Disneyland experts - Do I expect too much?

[chickapin parterre]

Here is another tip

Also, GET MaxPass. I've done paper fast passes for years, but MaxPass is just so much better. The time and energy saved by not having to walk to the kiosks alone is well worth it. Add to that you get ALL your ride photos and photographer photos included, good deal. We were there on our anniversary and when we told the photographer at the main entrance (the big Mickey) he really had us pose in so many great photos for the occasion (you can imagine). Then we did the same thing at the central hub in the evening. Great photos of the occasion.

welcome JohnR5101, great post!!!! and the poses are fun because you never know which Disney character will show up!!!!!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

... a big reason that we didn't "plan" was because I was told repeatedly that you don't need to "plan" Disneyland in the same way you do WDW...

This is generally true, but I think you misunderstood what people were saying. DLR doesn't require the same kind of planning that WDW does in the sense that you don't have to make ADRs 6 months in advance (and, in fact, you can't -- dining reservations can only be made 60 days out). There is no dining plan, so you aren't tied in to when, where, how much you spend for your meals. If you want all TS meals, go for it. If you want all churros and popcorn, go for it. You can't book your FPs ahead of time, only on the day of and only after you enter the parks. M&Gs don't require FPs -- in fact, many character interactions happen spontaneously or without super long waits. Basically, DLR allows for a more relaxed touring style, but you still need to have a plan of some kind in place. We always tell our friends to do their research, make their plans and reservations (and always to have a plan B), then be prepared to go with the flow and to let the magic happen.

 

[fely1st]

Thank you everyone for your Great tipps and Information.
@VandVsmama, Thank you so much for your long post, loved reading it. Will do the Flagge ceremony, also I am not American I think it is really moving and great that your country honors the work of all the military, still activ or veteran.No matters what you think about Military but this people give their live for others and should be honoured for this. I remember my first trip to Sea World when the US national anthem was played and everyone saluted to this. I nearly cried. In germany no one would ever do this, sadly.
It is hard to wait 8 more months to our trip to start but I'm sure we have a great time

 

[hootey]

You are staying in the Grand, be sure to use all the perks that you get staying on property!
My wife's favorite is the park souvenir delivery service; the gift shops in the PARKS, will deliver all of your souvenirs you purchase to the valet desk at your Disneyland hotel, for free! Yes, all the t-shirts, sweatshirts, & assorted souvenirs you purchase will be delivered for you to the hotel. When making a purchase in a gift shop, simply request the Disney Hotel delivery service. You will take about a minute to fill out a delivery form with your name, hotel, room number, and personal address and cell phone number. They will deliver your items to the valet desk for you and it will be available for pickup the next morning . My wife loves this! She purchases lots of souvenirs every trip using this perk. Why? she does not have to carry it around all day with her!
When checking in to the Grand, simply advise the CM it is your first stay at the Grand and you would like to know about all the benifits, attractions, and perks in the hotel. There are everything from snack shops to fine dining to private observation decks for WOC at the Grand(it even has its own entrance to California Adventures). Enjoy

 

[bumbershoot]

Can you compare the morning hours with WDW where we do a lot of rides in the first two hours, or will it be crowded from the beginning so that I can't do all classic fantasyland rides in one morning?

I never do EMH at Wdw because that park fills up and I don’t want to hop away from that park two hours in.

If I have early entrance at Disneyland or DCA I *always* use it because you can get so much done.

The subs are a hard one to get on. You can use early entry

I wouldn’t use early entrance on the subs. Unless you have a week of early entrance and have already done it all.

What burns me are WDW vets who never have time to come here before their trip and seek guidance, but seem to have lots of time after their trip to come here and complain.

Yep. It’s worse on the Universal forum. It’s super nice over there but we actually had a thread closed bc of an egregious case of *every problem they had was a problem of not even looking at the UO website*. Painful.

DON'T USE THE GCH ENTRANCE TO DCA! ENTER THROUGH THE MAIN GATE! Entry through the hotel entry is slow.

Yes! Unless you head there well over an hour early and want to be on that side of dca.

BE IN CARSLAND AT DUSK/SUNDOWN!

Before dusk! If you get there at dusk you’ll stand a chance of missing it.

I'm currently in the process of planning a return trip to WDW (It's been over 10 years since my last trip, we've never taken our little ones) and though we could have gone to Disneyland again this March as well, we decided against it because of all of the above.

Um. Every thing you mentioned is “times 10,000” over at WDW now. Hate to tell ya. Be prepared.

 

[mom2rtk]

I wouldn’t use early entrance on the subs. Unless you have a week of early entrance and have already done it all.

When you quote me, you might not want to cut of the "but" part of the sentence.

 

[MermaidHair]

So many good comments and tips here. I will just add one silly one. My kids got me into this - when staying at the GCH take advantage of it's proximity one night and ride GRR multiple times at the end of the night. The lines are so short at that time you may even get your own raft. You get all the fun of the ride, the magic of riding it at night, soaked like you would any other time of day but you get to leave and be back in your room for a nice warm change of clothes in 5 minutes.

 

[fely1st]

That is a pretty good advices MermaidHair,thanks to your Kids. I tought about skipping that ride because I don't like walking around in wet things.But this is a good idea.

You are staying in the Grand, be sure to use all the perks that you get staying on property!
My wife's favorite is the park souvenir delivery service; the gift shops in the PARKS, will deliver all of your souvenirs you purchase to the valet desk at your Disneyland hotel, for free! Yes, all the t-shirts, sweatshirts, & assorted souvenirs you purchase will be delivered for you to the hotel. When making a purchase in a gift shop, simply request the Disney Hotel delivery service. You will take about a minute to fill out a delivery form with your name, hotel, room number, and personal address and cell phone number. They will deliver your items to the valet desk for you and it will be available for pickup the next morning . My wife loves this! She purchases lots of souvenirs every trip using this perk. Why? she does not have to carry it around all day with her!
When checking in to the Grand, simply advise the CM it is your first stay at the Grand and you would like to know about all the benifits, attractions, and perks in the hotel. There are everything from snack shops to fine dining to private observation decks for WOC at the Grand(it even has its own entrance to California Adventures). Enjoy

Thanks for this tipp, my hubbie will "love" it as it makes shopping so much more fun.

 

[kkmcan]

The absolute best advice is to get there before park opening with at least a loose plan for the morning and utilize fast pass. We've been to DL many times during super crazy busy times and we've always been able to ride what we want to in the mornings. Save your afternoons and evenings for shopping, shows and second rides. Get in your most important rides and things to see for first thing in the morning. Do that and you'll be fine. That week isn't the busiest ever. Have fun!

 

[Vala]

I'm from Germany too, so if you need/want to know anything where a German explanation is easier feel free to drop me a line.

I can only echo what the others have said. You'll find someone saying only negative things about each park. I've been going annually since 2006, and I have yet to come back and say "that sucks." Both WDW and DLR have bad moments, but I never outright hated either one.

Halloween Time is a great time to visit, especially if you are planning to go to a Halloween party at the park too. There should be at least one in your timeframe, more likely too. WDW has had so many great costumes at the party, but the attendees in California are taking this even more serious. Also you will find that Mickey and friends will be out in Halloween costumes throughout the day, which I didnt experience this year in WDW. And you'll find some villains out which seems to be a rarity in WDW too.

 

[disneylover102]

Rides break down and it’s annoying but it’s usually not so bad. The CMs are actually usually pretty nice. If one of them is a little grumpy every once in a while, who can blame them? Imagine how annoying it would be to be a CM and work at the Fastpass line and have so many people get angry or annoyed and don’t understand how to use FP or not knowing how to get one, etc. Guests are sometimes the rude ones but the CMs can’t leave a review for the guests, but the guests can leave a review of the CMs.

There probably will be 2 Halloween parties from the 28th-31st. (Especially the 31st)

Try RideMax.com for your planning. It’s only $15 and it will give you a schedule on what to go on when. You get to select what time you arrive, what time you leave, which rides to go on and how many times, when you want to take a break, etc. Radiator Springs Racers and GOTG are good to do first. TSM could have a long line after doing those first 2 rides. You might want to plan on FP for some of these also in case the line is too long.

Fantasyland rides can be done in one morning but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend doing ALL of them in the morning. Definitely start with Peter Pan and do ones that get longer lines like Alice, Dumbo, etc but some like Snow White or the teacups likely won’t get long lines all day.

 

[bumbershoot]

When you quote me, you might not want to cut of the "but" part of the sentence.

Just bouncing off your post. Not asserting you said x or y.

And since I usually put ellipses in purposely-shortened quotes, it looks like something went awry that I didn’t notice at the time. Like when I “write” “out” instead of an obvious “put”. I sometimes fight with multi quote and I don’t always catch it when it doesn’t do what I’m telling it to do.