gas lamp area downtown is super close to the zoo and there are a gazillion restaurants there. Have fun and enjoy San Diego--we miss it!

 

[nkereina]

THANK YOU for all the responses! Each were very helpful.

On a related note, for those of you who have done the San Diego Zoo - how long did it take you?

Also, is Sea World worth it? We've never been to a Sea World but since we're doing the zoo and Disneyland, I'm leaning towards skipping it. We're also skipping Universal since we'll be at Universal Orlando this November.

Thanks again!

 

[sharonabe]

We too are planning our first trip out to DL and discovering all the ins and outs.

One thing you may not know is DL does not do fireworks every night like WDW. According to the May 2014 calendar, fireworks and F! were only on Fri, Sat, Sun nights until after Memorial Day.

World of Color does play every night, so you won't miss that one.

 

[tiffjoy]

THANK YOU for all the responses! Each were very helpful.

On a related note, for those of you who have done the San Diego Zoo - how long did it take you?

Also, is Sea World worth it? We've never been to a Sea World but since we're doing the zoo and Disneyland, I'm leaning towards skipping it. We're also skipping Universal since we'll be at Universal Orlando this November.

Thanks again!

We spend a day at the zoo, but we are a zoo family. I think you would be fine with half a day if you move quickly. We tend to really linger at each animal, and my girl's are treated to their science geek mom (I was a bio major) telling them a million different facts about each animal. I will say it's lots of hills, although there is transport around the main portion. So that can add time.

I can't answer as to Seaworld as we have never been.

 

[purple figment]

You've gotten lots of good information from the PPs so I'll just add 2 things:

Proximity of DL, DCA and DTD can be best described for a DW vet by thinking of it in terms of Epcot. The distance between DL and DCA is about the same as between Future World and World Showcase. Walking from one to the other takes about a minute. At Epcot you walk across the walkway and at DLR it's the Esplanade between DL and DCA. DTD could be considered distance wise the same as walking over the the Beach Club via the IG. Again, no more than a couple minutes walk.

Second: Hydroguy has an excellent thread on DL for the DW vet:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1162599

Additional threads that you might find useful:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1072276

Have fun reading!

 

[nkereina]

Thanks so much! Great links!

One last question I'll try my luck posting here - I want to do a beach day and a zoo day in San Diego. I have Sunday free and Monday free. Is one day better to do the zoo or beach? I'm thinking Sunday would draw more locals to the beach making it more crowded, but the same could be said for the zoo. Thanks!

 

[spellhex]

Thanks so much! Great links!

One last question I'll try my luck posting here - I want to do a beach day and a zoo day in San Diego. I have Sunday free and Monday free. Is one day better to do the zoo or beach? I'm thinking Sunday would draw more locals to the beach making it more crowded, but the same could be said for the zoo. Thanks!

Go to the beach on Monday. The zoo has the infrastructure/parking in place to handle weekend crowds, whereas it might be very difficult to find parking for the beach on a weekend.

 

[HydroGuy]

Former San Diegan here. Do NOT try to drive out of San Diego during rush hour. I am getting the shakes just thinking about it. We actually moved out of socal partly because of the crowding and traffic--it's never great, but 8-10 and 3:30-6:30 or so are just abysmal. I second (third?) the idea to eat somewhere downtown. If you wait until about 7:30 you will have a much better chance of getting up to Anaheim in a reasonable period of time. Casa Guadalajara in Old Town is great and it's not far from the zoo. The Corvette Diner in Hillcrest is also pretty close and is really fun. The gas lamp area downtown is super close to the zoo and there are a gazillion restaurants there. Have fun and enjoy San Diego--we miss it!

Another former San Diego person here and I agree with everything mirage says here!

Even if you try to get to DLR from SD during non-peak times, I almost always still hit a major traffic jam at some point along Interstate 5. So be prepared for it to take a long time and be happy if it does not.

 

[HydroGuy]

Thanks so much! Great links!

One last question I'll try my luck posting here - I want to do a beach day and a zoo day in San Diego. I have Sunday free and Monday free. Is one day better to do the zoo or beach? I'm thinking Sunday would draw more locals to the beach making it more crowded, but the same could be said for the zoo. Thanks!

Go to the beach on Monday. The zoo has the infrastructure/parking in place to handle weekend crowds, whereas it might be very difficult to find parking for the beach on a weekend.

I agree sort of. It depends which beach you go to. I lived in SD for 5 years when I was in my 20's and also visited there a lot before and after. Not sure where you will be in SD but if you are in main SD I would suggest you look to go to Mission Beach or Pacific Beach. I also like La Jolla Shores. If you are further north along the coast then Del Mar is nice as is Oceanside/Carlsbad.