WDW veteran does DL for the first time. Help!

[katyringo]

Everyone has it covered but I will chime in to say don’t take Disneyland express. We did not have a good expirence with it and I have heard from many others terrible reviews as of late. From WDW to DL you have to change your view point a bit. I know at WDW that Disney bus is king, but in Anaheim there are tons of better options.

We are using Lanskys now.

 

[HydroGuy]

He lives! Good to see you back on the boards...and braving the first summer of SWGE!

I have been really busy LOL. Two business trips to Europe in the last few months (life is rough ) - I just got back last weekend from the second one. I have a conference in Florida in February and decided to go ahead and visit WDW again after the conference.

I finally got some time the last few days to put down some plans and decided I have to do D23 Expo next year so made some plans for that too and a visit to DLR and SWGE in August.

 

[nkereina]

Thanks all again!

No. These aren’t top picks.

Best western park place inn
Park vue inn
Tropicana
Camelot
Hojo

Higher price:
Courtyard Marriott theme park entrance
Springhill suites

With the fam we always stay at homewood suites

https://www.disboards.com/threads/choosing-the-right-dlr-area-hotel-for-you.3656512/

Thanks for this info. I priced out several of these and they were pricing out on par with Paradise Pier (negligible difference). We'd like to stay offsite to save money, otherwise we will stay at Paradise Pier. But I think I have narrowed it down to Tropicana or the Fairfield, so glad to see the Tropicana is on your list.

6. We Ubered since it was just me and the wife. Can't help with the bus.

Did you Uber from LAX? If so, can you advise where you catch it and how you identify your Uber? We have never used it from an airport before and I'm envisioning a sea of cars making it difficult to find our driver.

I would personally stick with Paradise Pier so you can utilize magic morning.

Its my understanding that I would receive one magic morning entry with our 5 day ticket. Do you get magic morning every day with the onsite hotels?

 

[theluckyrabbit]

... Its my understanding that I would receive one magic morning entry with our 5 day ticket. Do you get magic morning every day with the onsite hotels?

On site guests receive either Early Entry or Early Magic Hour, which basically means one hour early entry to either DL or DCA on alternating days. It can be quite valuable for DCA since you don't have to share that early hour with non-on site guests the way you do at DL (sharing with MM guests).

 

[nkereina]

On site guests receive either Early Entry or Early Magic Hour, which basically means one hour early entry to either DL or DCA on alternating days. It can be quite valuable for DCA since you don't have to share that early hour with non-on site guests the way you do at DL (sharing with MM guests).

Thank you. The web site shows you receive this with a 3 day (or longer) ticket as well, which looks to be even if you're staying off-site. Is that accurate? It also says something about one early magic entry, so is it one time use and onsite guests can use it every day? Just trying to differentiate between the early entry for onsite guests compared to the early entry that comes with 3+ day tickets.

 

[MacMama0930]

Thanks all again!



Thanks for this info. I priced out several of these and they were pricing out on par with Paradise Pier (negligible difference). We'd like to stay offsite to save money, otherwise we will stay at Paradise Pier. But I think I have narrowed it down to Tropicana or the Fairfield, so glad to see the Tropicana is on your list.



Did you Uber from LAX? If so, can you advise where you catch it and how you identify your Uber? We have never used it from an airport before and I'm envisioning a sea of cars making it difficult to find our driver.



Its my understanding that I would receive one magic morning entry with our 5 day ticket. Do you get magic morning every day with the onsite hotels?

Yes, if you’re staying onsite you get in an hour early every day of your stay,
To either DL or DCA. Like PP mentioned, the early entry to DCA is really valuable because it’s only open to onsite guests whereas the DL early entry is available to all guests with a 3+ day ticket. We always get so much done in that hour!

 

[MacMama0930]

Thank you. The web site shows you receive this with a 3 day (or longer) ticket as well, which looks to be even if you're staying off-site. Is that accurate? It also says something about one early magic entry, so is it one time use and onsite guests can use it every day? Just trying to differentiate between the early entry for onsite guests compared to the early entry that comes with 3+ day tickets.

Don’t let the different names confuse you. It still confuses me! Just know that every day of your stay one of the parks is open for early entry and you can utilize it when staying onsite.

 

[MacMama0930]

With your ticket, you get ONE day of early entry. Staying onsite gives you early entry each day of your stay.

 

[nkereina]

Thanks for clarifying @MacMama0930 !

 

[smartlabelprint]

Triplicate

 

[smartlabelprint]

Thank you. The web site shows you receive this with a 3 day (or longer) ticket as well, which looks to be even if you're staying off-site. Is that accurate? It also says something about one early magic entry, so is it one time use and onsite guests can use it every day? Just trying to differentiate between the early entry for onsite guests compared to the early entry that comes with 3+ day tickets.

3 day or higher off site tickets get one day of magic morning at Disneyland only.

 

[smartlabelprint]

Duplicate

 

[pharmama]

To elaborate a little on early entry (1hr before park open).
Magic Morning: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at Disneyland. 3-day or longer tickets include access to ONE magic morning.
Extra Magic Hour: Mon, Wed, Fri and Sunday at DCA, Tues, Thurs and Sat at DL (same as Magic Morning). On site hotel guests get early access to one of the parks every day per that schedule. In DL, its the same as Magic Morning so you'll have non hotel guests there as well. Staying on site is the ONLY way to get early access to DCA.

For Disneyland, only Tomorrowland and Fantasyland are open during MM/EMH. For DCA, pretty much everything is open during EMH. That said, DCA has a couple of rides that are notoriously slow to get up and running (RSR, IC, TSMM) so sometimes one (or more) of them aren't open during EMH or even sometimes at regular park open. That's a random thing though, and not something you can plan for/against.

I think EMH via the on site hotels is pretty awesome-especially in the 'shoulder seasons' (there is no off season at DLR) when the parks open later. It's nice to be able to get in at 9am for a 10am opening, for example. If you're not early risers and its an 8am open, you'd have to weigh if its worth getting up early for 7am EMH. I think you said you're going to be there for 5 days? With that many, I don't think EMH is quite as essential. You'll have plenty of opportunity to get on everything- especially if you do MaxPass (which you should. It's awesome. There's no 'discount' for buying MP ahead of time so if you're not sure about it you can just try it out one or two days when you're there. The only downside to this is you will have to buy it in the app each morning after you've scanned into the park. It's not that big a deal though. Takes mere seconds as long as you know the CVV code for the card you have on file in the app).

As far as hotel, we really like the Tropicana. While they don't include breakfast, the location is great and they do have a decent mini-market and coffee bar on site.

I would skip DL Express. I've not really been to WDW but my understanding is its nothing like what they have there. This is basically a separate company with a contract with Disney for the naming and booking. I don't know where the Uber pick up is at LAX but the app will tell you where to go. You identify your car by make/model/color and license plate. It's not that bad. Some drivers also have the fancy uber logo in the front window that you can set the color of through the app which also helps-so you tell it in the app to make the sign green, for example, then look for a car with a green sign in the front window. Even if there's more than one green one it at least narrows it down

 

[nkosiek]

Did you Uber from LAX? If so, can you advise where you catch it and how you identify your Uber? We have never used it from an airport before and I'm envisioning a sea of cars making it difficult to find our driver.

We did Uber from LAX. The App will tell you where to go to meet your driver, and since you know what type of car & plate number (which are on the front) you're looking for, it's a matter of looking for those things. One thing to be aware of, there's a bunch of work happening at LAX and traffic is a nightmare, so be prepared to wait a bit if you don't get one right away. We had a great driver (mind you, we've never used a ride-share before) who was an AP holder herself and gave us some insights and whatnot.