Disneyland/California Travel advice

[Dentoman]

If you don't want the hassle of bringing in your own food, consider eating at some of the restaurants in Downtown Disney which is a very short walk from the main Disney entrance plaza. Still somewhat pricey, but significantly less than in the park. We ate at Catal (upstairs part) and the food was really good. Excellent sandwiches and a good kids menu.
Gives you a break from the park as well. You can sit down in peace away from the crowds.

[Johnny Makarov]

Just wondering on the hours of Disneyland. it is showing it is open until 11pm. are the rides actually open that late also?

Thanx for the info in here!

[mrkajz44]

Yes - some nights it was even open until midnight when I was there back in April. The park really thins out after the fireworks. Pretty much every ride, including the very popular ones like Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Big Thunder, etc., have virtually no wait times after the fireworks until the park closes. Honestly, you can probably ride just as many rides in those last two hours as you did all day.

[MissTeeks]

I love using this website for going to Disney parks. It has a crowd calendar and tells you which rides are being refurbished and such. I think it's worth the membership. I also always use their touring plans, saves me time.

https://touringplans.com/disneyland/touring-plans

Darn it, now I want to plan another trip to Disneyland.

[snootchiebootchies]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Just wondering on the hours of Disneyland. it is showing it is open until 11pm. are the rides actually open that late also?

Thanx for the info in here!

Park hours are pretty consistent during the summer but can vary quite a bit during the winter months. On some weekdays during the winter, Disneyland can close as early as 9 PM and DCA can close as early as 8 PM. Always a good idea to check the park schedule before planning your trip.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by snootchiebootchies

Park hours are pretty consistent during the summer but can vary quite a bit during the winter months. On some weekdays during the winter, Disneyland can close as early as 9 PM and DCA can close as early as 8 PM. Always a good idea to check the park schedule before planning your trip.

Last time we went during an off season, calofornia adventure land closed early, either 5 or 6, for a special event. It worked great for us, because there were way less people there that day ("I'm not paying full price for a partial day") and we left at 6ish with little kid's anyway. But when we were leaving there were thousands of people going across to Disney land for the evening. Wouldn't have wanted to be there that night....

[pseudoreality]

I took my three-year-old and pregnant wife to Disneyland last January. It was my first time to Disneyland and my first trip to a Disney park with kids. I had to lower my expectations. My daughter was too little for any of the big rides and pregnant women were advised against riding as well. On the plus side, the rides my daughter liked had no lines and we could just get on them. She really liked the bugs land stuff, but stay away from the Bugs Life show unless you kids don't scare. The Disney Junior stage show and Frozen show are really good too. When I snuck out for a bigger ride I could get on pretty quick using the single rider line.

My daughter also loved the characters. At the time we went, they were plentiful with minimal lines. We tried the Mickey's Surfs Up Breakfast and were disappointed. It cost me $115 with tax and tip, we had minimal time with the characters, and the food was awful. I don't know how you can make a waffle taste so bad, but they found a way.

Now it looks like I'm planning a Disney World holiday with my family for February. My wife's family is driving down from Nova Scotia to me us there. I told her this counts as flying east to meet them and we don't have to do it for another three years.

[Hockey]

Gonna bump this since I'm taking my 8 year old daughter to Disneyland in a month. Was looking online for admission deals. Where is the best place to buy passes for Disneyland? I am not sure yet if I want to just do 1 day pass instead of 2 and see how it goes. My daughter is a bit of a scaredy cat, so not sure if she will want to go on the bigger rides. I'll try and convince her though. I know their is still lots for her to do and when we are going is supposedly one of the least busy times of the year.

Any help it tips would be appreciated

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by Hockey

Gonna bump this since I'm taking my 8 year old daughter to Disneyland in a month. Was looking online for admission deals. Where is the best place to buy passes for Disneyland? I am not sure yet if I want to just do 1 day pass instead of 2 and see how it goes. My daughter is a bit of a scaredy cat, so not sure if she will want to go on the bigger rides. I'll try and convince her though. I know their is still lots for her to do and when we are going is supposedly one of the least busy times of the year.

Any help it tips would be appreciated

There’s a canadian resident ticket offer for disneyland. The below link has the offer for entry to just one park but i think i saw an offer somewhere for the park hopper pass (both parks disneyland and california adventure).

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/en-...i-day-tickets/

[Rhettzky]

Originally Posted by Hockey

Gonna bump this since I'm taking my 8 year old daughter to Disneyland in a month. Was looking online for admission deals. Where is the best place to buy passes for Disneyland? I am not sure yet if I want to just do 1 day pass instead of 2 and see how it goes. My daughter is a bit of a scaredy cat, so not sure if she will want to go on the bigger rides. I'll try and convince her though. I know their is still lots for her to do and when we are going is supposedly one of the least busy times of the year.

Any help it tips would be appreciated

We are going in exactly one month as well, kids are very excited and at 8 years old your grand-daughter is the perfect age, IMO.

So there is a deal on right now until the end of February (i think) where Canadian residents save 25% on disney tickets. Which is a great deal. Westjet can also offer this deal as well as an additional savings on top of it if you book through westjet vacations. But I think the best deal we saw was through AMA, if you are a member. I believe it worked out to just over 30% off park tickets.

Also, you can add extra days to your pass when you get there as well. The only draw back is that they consider your pass at the discounted rate so you might pay a bit more to add a second day, but you still get the multi-day discount. Check at one of the ticket booths on your way in and they can let you know when you have to add it by.

The time of year is a great pick just be careful of the weekends around the 19th and 25th. There is some conference and I think marathon that we had to avoid on the latter weekend. So the park could be busy on the weekends. Weekdays are always your best bet and for some reason Thursday is generally the best mid-week day to go.

Finally, you should be able to see the park schedule for days you want to go now. This will include any ride closures and adjusted park hours for those days. For instance, I think it's a small world is shut down the entire time we are there (thank god!).

If you have any other questions let me know!

[red sky]

I just got back before Christmas. We booked the Disneyland 3-day passes through Expedia. I think this is the best way to get the tickets because the price is in Canadian dollars, and although it fluctuates with the CAD:USD exchange rate, you don't pay in USD so you don't get charged the credit card spread (2-4%).

Make sure you download the app that shows wait times. It made life so much easier for us. We didn't do Fastpasses using the app as it was terribly busy. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Hockey]

I see those deals are for 3 day park passes, we definitely won't be doing 3 days, 2 maybe. We are actually flying to Arizona and staying there for the majority of our trip cuz my parents have a place there and using there car to drive. We are only planning on staying in California from Jan 29 to feb 1. So 29 and 1 are travel days.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by Hockey

I see those deals are for 3 day park passes, we definitely won't be doing 3 days, 2 maybe. We are actually flying to Arizona and staying there for the majority of our trip cuz my parents have a place there and using there car to drive. We are only planning on staying in California from Jan 29 to feb 1. So 29 and 1 are travel days.

If a first trip, I would HIGHLY recommend doing at least 2 if not three days. With both parks and downtown Disney there is so much to see and do and you don't want to pull an "all nighter" of getting there at open and staying until close. Three days is perfect as you don't feel you have to rush to get it all in. I would rather drive through the night and take an extra day in the parks.

The only upside is the time of year you are going it will be very slow so you will get to go on rides at will.

This is Disneyland. There is a reason it is a dream trip. Don't stress over the money as you will be creating lifetime memories. Unless you get hung up on the costs or the crowds, it is very hard to be disappointed about Disneyland.

Also, we try to eat at the "meals" and not the food to go and found we could order one dish and my wife and I could share. I am sure you and your daughter can share a dish to help with the expenses.

[Knut]

Air-miles often has Disneyland tickets on their site. If you have some burning a hole in your pocket you can look into that.

[bizaro86]

I would definitely do at least the 2 day pass. That way you can do one park each day. If cost is a concern, you could get the regular option (no park hopper) and save some that way. Disneyland is way more fun if you aren't in a big stressed out rush.

I agree with the comment above on meals. The actual sit down meals at Disneyland aren't that bad. Quarter chicken dinner for ~$15 USD type stuff at Flo's V-8 Cafe in Carsland was our go-to. It's the "treats" that are expensive, more like $5 for a pretzel, etc.

I'm sending you a PM on accommodation deals...

[GreenLantern]

Originally Posted by MissTeeks

I love using this website for going to Disney parks. It has a crowd calendar and tells you which rides are being refurbished and such. I think it's worth the membership. I also always use their touring plans, saves me time.

https://touringplans.com/disneyland/touring-plans

Darn it, now I want to plan another trip to Disneyland.

Seconded. I used these guys last time I went down and we basically never stood in line. Also, the Halloween parties are an awesome time to go if you don't care about getting pictures with characters. We went to one at night (it costs extra even if you have a ticket for that day) and it was just a bunch of people standing in lines for candy/character pictures. Every ride was line free, we did multiple rides 3-4 times in a row just because we could.

1 day will not be enough to experience Disneyland, I would do two days.

[Sylvanfan]

We got a 5 day park hopper from AMA for like 369 per adult. Between the two parks there was still stuff we didn't see over 5 days.

Max pass for at least one person is worth it. You can order meal at ride and by the time you get to restaurant it's ready. It does save a lot of time. My kids both loved it just under 9 and 3 and a half. The Main Disney park has Magic hour on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday where gates open at 7 for a those with multi day tickets. Make the effort to take advantage of that...you can get lots covered in 2 and a half hours if you do this.

But it is busy and it's tough to navigate a large group thru a combination of oversized people, mobility scooters, and meGA strollers.

California is pricey though. If it rains...stay away parks have bad drainage and rides malfunction a lot in the rain

[snootchiebootchies]

We will be making our annual pilgrimage to Disneyland in a little over a month. We usually buy the Southern California CityPass just because my kids also love Legoland and Sea World. The CityPass also gives us the option to extend our Disneyland passes from a three-day parkhopper to a four-day parkhopper with a small incremental fee.

All the discounts you hear about are usually for 3-day passes or longer. Shorter term passes are almost never discounted unless you're a teacher in California or a member of the US military. I think AAA members (in Californa, not sure about Arizona) may also get some kind of discount. I guess check with your family in Arizona if they know anyone who is a member of these groups.

[Ashartus]

I went a few weeks ago. If you stay at the Disney hotels you can access the parks an hour early (it alternates which park you can enter early), which can be a good way to get on some of the rides without waiting. Not everything is open for that hour in the morning, but we did some of the rides like Space Mountain and the Incredicoaster without any lineups.


Fastpass and the Disney app work beautifully for avoiding most of the line-waiting. Book the really popular rides first thing in the morning on your phone, the app tells you when the passes for each ride are so you can plan ahead. Once you're in the Fastpass line for the ride, book your next one. Despite being there on a weekend we did all the big rides with almost no waiting in line, and no more searching around for where the Fastpass dispenser is located only to find the passes are for an inconvenient time. If your kids are really young you might still get stuck waiting in line for character photo ops if they're into that sort of thing, thankfully mine have outgrown that.



Food options didn't impress me much in Disneyland but were much better in California Adventure.

[Hockey]

Just looking at that deal for Canadian residents and it says Tickets must first be used by December 31, 2018. Tickets expire 13 days after first use or on January 13, 2019, But says sale is on until Feb. why does it say must be used by December 31st?