First Disneyland Trip

[hayesdvc]

Was able to snag 6 nights at the new DVC resort in March. DW and I have never been and have a couple general questions for you experts.
1. We have 4 day park hopper tickets with G+ included. I assume I can add days to these tickets as you can in WDW. Right?
2. Since we have never been before is 6 days too much? If so, since I don't know the area and how safe it is "outside the bubble", what else is a must?
3. We fly into WDW and rent a car. We are flying into John Wayne. Should we rent a card for this visit?
4. Will my WDW Magicbands+ work in DL?
5. I made park reservations one day for DL and the next day for CA. Does that make sense? Since we have the park hopper, does it matter?
6. What restaurants (QS or TS) do we have to visit?

I have homework to do in order to compare and contrast the two as it relates to reservations for G+ and dining.

Thanks for any advise.

 

[LKing]

How many people? Ages? Have you ever been to CA before?

1. We have 4 day park hopper tickets with G+ included. I assume I can add days to these tickets as you can in WDW.
4 days should be plenty

2. Since we have never been before is 6 days too much? If so, since I don't know the area and how safe it is "outside the bubble", what else is a must?
This depends on the ages and interests of your group. For little ones, Legoland is an hour south. Many enjoy visiting the beaches and Los Angeles.

Safety depends on where you are coming from and how much experience you have in large cities. For the most part, Anaheim is safe. I wouldn't walk alone at night.

3. We fly into WDW and rent a car. We are flying into John Wayne. Should we rent a card for this visit?
Yes, renting a car will make it easier in southern California.

4. Will my WDW Magicbands+ work in DL?
Some features will work. Others won't. At DLR, MB+ will get you in the turnstiles and onto Genie + rides. They can also be used with PhotoPass photographers. Attraction photos are not automatically detected. You need to take a pic of the ride photo and enter the code into the DL app in order for the photo to appear.

5. I made park reservations one day for DL and the next day for CA. Does that make sense? Since we have the park hopper, does it matter?
It matters until 11 am when you can go in and out of either park.

6. What restaurants (QS or TS) do we have to visit?
What type of food do you like? How important is a dining experience for you?
Many on this forum like Blue Bayou because of the ambiance. Some like the food, others feel that it is a waste of money. Many like Lamplight Lounge, especially for brunch. There seems to be a lot of hype about Trader Sams. Personally, I feel it is much ado about nothing. We like several of the new items at San Fransokyo.

 

[irlandaise]

3. We fly into WDW and rent a car. We are flying into John Wayne. Should we rent a card for this visit?
Yes, renting a car will make it easier in southern California.

Although if they're going to spend most of their time at Disneyland, they may not need one, saving the cost of the rental and parking at the hotel.

6. What restaurants (QS or TS) do we have to visit?
What type of food do you like? How important is a dining experience for you?
Many on this forum like Blue Bayou because of the ambiance. Some like the food, others feel that it is a waste of money. Many like Lamplight Lounge, especially for brunch. There seems to be a lot of hype about Trader Sams. Personally, I feel it is much ado about nothing. We like several of the new items at San Fransokyo.

There are lots of threads on this forum about where to eat. Here's one:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/w...ays-or-really-any-days.3922608/#post-64892705

Bengal BBQ is my favorite for quick service, but there are many good food options at DLR!

 

[bbeagle]

the maximum ticket is 5 days at Disneyland. You can only add 1 day to a 4 day ticket.

To us, 4 days in the parks are great. We usually do 5 in the parks, a pool/downtown Disney day, and Southern California days, We went 8 days last time, and are going 9 days next month - including one day at Universal Hollywood. For us, it’s perfect amount of time for a fun, leisurely time.

We always rent a car, as we will spend a 1/2 day visiting a beach, and another 1/2 day visiting Hollywood or mountains.

 

[LKing]

Although if they're going to spend most of their time at Disneyland, they may not need one, saving the cost of the rental and parking at the hotel.

Doesn't DVC get free parking? If they are talking about seeing things "outside the bubble" a car will be helpful.

 

[hayesdvc]

How many people? Ages? Have you ever been to CA before?

1. We have 4 day park hopper tickets with G+ included. I assume I can add days to these tickets as you can in WDW.
4 days should be plenty

2. Since we have never been before is 6 days too much? If so, since I don't know the area and how safe it is "outside the bubble", what else is a must?
This depends on the ages and interests of your group. For little ones, Legoland is an hour south. Many enjoy visiting the beaches and Los Angeles.

Safety depends on where you are coming from and how much experience you have in large cities. For the most part, Anaheim is safe. I wouldn't walk alone at night.

3. We fly into WDW and rent a car. We are flying into John Wayne. Should we rent a card for this visit?
Yes, renting a car will make it easier in southern California.

4. Will my WDW Magicbands+ work in DL?
Some features will work. Others won't. At DLR, MB+ will get you in the turnstiles and onto Genie + rides. They can also be used with PhotoPass photographers. Attraction photos are not automatically detected. You need to take a pic of the ride photo and enter the code into the DL app in order for the photo to appear.

5. I made park reservations one day for DL and the next day for CA. Does that make sense? Since we have the park hopper, does it matter?
It matters until 11 am when you can go in and out of either park.

6. What restaurants (QS or TS) do we have to visit?
What type of food do you like? How important is a dining experience for you?
Many on this forum like Blue Bayou because of the ambiance. Some like the food, others feel that it is a waste of money. Many like Lamplight Lounge, especially for brunch. There seems to be a lot of hype about Trader Sams. Personally, I feel it is much ado about nothing. We like several of the new items at San Fransokyo.

It will just be myself and wife. We are in our early 60's.

 

[SpaceMan5]

First of all, happy to hear that your making your 1st trip to where it all began.

For me and my fam, you can't have too many days at DL. Having more time will allow you to take things at a leisurely pace and really allow you to experience the sights and sounds.

We have always flown into John Wayne and will be doing so again in a few weeks. It is a nice, small airport and easy to navigate. If you are going to venture outside the bubble just a time or two I would Uber, Lyft from the airport and to any excursions you have planned.

Have fun. Cheers!

 

[LKing]

It will just be myself and wife. We are in our early 60's.

Then definitely look into reservations at Napa Rose.

You might enjoy visiting Newport Beach. It is close to the airport so, depending on the timing of your flights, it might be something to do on your arrival/departure day.

 

[NVDISFamily]

Welcome to DVC on the "west coast". VDH is a beautiful tower and we hope you have fun. Disneyland is a much more compact park and more intimate experience than WDW. 4 days would be great and if you are looking for some vibe and a tie-in to Disney history I'd highly recommend a visit to Knott's Berry Farm just down the road. We consider it the 3rd gate of Disneyland. You'll notice how some of the classic rides were inspiration to Walt and and the designers of other classic rides that are now iconic for Disney fans. Walt was friends with Walter Knott and you'll notice the trash cans at Knott's were shared from Disney as they were buddies.

If you happen to have a late start there is no need to go into your scheduled park with a park hopper. After 11am you can start at either park if you have a reservation. We usually make all of our reservations for Disneyland as that park has more to offer earlier in the day but 99% of the time it doesn't matter for us as we usually are slow risers and sleep in with the kids and will just go into either park after 11am. Disneyland does win as the park of choice at VDH as it's very nice to use the Monorail as your entrance into the park.

Quick service food at Disneyland is way better than QS at WDW. I'm not sure if it's still the case but the Ronto at WDW doesn't have the veggie/beyond Ronto Wrap and the Disneyland one does. I'm a meat eater 99% of the time but trust me, the Beyond one is amazing if you can handle a bit of spice. Tons of good QS food at San Fransokyo at DCA. The Chili Cone Queso (and the mac and cheese one) is bad for you but delicious (filling) treat. Side note - if you are DVC-Y you get a discount at a lot of the QS places and it will also do this via mobile order.

Also, if you are DVC-Y, the lounge in tomorrow land is great and it's my favorite coffee as 1) it's "free" and 2) I don't have to wait in that long line at the Starbucks on main street or DTD. You can also bring food up and eat on the outside patio with a great view of the Matterhorn. We like to mobile order from galactic grill and take it up to the lounge and get a drink there and enjoy. They do tend to shut down the patio early then they used to to get ready for the firework show packages.

You can get your MB+ to play nice with both WDW and Disneyland apps but it can be tricky. I had posted to another thread how to do this and I can find it if it will help you....

Edit - here is a link to another thread and how I was able to help someone get their MB+ to link to Disneyland app - https://www.disboards.com/threads/another-magic-band-question.3932425/post-65107480

 

[NVDISFamily]

Doesn't DVC get free parking? If they are talking about seeing things "outside the bubble" a car will be helpful.

Yep if you are staying on your points or rented DVC point stays you get 2 free cars per room (as of now). I usually just don't even put my cars on my pre-arrival check in to avoid having to try and have them taken off.

 

[irlandaise]

Yep if you are staying on your points or rented DVC point stays you get 2 free cars per room (as of now).

Oh, that's a nice perk. They'll still need to decide whether it's worth paying for a week's rental depending on how much they want to go off-site.

 

[disneychrista]

Was able to snag 6 nights at the new DVC resort in March. DW and I have never been and have a couple general questions for you experts.
1. We have 4 day park hopper tickets with G+ included. I assume I can add days to these tickets as you can in WDW. Right?
2. Since we have never been before is 6 days too much? If so, since I don't know the area and how safe it is "outside the bubble", what else is a must?

Yes you can add a day but just know that 5 days is the maximum. If you want six days you have either purchase a single day ticket.

 

[Kit Jackson]

2. Since we have never been before is 6 days too much? If so, since I don't know the area and how safe it is "outside the bubble", what else is a must?

Six days is good if you want to go at a leisurely pace. With that many days, you should be able to see and do just about everything you want without rope drop, and maybe even ride things multiple times (I recommend riding Radiator Springs Racers twice if you can; one ride in the daytime and another ride at night after dark). Also, if a ride is down (just for a day or a few hours) it gives you a chance to ride it if it comes back online later that day or later in your trip.

3. We fly into WDW and rent a car. We are flying into John Wayne. Should we rent a card for this visit?

That depends on how much you want to do outside of Disneyland. If you are spending the entire trip at Disneyland, there really isn't much of a need for a car. If you want to do things outside of/in addition to Disneyland, you will probably want to rent a car.

4. Will my WDW Magicbands+ work in DL?

If they are Magicband+, they will work. Magicband+ in Disneyland are more limited in functionality. You can use them to scan into the parks, scan in for rides, PhotoPass photographers can scan them to link the photo to your account, and I think that's it (someone can add anything I've forgotten to mention). Magicband+ works, but it does less in Disneyland than it does in WDW.

 

[starkweatherink]

I'd also like to point out that there is no "bubble" like it is in WDW. You don't cross under the sign and it's all Disney property. It's just Anaheim. The "bubble" is when you pass either side with the bag checks, then its DL on one side and GCA on the other with DTD off to the side between the two parks.

 

[bbeagle]

I'd also like to point out that there is no "bubble" like it is in WDW. You don't cross under the sign and it's all Disney property. It's just Anaheim. The "bubble" is when you pass either side with the bag checks, then its DL on one side and GCA on the other with DTD off to the side between the two parks.

If you’re staying at a Disneyland hotel property (including grand Californian), there is most definitely a bubble.

 

[LKing]

Disneyland is 500 acres. WDW is 30,000 acres.

The Villas at the Disneyland Hotel are on the very edge of Disney property. The other side of the wall is Walnut St. and residential Anaheim. The distance from the Disneyland hotel, across DTD to Harbor Blvd is less than a mile. While one can emerse themselves in all that is Disney at the California resorts, it certainly isn't the same "bubble" experience as it is at WDW.

OP asked about safety. If they are two adults staying for 6 nights, I imagine that at some point, they will want to leave Disney property.

 

[Porsche4]

Unless you are okay with driving in horrendous traffic I wouldn't hire a car. We had a DL/LA holiday and didn't rent a car. We did DL first then moved to a hotel near Santa Monica for a few nights to do things near there using Uber rather than public transport. We then moved to a hotel near Universal Studios to spend a couple of days doing that park. Again we used Uber when we needed to. When I priced it out the cost of using Ubers was only a little more than hiring a car and I did not have to deal with the traffic which was a god send, rather I just sat back in a nice vehicle, relaxed and enjoyed the ride. It was perfect.

 

[NVDISFamily]

If you’re staying at a Disneyland hotel property (including grand Californian), there is most definitely a bubble.

IMO if you are staying on property at Disneyland Resort it's peak bubble but it's just way smaller. Nothing like walking across the Esplanade to park hop. Grand Cal is a bit better but Disneyland Hotel is a great experience too. Yea I have to walk across Disneyland Drive to sneak into the back of DCA but when I'm at WDW I have a lot of roads to deal with to get places too. Do I care if the roads/swamp is owned by Disney vs Anaheim.

Speaking of bubble and walking. For the OP here is the path I recommend to get to DCA from the VDH tower -



Your Disneyland Hotel card will open the gate at the Grand Cal and I've never had the cast members there stop us when we were staying at the Grand Cal or Disneyland Hotel. I have heard some rumors about them only allowing Pixar Hotel guests through there in the very early AM but we never rope drop DCA so others would have to advise on that.

 

[smartlabelprint]

Starting park matters if you decide to use early entry. It will be every other day different park.

 

[crystal1313]

We checked out the lobby at the VDH in November and absolutely loved it! I wish I could have seen a room. You guys will have a blast!!!

MB+ has been explained really well, but I did want to point out that it will not open your room door. I’m not sure why that doesn’t work at Disneyland yet! And you cannot charge to your room with it either.

For dining, we really like Naples (like via Napoli) and it’s in downtown Disney. We also like Carthay Circle. Disneyland specific things we love are the churro toffee at all the candy stores and the garlic cheddar pretzel roll at Maurices in fantasyland (to the left of the castle when walking down Main Street). Beignets at jazz kitchen are always yummy and you will be SO close to Trader Sams at the VDH, highly recommend checking that out as well. Blue bayou ambiance cannot be beat. It’s a bit pricey, but if this is a one and done trip, I would consider eating there too!!

For other things to do in the area, we like to go to the Anaheim packing district.

https://www.anaheimpackingdistrict.com/

There’s also quite a few breweries nearby if that is something you enjoy.

I highly recommend checking out the app and getting familiar with the layout of the parks. Also, as the trip gets closer check the menus! It’s fun to see all the seasonal items and get an idea of what you might like (and an idea of pricing). I usually make a list of things I want to try. I’m more into eating snacks all day vs. large meals. But I have 2 teen boys, so we usually eat a meal as well for them. Lol.

Hope that helps and have so much fun!!