Will this work? or bad idea?

[lorijohnhill]

Hi,
We have an 8 day trip coming up at the beginning of January. I don't want to, nor intend to, make concrete, minute-by-minute plans, but I do want to be sure we get complete coverage of both parks.

I broke each park up into 8 lands/segments and then tentatively assigned two lands to each day.

1/4/15 (arriving before noon): New Orleans Square & Critter Country
1/5/15 (Surfs Up! breakfast @ 9 am): Condor Flats & Grizzly Peak
1/6/15 (Anna & Elsa makeover @ 10:50 am): Main Street & Tomorrowland
1/7/15 (Goofy's Kitchen @ 5 pm: Paradise Pier & Pacific Warf
1/8/15: Fantasyland & Toon Town
1/9/15 (Storytellers @ 8:55 am): Buena Vista Street & Hollywood Land
1/10/15: Adventureland & Frontierland
1/11/15 (leave by 4 pm): Cars Land & Bugs Land

I know that some of these will be done quicker than others and we can "roam freely" the rest of the day. I just kind of wanted a jumping off point. When we were there in October we ended up doing a lot of crossing the park back and forth and missing huge segments. I'm trying to avoid that this time. I also want to leave time to enjoy the Club Level stuff at the Paradise Pier Hotel.

The Frozen Fun may put a kink into some of the plans. I'm not sure how that is all going to play out. I'll be watching the boards for updates!

So, do you think this will work? What would you change?

 

[joyfulDisneytears]

You definitely don't need a whole day to do three attractions (Grizzly River Run, Soarin, Challenge Trail). Also, I don't know if it's even worth classifying Pacific Wharf as a "land" for your purposes, because there aren't any attractions there. That said, if you intend to take in details in these areas it's a decent plan. However, I would probably condense at least these three into the same day, then have more time to revisit CarsLand/Hollywood on your Paradise Pier day.

 

[Patrick in Oregon]

This seems like a good idea. I know you don't mean for each pair of lands to take up the WHOLE day, but at least you have a clear objective for each day. You can finish each pair of lands by early afternoon and have the rest of the day to do whatever you'd like.

You're right, you can lose a lot of time criss crossing.

 

[Angrose]

Sounds like a good plan. However, I would move up to the top the lands that you REALLY want to prioritize or that have rides that frequently go down. For example, if Cars Land is a priority, then move that one up to your first day in DCA. RSR is seems to go down fairly frequently so you wouldn't want to leave that to your last day and then have something like that happen. Just a thought. Have fun!

 

[lorijohnhill]

I hadn't thought about rides going down. That's a very good point. I will probably add Cars Land to the first DCA day. Especially since we want to do the racers more than once.

 

[Angrose]

Last Saturday we rode RSR 3 times in one day, twice in the morning and then once at night. It was awesome! Here's what we did:

8:10am I got in line for FP while DH took DS6 on Mater's
8:20am pulled FP for 9:50am return time
8:25am got in RSR stand-by line, posted wait time was 30min, but we waited more like 40min. 1st ride done!
9:15am rode a few rides in Bugs Land
10:00am pulled another FP for RSR, return time 5:15pm (you can pull another fast pass either 2 hours after you pulled the previous one or when your return window comes up)
10:15am used 1st RSR FP. 2nd ride done!
moved on to other rides, shops, lunch, hopped to DL for parade, break at hotel
5:45pm used 2nd RSR FP. 3rd ride done!

I am so happy we got to ride it so many times and it is SUPER fun at night!

 

[YukonMommy]

I think your plan is great! Room and time to get everything done and allows time for roaming, hitting up favorites again and spending time at the hotel.

Like a previous poster said though I would put Cars land towards the top.

Have a magical time!

 

[figment_jii]

I also suggest moving Carsland and any other land with high priority attractions to earlier/higher in your list.

As I looked at your list, I would consider moving the less popular lands to the Sat/Sun of your trip. I do think crowds will still be high on all days, but the weekends are likely to be the most busy at that time of the year. Mainly, I wouldn't put Adventureland (Indy, Jingle Cruise, Tiki), Frontierland (BTMRR, JJJ), and Carsland (RSR) on weekends if there was the opportunity to go on a weekday.

 

[lorijohnhill]

If I move Cars Land up to Monday, move Adventureland & Frontierland to Thursday, and move Fantasyland & Toon Town to Saturday, would that work better?

I really appreciate all the advice!

 

[figment_jii]

I would also look at the schedule of events to see if there are things you want to do/see specifically in each park, which night time shows you want to see, and whether or not EMH plays into your planning.

Based on the Disneyland.com calendar, a few things end on the 6th (fireworks, WoC, Xmas parade, and Viva Navidad). If you want to see those things, you'll need to work them into your schedule on or before the 6th.

Given that you're staying at PPI, you probably also want to consider EMH. I looked quickly and DL has EMH on 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th, while DCA has their's on 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th. So, if you move Carsland to Monday, you will have the Monday EMH to contend with. That can work in your favor because you have access to EMH, but it may also mean larger crowds in DCA at opening.

 

[lorijohnhill]

We definitely want to see the Christmas parade and Viva Navidad. I also have to work in the special Build-a-Bear activity. The hotel doesn't get the schedule until the week prior.

I'm definitely prepared to change or scrap plans based on real-time events.

I'm hoping I can remember to get to the Visa M&G at least once this trip. We never did make it on our last trip.

I have to keep the ride refurbs straight too! So much for my feeble mind to keep up with! Lol!!

 

[figment_jii]

Let's see then...I would probably move TL and MS to Sunday, just because it puts you in the right part of the park for the parade and fireworks. Then I'd head to Carsland and Paradise Pier on Monday for RSR, TSMM, and Viva Navidad (and WoC, if interested). Monday is DCA's EMH day, so you can take advantage of that for TSMM and/or RSR.

 

[TheDoleWhipper]

I think that your plan looks like a nice relaxed itinerary. You might get bored sticking to just two lands per day, so I reccommend centering the days around those lands and taking time to see other stuff elsewhere, too.