IMO if you're going to Disneyland you should fly to Orange County Airport (SNA).
Westjet flies directly from YYC. It's way easier to get, bags and ground transportation, and way closer to Disneyland. Then it's like 75% less hassle departing as well.
Nah man...no way.
I wouldn't give up that Van ride for anything. Jammies getting tickled by a feather on an insane woman's stupid hat for 90 minutes?
Guys getting squeezed by some of the largest humans I've ever seen?
"It SEATS 15!!"
Have you seen these people??
It was one of the most uncomfortable, insane but hilarious rides of my life.
You could actually watch people plotting murder silently in their minds. It. Was. Wild.
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Flying into SNA is usually significantly more expensive, especially if you’re buying flights for four.
Wouldn’t recommend it unless saving an hour of your time on the day you get there and the day you leave is worth $800-1000 dollars to you.
We had a weird one on our trip. It ended up being cheaper for us to arrive at LAX and depart from SNA, even though it meant we couldn’t use our buddy passes since it wasn’t considered a round trip. YYC->LAX was packed and SNA ->YYC was only like 60%-70% full. Made no sense to me.
Flying into SNA is usually significantly more expensive, especially if you’re buying flights for four.
Wouldn’t recommend it unless saving an hour of your time on the day you get there and the day you leave is worth $800-1000 dollars to you.
I'm not sure about $200/pp being an average unless you're maybe booking very last minute. We've done that trip on westjet multiple times in the last few years and the premium has generally been $20-$60 per person.
I checked westjet for this July (13-20) and SNA was $483 pp and LAX for $489pp boyh directs. LAX is a bit cheaper if you take the late flight and stay overnight in Vancouver but that's pretty unpleasant.
Those prices are representative, imo, some weekdays LAX was cheaper, but I don't think any date combinations I saw were close to $200 pp.
Part of it is that AC stopped flying from here to LAX, so LAX prices are up.
Anyway, for my family of 4 I'm willing to pay $200 more total for SNA - we generally don't rent a car for DL (stay within walking distance, get a few groceries delivered, eat most meals out) and so just the Uber savings to-from cover most of that.
And the cheapest flight out of LAX is usually the early morning one. Taking an early morning flight out of LAX with kids when you are staying in Anaheim is a terrible way to end a vacation, because you have to get them up really early so they're tired and grumpy.
For $1000 more I agree I'd do LAX but that hasn't been my experience since westjet started the direct to SNA.
Flew into John Wayne on Friday and I'll never ever do lax again
Yeah, it's honestly way better. I tell people regularly, because I think LAX is so much better known that people assume they should go there, but if you're going to Disneyland SNA is the superior choice for sure.
It's not that I'm trying to help people even, I just want that flight to be a success so I can use it myself...
Only negative to that airport is the lack of duty free booze store. After surviving Disneyland I was promised some discounted premium spirits and sadly that promise could not be fulfilled at the airport. Oh, and having to pay for a stupid luggage cart and then realizing the luggage drop off is like 5 steps from the front door.
silly question, am I right in assuming this Genie+ is for both Disney land and Disney world? We are heading to Orlando later this year and thought while we are there we might jump into the park for a day to see some of the Star Wars stuff.
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We are just figuring out the Genie+ as well. It is for disney world. Also trying to figure out if it is worth the park hopper option. My initial take is that it would be better to just stay in one park for the full day, and choose another for another day. So much depends on how many days you plan/can stomach on the trip.
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We are just figuring out the Genie+ as well. It is for disney world. Also trying to figure out if it is worth the park hopper option. My initial take is that it would be better to just stay in one park for the full day, and choose another for another day. So much depends on how many days you plan/can stomach on the trip.
And how young your children are. We just did California adventure then at 4pm better for the park hopper as our children are old enough we'd done everything (7 and 11). They were happy to sell us them at that point at the actual ticket booth
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We are just figuring out the Genie+ as well. It is for disney world. Also trying to figure out if it is worth the park hopper option. My initial take is that it would be better to just stay in one park for the full day, and choose another for another day. So much depends on how many days you plan/can stomach on the trip.
Park Hopping makes a lot more sense in California rather than Florida because the parks are so close and there's a lot more to do in Disneyland than in California Adventure. The parks in Florida are so far apart, that you waste a lot of time in transit.
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silly question, am I right in assuming this Genie+ is for both Disney land and Disney world? We are heading to Orlando later this year and thought while we are there we might jump into the park for a day to see some of the Star Wars stuff.
Genie+ is available at both DW and DL. There is also something called $ILL (Individual Lightning Lane) available. The $ILL is a one time extra purchase for Lightning Lane access to 1-2 rides in each park. These rides are not part of Genie+ so they are extra. The $ILL also vary in price based on ride/demand/time of year/etc. and can get as high as $25USD/PP per ILL. If you were going to just hit up Galaxy's Edge then I would suggest getting the ILL for Rise of the Resistance. The Genie+ is good for Hollywood Studios however you have to be booking right at the 7am window and plan around that. I would suggest an $ILL for Rise, First Genie+ ride Slinky Dog Dash and then be there for rope drop to head for Tower of Terror. Then use your Genie+ to try and snag Rock'n Roller Coaster and Midway Mania/Smuggler's Run.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug
We are just figuring out the Genie+ as well. It is for disney world. Also trying to figure out if it is worth the park hopper option. My initial take is that it would be better to just stay in one park for the full day, and choose another for another day. So much depends on how many days you plan/can stomach on the trip.
The park hopper is is definitely up to a number of factors. I would say you are right in how long your trip is and how much you are staying in the Disney bubble. I would also add the park hopper depends on how you want to explore the parks. We like to be at a park for most of the day, head back to the hotel for a refresh/dining reservation, then after all that maybe take in another park for evening entertainment (fireworks, parades, maybe a ride experience is different at night like say Tron). Sometimes if we have others along with us, we might take an evening in Epcot for a "Drink around the world" attempt. One other thing I would consider is what of the 4 parks your are headed to. Animal Kingdom is a good one, however it is very small and won't take all day to do, so you might want to head to another park again to get something you may have missed on a previous day. The final I've also found that the age of my kids have made a difference. The older they get the more they want to do park things, so park hoppers are a good choice. When they were younger come supper time there was no way we make it back to any park.
As for Genie+ what are you wondering? I've gotten a good handle on it now (they are probably changing it again in the future though). Not all DW parks are needed for Genie+. The only one I would 100% get every time is Magic Kingdom. There are more rides that use Genie+ here so you can make it work a lot more throughout the day than any other park. The next one to get it at is Hollywood Studios. While there aren't as many rides to use it on, the quality and potential wait times make it good to purchase. If you do get Genie+ for HS, make sure get your first choice right at the first window (usually 7am). You then can make a second genie+ selection at one of a few times. You can make another one 2 hours after the park opens or (So if HS opens at 9am you can make your next selection @ 11am) or you can make your next selection right after you tap into your 1st selection (eg. you have Genei+ for Slinky @ 8:10am. HS opens @ 8am, you go to your 8:10 Slinky, tap in the LL lineup and can now make a 2nd genie+ selection). You can use this two hour window to "stack" genie+ rides as you can multiple selections as long as you've obey'd the 2 hour rules.
Eg. You made your 1st Slinky Genie+ selection @ 7am. It is for 2:30pm. Hollywood Studios opens at 9am. You go to the park and start your day. You do your thing and @ 11am you can now make a 2nd selection. You choose Hollywood Tower for 7:15pm. You keep going about your day in HS and at 1pm you make another selection (if there is a ride still available, sometimes people cancel their LL so you never know) it is for Alien Flying saucers at 1:45pm. You now have 3 LL's for 3 different rides plus the $ILL you bought for 3pm in the morning for Rise.
Hope this helps a little but and doesn't confuse things too much. Feel free to ask me anything on DW as we go there quite often.
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When booking an Uber are kids expected to have their car seats down there when driving from SNA to Disneyland? The booster seats are fairly large and that is the only driving we will be doing. The kids are 4.5 and 6 years old
