4 days - which parks?

Disneyland
1

Hello,

I’ve got 4 days at Disneyland, and had initially considered 3:1 for DL:DCA but wondering if I should change to 2:2. I don’t want to do Park Hopper (4 days for a family of 4 adds up quickly). I can’t see if it’s possible to upgrade to a Park Hopper on the gate, which might be an option - but any thoughts on how to spend 4 days?

Thanks

Robbie

2 Likes
2

Welcome to the Liner community!

If I had 4 days without hoppers I would probably spend 2 days in each park. This way makes it easier to ride my favorite rides in both parks multiple times.

3 Likes
3

Are there young children in your party? If so, then 1 day in DCA is enough since not as much for ones who aren’t tall enough to ride the rides to do. But if have older kids who love thrill rides, then agree 2 each park. You can add park hoppers at the ticket booths. It’s a flat fee regardless of number of days. I can’t remember the cost since they raised it.

2 Likes
4

Thanks. We have a 9 and 6 year old, I think both clear all height restrictions at least to ride with adults on all rides. Our 6 year old is more adventurous than the 9 year old when we’ve done other theme parks.

5

I would probably do, 2:2, but something to consider…

DCA closes earlier than DL. If you plan on closing out the parks, then you might want a park hopper for the days you are at DCA. Especially if you leave in the middle of the day and go back in the evening.

2 Likes
6

We like to burn the candles on both ends so we usually do exactly this…

My kids absolutely love love love DCA. DH & I heavily prefer DL and DH (until more recently our younger kids preferred it too, before they were tall or adventurous enough to want to try more things there), so we try our best to split the daytime between the two as evenly as possible. But nighttimes we really are in DL so much more because we love it there.

And when my older kids were very young, we could easily spend an entire day in DL and never want to hop. But if we were in DCA you bet we would hop over to DL, even if just for that hour or two that DL is open later than DCA that closes at 9-10pm and we still had steam left in the tank because we took a midday break.

So I would say split the days, and then by your 2nd day you’ll know if you want to hop or not to maximize that time at DL. And as long as the park reservations for hoppers aren’t at capacity, you can upgrade to a hopper once there.

2 Likes
8

Even when my child was young, we might do early morning/rope drop. Then at lunchtime we would go back to the room for a nap. We would return around dinnertime after the parade. DS was all refreshed and we would stay for a while.

Now that DS is a teen, we skip rope drop (sleeping in is more important! LOL) And we spend most of our time at the parks in the evening closing the place down, which means we close out DL every night, even when we start at DCA.

1 Like
9

I think your original plan of one day in DCA and 3 in DL is a good one, especially considering your kids’ ages. There is so much more to see and do in DL than in DCA. If you don’t mind spending $30 -$35 pp for GP for your DCA day, you can easily do all there is in DCA in one day, and you can probably also do it all without GP, though you may spend another 3-4 hours in long lines, which can wear you out. With 3 days of rope dropping in DL, you can probably do all the headliners once without wasting all day in lines, and do the shorter line rides and entertainment as the crowds swell. I highly recommend getting GP in lieu of Hoppers.

10

Thanks - I’m torn, but leaning towards 3:1. I’ve got GP for all 4 days, if there was a way to buy a single day park hopper I’d likely do that. I think there’s more at DL that the kids will want to revisit - Star Wars in particular.

It’d be easier if this were one park :grinning: