Dumb Question for First Timer

[nenis]

/So hubby and I have decided to do something wild since we wont have the kids for the weekend (23rd-25th). We are going to DisneyLand!!!
Here is my dumb question: Hubby and I can do Magic Kingdom (wdw) in one day. If our flight arrives at 9:30am on the 23rd (saturday)Can we do both parks in one day if we head to disney from the airport?
Our second option is to go sunday the 24th from rope drop but we have to be at the airport at 12am.
What do you think?

 

[dieumeye]

Depends on what you want to do. You can certainly visit both parks in one day and do some attractions in both easily. But you certainly won’t be able to do “everything” and will have trouble even doing the “greatest hits”, again, depending on how you define that.

Which airport also makes a difference.

If you list which airport, and the things you’d like to experience, you’ll get plenty of advice on how to proceed.

 

[nenis]

Depends on what you want to do. You can certainly visit both parks in one day and do some attractions in both easily. But you certainly won’t be able to do “everything” and will have trouble even doing the “greatest hits”, again, depending on how you define that.

Which airport also makes a difference.

If you list which airport, and the things you’d like to experience, you’ll get plenty of advice on how to proceed.

We'd be arriving in LAX. Honestly we have no itinerary other than to go "see" DL. We arent rollercoaster junkies so we dont "have to" get on any ride.
What apps do you use to see wait times on?

 

[mmouse37]

D you have to be at the airport at 12 noon or 12 am (midnight)? That's a big difference in time.

We are also flying out of LAX on the 25th but our flight isn't until 5:15 pm

MJ

 

[nenis]

D you have to be at the airport at 12 noon or 12 am (midnight)? That's a big difference in time.

We are also flying out of LAX on the 25th but our flight isn't until 5:15 pm

MJ

we leave at 12am

 

[dieumeye]

We'd be arriving in LAX. Honestly we have no itinerary other than to go "see" DL. We arent rollercoaster junkies so we dont "have to" get on any ride.
What apps do you use to see wait times on?

OK, great! First, it can be an hour from LAX to get to the park, really depends on traffic, Saturday morning shouldn’t be too bad, but you might want to check out drive time from LAX to Disneyland at the appropriate time on Google maps the next few Saturdays.

It’s great that you have no “must do“ attractions! I say the best trips to Disneyland are the trips where you can just go with the flow and have a relaxing time instead of stressing over cramming a huge list of things into a short amount of time.

If you want to go to Disneyland, stroll around, maybe ride a few rides, and then do the same thing with California Adventure, then you can certainly do that on Saturday and have a wonderful time.

The best app for wait times and reservations and all around info is the official Disneyland app.

I suggest thinking about doing a dining reservation somewhere that suits your taste, and checking out the show World of Color in the evening!

If you do decide there are some attractions you definitely want to hit, check back here for the scoop on usual wait times or best strategy to avoid long waits.

 

[chickapin parterre]

Sunday.....you want that morning freshness at Disneyland, I having only been to WDW once and found it very unmemorable, I didn't realize that WDW had no NOS as someone recently pointed our earlier on this site , you want to see that in the morning and at night. If resting on Saturday energizes you for a full blown Sunday visit with sleep on a plane, then Sunday it should be, by then your RSR Max pass should be available and you can head over To DCA and then return into the evening for Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, which are better night time viewings areas, as well as NOS at night.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I would get two-day park hoppers!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

This thread has lots of good information for you: A DLR Guide for WDW Vets.

 

[WonkaKid]

In my case, I love DL far more than DCA (I go to DL every Sunday and only hit DCA perhaps twice a year) and would suggest suggest doing a quality day there rather than try to cram both into a single day. I think you’d have a higher-quality experience. Even if you arrived at rope drop on Saturday and stayed till close, I’d still suggest you only attempt one park. Up to you, though. You know your style better than I do .

 

[disneyland_is_magic]

Hubby and I can do Magic Kingdom (wdw) in one day

For reference according to Disney, MK has 40 attractions. The DL park has 56 and DLR (Disneyland resort) in total has 90. For comparison, MK, HS, Epcot total 92. So could you do those 3 in one day if they were geographically next to each other?
I am another vote for two days. If you only can do one rope drop Sunday.
But let’s talk about the money. A one day park hopper will cost you $199 for that ONE day!! You can buy the promo discount 3-day ticket (no hopping) for $210. The discounted ticket also offers the option of $10 max pass per day. I would spend the $210 and do both days, it’s 10 dollars more. I personally would do $240 and get the max pass but that’s another lengthy explanation. Please at least spend the extra $10 and do both days with one day for each park. Please look at the numbers on ticket prices.

And have a magical trip.

 

[jillt2ph]

For reference according to Disney, MK has 40 attractions. The DL park has 56 and DLR (Disneyland resort) in total has 90. For comparison, MK, HS, Epcot total 92. So could you do those 3 in one day if they were geographically next to each other?
I am another vote for two days. If you only can do one rope drop Sunday.
But let’s talk about the money. A one day park hopper will cost you $199 for that ONE day!! You can buy the promo discount 3-day ticket (no hopping) for $210. The discounted ticket also offers the option of $10 max pass per day. I would spend the $210 and do both days, it’s 10 dollars more. I personally would do $240 and get the max pass but that’s another lengthy explanation. Please at least spend the extra $10 and do both days with one day for each park. Please look at the numbers on ticket prices.

And have a magical trip.

These are reasons why I am buying the promo 3 day hopper ticket, even though I only plan on spending a few hours each of the 2 of the 3 days in the parks. I am staying at The Grand Californian, but the trip is mainly to visit relatives. That ticket deal is too good to pass up! We arrive at LAX Thursday at noon, and the remainder of that day is for the parks. But on Fri and Sat we just plan to take advantage of whichever park opens early for resort guests and then another hour or 2. If we can go in for an hour or so before closing time, that will be icing on the cake. We are adding MaxPass for both the fastpass and photopass features As someone who visits WDW multiple times a year, I am already looking forward to the character breakfast at The Plaza Inn! A mishmash of characters, and who knows which ones will be there!

 

[Chronic Daydreamer]

If 'seeing' DL is what you want and not partically to ride then you can for sure do both parks in one day, though if it where me i would 109% go Sunday over Saterday, those first 2 hours of park open are fantastic for whatever you want to do, even if you just want to wander around, it's quiet, you'll find characters roaming around and almost anything you do want to ride will have short lines. I honestly find Sundays to be the best day for taking in Disneyland

 

[WonkaKid]

I honestly find Sundays to be the best day for taking in Disneyland

Couldn’t agree more. My friends and I call the first few hours in the park “Golden time” or “Golden hours.” Many people don’t make the park open so, unless there’s something special going on, the first few hours should be really good, irrespective of how the rest of the day goes.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

**This post may sound confusing with a lot of numbers thrown out..but I hope it makes sense in the end lol**

I would recommend purchasing the PROMO ticket even though it starts at 3-days if you think you might be able to make it for even a tiny bit of the second day. We didn't know if we would be able to go more than 2 days but the cost comparison between the PROMO and non-PROMO price meant it made no sense to not go with the PROMO ticket.

• A 1-day base ticket non-PROMO through Disney it would cost you $149.00.
• A 1-day park hopper ticket non-PROMO through Disney would cost you $199.00.
• A 2-day base ticket non-PROMO through Disney it would cost you $225.00.
• A 2-day park hopper ticket non-PROMO through Disney would cost you $280.00
• A 3-day base base PROMO ticket through Disney is $210.00.
• A 3-day park hopper PROMO ticket through Disney is $260.00.

Having said that though I'd look into the cost comparison with 3rd party vendors like Undercover Tourist.

Through Undercover Tourist:

• A 3-day base is $191.76 PROMO through Undercover Tourist as opposed to Disney's $210.00. That's a savings of $18.24 per person.
• A 3-day park hopper PROMO is $237.42 through Undercover Tourist as opposed to Disney's $260.00. That's a savings of $22.58 per person.

Buying directly through Disney would allow you to add on MaxPass for $10/day.

• However, you have to buy it for ALL 3 days when buying through Disney directly.
• When buying through 3rd Party vendors you would need to purchase each day after you scan your ticket at the tapstiles and it would be $15/day.
• Purchasing Park Hopper tickets will close the gap in terms of savings when you're doing 2 and 3 days for MaxPass ($7.58 per person savings). Only you can determine if those savings are worth it.

We did Undercover Tourist 3-day Park Hopper PROMO, purchasing MaxPass for 3 full days (at the $15 per day rate) and while $7.58 per person savings ($282.42 vs $290.00) over buying directly through Disney doesn't sound like a lot:

• It paid for a meal for us OR
• We could look at it as it covered just wee bit more than 1 day's worth RT of Uber from our hotel (excluding tip) OR
• We could look at it as it covered 69% of the cost (excluding tax) for the Disneyland Christmas ornament we purchased (which the ornament's price was just over the amount needed to have our parking ticket validated at Downtown Disney parking)
• Well you get the picture

I will say with the castle under refurb your walking distance to attractions in DL will be longer so that will add some time spent throughout the day. We utilized Park Hopping frequently when we were there TBH.

You'll want to download Disneyland app. That will have the wait times and show times, mobile ordering, ADR reservations, etc on it. It's basically WDW's MDE app for Disneyland.

One word of caution with MaxPass. IF the app goes down, which is did for us on our last day there (March 4th), it significantly reduces the advantage to MaxPass. For that day they actually stopped selling MaxPass early in the day when they realized the app crashed. I couldn't access my account the whole day on my phone but luckily my husband could on his phone so he was able to make FPs for us and see our plans as we had already purchased MaxPass. I don't think the app crashes often at all but just throwing that out there.

Also I don't know how long you've been going to WDW but if you've only been since FP+ was introduced just know that at Disneyland you can't modify your FP time like you can at WDW if say you originally grabbed a FP for it's a small world at 1:00-2:00pm you couldn't go back into the app and refresh and modify to an earlier time. Disneyland still uses Legacy FP distribution rules.

Have fun--I know we did!!

**Sorry for the long post **