I’m looking to get tickets for Disneyland in January, but the longest ticket I can find is 5 days. Does The Happiest Place on Earth not sell anything longer than that? Does this mean I’d have to gasp actually explore The City of Anaheim for a day?
5 days is the maximum unless you want to buy a 1 day ticket for the 6th day. You might just have to explore Anaheim (or any number of other cities nearby).
2 Likes
Anaheim itself has a few things but there’s so much in nearby cities that literally the world is your oyster for what else you want to do with that extra day. Couple of ideas off the top of my head:
- The beach. If you like the beach there’s plenty of them and a couple that are just a short drive (Newport & Huntington).
- Knotts Berry Farm. I think it’s technically in Anaheim, but if it isn’t, it’s a very close attraction with great coasters if you’re at all coaster inclined (which is what I loved about it the one time I’ve been almost 20 yrs ago). From what I hear, it has some good non-coaster things now too.
- LA, If you like Hollywood do a tour, see the sights there are to see. There’s also Universal. LA traffic is no joke though & even though it’s not to far distance-wise it could take as much as 2.5 hours in traffic from Anaheim/Orange County. If you’ll be driving use an app like Waze to predict/avoid the traffic.
- Legoland. Being in Carlsbad, is a tiny bit far for a day trip but very doable. It’s on our list to do the next time we’re doing a broader SoCal trip that isn’t just our extended weekend at DLR.
- San Diego, further than Legoland so again a bit far for a day trip, but it has been done. I love both the zoo & zoo park so much. You’d definitely just have to pick one though if just doing one day. There’s also fantastic Mexican food & seafood & the city itself & beaches are great too if you just want a more relaxed sight-seeing day. Sea World is also in San Diego but out of all that San Diego has, that would be bottom of this list to do in 1 day.
You can also be like our family and with 5 days of Disneyland and all the walking use that extra day as a rest day in the middle of the trip, sleep in, swim at the hotel pool and when ready to venture out into the world head to Downtown Disney for lunch & explore the shops & 2 onsite Disney hotels until dinner. Pick-up dinner to take back to the room (or if you’re wandering long enough to want to sit down again to another meal, sit down for dinner). If you’re out late enough you’ll be able to catch fireworks from the esplanade (the plaza in between the two park entrances). No music, but great view of the bursts & you’ll see a small crowd of locals/other tourists with an non-park day gathering & sitting on the ground in the middle of the esplanade to watch.
2 Likes
Related to the having a meal at a Disney hotel idea, an off day is a great time to enjoy a long character meal. We spent almost 90 minutes at Storytellers brunch and didn’t feel rushed.
Knotts is fun too.
3 Likes
I always recommend against spending more than 3 consecutive days at a theme park. It’s exhausting and your feet can kill, even with changing shoes. If I were you, I would do 3 days, then take a rest day as Lorraine suggested–swim, rest, decompress, eat at TS restaurants, veg…then do the last 2 days.
1 Like
Under most circumstances, I’d totally agree with you. My DW, however, is not most people. I tried that once at a trip to WDW, and she was bored on the “rest day,” so we ended up going to the bus stop at OKW, and we’d play “park roulette” and get on the first bus that came by… Animal Kingdom it is!
She loves to go go go go. We tend to spend half days touring real hard, stop about 1:00 or so, then take in the scenery before heading back.
I get that. I’m not a “sit by the pool” kind of person either, but I generally have to slow down for DH. Taking an afternoon break works though.
1 Like
We both go fast, real fast, and then we do one lap around the park and go “ok, we’re done. We’ll revisit the stuff we skipped the next time we come back”
She’s also running 71 miles OUTSIDE of park time. Yet, somehow, she wants to keep on going!