Disney Land Advice

WDW!

Active Member
Original Poster
We will be starting to plan a trip to Disney Land soon.
Any advice on:
-Where to stay?
-How long should we plan on staying?
We have only visited WDW in the past. This will be a 1st visit to DL.
 

melflip8

Well-Known Member
I'd like to hear your advice on this Raven as well, I have rooms held at Fairfield Inn and Suites, Anaheim Desert Inn and Suites or the Anaheim Marriott.

I am flying out a Thursday morning, arriving in LAX about 10am and departing a Tuesday afternoon. I figured I'd have time to see most stuff plus do the Half Marathon on Sunday morning with that length of time. Planning on getting a 5 day pass...would it be worth it to get a Park Hopper?

Thanks...and you will be seeing lots of questions from me! haha
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
I'd like to hear your advice on this Raven as well, I have rooms held at Fairfield Inn and Suites, Anaheim Desert Inn and Suites or the Anaheim Marriott.

I am flying out a Thursday morning, arriving in LAX about 10am and departing a Tuesday afternoon. I figured I'd have time to see most stuff plus do the Half Marathon on Sunday morning with that length of time. Planning on getting a 5 day pass...would it be worth it to get a Park Hopper?

Thanks...and you will be seeing lots of questions from me! haha

Advice and answers coming soon.:) Hang on for a minute.
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
I'd like to hear your advice on this Raven as well, I have rooms held at Fairfield Inn and Suites, Anaheim Desert Inn and Suites or the Anaheim Marriott.

I am flying out a Thursday morning, arriving in LAX about 10am and departing a Tuesday afternoon. I figured I'd have time to see most stuff plus do the Half Marathon on Sunday morning with that length of time. Planning on getting a 5 day pass...would it be worth it to get a Park Hopper?

Thanks...and you will be seeing lots of questions from me! haha

All three hotel spots are cool, but the best thing about Desert Inn is it's RIGHT across the street from the resort. Literally. You walk out the gates of the resort and there it is, right across the street. The other two are nicer though, HAHA.

Five days are enough to see pretty much everything. Some people have said they needed more than that... I think five is enough. At the most, six. You can't visit the DLR without a park hopper, unless you're an AP. The parks are VERY close to each other. From Disneyland's front gates, you can be in California Adventure within seconds.
 

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
We will be starting to plan a trip to Disney Land soon.
Any advice on:
-Where to stay?
-How long should we plan on staying?
We have only visited WDW in the past. This will be a 1st visit to DL.
We like Grand Californian. It's like a cross between Wilderness Lodge and Grand Floridian, but not nearly as frilly and stuffy as Grand Floridian. Plus it's really close to the parks (I'm not kidding, CAA is right outside the door.) It comes with its own private entrance to CAA.

We're going for 5 days. Go for about a week and see some of SoCal while you're at it. I like San Diego (especially San Diego Zoo; if you'll go, you'll see where AK got its inspiration from!), and Adventures by Disney does a tour to LA as well as to the Disney Studios in the same day.

Also...it's not WDW. Don't expect it to be the same as WDW. You will have to use maps (gasp). I recommend getting a guidebook. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to say which one I like best because apparently, that's considered spam on here. Let's just say the "official" one is best. But anyway, the guidebook will help you better know what to expect.

We're going in June and are very excited. Second trip to DL!
 

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Is this a one time, never going back again trip?
Who would never wanna go back again? Seriously. I requested that my graduation trip be to DL because I was itching to go back. Thankfully, my dad is a genie and my wish was his command...well, at least in this case.
 

WDW!

Active Member
Original Poster
We like Grand Californian. It's like a cross between Wilderness Lodge and Grand Floridian, but not nearly as frilly and stuffy as Grand Floridian. Plus it's really close to the parks (I'm not kidding, CAA is right outside the door.) It comes with its own private entrance to CAA.

We're going for 5 days. Go for about a week and see some of SoCal while you're at it. I like San Diego (especially San Diego Zoo; if you'll go, you'll see where AK got its inspiration from!), and Adventures by Disney does a tour to LA as well as to the Disney Studios in the same day.

Also...it's not WDW. Don't expect it to be the same as WDW. You will have to use maps (gasp). I recommend getting a guidebook. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to say which one I like best because apparently, that's considered spam on here. Let's just say the "official" one is best. But anyway, the guidebook will help you better know what to expect.

We're going in June and are very excited. Second trip to DL!
We are thinking about visiting San Diego while we are there too. About how far is the ride?
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
I would splurge.

Okay. I would recommend the Disneyland Hotel or the Grand Californian. The DL Hotel is classic and the Grand is big and classy. The Grand is closer to the parks, with an entrance placed in California Adventure. The DL Hotel is at the end of Downtown Disney and it's not a far walk at all. You're good to go with either hotel.

I'd recommend getting a five day park hopper. If you can't do five, get at least a three day hopper.
 

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
There are plenty of WDW vets who either only plan to visit the DLR once, or who've visited once and vow never to return again because they hated it.
Really? Happiest place on Earth, how could anyone hate it? (well, there are more than one happiest places on Earth) Well, ours is vastly different. I know you've never been to WDW (the Disneyland people complain about how much walking it is btw, so if you go, just be aware) but I really like both, though I prefer WDW. Could not spend 2 weeks in DL (or 19 days, our record trip. Wasn't supposed to be that long, something about a hurricane back home). But we just have way more to do, and part of the fun is just chilling, walking around and enjoying the ambiance. We've also got more hotels, water parks, Downtown Disney is about 3 times the size of DL's. There's really no reason to leave the property once you get there unless you're planning a side trip to Universal or someplace. And there are very few spots you can see outside of the property from (Top of Bay Lake Tower/Contemporary, top of Everest, top of Summit Plummit, balloon ride at Downtown Disney, there's more but I can't think of them right now) so you're very secluded from the outside world. At DL, you have no trouble getting back into the real world.

Personally, I like DLP better than Magic Kingdom. There's more rides and I like that it's more consolidated. If I lived in SoCal instead of on the east coast, I would be happy with DL. Our disney-nut friends (who we know from real life) all like DL.
 

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Okay. I would recommend the Disneyland Hotel or the Grand Californian. The DL Hotel is classic and the Grand is big and classy. The Grand is closer to the parks, with an entrance placed in California Adventure. The DL Hotel is at the end of Downtown Disney and it's not a far walk at all. You're good to go with either hotel.

I'd recommend getting a five day park hopper. If you can't do five, get at least a three day hopper.
Good. That's exactly what we did. Five day hopper, Grand Californian, we're set. :D Glad to know we're on the right track. Though last time we got a six day hopper. If I recall correctly, they don't offer those anymore. We chose GC last time because DL hotel was under renovation. I have asthma, and although they usually are very good at sealing it off, my parents didn't want to risk it. This time we chose GC because my mother likes how close it is to the parks. We still have dinner planned one night at Steakhouse 55 (my dad loved it) so we'll spend some time there.

Is Paradise Pier not as good? We didn't have the chance to walk over there.
 

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Not sure, It depends if we like it....... :rolleyes:
Are you DVC? Because you can use your points to stay at one of the hotels. They have villas over at GC, but you can get just a straight hotel room. They didn't make it big enough unfortunately, so the studios will fill up. But you can get the hotel rooms, which I think are probably nicer anyway.
 

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