I am flying out to LA for work in May. The work related events are Friday evening and all day Saturday. Current plan is to arrive Thursday night and take a red eye home Sunday to maximize my time. I’m having a hard time narrowing down some options so I’m throwing it out to the DL/LA experts! One additional thing to know is I did live in LA for three months for an internship, subletted from a UCLA student in Westwood, and spent most of my time in between there, Cedars-Sinai and went out to Santa Monica quite a bit on weekends.
Options:
Drive to Anaheim Thursday night to be there for rope-drop until 3pm to drive back/check in/change for 6pm dinner.
Stay in LA Thursday night and do LA touristy things Friday
Possible options include (and would appreciate feedback here):
WB studio tour
Disney Studio tour
Academy movie museum
La Brea Tar Pits
Farmers Market
If I don’t do DLR Friday then I’ll do that Sunday, and vise versa with the LA options.
I’m also thinking about the Main St DL tour. Either way I’ll get a park hopper ticket and do mostly the highlights that are different or not available at WDW, I have been to Disneyland before.
I know DL tends to be busier on weekends, but I’d have more time to work with Sunday, and probably less traffic back and forth to LA, right? Anything else I should consider?
My vote is stay in LA for the touristy things Friday & do DLR Sunday.
Because the traffic to/from LA on a Friday is going to be crazy. I see you’ve budgeted 3 hours from 3-6pm to get from DLR back to LA, get changed for and get to dinner. I obviously don’t know all the logistics for how much time you’ll need to get between your hotel & dinner or much time you want to give yourself to change, but the drive at that time might already be 2-2.5 hrs so it might be tight. Given that, I’d choose the Sunday.
Plus, Sunday mornings are a slower start (and less traffic) so if you’re there for rope drop you’ll get a great advantage. And while Sundays can and do get busy midday, if it’s not a weekend where Monday is a holiday, by later afternoon/early evening, they may lighten up. So if you have a red-eye then you might be able to take advantage of some of that, depending on which airport you’re headed out of and if you need to return a rental car and/or have checked bags.
I’m pretty low maintenance so this would likely be just a quick clean up and change and dinner is very close but I was only accounting for a 1.5-2 hour drive.
Ok, that does really seem like the way to go here. I will have more time on Sunday, even if I miss the rope drop advantage (we have an event ending at midnight the night before and I’m not sure I bounce back as fast as I used to!) I’ll still have more time to spend there Sunday than Friday. My flight is out of LAX at 10:30pm.
Anyone have experience with the LA things I listed? I’m torn between the WB studio tour which seems really fun vs the Disney studio which I can’t find a ton about.
I have done the WB studio tour, though it’s been quite a few years. I really enjoyed it, and we even saw Scott Bakula walking by. You never know who will show up on the lot that day.
I don’t think I even knew there were Disney Studio tours offered!
I loved the Tar Pits when I was a kid, and took my kids probably 10 years ago. Still fun, but I would likely choose WB Studio tour over them.
It looks like it’s limited and maybe seasonal? Right now you have to be a D23 member, can only book 2 tickets for one tour annually and they’re offering 3-4 time slots three days a week. I think that’s why I can’t find much about it
Ok, now to read up on LL for this coast- they left it like original genie+ right? Only I have to be tapped into a park to start booking? I also need to look into how realistic the return times are that touring plans is giving me, like 15-30 minutes out from the time I book for Tiana, BTMRR, IJ and SM?!