WDW Vets Who Have Conquered DL ~ What Was Your Strategy?

[figment_jii]

As others have said, if you're a WDW vet coming to DLR, the best place to start is by looking over HydroGuy's thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1162599

Some other thoughts/comments:

1. You say you use the DDP when at WDW. They do have a dining package for DLR, but it's very different. I've not used it personally, but most reports indicate it's not very cost effective and not accepted at all places. So the general advice is to forgo the dining plan at DLR.

2. Resorts - there are only three Disney owned resorts. The Grand Californian is the top hotel; with an entrance into DCA. It's rather like the Deluxe resorts at WDW. It kind of reminds me of a smaller version of Wilderness Lodge. The Disneyland Hotel is the most "iconic". It's kind of a cross between a Deluxe and a moderate. It reminds me a little of the Contemporary, in that it has a kind of business hotel look, but with lots of Disney touches. Paradise Pier is the final Disney-owned hotel. It's a cross between a moderate and a value. Disney bought it (opposed to building it) and it looks like any regular multi-story hotel, but with some Disney touches. It reminds me of the hotels at DTD in WDW. If you have the funds, I'd either go with the Grand Californian or DLH. If cost is an issue, then I'd start to look into the Good Neighbor Hotels.

3. Good Neighbor Hotels - Unlike WDW, DLR is immediately bordered by the "real world". There are several hotels on Harbor and Katella Blvds, which form the east and southern boarders of DLR. I like the Best Western Park Place Inn because of it's location, but it's a motel and it looks like one. Most of the major chains have a hotel/motel located somewhere within a few miles of DLR, so you should have a lot of options.

4. EMH/MM - Unlike WDW, DLR only has morning EMH/MM hours. They're a little different than the one at WDW, but the basic concept is the same. For one hour before the park opens to day guests, resort guests have access to some rides. That's one of the perks of staying onsite. If you're a rope drop type family, then having only AM EMH is okay. My family tends to never be at WDW's AM EMHs, but we use the PM EMHs a lot, so at DLR, the EMH perk is less important.

5. Crowds - as others have said, DLR is a different type of resort. It's more of a "locals" park, meaning that there really is no "off season" anymore. Weekdays tend to be less crowded than weekends (Fri night through Sunday). There are some less busy periods, but these also tend to have shorter hours, less entertainment, and more rehabs. You have to weight your options and see what works best for your family. You can see the historic hours, rehabs, and entertainment schedules on wdwinfo:
http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneyland/park-hours.cfm

6. Entertainment - DLR runs reduced entertainment during non-peak season (i.e., non-holiday periods and non-summer). So if you only go on weekdays (Mon-Thu), there is a chance that neither the Fireworks nor Fantasmic will be running. WoC and the parade run almost daily, so that's less of an issue. If you go in October, I believe Fireworks and Fantasmic only ran on Sat and Sun (they probably would have run on Friday, but Mickey's Halloween Party was occurring).

7. Transportation - there are shuttles that run from the airports to DLR, but you have to book them yourselves and they cost extra. Disney doesn't contract with a company like Mears. There are a couple, but I think the best known is the Disneyland Express run by Greyhound (the bus company). I've not used them, but make sure to do your research before you book.

8. Park Hopping - as others have said, park hopping at DLR is much easier. I like to describe it this way. Think of DL as Epcot's FW, DCA as Epcot's WS and DTD as being just outside of International Gateway. It's all very easy to get to and between. I do tend to park hop at WDW, but usually only once (or at most twice) in any given day. It's not uncommon for my family to park hop three or four times per day at DLR. It's about 100 yards (one football field) from DL's ticket gates to DCA's ticket gates.

9. FP - Like WDW, DLR is not enforcing return times on FPs. So you must return within the one hour window printed on the ticket. Unlike WDW, DLR does not have FP+ or Magic Bands (thank goodness!). In terms of the FP, the RSR and WoC FP are disconnected (meaning that you can get another FP immediately after pulling the ones for RSR and WoC). A few other rides might also be disconnected, but there is sometimes conflicting info.

10. Dining options - I tend to agree that DLR doesn't have as many TS dining options as WDW. However, I tend to like the QS options better. Still, there are plenty of yummy places to eat when you go to DLR. Reservations aren't quite as important at DLR, but it's been getting harder to just walk-up to places. So if you have any place you really want to eat and at a specific time, I'd make a reservation. The only place where I would say you have to make a reservation is the Blue Bayou. I've never been there when they were taking walk-ups! Other than that, I would also consider making reservation for Carthay Circle, Steakhouse 55, Napa Rose, and the character meals if you want to eat at any of them.

11. Information Sources - I would use places like the Disboards where you'll get a cross section of the population's opinions on rides and shows. I know that some folks like the Unofficial Guides (mostly in reference to WDW), but wouldn't bother buying a book. Mostly because by the time books are printed, some of the info is going to be out of date. The Disneyland section of this board (as well as others, I'm sure) are more up-to-date.

12. Have fun! DLR is a lot of fun, as long as you go with the right mindset. Don't go expecting WDW (or WDW-mini). Some things are similar, some things are different. Enjoy DLR and all that it has to offer.

 

[BrianL]

One last tought: watch out for the Anaheim tap water. Unlike Orlando, this water is awful. It made me a tad queasy, and after a conversation with a local, they were shocked I had been drinking from the tap at all and told me to stop. I felt better afterward.

 

[ktlm]

We are longtime WDW vets, that have developed a love of Disneyland over the last few years. We've been alternating between coasts.

We choose to stay on site at DL because we like the total WDW immersion. We don't want to see the outside world. That said- is is expensive to stay onsite there. The discounts are not as good as at WDW. To stay at the Disneyland Hotel for 4 nights can cost us what we spend for 7 or 8 nights at WDW with discouts. As far as good neighbor hotels, there are a ton of people who swear by the Howard Johnson's. I hear they have a great pool area and you can even get a theme park view. We almost did that one year, but just couldn't quite pull the trigger although it is a substantial savings from the on site hotels. We definitely could do that quite a bit cheaper than WDW. I think if we did not stay onsite at DL, we could make it quite a bit cheaper than WDW trips.

As far as flights. Flying in and out John Wayne Airport/Orange County is actually a whole lot easier than LAX. It is a much smaller airport and only about 15 minutes from DL. Depending on where you are coming from, you might get cheaper flights to LAX though. We don't have a direct flight to either place from here, so it doesn't make much difference price wise for us. Definitely price both out and if the prices aren't that different, I would say Orange County is the way to go.

There is a shuttle service you can pay for that will take you to DL (no magical express), but we usually rent a car because we do a week's vacation and spend half the week doing other things in California. We do find that for the days we stay at DL, we don't use or need the car.

Our flight generally gets in Saturday around 1:00. We go straight to the resort and then go straight to the park and spend the rest of the day there. We then spend full days Sun.-Tues in the parks. Wednesday we check out and spend about a half day in the parks (because none of us have ever had enough by the end of the day Tuesday), and then we move on to another area of California and do other things. We really like the San Diego area and have friends there so that is where we usually head. We've done Legoland, but DH and I weren't impressed. DD was about 4 or 5 and she liked it, but there really isn't much there for bigger kids or adults. I don't think your 10 year olds would care for it that much. There is plenty of other stuff in the San Diego area though, Museums, Zoo, Sea World, Safari Park, Beaches, Boat Tours, shopping etc. If you don't want to head that way, there is always Universal, and all the other LA area stuff to do.

As far as the parks we have no trouble filling our 4 to 4 1/2 days in the parks. We could easily stay there longer and be happy. Also, don't think in terms of 2 days each. You want hoppers at DL. It isn't like WDW where you lose an hour hopping. In DL, walking between the parks is shorter than walking from the bus stop to the gate at the WDW parks. You can literally get from the back of one park to the back of the other in 10 minutes- we've done it. Think of it as one big park. You can hop back and forth all day. CA usually opens later than DL, so you can get to DL at opening hit the shorter lines there for some headliners, then move over to CA when it opens and do the same thing there. Hopping is the norm at DL/CA. Although the parks may not take up as much real estate, they are packed absolutely full of things to do. One of the things we love most about DL/CA is that everything is so close together you can get to anywhere in the parks and DTD and the resorts in very little time. No relying on DL transporation- your feet will take you anywhere you want to go in very little time. The monorail is basically a ride. It will take you into DTD, but you can probably walk there as fast as going and getting in line for the monorail (DH got onto me once because I wanted to ride the monorail and it wound up taking us about 3 times as long as it would have to just walk it).

Also, I noted you said you were going to do DL/CA on the weekdays in October. You should be aware that unlike at WDW, at DL in the "off-season" the fireworks and Fantasmic only run on the weekends. So, if those are a priority to you then you need to get a weekend night in there (weekends usually include Sunday nights for those shows I think). Fantasmic at DL is superior to WDW- it has a great Peter Pan section with a ship- instead of Pochahontas- but it also does not have its own auditorium and people start staking out spots in the park for it hours in advance. The Fantasmic Dessert Package is great to avoid that , but very expensive. Since you are trying to save money, I'm thinking that is not something you want to do.


I would not "bundle". I think you will find better deals looking at things separately.

The dining plan is pretty worthless. It is basically just pre-pay the same amount you would pay when you went to the restaurant. You are better off just paying as you go. Unlike at WDW, if you really want to save money and don't want to spend park prices, you will be in walking distance of off property restaurants. In our opinion, there is also some pretty good counter service at DL. If you are thinking of a character meal for the purpose of seeing characters- we love Minnie's breakfast. It is better than any WDW character meal. We've never seen less than 7 characters there and have seen up to 12. It is not a set group, so you never know who you are going to see, but every time we have been there we have seen Minnie, Captain Hook, Fairy Godmother and Max (Goofy's son)- as far as the rest, we have seen a multitude, such as Rafiki, Pooh characters, Aurora, Mad Hatter and Alice, Pinocchio, Gepetto, Brer Fox, Mary Poppins Penguin, Chip and Dale, Tweedle Dum-- you just never know who you might run into which we think is fun. The way we maximize it is that we go to the parks at opening to get all the low line hours in, and then hit Minnies around 10:00- 10:15 for "Brunch". It is never very crowded so we get a ton of time with the characters- and everyone fills up so no one wants to eat again until dinner.

As far as planning. The nice thing other than flights and hotel is it doesn't take that much. Dining doesn't book until 60 days out. If you call anytime on that 60th day, it is highly unlikely that there would be anything you could not get at any time you want. ADRs are pretty easy to get even close to the time, but we like to have them booked. You will want a game plan for CarsLand and Radiator Springs Racers because it is a WDW TSM type stampede (or at least what it was pre FP+) for FPs for that one.

 

[cseca]

Oh yeah character meal prices... I forgot to mention. It is NUTS!
We went to Ariel's Grotto it was so expensive even with the DVC discount.
Character interaction was very sad indeed compared to WDW meals.

But goofy's kitchen was cheaper and a lot better interaction.
We had early lunch at 11:20 and we almost had a whole room to ourselves.
I guess everyone was at the parks hehe...

 

[teambeaman]

Knott's will be pretty close but US will take you at least an hour and that's if it's not rush hour, which in LA lasts longer than it does anywhere else I've been to.
The dining is different, but I think that DLR has better counter service options than WDW. I feel that at WDW, cs consists mainly of burgers and sandwiches, whereas at DLR, you can get some of the best fried chicken in a California (Plaza Inn), pot roast, Mexican food, Italian, etc.
I like that MK is more open, but there is way more to do at DL. Also, I wouldn't skip Indiana Jones...it's one of my favorite rides out of both resorts.

 

[RCMommy]

This is such great advice, thank you to everyone for your input.

I am going to study Hydroguy's guide over and over and look at the suggested books as well.

As much as I would like to stay onsite I think we will end up in a good neighbour hotel.

I understand DL is going to be much different than WDW and we are hoping for that actually. It is getting difficult for us to see many 'new' things when we visit WDW that DL is going to be a shock to the system. May be just what we need.

We will do four days in the park, or three days plus tickets to MNSSHP one evening. Not on Halloween however because I understand it will be crazy.

After our Disney visit I think we will rent a car to get us US, Knott's, San Diego possibly or even Legoland.

I would like to fly into SNA but the less expensive flights I see are into LAX. However it is still early for price checking for October flights.

There is a 3 day/4 night package on the Disneyland website but it only goes until the end of March I believe. Not our dates anyway. Is this a typical package often offered, or is there another I can hope for?

 

[RCMommy]

Also, I noted you said you were going to do DL/CA on the weekdays in October. You should be aware that unlike at WDW, at DL in the "off-season" the fireworks and Fantasmic only run on the weekends. So, if those are a priority to you then you need to get a weekend night in there (weekends usually include Sunday nights for those shows I think). Fantasmic at DL is superior to WDW- it has a great Peter Pan section with a ship- instead of Pochahontas- but it also does not have its own auditorium and people start staking out spots in the park for it hours in advance. The Fantasmic Dessert Package is great to avoid that , but very expensive. Since you are trying to save money, I'm thinking that is not something you want to do.

We will definitely arrange to plan our day and evenings around the schedule and park operating hours so we can see as much as possible. World of Colour is high on our list, Fantasmic is not a top priority.

I am so use to booking my ADRs at 180 days out that this will be so different, but change is good I am excited to see the other dining options in California versus Florida, even if it is only counter service.

I know I will have to plan an attack for Carsland. We have done the TSM dash for FP at rope drop many times. lol

 

[teambeaman]

The prices for LAX and SNA should start even out as you get closer. To get a more accurate price, look at the flights between now and April. That should give you a good average. SNA is so much more convenient that it would be worth paying slightly more.

 

[ktlm]

We will definitely arrange to plan our day and evenings around the schedule and park operating hours so we can see as much as possible. World of Colour is high on our list, Fantasmic is not a top priority.

I am so use to booking my ADRs at 180 days out that this will be so different, but change is good I am excited to see the other dining options in California versus Florida, even if it is only counter service.

I know I will have to plan an attack for Carsland. We have done the TSM dash for FP at rope drop many times. lol

World of Color is Fantastic! Unless something changes, it has run every night even in the off season so you should be good.

As for RSR, if you get there at rope drop "wide right" works! If you are off site, it has to be a day onsite didn't get to enter an hour before you, other wise they are all already in line. If you are onsite it works for the early opening too.

Everyone's inclination is to stand to the left at the rope because that is the direction of Carsland. DH was trying to drag me left and telling me I was crazy for being as far away from the Carsland side as possible. BUT- when the CMs start moving the rope and make the left turn into Carsland, everyone on the left gets funnelled right. The fire truck also drives up on the left side and blocks their path in addition to the CMs funnelling them all to try to make a single line on the right. If you keep on the right and stay at the front by the CM, you are ahead of the pack!

 

[BrianL]

The prices for LAX and SNA should start even out as you get closer. To get a more accurate price, look at the flights between now and April. That should give you a good average. SNA is so much more convenient that it would be worth paying slightly more.

I have found SNA and LAX to be similar in price as well. What we did was flew into SNA, stayed in Anaheim, them moved to Hollywood and left via LAX, which was now closer. It worked out really well. If you are staying in Anaheim the whole trip then SNA is so much better than LAX (i.e. worth a few extra bucks as long as it's not ridiculous)!

 

[RCMommy]

World of Color is Fantastic! Unless something changes, it has run every night even in the off season so you should be good.

As for RSR, if you get there at rope drop "wide right" works! If you are off site, it has to be a day onsite didn't get to enter an hour before you, other wise they are all already in line. If you are onsite it works for the early opening too.

Everyone's inclination is to stand to the left at the rope because that is the direction of Carsland. DH was trying to drag me left and telling me I was crazy for being as far away from the Carsland side as possible. BUT- when the CMs start moving the rope and make the left turn into Carsland, everyone on the left gets funnelled right. The fire truck also drives up on the left side and blocks their path in addition to the CMs funnelling them all to try to make a single line on the right. If you keep on the right and stay at the front by the CM, you are ahead of the pack!

This is a great tip! Thank you.