They’ve just announced VidCon will be held June 21-24 at the Anaheim Convention Center, right next door (more or less) to DLR. We’ve never been to California, much less Disneyland - is anyone else going to VidCon this year?
We’re trying to decide between a 3-day ParkHopper and a 3-day One-Park-A-Day package, do you really need a ParkHopper to see everything in all three parks over three days?
What is VidCon? I looked at the website, but it wasn’t clear to me besides it is related to videos?
No, you don’t need a park hopper to see everything. (Just to note, there are only two parks) You could do 2 days at Disneyland and 1 day at California Adventure.
VidCon, from what I understand, is a big conference celebrating YouTube celebrities and other online video people. A lot of them show up live and have Q&A’s, plus there’s a lot of “how-to” panels to help those wanting to break into online video production. My daughter is the one behind this part of the trip 
Her parents are along for the ride to enjoy DL (and she will as well).
Thanks for info about ParkHoppers - I suspected there would be no need for them with 3 single days in the parks. Just wanted to make sure there weren’t some hidden needs for them. I’m a big WDW-goer, and we rarely even use Park Hoppers there, we are able to fill our entire days at each park in Orlando.
Thanks for the VidCon info. If my son knew about it he would be all about it too. Maybe I should check it out.
DLR is our main resort. We go 2-5 times a year. We park hop quite a bit, as the parks are right next door to each other. Unlike WDW, which are a drive apart, you can just pop next door to do something for a couple of hours. We might start our morning in one park and move to the other one for the afternoon and then go back to the first park for dinner. The park hopper can be useful, but if it is your first trip, I really don’t think it is necessary.
That;s kind of what I thought. I figure it’s a little like Universal Studios Florida/Islands of Adventure - there’s plenty there for us to do in each park per day, and if it weren’t for wanting to ride the Hogwarts Express, there’d be no real reason for their equivilant of a park hopper ticket. I’m sure we’ll have plenty to do in DL and DCA for a full day.
Oh, and the conference fee for VidCon is only $100 for a regular 4-day pass (really 3 full days plus the evening of the first registration-only day). If you’re a local, it’s a pretty cheap thing to do for a multi-day activity.
Welcome to the West! Glad that you could find a reason to come see and enjoy Disneyland. It has a lot of charm & history, is the original and to me, a second home, so I’m always happy to hear of people coming out to see it for their very first time.
As for the question to park hop or not, I could not imagine being there and NOT hopping. I read the below the other day from an update on Disneyland run by the folks from Micechat.com (.
Time to jump parks… see you the other side of the banner…
It was an easy walk. For you Disney World folks, that’s about one whole Sapceship Earth distance from gate to gate, no buses required.
Now, while I try not to talk about other sources than Touring Plans on Touring Plans (because they are my favorite!), this quote was just too perfect for your situation!
Anywho, they are really close together and while you will definitely have lots to do in both sides for the 3 days and could eliminate the need to hop, there are plenty of benefits to hopping including:
Hopping to DCA from DL in order to escape from the very many narrow walkways of DL into the wider, crowd-absorbing walkways of DCA.
Your final day you can do your favorites from each park and get to say a proper goodbye without having to feel like you missed out on that one last Radiator Springs race or trip through Space.
DCA sells spirits. DL does not. So if you enjoy partaking alcohol in the parks, something to consider.
We usually try to limit our spend as much as possible but there are so many other ways to do it than eliminating park hopping (eat breakfast in the hotel room before RD, take a midday break and eat at an off-site restaurant for lunch, do sandwiches for dinner or grab it from another off-site location on your way back in from midday break, bring your own snacks and water to the park, or get free ice water from any counter service restaurant, book a hotel closer to the Toy Story lot and farther way from the park entrance and use the free shuttle in the lot to go back and forth to the park). Those are all cuts that I would make before I would say, don’t hop.
We’ve been once to WDW and I couldn’t imagine hopping there, but it is a completely different story in DL. You don’t even have to go through security again to get from one turnstile to the next and the walk is 2-3 min. Your only hold up might be that it takes a few minutes to get through a line to scan your pass at the other parks turnstile, but after park opening & only in very rare circumstances have I seen it take longer than 5 min.
Anywho, excited for you no matter what you choose, but wanted to give my 2 cents on the issue since it’s SO easy in DLR.
Yeah I’m with Lolabear on this. We often move from one park to the other to take advantage of slack in one ride, or to collect FastPasses in both (typical: start at DCA for RSR, then DLP for ST/HM/PotC, then back to DCA). Also fireworks; due to the lack of buffer around DLP, fairly mild winds can cancel them, so it’s hard to count on them on a specific night.
So on a first trip there, I would definitely get the PH, and then use that to inform future decisions.