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There is a WDW thread with this title, so I thought this board could use a similar thread for the Land that started it all. I am hoping to learn lots from all of you.
One request - Please include age bracket or height requirements for any rides and entertainment you recommend.
How much time will you have? Both Disneyland and California Adventure, or no CA?
We are still in the planning stages, but we are figuring on 3 days for both. There are things for toddlers in both parks, so we might as well try to do both since they are so close.Quote:
Originally Posted by sariana
But don't restrict your answer to my needs - I am hoping to make this a thread that people can use in all sorts of circumstances
I think it'll be hard to do a general "must do/not do" list that would be good for everyone in all sorts of circumstances.
Age plays a huge factor. For example I can come up with a list of must for all ages, one for my 3 year old and another for my 6 yr old but eventually wouldn't that end up being a re-creation of all the rides /attractions that's on the disneyland website anyways?
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Unless the wait is under 15 minutes, I wouldn't do Peter Pan and I wouldn't burn a fast pass on it either. Same with Winnie the Pooh.
If tall enough, Soarin' in CA gets tippy top marks from me.
Love Toon Town too. We actually skipped it our first visit but went on our second. Lots of fun!
Tea cups are fine and great to hit during a parade!
Ds2 was 5 last time we went and he loved Nemo. He was super afraid of dark rides, including Pirates. Rest of us liked Pirates. :)
We love Space Mountain and the Matterhorn was fine.
Eta- we were fine with the Candy Cane Inn, accepting that it's a motor lodge. I usually avoid those but it got such good reviews in Trip Advisor and I didn't feel like paying for a Disney hotel. We upgraded to the "fancy" package. Don't remember what all was included but they did deliver breakfast and snacks to us for it. If I were staying on property, if totally choose the Grand Californian. Love the location. I thought the Pier one was way too far away and the theming was lackluster; I'd save $ and stay off property vs staying there.
You have a good point; but I was thinking about hints like which bathrooms tend to get more crowded, restaurants to skip, which restaurants would be great for vegetarians, anything like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by ckso
Also for people who stay at DL, which onsite and Good Neighbor hotels are best and why; any rooms to avoid, etc
Best bathrooms (shortest lines, cleanest): Aladdin's Oasis (go to the right of the entrance, it's a "companion bathroom"), Baby Center bathrooms (for those with toddlers/preschoolers that are newly potty trained and/or scared of auto-flush toilets, on Main Street and Pacific Wharf), Hollywood Studios (in the back, to the left of the El Capitan mural).Quote:
Originally Posted by Still-in-Shock
Worst bathrooms (busiest): Plaza Inn/Main Street bathrooms!
Favorite restaurants and places to skip are all based on individual tastes of course. Personally, I wasn't impressed with Bengal BBQ (skewers--$5/skewer basically, and it took 2-3 skewers to make an adult meal), otherwise I have loved everything! If you happen to love Pirates of the Caribbean, consider eating at Blue Bayou (the restaurant in Pirates). It's spendy, but the food is great, and every time I eat lunch there, I am shocked to find it's still daylight out when I finish eating!
Good Neighbor Hotels are very much a personal preference. Our family's favorite is Park Vue. It's closer to the main entrance than Disneyland Hotel. They have several different room types (a 2-room suite with kitchenette, a 2-queen room, queen with bunks, Jacuzzi King, not sure what other rooms), usually for under $250, many under $200. Last month, I paid $160 for a 2-queen room. They offer a return-customer discount, and a great hot breakfast (biscuits and gravy, bacon, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, sausage at different times, make-your-own waffles, multiple breads, yogurt, fresh fruit, etc). That hot breakfast saves our family serious money! We stay away from Desert Inn and Suites. We've had multiple issues with them (getting confirmation calls for reservations cancelled months before, changing prices on us when we check in, charging for parking [half of the hotels charge, half don't], putting a hold on a night's reservation for 10 days before charging our card, after us canceling our reservation at 36hrs when FIL died [48-hour cancellation policy]). Their beds are hard, I got folliculitis after taking a dip in their hot tub, their towels are tiny and scratchy. Their prices are great ($69 for a 2-queen room when reserved months in advance, $109 for a suite), but not worth the issues I've had around the billing/reservation issues. Lots of people like HoJo (great water-park area, walk is about 10-minutes away). Best Western Park Place Inn and Suites doesn't really have "suites"--they are a room with a half-wall making it a "mini-suite." Our favorite very-budget places are actually the Motel 6 (can't remember the address) and Super 8 (on Katella).
I didn't mean to blow you off after my first post. I just got busy, and then when I saw your clarification, I realized I wouldn't be any help to you anyway.
I asked about the number of days because it can affect how you tackle the geography of the park. If you have only one day, you may be more willing to crisscross in order to experience as much as possible. If you have two or more days, you might want to focus on one "Land" at a time so that you are not walking all over the park. So one day you might do Adventureland, Frontierland, New Orleans Square, and Critter Country (is that what it's called still?), and the next you might do Fantasyland, ToonTown, and Tomorrowland. (The ages of the guests would be a factor, of course.) Adding California Adventure to the mix adds a whole new element.
DL is small enough to navigate in a short period of time, but crowds can make it nearly impossible to move. So knowing which attractions "flow" into the next can make planning easier for busy days.
We were given one-day tickets as Christmas gifts. As I'm not willing to take the kids out of school, the only time we can go is going to be super busy. So I will plan our day to minimize moving around the park and maximize the natural flow of the lands.
I didn't think you had blown me off - it's easy to get busy.
I figured that we would start would start either with the Disney Jr show in Cal Adventure or with Toontown in DisneyLand, and then see how our son reacts. And since we need to include a midday map, I thought maybe an intro to one park in the morning and one in the afternoon the first day would make sense. It depends on which day has the earlier fireworks show too.
Actually, any info about which how the lines from one ride flow into another would be very helpful - no sense planning to see attractions in an order that will take twice as long to do from the way the park is set up.