Advice for going to disneyland

[tubaloth]

So, my sister and her family are going to disneyland so I get to join them at the end of the month.

I went once when I was like 4-5 so I don't remember much!

I'm trying to make the most of the trip, because we only are doing three days (two in disneyland and one in California adventures) .

I was just going through all the rides and looking at a map! (what else do you do when your unemployed).

So any advice or things I should know or be warned about before going to Disneyland?

Has anybody ever used this?

RideMax - Planning Software for Walt Disney World and Disneyland

(I'm tempted to pay the 15 for 90 days).

[pam]

Why spend the money for something like that. Most of the main rides have a "Fast Pass" system. You go and get a ticket (usually located by the ride) and it gives you an assigned time to be back there without waiting in the main lines.

I hate going to a place like that and having such a regimented schedule that you can't be flexible and just have fun.

[lchri134]

Yeah i definitely agree with Pam. The fast Passes are the best way to go! disneyland and California Adventure are the best i wish i could go again! but yeah get passes for the rides that usually have the longest wait. and then go ride something else and come back at that time.

[Guest Alana]

We were thinking of going. It's been a while since I've gone but the main thing I remember during my research for Disney land was Fast Pass. Also, when I went I wish I'd brought snacks and drinks with me, so that I didn't have to pay exorbitant prices for something in between meals.

[tubaloth]

From what I have read I gathered you can only have one fast pass at a time. Like I can't just go around and get all fastpass for each ride.

Also this program uses that, and realizes that if you go and get a fast pass now, you then can go on two other rides in the mean time.

It also has "free time" and so forth (and from what I have heard you can scedual more time in.

The key thing with this program is just that, you aren't wasiting time figure out whats the next ride to go on, where is that ride. It groups things together from what I hear. And from what I hear some of the lines at disneyland can be pretty long!

Also, when I went I wish I'd brought snacks and drinks with me, so that I didn't have to pay exorbitant prices for something in between meals.

Can you bring outside food in? I would be surprised if you could.

[gabelpa]

Get a wheelchair. Seriously, you get to bypass lines, even fast-pass stuff, so does the rest of your party. :-)

[Herr_Jones]

Several things will impact your trip. Time of the season, you stated that your going the end of the month, unless it's spring break someplace, there is a good chance there won't be many crowds and the use of FastPass will not be necessary (or even offered). Plan events that you don't want to miss, fireworks, parades, live shows and make adjustments accordingly.

Where you stay can impact your trip also. Last trip to Disneyland, my family stayed in hotels right across the street from the park, not Disney Hotels but within walking distance. We had food in the room, walked across the parking lot to get to the park. We could take the little ones back for a nap if needed and if we really didn't want Disney park food, could go there to eat. However I do recommend the Turkey Legs, they are just awsome.

Have fun

[skippy740]

I just went last month, so here's my take:

Stay long enough for Fantasmic! Great show!

Bring a big enough bag for all your "goodies" and you'll be fine.

Use the train to save your legs from all the walking.

If you have little kids - gotta go on "Small World" and the "Winnie the Pooh" ride!

They've re-done Pirates of the Caribbean, so that's worth going on again.

The Buzz Lightyear ride is really cool.

Not much else is popping up in my head right now, but if it does, I'll post again.

[Jenamarie]

If you're going with small children, you can actually (secretly ) get TWO fast-passes. The person at the beginning of the Fast Pass line has "parent passes" they can give to parents who are trading off watching small children so they can go on the faster rides (like Space Mountain). So one adult uses their ticket to get a Fast Pass, and TWO adults can use it to ride the ride (just not at the same time, obviously, since one of them is with the kids )

[Jenamarie]

Oh, and no you can't bring outside food into the park (or at least, not bring it in and visibly eat it ) but there are picnic areas between the two parks where you can go and eat.

[Berean]

I have never been there but I have heard if you do want to spend money pretend it is play money or it will be so traumatic you will be in shock.

[john doe]

I would never use real money like play money. Reward yourself, you're on vacation, but don't go overboard. Don't buy the first cool thing you see, and shop around. Just like at the mall, bargains can be found at the park if you look for them.

[pam]

For sure shop around. I noticed a couple of things in Downtown Disney were priced higher than what I could find inside the Disneyland Park. Since you don't have to have a ticket to go to Downtown Disney it might be why these items were priced just slightly higher.

[pam]

Last time I was there we did a 3 day hopper pass. I waited until the last day to do actual shopping. Gave me a chance to look around and decide what I really wanted to buy and where I wanted to buy it from.

[Berean]

Yeah sounds nuts and you are probably right.

[pam]

We are hoping to go again in September. I sure hope so. I LOVE Disneyland.

[john doe]

Yeah sounds nuts and you are probably right.

Huh? What sounds nuts? Neither Pam or I said anything about it being nuts. Maybe it's not the place for you, but that doesn't mean a normal person can't go there and have a good time.

[pam]

I took Berean to mean it sounded nuts that the prices would be different in different places. Maybe I understood her wrong. I took it that way because the comment was made after my post about the prices.

Edited March 19, 2009 by pam

[tubaloth]

Use the train to save your legs from all the walking.

Does it goes through the full Disneyland park? Is it used for getting from one side to another?

Thanks! I have heard about Fantastic show. Sounds good. I won't miss it.

[pam]

Yeh the train does help on the walking. It does go through most of the park. You can get on and off at several of the stops.

[Jenamarie]

It also goes past some really cool dinosaurs!

[bjw]

I just caught this thread, I wish I would have saw it sooner. I have annual passes to almost all California theme parks, I'm a huge theme park buff. Let me give you my two cents...

As mentioned elsewhere Fastpass works well, you can only hold one at a time per park (between DL and DCA). However, Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin and Grizzly River Run are both freebies, they are not connected to the main Fastpass system so you can hold a FP for them while you have them for other rides. Also, the FP checkers only check the first time on the pass, not the second, so you can come back anytime after the first time on the pass. So, you can hold more than one FP at a time.

Fantasmic is a spectacular show, but never see the first showing, always go to the second to avoid a horrible bottleneck crowd. You will stay later but its worth it. For $50 you can have a special reserved seat with an all you can eat dessert buffet. Ask City Hall on Main St. for details.

The parades are a little overrated, only see these if you run out of things to do. The Aladdin show in the Hyperion at DCA is a must, and is a top-notch broadway quality stage show on par with Fantasmic.

Don't let the warning signs scare you off. No coaster at Disneyland goes over 45 mph, which is the big drop on Splash Mtn. Space Mtn., Big Thunder, are under 35 mph, and the Matterhorn goes only about 20 mph. Most movement on Star Tours and Indiana Jones is simulated with about 3 real drops. They are also very smooth rides except Matterhorn can be rough at times because you are sitting on the floor of the sled.

DCA rides are a little more intense, but not by much. Tower of Terror drops are 40 mph and California Screamin never hits over 55 mph. When you consider the average Six Flags coaster can get in the 60 mph range, the rides at both of these parks are pretty mild.

Even if you are not a coaster buff there's really no ride at these parks you can't handle, and the special effects are pretty good.

The longest lines will be Midway Mania at DCA (which has no FP), Nemo at Disneyland (another must), Space Mtn, Indiana Jones, Peter Pan, and California Screamin. The shortest are usually Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Small World, and the 3-D attractions because of their large capacity.

Make sure you park at the Mickey & Friends structure and take the tram to the main esplanade. If you decide to eat on property and have a lot of money to spend go to city hall on main st. and make reservations for the Blue Bayou, since you get to eat inside Pirates of the Carribbean. Its about $35 per person. The highest restaurant on property is Napa Rose at the Grand California hotel for about $120 per person. The best cheap place is Redd Rockets in Tomorrowland, it has good Italian food for about $12 per person. Probably the best cheap meal there.

Taking a wheelchair will not get you on the rides faster (despite what someone else tried to suggest) since Disney reversed its policy. Only the dark rides in Fantasyland (Snow White, etc.) still accept wheelchairs in their exits, only due to the cramped space in Fantasyland. Otherwise they will make you push the chair through the entire line or have someone wait in line for you.

I have used the Ridemax software you mentioned before, but it only works well IMHO in the summertime when it is ridiculously crowded. This time a year you shouldn't really have any lines over an hour, and that's the rides I mentioned above. Everything else will probably be 30 mins. or less.

Anyway, have fun, anymore questions feel free to ask.

[tubaloth]

I was just going to give my two cents on the Ridemax software. Realized I go to disneyland next week.

I only paid for the 90 days, which is $15.

The program is pretty basic. Mostly because it keeps up-to-date with probably some Ridemax server.

I guess a couple of the cons is that after you have a list of rides set up, you can generate your plan. But there is no way of saving the list of rides. Once you close out of the program you have to create the list again. Kind of dumb I feel.

The only other thing is the program seems kind of cramped. LIke it was built for screen sizes back in Windows 95 days. There is no way to resize the program to use a 22" monitor. Not that big of deal, just strange.

The pros. One of the biggest pros so far is just the hints and tips they give. They explain a lot about getting to the park early (which I still don't understand, but thats the next question). to the best times for the Nemo ride to where to watch fireworks and some of the shows (like some of the advice bjw gave).

For beeing a noob to Disneyland the tips were probably worth $3-5 already. I don't know how many I can use competly, but I think they probably were worth it.

So far the only other good thing with the program is that it has a list of all the rides in the park. You can find this same list online, and try to figure out which section of the park it is in (I actually tried to make an excel spreedsheet with this information) it wasn't as easy as I wanted.

This program simplified it all down. You can even sort the list of rides by the given area. Also it gives a small explination of what the ride is, and has a raiting of how popular the ride is. All helpful information. I do wish they had some pictures to go along with it, but I'm sure Disney would own that.

I have created a number of plans and it seems to do an okay job. I'm not sure how busy the park is going to be. Some feel its spring break at different times accross the country so thats our only worry.

I'll let you know how the plans actually worked. Ride now I plan on doing about a half day in CAA and one full day in Disneyland with the ridemax.

[tubaloth]

So what is the deal with getting to the park early?

From what I have read my 3 day park hoper ticket allows for an Early Entry day. I have figured out that Early Entry days are Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

I don't know if early entry is at 8am or 9am? The ridemax software shows the hours of the park. For Saturday is 8am but for Tuesday is 9am.

Also my sister is getting there on Friday night and go Saturday. She also had park hoper tickets but doesn't think she has an Early Entry ticket? (She should use hers on Saturday).

I also know the Disneyland park hotels get in early (I thought at 8am).

So can somebody explain early times for me?

[bjw]

So what is the deal with getting to the park early?

From what I have read my 3 day park hoper ticket allows for an Early Entry day. I have figured out that Early Entry days are Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

I don't know if early entry is at 8am or 9am? The ridemax software shows the hours of the park. For Saturday is 8am but for Tuesday is 9am.

Also my sister is getting there on Friday night and go Saturday. She also had park hoper tickets but doesn't think she has an Early Entry ticket? (She should use hers on Saturday).

I also know the Disneyland park hotels get in early (I thought at 8am).

So can somebody explain early times for me?

Its 7 am when on Saturdays, usually one hour before opening, like 8 when the park opens at 9, 9 when it opens at 10. Also, not all rides are running, they usually don't open anything past Pirates. The early entry and first hour of public operation are the least busiest times of day, so you should do all the big line rides then. The Fantasyland rides are good to do on the early entry since many people with very young kids haven't arrived yet.